Page:Christian Marriage.djvu/72

 and exalted by his discipleship. His conception of the Gospel as the revelation of the righteousness of God in judgment on sin, and in victory over sin, led him to emphasise the gravity of the prevailing licentiousness. A sufficient indication of his mind is found in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, where he draws a fearful picture of Gentile society as sunken in sexual vices, and with prophetic fervour proclaims the severe retribution of God's vengeance which would surely follow.

As he founded churches in the cities of the Empire he added the character of a pastor to that of an evangelist, and his pastoral activity stands on record in the Epistles. It is clear that at every point he was compelled to do battle with the tradition of sexual licence which prevailed among his converts. In the earliest of his extant epistles he lays down the grand principle that discipleship implied purity. "For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification."