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 Cornell University Library 
 BS2505 .194 
 
 St. Paul : his life and times. 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 029 332 040 
 
3^ , 
 
B Cornell University 
 B Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029332040 
 
ptctt ot mn '§iUz. 
 
 THEIR LIVES AND TIMES. 
 
 " We commend the volumes of this series as useful 
 contributions to the popularization of the results of 
 Biblical scholarship — a tendency and movement of 
 our time of the utmost interest and promise" — New- 
 Englandeb. 
 
 ABRAHAM : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. By the 
 
 Rev. W. J. Deane, M.A. 
 MOSES : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. By the Rev. 
 
 Canon G. Rawlinson, M.A. 
 SOLOMON : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. By the Ven. 
 
 Archdeacon Farear, D.D. 
 ISAIAH : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. By the Rev. 
 
 Canon S. R. Driver, M.A. 
 SAMUEL AND SAUL: THEIR LIVES AND 
 
 TIMES. By Rev. William J. Deane, M.A. 
 JEREMIAH: HIS LIFE AND TIMES. By the 
 
 Rev. Canon T. K. Chevhe, M.A. 
 JESUS THE CHRIST : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 
 
 By the Rev. F. J. Vallings, M.A. 
 ELIJAH : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. By the Rev. 
 
 W. MILUGAN, D.D. 
 DANIEL : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. By H. Deane, 
 
 B.D. 
 DAVID : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. By Rev. Wm. 
 
 J. Deane, M.A. 
 
 KINGS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH. By the Rev. 
 
 Canon G. Rawlinson, M.A. 
 JOSHUA: HIS LIFE AND TIMES. By Rev. 
 
 Wiixiam J. Deane. 
 
 ST. PAUL : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. By James 
 
 IVERACH, M.A, 
 
 THE MINOR PROPHETS. By the Ven. Archdea- 
 con Farrar, D.D. 
 
 ISAAC AND JACOB: THEIR LIVES AND 
 TIMES." %■ George Rawunson, M.A. 
 
 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES : A Study, Historical 
 and Practical. By Rev. John Marshall Lang, D. D. 
 
 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH : THEIR LIVES AND 
 TIMES. By George Rawunson, M.A., F.R.G.S. 
 
 Each volume sold separately at $i.oo ; or the set of 
 17 volumes sent prepaid an receipt: of price, $17.00. 
 
 !^nson SII. £. Kanbolpl) &; (Eomiiaits, 
 
 No. 182 Fifth Avenue, New York, 
 
ST. PAUL: 
 
 HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 
 
 JAMES IVERACH, M.A., 
 
 rROFESSOR OF APOLOGETICS AND EXEGESIS OF THE GOSPELS, FREE CHURCH 
 COLLEGE, ABERDEEN ; AUTHOR OP " IS GOD KNOW ABLE ? " ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK ; 
 
 ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 
 
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 182 FIFTH AVENUE. 
 
B srv 
 
 
 J^3 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It is scarcely possible for me to enumerate all the works I have 
 consulted in the course of preparing this book. The chief 
 sources are, of course, the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles 
 of St. Paul. I have referred to the Articles on St. Paul in the 
 "Encyclopaedia Britannica," in Smith's "Bible Dictionary," 
 in Schenkel's " Bibel- Lexicon," and in Herzog-Platt "Real- 
 Encyclopaedie." Of the Commentaries, I have consulted 
 Meyer, Godet, Edwards, Beet, Lightfoot, and others. Of 
 Lives of St. Paul, I have used those of Baur, Renan, Cony- 
 beare and Howson, Ewald, and the little work, " St. Paul 
 and the Heathen World," published by the S.P.C.K. I am 
 specially indebted, though largely in the way of dissent, to 
 Weizsacker, "Das Apostolische Zeitalter"; and Hausrath, 
 " Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschicte," I have found useful and 
 suggestive. The Introductions to the New Testament used 
 are those of Holtzman, Weiss, Salmon, and Dods. Other 
 obligations are acknowledged in their respective places. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1 
 Youth and Education 
 
 Tarsus, its commerce and its learning — Its religion — St. Paul's 
 home — His father a Roman citizen — His name — His training at 
 Jerusalem — Gamaliel — The time of his residence at Jerusalem 
 ^The progress of the Church — Stephen — Saul's relation to the 
 Christian Church — Dispute with Stephen — His defence — His 
 martyrdom — Saul the Pharisee — His religious experience as a 
 Pharisee — His animosity against the Church — His mental state 
 — His persecution of the Church. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Conversion . ;5 
 
 St. Paul's statements regarding his conversion: In Galatians; 
 in Philippians ; in First Corinthians — Incidental character of 
 these references — The three accoimts in the Acts of the Apostles 
 — After his conversion — Its importance — In Damascus — Ananias 
 — Reality of his conversion — Attempts to explain it away — The 
 fejlure of these attempts — St. Paul's witness to the resurrection. 
 
 CHAPTER Iir. 
 
 In Arabia, Damascus, Jerusalem, and Antioch ... 29 
 Journey to Arabia — Its significance — Return to Damascus — 
 Attempt to preach at Damascus — Opposition to him — His danger 
 and escape — Visit to Jerusalem — Suspicion of the Church— Inter- 
 vention o( Barnabas — Attempt to work at Jerusalem — Reluctance 
 to leave it— Return to Tarsus— Life and work at Tarsus and in 
 Cilicia— The Church at Antioch ; its origin, history, and influence 
 ^Barnabas— Work at Antioch— Christians— The controversy 
 with the Judaisers. 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 FAGX 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Set 'Apart for Mission Work ....... 44 
 
 In Antioch — Visit to Jerusalem — Barnabas and Sattl set apart for 
 mission work — Worlc in Cyprus— Conversion of the Proconsul— 
 Elymas the Sorcerer — In PamphyEa— St. Paul's address in the 
 synagogne of Antioch in Pisidia — Its results — They turn to the 
 Gentiles — In Lycaonia— At Lystra— Stoning ot St. Paul— Return 
 to Antioch- End of first missionary journey. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Council at Jerusalem s? 
 
 Nature of the controversy about circumcision — Its origin — 
 Trouble caused by it at Antioch — Epistle to the Galatians and 
 the Acts of the Apostles— Certain views of the critics — Proceed- 
 ings at the council — The decision — The decrees — Return of Paul 
 and Barnabas to Antioch — Dispute "between Paul and Barnabas 
 — Its occasion — The separation between them. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 In Asia Minor 72 
 
 Chronology — Dates and events in the Apostle's life, and of 
 Epistles written by him — His new and wider work — His hopes 
 and aims — The extent of his work as indicated in the Epistles — 
 His journeys, dangers, and labours — Work of Paul and Silas in 
 Lycaonia, Phrygia, and Galatia — Timothy — The Galatians — The 
 Epistle to the Galatians, and its teaching. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 At Phillipi 86 
 
 The gospel preached in Europe — ^The Apostle and his company 
 arrive in Philippi — Luke — A Roman colony — At the place of 
 prayer — Conversion of Lydia — Residence in her house — The 
 maid with a spirit of divination — Her cure — Her owners assault 
 the Apostle — St. Paul before the magistrates — His cruel treat- 
 ment — In the prison — Conversion of the jailer — Results of St. 
 Paul's work at Philippi — The Philippian Church — ^The Epistle to 
 the Philippians. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Thessalonica, Bercea, Athens 100 
 
 Thessalonica — Among the Jews — Riot in Thessalonica — Assault 
 on Jason — Epistles to the "Thessalonians — In Beroea —In Athens 
 — What St. Paul said — How he left — Character of the Athenians 
 — Greek philosophy — The speech of the Apostle— Contents of the 
 speech — Its abrupt conclusion — Results,of the speech. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 In Corinth , 113 
 
 Corinth — Character of its people — Aquila and Priscilla — Arrival 
 of Silas and Timothy — Aggressive work — Titus Justus — Crispus — 
 Progress of the work — Opposition of the Jews — They accuse St. 
 Paul— Gallio — His decision — Trustworthiness of the account of 
 Paul's work contained in the Book of Acts — Weizsacker — The 
 Epistles to the Corinthians — Conditions and character of St. 
 Paul's work among them— Methods and principles by which the 
 Apostle settled questions of doctrine, morals, and ecclesiastical 
 order. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 In Ephesus 129 
 
 Visit to Jerusalem — Journey through Phrygia and Galatia — 
 Apollos — Ephesus — John's disciples— In the synagogue — Work 
 in Ephesus — Its nature, and its conspicuous success — Triumph 
 of the gospel — Exorcists and their defeat — Burning of the magic 
 books — Demetrius — Loss of trade — The tumult at Ephesus — ■ 
 The town clerk — Historical illustration of the truth of the narra- 
 tive in Book of Acts — Perils of the Apostle — His toils and 
 labours — The Epistle to the Ephesians — The Ephesian Church. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 From Ephesus to Jerusalem . 143 
 
 Visit to the Churches of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Greece — 
 Jewish plot — The companions of the Apostle — A day in Troas — 
 Its incidents and events — At iVliletus — Address to the elders of 
 Ephesus — The pathetic farewell — Voyage to Tyre — Warnings— 
 In Cssarea— Philip the evangelist — Agabus the prophet — The 
 symbolic prophecy — St. Paul's resolve — Arrival at Jerusalem — 
 Meeting with James and the brethren — Their advice to St. Paul 
 — He acts on it — Result. 
 
 CHAPTER XII, 
 
 In Jerusalem and C/ESAREa 158 
 
 The Apostle assaulted by Asiatic Jews— Rescued by Claudius 
 Lysias — Speech from the castle stairs — ^The Apostle claims his 
 right as a Roman citizen — Before the Sanhedrin — Incidents — 
 The Apostle in imprisonment — His state of mind — Plot against 
 him — His removal to Csesarea — Trial before Felix — Intercourse 
 with Felix — Procrastination of Felix. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 From C^sarea to Rome 173 
 
 Captivity at Csesarea — Felix — His character and motives — His 
 recall — Festus and his treatment of the Apostle — Trial before 
 King Agrippa — Appeal unto Cassar- Sent to Rome— Incidents 
 of the voyage— Shipwrecked at Malta — Incidents at Malta. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 In Rome i83 
 
 Departure from Malta — Arrival at Rome — Last appeal to the 
 Jews, and its result — the Church at Rome — The Epistle to the 
 Romans — Postponement of the trial — The work of the Apostle — 
 The Epistles of the captivity — The friends of the Apostle— His 
 manifold labours— His future plans — The Pastoral Epistles as a 
 source for the Apostle's biography — His release — His movements 
 in the interval between the first and second imprisonment — His 
 second arrest — His demeanour in. view of the end — His solitude 
 — His confidence — His martyrdom. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Pauline Theology 203 
 
 Pauline theology : its sources, its nature — The Epistles of the 
 imprisonment — His relation to Christ — St. Paul not the founder 
 of Ctuistianity. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 YOUTH AKT) EDUCATION. 
 
 Taisns, Its commerce and its learning — Its religion — St. Panl's home— 
 
 His father a Roman citizen — His name — His training at Jerusalem — 
 Gamaliel — The time of his residence at Jerusalem — The progress of the 
 Church — Stephen— Saul's relation to the Christian Church — Dispute 
 with Stephen — His defence — His martyrdom — Saul the Pharisee — His 
 religious experience as a Pharisee — His animosity against the Church 
 — His mental stale — His persecution of the Church. 
 
 In one of his letters St. Paul describes himself as " of the stock 
 of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews ; as 
 touching the law, a Pharisee." ' He was born at Tarsus in 
 Cilicia, a place of which he was wont to speak with some con- 
 sciousness of its importance. It was in his eyes " no mean 
 city." ' We need not suppose that this statement is coloured 
 by the partiality of a native, /or there is ample evidence that 
 as a geographical and trading centre, and as a seat of learning, 
 it was, in fact, no mean city. Its situation was favourable ; a 
 navigable stream gave direct access to the Mediterranean ; it 
 had communication on the one hand with Syria, and on the 
 other with the lands beyond the Taurus, and its trade was there- 
 fore considerable. As a boy St. Paul must have often watched 
 the rafts of timber, which, hewn in the forests of the Taurus, 
 and floated down the river, were sent to the dockyards or other 
 places as required. Here, too, he must have seen bales of 
 goods, which, having the names and marks of the owners on 
 them, lay on the quays. How profound an impression the busy 
 ' Phil. ill. S- ' Acts xxi. 39. 
 
 2 
 
2 ST. PAUL. 
 
 mercantile life of Tarsus made on his young mind may be 
 gathered from the fact that his style, his mode of thought, and 
 almost all his metaphors and illustrations are drawn from it. 
 
 Nor is this the only debt he owed to Tarsus_ We know from 
 Strabo' that Greek learning greatly flourished in Tarsus at this 
 time. It is scarcely to be supposed that he should have lived 
 in such a city without sharing the culture and the learning for 
 which it was celebrated. We know that he spoke and thought 
 in Greek with great ease and accuracy ; and that such ease 
 comes only to one who has practised the use of the language 
 from infancy, and to whom it has become part of his mental 
 life. No one could have spoken the speech given by St. Paul 
 on Mars Hill if he had not had a perfect acquaintance with the 
 spirit of Greek life and thought. Occasionally, too, he shows an 
 acquaintance with obscure parts of Greek literature which is 
 remarkable, and can use sentences from them with great effect. 
 Witness the verse quoted by him to the men of Athens " For 
 we are also His offspring,'" and also the passage about the 
 Cretans.^ There is no evidence, indeed, that he was a student 
 in the schools of Tarsus, or that he had made a systematic 
 study of the masterpieces of Greek literature. Rather there is 
 evidence to the contrary. But what an observant boy could 
 gather from intercourse with others, and what he could absorb 
 of the atmosphere in which he moved, so much, no doubt, was 
 acquired by one so sympathetic and impressionable as he was. 
 It was fitting that he whose life-work lay among strange people, 
 in many unfriendly cities, should have begun his life and spent 
 his boyhood in a place where so many opposing influences met, 
 so many diverse interests were at stake, and so many kinds of 
 people were to be seen. It was fitting, also, that he who was to 
 be the bearer and the messenger of a religion suited to all men, 
 fitted to meet and satisfy all human needs, should have seen 
 with his own eyes and felt in his own life the pressure of pagan 
 religions as all who lived at Tarsus must have felt them. 
 
 For with regard to religion Tarsus was a typical city. Many 
 religions met in it. It is not necessary that we should describe 
 them here ; enough to say that in Tarsus, as in some other cities 
 of the Roman Empire, religion practically had become a mixture 
 of strange and incongruous elements. Here might be found the 
 
 ' Strabo, "Geography,'' xiv. 5, 13. 
 
 " Acts xvii. 28, 3 Titus i. 12. 
 
YOUTH AND EDUCATION. 3 
 
 fearful rites — rites of the most detestable licentiousness, and of 
 the most awful asceticism which belong to the religion of the 
 heathen Semites. Here, too, were representatives of the reli- 
 gious beliefs of pagan Greece, and of the religions of Northern 
 Syria. Nor were there lacking influences emanating from 
 Babylon and Egypt, along with the influences coming from 
 imperial Rome, now on the highway toward the worship 
 of the emperors. Enough that before his eyes throughout 
 his boyhood, Paul saw a living picture of the intellectual, 
 moral, and social effects which spring from heathenism. How 
 disastrous these results were, and how keenly he felt them, 
 may be gathered from a perusal of the first chapter of his 
 Epistle to the Romans. Even in his boyhood he must have 
 longed to turn men from idols to the service of the Living God. 
 While his residence during boyhood in a pagan city, amid 
 such surroundings, must have formed a large element in his 
 training, yet the decisive influence which ruled his young life 
 must be sought elsewhere. Unlike so many of his kinsmen, 
 both before his time and since, Paul did not yield himself to the 
 influence of Greek thought and life. He was ever an Hebrew 
 of the Hebrews, and his training was of the true Hebrew sort. 
 In what circumstances his parents were we do not know, nor at 
 what time they had come to Tarsus. Perhaps earlier ancestors 
 of his had come to the flourishing city, and had attained to 
 wealth and position in it. At all events Paul's father had at- 
 tained to the dignity of a Roman citizen — a dignity Paul did not 
 hesitate to claim when there was need.' Nothing can be inferred 
 with regard to his poverty or wealth from the fact that he had 
 learnt a trade, for that was a universal Jewish custom. He does 
 not seem, however, to have had command of wealth. It is not 
 said of him, as it is said of Barnabas, that " having a field, he 
 sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet." " 
 Nor was much wealth needed in order that he might pursue the 
 calling on which his mind was bent. The absence of wealth 
 did not prevent men from attaining to the highest distinction 
 as teachers of the law. The trade he learned was a natural 
 one for a person of Cilician birth, as the hair of the Cilician 
 goat was used to make a cloth which was specially adapted for 
 tents for travellers, merchants, and soldiers. 
 
 ' Acts xvi. 38 ; xxii. 23, et passim. ' Ibid. iv. 37, 
 
4 ST. PAUL. 
 
 Many conjectures have been made regarding the name he 
 assumed and used in all his writings. In the Acts of the 
 Apostles he is called Saul up to the time of the conversion of 
 Sergius Paulus. Then, somewhat abruptly, it is said, " Saul, 
 who is also called Paul ; " • after which statement he is always 
 called Paul. It was natural that a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin 
 should be called Saul, as it was the name of the first king of 
 Israel, but why he was called Paul we can scarcely determine. 
 Some think he took the name of his first great Gentile convert ; 
 others that he assumed it in reference either to the smallness 
 of his stature or to his being " the least of the apostles ; " and 
 others again — and this is the most likely solution — that he had 
 a double name from the first. His name, Paul, was not un- 
 common in Syria, and in the eastern parts of Asia Minor. The 
 question is more curious than important, and need not detain 
 us longer. 
 
 We do not know exactly when he came to Jerusalem. Luke 
 calls him a young man at the time of the stoning of Stephen, 
 but among the Jews a man was reckoned a young man till he 
 was thirty years of age. It may have been that the whole 
 family had moved from Tarsus to Jerusalem while he was yet a 
 young man. We find that the son of his sister was an inhabi- 
 tant of Jerusalem.'' At all events he was a dweller at Jerusalem 
 for a number of years. He had had time to make himself com- 
 pletely master of the learning to be obtained in the rabbinical 
 schools at Jerusalem. He was brought up " at the feet of 
 Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict manner of the law 
 of the Jews." 3 A notice in the Acts of the Apostles tells us 
 that Gamaliel was " a doctor of the law, had in honour of all 
 the people." * Both from his own learning and character, and 
 from his being the grandson of Hillel, he held the foremost 
 place among the theologians at Jerusalem. To him Paul had 
 come, and at his feet he sat for many years. The master and 
 pupil seemed most unlike each other. Gamaliel was liberal- 
 minded, large-hearted, tolerant ; all accounts of his sayings 
 and doings are of the same kind as the speech he is recorded 
 to have made to the Sanhedrin, a report of which is contained 
 in the Acts of the Apostles. This speech contains most elevated 
 and liberal sentiments, and manifests a firm faith in the provi- 
 
 » Acts xiii. 9. 3 Ibid, xxiii. ;6. 
 
 3 Ibid. xxii. 3. t ibid. v. 34. 
 
YOUTH AND EDUCATION. 5 
 
 denc€ of God. No wiser counsel could have been given than 
 the following : " Refrain from these men, and let them alone : 
 for if this counsel or this work be of man, it will be overthrown; 
 but if it is of God, ye will not be able to overthrow them ; lest 
 haply ye be found even to be fighting against God." " This 
 wise, calm, and tolerant spirit was as different as possible from 
 the fiery zeal and impetuous intolerance which Saul manifested 
 against the Christian Church. What the youthful Saul had got 
 from his teacher was not apparently the mild wisdom of his 
 practical good sense, but the -knowled^ of the law, a minute 
 acquaintance with the traditions of the elders, and a thorough 
 knowledge of the Scriptures and of the current methods of 
 interpretation. How minute and extensive that knowledge 
 was, every Epistle he wrote bears witness. He quotes from all 
 parts of the Scriptures. From the Pentateuch, from the Psalter, 
 and firom the Prophets he quotes in such a way as to prove that 
 he had mastered their contents and was at home with them. 
 The quotations also show that the original Hebrew was as- 
 familiar to him as the Greek ti'anslation. He had thrown him- 
 self with an ardent thirst for knowledge upon the learning of 
 the schools, and outstripped all his contemporaries both in the 
 knowledge of, and in zeal for the law. " 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."' 
 We need not enter at any length into a discussion of the kind 
 of learning he obtained in the school of Gamaliel, nor say any- 
 thing either of the views which obtained there, or of the methods 
 by which they were attained and defended. It is enough to 
 note that Saul had mastered the learning Gamaliel had to teach, 
 that he was held in estimation and thoroughly trusted by the 
 rulers of hjs people. He iad exhausted what Judaism had to 
 give him. He had mastered all its learning, had entered fully 
 into its moral and religious spirit ; and when he was suddenly 
 lifted out of it, it had nothing further to give him. 
 
 It is likely that he was in Jerusalem durin ;; the lifetime of 
 our Lord on earth. It is possible, indeed, iLat he may have 
 been present during one of Jesus Christ's periodical visits to 
 Jerusalem. Though the main stress of the contrast set forth 
 in the. passage, "even though we have known Christ after the 
 
 ' Acts V. 35-39. ' Gal. i. 14. 
 
6 ST. PAUL. 
 
 flesh, yet now we know Him so no more," ' is laid on the dis- 
 tinction between carnal and spiritual knowledge, there is nothing 
 in it to exclude the literal meaning. He may have seen the Lord 
 in the flesh, and seen Him before the crucifixion. This is un- 
 important, however, as, if he had seen the Lord, he lays no 
 stress on it, never boasts of a knowledge of this kind. 
 
 Of more importance is it to notice that the existence of the 
 Christian Church must for a long time have attracted his atten- 
 tion. Thousands of Jews had been won to faith in the Crucified 
 One, and had become members of the Christian Church. No 
 doubt many of these were Jews of the Dispersion, and had 
 speedily returned to their homes in other lands. But many 
 were dwellers in Jerusalem, for we find that " the number of 
 the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly ; and a great 
 company of the priests were obedient to the faith." ' Though 
 a keen and devoted student, and though much occupied, no 
 doubt, with the questions of the schools, Saul was too active, 
 too much in sympathy with his fellow-men, not to have known 
 of the existence, character, and claims of the disciples of Jesus 
 of Nazareth. The Apostles spoke boldly in the temple ; the 
 claims of Jesus to be the Messiah were discussed in the syna- 
 gogues ; and the new faith was not disposed to hide in a 
 corner. Nay, Saul himself may have been one of the dis- 
 putants ; or if too young to speak in the synagogue, he may 
 have been one of those present at the disputes with Stephen 
 which took place in the synagogue. What more likely than 
 that Saul was wont to frequent that particular synagogue which 
 was called "the synagogue of the Libertines, and of the 
 Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia 
 and Asia"? 3 Saul had joined himself to the straitest sect of 
 the Pharisees, composed of men who had been formerly in 
 revolt against the Roman power, and who now, with determined 
 energy, set themselves to interpret the law in the strictest and 
 most rigid way, and to enforce it on all if they could. By 
 strict observance of the law they hoped to revive the ancient 
 faith and the ancient glory of Israel. Sharing these hopes, 
 and being a Pharisee of the Pharisees, Saul must have been 
 simply shocked and astonished beyond measure, both at the 
 strange doctrines set forth by Stephen, and at the skill and 
 
 ■ 2 Cor. V. i6. « Acts vi. 7. 3 Ibid. vi. 9. 
 
YOUTH AND EDUCATION. 7 
 
 boldness with which he defended them. From the account in 
 the Acts of the Apostles it seems clear that Saul, who was 
 present at the death of Stephen, and was also a listener to his 
 defence, must have been present at the dispute in the syna- 
 gogue which gave rise to these events. Nor can we say for how 
 long a time he had known of this new sect. The fiery zeal, 
 which suddenly sprang to such intensity of persecution, must 
 have been slumbering for a long time, and must have been fed 
 by many bitter feelings and grudges against those who had 
 fallen, as he must have thought, from the ancient faith of their 
 fathers. 
 
