Blog Image Context How To Choose Relevant Blog Images

Blog Image Context How To Choose Relevant Blog Images It was mid-autumn, and the air was getting colder. I was walking with a friend down the street, heading to that evening’s symphony performance. As we passed by the county jail on the opposite side of the street, I stopped. I could not believe my eyes. â€Å"Look at that!† I said to my friend. I pointed to the south entrance of the jail building. Now I know that it is commonplace to see photographers with their clients out and about, shooting photos in alleys, the middle of the street, parks, and especially our state capitol grounds library which has soaring two-story Ionic columns and is about the only place around here that you can get that kind of architectural background. But I admit I was surprised to see a photographer out shooting a very-pregnant woman in a tube top on the steps of the county jail. â€Å"What are they doing?† my friend asked. â€Å"I imagine she is having some pregnancy photos taken. You know, the ones that show a baby bump.† â€Å"But why in front of the jail?† â€Å"I assume they want the Art Deco architecture in the background,† I said, hoping it wasn’t because the baby’s father was inside the jail or that she was establishing some horrific self-fulfilling prophecy of where her child would end up. â€Å"I’m not sure the subtlety of the Art Deco elements is really worth it if you have to use the jail as the background.† Our discussion continued as we walked to the concert, ranging from how cold it would be to wear a tube top on that chilly evening to the proclivity for Art Deco to pop up in North Dakota architecture. But I’ve thought about that incident a lot since then, weighing the photographer’s decision to go for an interesting background for her photo and choosing to ignore the context that background provided. Not everyone would know the photo was in front of the jail, but many would. Every image carries, and is in need of, context. This is important when it comes to choosing powerful images for your blog posts. Every Image Needs Context Benign images- stock photos at their worst- carry very little context beyond that of you grabbing a photo for your blog post because you know it’s a best practice to have one. The problem is that even that seemingly innocuous context can work against your great blog post, suggesting that the copy that goes along with this plain vanilla image is just as unexciting. Every image needs context and has its own context, and all of this can work for or against your blog post and the likelihood that someone will read it. 1. A picture is worth a 1,000 words. Any words. A picture is worth a thousand words. But which thousand? On its own, a photo assumes the context the viewer is most comfortable with. Rare is the image that can’t be interpreted differently depending on what the viewer brings to it. One viewer sees complexity while standing before a Pollock painting, and another sees the handiwork of a kindergartner gone mad. That same painting evokes different reactions, too, depending on whether it is hanging in an art gallery or on the wall of an elementary school. A few weeks after the jail photo shoot, I met a friend for coffee. Out of curiosity, I asked her what she would assume if she saw the county jail in the background of baby bump-type photo. â€Å"I’d assume the father of the baby was in jail.† â€Å"Really?† Her reaction surprised me, but maybe she was correct. My assumption had been that the Art Deco elements were the goal, but then again, my major was in art and that’s how I see everything. Pollock’s painting will always be hanging in a gallery for me. The context of your  images helps define the content in which they  appear.Consider your audience. Consider your blog. The thousand words that your image contributes to your post might not be the thousand you were aiming for if you don’t consider who is reading and the blog it is being read on. Tip: In this day and age where it seems as if everyone is looking to be offended, always review the images you select for your blog posts. While you can’t please everyone (and you don’t want to, because that leads to bland, flavorless content), get a set of fresh eyes on the imagery and ask them what they think when they see it with your blog post’s headline and after reading the blog. 2. The words you put with an image changes its impact. Moving beyond the thousand words that your image brings with it, you can include words with images to change its impact. This works best with flexible or peripheral images, those that are illustrating an abstract concept or scenario that could be used lots of ways. These are powerful images because they evoke reader curiosity (which we’ll talk about in a bit). However, they also have to be framed into proper context or confusion arises. For example, imagine an image of a child, head down at a school desk. What does that image mean? If your headline or caption reads: â€Å"Almost half of children don’t eat breakfast before school†... ...your interpretation of that image would be different than if that same text read: â€Å"How to blame your dog for eating your homework, and other productivity hacks†. The same image can mean very different things. The words you use with an image puts it into context so that you don’t have to wonder if the baby’s father was in jail or if the mother loved Art Deco architecture. Recommended Reading:  How To Design The Best Blog Graphics With