Asking that, if he be willing, I may some day at last find the way open to visit you.

For I long to see you, in order to impart to you some spiritual gift and so give you fresh strength--

I want you to know, Brothers, that I have many times intended coming to see you-but until now I have been prevented-that I might find among you some fruit of my labors, as I have already among the other nations.

What follows then? Some, no doubt, showed a want of faith; but will their want of faith make God break faith? Heaven forbid!

Why should we not say-as some people slanderously assert that we do say-'Let us do evil that good may come'? The condemnation of such men is indeed just!

Even for an upright man scarcely any one will die. For a really good man perhaps some one might even dare to die.

Yet not without the hope that some day Nature, also, will be set free from enslavement to decay, and will attain to the freedom which will mark the Glory of the Children of God.

It is as Isaiah foretold-'Had not the Lord of Hosts spared some few of our race to us, we should have become like Sodom and been made to resemble Gomorrah.'

But how, it may be asked, are they to invoke one in whom they have not learned to believe? And how are they to believe in one whose words they have not heard? And how are they to hear his words unless some one proclaims him?

Being myself an Apostle to the Gentiles, I exalt my office, in the hope that I may stir my countrymen to rivalry, and so save some of them.

Some, however, of the branches were broken off, and you, who were only a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and came to share with them the root which is the source of the richness of the cultivated olive.

Again, one man considers some days to be more sacred than others, while another considers all days to be alike. Every one ought to be fully convinced in his own mind.

So that, God willing, I may be able to come to you with a joyful heart, and enjoy some rest among you.