 Again, changes were taking place within the Christian com- 
 munity. For some time the Christian Church had been con- 
 tent to add their new article of faith to the beliefs they had as 
 Israelites. They were Jews, with the difference that they 
 believed in Jesus as the Messiah. That Jesus lived, had risen 
 from the dead, and *' was exalted a prince and a Saviour to give 
 repentance unto Israel and the remission of sins," this they 
 steadfastly believed, and in this they rejoiced. But they had 
 not yet reflected on the meaning and bearing of this new 
 bfelief, nor seen what revolutionary changes were involved in it 
 and what destructive effects it would have on all existing relation- 
 ships. They did not see — it was very difficult for them to see 
 — that it meant the breaking-up of the old order, and the con- ^ 
 stituting of it on a new basis. They clung to the old way, 
 observed the Jewish law, went daily to the temple, and strove 
 to hide from themselves the essential position of antagonism 
 in which they stood to the old order. The antagonism was 
 bound to come to the light. The Christians might cling to the 
 temple and its services, they might ignore as much as possible 
 the magnitude of the change involved in their faith in Christ — 
 but the logic of events was too strong for them. They could not 
 prevent the more active spirits among them from thinking out 
 the matter, and pushing it to an issue. During these first years 
 of silent growth, mutual love and earnest self-sacrifice greatly 
 flourished, and the community had attracted to itself many able 
 and powerful spirits. The few disciples who had met in the 
 upper room on the Day of Pentecost were lost amid the 
 thousands who had since then become Christians. As they 
 increased in numbers they naturally became less cautious, and 
 as their hope and courage mounted, so increased also their 
 
8 ST. PAUL. 
 
 efforts to make others share their new belief. There were many, 
 no doubt, who did not feel any occasion for reserve. Among 
 these was Stephen. That he was chosen one of the Seven, shows 
 that he had already been prominent in the Church. His office 
 gave him additional weight and increased prominence. His 
 work would bring him into constant contact with the people, 
 and he was the kind of man to make the most of every oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 Nor was his work limited to the Christians. He was ever 
 active in the defence of the faith and urgent in pressing on 
 others that they also should believe on Christ.. " Full of grace 
 and power Stephen wrought great wonders and signs among the 
 people." ' In the course of his energetic career he got into a 
 dispute with those who were considered the most liberal-minded 
 among the Jews. His opponents were not of the straitest sect, 
 nor of the Jews who had their homes in Palestine. They 
 were Hellenists, Libertines who had been taken to Rome as 
 prisoners, and had obtained their freedom. They had been 
 somewhat liberalised by their residence abroad, but they re- 
 fused to believe in Christ. The dispute waxed warm. Stephen 
 spoke out, and put forth all his strength in argument. " They 
 were not able to withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which 
 he spoke." Defeated in open argument, they had recourse to 
 base means in order to win the victory over Stephen. They 
 accused him falsely ; they suborned witnesses ; they stirred up 
 all who did not believe in Christ, the people, the elders, and 
 the scribes, and brought him before the council to answer for 
 himself The heads of the council had long been in active 
 opposition to the Christians, but were held in restraint by fear 
 of the people. They were ready to act as soon as the popular 
 breath was turned against the Christians. We have from Luke 
 a somewhat full account both of the accusation brought against 
 Stephen, and of his speech in defence. Luke tells us what he 
 said, and also how he looked. When he stood before the 
 council, knowing that any moment might bring death to him, 
 Stephen felt so supported and sustained by Divine strength that 
 his face shone with solemn triumph in the goodness of his 
 cause. He is accused of speaking words against the holy place 
 and the law : " We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth 
 
 ' Acts vi. 3. 
 
YOUTH AND EDUCATION. 9 
 
 shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which 
 Moses delivered unto us." ' What will his defence be ? What 
 but to repeat again the substance of what he had maintained 
 in the dispute with the Libertines ? Thus he would not merely 
 defend himself, but also make use of his opportunity to set 
 forth the truth as he understood it. His defence is a new 
 reading of the history of Israel. Since he had been a Christian 
 he had read the Old Testament with new eyes, in the light cast 
 on it by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In 
 the Old Testament he had found no good ground for the Jewish 
 habit of self-praise, nor for the thought in which they gloried 
 that they were the peculiar people of God, who would continue 
 to be the favoured people of God, irrespective of what they 
 were or of what they did. On the contrary Stephen proved, 
 along all the line of their history, from the time of Moses 
 onwards, a steadfast resistance on their part to the action of 
 Divine grace and love. They had resisted Moses, opposed him, 
 thwarted him ; they had served false gods ; and his speech 
 is brought to an abrupt conclusion with the words, "Which 
 of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they 
 killed them which shewed before of the coming of the Righteous 
 One ; of whom ye have now become betrayers and murderers : 
 ye who have received the law as it was ordained by angels, and 
 kept it not."' The result was a sudden and violent move- 
 ment on the part of the multitude. Giving way to the rage 
 which consumed them, they hurried him out of the city and 
 stoned him. The witnesses — who were bound to cast the first 
 stone — " laid down their garments at the feet of a young man 
 named Saul." It is added that " Saul was consenting unto his 
 death." 
 
 It was needful to give this short account of Stephen and his 
 work, inasmuch as he is the direct predecessor of Paul. Paul 
 took up and carried on the work which Stephen had begun. 
 The questions, and the problems of which Paul was to work 
 out the solution had been already raised. Many of the Chris- 
 tians must have been pondering them deeply, and anxiously 
 waiting for a solution. What was to be their relation to the 
 old economy ? How far was their attachment to the new faith to 
 carry them .' These became burning questions on the death 
 
 • Acts vL 14, " Ibid. vii. 52, 53. 
 
10 ST. PAUL. 
 
 of Stephen. ' The old economy cast them out. They are 
 thrust forth from Jerusalem, they are followed into strange 
 cities, and the influence of those in authority among the Jews 
 was used to the uttermost against them wherever they went. 
 The great persecution which arose against the Church which 
 was at Jerusalem, scattered the Christians abroad, and the 
 means taken for their suppression served only to make them 
 increase the more. 
 
 How came the pupil of Gamaliel to take so active a part in 
 this persecution ? In many respects, indeed, he was a contrast 
 to Gamaliel. In his youth, as in the time when he wrote the 
 writings yet in our hands, his life jyas charged with emotion. 
 He lived at high pressure. Intellectually, morally, spiritually, 
 be was a man of intense personahty, of eager, fiery, impetuous 
 strength. He threw himself with the utmost abandon into the 
 attempt to realize the Pharisaic ideal. He was so far conscious 
 of failure. He himself draws a graphic picture of what he had 
 tried to be, and of what he had been. That picture we have in 
 tlie Epistle to the Romans. There was a time when he had 
 lived what seemed to him a pure and guileless life, when he 
 had no consciousness of wrong. But that time had passed 
 away long before he had become a Christian. He was alive 
 without the law once. While' he was busy in the rabbinical 
 schools with the words of the law, learning its distinctions and 
 differences, dealing with it in the fashion of the schools, 
 -suddenly the commandment took new life and reality in his 
 hands. This law was really a law of God. He had something 
 more to do with it than merely to analyse it and classify the 
 results of his analysis. It had something to do with his heart 
 and life. The commandment came, and really commanded. 
 When this was understood, resistance arose within him ; sin 
 revived and he died. The words "Thou shalt not covet," made 
 him conscious of a boundary beyond which he ought not to pass, 
 and roused in him an intense desire to pass it. It drew him on 
 with a fatal, fascinating power. " Sin, finding occasion, through 
 the commandment, beguiled me, and through it slew me." ' 
 His moral nature had fallen into contradictions, and he found 
 it impossible to restore the moral unity of his being. Even of 
 his Pharisaic life he could say, " I delight in the law of God 
 
 ' Rom. vii. 
 
YOUTH AND EDUCATION. II 
 
 after the inward man;" but the delight was powerless to control 
 him, or obtain the mastery over his wayward impulses. " I see 
 a different law in my members, warring against the law of my 
 mind and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which 
 is in my members." This feeling of moral impotence in the 
 inward life served only as a stimulus to new endeavour, and 
 raised in him a greater apprehension of the moral gran- 
 deur of the law of God. The mental and moral torture through 
 which he was passing would make him resent all the more 
 keenly every movement which seemed to overthrow the Phari- 
 saic basis of life, and so to destroy the hope he had of eventually 
 attaining to moral peace. Hence the keenness of his resis- 
 tance to the movement of which Stephen was the chief 
 exponent. The view which Stephen took of the history of 
 Israel was simply intolerable to a Jew ; and if the new views 
 taught by the Apostles and current in the Christian community 
 were true, then the hope which Saul had built on Pharisaism 
 was baseless. We do not wonder that he threw himself with 
 fierce impetuosity into the work of stamping out this new faith. 
 Persecution became to him an imperative duty. With charac- 
 teristic thoroughness — moving wholly when he moved at all — 
 he became a leader among the persecutors. Towards them he 
 felt a very frenzy of hate. He himself says, " I persecuted the 
 church of God and made havock of it." ' " I devastated the 
 church ;"' and with this agrees the statement of Luke. " Saul 
 laid waste the church, entering into every house, and haling 
 men and women committed them to prison." ^ He made a 
 search from house to house ; if he found any of the new faith 
 he dragged them forth to prison. Nor did his persecution stop 
 with imprisonment. When he had brought them before the 
 Jewish authorities he strove to make them blaspheme.* No 
 doubt he took the usual means, common in these courts, of 
 trying to make them apostatize. When he could not make 
 them deny their Lord, and it came to be a question of life and 
 death, he gave his vote against them. The energy of hate, 
 which urged him to such decisive measures, must have been of 
 the most virulent kind. He was " exceedingly mad against 
 them.'' In truth it was a sort of madness, and as such Luke 
 describes it. " He was breathing threatening and slaughter 
 
 » Gal. i. 14. " Lightfoot, in loc. 
 
 3 Acts viii. 3. • Ibid., xxvi. n. 
 
12 ST. PAUL. 
 
 against the disciples of the Lord."' Hatred to them had 
 become a kind of atmosphere to hini ; and the persistent search 
 after the disciples, his cruel treatment of them when they were 
 captured, his voting for their death, and his resolve to follow 
 them into strange cities were but the outward acts, which fitly- 
 expressed the state of his mind. In none of the accounts do 
 we find the least trace of any compunction on his part. He 
 was thoroughly persuaded that he was right in this course of 
 conduct. " I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do 
 many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth." ' 
 
 Curiously enough almost every life of St. Paul contains a 
 psychological chapter of greater or less length, descriptive of 
 his state of mind. I do not mean to dwell on these specula- 
 tions, for they seem to me to be utterly fanciful. Renan, 
 combining the ideas of Strauss and of Baur in his earlier 
 treatment of the subject as contained in his Church History of the 
 first Three Centuries, draws out an account of what he conceives 
 to have been the meditations of Saul on his way to Damascus. 
 Archdeacon Farrar does not yield to Renan in his description. 
 Well, as they have abundance of free space they have room to 
 expatiate, and they can hardly be contradicted, at least not 
 directly. But we may say that there is no evidence forthcoming 
 to show that Paul felt any of the compunctions, the misgivings, 
 the hesitations, which are so freely attributed to him. Nay, we 
 think there is proof to the contrary. Let us, however, state 
 this view in the words of one of the most skilful of its exponents : 
 " We possess in the words which the Acts of the Apostles 3 
 represents Paul as hearing from the lips of Jesus, ' It is hard 
 for thee to kick against the goad,' a hint for the psychological 
 explanation of the change. Before his conversion Paul had 
 felt a goad in his soul, against which he vainly sought to kick. 
 In what else can it have consisted than in the painful doubt as 
 to the lawfulness of his persecution of the Christians — in the 
 doubt, therefore, whether the truth was really on his side, and 
 not, after all, on that of the persecuted disciples of Christ. But 
 how was it possible that a doubt hke this should arise in the 
 soul of the fanatical Pharisee ?"■• Pfleiderer's answer is, that 
 the martyrs' courage in dying for their faith made him ask 
 whether that faith was a delusion, whether this question once 
 
 • Acts ix. I. " Ibid. xxvi. g. 3 Ibid. xxvi. 
 
 * Pfleiderer, Hibbert Lecture, p. 35. 
 
YOUTH AND EDUCATION. I3 
 
 raised, would not raise other questions regarding the Messiah, 
 and what kind of Messiah he was to be. " Was not the unde- 
 served suffering of such a righteous servant of God as Jesus 
 must have been, according to the delineations of His disciples, 
 intended to be the Divinely-ordered means of rendering sinners 
 righteous before God?" As soon as thoughts of this kind entered 
 into his mind the citadel of his Pharisaism was already 
 undermined. Now evidently this is a large superstructure to 
 be built up on the interpretation of a single phrase, or rather of 
 a single word. " It is hard for thee to kick against the goad" 
 need mean no more than that his opposition to the Christian 
 cause would be of no avail ; as vain for him to persecute the 
 Christians as it was for the oxen to kick against the goad. So 
 far was he from feeling compunction, that he afterwards reckons 
 that he was forgiven for persecuting, because he "did it 
 ignorantly in unbelief." The notion that he was trying to 
 drown the rebukes of conscience by energetic action seems to 
 us to be a pure fiction, not supported by any statement in the 
 Acts of the Apostles, nor in any statement in any of his own 
 epistles. It is a pity, perhaps, to demand proof for such 
 psychological disquisitions, but when these are used in order 
 to make the conversion of St. Paul have as little significance 
 as possible, then the issue becomes serious. When we are told 
 that ardent men change, but are not transformed, and that all 
 that St. Paul did was to direct his fanaticism towards another 
 object, as Renan does, we place over against that view the 
 statement of Paul himself, that the meeting with the Christ was 
 to him the beginning of a new life. He was from that time a 
 changed man, had undergone a moral and spiritual renewal. 
 
 Without further controversy on this topic, we here mention 
 that the persecution spread from Jerusalem to Judaaa and 
 Galilee, and Saul, having done all he could against the Church 
 in Palestine, sought new fields of operation. " He went to the 
 high priest and asked of him letters to Damascus unto the 
 synagogues, that if he found any that were of the Way, whether 
 men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." " 
 " Of the great cities which lay near Palestine Damascus was 
 the most promising, if not the only field for such a commission. 
 At Antioch and at Alexandria, though the Jews, who were very 
 
 ■ Acts ix. 2. 
 
14 ST. PAUL. 
 
 numeroas, enjoyed a large measure of independence, and had 
 their own governor, the Roman authorities would probably have 
 interfered to prevent the extreme measures which St. Paul 
 demanded. At Damascus, where also the Jews were numerous 
 and had their own civil governor,* the Arabian prince Aretas 
 (Haritha), who then held the city, might naturally be disposed 
 to let an influential section of the population deal as they 
 pleased with their refractory members."' Commissioned by 
 the authorities of his nation, assured of the help of the syna- 
 gogues when he should have arrived at Damascus, and believing 
 that he should have the connivance, if not the consent, of the 
 civil power, Saul set forth on the way to Damascus. There is 
 no sign of hesitation on his part. He hastened with the deter- 
 mination to root out this heresy. But the issue was to be far 
 otherwise than he deemed. He had reckoned on many things 
 when he set out. He did not reckon on the action to be taken 
 by the risen Lord. But this action was to be decisive for Saul, 
 and soon Saul will be led in triumph by Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 • a Cor. xi. 32. 
 
 • Dr. Hatch> "Encyclopaedia Britannica," Art. " Paul." 
 
CHAPTER II, 
 
 CONVERSION. 
 
 St. Paul's statement regarding his conversion : In Galatians — In 
 Philippians — In First Corinthians — Incidental character of these 
 references — The three accounts in the Acts of the Apostles — After his 
 conversion — In Damascus — Ananias — Reality of his conversion — Its 
 importance— Attempts to explain it away — The failure of these 
 attempts — St. Paul's witness to the resurrection. 
 
 Paul does not tell, in any of his epistles, the story of his con- 
 version. In more places than one he refers to it in terms 
 which leave us in no doubt as to its greatness, its complete- 
 ness, and its suddenness. We shall, in the first place, look at 
 these references, and then take up the accounts in the Acts of 
 the Apostles. The first of these is in the Epistle to the Gala- 
 tians. " It was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, 
 even from my mother's womb, and called me through His grace, 
 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the 
 Gentiles." ' But his main purpose here is not to tell how he 
 became a Christian, but to say how he was made an apostle. 
 His opponents had said that he was not an apostle, that he had 
 no right and no standing beside the original apostles. He 
 therefore had to vindicate his claim to apostleship, and he 
 emphatically places in the forefront that he was an apostle, 
 " not from men, neither through men, but through Jesus Christ, 
 and God the Father who raised him from the dead."' Nor 
 was the gospel he preached received from men — " Neither did 
 
 ■ Gal. i. IS, i6. " Ibid. i. i. 
 
1 6 ST. PAUL. 
 
 I receive it from men, nor was I taught it ; but it came to me 
 through revelation of Jesus Christ." ' As his gospel was, so 
 also were his position and calling as an apostle through reve- 
 lation ol Jesus Christ. It is in this connection that he refers to 
 the way and manner in which he became a Christian. He gives 
 no hint of any doubts and perplexities of mind, which, being 
 met and overcome, led him to be a follower of Christ. He 
 passes at once in his rapid narrative from the time when he 
 was a persecutor to the time when he preached the gospel he 
 once hated. But here as elsewhere we find the article of 
 faith, which to Paul was the foundation on which all other 
 articles of faith were built up. In the verse already cited he 
 emphatically says of the Father, " who raised him from the 
 dead." It was the appearance to him of the Risen Lord, which 
 made him a Christian, gave him a gospel to preach, and sent 
 him forth as the apostle of the Gentiles. This incidental 
 reference gives us at once the fact of his conversion and the 
 cause of it. 
 
 Another reference we find in the Epistle to the Philippians. 
 But this also is occasional and incidental. He is again in con- 
 troversy. His opponents here gloried in the fact that they were 
 Jews, and he makes reply, " If any other man thinketh to have 
 confidence in the flesh, I yet more; circumcised the eighth day, 
 of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew 
 of Hebrews ; as touching the law, a Pharisee ; as touching 
 zeal, persecuting the church, as touching the righteousness 
 which is in the law, found blameless. Howbeit, what things 
 were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.'"' His 
 aim is to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. Both 
 here and in the Epistle to the Galatians, he lays stress on the 
 suddenness of the change in him. He had been seeking the 
 righteousness of the law. He was led suddenly to seek the 
 righteousness which is in Christ. He is now ready to suffer 
 the loss of all things that he may gain Christ. Here again he 
 passes rapidly from the state in which he was a persecutor, to 
 the state in which he was a Christian, and again the cause is 
 the appearance to him of the Risen One. 
 
 We may note a third reference to his conversion. In the 
 eleventh chapter of i Corinthians he says, " Last of all as 
 
 ' Gal. i. la. • Phil. iii. 3-7. 
 
CONVERSION. 17 
 
 unto one born out of due time he appeared to me also ; for I 
 am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an 
 apostle, because I persecuted the church of God." ' It is not 
 of set purpose that he makes the reference. His aim is to prove 
 the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He therefore enumerates 
 the appearances of the Risen Lord, and the people to whom He 
 appeared. He himself is the last to whom Christ appeared. 
 He lays stress on this fact, as of great significance at least to 
 himself. For the others it might have been expected that the 
 Lord would have manifested Himself to them ; His appearance 
 only confirmed the faith in Christ they had already professed. 
 For St. Paul it was a new beginning of life. It seemed almost 
 unnatural that a persecutor should have been called to be an 
 apostle. This reference, as well as the former ones, fastens our 
 thoughts on the singular character of the event. It is to be 
 noted again that all the references are consistent, emphatic, and 
 uniform in the testimony they bear. St. Paul believed that he 
 had seen the Lord. He puts the appearance to himself on a 
 level with the appearances to the apostles after the resurrection. 
 The word used must have the same meaning in this and in the 
 former verses. St. Paul intends to give a proof of the resur- 
 rection of Christ, and the proof would fail if he did not mean 
 that Christ in true humanity was seen by Paul.'' Paul believed 
 that he had seen Jesus Christ. He puts it himself as beyond 
 doubt. " Have I not seen Jesus our Lord ? " ^ he asks the 
 Corinthians in impassioned language. 
 
 We have purposely gone to Paul's acknowledged writings in 
 order to establish the fact of his conversion, and the importance 
 he attached to it. That he refers to, it so frequently, and in 
 such terms, shows how decisive a fact it was. No doubt, details 
 are wanting, but the absence of details is accounted for by the 
 fact that he mentions it only incidentally when he is occupied 
 with some other topic. There is nothing in these references 
 inconsistent with the detailed accounts given us in the Acts of 
 the Apostles. We have the facts stated in the Acts no fewer 
 than three times.s It is first stated by the historian himself 
 
 ' I Cor. XV. 8, 9. 
 
 * Here we may refer to the masterly commentary of Principal Edwards 
 on First Corinthians. The commentary on the fifteenth chapter is the ablest 
 and the most satisiactory known to us. 3 i Cor. ix. 1. 
 
 * Acts ix.3-10 ; xxii. 6-21 ; xxvi. 12-18. 
 
1 8 ST. PAUL. 
 
 in the course of his continuous narrative. It is given a second 
 time by Paul himself in the address on the Temple stairs, and a 
 third time, again by Paul, in the speech to King Agrippa. A 
 minute examination reveals minute differences, but a com- 
 parison of them shovi's that they agree in the essential facts. 
 Baur, in his Life of Paul, and others after him, have magnified 
 these differences, and made them out to be contradictions, but 
 the general verdict of criticism may be stated in the words of 
 Dr. Hatch : "The difference does not constitute a valid argument 
 against the general truth of the narrative." ' We shall not 
 therefore enter into any detailed account of the difficulties and 
 differences in these narratives, but, assuming their general 
 agreement, give a short narrative of the details of his con- 
 version. 
 
 Paul having persecuted the Church in Jerusalem till he found 
 his occupation gone, set forth to pursue the same fearful task in 
 Damascus. He pushed on with the utmost speed. He did not 
 intermit his journey even for an hour or two till the heat of the 
 noonday sun had abated a little. For the great event took place 
 at mid-day.° Suddenly he saw " a light from heaven, above the 
 brightness of the sun, shining round about me, and them that 
 journeyed with me." All accounts agree that a hght shone, and 
 a voice was heard, and also as to the words which were spoken : 
 " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? Who art thou, Lord ? 
 I am Jesus whom thou persecutest ; but rise and go into the 
 city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." Such is the 
 record of the short and vivid dialogue between the Risen Lord 
 and him who had persecuted the Church. No comment is 
 needed to bring out the meaning of it. Question and answer 
 come with abrupt suddenness. They bear the stamp of natural- 
 ness, and are appropriate to the circumstances. They bring 
 home to Paul the persuasion that he has to do with One who 
 has the right to command his allegiance, and to dispose of his 
 life, and he yielded himself loyally to the claim of Christ. 
 
 Meanwhile he is stricken with blindness and helplessness. 
 He is no longer the ruling spirit of the party, who had urged 
 them on during their wearisome journey and kept their strength 
 and courage up. He is now weaker than the weakest, more 
 feeble than the most feeble of the band. He is a weary, helpless 
 traveller, who must depend on others. Though nigh unto the 
 
 ' "Encyclopaedia Britannica," vol. xviii. p. 416. " Acts xxvi. la 
 
CONVERSION. 19 
 
 city he is still some distance from it, and, however short 
 it was, the remaining space must have appeared unusually 
 great to his waning strength. The company must hasten 
 on, as the city gates would close at sunset. From midday 
 to sunset in any season of the year gives a few hours, but even 
 a few miles take many hours when a blind and bewildered 
 man must be led by the hand. Slowly and painfully they made 
 their way over the rough path until they passed through the 
 city gates and entered the city. How painful to Paul was this 
 short journey, and how must the horror of the sharp outline of 
 it have been stamped on his memory ! The purpose and plan 
 of his life had been shattered at a blow. His pride as a Jew, 
 and his self-confidence had vanished, and in a spiritual trouble 
 which cast his bodily pain and weakness utterly into the 
 shade, he made his way through the streets of Damascus, until 
 he reached the street which is called Straight, and found his way 
 to the house of Judas. 
 
 Paul had been led by the hand as one who was blind and 
 helpless. Through the busy streets he had passed, but he was 
 conscious only of his own sad thoughts. No doubt he was so 
 far relieved to reach the house of Judas. It was a relief to him 
 to be free from the necessity of movement. To remain in 
 bodily quiescence and strive to think out the meaning of what 
 had happened to him, was something to be thankful for. What 
 welcome he would receive from Judas, and what relations Judas 
 bore to Jews and Christians we do not know. Whether he was 
 in sympathy with the purpose that had led Paul to Damascus 
 we cannot be sure, but most likely he was. To him the arrival 
 of his expected guest, in his helpless state, must have been a 
 painful surprise. No doubt, his hospitality would expand to 
 !;,vet the claim made upon it. But the hospitality that Paul 
 tjiiefly needed was a place where he might lie in motionless 
 silence. " He was three days without sight, and did neither 
 eat nor drink." ' Scripture gives us only this negative statement 
 regarding him. Without sight, unable to eat or drink, unable 
 also to bear the companionship of his friends, he is left alone. 
 One note indeed is given us, and that a most characteristic one : 
 " Behold he prayeth.'"^ Out of the depths he cried unto God. 
 That relief of the wretched, that unfailing resource of the un- 
 happy was open to him, and he prayed, as he had never prayed 
 > Acts ixr. 9. ' Ibid. ix. 12. 
 