Free Tools And Design Theory Admittedly, when searching for stock images, we only have keywords to go on, and it’s tough to find images outside of the typical realm of our search. A search on â€Å"productivity† will turn up boring images of computers, notepads, office scenes, and so on. You’ll miss out on those peripheral images that can mean different things in different settings unless you get really good at searching on abstract words for big ideas (which we’ll talk about in a bit). Tip: Use captions with images, and consider captions that do more than indicate where you got the image. Pose a question as a caption, one that the image hints at to answer. Or, use highlighted text or pull quotes in the body of your blog post that frame your images properly. People who are skimming content will see images, headings, and pull quotes. If they are all in contextual sync, the better for you. 3. Images pulled out of context take on new context. Several years ago, I was reading a story online about a man who had been arrested for abusing children after quite a manhunt. The story had only one photo, a small headshot of the reporter who wrote the story. It was the newspaper’s practice to include the headshot of the author. The headshot was a few paragraphs down, embedded in the text of the story, on the right. The problem was that there was no other photo for the story. As this story was shared on social media, the bold headline that told of a man who had committed a horrific crime against children was associated with an image of the reporter. By the next day, the headshot was pulled from the article, so this unfortunate realization must have occurred to the newspaper, too, but I’d already seen the article shared on social media with the grinning reporter next to the headline, insinuating he was the criminal. The first rule would be that you should always have a featured image for every blog post so that your headshot or a random ad doesn’t become the image on social media. But there’s more to it than that. A clever or innocuous image that relies on the body copy of a blog post may seem fine, but when it gets shared on social media, all that people may have to go by is the headline and the image. Is the right context still there? More than ever, headline clarity matters. But so does headline-image match. Look at your blog post’s featured image, the one that you (and others) will be seeing when it is shared on social media. Is the context all wrong? Is the message not what you expected? Tip: If need be, incorporate words into your graphic itself (using Canva.com perhaps) so that wherever the image travels, the context does, too. This is especially helpful if your blog post topic is controversial or evokes strong reactions. Choosing Powerful Images That Work It isn’t easy choosing an image to go with a blog post, matching image with message. Most of the time is devoted to the actual blog post, and it’s pretty common to toss an image in as an afterthought just before you publish. The image, however, is doing some serious work (such as helping your blog post get read on already image-saturated social networks), so you should give it serious consideration. Recommended Reading:  How To Make The Best Blog Graphics (For Non-Designers) I came up with a few ways to approach making a decision about images you will use with your blog posts. Whether you use all or some from this list is up to you. 1. Your image must stand out. Getting your image to stand out isn’t easy. Every social network is overrun with images. The methods you’ll use to get your image to stand out are, quite simply: Color Startling image Using humor. Humor is probably the easiest way to go when it comes to creating a startling image that stands out, but when everyone does it...no one does it well after a while. This is particularly the case with memes. I know that a lot of blog posts recommend using memes and other pop-culture images, but I suggest proceeding with caution in how you choose those types of images. We’ve all seen the Boromir â€Å"One does not simply†¦Ã¢â‚¬  meme to death, or the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man In The World meme. Neither are particularly funny at this point, and are almost completely ignorable. In other words, they are no longer a startling image because they became overused. Humor startles when it’s fresh and stinks when it’s stale. Shake up assumptions. Startling images are hard to come by, at this point, and completely subjective. However, you can use an image out of typical context and make a strong point for your blog post that is completely within your context. An example is an image I found for a post Garrett wrote several years ago. Despite the age of the post, that image still comes to mind even now. In his post, he introduced the concept of content marketing to readers, and discussed how it was different from traditional marketing forms. While looking for an image to illustrate the post, I considered the usual suspects: stock photos of computers, people, pens on notebooks, guy holding a loudspeaker- you know the kind of generic images I’m talking about. And then I found this: The color (or the lack thereof) is striking, but the image itself is also startling. And the image, in conjunction with the title (â€Å"What Is Content Marketing?†), is startling, too. It inspires curiosity that could get someone to read your blog post, because what would a post-apocalyptic dystopia have to do with content marketing? When I stumbled across the image in the stock photo gallery, I was immediately drawn to it, and it suddenly occurred to me that it perfectly illustrated the problem that content marketing solved. In the wasteland of marketing, there had to be a better solution. I captioned the image, â€Å"Traditional marketing has desensitized our audience and made them tune out our message. What now?† and used it to tap into the initial problem that filled the introductory paragraphs of the blog post (to which content marketing was the eventual solution, of course). Another example is this post, a blog post about capturing ideas. Avoiding the usual imagery of a lightbulb, post-it notes, or someone with question marks above their head, I went with goldfish in a bowl that had striking orange-blue (complementary/opposite) colors. An example of blog image context with an unusual, interesting visual. Tip: The best image is the one that makes you ask a different question about your blog post. Instead of merely illustrating the blog post’s obvious concepts or generic associations, try finding an image that illustrates an abstract concept in a surprising way. 2. Your image should illustrate the idea. Not every post will have a post-apocalyptic dystopian photo to go with it (nor should it), but you should always try to match your graphics up to the big idea in your post. What I mean is that your post is about something bigger than a computer keyboard or a jar of pens or whatever other generic stock photo image you so often see on blog posts. Boring imagery often illustrates objects that are related to the topic instead of the higher concepts. Sure, a computer is related to content marketing, but who cares? This is tricky, particularly if you are pressed for time and know that you need to have an image with every blog post so that it fares well on social media. It takes serious time to find or create images that perform this level of illustration. One of my favorite illustrations is the one Ashton did  for a blog post I wrote about creating content for fragmented audiences. When Ashton finished the illustration and sent it to me for review, I absolutely loved it. She illustrated the big idea perfectly, showing two forms of fragmentation (generational and device use) in one simple image. The image hit on concrete points in the post as well as showed, at a glance, the challenge a fragmented audience presented to content marketers. The post-apocalyptic dystopia image from #1 fits this criteria, too, by addressing the big idea behind the problem which requires the solution outlined in the blog post. Any image is better than none (mostly), but part of your editorial planning should be about deciphering the big idea in your post and finding or creating imagery that illustrates that instead of peripheral objects or actions that don’t mean anything. Tip: When you finish writing your blog post, sum it up in one sentence for yourself. Find the big idea, and then find an image to illustrate that specific idea instead of finding an image to illustrate your blog post in general. 3. Your image could evoke curiosity. As long as your image isn’t fighting the proper context (i.e. suggesting the opposite of what your blog post is about), it could function successfully even if it is vague (sort of like the examples in #1). Let’s take a look at an old blog post of mine from several years ago. The blog post is about how the people you follow on social media can actually change you and how you view and react to things. When I set about trying to find an image that would go with the post, I wanted to avoid social media logos, stock photo people, or those creepy white stock photo balloon stick figures. But this was a tough topic to find an image for. Should I find something that illustrated the concept of following? Of social media? Of change? These were abstract ideas, which are hard to find images for. I decided to focus on the idea of â€Å"view†, and I ended up using this image: It was visually strong with its graphic circles and bold red element, fulfilling #1. It’s a photo of camera filters, suggesting the idea of how the people we follow on social media filter our understanding and view. Now, in hindsight, I’d have gone back into the post to rework the copy a bit to highlight this concept, freely using the camera/lense/viewfinder/filter analogy so that it would make better sense to the reader. That would have made it work better. Tip: Write your post. And then, if you find a fantastic image that evokes curiosity, go back and edit your post so it fits. Sometimes the image can inspire the copy, and that’s perfectly fine. How Will You Explore Blog Image Context? In a nutshell, this post is about understanding how context can affect a reader’s interpretation of an image, and what you can do to frame that context. And then, it’s about playing around a bit with context, bending those rules as far as you can so that you choose blog post images that really get attention and get readers to read. Recommended Reading: We’ve written a lot of posts to help you with both choosing and creating images for your blog content. Are You Sure You’re Using Copyright Free Images For Your Blog? Should You Use Stock Or Free Images For Blog Posts? Color Psychology In Content Marketing: The Ultimate Color Guide

Art of The Huichol - Yarn Paintings Research Paper

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Art history Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

