The salutation: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all", or something

equivalent, should be looked for as the Apostle's sign-manual in every epistle. When the

Church at Thessalonica had been deceived by "an epistle as from" Paul, the Apostle

draws attention to the fact that they could always rely upon the authenticity of an epistle

from himself, inasmuch as the Lord would not permit any other writer to use this

particular phrase in closing an epistle.  This, of course, necessitates inspiration:

otherwise there would be nothing to prevent either Peter, innocently, or a deceiver, with

intent, from using identically the same phrase.

The reader will find at the end of every one of Paul's epistles this reference to "grace

with you". It is said by many that Paul did not sign the epistle to the Hebrews. This is

certainly true so far as the actual name is concerned, but the authorship is not difficult to

determine if we read the benediction with which the epistle closes.

We have already exceeded the space that this article should occupy and we will

therefore defer until next time any further remarks regarding the close of this great epistle

to the Romans.

We now come to the closing section of the epistle to the Romans, a section that it is of

the utmost importance to understand, and about which a great deal of discussion has

The genuineness of the doxology has been disputed (1) on the ground that its

position is unsuitable either at the end of chapter 14: 23, where it stands in

190 manuscripts, or at the close of chapter 16:;  (2) on the ground of its "unpauline"

lack of simplicity.  The doxology is unusually elaborate for Paul's epistles, but there is

of course no rule governing such a matter, and the nature of the subject in the case in

point fully accounts for any complexity in its composition. The doxology is found