20 ST. PAUL. 
 
 before. While he prayed, his intolerable misery was somewhat 
 relieved. Not yet in reality, only in a vision, did he see the 
 hope of deliverance. " He hath seen a man named Ananias 
 coming in, and laying his hands upon him, that he might 
 receive his sight." ' We may not dwell on the agony of these 
 three days, nor seek to depict the horrors through which he 
 passed. Very terrible, and never to be forgotten, it must 
 have been. But the trouble was soon to end. He that had 
 smitten was soon to bind up his wounds. But the healing was 
 to be done not by the Lord Himself, but by means of one of His 
 servants. 
 
 To Ananias the will of the Lord was made known. He is to 
 go to the house of Judas, to the street called Straight, and inquire 
 for Saul of Tarsus. Now Ananias had already heard of Saul of 
 Tarsus, and what he had heard made him by no means willing 
 to go. He had heard what and how much evil Saul had done 
 to the saints at Jerusalem, and he knew that Saul had authority 
 from the chief priests to bind all that called on Christ's name. 
 He was not prepared to undertake the task. But his reluctance 
 was overcome, and he gladly went to Saul. The Lord said to 
 Ananias, "Go thy way : for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to 
 bear My name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children 
 of Israel : For I will show him how many things he must suffer 
 for my name's sake."° So Ananias went to the house of Judas, 
 found Saul, " and laying his hands upon him, said. Brother Saul, 
 the Lord, even Jesus, who appeared unto thee in the way which 
 thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou niayest receive thy 
 sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And straightway 
 there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received 
 his sight ; and -he arose and was baptized ; and he took food 
 and was strengthened." Thus shortly and simply is the won- 
 derful story told. The essential matters are given, and all else 
 withheld. We hear nothing of those companions who were 
 with him when the light from heaven shone, nothing of his 
 host, nor of how long he stayed in his house after the visit of 
 Ananias, nor of any talk between Ananias and Saul, after the 
 one brief message of power he was sent to deliver. No doubt 
 he did not stay long with Judas, for the narrative goes on to 
 say, " And he was certain days with the disciples who were, at 
 Damascus." 
 
 ' Acts ix. 12. = Ibid. ix. 15. 
 
CONVERSION. 21 
 
 We have purposely put first the allusions which Paul makes 
 to his conversion in his epistles, and then the incidents recorded 
 in the Acts of the Apostles, to show that the latter are in entire 
 harmony with the former. They but fill up the outline which Paul 
 himself draws. Both agree in the fact that the persecutor suddenly 
 became a believer, and that he never through the years of his 
 life ceased to be a believer in Christ the Lord, and never ceased 
 to testify to others that he had seen the Lord. There is scarcely 
 any other fact in the history of the Early Church that has called 
 forth so much controversy as the fact of the conversion of Paul, 
 and scarcely any that has called forth an equal amount of hostile 
 criticism. It is, however, beyond the power of any hostility 
 to explain away or deny the fact of this conversion, and the 
 permanent results that flowed from it. I do not propose to 
 e.\amine the theories which have been set forth to account for 
 the conversion of Paul, without holding that there was an ap- 
 pearance to him of the Risen Lord. It is admitted on all hands 
 that Paul believed that he had Seen the Lord. But then we 
 have many explanations of the possible ways by which Paul 
 might have mistaken an inward impression for an objective 
 fact. Some of these explanations are among the curiosities of 
 literature. 
 
 Let us take for example the account given us by Renan.' 
 He first describes the journey taken by Paul, and we have the 
 usual psychological description of Paul's inward trouble, which, 
 as we have touched on it already, we may dismiss here. Paul is 
 overwhelmed both with the fatigue of his journey and with his 
 preoccupation of mind. He has inflamed eyes, probably the 
 beginning of ophthalmia ; " all the debilitating eflfects of the days 
 just past accumulate, the nerves relax their power and a reaction 
 sets in. Perhaps, also, the sudden passage from the sun-smitten 
 plain to the cool shades of the gardens enhanced his suffering 
 condition, and seiiously excited the fanatical traveller. Dan- 
 gerous fevers, accompanied by delirium, are quite sudden in 
 these latitudes, and in a few minutes the victim is prostiated 
 as by a thunderstroke." Thus we have ophthalmia, we have 
 fever, we have a little further on a thunderstorm, and as is well 
 known the "thunder was the voice of God, the lightning was 
 the fire of God;'' surely all these are sufficient to produce a 
 "cerebral commotion." In the "cerebral commotion" Paul 
 • Renan, "The Apostles," English Translation, p. 97. 
 
22 ST. PAUL. 
 
 fancied he saw the vision recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. 
 We naturally ask, Why were the results of this passing cerebral 
 comnaotion permanent ? M. Renan is prompt with his answer. 
 " Impetuous natures pass instantaneously from one extreme 
 to the other. For them there exist solemn moments which 
 change the course of a lifetime, which colder natures never 
 experience." When once they receive such a solemn experience, 
 it would seem that they carefully preserve the memory of it, 
 and never have another. Paul's attachment to the Christian 
 cause was only " a new phase of fanaticism." 
 
 Then we are reminded that Paul was generally a poor sort of 
 creature. To have visions was no uncommon thing with him. 
 Besides, his constitution was sickly, and he makes constant 
 allusions to his bodily weaknesses. He is troubled with a thorn 
 in the flesh. Surely, M. Renan thinks, this is a fit man for 
 hallucinations, and he accordingly sets down the occurrence on 
 the way to Damascus as an hallucination. The statement of 
 Renan is hardly one that can be taken seriously. That a sickly, 
 nervous, broken-down man should have been able to do the 
 work which Paul accomplished for so many years, may well be 
 set down as an hallucination ; that he should have been able 
 to sustain the immense bodily fatigue and anxiety of his many 
 journeys ; that he should have strength to carry on hard, manual 
 work, and at the same time engage in a work which cost the 
 most severe mental strain ; that he should have on him also 
 the burdens and perplexities of all the churches — to bear all 
 these as Paul bore them indicates physical strength and vigour 
 in no common degree. Any explanation of the occurrence on 
 the way to Damascus, which postulates weak nerves and a 
 sickly constitution on the part of Paul, may be laughed out of 
 court. As for the vigour of his understanding, the .strength of 
 his intelligence, the tenderness of his conscience, the keenness 
 of his insight into human nature, and the majesty of his moral 
 purity, have we not the evidence of these epistles written by his 
 pen, which have extorted the wonder and admiration of Chris- 
 tendom for many generations ? We may not occupy more 
 space with such a theory or such an explanation. 
 
 But there are other explanations of a more refined order. 
 We take two of the latest of these and submit them to a brief 
 criticism. We choose these because they are more recent, and 
 because they are by mgn of the highest culture and widest repu- 
 
CONVERSION. 23 
 
 tation. The first is set forth by Professor Otto Pfleiderer. It 
 first appeared in his work on Paulinism. In essential agree- 
 ment with what there appeared, he reproduces it in his Hibbert 
 Lecture, and finally it appears in his elaborate work, " Das 
 Urchristenthum, seine Schriften und Lehren in Geschichtli- 
 chem Zusammenhang," published at Berlin in 1887. We shall 
 take the passages from the Hibbert Lecture.' " It is beyond 
 doubt that Paul was fully convinced of the objective reahty of 
 the appearance of Christ with which he was favoured ; at the 
 same time, however, he seems elsewhere to intimate that it was 
 not an ordinary seeing and hearing with the physical senses, 
 but an inward experience within his soul. For he says, with 
 evident reference to his conversion, Gal. i. 16, ' It pleased God 
 to reveal His son m me, that I might preach Him among the 
 heathen ;' and 2 Cor. iv. 6, ' God shined in our hearts, for the 
 illumination of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' 
 But in that case we shall be justified in placing the event in the 
 same category with these other ' visions and revelations ' of 
 which Paul elsewhere often speaks ' — that is, it is allowable to 
 place that decisive experience, nothwithstanding its extraordi- 
 nary character, in the category of visions, which are at all events 
 to a certain degree to be explained from the mental condition 
 of the subject." Then follows a psychological study of the mind 
 of Paul while he was a persecutor. Pfleiderer assumes that 
 " Paul had felt a goad in his soul against which he vainly sought 
 to kick." Might not the believers in Jesus be right after all? 
 Might not the suffering Messiah be the true Messiah ? "Was 
 not, perhaps, precisely the undeserved suffering of such a 
 righteous servant of God as Jesus must have been, according to 
 the delineations 'of His disciples, intended to be the Divinely- 
 ordered means of rendering sinners righteous before God ? " 
 Thoughts of this kind grew upon him, till he began almost to 
 believe that " Jesus had been in reality exalted by God to be 
 the celestial Messiah." Then, "the image of the crucified 
 Jesus, as Stephen had seen it at his death, presented itself with 
 increasing distinctness prominently before Paul's inward vision." 
 After some further remarks of the same kind Pfleiderer is in a 
 position to say, " It appears to me that we are in a position to 
 perceive fully the mental condition and circumstances from 
 
 ' Hibbert Lecture, pp. 33, 34. 
 
 " 2 Cop. xii. i ; Gal. ii. 2 ; Comp. Acts xvi. 9, xxvii. 23. 
 
24 ST. PAUL. 
 
 which the vision of Paul can be psychologically explained. An 
 excitable, nervous temperament ; a soul that had been violently 
 agitated and torn by the most terrible doubts ; a most vivid 
 phantasy, occupied with the awful scenes of persecution on the 
 one hand, and on the other by the ideal image of the celestial 
 Christ ; in addition, the nearness of Damascus with the urgency 
 of a decision, the lonely stillness, the scorching and blinding 
 heat of the desert — in fact everything combined to produce one 
 of those ecstatic states in which the soul believes that it sees 
 those images and conceptions which profoundly agitate it, as if 
 they were phenomena proceeding from the outward world. 
 However, whether we are satisfied with this psychologically ex- 
 plained vision, or prefer to regard an objective Christophany 
 in addition necessary to explain the conversion of Paul, it 
 remains in either case certain that it was God who in the soul 
 of Paul caused a light to shine to give the light of the knowledge 
 of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."' 
 
 We have given Pfleiderer's view at some length, as it is as 
 plausible a presentation of the vision theory as any with which 
 we are acquainted. He has had the advantage also of having 
 known the way in which Baur and others had set forth the 
 vision theory, and has added to their presentation features 
 which serve to give completeness to it. The concluding sentence 
 of the passage last quoted serves also to make the reader sup- 
 pose that it is of little consequence, either to faith or to theology, 
 whether there was an objective Christophany or not. The 
 consequences are, however, serious. How shall we trust the 
 apostle in all his other statements if in this decisive and crucial 
 instance he was unable to distinguish between a subjective im- 
 pression and an objective fact 1 Pfleiderer concedes that it is 
 beyond doubt that Paul was fully convinced of the objective 
 reality of the appearance of Christ. But if there were no objec- 
 tive appearance, what then ? We have, however, a right to trust 
 the apostle, at all events until it is conclusively shown that he 
 was mistaken. 
 
 For the psychological imaginings of Pfleiderer and others 
 there is really no shred of evidence in the epistles of Paul, nor 
 in the Acts of the Apostles. The only relevant fact adduced by 
 Pfleiderer is that Paul had " visions and revelations,'' and he 
 thinks himself justified in placing the event on the road to 
 " Hibbert Lecture, pp. 43, 44. 
 
CONVERSION. 25 
 
 Damascus in the same category. His references are to Gal 
 ii. 2, 2 Cor. xii. i sf. When we turn to these passages we find 
 that the first is, " I went up by revelation." N ow, unless 
 Pfleiderer means to identify revelation and vision, the reference 
 is irrelevant and misleading. But Paul does not here say by 
 what means the revelation was made to him. As to the other 
 passage, it runs as follows — " I will come to visions and revela- 
 tions of the Lord." He is reluctant to speak of them. When 
 these visions and revelations came to him, consciousness almost 
 ceased ; whether he was in the body or out of the body he. 
 could not tell ; what he heard was unspeakable, not lawful for a 
 man to utter.' He can speak of what he had seen at his con- 
 version. Indeed he often speaks of it, and frequently claims 
 that he had seen the Lord. From the statement in the eleventh 
 chapter of First Corinthians we gather that he was in the habit 
 of setting forth the facts and the evidence for believing in the 
 resurrection of Christ. " I delivered unto you," he says. There 
 is no reason to think that he did this only at Corinth ; rather he 
 did it everywhere. But it is plain that he never did refer. to 
 these extraordinary ecstatic visions in the course of his preach- 
 ing.'' He therefore does not himself place them in the same, 
 category. Nor would any one else be inclined to do so, were 
 it not in the interests of a theory. 
 
 It is to be remarked, also, that all the psychological explana-, 
 tions assurne that it was Paul's belief in Christ which produced 
 the vision. If it could be shown that before the event on the 
 way to Damascus Paul did believe in Christ, this would have 
 some plausibility. Settled intense belief may give rise to visions, 
 but here it is the vision which gave rise to the belief All these 
 far-fetched and ingenious speculations arise from the desire to 
 explain away Paul's vision as something which bears evidence 
 to Christ's resurrection. If we may suppose that Christ Jesus 
 could really, and really did, manifest Himself in true humanity 
 to Paul, how simple, easy, and natural the story becomes. If 
 this be granted, we have a sufficient cause for the momentous 
 
 • 2 Cor. xii. 4. 
 
 ' We refer the reader to an able argument in the Exfositor, for October, 
 1889, by Professor John Massie, on the conversion of Paul. Though he 
 does not refer to Pfleiderer, he completely disposes of his view, and gives 
 many reasons why we should not place this event in the category of 
 visions. 
 
26 ST. PAUL. 
 
 change in the belief of Paul. We can account for the per- 
 manent results which flowed from that change, and for every- 
 thing connected with it. If it be denied, we may labour at 
 psychological explanations as much as we please, but we shall 
 never be able to give them an air of reality. The only result 
 of Pfleiderer's psychological explanation is, that one is pro- 
 voked to write a similar psychological account of Pfleiderer's 
 state of mind, and how he came to propound such a theory. 
 
 The second view we refer to is set forth in the work, " The 
 Kernel and the Husk." The author has a very subtle theory of 
 the matter. " I myself firmly believe that there was a spiritual 
 act of Jesus simultaneous with the conveyance of the manifes- 
 tation to the brain of the apostle. But none the less, however 
 coincident it may have been with a spiritual reality, if there was 
 no presence of a material body, the manifestation of Jesus to 
 St. Paul must be placed in the class of visions ; and if it was 
 not seen by others who had the same physical means of seeing, 
 it must be called in some sense subjective." ' It is evident that 
 the author does not believe that there was any presence of a 
 material bod;-. But it is equally evident that Paul did believe 
 in such a presence. It was a body transformed, made spiritual 
 and glorious, but still a body which Jesus wore, a body which 
 had such affinity with the body He wore on -earth that it could 
 be truly called one with it. 
 
 We get a clue to the state of mind of the author of " The 
 Kernel and the Husk" from the following passage. "To my 
 mind the manifestation of the Resurrection of Christ appears, 
 not as an isolated fact, but as a part, and the central part, of 
 the great revelation of the immortality of the soul which has 
 been conveyed by God to man, in accordance with the laws of 
 human nature from the beginning of the creation of the world 
 by the medium of imaginative faith."' Now this passage, 
 taken along with some others of the same tendency, seems to us 
 to afford some guidance to the reason of the intense hatred which 
 the author has to the idea of a bodily resurrection of our 
 Lord. He feels, with Plato, that the body is a prison and a 
 tomb. An accomplished classical scholar, he has so thoroughly 
 imbibed the spirit and tendency of Greek philosophy that he 
 does not seem to have apprehended that the problem of im- 
 mortality has another side than that presented by Greece. We 
 " P. 230. = Pp. 231-2. 
 
CONVERSION. 27 
 
 know from history how unwelcome to the Greek intelhgence 
 was the doctrine of the Resurrection. The Greek, in the same 
 fashion as our author, was occupied with the problem of the 
 immortality of the soul, and for them who could believe in 
 immortality, death was looked on as release from the prison- 
 house of the body. 
 
 But a line of thought radically different is presented in the 
 Old Testament and in the New. There is in the Old Testa- 
 ment a striking absence of reference to the immortality of the 
 soul. In fact the Old Testament does not seem to contemplate 
 the existence of a spirit or soul apart from the body. The 
 whole organic man is in fellowship with God, and somehow, 
 the way being yet not made plain, the organic man will con- 
 tinue to be in fellowship with God. God is the living God, and 
 the God of the living, and those who love Him will somehow 
 continue to live. 
 
 In the New Testament we have no solution of the problem 
 of the immortality of the soul. Nor do we find it in the teaching 
 of Paul. But " he teaches a nobler doctrine — that an endless 
 life awaits man after death, a life in which body and soul will 
 at the last partake." " St. Paul's central doctrine was the 
 union of men through faith with the living Christ, who is the 
 quickening Spirit. In virtue of this union body and soul 
 remain, though locally separated through death, in personal 
 union with one another ; and as the life-giving omnipotence of 
 Christ raises the life of the soul into the higher life of the 
 spirit, so it changes the body through a resurrection from 
 psychological to spiritual. Thus the doctrine of the Incarna- 
 tion gives a new and startling significance to our bodily existence 
 and the entire course of nature, while it floods with light the 
 darkness of death." ' 
 
 We suspect that the difficulties which are raised about the 
 objective appearance of Christ to Paul are largely due to the 
 influence of Greek culture, and to the problem of the immor- 
 tality of the soul as that problem was stated by Greek phi- 
 losophy. It is not so much an objection to the supernatural, 
 and the possibility of its manifestation, that meets us here. It is 
 rather a rooted aversion to brute matter, and a hatred to the 
 idea of a " bodily " res'urrection. But this arises largely from 
 the fact that they are unable — so strong is the prejudice derived 
 • Principal Edwards on i Cor., p. 387. 
 
28 ST. PAUL. 
 
 from Greek influences— to apprehend the Pauline view of the 
 body, and the Pauline conception of the future life. We, how- 
 ever, need have no hesitation in saying that Christ rose from 
 the dead in a human body ; that Christ is now living in a 
 human body ; and that Christ, in a human body, manifested 
 Himself to Paul, and, in His own kingly way changed the 
 persecutor of His Church into His servant and apostle. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 IN ARABIA, DAMASCUS, JERUSALEM, AND ANTIOCH. 
 
 Journey to Arabia — Its significance — Return to Damascus — Attempt to 
 preach at Damascus— Opposition to him — His danger and escape — 
 Visit to Jerusalem — Suspicion of the Church — Intervention of Barna- 
 bas — Attempt to work at Jerusalem — Reluctance to leave it — Return 
 to Tarsus — Life and work at Tarsus and in Cilicia — The Church at 
 Antioch, its origin, history, and influence — Barnabas — Work at 
 Antioch — ^Christians — The controversy with the Judaisers. 
 
 For a clear account of his work after his conversion we turn to 
 his own biographical statement. " Immediately I conferred not 
 with flesh and blood : neither went I up to Jerusalem to them 
 which were apostles before me : but I went into Arabia, and 
 returned again to Damascus." ' With this statement the 
 account in the Acts of the Apostles does not seem to agree. 
 Luke says nothing of the journey to Arabia. He speaks as if 
 Paul at once began to preach in the synagogues of Damascus. 
 " He was certain days with the disciples which were at 
 Damascus. And straightway in the synagogues he proclaimed 
 Jesus, that He is the Son of God."* The apparent discrepancy 
 need not disturb us. Very likely Luke had never heard of the 
 Arabian journey. His acquaintance with the apostle began at 
 a much later date. Besides, Luke does not profess to give, and 
 certainly does not give us a detailed biography of the apostle. 
 In a few brief sentences he often gives us an account of years 
 of work and labour. Even if he had known of the journey to 
 Arabia, he may have not mentioned it, as it was not connected 
 ' Gal. i. i5, 17. " Acts ix. 19, 20. 
 
30 ST. PAUL. 
 
 directly with Paul's apostolic work. And as a matter of fact, 
 whatever Luke does tell us in the Acts of the Apostles, has a 
 direct connection with Paul's missionary work. There is 
 nothing, then, to be inferred from the silence of Luke on this 
 occasion. 
 
 " A veil of thick darkness haings over St. Paul's visit to Arabia. 
 Of the scenes among which he moved, of the thoughts and 
 occupations which engaged him while there, of all the circura- 
 slances of a crisis which must have shaped the whole tenor of 
 His after-life, absolutely nothing is known."' We do not even 
 know what is the place to which he went ; whether to the 
 Haurdn, or to the peninsula of Sinai. Certainly one would 
 like to imagine that he had gone to the Mount so famous in the 
 ancient history of his people. To suppose that he had actually 
 seen Mount Sinai, and on the scene of the grandest event of 
 the old dispensation had reahzed the greater grandeur of the 
 new, gives vividness and graphic power to the contrast which 
 he draws as follows : " Which things contain an allegory ■ for 
 these women are two covenants ; the one from Mount Sinai in 
 Arabia, bearing children unto bandage, which is Hagar : for this 
 Hagaris Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to the Jerusalem 
 which now is, and is in bondage with her children." ' Whether 
 he actually visited the scene of the lawgiving or not we can 
 hardly say ; but it is certain that he must have felt the need of 
 solitude. He must think the matter out, and know where he 
 stood. His old theory of life had been shattered ; the grounds of 
 his confidence were destroyed j and what he had regarded as at- 
 tainments, advantages, and permanent possessions, had become 
 valueless. He had also to think out the consequences of his new 
 position. He had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. 
 What was to be the result of this belief, and what its bearing 
 on all the other beliefs in which he had lived ? May we not 
 suppose that here he read over again the Old Testament Scrip- 
 tures, and read them in the fresh light he had obtained? He, 
 hke a Jew, had read the ancient Scriptures, with a veil over his 
 heart ; now he makes an opportunity to read them again with 
 open mind and receptive heart, and he finds that Jesus Christ 
 is the kind of Messiah he ought to have expected. In this 
 solitude he won his way to the command of those great prin- 
 ciples of interpretation, and those true principles ot action OA 
 1 Lightfoot^ " GaJ.^" p. 87, ■■ Gal. i.y. 84, 25, 
 
IN ARABIA, DAMASCUS, JERUSALEM, AND ANTIOCH. 3 1 
 
 which his future life was based, and by which he was guided. 
 When he returned to Damascus he was thoroughly equipped 
 for his work ; and after his term of meditative solitude he comes 
 forth, the only man of his time who had thoroughly grasped, 
 and was prepared to carry out, the purpose of his Crucified and 
 Risen Lord. The other disciples learned but slowly what their 
 Lord would have them to do. Paul seems to have learned from 
 the first that the mission of the Gospel was wide as the world, 
 and he was the chosen instrument for that great purpose. By 
 a great moral, spiritual, and physical effort he himself had 
 entered into the kingdom of God ; during a period of solitude 
 and of utter calm he learned the meaning of the Gospel for 
 himself and others, and he came forth to enter on the stormy 
 career of active missionary life. 
 
 He returned to Damascus. " I was not disobedient to the 
 heavenly vision : but declared to them of Damascus first, and 
 at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judffia, and 
 also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, 
 doing works worthy of repentance."' Thus first in Damascus 
 he began to preach Christ. From the first, too, began " the 
 perils from his own countrymen," which were to continue all his 
 life. " He preached Christ in the synagogues." The meetings 
 and services of the synagogue afforded him a fit opportunity. 
 For the services were frequent, held three times a week as well 
 as on the Sabbath day, and in Damascus there must have been 
 a great number of them. To the amazement of the people he 
 preached " Jesus, that He is the Son of God." ' He may have 
 been invited to speak, as visitors often were, for he was known 
 at Damascus. His reputation as a rising rabbi had reached 
 them. They knew also of the reason of his visit to Damascus. 
 " Is not this he that in Jerusalem made havock of them which 
 called on this name ? and he had come hither fof this intent, 
 that he might bring them bound before the chief priests." ^ They 
 did not inquire into the truth of his message ; they inquired into 
 the character and consistency of the preacher. That he should 
 preach Jesus filled them with astonishment. His preaching had. 
 no effect here. He spake boldly indeed, " and confounded the 
 Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is the Christ."* 
 But we are not told that any were persuaded ; we do not hear 
 
 » Acts xxvi. 19, 20. ' Ibid, ix. 21. 
 
 3 Ibid. ix. 21. * Ibid. ix. 2a. 
 
32 ST. PAUL. 
 
 of any church at Damascus, or of any converts to Christ in that 
 city. We read instead that their amazement and confusion of 
 tnind grew into rage, and the Jews took counsel to kill him. 
 Paul came to know of their plot, and he, never careless of his 
 life, though always ready to risk it and lay it down if need were, 
 resolved to ilee. 
 