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In what ways have relations between China and Japan developed since 1949 - Essay Example However, the most notable facet in their relationship is their strategic involvement in the administration of their Asia Pacific multilateral cooperation, and more largely those of East Asia as a whole. Thus, the aim of this paper is to evaluate ways in which the relations between China and Japan have developed since 1949. From early 1940s, China has continuously expressed its displeasure in every actions that it perceived Japan was trying to chart an autonomous role for itself (Sutter, 2012, p. 175). China also harbored a mixed view of Japan being a potential threat, while at the same time Japan being a host to a huge US military presence aimed at countering China influence and push. Such apprehensions o led China to sign treaties aimed at countering Japan, such as the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship with the intention of defending it against any perceived Japanese invasion (Sutter, 2012, p. 271). From 1949 all through to end of 1950s, China formulated policies that sought to sway Japan through trade, in what was referred to as people’s diplomacy (Sutter, 2012, p. 4). Such engagements were conducted in conjunction with establishing acquaintances with Japan opposition political organizations, coupled with the exertion of pressure on Japan to sever ties with Taiwan. Hence, relations between Chi na and Japan deteriorated during late 1950s, especially, when Chinese mounted their pressure. However, following the collapse of Sino-Soviet relations, economic inevitability resulted in China communist government to reassess and rejuvenate its trade relations with Japan (Jian & Drew, 2009, ch 4). During the 1960 in what became the Cultural Revolution, China-Japan relations declined again due to Japan increasingly strength and self-rule from US (Saunders, 2008, p. 128). The communist government became concerned that, Japan will eventually re-militarize, so as to compensate for US condensed military presence across Asia under President Richard Nixon policies.

How our Understanding of Genetics Has Changed Over Time Research Paper

How our Understanding of Genetics Has Changed Over Time - Research Paper Example How our Understanding of Genetics has Changed Over Time Genetics as a field of science has come quite far from being a crude belief system that tries to explain why children resemble their parents, and explained through the assumptions by early Greek scholars with regards to the mixing of the vital forces of a man and a woman in forming new life (Guttman, 2011). The fast expansion and discovery of new information with regards to the process of heredity was due to the numerous inventions that were used to study biological sciences, as well as refining methods by which the invisible are being studied. In a short amount of time, genetics, especially through molecular biology became a well-respected science with regards to the study of the transmission of traits from parent to offspring, as well as being able to trace diseases that are otherwise communicable or transferable. The basics of genetics was first studied and published in 1865 by a monk named Gregor Mendel. He studied the patte rn of inheritance by garden peas, recorded what traits were present in the parent generation, what were transmitted in the first and succeeding generations, as well as finding out what ratios of the selected traits would be found in each generation of offspring (Hartl, 2011). Through these peas experiments the concept of dominant and recessive traits were formulated. Unfortunately, his results were shelved and remained hidden until rediscovered around the early 1900’s, by two independent scientists Walter Sutton and Theodore Boveri, forming the chromosomal theory of inheritance (Cummings, 2010). This theory of inheritance explained how Mendel was able to come up with phenotypic ratios such as the 3:1 ratio, where 3 out of four would show the dominant trait, and 1 out of four for recessives. The ratio however was only able to explain traits that require at least one dominant gene to be expressed. The traits of organisms might be affected by the presence of other mediators of h eredity, and aside from the chromosomal theory of inheritance, it was proposed that the process of inheritance may also be explained through chemical reactions. Thus around the 1940’s-1950’s scientists were now on a race to find out the molecular basis of inheritance. The theories that were proliferating were either: the genetic materials were made up of proteins; or the genetic materials were made up of nucleic acids. Two scientists working together, named James Watson and Francis Crick won the race of finding out the structure of the genetic material by coming up with the specific base-pairing of the genetic material as well as the use of codon triplets in order to encode different amino acids (Hartl, 2011). They were given the Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA, and even explaining its semi-conservative nature to the scientific community. When the structure of DNA was finally revealed, scientists were able to initiate projects which aimed to find out t he full sequences of many organisms on the planet, including humans. In the late 1990’s, the Human Genome Project was initiated in order to fully map all genes present in the human genome. As the project progresses, information regarding as to what genes encode for what protein,

