Nothing can more enhance the value of these letters as historical documents than the existence of this party‐spirit in the Churches to which they were addressed. If St. Paul had written them to none but devoted admirers, as is frequently the case with the leaders of religious sects, his assertions might have been open to grave suspicion. It might have been urged that such persons were ready to accept anything and everything which he affirmed. But nothing is more keen‐eyed than religious party‐spirit in detecting and denouncing the false positions of an opponent, even when it is sufficiently ready to accept everything which makes in its own favour. So strong was the opposition to the Apostle, that in two of these Churches, as we have seen, a powerful party existed who went the extreme length of denying his right to the apostolic office. Yet these letters were not only intended to be read to the whole Church, but portions of them are directly addressed to the opponents in question. What guarantee of the truthfulness of statements can compare with this? The Apostle’s letters are openly read in the presence of the opposing party, before the assembled Church, challenging them to impugn his statements. It will perhaps be objected that we have no record of the discussion which followed the reading of his letters, and of the results attending it. The second Epistle to the Corinthians has preserved some of those results, though it is plain that an opposing party still continued. This Epistle is a very strenuous attack on them. The man who had the moral courage to write such letters as the second to the Corinthians and that to the Galatians, to be openly read in the presence of his adversaries, must have been well assured of the goodness of his cause. Common sense alone would have suggested to him not to make in them statements which were sure to receive direct and instant contradiction.