 His enemies were well organized.- He might, indeed, have ap- 
 pealed to the chiefs of the organized Jewish community ; but per- 
 haps they were in the plot, and no help could be expected from 
 them on behalf of him, who was in their eyes a renegade, and who 
 had the hardihood to confront, argue with, and put to confusion 
 the wisest and most learned of their rabbis. Nor was any help to 
 be expected from Aretas or his representative. In truth, a passing 
 allusion in one of his epistles shows us that the danger was more 
 imminent than is indicated in Luke's account. " In Damascus 
 the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damas- 
 cenes in order to take me ; and through a window was I let down 
 in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands." ' It was no pri- 
 vate plot, hatched by irresponsible people, that Paul had to fear. 
 The governor was privy to it — indeed, had taken the guidance of 
 it into his own hands, and had set his underlings to guard the 
 walls lest Paul should escape. While the soldiers were on guard 
 at the gates, and the angry Jews were on the watch for him, 
 Paul was taken to a house, the wall of which may have formed 
 part of the fortification of the town. A window afforded a 
 means of escape. A rope and basket had been provided ; Paul 
 stepped into the basket, was lowered to the ground, and left the 
 city never to return. Thus ended his first attempt. In this 
 humiliating fashion he had to leave the scene of his first ministry. 
 Damascus had become to him a place of strange memories, 
 which no doubt frequently afforded him occasion of much re- 
 flection. Whenever the name came back to him, or was men- 
 tioned in his presence, it must have brought to him the recol- 
 lection of those days of agony during which he was without 
 sight, and did neither eat nor drink. And it must have been 
 associated also with the painful sense of failure. He had 
 preached, and had laboured, without result. He had to flee for 
 his life, and yet this was part of his work, and thus he was 
 prepared to suffer shame and reproach for the name of Jesus. 
 
 From Damascus to Jerusalem is his next step. We have no 
 ^ 2 Cor. xi. 32, 33. 
 
IN ARABIA, DAMASCUS, JERUSALEM, AND ANTIOCH. 33 
 
 account of his journey, nor of the duration of time that elapsed 
 between his leaving Damascus and reaching Jerusalem. Luke 
 gives no date. He says, " And when he was come to Jerusa- 
 lem." • Paul himself says, " Then after three years I went up 
 to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and tarried with him fifteen days." " 
 It is uncertain whether we are to reckon these three years from 
 his conversion, or from his return to Damascus. Paul's lan- 
 guage is definite, and the language of Luke is undefined with 
 regard to time. We must remember, however, the purpose of 
 Paul when he was writing the Epistle to the Galatians, and par- 
 ticularly when he wrote those interesting parts of it which bear 
 on his own life. He is arguing the question of his relation to 
 the original Apostles. He recounts his life and his visits to 
 Jerusalem in order to show that he was not indebted to them. 
 He rigidly excludes from his narrative everything that has no 
 bearing on that point, and what he states he states with pre- 
 cision. It would be nothing to the purpose to tell of the sus- 
 picion with which the disciples regarded him, or of the interven- 
 tion of Barnabas, or of the fact that Barnabas "brought him to the 
 apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in 
 the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how at Damascus 
 he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. "^ These inci- 
 dents, picturesque as they are, were not relevant to the purpose 
 of Paul, and he has a habit of going straight to the mark. 
 
 But what, we may be asked, about the further statement of 
 Paul ? He says, " I was still unknown by face unto the churches 
 of Judaea which were in Christ."* But Luke says, " He was 
 with them going in and going out at Jerusalem, preaching boldly 
 in the name of the Lord ; and he spake and disputed against the 
 Grecian Jews (margin, Hellenists) ; but they went about to kill 
 him." 5 Surely these are contradictory statements ! We quote 
 from Bishop Lightfoot in answer : " Yet on examining the 
 narratives more closely, this discrepancy is reduced to very 
 narrow limits. St. Luke confines his sojourn especially to 
 Jerusalem, and his preaching to a small section of unbelievers, 
 not the genuine Jews, but the Hellenists. He relates, moreover, 
 that Paul's visit terminated abruptly, owing to a plot against his 
 life, and that he was hurried off to Csesarea, whence he forthwith 
 embarked. To a majority, therefore, of the Christians he might, 
 
 ' Acts ix. 26. " Gal. i. 18. 
 
 3 Acts ix. 27. < Gal. i, 22. s Acts ix. 28, 29. 
 
 4 
 
34 ST. PAUL. 
 
 and to the churches of Judaea he must, have been personally 
 unknown. But though the two accounts are not contradictory, 
 the impression left by St. Luke's narrative needs correcting by 
 the more precise and authentic statement of St. Paul." ' 
 
 He is back again at Tarsus, the city of his birth, and of his 
 work in it there remains no record. He has essayed to work in 
 two cities, and he has not been permitted. He has been 
 finally and emphatically rejected both at Damascus and at Jeru- 
 salem, and the rejection must have preyed on his mind.' The 
 thought must have often occurred to him, Shall I ever find an 
 opportunity of preaching the gospel ? The opposition to him 
 was bitter even unto death, and he may well have begun to 
 despair. During the visit to Jerusalem which came to so 
 abrupt an end, he had visited the Temple, and was engaged in 
 earnest prayer. He was praying, no doubt, that he might find 
 a way of access to the hearts of his countrymen ; and while he 
 prayed he fell into a trance, and he seemed to hear the voice of 
 the Lord telling him that the city would not hear him, and com- 
 manding him forthwith to depart. " Make haste and get thee 
 quickly out of Jerusalem ; because they will not receive of thee 
 testimony regarding Me." ° Paul is evidently reluctant to leave 
 Jerusalem, and is desirous of trying to reach the hearts of his 
 own people. He even makes excuses for them. It was really 
 not unnatural on the part of his people to refuse a hearing to a 
 man whom they had known only as a cruel persecutor of the 
 Church. " And I said. Lord, they themselves know that I im- 
 prisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on 
 Thee : and when the blood of Stephen Thy witness was shed 
 I also was standing by, and consenting, and keeping the gar. 
 ments of them that slew him." May he not still seek to reach 
 them ? And then he is peremptorily told that for him there is no 
 work in Jerusalem. " Depart ; for I will send thee far hence 
 unto the Gentiles." His rejection by the Jews at Jerusalem was 
 final and decisive. The question is decided for him. He has 
 to flee to Tarsus. But not even yet is there found for him any 
 place of work. He has to wait the Master's appointed time, 
 and to wait at Tarsus. 
 
 Of his life from the time when he fled from Jerusalem to Tarsus,' 
 until Barnabas went forth to Tarsus * to seek him, we know 
 
 » " Gal.," p. 98. ' Acts xxii. i8. 
 
 3 Ibid. ix. 30. . Ibid. xi. 23. 
 
IN ARABIA, DAMASCUS, JERUSALEM, AND ANTIOCH. 35 
 
 little. Luke is silent regarding this period. St. Paul does indeed 
 say, " I came unto the regions of Syria and Cilicia." ' And 
 again it is said of him, "And he went through Syria and 
 Cilicia, confirming the churches." ' It is likely, therefore, that 
 he had preached the gospel in Cilicia, and at no subsequent 
 period had he the opportunity ofdoing work there. Ashe went 
 to Syria and Cilicia to confirm the churches already founded, 
 it is likely he had already founded them during this period 
 of which we have no written record. Tarsus would be his 
 head-quarters, and from it as a centre he may have gone single- 
 banded into the country round about, and laboured as an 
 evangelist. At Tarsus he was among friends who had known 
 him in his boyhood. There he could also work at his trade, 
 support himself by the labour of his hands, and earn for 
 himself what would enable him to live, and to give some 
 time to the great work of his life. This unrecorded time may 
 have been fruitful also in other ways. He was learning the 
 business of his life. He was trying to find out the best way 
 of preaching the gospel, and the most acceptable way of pre- 
 senting Christ and Him crucified to the heart and conscience 
 of the people. He may have made many failures, he may have 
 been conscious of many mistakes. But he was the kind of man 
 who was not to be discouraged by failure, but who was able to 
 overcome his mistakes and to profit by them. He acquired here 
 the great skill with which he was wont to cope with the conceit 
 and obduracy of the Jews ; each conflict found him more ready 
 and more able to deal with any new difficulty ; his knowledge 
 of men increased, and that marvellous tact which enabled him 
 to be all things to all men grew by use into a fine, sympathetic 
 insight into human character and tendency. It was the time 
 when those marvellous powers were trained and disciplined 
 which were afterwards to be displayed on a far wider field. 
 
 It was a time, also, when he obtained a fuller comprehen- 
 sion of the vast inheritance of Christian truth contained in the 
 revelation of Christ. For his was ever a growing mind. And 
 unto the end, as we can gather from his epistles, his knowledge 
 of " Him in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and know- 
 ledge hidden," 3 increased as each new emergency arose, and each 
 fresh difficulty presented itself. Paul was driven back anew to 
 the truth and wisdom which are in Christ, and out of the fulness 
 • Gal. i. 21. • Acts XV. 41. 3 Col. ii. 3. 
 
36 ST. PAUL. 
 
 of that source of guidance, he was able to draw what enabled 
 him to triumph over every obstacle. As he found in Christ a, 
 continued source of strength and guidance : as by His grace 
 he found he could do all things ; so his knowledge of Christ, of 
 His person, of His work, and of His place in the universe and 
 in the Church, increased from more to more, and became more 
 and more definite. In this solitary and difficult sphere, cast on 
 his own resources, and on the help of Christ alone, he acquired 
 the qualifications needed for his apostolic work, both as a prac- 
 tical worker and as a teacher. Here, too, must have begun those 
 rich and surprising experiences to which he refers at a later 
 period. " How that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard 
 unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter.'" 
 Now, as in the after time, he may have been tossed from the 
 heights of blessedness into the depths of sorrow, and have had 
 to endure the torture and the anguish caused by " the thorn in 
 the flesh." 
 
 Whatever the particulars of his work and of his experience 
 may have been, we may be sure that this unwritten period of 
 his life was fruitful in every way. We may safely say, that he 
 who ventured to preach Christ to the angry Jews at Damascus, 
 and to the Hellenists at Jerusalem, could not at Tarsus have 
 kept silence. He felt all along the truth of what he wrote later : 
 " Necessity is laid upon me : for woe is unto me, if I preach not 
 the gospel." " He had got his commission to preach the gospel 
 directly from the Lord Himself, and we cannot conceive him to 
 have declined to exercise it. 
 
 While he was at work in Cilicia, and preparing for wider 
 work, movements were going on in other places, which would 
 soon call him forth to larger service. The call came to Paul in 
 the simplest possible way. Luke traces it back to the time when 
 Stephen was martyred, as if he would bring into one the results 
 which sprang from that deed. In one sense the conversion 
 of St. Paul, and his subsequent experience, may be traced to the 
 death of Stephen. But other results had also flowed therefrom. 
 " They, therefore, that were scattered abroad upon the tribula- 
 tion that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, and 
 Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to none save only to 
 Jews." 3 But the river of the water of life soon overflowed these 
 artificial boundaries. By an irresistible impulse, to which they 
 
 * 2 Cor. xii. 4. * I Cor. ix. i5. 3 Acts xi. 19. 
 
IN ARABIA, DAMASCUS, JERUSALEM, AND ANTIOCH. 37 
 
 could not but yield, mea of Cyprus and Cyrene began to speak 
 to the Greeks also. It is instructive to note that the barrier 
 was overpassed by men of Cyprus and Cyrene. Naturally, to 
 them the division between Jew and Gentile was not so marked 
 nor so insurmountable as it was to the dwellers in Jerusalem. 
 Perhaps not of set purpose, nor conscious of the wide signifi- 
 cance of their deed, but impulsively, and because they must, they 
 began the practice of speaking to others than Jews ' of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Their movement obtained striking success, and met with em- 
 phatic approval. " The hand of the Lord was with them : and a 
 great number that believed turned unto the Lord." ' Before the 
 news of this great movement reached the Church at Jerusalem, 
 they had been prepared, in a striking manner, to receive the 
 tidings without alarm or surprise. The same question had been 
 before them in the case of Cornelius. He had been received by 
 Peter into the Church, and had been baptized ; and on him and 
 his house the gift of the Holy Ghost had been poured. There had 
 been a discussion, and a debate, and Peter had been called to 
 account. But those who heard Peter's account of the matter, 
 "held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then to the 
 Gentiles also hath God granted repentance unto life." ^ So the 
 Church at Jerusalem, as soon as they heard the news, " sent forth 
 Barnabas as far as Antioch."* 
 
 No more fitting person could have been sent, nor one more 
 able lovingly to encourage the movement. His former history ; 
 his high character ; his eminent services ; and the esteem in 
 which he was held all over the church, gave to him the 
 influence which was needed. He came to Antioch, he saw the 
 work ; he threw himself into it with right good will, and the 
 work went on with ever-increasing energy and success. When 
 he saw the crowds of heathen people who had gathered round the 
 preachers, when he watched them as they listened to the Word, 
 and beheld their walk and faith, he raised no question, made 
 no difficulty : he saw simply the grace of God and was glad. 
 He spoke to them ; but the report of that speech is simply, 
 
 ■ It is not quite clear whether we should read " Greeks" or "Grecian 
 Jews" in Acts xi. 20. But it is clear that these men began the practice 
 of preaching to those to whom the gospel was not preached before, and 
 that is sufficient for our purpose. ° Acts xi. 21. 
 
 3 Ibid, xl 18. ■• Ibid. xi. 22. 
 
38 ST. PAUL. 
 
 " He exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would 
 cleave unto the Lord."' He did not counsel them that they 
 should become Jews, nor command that they should be circum- 
 cised, or keep the customs, or observe the traditions of the 
 elders ; all these were simply put aside, apparently not even 
 mentioned, or considered. His exhortation was of another kind 
 — that they should cleave unto the Lord. By the Lord he 
 definitely meant the Lord Jesus. It was the first simple 
 Christian creed, an acknowledgment of Jesus as Lord, and of 
 themselves as His servants. Those who joined the new society, 
 joined it on the footing that they belonged to Christ, that in 
 heart and life they would cleave unto the Lord. Barnabas was 
 satisfied that they ought to be members of the Church if they 
 belonged to Christ, and did cleave steadfastly unto Him. Other 
 questions he did not touch. It may be with reference to this 
 singleness of view and simplicity of action that Luke adds the 
 descriptive touch of character, "for he was a good man and full 
 of the Holy Ghost and of faith" — good, because he accepted with 
 earnest gladness the work done by others, and with simplicity 
 of heart accepted the new departure ; full of the Holy Ghost and 
 of faith, and thus able to know what was the work of the Lord, 
 and to act on it without any thought of what further conse- 
 quences might arise. 
 
 The work, however, went on, and soon the need of more 
 workers was seen. It had outgrown the strength of the present 
 workers, and perhaps there were questions arising which needed 
 the presence, not merely of a good man, but of a wise man as well, 
 of one who could foresee, and lay down principles on which the 
 Church might safely act. The occasion has come, and the man 
 is ready. The hour is come and the man. Barnabas " went forth 
 to Tarsus to seek for Saul : and when he had found him, he 
 brought him unto Antioch."'' We should have liked to obtain one 
 glimpse of Paul at Tarsus. Was he at his double work of tent- 
 maker and evangelist? Was there already a numerous band 
 of converts in Tarsus and the neighbourhood, organized into 
 churches, as was the practice a little later .? It is possible, even 
 likely, but we do not know, and it is vain to conjecture. 
 
 It is even more trying to find that the story of a whole year's 
 work of Barnabas and Paul is compressed by Luke into a single 
 sentence. "And it came to pass that even for a whole year 
 « Acts xi. 23. ' Ibid. xi. 25, 26. 
 
IN ARABIA, DAMASCUS, JERUSALEM, AND ANTIOCH. 39 
 
 they were gathered together with the church, and taught much 
 people."^ What would we not give for the description'of even 
 one day's work? We might then follow them throughout 
 the day, share their toil during the hours of labour, go forth 
 with them when the evening fell and the Sabbath began, listen 
 to the words which fell from their lips, and follow them in the 
 varied round of duty. But of this there is no record. Still we 
 have one most significant sentence : " The disciples were called 
 Christians first in Antioch." Up to this time they had been 
 spoken of by various names. They were the people of " the 
 Way," " the brethren," "the disciples." The Jews had called them 
 "the Nazarenes." In Antioch they had become sufficiently 
 numerous to attract attention, to become the subject of common 
 talk in the streets and houses, and thus to obtain a distinctive 
 name. The great success and growing influence of Barnabas 
 and Paul, along with the earnestness and zeal of those who 
 believed in Jesus, had forced them into prominence, and they 
 were called Christians. In Antioch there were Jews and Syrians, 
 Greeks and Romans, and all the conditions necessary for the 
 formation of a Gentile Christianity. As a matter of fact, in 
 Antioch Gentile Christianity in a definite, organized form did 
 really begin. 
 
 The form of the name also is significant. It is essentially 
 Latin in its form. The people of Antioch took the word Christ 
 ■ — the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew Messiah — and added to 
 it the termination which had been used to describe the followers 
 of Marius and Pompey. They likely understood the word Christ 
 to be a proper name, and the name Christian might not at first 
 bear a religious significance. The populace used it roughly and 
 without discrimination as a convenient name for the followers 
 <Jf Jesus Christ. 
 
 It is impossible to overrate the significance of the name and 
 of the fact which it embodied. It meant that Christianity had 
 passed beyond the bounds of Palestine, and also beyond the 
 bounds of the Jewish race. It had a Gentile habitation and a 
 Gentile name. It would appear, also, that at Antioch both Jew 
 and Gentile had found " the common salvation " to be great 
 enough to swallow up all the differences which had once 
 separated them. To have a common interest in the common 
 Lord, to have a common share in the common salvation, was 
 ■■ Acts xi. 26. 
 
40 ST. PAUL. 
 
 thought sufficient to justify them in living a common life. The 
 question does not seem to have been even raised at Antioch. It 
 did not occur to the Christians at Antioch that there was any 
 difficulty. The difficulty arose when " certain came from 
 James."' Before the arrival of these, Paul and Barnabas and their 
 fellow-workers, lived together a common life, and were happy in 
 their unconsciousness of any cause of disagreement. On the 
 arrival of these members of the.Church at Jerusalem, difficulties 
 and disagreements at once arose. Who these were, or whether 
 they had any official position, does not appear. It is doubtful 
 whether they had any authority from James empowering them 
 to act as they did. In the apostolic letter, which conveyed the 
 decision of the Church at Jerusalem to the other Churches, and 
 in the preparation of which James had taken a large share, the 
 following expression occurs : " Forasmuch as we have heard, that 
 certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, 
 subverting your souls ; to whom we gave no commandment,"^ — 
 an expression which seems exactly to describe the position of 
 these men, and to disavow their action. James, indeed, had great 
 sympathy with those who strove to remain Jews, after they had 
 become Christians. He strove in all ways to conciliate them. 
 He would have nothing done to offend them. How far he was 
 disposed to go may be seen from the following passage : " Thou 
 seest, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of 
 them which have believed ; and they are all zealous for the law ; 
 and they have been informed concerning thee, that thou teachest 
 all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, 
 telling them not to circumcise their children, neither to walk 
 after the customs."^ These words are likely the words of James. 
 And the counsel he proceeds to give to Paul is also a proof of 
 how anxious he was not to offend the Jewish Christians. It was 
 one thing for him to be anxious not to offend them, it was 
 another thing for him to join in an act of authority, which would 
 make it impossible for Gentiles to become Christians without 
 becoming Jews. He was anxious that Paul should disclaim the 
 report that he had taught the dispersed Jews to forsake Moses. 
 But he would go no further than this. We may safely infer that 
 those who •' came from James " acted on their own responsi- 
 bility. 
 
 Their action had disastrous consequences. They split up the 
 • Gal. ii. 12. = Acts xv. 24. 3 Ibid. xxi. 20, 21. 
 
IN ARABIA, DAMASCUS, JERUSALEM, AND ANTIOCH. 4 1 
 
 Church at Antioch into fragments. They caused the Jewish 
 Christians to withdraw from the Gentile converts. They would 
 not eat with them, nor live with them, nor associate with them 
 in any way. They had whatsoever prestige their connection 
 with Jerusalem could bring them. Their influence was very 
 great. One consequence of their visit and their influence was 
 to reveal a weak fibre in the character of very eminent men. 
 Peter had come to Antioch and had thrown himself with his 
 usual impulsive ardour into the work. He ate with the Gentiles, 
 and recognised them as fellow-Christians. He had received 
 Cornelius, and rejoiced that God had granted unto the Gentiles 
 repentance unto life. Why should he not eat with them ? But 
 when those, who came from James, interfered and laid down the 
 law, Peter doubted, hesitated, and at length withdrew himself. 
 " He drew back and separated himself." He had not thought 
 out the matter, nor had he clearly discerned the principle on 
 which his action should be based. Both in eating with the 
 Gentiles and in withdrawing from them he had acted without 
 reflection, apparently on impulse, and with the usual conse- 
 quences of such action. 
 
 " Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation." He 
 was a good man, but apparently not a man who could easily 
 see the principles involved in a certain line of conduct, nor fore- 
 see the issues and the end to which it tended. So long as he 
 could act in whole-hearted simplicity, and follow the dictates of 
 his loving heart all went well with him. Let the simplicity of 
 his consciousness be broken up, let opposing principles arise, 
 which must lead to divergent lines of conduct, and such a man 
 will fall into doubt, hesitation, pain ; a good man will be 
 anxiously afraid lest he offend other good men. He found that 
 his conduct at Antioch was considered blameworthy by those 
 who came from James, and he withdrew in order not to give 
 them pain. Unthinkingly he had thrown himself into the move- 
 ment ; unthinkingly also he withdrew from it. Good men of his 
 type are not uncommon in the history of the Church ; men good, 
 self-denying, lovable, but men who are not made of that stuff 
 which enables them to meet and rule a crisis. 
 
 Happily for the future history of the Church, a man was on 
 the ground who was made of sterner stuff; a man equally 
 great in thought and in action ; a man who could act on prin- 
 ciple, and would not yield to impulse. Paul had his hand on 
 
42 ST. PAUL. 
 
 the helm. No doubt long before the scene described in the 
 second chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians had come to 
 pass, Paul had been driven by stern necessity to think out the 
 whole matter. It is likely, indeed, that he must have done so 
 during the period of his sojourn at Tarsus. We may be sure, 
 however, that as soon as he came to Antioch, and cast himself 
 into the work, he would settle whether he was justified in 
 receiving Gentiles into the Church. What were the conditions 
 of entrance to be, and what profession the Gentiles were to 
 make, were questions which Paul would not leave unsettled for 
 any unnecessary length of time. Having once made up his 
 mind, being persuaded that the will of Christ was not to burden 
 the Gentile Churches with the weight of Mosaism, he would 
 not change his view, nor yield either to authority or prejudice. 
 Even if an Apostle, an Apostle who seemed to be a pillar, 
 were to do anything to the contrary, Paul will withstand him to 
 the face. " I resisted him to the face, because he stood con- 
 demned " " : so Paul says of that great controversy with Peter. 
 
 Thus he encouraged the Gentile Churches to stand fast in 
 the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free. He encour- 
 aged them in their refusal to become Jews. He would not 
 enjoin them to keep the Jewish Sabbath, nor to make pilgrim- 
 ages to the Jewish festivals. He would not constrain them to be 
 circumcised themselves, nor to circumcise their children. Nor 
 did he command them to observe the distinction between clean 
 and unclean meats. How terrible a fall this would seem to a 
 Jew of Jerusalem, whose life was still under the shadow of the 
 Temple, and whose thinking was largely ruled by the old Jewish 
 view of things. He was girded around with ceremonialism, 
 and he had not yet seen how vast a difference it made to him 
 to beheve that Jesus was the Messiah. Thus it almost became 
 a principle of self-preservation on their part to insist on circum- 
 cision as an indispensable condition of salvation. 
 
 This Paul steadfastly resisted. He would have no man laid 
 under the yoke of Pharisaism. He knew from sad experience 
 how impossible it was for that type of religion to satisfy the 
 deeper needs of man, or yield to him comfort ^nd guidance. It 
 would be unjust to- the Gentile to lay a burden on him which 
 even a Jew could not bear. It would be unfaithful to the 
 truth of the gospel, would nullify its freedom and its power, to 
 ' Gal. li. II. 
 