Your objective for this assignment is to insert a significant floral Essay

Your objective for this assignment is to insert a significant floral feature into your environment and to observe and describe its impact - Essay Example Looking closely at the carnations on the table and the satisfaction I get from such a site, I would say my emotional and behavioral responses to the assignments I complete are significantly attached to them. Having watched body languages of colleagues who visit me, in addition to their cheerfulness at the site of these flowers, the reflection is simple; carnations are a healthful and natural moderator of how our moods adapt to the environment. Upon receiving these flowers, my excitement and the smile of one of my closest friends who happened to have been around during the delivery demonstrated extraordinary gratitude and delight to the vendor. The reaction was collective, age notwithstanding. The positive perception about simple things I experience in life have been enhanced since the instalment of the carnations on my table. The mood is exciting, the air is fresh, and the smell is wonderful. Soring depressions I had sitting in a quiet and dull room have subsided. Agitation and anxiety have also reduced a great deal. I wish my friends had the opportunity to spend countless hours with me in this study room to experience the relation and therapy emanating from mere product of nature. The placement method I employed in the display proves the point that the carnations symbolizes sharing. The arrangement is placed on the edge open to people who visit the room. The positive emotions need to be shared, and I believe my endeavors are perfect in lieu of wonders worth sharing. The instructions attached with the flowers helped in proper management of these delicate products. As much as new deliveries are scheduled after every two days, the outgoing bouquet still serves its purpose of bringing ambience and satisfaction to happy feelings and improved moods each and every day. Orders are made a day before the flowers the picked from the farms. Deliveries are made by

Paul’s Missionary Journey Essay Example for Free

Paul’s Missionary Journey Essay The Apostle Paul was the great leader in the momentous transition which characterized the apostolic age, the transition from a prevailingly Jewish to a prevailingly gentile Christianity. Under his guidance Christianity was saved from atrophy and death, which threatened it if it remained confined in Palestine. At the same time, by reason of his insight into the truth of the Gospel and fidelity to it, as well as by his devotion to the Old Testament and loyalty to the highest Jewish ideals in which he had been reared, he saved Christianity from the moral and religious degeneracy to which it would surely have been brought if it had broken with its past, and had tried to stand alone and helpless amid the whirl of Greek religious movements of the first and second Christian centuries. In Paul a great force of onward movement and a profound and conscious radicalism were combined with fundamentally conservative principles. Paul appears to have been born at not far from the same time as Jesus Christ. According to Acts, Paul was born in Tarsus (Acts 9:11; etc. ), received the double name Saul/Paul (13:9), and through his family possessed Tarsian and Roman citizenship (22:25-29 (Murphy-OConnor 32-33). Overall, Paul can be described as an able and thoroughly trained Jew, who had gained from his residence in a Greek city that degree of Greek education which complete familiarity with the Greek language and the habitual use of the Greek translation of the Scriptures could bring. At bottom he ever remained the Jew, in his feelings, his background of ideas, and his mode of thought, but he knew how to make tolerably intelligible to Greek readers the truths in which, as lie came to believe, lay the satisfaction of their deepest needs. At Jerusalem Paul entered ardently into the pursuit of the Pharisaic ideal of complete conformity in every particular to the Law. He was, he tells us, found blameless (to every eye but that of his own conscience), and, he says, I advanced in the Jews religion beyond many of mine own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. With fiery passion he entered into the persecution of the Christian sect, was present and took a kind of part at the murder of Stephen, and undertook to carry on the work of suppression outside of Palestine at Damascus, whither he journeyed for this purpose with letters of introduction from the authorities at Jerusalem (Murphy-OConnor 52-57). At this time took place his conversion. That he was converted, and at or near Damascus, his own words leave no doubt. I persecuted, he says in writing to the Galatians, the Church of God. . . But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mothers womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the gentiles; straightway I conferred not with flesh and blood: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me: but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned unto Damascus (Gal i. 13-17). The change evidently presented itself to Pauls mind as a direct divine interposition in his life. It came to him in a revelation of Jesus Christ, whereby (and through no human intermediary) he received the Gospel which he preached, and the commission to be an apostle. He refers to it as to a single event and an absolute change of direction, not a gradual process and development; the two parts of his life stood sharply contrasted, he did not conceive that he had slid by imperceptible stages from one to the other. What things [i. e. his advantages of birth and Jewish attainment] were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ . . . or whom I suffered — as if in a single moment —the loss of all things (Phil. iii. 7. 