Heartfelt thanks be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ--the Father who is full of compassion and the God who gives all comfort.

who used to throw a veil over his face to hide from the gaze of the children of Israel the passing away of what was but transitory.

Nay, their minds were made dull; for to this very day during the reading of the book of the ancient Covenant, the same veil remains unlifted, because it is only in Christ that it is to be abolished.

Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies upon their hearts.

But whenever the heart of the nation shall have returned to the Lord, the veil will be withdrawn.

Nay, we have renounced the secrecy which marks a feeling of shame. We practice no cunning tricks, nor do we adulterate God's Message. But by a full clear statement of the truth we strive to commend ourselves in the presence of God to every human conscience.

If, however, the meaning of our Good News has been veiled, the veil has been on the hearts of those who are on the way to perdition,

Thus we are constantly dying, while you are in full enjoyment of Life.

And you also we, as God's fellow workers, entreat not to be found to have received His grace to no purpose.

We endeavour to give people no cause for stumbling in anything, lest the work we are doing should fall into discredit.

On the contrary, as God's servants, we seek their full approval--by unwearied endurance, by afflictions, by distress, by helplessness;

For this reason we feel comforted; and--in addition to this our comfort--we have been filled with all the deeper joy at Titus's joy, because his spirit has been set at rest by you all.

For however I may have boasted to him about you, I have no reason to feel ashamed; but as we have in all respects spoken the truth to you, so also our boasting to Titus about you has turned out to be the truth.

If, however, I were to boast more loudly of our Apostolic authority, which the Lord has given us that we may build you up, not pull you down, I should have no reason to feel ashamed.

What I am now saying, I do not say by the Lord's command, but as a fool in his folly might, in this reckless boasting.

Three times I have been beaten with Roman rods, once I have been stoned, three times I have been shipwrecked, once for full four and twenty hours I was floating on the open sea.

If however I should choose to boast, I should not be a fool for so doing, for I should be speaking the truth. But I forbear, lest any one should be led to estimate me more highly than what his own eyes attest, or more highly than what he hears from my lips.

For though it is true that He was crucified through weakness, yet He now lives through the power of God. We also are weak, sharing His weakness, but with Him we shall be full of life to deal with you through the power of God.