IN ARAgIA, DAMASCUS, JERUSALEM, AND ANTIOCH. 43 
 
 make the observance of the law a necessary condition of its 
 acceptance. It would be treachery to Christ, utterly disloyal 
 to Him, "for if righteousness is through the law, then Christ 
 died for nought." ' So many were the principles involved in 
 this great controversy, and so great were the principles at stake, 
 that St. Paul set his face as a flint, reasoned, toiled, fought for 
 freedom throughout the years, and still the conflict pursued 
 him wheresoever he went. Though its fierceness abated some- 
 what as time went on, it never wholly died out. It remained 
 for him a source of trouble and anxiety all his life. For which, 
 in one way, we may be thankful ; because the controversy led 
 the Apostle to expound those principles of freedom, and to show 
 forth those features of spiritual religion which are among the 
 most precious heritages of the Church — a heritage, we may say, 
 into which no section of the Church has ever yet fully entered. 
 
 For the sake of clearness we have stated generally the course 
 of this controversy, and given in one view the result of events 
 which happened during a series of years. We shall have to 
 refer more than once to particular phases of the conflict. 
 ■ GsL ii. ai. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SET APART FOR MISSION WORK. 
 
 In Antioch— Visit to Jerusalem — Barnabas and Saul set apart for mission 
 work — Work in Cyprus — Conversion of tlie Proconsul — Elymas the 
 Sorcerer — In Pamphylia — St. Paul's address ' in the synagogue of 
 Antioch in Pisidia — Its results — They turn to the Gentiles — In 
 Lycaonia — At Lystra— Stoning of St. Paul — Return to Antioch — End 
 of first missionary journey. 
 
 We return for a little to his work in Antioch. Barnabas and 
 Paul were "gathered together with the church, and taught 
 much people." ' The practical effect of their teaching was soon 
 shown in a marked manner. A report came to Antioch that a 
 great famine prevailed at Jerusalem and throughout Palestine, 
 and the Church resolved to send help to them. That such a 
 famine should come was foreseen and had been foretold. We 
 have here also the first mention of the appearance of "prophets" 
 in the Christian Church. " In these days there came down 
 prophets from Jerusalem to Antioch." What was the character, 
 and what were the functions of the prophet in the dispensation 
 of the early Church, we gather from the statements of Paul in 
 the great discussion contained in the First Epistle to the 
 Corinthians." Their main work was to bring home the truths of 
 God to the hearts and consciences of men. They spoke with 
 special Divine energy. Combined with this power of direct 
 appeal was the power — which also belonged to the prophets of 
 Israel— of direct prediction. It would lead us too far afield to 
 
 ' Acts xi. 25. * Chaps, xii. to xiv. 
 
SET APART FOR MISSION WORK. 45 
 
 enter into a discussion of the prophetic office in the early 
 Church, its nature, its function, and its temporary or per- 
 manent character. We find abundant traces of its presence 
 and influence, but we may not dwell on them here. 
 
 In the instance before us we are told " that there stood up 
 one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that 
 there should be a great famine over all the world ; which came 
 to pass in the days of Claudius." ' Luke tells us of the pre- 
 diction and of its fulfilment. He does not tell us how long was 
 the interval between the two. It may have been, as Ewald 
 thinks, that the prophecy was made in the reign of Caligula,^ and 
 the fulfilment took place in the time of Claudius. The main 
 thing is that the Church of Antioch believed the prophet, took 
 action, and "every man according to his ability determined 
 to send relief unto the brethren that dwelt in Judaea ; which 
 also they did, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas 
 and Saul." ' The contributions of all the members of the Church 
 were freely given, and evety man gave according to his ability, 
 and the amount was no doubt considerable. This was the first 
 beginning of a practice which prevailed in the Churches planted 
 by Paul, down to the time of the great Roman War. They 
 recognised the duty of sending temporal assistance to the 
 Church from whom they had received such signal spiritual 
 benefits. Distress and poverty were almost chronic among the 
 "poor saints "at Jerusalem. There were frequent famines in 
 Palestine, and the Church there was afflicted and persecuted 
 and in many ways distressed. Lt was fitting, therefore, that the 
 Gentile Churches should come to the help of the mother 
 Church. It was also a fitting outcome of the new life, and a 
 sign of what the real nature of Christianity was. It became a 
 bond of union between the Churches among the heathen and 
 the Church at Jerusalem. 
 
 Barnabas and Saul were chosen to convey the gifts of the 
 Church at Antioch to the mother Church. No doubt they 
 were glad to revisit Jerusalem. Some years had passed since 
 Paul had had to flee to Tarsus. Now on his return he needed 
 no introduction. He was a recognised and accredited worker 
 jn the Church, and lie was the representative of the Christian 
 community of Antioch. He came also as the bearer of the gifts 
 
 ' Acts xi. 28. ' " History of Israel," vol vii. p. 334. 
 
 3 Acts xi. 29, 30. 
 
46 ST. PAUL. 
 
 of the Christian people. As to what took place during this visit to 
 Jerusalem, whom he saw, and what he did, we 1-cnow not. Nor 
 does he seem to have made a long stay at Jerusalem. But there 
 was one result of the visit which is noteworthy. " Barnabas 
 and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their 
 ministration, taking with them John, whose surname was 
 Mark." ' Mark clung to them with great affection, and fol- 
 lowed them with great zeal. His mother's house was a centre 
 of great influence at Jerusalem. To it Peter went on his 
 deliverance from prison,'^ and when he reached it found that 
 many were gathered together and were praying. It is likely 
 also that Mark was' the young man mentioned in the Gospel,^ 
 for Mark alone records that incident. We need not describe 
 his career, nor dwell on his previous history. It is sufficient to 
 note that his home was in the very centre of Christian work at 
 Jerusalem, that he was well known to all the Apostles and to all 
 the Church at Jerusalem and was much beloved. 
 
 It says much for Mark that he \'»as willing to leave all this 
 behind him, and go forth with Barnabas and Saul to the work 
 to which they were called. It also says much for his mother 
 that she was willing to let him go. He accompanied them on 
 their return to Antioch, and was determined to share their 
 labours, and help them, at least for a time. 
 
 The activity, intelligence, and Christian enterprise of the 
 Church at Antioch were soon to be manifested in a form even 
 more noble and more original. Thenotice is very brief, but suffi- 
 cient to show how high the tide of Christian life had risen. At 
 Antioch Christianity made a new departure, and Antioch be- 
 came the mother Church of Gentile Christianity. " Now there 
 were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and 
 teachers, Barnabas, and Symeon that was called Niger, and 
 Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, the foster-brother of Herod the 
 tetrarch, and Saul." ■• These names are full of interest, both on 
 account of the men themselves, and because they cast light on 
 the kind of people who made up the Church at Antioch. Ap- 
 parently they are Jews, and Hellenists, and Greeks, and they 
 live in unity and in brotherly love. Together they minister to 
 the Lord, and together they fast. No doubt the vast problem of 
 the heathen world had pressed on their minds and hearts, atid 
 ■ Acts xii. 25. ' Ibid. xii. 12. 
 
 3 Mark xiv. 51, 52. * Acts xiii. i. 
 
SET APART FOR MISSION WORK. 47 
 
 the fast was appointed as the means of laying the matter before 
 the Lord, and of finding what He would have them to do. As 
 they served and prayed light came. " The Holy Ghost said, 
 Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have 
 called them. Then when they had fasted and prayed, and laid 
 their hands on them, they sent them away.'" What signifi- 
 cance the laying-on of hands had for Paul we may not be able 
 to determine. We may not infer from it that he ever looked 
 on himself as one of a band of teachers chosen and ordained by 
 the Church or appointed by the Apostles. His was a special 
 mission. He was an Apostle " not from men, neither through 
 man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father." "^ He 
 was " not a whit behind the very chiefest Apostles." ' His 
 commission was as real, and conveyed the same authority and 
 privilege as theirs, and the truth he taught was the truth of God. 
 He is not the delegate of the Church at Antioch. Nor does he 
 look at this ordination as giving him his commission to preach 
 the gospel. Yet it must have had for him a deep significance. 
 If for no other reason than as a sign that the Church had 
 recognised his call to the work of Christ, and as a promise that 
 she would not forget him nor his work, but would ever remember 
 him in her prayers. 
 
 Thus with the benediction and the prayers of the Church, 
 Barnabas and Saul went forth on their first missionary journey. 
 They follow an ordinary commercial route, at first, to Cyprus, a 
 place well known to Barnabas. They go forth, perhaps like 
 Abraham, " not knowing whither they went," but like him, also, 
 sure of Divine guidance and of Divine protection. They goto 
 perils unknown and dangers unimaginable by them beforehand. 
 To this journey must be referred some of the incidents men- 
 tioned by Paul in his second Corinthian letter. " Of the Jews 
 five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I 
 beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered ship- 
 wreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep ; in journeyings 
 often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my 
 countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in 
 perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false 
 Ijrethren ; in labour and travail, in watchings often, in hunger 
 and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness."* 
 
 * Acts xiii. 2, 3. • Gal. i. 1, 
 
 3 2 Cor. xi. 5. ♦ 2; Cor. xi. 24-27. 
 
48 ST. PAUL. 
 
 They had a general plan of their journey. They were to 
 begin with Cyprus, and after having evangelized Cyprus they 
 were to take ship from its western coast to Asia Minor, and 
 labour there as they could find opportunity. They were to act, 
 unfettered by any definite instructions from Antioch, either as 
 to the places they were to visit, or as to the length of time that 
 should elapse before their return. How long this first journey 
 lasted is uncertain ; probably some three or four years. It was the 
 most hmited in extent of territory of all the missionary journeys. 
 Not a fourth part of Asia Minor was reached, and the most 
 westerly part was Antioch in Pisidia. Btit we must always re- 
 member that we have not a detailed account of the journey or 
 of the incidents in it. We have only three chapters of the Acts 
 to convey to us an impression of the work of three years or 
 more. No doubt the impression may be adequate and accurate, 
 but at the same time it is not detailed. 
 
 They took Mark with them and sailed to Cyprus. Here 
 there was a large population, among which there were many 
 Jews. We have no certain information as to their success 
 among Jews or Greeks. But we have a somewhat full account 
 of one remarkable conversion, that of Sergius Paulus, the pro- 
 consuL Ewald, writing some time ago, said, " This man who 
 is not known to us from Roman accounts." " But the Bishop of 
 Durham, writing in 1878, was able to refer to one of the inscrip- 
 tions discovered by General Cesnola.' Bishop Lightfoot brings 
 forward evidence, also, which makes it highly probable that 
 Sergius Paulus is mentioned by the elder Pliny more than once. 
 The title Proconsul, given to Sergius Paulus in the Acts of the 
 Apostles, was also a source of perplexity to the commentators, 
 and a favourite theme for those who denied the historical 
 character of the book. It is instructive to read the various 
 solutions offered, while it was believed that Luke had made a 
 mistake ; and the attacks also form instructive reading. Possibly 
 other sources of perplexity may disappear also before the 
 advance of further light. " It is now an unquestioned and 
 unquestionable fact that all the provincial governors who repre- 
 sented the senate in imperial times, whatever magistracy they 
 might have held previously, were styled officially proconsuls." ^ 
 
 ' " History of Israel." vol. vii. p. 342. 
 
 ■ On " Supernatural Religion," p. 294. 
 
 3 Lightfoot on " Supernatural Religion," p. 293. 
 
SET APART FOR MISSION WORK. 49 
 
 This is one of those touches of accuracy, which show thorough 
 personal knowledge, and one on which a forger would never fall. 
 
 Paul and Barnabas had gone through the whole islajid, and 
 had come to Paphos ere they met with the proconsul. Sergius 
 Paulus, like many Romans of his time, had sought to learn 
 somewhat of the Jewish religion. There were great attractions 
 in it for the Roman mind, and many sought with great zeal to 
 know what the Jews had to tell them. Sergius Paulus had in the 
 course of his inquiries fallen into the hands of " a certain 
 sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus.'" He 
 was evidently one of those Jews who wandered far and wide 
 over the world, and who, wherever they went, acted solely for 
 their own advantage. He had come from the far East, the ancient '< 
 home of sorcery. For he bore also the name of Elymas. What 
 the arts were which he professed, and the secret doctrines he 
 taught, it is of little consequence to determine. He may have 
 professed that deeper knowledge of the future, and that more 
 profound knowledge of nature and its secrets, which were the 
 common stock-in-trade of the wandering Jewish sorcerers of the 
 period. It is clear, however, that he had not satisfied the pro- 
 consul, who is called " a man of understanding." ° The proconsul 
 had heard of the arrival of Barnabas and Paul, and he sought to 
 learn the word of God. He heard them willingly, and yielded 
 his mind to the doctrine they taught and to the evidence they 
 produced. He had heard, no doubt, of the Jewish expectation of 
 the Messiah, and knew a little of the Jewish doctrine of the One 
 God. Now he heard from Barnabas and Paul that the Messiah 
 had come, and that He who had come had died for men. 
 
 It may well be that the means whereby Elymas withstood 
 Paul and Barnabas, and sought to turn aside the proconsul from 
 the faith, was to charge them with teaching a false doctrine of 
 the Messiah. The Apostles spoke of the actual Messiah, and as 
 they spoke the attention of the proconsul grew more intense, 
 while the sorcerer strove to distract their attention and to 
 thwart their endeavours. It was a striking scene, and the actors 
 in it were also most striking. Here are the seeker after truth, the 
 messengers of the truth, and the man who strove persistently to 
 gaitisay and overcome the truth. So persistent were his efforts, 
 that he at last roused the indignation of the Apostle. Paul could 
 no longer keep silence. He broke forth into impetuous words 
 • Acts xiii. 6. ' Ibid. xiii. 7. 
 
so ST. PAUL. 
 
 of power. " O full of all guile and all villainy, thou son of the 
 devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to 
 pervert the right way of the Lord ? And now, behold, the hand of 
 the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the 
 sun for a season." ' The words glow with zeal, and burn with 
 righteous indignation ; and the sorcerer quailed before their awful 
 force. For with the words came the stroke of power ; the 
 judgment pronounced by Paul fell upon Elymas, and he felt that 
 he was blind. It is not said that the blindness was permanent, 
 rather is the contrary implied. His resistance ceased, and the 
 proconsul believed. " Then the proconsul, when he saw what 
 was done, believed, being astonished at the teaching of the 
 ' Lord." ° The deed and the word went together, and the impres- 
 sion made by the power of the deed confirmed the truth of the 
 word, and the proconsul believed. 
 
 We know nothing further of the ministry in Cyprus. This 
 incident is recorded, because it was conspicuous in itself, and 
 in the prominence of the people who were actors in it. It 
 was a signal encouragement to Paul, by whom such encourage- 
 ment was sorely needed. His success was not yet conspic- 
 uous, but here was a sign which God had given him, and a 
 pledge of further conquests for Christ. Luke unquestionably 
 attaches great significance to it. For from this time he 
 always calls the Apostle by the name Paul, as up to this time 
 he has invariably called him Saul. The journey is now con- 
 tinued. Paul and his company set sail from Paphos, and came 
 to Perga in Pamphylia. They again took advantage of the 
 ordinary route of trade. They remained for some time in 
 Perga. We infer this from the statement in Acts xv. 38, 39, 
 where we have an account of the controversy and separation 
 between Paul and Barnabas. There seems to have been some 
 hesitation as to whether they should prolong their journey 
 beyond Perga. But when they had made up their minds to go 
 on, Mark refused to accompany them ; " John departed from 
 them and returned to Jerusalem." ^ It would therefore be neces- 
 sary for them to wait some time in order to get some one to 
 take the place of Mark. Ewald conjectures that the man who 
 was now taken as assistant in Mark's place was Titus.* How- 
 ever this may be, it is hkely that they had to make some con- 
 
 " Acts xiii. 10, II. • Ibid. xiii. 12. 
 
 3 Ibid. ,\iii. 1.1. 4 " History of Israel," vol. vii. p. 315. 
 
SET APART FOR MISSION WORK. 5 1 
 
 siderable delay, and the irritation caused by this unnecessary 
 loss of time may have added strength to Paul's resolution not 
 to take Mark with them again. 
 
 The next place to which they came was Antioch, in Pisidia, a 
 considerable place, with a large Jewish population. It possessed 
 a synagogue. Attached to the Jews were many proselytes, and 
 beyond these there were many who took great interest in re- 
 ligious questions. We get an interesting glimpse of the syna- 
 gogue and its mode of worship. Paul and Barnabas found 
 their way to the synagogue, and quietly took their part in the 
 worship, and listened to the reading of the law and the prophets. 
 "Then the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, If 
 ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on." ' 
 Evidently this was the usual custom. Strangers might have a 
 message from brethren at a distance, they might have interesting 
 tidings to tell, or they might have some important word of ex- 
 planation of the Scripture read. Instantly and promptly Paul 
 responded to the invitation. The discourse which Luke has 
 recorded is of unusual interest. It is evidently a specimen of 
 Paul's usual mode of argument, and is here recorded as such. 
 He speaks here to Jews, and he takes his stand on the ground 
 common to him and them. He begins with the history 
 of Israel. He traces that grand, glorious history down to 
 David. God had chosen Israel, and God had given David to 
 Israel. God had given a promise of a Saviour. This Saviour 
 is to be of the seed of David. Then Paul sets forth that Jesus 
 is this Saviour. He reminds them of the testimony of John 
 the Baptist, that Jesus is the Saviour. " To you is the word of 
 this salvation sent." True, the dwellers in Jerusalem and the 
 rulers had condemned them, but in so doing they were fulfilling 
 the voices of the prophets. The rulers did this in ignorance, 
 because they knew Him not. That Jesus is the Saviour, then, 
 is shown by His death, burial, and resurrection ; and Paul ends 
 by pleading with them to receive Jesus as their Saviour, as by 
 Him alone could they receive remission of sins, and by warning 
 them of the consequences of refusal. 
 
 A most powerful impression was made on all present. The 
 
 substance of the discourse could not be forgotten through this 
 
 week, and at their request Paul agreed to speak again the next 
 
 sabbath. But he did not wait until the sabbath had come. 
 
 ■ Acts xiii. 15. 
 
52 ST. PAUL. 
 
 Nay, as the synagogue broke up, " many of the Jews and of the 
 devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas." ' Thus a great 
 opportunity was given to them, and they gladly and promptly 
 took advantage of it. They spoke to the people there and then, 
 and throughout the week as often as they could. The news 
 spread abroad through the city, and roused the expectation of 
 all who heard it. " And on the next Sabbath the whole city was 
 gathered together to hear the Word of God." ' They heard the 
 Word with great gladness. Even the heathen were among 
 those glad hearers and believers of the Word. The success of 
 the Apostles among the heathen, and the great promptness with 
 which they received Christianity, roused the envy of the Jews. 
 'I'hey set themselves against Paul, contradicted him with 
 violence, and railed against him and his Master. The words 
 are suggestive of increasing intensity of opposition. " They 
 were filled with jealousy, and contradicted the things which were 
 spoken by Paul, and blasphemed." ^ Paul was not discouraged. 
 Frankly, calmly, boldly, Paul and Barnabas told them that 
 while they were bound in the first instance to speak the 
 Word of God to the Jews, their mission was not to the Jews 
 alone. If they thrust the offer of salvation from them, if they 
 judged themselves unworthy of eternal life, the Apostles would 
 henceforth turn to the Gentiles. Nay, they further told the Jews 
 that they had their warrant for this not only in the command of 
 the Lord, but also in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. To 
 the great joy of the Gentiles they thus interpreted the words of 
 the Messianic prophecy : " I have set thee for a light of the 
 Gentiles, that thou shouldestbe for salvation unto the uttermost 
 parts of the earth." They had come to read the Old Testa- 
 ment as the Jews had never read it. They laboured on with 
 great success in the city and neighbourhood, and the longer they 
 laboured the greater grew the enthusiasm of their converts and 
 the wider did the good work spread, until "the word of the Lord 
 was spread abroad throughout all the region." All this presup- 
 poses that they spent some considerable time in the city. 
 
 But their work in it was soon to end. The Jews, themselves 
 powerless against the Apostles, sought help from those of greater 
 social influence than they had. What grounds they urged we 
 scarcely know. The Jewish community had here, as they had 
 elsewhere, certain rights and privileges, and perhaps the plea 
 » Acts xiii. 43. = Ibid. xiii. 44. 3 Ibid. xiii. 45. 
 
SET APART FOR MISSION WORK. 53 
 
 was that the Apostles were not Jews, and had no right to disturb 
 the Jewish community/ On some such ground as this they 
 urged on "the devout women of honourable estate, and the chief 
 men of the city," until a persecution arose against Paul and 
 Barnabas, and they were compelled to leave Antioch. They 
 left unwillingly, and as a protest against the injustice which 
 cast them out, " they shook off the dust of their feet against 
 them, and came unto Iconium."" Though they were forced to 
 depart, the results of their work remained, and so great was the 
 enthusiasm of the young Christians, that the loss of their 
 revered teachers could not destroy their Christian joy. A 
 Christian Church was permanently established. Such successful 
 work had not as yet been carried on anywhere, and with joyful 
 hearts they went forth to break fresh ground. The events at 
 Iconium were almost a repetition of what had happened at 
 Antioch. They began work in the synagogue. They spoke 
 with such power that a great multitude of Jews and Greeks 
 believed. There was the same opposition on the part of the 
 Jews, and an attempt by them to rouse the heathen against the 
 Apostles. But they continued there a long time, and their 
 ministry was with special power, not merely power of persuasion, 
 but power of healing. They could do many mighty works 
 because of the faith of the people, and because the Lord " bare 
 witness unto the word of His grace." ' Party feeling, however, 
 ran high ; the city was divided. The division did not coincide 
 with the distinction of race. There were Jews and Gentiles on 
 both sides. At length matters were coming to a crisis, and the 
 Jews and Greeks were resolved to stone them : they became 
 aware of it, and fled unto the cities of Lycaonia. Wherever 
 they went they preached the gospel ; men gladly received them 
 and believed their message. 
 
 In Lycaonia they had to work under new conditions. They 
 had left the comparatively populous cities behind them. The 
 range of the Taurus separated Lycaonia from the more culti- 
 vated regions of Cilicia and Pisidia. The populations also were 
 of a ruder kind, partly shepherds, and partly robbers. They 
 had passed also into a country not directly under the Roman 
 government, and they would have no protection from it. 
 They were among a people of strange speech, a speech which 
 
 ' Ewald, "History of Israel," vol. vii. p. 347. 
 2 Acts xiii. 51. 3 Ibid. xiv. 3. 
 
54 ST. PAUL. 
 
 Paul and Barnabas did not understand. It appears that 
 there were comparatively few Jews in Lycaonia. We do not 
 find any allusion to a synagogue either in the verses which 
 record this first journey, or in those which tell of Paul's visit to 
 this region again.' It may be also that the reason why Timothy 
 had not been circumcised was that his mother and grandmother 
 did not dare to have it done. At all events, though there were 
 some Jews in that region, they were comparatively few. For 
 the opposition to the Apostles was not raised by Jews who 
 dwelt at Lystra, but by those who came from Antioch and 
 Iconium. 
 
 Though far removed from the shelter of the equal government 
 of Rome, and though among a people of strange ways and 
 language, Paul and Barnabas had a message to these people. 
 What they proclaimed to them may be gathered from the words 
 spoken by Paul in Lystra. But, first, let us see the scene which 
 gave occasion to these words. Paul was speaking in some public 
 place at Lystra. Among his hearers was one who had been 
 always a cripple and had never walked. Whether the cripple 
 understood every word which Paul spoke we cannot say, but 
 impressed with the bearing, tone, and attitude of the Apostle, he 
 bent forward with new-born hope. Perhaps there may be some 
 good news for him. May he not be able yet, through the power 
 of the Apostle, to move freely as other men ? Whatever was 
 the outward form which his hope did take, it is evident from 
 the narrative that faith had kindled in his heart. He believed 
 in Paul's message and in Paul himself. So intent was his 
 attitude and look that he drew to him the gaze of Paul. There 
 was, there must have been, something strange and powerful in 
 the gaze of Paul. An intense piercing, searching look his must 
 have been, a look \vhich caused men to feel that he could see 
 into the very depths of their hearts. Such was the gaze he 
 fastened" on Elymas the sorcerer ; such was the look he bestowed 
 on the council ;' and such is the gaze he fastens on the cripple. 
 He looked at the kindling and expectant face of the cripple ; he 
 saw there the glow of faith and hope ; and Paul spoke the word 
 of power, said with a loud voice, " Stand upright on thy feet. 
 And he leaped up and walked." ■• He moved freely to and fro, 
 trying the strength of limbs now used for the first time. 
 
 " Acts xvi. 1-5. _ <• Ibid. ix. 10. 
 