8). From Pauls own words, then, we know that he was converted from a persecutor to a Christian, at a definite time and at or near Damascus, by what he considered to be the direct interposition of God; and it seems to be this experience of which he thought as a vision of the risen Christ (Hubbard 176-77). After Pauls conversion, which took place in the latter part of the reign of Tiberius (14-37 a. d. ), about fifteen years passed before the missionary career began of which we have knowledge from Acts and from Pauls own epistles. During this time Paul was first in Arabia, that is in some part of the empire of which Damascus was the most famous city, then in Damascus, and later, after a brief visit to Jerusalem, in Cilicia, doubtless at his old home Tarsus. In this period we may suppose that he was adjusting his whole system of thought to the new centre which had established itself in his mind, the Messiahship of Jesus. With the new basis in mind every part of his intellectual world must have been thought through. Especially, we may believe, will he have studied the relation of Christian faith to the old dispensation and to the ideas of the prophets. The fruit of these years we have in the matured thought of the epistles. They show a steadiness of view and a readiness of resource in the use of the Old Testament, which testify to through work in the time of preparation. Epistles written years apart, like Galatians, Romans and Philippians, surprise us by their uniformity of thought and unstrained similarity of language, in spite of the richness and vivacity of Pauls thought and style. So, for the most part, the characteristic ideas even of Epliesians and Colossians are found suggested in germ in Corinthians and the earlier epistles. Pauls epistles represent the literary flowering of a mind prepared by years of study and reflection (Murphy-OConnor 90-95). At Pauls missionary journey and the beginning then made of churches in Asia Minor we have already looked in a previous chapter. After his return to Antioch followed that great and pivotal occasion of early Christian history, the so-called Council, or Conference, at Jerusalem, described in the fifteenth chapter of Acts and by Paul in the second chapter of Galatians. At that time Paul established his right to carry on the work of Christian missions in accordance with his own principles and his own understanding of the Christian religion. His relation with the Twelve Apostles seems then and at all times to have been cordial. His difficulties came from others in the Jewish Church. To this we know of only one exception, apparently somewhat later than the Conference, the occasion at Antioch when Peter under pressure from Jerusalem withdrew from fellowship with the gentile brethren, and called out from Paul the severe rebuke of which we read in Galatians. There is reason to believe that the rebuke accomplished its purpose. At any rate, at a later time there is no evidence of a continued breach. The idea of missionary travel had evidently taken possession of Paul, for after returning from Jerusalem to Antioch he soon started out again, and was incessantly occupied with missionary work from now until the moment of his arrest at Jerusalem. Leaving Antioch on his second journey he and his companions hurried across Asia Minor, stopping only, it would appear, to revisit and inspect churches previously established. They were led by the Holy Spirit, as the writer of Acts believed, to direct their course westward as rapidly as possible to Greece, which was to be the next stage in the path to the capital of the world. In Macedonia and Achaia Paul and his companions worked with varying success at Philippi, Thessalonica, Ber? a, Athens, Corinth. At Corinth, the chief commercial city of Greece, the Christians arrived in the late autumn. The work opened well, and Paul remained at that important centre until a year from the following spring. The date of his arrival cannot be exactly determined, but is probably one of the five years between 49 and 53 a. d. While at Corinth he wrote the First and (if it is genuine) the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. Somewhere about this time, perhaps before leaving Antioch for this journey, the Epistle to the Galatians was written. The churches of Galatia, to which it is addressed, were probably the churches known to us in Acts as Pisithan Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. After a flying trip to Syria and perhaps to Jerusalem Paul returned to Ephesus in Asia Minor, where he settled down for a stay of three years. A few incidents of this period have been recorded in the Book of Acts, and are among the most striking and realistic that we have. They include a remarkable number of points of contact with facts known to us from archeological discoveries, and in no chapters of Acts is our confidence more fully reassured in the contemporary knowledge and the trustworthiness of the writer of the book. While at Ephesus Paul had much communication with Corinth, and wrote I Corinthians, which had clearly been preceded by another letter. There are indications in II Corinthians that after this he found the difficulties in the church at Corinth such that he wrote them at least one letter which has been lost, and made a short, and in its outcome exceedingly painful, trip to Corinth and back to Ephesus. Finally he was impelled by danger to his life to leave Ephesus, and went through Macedonia to Corinth. On the way he wrote, to prepare for his own presence, the epistle we call II Corinthians. Arriving at Corinth in the early winter he stayed until spring. His literary impulse continued active, and to this winter we owe the Epistle to the Romans. Earlier letters had been called out by special need in one or another church; in Romans Paul comes nearer to a systematic exposition of his theology than in any of his earlier writings. He knew the importance that would surely belong to the Christian Church of Rome. He had made up his mind to go there. But first he must go to Jerusalem, and there were dangers both from the risks of travel and from hostile men. Of each hind his life had had many examples. Accordingly he provided for the Roman Christians a clear statement of his main position, together with a reply to several of the chief objections brought against it, notably the allegations that his presentation of Christianity involves the abrogation of Gods promises to his chosen people, and that it opened the way to moral laxity. This letter Paul sent as an earnest of his own visit to Rome. He had been for a year or more supervising the collection by the churches of Asia Minor and Europe of a contribution for the poor Christians at Jerusalem; the gentile churches should thus make a repayment in carnal things to those who had made them to be partakers of their spiritual things. This contribution was now ready, and Paul himself with a group of representatives of the chief churches took ship at Philippi and Troas for Jerusalem. The voyage is narrated in detail in Acts, evidently by one who was a member of the company. At last Paul reached Jerusalem, and was well received by the church; but, followed as he was by the hatred of Jews from the Dispersion who had recognized the menace to the Jewish religion proceeding from the new sect, he was set upon by a mob, rescued only by being taken in custody by the Roman authorities, and after a series of exciting adventures which will be found admirably told in the Book of Acts, was brought to C`sarea. There he stayed a prisoner for two years and more until on the occasion of a change of Roman Governor his case was brought up for trial, when he exercised the right of a Roman citizen to appeal from the jurisdiction of the Governor to that of the imperial court at Rome. It was late autumn, but he was dispatched with a companion whom we may well believe to be Luke the beloved physician, and from whom our account certainly comes. The narrative of Pauls voyage and shipwreck, of the winter on the island of Malta, and the final arrival at Rome early in one of the years between 58 and 62 a. d. is familiar. It is the most important document that antiquity has left us for an understanding of the mode of working an ancient ship, while the picture which it gives of Paul as a practical man is a delightful supplement to our other knowledge of him(Murphy-OConnor 324). In Rome, while under guard awaiting trial, Paul probably wrote Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and the circular letter, seemingly intended for churches in Asia Minor, known to us as Ephesians. They show some new development of ideas long present with him, and some new thoughts to which his other writings give no parallel, and the style of some of them has changed a bit from the freshness of Galatians and Romans; but these are not sufficient reasons for denying that Paul wrote the letters. They are, indeed, as it seems to me, beyond reasonable doubt genuine. The Book of Acts ends with the words, And he [Paul] abode two whole years in his own hired dwelling, and received all that went in unto him, preaching the Kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, none forbidding him. This period of two years is sufficient to include the composition of the four epistles to which reference has just been made, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and Epliesians, the so-called Epistles of the Captivity. What happened at the expiration of the period? Apparently Pauls case, long postponed, then came to trial. Did it result in his release or his execution? The evidence is meager and conflicting, and opinions differ. It is perhaps a little more likely that he was released, and entered on further missionary work, probably carrying out his original purpose of pushing on with the proclamation of his Gospel to the west, and establishing it in Spain; but of this period there is no narrative. If after two years Pauls imprisonment at Rome ended with his release, as the absence of well-founded charges against him would lead us to expect, he must have been later again apprehended, probably in connection with the persecution artfully turned against the Christians at the time of Neros fire in July of the year 64. It is probable that he was beheaded, to which privilege his Roman citizenship entitled him, and that he was ultimately buried on the Ostian Way at the spot where now stands the splendid basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.