 3 Ibid, xxiii. i. ' 4 Ibid. xiv. 10. 
 
SET APART FOR MISSION WORK. 55 
 
 The multitude had also listened with interest to Paul. They 
 may have been able to understand Greek, but it was evidently 
 to them, at least partly, a foreign tongue. It was not the 
 language which they would use in moments of excitement, or of 
 deep emotion, or even in the familiar intercourse of home life. 
 If they had really understood the meaning of what Paul had 
 spoken they would have acted otherwise. But as soon as they 
 saw the healing of the cripple, they cried out in the speech of 
 Lycaonia, "The gods have come down to us in the likeness of 
 men." ■ As in the olden time, thus their traditions ran, the 
 gods had come down to punish the guilty, and right the wrongs 
 of the innocent ; so on the sight of this wondrous work they 
 leapt to the conclusion that the two before them were gods. 
 They hastened to make preparations for a loyal welcome to 
 visitors supposed to be Divine. Barnabas they supposed to be 
 Zeus, father of gods and men, and Paul they thought was 
 Hermes, the messenger of the gods, because he was the chief 
 speaker. The priest of Zeus soon appeared, with garlands and 
 ojcen, and with all other needed preparations for the sacrifice. 
 The excitement in the city was tremendous, as may easily be 
 imagined. But the feelings of the people fall into insignifi- 
 cance in the presence of the outraged feeling of horror and 
 amazement which filled the hearts of Paul and Barnabas. No 
 more horrible thing could be imagined by a Jew than to give 
 Divine honours to a man. Their action showed the keenness 
 of their feelings. With hasty steps, with outstretched arms, 
 with rent garments — and for a Jew to rend his garments was a 
 sign of unspeakable grief — and raised voices, they rushed 
 among the multitude, to keep them from this great sin and 
 crime. We have a report of the words which Paul spoke, 
 words few and easy to be understood, yet words of unspeakable 
 importance. It is likely they are the very words he spoke; 
 the short speech is filled with Pauline phrases. Very charac- 
 teristic of Paul is the phrase, "that ye should turn from these 
 vain things to the living God.'"" The words of the speech be- 
 fore us burst vehemently from the lips of Paul. Unpremeditated, 
 spoken on the spur of the moment, yet they rank among the 
 wisest and best words ever spoken. They show us the kind of 
 thoughts which habitually occupied the mind of Paul. The 
 living God, the Maker of the world. His patience with ths 
 . Acts xiv. IX. ' Ibid. xiv. 15. Ct i Thess. i. 10. 
 
56 ST. PAUL. 
 
 wandering nations, His witness of Himself which He has put 
 into His works— surely these were habitual thoughts with the 
 Apostle. " He left not Himself without witness, in that He did 
 good, and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling 
 your hearts with food and gladness." ■ The words thus spoken, 
 and perhaps more, the vehement action of the apostles, 
 hindered the multitude, and finally prevented them from carrying 
 out their design. 
 
 In passing from these verses to the next we are conscious of 
 an unpleasant change. We have just listened to the warm, 
 genial, gracious words of the Apostle, so true in their repre- 
 sentation of God, and so full of earnest sympathy with man ; 
 and we are next called on to read about the meanness, narrow- 
 ness, spite, and hatred which man can bear to man. The Jews 
 had dogged the steps of the Apostles from Iconium to Lystra, 
 and pursued their policy of lawless fanaticism. At first sight 
 one would think that here at Lystra they would not succeed. 
 Had not the people been on the verge of worshipping Paul and 
 Barnabas ? How, then, could the Jews hope to arouse the 
 populace against them? True, but superstition has never formed 
 a good basis for justice, morality, religion. Frustrated in their 
 purpose of offering sacrifice, they yet might be filled with 
 uneasiness at the presence of such beings among them. Un- 
 easiness would soon deepen into fear; and fear, become intense, 
 shapes itself into cruelty. Thus the Jews would have a good 
 foundation on which to build. Did the people tell the Jews of 
 the wondrous work of Paul, they had the ready answer, that 
 the works were done by the powers of evil. Paul and Barnabas 
 were the servants of demons, deceivers of the people, who 
 ought to be got rid of as speedily as possible. It was easy to 
 work on the superstitious fears of the people. " Having persuaded 
 the multitudes they stoned Paul, and dragged him out of the 
 city, supposing that he was dead." "^ He was certainly nigh 
 unto death. " Once was I stoned," he says, in that significant 
 catalogue of perils and sufferings already quoted. The " once" 
 reveals the people of Lystra in a pre-eminence not to be 
 envied. 
 
 The disciples were, however, brave and loyal enough to stand 
 by him in the hour of sore peril. They gathered round him as 
 he lay senseless on the ground. He was not dead, though he 
 ' .'\cts xiv, 17. 2 Ibid. xiv. 19. 
 
SET APART rOR MISSION WORK. 57 
 
 Was never nearer death, and never in greater peril. As they stood 
 round about him he rose up, bearing deep traces of the stormy 
 peril through which he had passed. He went back into the city, 
 and the disciples gave him shelter and hospitality for the night, 
 and on the morrow Paul and Barnabas went forth to Derbe. 
 They preached the gospel there and made many disciples. They 
 had now got to the limit of their journey. Through many perils 
 they had passed, but much good work had been done, and they 
 felt that the gain was worth the cost. Now they return by the 
 way they came. Back to Lystra, to the place where Paul had 
 been stoned, to Iconium where their lives had been threatened, 
 to Antioch from whence they had been cast out, they went. 
 They felt that they must help to strengthen the disciples, confirm 
 them in the faith, and, above all, tell them, as one of the first 
 and most common truths they had to learn, " that through much 
 tribulation they must enter into the kingdom of God."' They 
 seek in every place to found a permanent Christian society. 
 They organized the churches, gave them men to teach and rule 
 them, " appointed for them elders in every city," and commended 
 them to the God in whom they believed. These were living 
 communities, which, by the grace of God, were bound to grow. 
 Then they passed through Pisidia, Pamphylia, Perga, and 
 Attalia, and thence to Antioch to the great mother Church 
 which had sent them on their perilous way. Then " they 
 rehearsed all things that God had done with them, and how that 
 He had opened a door of faith unto the Gentiles. And they 
 tarried no httle time with the disciples." ' Such is the scanty 
 outline of the Apostles' work through this so-called first mis- 
 sionary journey. There must be much that is unrecorded, much 
 omitted, and much that is summarised in a sentence. The 
 notes of time are few, and the incidents mentioned not many. 
 There is enough, however, to reveal to us how great was the 
 undertaking, how many were the perils they met, and with what 
 steadfast courage and endurance, patience and wisdom, they 
 proceeded to their mighty task. The first journey, though in a 
 smaller field, had as great results both for preachers and people 
 as any other had. It gave the Apostles courage and experience; 
 it laid the foundations of many Churches, which had a great and 
 fruitful history. 
 
 ' Acts xiv. 23. ' Ibid. xiv. 27, 28. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM. 
 
 Nature of the controversy about circumcision — Its origin — Trouble caused 
 by it at Antioch — Epistle to the Galatians and the Acts of the Apostles 
 — Certain views of the critics —Proceedings at the council — The decision 
 — The decree — Return of Paul and Barnabas to Antioch — Dispute 
 between Paul and Barnabas — Its occasion — The separation between 
 them. 
 
 In the meantime matters at Antioch had come to a crisis. The 
 question of the relation of the communities which Paul had 
 formed, and of the gospel which he preached, to the original 
 Churches, and to the gospel of the Twelve, had become a burn- 
 ing one. As we have mentioned already, it had npt been raised 
 at Antioch, nor by any member of the Church at Antioch. It 
 was an important question. " Certain men came down from 
 Judaea, and taught the brethren, saying. Except ye be circum- 
 cised after the custom of Moses, ye cannot be saved." ' It may 
 be that these are the same people, at all events they are the 
 same kind of people, as those mentioned in the Epistle to the 
 Galatians, as the " false brethren," ° and as " certain that came 
 from James." ^ In St. Paul's account of the matter stress is laid 
 by him on his own action and his own position. His knowledge 
 of the gospel, and his commission to preach, were not derived 
 from any human source or authority. Jesus Christ had sent 
 him forth, as He had sent the Twelve. St. Paul had been at no 
 pains to consult them, nor to co-operate with them. For the 
 space of fourteen years — either from his conversion, or from his 
 • Acts XV. • Gal. ii. 4. 3 Ibid. ii. 12. 
 
THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM. 59 
 
 visit to Peter at Jerusalem— he had gone his own way, and done 
 his own work. But now that attitude of independence could no 
 longer be maintained. For the two modes of work and their 
 results had come into sharp collision. The Gentile Churches had 
 been organized without regard to Jewish prejudices, and with 
 no respect to the law of Moses. They had liberty in Christ 
 Jesus. The exercise of that liberty had become offensive to the 
 Jewish Christians, who had never broken with the law, nor 
 freed themselves from the observance of the customs. They, 
 indeed, maintained the continued obligation of the Mosaic law, 
 and while they might be prepared to receive Gentiles into the 
 Church, they did so on the condition that they were to be 
 circumcised. 
 
 With great skill the Jewish party limited the controversy to 
 the one question of circumcision. Such a hmitation gave them a 
 great advantage. Somuch might be said withregard to theneces- 
 sity of circumcision which could not be urged on behalf even of 
 the Mosaic law; and certainly not on behalf of any of the later 
 customs which were sanctioned only by the traditions of the 
 elders. Circumcision was before the law, it dated from Abra- 
 ham ; it was the necessary sign to be borne by every member of 
 the community of the true religion ; Christ Himself, and all the 
 Apostles, even St. Paul,hadbeen circumcised. Surely, then, it was 
 only reasonable and right that circumcision should be regarded 
 as necessary for salvation. Those that came from Judaa might 
 in addition have urged the practice of the Church at Jerusalem, 
 which clung as closely as possible to, and minimised as far as they 
 could their separation from, the ancient rehgion of Israel. If the 
 Jewish party had won the battle on the question of circumcision 
 they would have obtained a complete victory. It was, therefore, 
 necessary that it should be fought out on this issue. " Paul and 
 Barnabas had no small dissension and questioning with them,"' 
 but to no purpose. The issue was clear. Were there to be two 
 Churches, one organized on the ground of keeping the law of 
 Moses, and another organized without reference to the law? It 
 would seem as if the risk was great, that the Church was to be 
 broken up into two sharply divided sects ; that there was to be 
 a Jewish Church with its centre at Jerusalem, and a Gentile 
 Church with its head-quarters at Antioch, and between the two 
 there would be constant opposition. To St. Paul it was made 
 ' Acts XV, s, 
 
6o ST. PAUL. 
 
 clear that he must go up to Jerusalem. " I went up by revelation, 
 and I laid before them the gospel which I preach among the 
 Gentiles, but privately before them who were of repute." ' He 
 asked them, Was it possible that he was spending or had spent 
 his labour in vain ? The result was, as Paul states in Galatians, 
 that they recognised his work as a special work of God, and on 
 the same level of authority as their own. 
 
 When we turn to the account given in the Acts of the Apostles 
 we find that it touches on many matters not referred to in the 
 Epistle to the Galatians. Paul does not speak of the Church at 
 Antioch,nor of the fact that "the brethren appointed that Paul and 
 Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem 
 unto the apostles and elders about this question." ' We assume 
 that the two accounts refer to the same event, as indeed most 
 people do at present. But on the question of the relation of 
 these two accounts, whether they are in irreconcilable contradic- 
 tion, or whether they can be harmonized, much has been written 
 within recent years. Dr. Hatch gives a summary of the con- 
 troversy, and a reference to the writers on either side, to which 
 we refer the reader. It would be beside our purpose to enter 
 at any length into the controversy. " The main points of diffi- 
 culty," says Dr. Hatch,^ "are these: i. The Acts say that 
 Paul went up by appointment of the brethren at Antioch ; Paul 
 himself says he went up ' by revelation.' 2. In the Acts Paul has 
 a subordinate position ; in his own account he treats with the 
 three on equal terms. 3. In the Acts Peter and James are on 
 Paul's side from the first ; in Galatians they are so only at the 
 end of the conference, and after a discussion. 4. The Acts 
 make the conference result in a decree, in which certain 
 observances are imposed upon the Gentiles ; Paul himself 
 expressly declares that the only injunction was that they should 
 remember the poor." Dr. Hatch has summed up the matter in 
 these four positions with great fairness and lucidity. When we 
 consider them, we do not find them so difficult or so important 
 as the vast literature on the subject would have led us to sup- 
 pose. As to the first point, there is no difficulty in saying that 
 Paul went up by revelation, and by appointment of the Church. 
 These two do not exclude one another. As to the second point, 
 we must remember that Paul speaks of a private conference 
 
 « Gal. ii. 2. 1 Acts XV. a. 
 
 3 "Enc. Brit." vol, xviii. p. 418*. 
 
THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM. 6l 
 
 with the three " pillars," and Luke is giving an account of a 
 public assembly. Nor is there anything to show that Paul is 
 in a subordinate position. Both he and the " three " are in 
 precisely the same position ; all are in the council on the same 
 footing with the Apostles and elders, and if there be any ques- 
 tion of subordination at all they are all for the time subordinate 
 to James. The same remark appHes to the third difficulty. In 
 the private conference Paul made his statement and gave his 
 reasons for his conduct, and stated the gospel which he 
 preached, and won their approval ; and consequently at the 
 meeting of the whole Church which took place afterwards he 
 was on their side. As to the fourth point we may let Pfleiderer' 
 dispose of it. " The further possibility appears to me not alto- 
 gether out of the question, namely, that after an agreement had 
 been come to in Jerusalem as to the chief matter, the other 
 points were subsequently discussed, in some such way as this : 
 that on the Jewish side the expectation was expressed, and on 
 the other side the promise was given, that the Gentile Christians 
 should continue as before to observe the proselytes' commands, 
 in order that no offence might be given to the consciences of 
 the Jews in the Diaspora. Such a subsidiary agreement which 
 followed, almost as a matter of course, Paul might very well all 
 along ignore, while the author of the Acts was acquainted with 
 it through the traditions of the Church at Antioch, and looked 
 upon it as the principal matter of the contract, inasmuch as he 
 possessed no particular information about the more personal 
 arrangements come to between Paul and the First Church. In 
 this way a reconciliation of the two accounts may be conceived 
 as at all events not impossible." 
 
 The tone and attitude of Pfleidererare in remarkable contrast 
 to those of such writers as Schwegler, Zeller, Baur, Hilgenfeld, 
 and others who, for the last half-century, have discussed this 
 question. We need not even examine the opinion that the op- 
 ponents of Paul were the original Apostles themselves, nor the 
 view that the accounts in Galatians or the Acts are in irrecon- 
 cilable contradiction. These views are no doubt current in 
 some quarters, but after the discussions which have taken place, 
 and the concessions made by such a man as Pfleiderer, we may 
 disregard them. We may, however, before leaving the subject, 
 
 « The Hibbert Lecture, pp. iio-iii. 
 
62 ST. PAUL. 
 
 refer to LecHer's "Apostolic and Post- Apostolic Times'" for a 
 full discussion of the whole question. We quote again from 
 Pfleiderer : " Moreover, I am of opinion that this question has 
 not in reality the importance which is often attached to it ; for 
 whether the removal of this special difference is thought to be 
 possible or not, appears to me to be of quite secondary moment 
 in view of the unquestionable fact, that with regard to the real 
 meaning and object of the apostles' agreement, the accounts 
 of Paul and the Acts conduct to essentially unanimous results. 
 I find these results in the following three points : — i. The free- 
 dom of Gentile Christians from the Jewish law was conceded. 
 2. The continuance of the validity of that law in the case of 
 Jewish Christians was pre-supposed as a matter of course. 3. 
 The restrictive conditions of the agreement were meant, in the 
 Kiinds of the Jewish Christians, to protect the legal position of 
 Jewish Christianity from all the dangers which threatened it 
 from contact with Heathen Christians, and to assimilate the 
 relation of Heathen to Jewish Christians to that of proselytes 
 and Jews, or of partial members to full members of the king- 
 dom of God." ' 
 
 Accepting this testimony as far as it goes, we now resume the 
 story as told in the Acts of the Apostles. Paul and Barnabas, 
 having Titus with them, proceed to Jerusalem. They are 
 helped on their way by the Churches in the places through 
 which they pass. They go through Phoenicia and Samaria, and 
 wherever they come they make the Churches glad by telling 
 them of the conversion of the Gentiles. When they arrive at 
 Jerusalem they are "received of the church and the apostles 
 and the elders, and they rehearsed all things that God had 
 done with them." ^ But it was otherwise with the Church at 
 Jerusalem than it was with the Churches in Phoenicia and 
 Samaria. There their tidings had caused great joy, here 
 there are opposition and criticism. " There rose up certain of 
 the sect of the Pharisees who believed, saying, It is needful to 
 circumcise them, and to charge them to keep the law of Moses."'* 
 It is significant that the first note of opposition came from the 
 Pharisees. Though they believed, they were still Pharisees. 
 They had not come ta feel, as St. Paul had felt, the inner contra- 
 
 « Published by T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh. 
 
 » Hibbert Lecture, pp. iii, 112. 
 
 3 Acts XV. 4. . 4 ;bid. S.V. s. 
 
IHE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM. 63 
 
 diction between the Pharisaic life and the life in Christ, nor had 
 they seen how great was the absurdity of fastening this burden 
 on the Gentile Christians. With earnestness and simplicity 
 they set forth their view, and now the Church must take up the 
 question and settle it. 
 
 Not at that first meeting was the Church prepared to enter 
 fully on this most perplexing and important question. It was 
 postponed to a subsequent day. Even in the account in Acts 
 there is room left, we see, for all that Paul describes in Gala- 
 tians. The appointed day came, " and the apostles and elders 
 were gathered together to consider of this matter." ' It was the 
 first gathering of the universal Church, and it met to decide 
 the most momentous question ever submitted to a Christian 
 assembly. The question was debated in a public, proper, and 
 deliberate manner. All in the assembly, whether elder or 
 Apostle, and apparently also a private member without official 
 standing, were at liberty to speak. Nor were they all of one 
 mind at the outset. There was much questioning,^ and a long 
 debate. Of all the speeches which were made, only two are 
 reported to us by Luke, and these are given because they were 
 the most influential in deciding the matter. The one is from 
 Peter, the other by James. Peter begins by reminding them 
 that a good while ago he had preached the gospel to the Gen- 
 tiles, and that the Gentiles had believed. This he had done not 
 of his own will, but because he had been chosen by God to do 
 that work. This virork of Peter, commanded by God, was also 
 attested by God. For God gave them the Holy Ghost. " He 
 made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their 
 hearts by faith." The point of his argument evidently is, if 
 faith purifies the heart, why should they lay so much stress 
 on circumcision ? If the hearts of the Gentiles could be purified 
 by faith without circumcision, then the latter was not only 
 unnecessary, it was a tempting of God. " Why tempt ye God, 
 that ye should put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which 
 neither our fathers nor we were able to bear ? But we believe 
 that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in 
 like manner as they."^ It was a bold, emphatic declaration 
 of the truth that the grace of God in Christ is the ruling prin- 
 ciple of Christianity. Whosoever believed in Christ, and looked 
 in faith to Him alone for salvation, was a Christian, and even 
 » Acts XV. 6. ' Ibid. xv. 7. - Ibid. xv. 10, 11. 
 
64 ST. PAUL. 
 
 believing Jews had no other claim to be regarded as Christians. 
 They are saved just as the Gentiles are saved. 
 
 This clear statement on the part of Peter had a great effect 
 on all present. There was silence on all sides. Even the 
 Pharisaic party had nothing to say. Advantage was taken 
 of this time of calm and silence by Barnabas and Paul. For 
 once Luke puts the name of Barnabas before that of Paul. 
 Evidently it was Barnabas who at this stage was put forward 
 in order to tell the wondrous story of their doings among the 
 Gentiles. There may have been reasons for this procedure ; 
 for Barnabas was one who had pleasant relations with all 
 parties, and all had the most complete confidence in him. 
 The Church of Jerusalem in particular had good grounds 
 for confidence in him. Paul, on the other hand, was not 
 so well known to them, and perhaps they had not the same 
 confidence in him. At all events, the main burden of the work 
 fell on Barnabas, and he rehearsed " what signs and wonders 
 God had wrought among the Gentiles."' His words were 
 evidently not controversial. It was rather a statement of 
 facts. But, in truth, facts in these circumstances were the 
 most conclusive kind of argument. The Gentiles had be- 
 lieved on Christ, and on them the Holy Ghost had been 
 poured. If these things were so, was the Church at Jerusalem 
 to take the responsibility of reversing this work, which so 
 manifestly had the Divine blessing ? It brought home to every 
 one a deep sense of responsibility. As on a similar occasion 
 Peter had said, "Who was I, that I could withstand God?"° 
 so here every one felt the same solemn feeling of responsibility. 
 For even the Pharisaic party were Christian men, and though 
 some of them afterwards forgot the feeling of this time, yet for 
 the moment they were so impressed that they kept silence. 
 They held their peace, silenced if not convinced. 
 
 This silence gave opportunity to James, who presided over 
 the assembly, to bring the whole discussion to an end. He 
 summed up the chief points of the debate, and indicated wJiat, 
 in his opinion, the decision ought to be. His speech is remark- 
 able, and appropriate to the circumstances and to what we 
 know of him. He begins by a reference to the speech of Peter 
 as the most important and decisive in the whole discussion. It 
 is characteristic also that he calls him by the old Hebrew name, 
 • Acts xv. 12. ° Ibid. xi. 17. 
 
THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM. 65 
 
 Symeon— perhaps the name by which Peter was best known 
 among the churches of Jerusalem. He tells them that Peter had 
 rehearsed "how God did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them 
 a people for His name." ■ This was indeed to be expected, for 
 the Old Testament had foretold the conversion of all the heathen, 
 and had they read the Old Testament rightly, what Peter had 
 told them would not have surprised them. He then quotes the 
 following passage from Amos ix. 1 1 : — 
 
 "After these things I will return, 
 And I will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen, 
 And I will build up the ruins thereof, 
 And I will set it up : 
 
 That the residue of men may seek after the Lord, 
 And all the Gentiles, upon whom My name is called, 
 Saith the Lord, who maketh these things known from the beginning of 
 the world. " 
 
 Having confirmed the opinion of Peter by the authority of 
 the Old Testament, James proceeds to give his own view — a 
 view not quite so liberal as that of Peter, but one more likely 
 to be agreeable to all present. Besides, it is an evidence of the 
 historical character of the account in the Acts of the Apostles, 
 and more in harmony with the character of James himself, that 
 he should proceed to lay down some restrictions on the liberty 
 granted to the Gentile Churches. Peter had spoken in an 
 absolute way ; James was more cautious. He proposes that 
 while they are to be freed from the obligation of being circum- 
 cised, they shall observe the restrictions which the proselytes 
 also observed. "Wherefore my judgment is," he says, "that 
 we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles turn to 
 God ; but that we write unto them, that they abstain from the 
 pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from what is 
 strangled, and from blood."^ These were the requirements 
 made by the Jews in the case of proselytes. The next sen- 
 tence of his speech throws light on the kind of arguments 
 which had been used by the Pharisaic party in the course of 
 the discussion. They had apparently urged that, if the pro- 
 posed liberty were granted to the Gentiles, the Mosaic law 
 and the Scriptures of the Old Testament would fall into disuse, 
 would be neglected and despised. To this James answers that 
 " Moses from generations of old hath in every city them 
 ' Acts XV. 14. ' Ibid. XV. 19, 20. 
 
 6 
 
66 ST. PAUL. 
 
 that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath." ' 
 In every Gentile city in which there were a Jewish community 
 and a synagogue, the Old Testament Scriptures were read by 
 men appointed for the purpose. There was no likelihood that 
 that custom would cease, nor that Moses would cease to be 
 read in the synagogue. It was likely, indeed, that the Scrip- 
 tures of the Old Testament would continue to be read not only 
 in the Jewish synagogues, but also in the Gentile Churches ; 
 and this was evidently the hope of James. 
 
 The discussion was at an end, and the decision was 
 speedily arrived at. It is worthy of note that this is the last 
 occasion on which Peter appears, as recorded in the Acts of 
 the Apostles. It was an occasion worthy of him, and his last 
 words, as recorded in the Acts, are a fitting crown to all he has 
 said and done. The other actors and speakers we shall meet 
 again, but we hear no more of Peter. 
 
 Having come to a decision, it remained to carry it into effect. 
 Practical measures were taken in order to make known the 
 mind of the Jerusalem Church. It was natural that they should 
 take particular care that it should be known at Antioch, the 
 place and Church where the matter had come to a crisis. Nor 
 did they merely send Paul and Barnabas back to Antioch to 
 make known the result ; they sent with them other men — men 
 who had taken no part in the dispute. These were "Judas 
 called Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren." ' 
 Of Judas "nothing further is known, but Silas became the com- 
 panion of Paul in the work, in the perils, and in the sufferings 
 of the second missionary journey. The decision is as follows : 
 " The apostles and the elder brethren unto the brethren which 
 are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greeting : 
 Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from 
 us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls ; to 
 whom we gave no commandment : it seemed good unto us, 
 having come to one accord, to choose out men and send them 
 unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have 
 hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who themselves also 
 shall tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it 
 seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no 
 greater burden than these necessary things ; that ye abstain 
 
 ' Acts XV. 21 ' Ibid. XV, 23. 
 
THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM. 67 
 
 from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things 
 strangled, and from fornication : from which if ye keep your- 
 selves, it shall be well with you. Fare ye well." ' 
 
 As for the reasons we have already examined, doubt has 
 been cast on the fact of this gathering at Jerusalem, so for 
 other reasons it is argued that no such decree as this was ever 
 sent forth. It is worth while to examine these. Let us first 
 note, however, that the decree secures all for which Paul and 
 Barnabas had contended. Negatively, the action of the parti- 
 sans who had raised the question is declared to have been 
 unauthorised. Neither their aim, nor the means they took to 
 accomplish it, were sanctioned by the apostles. Nay, their 
 practice is described in words which imply severe condemna- 
 tion. It is "subverting your souls.* Positively, the dignity, 
 the trustworthiness, and apostolic character of Paul and 
 Barnabas are expressly recognised. They are spoken of as 
 " men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ.'' The Gentiles are also recognised as members 
 of the Christian Church. They are the " brethren which are of 
 the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia." On all these 
 points there is essential agreement between the Acts and the 
 Epistle to the Galatians. ^ 
 
 But says Baur • " We cannot find the terms of the decree 
 which, according to the Acts of the Apostles, was arrived at, 
 and this for the natural reason that, according to the Epistle to 
 the Galatians, such a decree never existed at all. That it is not 
 accidentally omitted, with all that belongs to it, is incontestably 
 shown in the Epistle to the Galatians, as also in the rest of the 
 Apostle's Epistles. In the Epistle to the Galatians the Apostle 
 contends with the Judaizing opponents, who were desirous of 
 imposing circumcision on the Galatian Church as a necessary 
 condition of salvation (Gal. v. i). In order to do this the 
 apostle explains his entire relations to the a-KuaTokfj Trje 
 mpiTo/ifis- What would forward this more than an appeal to 
 the decree ?" = 
 
 When, however, we turn to the Epistle to the Galatians and 
 read it carefully, we find the question is no longer whether the 
 Mosaic law, and specially the rite of circumcision, should be 
 imposed on the Gentiles, but whether the Jewish Christians, 
 
 ' Acts XV. 23-29. 
 
 = " Paul : His Life and Works,'' vol. i. p. 134. 
 
68 ST. PAUL. 
 
 in their intercourse with the Gentiles, should be bound by 
 ancient restrictions and restrained by the fetters of the law. 
 Now, this is a question which might well arise after the other 
 had been settled. Suppose it to have been determined by 
 authority that the Gentiles ought to be free from the burden of 
 the law, that decision of itself did not determine the question 
 of the social intercourse between Jew and Gentile. Now, the 
 latter is the matter in dispute between Peter and Paul in the 
 controversy at Antioch, and it would be nothing to the purpose 
 for Paul to quote the decree on a matter to which it did not 
 refer. This question, therefore, must be settled on its own merits. 
 In truth, the state of matters at Antioch presupposes some such 
 solution of the problem of the relation of Gentile Christians 
 to the Mosaic law as is embodied in the decree of the Council 
 of Jerusalem ; for it turns, not on the standing of Gentile 
 Christians, but on the conduct of Jewish Christians. Could 
 the latter also set aside the burden of the law, at least so far as 
 to eat with the Gentiles ? So Peter apparently thought ; at 
 least, so he did when he came to Antioch. This is what he 
 refrained from doing when certain came from James, and it was 
 this conduct that called forth the remonstrance of Paul. 
 
 The freedom of the Gentiles from the burden of the law 
 would speedily raise the question of the relation of the Jewish 
 Christians to the law. But the speedy disappearance of the 
 discussion as to the necessity of circumcision from other Epistles 
 of Paul implies that some such settlement of the question was 
 reached as that recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. Many 
 causes of bitterness no doubt remained, but the source of them all 
 lay not in what Paul taught the Gentiles, but in what he was 
 supposed to teach the Jews. " Many thousands there are among 
 the Jews of them that have believed ; and they are all zealous 
 for the law ; and they have been informed concerning thee, 
 that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles 
 to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children, 
 neither to walk after the customs."' It would appear, then, 
 that many, or at least some, Jews had claimed the liberty they 
 had in the gospel, and that exaggerated reports of this had 
 reached Jerusalem, and they at Jerusalem supposed that Paul 
 had taught them this. But this is evidently a state of inatters 
 which the decree did not touch, nor can we say with Baur, 
 
 ' Acts Xxi. 20^ 21. 
 
THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM. 69 
 
 "that it was incumbent on the Apostle not to leave such a 
 decree entirely unnoticed in a case on which it so specially 
 bore." ' A deeper analysis of the historical situation has 
 shown us that the decree has really no bearing on questions 
 which arose subsequent to its promulgation. There are many 
 other considerations which tend to the same conclusion ; but 
 let these suffice. 
 
 The other general commandments made binding on the 
 Gentile Christians were declared to be necessary things. 
 "They are to abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and 
 from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornica- 
 tion." The latter stands on a somewhat different footing 
 from the others. As true religion could not exist without 
 domestic virtue and a true and pure family hfe, so abstinence 
 from fornication is a necessary duty in the nature of the case ; 
 but as regards the other three, they have no absolute basis, 
 and may lapse when the occasion of them has passed away. 
 They were necessary at the time, and until the danger from 
 idolatry had passed away. 
 
 We return to the narrative. The work of Paul and Barnabas 
 at Jerusalem was finished, and now there was no further cause 
 for delay. They, and Judas and Silas along with them, returned 
 to Antioch. Luke tells us nothing either of the route by which 
 they travelled, or of any events which happened during the 
 journey. Having arrived at Antioch, they gathered the 
 multitude together, gave to them an account of the proceedings 
 at Jerusalem, and delivered the epistle, " And when they had 
 read it, they rejoiced for the consolation." ^ Then came a time 
 of quiet and fruitful work at Antioch. Here Judas and Silas 
 had full opportunity for the exercise of their ministry. They 
 were prophets, so called not so much because this was a 
 distinct order in the Church, as to indicate the kind of gift they 
 possessed. It was clearly a gift for exhortation, for comfort, 
 and for confirmation in the hope of the gospel. For some time 
 they continued in the work, and then " they were dismissed in 
 peace from the brethren unto those that had sent them forth."' 
 A feeling of pathos comes over us as we read the next verse, 
 which records the last period of joint labour on the part of Paul 
 and Barnabas. For many years they had been together, and 
 
 ' Baur, " Paul," vol. i. p. 134. 
 
 = Acts XV. 31. = Ibid. XV. 33. 
 
70 ST. PAUL. 
 
 had shared together the joys and peril? of missionary work. 
 They had faced the perils of the sea, and of the land; they had 
 proclaimed Christ together in many strange cities ; they had 
 fought a great fight for the freedom of the gospel, and they had 
 won it. And for a time " Paul and Barnabas tarried in Antioch, 
 teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many otheis 
 also."' One feels inclined to linger here, because of reluctance 
 to go on to witness the next scene. One feels regret that Paul 
 and Barnabas had to separate after so many years of loving 
 friendship and mutual helpfulness ; but the regret deepens 
 when we know that they parted in anger, never to meet again. 
 May we not well think that Paul often looked back to the time 
 when this faithful and true friend was his fellow-worker, to the 
 time when Barnabas took him by the hand when all others were 
 suspicious of him, to the time when Barnabas found him at 
 Tarsus, and led him forth to work ? Yes ! and to many other 
 occasions when the friend was beside him, whose face he was 
 never to see again. Nor can we think of Barnabas, that good 
 man, without supposing that he also was filled with sorrow, both 
 at the parting itself and at the cause and manner of it. 
 
 The occasion of the quarrel may be briefly told. Paul felt 
 anxious about the Churches he had founded, and finding that 
 the work at Antioch could go on without them, now that 
 the crisis was past, proposed to Barnabas that they should visit 
 the brethren in every city wherein they had preached, and see 
 how they fared. They were agreed as to the journey itself, 
 and as to the object and purpose of it. They disagreed about 
 their companion. "Barnabas was minded to take with them 
 John also, who was called Mark." ^ The feelings of Barnabas, 
 and his natural affection for his kinsman, may have influenced 
 him. But yet not altogether. For the record of work afterwards 
 done by Mark, his subsequent relation to Peter, who calls him 
 " my son,"3 and also to Paul himself,'' show the stuff of which 
 he was made. Even if in faintness of heart he turned back, 
 when Paul and Barnabas went forward on their perilous way, 
 this might not have been remembered, since he was ready to 
 accompany them now. But Paul would not have "him who 
 withdrew from them from Pamphyha, and went not with them 
 to the work." ^ He could not forget the shame and agony he felt 
 
 ■ Acts XV. 35. = Ibid. XV. 37. ' I Peter v. 13. 
 
 < Col. iv. 10, 5 Acts XV. 38. 
 
THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM. 71 
 
 at Mark's desertion of them, nor the trouble and confusion 
 occasioned by his departure. So, apparently, not on personal 
 grounds, but as a matter of duty, Paul resolved not to take him. 
 Barnabas insisted on his purpose, and Paul would not yield. 
 "And there arose a sharp contention" — "a paroxysm" — "so 
 that they parted asunder one from the other," ' to meet no more. 
 The pain and pang of parting were enhanced by the remem- 
 brance of what they had been to one another. They may have 
 known each other in youth ; may together have studied at 
 Tarsus, for to it young people came for study from all the 
 surrounding provinces ; and they may have met in after years 
 in the streets of Jerusalem. Certainly, however, they had 
 been friends for many years, when this wrathful and sorrowful 
 separation came. We may not dwell on it, nor seek to say who 
 was in the right. Every man feels the sorrow and the pain of it 
 too much to speak many words about it, and we are sure that 
 no one felt the sorrow and pain so much as the chief actors in it. 
 Each without the other must have felt as if shorn of half his 
 strength. In truth, the sharpness of the contention arose out of 
 the depths of their affection and esteem for one another. Each 
 felt injured that his friend should oppose what fae desired so 
 keenly. 
 
 " That to be wroth with one we love, 
 Doth work like madness in the brain. 
 And each spake words of high disdain 
 And insult to his heart's best brother. 
 
 They parted — ne'er to meet again, 
 But never either found another 
 To free the hollow heart from paining ; 
 They stood aloof, the scars remaining. 
 Like cliffs which had been rent asunder."* 
 
 « Acts XV. 39. 
 
 ' S. T. Coleridge, " Christabel," quoted also by E. H. Plumptre in tha 
 siatne connection, in his work, "St. Paul in Asia Minor," p. 23. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 IN ASIA MINOR. 
 
 Chronology — Dates of events in the Apostle's life, and of Epistles written by 
 him — His new and wider work — His hopes and aims — The extent of 
 his work as indicated in his Epistles — His journeys, dangers, and 
 labours — Work of Paul and Silas in Lycaonia, Phrygia. and Galatia — 
 Timothy — The Galatians — The Epistle to the Galatians, and its 
 teaching. 
 
 The meeting of the Church at Jerusalem, and the promulgation 
 of the decree which went forth from it, are events of unusual 
 importance in the life of the Apostle. The full recognition of 
 his standing as an Apostle, and the emphatic approval of the 
 Church, must have given him comfort apd strength. How long 
 he had laboured alone, and how long he had worked in company 
 with Barnabas ! And now he is to enter on a wider field than 
 ever. If we reckon that the meeting of council was in 51 or 52 
 A.D., and if we also reckon the period from his conversion as 
 seventeen years, then the date of his conversion was in the year 
 34 or 35. As, however, we are uncertain whether to add the 
 three years in Arabia to the fourteen years mentioned in Gal. 
 ii. 2, or to include them in the space of fourteen years, we iira 
 unable to fix precisely the date of his conversion. But from this 
 point onward, to the time of his arrival at Rome, we have com- 
 paratively full accounts of all his movements. Not many years 
 of work remained to him. As Felix the Procurator was recalled 
 from Palestine in the year 61 A.D., and as Paul had been two 
 years a prisoner at Csesarea at the time of the recall of Felix, not 
 more than seven or eight years of work remained to him before 
 
IN ASIA MINOR. 73 
 
 his imprisonment began. Certainly this most productive period 
 of his life cannot exceed a period of ten years. How much 
 work of all kinds he compressed within these years, how many 
 journeys, how many Churches founded and guided, how many 
 Epistles written! It is wonderful) how his strength bore the 
 strain of the work and anxiety. To this period belong the two 
 Epistles to the Thessalonians, written probably in the year 53, 
 I Corinthians in the spring, and 2 Corinthians in the summer of 
 58, the Epistle to the Galatiansin the year 58, and the Epistle to 
 the Romans in the following spring. 
 
 The result of the work of these few years ranks far above what 
 he had been able to accomplish in the former period of his 
 missionary activity. He is no longer to be engaged in work in 
 Cilicia and in Asia Minor, laying foundations on which other 
 men were to build ; he now. goes forth to the conquest of the 
 cities of the Roman Empire. He takes the Gentile world for 
 his province. He has been recognised by the Jerusalem Church 
 as the Apostle of the Gentiles. He has a free hand, and he 
 may set to work wherever the door is open, and by whatever 
 method seems best fitted for the great aim he has in view. He 
 had gone up to Jerusalem to prove that he had not been 
 running in vain.' He left it with the approval of the other 
 Apostles on all he had done, and with their emphatic wish that 
 he should continue his work among the Gentiles. We find 
 from the Epistles which we have enumerated above, how great 
 was the impression made on his mind by the recognition of his 
 office and work as Apostle of the Gentiles. To him it was not 
 an office which brought rank, it was a trust he had to discharge. 
 It made him " debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both 
 to the wise and to the foolish." ' This was no mere feeling on 
 his part, not an ideal setting-forth of the nature and extent of 
 his vocation as an Apostle ; it was a simple statement of fact. 
 He belonged to the nations in virtue of his office, and he had to 
 work out the problem with all his strength. The other Apostles 
 were bound to see to it that the gospel of Jesus Christ was 
 preached to all the seed of Abraham wherever they might be, 
 and Paul was bound to overtake the Gentile world and preach 
 Christ to them. He felt the pressure of a Divine necessity, and 
 he must preach the gospel. 
 
 As we turn over the pages of his Epistles, looking for allusions 
 
 ' Gal. ii. 2. ' Row. i. 14. 
 
74 ST. PAUL. 
 
 to the places in which he had exercised his ministry, we find 
 references to many visits and many journeys of which the Acts 
 of the Apostles gives only a slight account. We have in the 
 Acts no reference to the visit to the Eastern shores of the 
 Adriatic mentioned in the following verse : " So that from 
 Jerusalem, and round about even unto lUyricum, I have fully 
 preached the gospel of Christ." ' We gather from the Epistles 
 allusions both to what he had done, and to what he yet hoped to 
 do. It was a settled purpose of his to see Rome, but to see it 
 as a stage in a further journey which he hoped to take to Spain.' 
 He was resolved to reach the most Western limit of the land in 
 his endeavour to win all for Christ. Two limits he placed to 
 himself, and to his work. His was to be a mission not to the 
 Jews, but to the Gentiles. He does not excjude the Jews. He 
 will preach Christ to them in their synagogues if he has 
 opportunity, but he does this only that he may more effectively 
 reach the Gentiles. A second and more definite limit he set to 
 himself, in the resolution not to build on any other man's 
 foundation.3 The apparent exception to this rule of his, is the 
 Epistle to the Romans, a Church he had never seen nor visited 
 when he wrote to them. But he felt he must write to them, 
 because he had been so often hindered when he had purposed to 
 come to them. He longed to do something for the Church of 
 Christ which was in the midst of the peoples assembled in the 
 great capital of the Roman world. 
 
 Following out the hints in the Epistles, we may fill up the 
 vague outline of the verse in which he speaks of preaching the 
 gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum. We shall do this in the 
 first place without having recourse to the narrative in the Acts 
 of the Apostles, as we shall then be better able to judge as to 
 whether the two accounts harmonize with one another. It is 
 not necessary that we understand the expression from Jeru- 
 salem to Illyricum in such a way as to suppose that he passed 
 through all the intervening provinces in geographical order. 
 But we know that he laboured in all these provinces — Asia, 
 Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia. For he has many allusions to 
 each of them. From the First Epistle to the Thessalonians we 
 learn that the gospel was believed by them, "so that they 
 became an ensample to all that believed in Macedonia and 
 
 • Rom. XV. 19, • Ibid. xv. 24. 3 2 Cor. a. 16, 
 
IN ASIA MINOR. 75 
 
 Achaia." ' We learn also from the same Epistle of the Apostle's 
 visit to Athens ; for he was so concerned for the Thessalonian 
 Church, that he sent Timothy to them, and was content to 
 be left alone at Athens.^ Then the same Epistle tells us of 
 Philippi, and of the manner in which he had been treated there. 
 " He had been shamefully entreated," ^ — a statement which we 
 find in substance again in another Epistle : " And ye yourselves 
 also know, ye Philippians, that in the beginning of the gospel, 
 when I departed from Macedonia, no Church had fellowship 
 with me in the matter of giving and receiving, but ye only. For 
 even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my need."* 
 In what he calls the beginning of the gospel, Paul had been at 
 Philippi, had passed from Philippi to Thessalonica, and from 
 Thessalonica to Athens and to Corinth. 
 
 Turning to the First Epistle to the Corinthians, we can trace 
 the Apostle's footsteps from Corinth to Ephesus, for he tells the 
 Corinthians that " I will tarry at Ephesus till Pentecost, for a 
 great door and effectual is opened to me, and there are many 
 adversaries." 5 Thus we get the order of the journey — Mace- 
 donia, Achaia, Asia. But from the same chapter we learn that 
 the Churches of Galatia had been founded by him some time 
 before he had written the First Epistle to the Corinthians. For 
 in it he speaks of the instruction he had given to the Churches 
 of Galatia regarding the collection.' It is curious that we know 
 so little regarding Paul's work in Galatia. We know that he 
 had been twice in it ; that he had, indeed, not intended to preach 
 the gospel in Galatia, but having been laid prostrate by sickness 
 he was detained among them, and to this they owed their know- 
 ledge of the gospel. We need not inquire too curiously as to 
 the precise time when he visited Galatia, nor into the length of 
 time which elapsed between the visits. For the present aim it 
 is sufficient to show how this allusion falls into rank with all the 
 others, and the uncertainty about Galatia serves only to bring 
 into prominence the fact that he had set his heart on bearing 
 the gospel message to the West, to the most remote boundary 
 of the Roman Empire. 
 
 We also get a glimpse, when we search for it, of the many 
 journeys and expeditions he made throughout these provinces. 
 He had been twice in the province of Galatia. We trace in the 
 
 » I Thess. i. 7. ' Ibid. iii. i. 3 Ibid. ii. is. 
 
 « Phil. iv. 15, 16. 5 I Cor. xvi. 8, 9. ' Ibid. xvi. 1. 
 
76 ST. PAUL. 
 
 First Epistle to the Thessalonians his journey from Philippi to 
 Corinth, as we have already seen. From the Second Epistle to 
 the Corinthians we see that he had been a second time through 
 the same regions, and perhaps also a third time. While there 
 are thus many definite allusions to his journeys, there are also 
 many allusions which are not so definite. In passages wrung 
 from him reluctantly, in order to defend himself against ac- 
 cusers, in many casual reflections by the way, we learn how 
 manifold were his labours and how unceasing was his toil.' He 
 never brings them forward for their own sake, but always 
 because of their -bearing on some other topic. In these few 
 years, from the time of the council at Jerusalem to his capture 
 at Jerusalem, what a work he has accomplished, what conquests 
 for Christ he has made ! Well may he say, that from Jerusalem 
 to the shores of the Adriatic he has preached the gospel of 
 Christ. 
 
 From this brief account we have gained some results. We 
 see at the outset that the order of Paul's journey and the places 
 he visited are the same in his Epistles and in the Acts of the 
 Apostles — Macedonia, Achaia, Asia, or to take the cities, 
 PhiUppi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus. The order 
 is the same in both, and each confirms the other. We may 
 note also that from the sixteenth chapter of the Acts we have 
 the narrative of an eye-witness and companion of Paul. Nor 
 need there be any hesitation in saying that the eye-witness is 
 Luke himself, who, from the traditions of the various Churches, 
 and perhaps also from written documents, had gathered together 
 the accounts given in the first part of the Acts of the Apostles. 
 But in the latter part he speaks in the first person, and tells us 
 what he has himself seen and heard. We shall have to notice 
 that there are some passages in which the third person is 
 used ; places there are where Paul was, and Luke was not with 
 him. These shall be noted in their order. 
 
 Meanwhile let us observe what Luke tells us, not only in the 
 chapters in which he uses the first person, but throughout the 
 whole book. He is careful to tell us of the planting of the 
 Church, and of the way in which Churches were founded in the 
 various cities and provinces of the Roman Empire. He is not 
 careful to tell us of their subsequent history, of the trials they 
 had to endure, the temptations they overcame, or of their pro- 
 ■ 2 Cor. ii. 13 ; iii. 5. 
 
IN ASIA MINOR. 77 
 
 gress in life and doctrine. In fact, from the Acts of the Apostles 
 we learn little of the inner life of the Churches, of the heresies 
 which vexed them, or of the contentions which threatened to 
 rend them asunder. From the Acts we should never have 
 learnt of the controversies and the parties within the Church at 
 Corinth, nor of the various vexations that harassed the Churches 
 of Galatia. It is well, indeed, to rrete the fact ; it is not so well 
 to draw inferences from the fact, such as have been drawn by 
 the Tubingen school and others. We may not infer from it 
 that the Acts of the Apostles is a document written in the 
 interests of peace, in which all difficulties are slurred over and 
 buried out of sight. For we find the same silence maintained by 
 Luke, not only with regard to the Church at Corinth, but with 
 regard to the work of Paul at Ephesus, in which Church there 
 seems to have been no dispute. It seems to have been his 
 purpose to tell how the Church spread from Jerusalem to 
 Antioch ; how in Antioch it made a fresh start, and took a new 
 departure; and then to tell how from Antioch the gospel spread 
 over all the provinces of the Roman Empire till it reached 
 Rome itself. Let the Church be founded in any place, and 
 we find that Luke tells us not much about it afterwards. He 
 may tell us that the Apostles visited it again, and confirmed the 
 disciples in the faith ; but that is all. Even when he recounts 
 the story of the controversies in the Church at Antioch, he does 
 it as shortly as possible. It cannot be said, then, that he slurs 
 over difficulties which emerged in any Church after it was 
 founded, when all he tells us of any Church is the story of its 
 founding. He tells us of the difficulties and perils and dangers 
 which Paul met when he began to preach in any place. He 
 narrates the story of the stoning of Paul at Lystra, of the 
 danger he was in, and the cruel treatment he met at PhiHppi, 
 of the uproar at Ephesus ; but these incidents are all connected 
 with the founding of a Church, and not with its after-history. 
 The Acts of the Apostles is not a history of the Church, from 
 the time of the ascension of our Lord until the arrival of Paul 
 at Rome ; in truth, it can hardly be called a history of the 
 Church at all ; it is a history of the planting of the Church. 
 We are not to expect from it — at least we do not get from it— any 
 account of the work of any particular Church, but we do get 
 front it a vivid and rapid narrative of the spread of Christianity. 
 We now go to the Acts of the Apostles, to trace the further 
 
78 ST. PAUL. 
 
 progress of the Apostle. He had separated from Barnabas, and 
 he chose a new companion. Silas, one of the two sent from 
 Jerusalem to tell what the decision of the Church there was 
 regarding the Pharisaic pretensions of the Jewish party, him- 
 self a prophet, was the companion chosen by Paul. Their first 
 work was to visit the places to which Paul and Barnabas had 
 gone when Mark refused W> go with them. "He went through 
 Syria and Cilicia confirming the churches."' He went forth also 
 with the blessing of the Church at Antioch, being commended 
 by them to the grace of God. He went also with growing con- 
 fidence, resolved to follow whithersoever his Master led him. 
 He had evidently no route marked out beforehand, nor did he 
 know what were to be the extent and limits of his journey. He 
 must see the Churches he had already founded, and then press 
 onwards and Westwards as he found opportunity. He could not 
 have expected to have his path free from hindrances. From 
 the First Epistle to the Thessalonians we gather that there was 
 an organized opposition on the part of the Jews against him. 
 Instructions would seem to have been sent from Jerusalem to 
 all the synagogues forbidding them to help Paul." Add to 
 this also that about this time " Claudius had commanded all 
 Jews to depart from Rome,"^ and we see that difficulties of an 
 unusually grave kind lay in his path. But he went onwards. 
 
 He came also to Derbe and Lystra, the place where he had 
 been stoned, and there he found a Church in good heart and 
 hope ; a Church, too, which had not been idle during his 
 absence. It had evidently increased, and had gathered into the 
 fold not a few. One of these, and perhaps one of the youngest 
 of them, Paul found to be very helpful to him in the work. 
 Timothy had been well trained and well taught. The unfeigned 
 faith which was in him dwelt first in his grandmother Lois, and 
 in his mother Eunice.* From his infancy he had known the 
 sacred writings, and now he had believed in Christ.^ We do not 
 know the time and circumstances of his conversion, but it was 
 likely in the interval between the first and second visits of Paul 
 to Lystra. He had been for some time a Christian, sufficiently 
 long to be well known to the brethren that were at Lystra and 
 Iconium. His character and conduct had won their approval 
 Paul, finding his own good opinion of Timothy confirmed by the 
 
 f Acts XV. 41, » I Thess. ii. 14, i5. 3 Acts xviii. u. 
 
 « 2 Tim. i. 5. 5 Ibid. iii. 13. 
 
IN ASIA MINOR. 79 
 
 report of the brethren, resolved to take Timothy with him. But 
 he first " took and circumcised him because of the Jews that 
 were in those parts, because they all knew that his father was a 
 Greek."' Looking to the case of Titus, and Paul's firm refusal 
 to have him circumcised,^ we may conclude that, had Timothy 
 been of full Gentile descent, he also would not have been cir- 
 cumcised. Being, however, the son of a Jewess and a Greek, 
 he would have been regarded as of illegitimate descent by all 
 Jews if he had not been circumcised. " Paul was unwilling 
 that the reproach of being a bastard should rest on Timolheus, 
 and Timotheus was probably himself quite willing to submit to 
 the rite." ^ Paul was firm as a rock in the case of Titus ; he was 
 the first to yield in the case of Timothy. The one case involved 
 a principle, and the other did not. If by concession Paul could, 
 without a breach of principle, make a prejudice harmless, he 
 would unhesitatingly make the concession as he did here. He 
 gained by this concession a most faithful helper and colleague, 
 one who was to him as a son when he began to reckon himself 
 " Paul the aged." His work being done at Lystra, he and his 
 company went " on their way through the cities." Thus vaguely 
 does Luke describe his further progress. He makes no remark 
 about the work of Paul in these cities, nor does he say in what 
 condition he found the Churches. All he tells us is, that " they 
 delivered them the decrees for to keep, which had been ordained 
 of the apostles and elders that were at Jerusalem. So the 
 churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in 
 number daily." * 
 
 So far Paul is on ground traversed by him before. It was 
 work comparatively easy, and no doubt very pleasant to him. 
 But his spirit burned within him to find new ground, and to visit 
 places where Christ had not been preached. We are briefly 
 told that he visited the region of Phrygia and Galatia. This 
 is one of those places in the Acts of the Apostles where we 
 ardently wish "for fuller information. For it must have been a 
 fruitful journey — one, too, filled with incidents and events long 
 remembered by Paul. We do not, indeed, know what towns in 
 Phrygia he visited, nor whether he founded any Churches in it. 
 But we do know of towns in South-Western Phrygia in which 
 ithere were Churches at an early date. These were CoIossk, 
 
 I Acts xvi. 3. ^ Gal. ii. 3. 
 
 3 Ewald, " History of Israel," vol. vii. p. 305. ■• Acts xvi. 4, 5. 
 
8o ST. PAUL. 
 
 Laodicea, and Hierapolis. It is highly probable that, these 
 Churches were founded by Paul's disciples. He himself had 
 never been at any of these places, unless, indeed, he visited 
 them in the interval between his first and second imprisonments 
 at Rome. It does not seem likely that the route he took would 
 lead him near to these cities. He would follow the line of the 
 Roman roads, travelling from Derbe to Iconium, thence to 
 Antioch in Pisidia, and across the central region of Phrygia 
 into Galatia. It is not necessary for us to enter into the dis- 
 cussion regarding these provinces, nor to inquire as to whether 
 Phrygia means the province named so before the Roman 
 Of cupation, or whether it was the Roman province as politically 
 settled by the Roman government. A full and learned and 
 most important discussion will be found in Bishop Lightfoot's 
 Commentaries on the Epistles to the Galatians and Colossians. 
 Whether the gospel reached these cities as a result of this 
 journey, or as a result of Paul's prolonged visit to and work 
 in Ephesus, we cannot say. But we do know that Colossse, 
 Laodicea, and Hierapolis were Churches on which the Apostle 
 bestowed most ample care, and that he regarded them with 
 much affection. 
 
 Turning to the other province, Galatia, we have some fuller 
 information with regard to it. To us, in this country, it is of 
 great interest to mark the character, demeanour, and atti- 
 tude of the Galatians. For they are of nearer kin to us than 
 are the Syrians, Asians, Greeks, and Romans to whom Paul 
 wrote his other Epistles. It is likely that they were Celtic, not 
 Teutonic, but in either case they are of Western origin, with the 
 virile power, the passionate energy, and healthy vigour of the 
 younger races of mankind. The Galatians have the vivacity, 
 the impulsiveness, the versatility, the changes of mood, the 
 passionate intensity, which have always been characteristic of 
 the Celtic race. We shall not here tell the story of their 
 wanderings, nor of how they came to dwell in this part of 
 Asia Minor. But when Paul came among them they had for 
 many years been settled there. They had been called in, 
 during the third century B.C., to the help of the King of Bithynia, 
 and were rewarded by a grant of territory, on which they still 
 resided in the time of Paul. They were numerous enough to 
 outnumber the inhabitants of other races, and to give their own 
 name to the country. They had no doubt learnt much -fr ow 
 
IN- ASIA MINOR. 8 1 
 
 the inhabitants of the land, and fallen in with many habits 
 and customs of those around them. But they still remained 
 essentially the same people, with all their ancestral charac- 
 teristics unchanged. They had learned to speak Greek, for 
 Paul was able to speak to them without an interpreter. They 
 were still heathen. " At that time not knowing God, ye were in 
 bondage to them which by nature are no gods." ' Paul clearly 
 recognises that he and they are of different races. He is a 
 Jew, and they are Gentiles. When he has to find fault with 
 them, he does not accuse them of falling back into the 
 heathenism from which they had been delivered ; on the con- 
 trary, it was into Judaism that they had lapsed. In contrast, 
 however, with the gospel of Christ, Paul tells them that 
 Judaism and heathenism stand on the same level. Both hold 
 their votaries " in bondage under the rudiments of the world." ° 
 The gospel had brought them Uberty ; let them stand fast in 
 the liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free. 
 
 Considering the importance of the subject and the vast 
 literature to which it has given rise, we may notice the lapse of 
 the Galatians into Judaism more at length. We shall first, 
 however, speak of the welcome Paul had received from them, 
 and of the affection which they had borne to him. He reminds 
 them of how he had come to them, and in what a state of 
 weakness he was then. He was suffering from a sharp attack 
 of some painful sickness, perhaps some form of inflammation 
 of the eyes, a kind of trouble which made him helpless, and 
 caused him much pain. It may have been caused by the 
 fatigue and exposure of his travels. But the pain and disease 
 of the Apostle were the occasion of blessing to the Galatians. 
 They detained him among them, and during the detention he 
 preached the gospel. " Ye know that because of an infirmity 
 of the flesh, I preached the gospel unto you the first time."^ 
 There was something in the Apostle's appearance which might 
 have given occasion to the Galatians to despise him, or to shun 
 his presence. Even when he was in good health his adver- 
 saries could say with apparent truth, " His bodily presence is 
 weak, and his speech of no account."* This the Galatians had 
 not felt, nor did they allow the offensiveness and repulsiveness 
 of the illness which tortured him to have any effect on their 
 
 ' Gal. iv. 8. » Ibid. iv. 3. 
 
 3 Ibid. iv. 13. * 2 Cor, a. 10. 
 
82 ST. PAUL. 
 
 minds. On the contrary, his weakness and infirmity aroused 
 their admiration, for they saw, in the manner in which he 
 bore and overcame them, an illustration of the conquering 
 power of the Cross of Christ, a practical manifestation of the 
 strengthening influence of the religion which Paul preached 
 and professed. The inward power and spiritual strength of 
 Paul so shone through the weakness and infirmity of his body, 
 that the Galatians received him "as an angel of God." ' Nay, 
 they received the weak and tortured servant of Christ as if he 
 had been Christ Himself. Surely never was a stronger testimony 
 borne to the might of personal influence, or to the ascendency 
 which a man's spirit may have, not only over his own bodily 
 organism, but also over the spirits of other people. 
 
 The Galatians showed their respect and affection in a charac- 
 teristic way. They counted themselves blessed in hearing the 
 Apostle. They congratulated themselves on the fact that he 
 was with them, and on the teaching he gave them. What 
 could they do to show their blessedness and their thankfulness? 
 It was not enough to minister to his necessities in all practi- 
 cable and possible ways. They sought to show their love in 
 ways which were not possible. It found out a hyperbolic way 
 of expressing itself The special form of the Apostle's trouble 
 led to the special form which their measureless affection 
 would have taken " I bear you witness that, if possible, ye 
 would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me."' 
 There was personal attachment to the Apostle, and there was 
 reverence for him as an Ambassador of Christ. They saw 
 Christ in him, and hence the tumult of their blessedness and 
 the fervour of their gratitude. They believed on Christ, and 
 they had received the Holy Ghost. Nor had they been less 
 conspicuous in manifesting the fiuits of the Spirit in a new 
 Christian life. They did run well. They were mindful of 
 those through whom these spiritual blessings had come to 
 them. Among them first Christian liberality assumed that 
 systematic, organized form which has been from that day to 
 this the type and sample of all true Christian liberality. 
 
 But the Apostle, joyous as he must have been among a people 
 
 of such warm affection, devoted loyalty, and earnest Christian 
 
 life, could make no long stay with them. He had to pass into 
 
 other lands, to preach the gospel to other cities. A few years 
 
 ' Ual. iv. 14. » Ibid. iv. 15. 
 
IN ASIA MINOR. 83 
 
 passed and he was once more among them. " He went through 
 the region of Galatia and Phrygia in order, stablishing all the 
 disciples." ' The phrase " in order " implies that Paul left none 
 of the Galatian Churches unvisited. In this visit he had to 
 use great plainness of speech, and to warn them against many 
 errors and sins. He had to forewarn them against those works 
 of the flesh to which they were specially liable, and to tell 
 them plainly "that they which practise such things shall not 
 inherit the kingdom of God."° The memory of this visit was 
 pleasant neither to the Apostle nor to the Galatians. Severity 
 and plainness of speech on his part were met by coldness and 
 apparent resentment on their part, and the way was open for 
 the working of the insidious leaven of Judaism. 
 
 Whether the attack came from those who followed in the 
 wake of the Apostle, and dogged his steps with remarkable 
 tenacity, or whether it came from the Jews, who already dwelt 
 in Galatia, does not appear. Nor is it of consequence for us 
 to determine this. _Paul evidently does not know who the 
 adversary was. For he exclaims, " O foolish Galatians, who 
 did bewitch you ? " ^ An exclamation which shows his ignorance 
 of the cause, and also his astonishment at the suddenness of 
 the change which had passed over the Galatians. The argu- 
 ments which were used by the Judaizers are those which Paul 
 eagerly refutes, and are such as readily enough occur to, and 
 are put forward by, Judaizers in every age of the history of the 
 Church. Mutatis mutandis, we are quite familiar with them 
 even in our day. Some of these arguments were personal to 
 Paul, and some were drawn from considerations which went to 
 prove the permanence of the Mosaic dispensation. Those that 
 were personal went to disparage his claim to the Apostleship, 
 to show his inferiority to the other Apostles, and to these he 
 answers that he was truly an Apostle, "not from men, neither 
 through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father ; " * 
 that he was not taught the Gospel by man, " but through revela- 
 tion of Jesus Christ," 5 and was not dependent on the other 
 Apostles ; and, in the last place, he had resisted Peter to the face 
 because he was to be blamed." The doctrinal arguments of the 
 Judaizers were to the following effect : that the law was Divine, 
 and could not be neglected, that the promises belonged to the 
 
 • Acts xviii. 23. ' Gal. v. 21. 3 Ibid. iii. i. 
 
 * Ibid. i. i. 5 Ibid. i. 12. ' Ibid. ii. 11. 
 
84 ST. PAUL. 
 
 Jews, that the original Apostles and the Church at Jerusalem 
 received and obeyed the law. 
 
 The manner in which Paul deals with all these points is 
 worthy of the highest admiration and of the deepest study. 
 He begins with a personal appeal, and plants his foot on their 
 own experience. They had received the Spirit. How? Theyhad 
 received the Spirit by the hearing of faith. If, therefore, they 
 have received Christ, and have obtained the blessedness of 
 salvation, why should they think of any other way of salvation? 
 Did those who had bewitched them tell them that they could 
 not obtain salvation unless they became the children of 
 Abraham ? How did Abraham himself obtain salvation ? It 
 was not by works, but by faith that he was saved, and Abra- 
 ham's seed will be saved as he was saved. Who, then, are the 
 seed of Abraham ? They are his spiritual kinsmen : " they 
 which be of faith, the same are sons of Abraham."' What 
 faith does, works could never do ; and law itself pronounces a 
 curse on all who fail to obey it out and out. But Christ has 
 redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse 
 for us. Further, the history of the Old Testament shows that 
 the promise was made to Abraham a long time before the giving of 
 the law, and the law when it came could not disannul it. What, 
 then, was the use of the law ? Why was it given at all ? "It was 
 •added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to 
 whom the promise had been made.'"' The law was for the 
 purpose of training, it was work which was preparatory, and 
 ceased when Christ came ; and he adds the allegory by which 
 he shows that the slave must be cast out, and that the free alone 
 has the right to the Father's house; and he is the free man who 
 has the faith that worketh by love. 
 
 Such is a brief outline of this remarkable vindication of the 
 freedom of a Christian man. But, in order to obtain a full 
 impression of the greatness of the Epistle, one would need to 
 give many days and nights to its study. We ought to let 
 ourselves feel the mighty tide of emotion and the deep conflict 
 of feeling which manifest theinselves throughout the Epistle. 
 The wounded feelings of a father ; the agitation of an Apostle 
 to whom the awful thought was presented that he had run 
 without being sent ; the alarm caused by the peril into which 
 the Churches were brought by this insidious attack ; the pain 
 ' Gal. iii. 7. ^ Ibid. iii. 19, 
 
IN ASIA MINOR. 85 
 
 caused by the coldness of those who had once lavished measure- 
 less kindness on him ; and above all, the horror of the dishonour 
 done to the Crucified One by this new gospel, combine to give 
 a vivid personal interest to this unique letter. Nor can we 
 forbear to notice the vehemence of the concluding words : 
 " From henceforth let no one trouble me : for I bear branded 
 on my body the marks of Jesus." " This was a sufficient reason 
 why his Galatian converts should not trouble him again. He 
 had enough to bear. He was branded with the marks of 
 Jesus ; all those scars and signs of sufiering undergone for 
 the sake of Jesus, which marked him out from other men as the 
 servant of Christ. It would have been full of interest to have 
 the means of tracing the effect of this Epistle on the Galaiian 
 mind. Did it bring them back to the fervour of their first love? 
 No answer can be given ; but this we know, that this letter, so 
 full of the agitations of personal feeling, has in the course of ages 
 roused in many the fervour of a first love, and has brought 
 many who had begun to fall into legalism back into the liberty 
 wherewith Christ makes His people free. 
 
 ■ Cial. vi. 17. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 AT PHILIPPI. 
 
 The gospel preached in Europe — The Apostle and his company arrive at 
 Philippi— Luke— A Roman colony — At the place of prayer — Conver- 
 sion of Lydia— Residence in her house — The maid with a spirit o{ 
 divination — Her cure — Her owners assault the Apostle — St. Paul 
 before the magistrates— His cruel treatment in the prison — Conversion 
 of the jailer- Results of St. Paul's work at Philippi— The Philippian 
 Church — The Epistle to the Philippians. 
 
 Westwards from the district of Galatia, Paul and his company 
 went. They were "forbidden of the Holy Ghost to speak the 
 word in Asia." ' Their path was directed from on high. They 
 were prevented from entering Bithynia. " They assayed to go into 
 Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus sufiFered them not." Thus con- 
 strained they went onwards and came to Troas. The goal of 
 his journey was not in Asia, but in Europe ; and the Divine 
 will was made manifest to Paul, both in the way of prohibiting 
 him from going to Proconsular Asia or to Bithynia, and in the 
 way of beckoning him onwards to Europe. There appeared to 
 him a vision, which we had better tell in the simple words of 
 Scripture: "And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There 
 was a man of Macedonia standing, beseeching him, and saying, 
 Come over into Macedonia, and help us."° This vision he 
 at once accepted as an intimation of the mind of Christ. He 
 felt that all hesitation was at an end. For the man seen in the 
 vision — the cry of the European world to Paul— was urgent. 
 He was in an attitude of earnestness, his words were words of 
 
 " Acts xvi. 6. * Ibid. xvi. 9. 
 
AT PHILIPPI. 87 
 
 passionate entreaty, and the effect of the whole description is 
 very vivid. When the others were told of the vision, straight- 
 way, says Luke, "we sought to go forth into Macedonia, 
 concluding that God had called us for to preach the gospel unto 
 them." ■ 
 
 Silas and Timotheus had accompanied him from Galatia to 
 Troas, and it is likely that at Troas Luke joined the company. 
 We may not affirm that Luke had been residing at Troas, and 
 was in practice as a physician, though ft is very likely he was. 
 At all events he now becomes one of the companions of Paul. 
 We can easily imagine how gladly Paul received him, how 
 much he valued his friendship, and how greatly he prized both 
 his sympathy and his skill. The title he elsewhere gives him, 
 " Luke, the beloved physician," • reveals to us the way in which 
 Paul was wont to think of him. Paul leaned on his friendship, 
 and depended on his skill. How faithful to his trust, and how 
 prolonged his service to the Apostle, the pages of the N ew Testa- 
 ment abundantly testify. What all the Churches owe to him 
 for his care of Paul, is only second to what they owe to him as 
 the writer of the Third Gospel and of the Acts of the Apostles. 
 
 The company of four set sail from Troas, made a straight 
 course to Samothrace, and thence to Neapolis, the seaport of 
 Philippi, thence to " Philippi, which is a city of Macedonia, the 
 first of the district, a Roman colony." ^ Philippi had long been 
 famous for the gold mines in its neighbourhood. At the time 
 of Paul's visit it was held directly by the Romans. A colony 
 had been established there by Augustus. Both the civil 
 magistrates and the military authorities were Romans. It was 
 a colony. In the Roman meaning of the word, a colony was a 
 body of people sent out by authority to inhabit a certain city or 
 district, as a protection against possible inroads of an enemy. 
 They served also as a check on the rapacity of provincial 
 governors. They retained the privileges of citizens of 
 Rome, their names continued on the rolls of the tribes, and 
 their magistrates were appointed by Rome, and were responsible 
 directly to Rome. No provincial governor could meddle with 
 them. This description of Philippi is another illustration of 
 the supreme historical accuracy of the Acts of the Apostles. 
 
 Philippi was thus rather a Roman than a Greek city. There 
 were not many Jews within its walls, nor were they welcome 
 ' Acts xvi. 10. =^CoI. iv. 14. 3 Acts xvi. 11, 12. 
 
so ST. PAUL. 
 
 when they did come. It was enough to cause a prejudice 
 against a man to call him a Jew.' Apparently there was no 
 synagogue. After a few days' residence in the city, Paul and 
 .his company sought the place where prayer was wont to be made. 
 They knew the Jewish custom of having their place of prayer 
 by the river side, because of the number and frequency of their 
 ceremonial washings. "On the Sabbath day we went forth 
 without the gate by a river side, where we supposed there was 
 a place of prayer, and spake unto the women which were come 
 together." ' They sat down as was the custom with Jewish 
 teachers. There is nothing implied as to the character or 
 number of the people who assembled in the place of prayer. 
 It describes those who had come together on that occa- 
 sion. They spoke to those women, some of whom were 
 Jews, and some were proselytes. According to his manner 
 Luke hastens to speak of some one among the audience 
 who was impressed by what was said. It was natural that he 
 should so speak, for the conversion of Lydia gave to them a 
 home for the new Church, and a place for further advance. She 
 was a woman in good circumstances. Lydia may have been 
 her own name, or the name by which she was known in Philippi, 
 as she was from the Lydian town of Thyatira. She brought 
 from Thyatira the purple which she sold in Philippi. May we 
 not see in the fact that she came from Thyatira a possible way 
 by which the gospel may have found an entrance into Thyatira 
 and the churches of the Lycus ? What more natural than that 
 those who brought her the wares from Thyatira, being impressed 
 with her walk and conversation, and having learned the gospel 
 from her, carried it back with theiii to their home ? Such events 
 have often occurred, and those who have gone out with earthly 
 wares have brought back with them the riches of heaven. 
 
 Lydia gave heed to the things which were spoken by Paul. 
 She felt the power of the truth ; the Lord opened her heart, and 
 she was baptized and her household ; 3 the first convert made 
 by Paul in his European mission. She urgently besought them 
 to abide in her house. The form of her request is remarkable : 
 " If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my 
 house and abide there. And she constrained us."* Why sliould 
 
 • Acts xvi. 20. = Ibid. xvi. 13. 
 
 3 Ibid. xvi. 15. 4 Ibid. xvi. IS. 
 
AT PHILIPPI. gg 
 
 the appeal be so urgent, and so much constraint be needed ? 
 Because it was an unusual thing. There might be hesitation on 
 the part of Silas and Timothy as to whether they ought to live 
 in the home of one who did not belong to the house of Israel. 
 But if there were hesitation, it was short-lived. Paul yielded to 
 her urgent wishes, and from that time showed that it was right 
 and lawful for Jewish Christians to live with Gentile Christians, 
 and with them to enter into the heritage of freedom bequeathed 
 to them by their Lord. There was soon gathered together a 
 number of people, and the Philippian Church became an actual 
 historical fact. 
 
 We have no statement regarding the length of time they 
 spent in Philippi, nor any account of the quiet work which went 
 on from day to day in the place where prayer was wont to be 
 made, and in the house of Lydia. Luke hastens on to describe 
 a striking incident which brought their work in Philippi to an 
 abrupt and startling conclusion. No better illustration could 
 we have of Luke's method than we have here. His aim is to 
 give the origin, not the history of any particular Church. He 
 states any striking incident which took place while any one 
 Church was being founded, and he passes on to do the same 
 service in connection with some other Church. The Apostle 
 and his friends evidently continued to go to the place in which 
 their Philippian work began. Luke speaks of their going to the 
 place of prayer, and of going there "for many days." As they 
 went they were annoyed and troubled by a woman, who is 
 described as having a " spirit of divination." ' " Having a 
 spirit, a Python." Those who practised ventriloquism were 
 named Pythons. It is more likely, however, that as the woman 
 laid claim to the power of foretelling, she may be said to have had 
 a Python with reference to Apollo, the heathen god of prophecy. 
 Her masters had made use of her gift, whatever it was, traded 
 on it, and made great gain by her soothsaying. She had been 
 strangely excited by what she had seen and heard of Paul and 
 his company. She must have heard something of them and 
 their teaching. Perhaps she desired to be made one of their 
 company, and to enter into their service. Be the reason what 
 it may, she took up a position on the Sabbath day, on the way 
 to the place of prayer, and, following after Paul and his com- 
 panions, cried out, " These men are servants of the Most High 
 ' Acts xvi. i6. 
 
go ST. PAUL. 
 
 God, which proclaim unto you the way of salvation." What 
 she cried was true. But were they to receive such help as she 
 would give them, their message and their position would be 
 compromised. As his Master had done when He rebuked the 
 unclean spirit,' so Paul does now, even though the woman was 
 testifying that he and his companions were servants of the 
 Most High God. Paul was profoundly moved and greatly 
 disturbed. " Being sore troubled, turned and said to the spirit, I 
 charge thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her."" 
 And the woman found that the power she had had departed 
 from her. She had in her ignorance approached near to high 
 and holy things, and from them a power had gone forth which 
 constrained and overcame the power which had possessed her. 
 From that hour she was as other women. 
 
 But this soon spread abroad and caused great uproar among 
 the people. There were many people interested in the woman's 
 strange power. There were first of all her masters, who had 
 made gain of her supposed prophetic gift. There were those 
 who had consulted her before and desired to consult her again ; 
 and there were those who desired to have near at hand a means 
 by which they might know what the future had in store. Prompt 
 action was taken by the masters of the women. They at once 
 laid hold on Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market- 
 place before the rulers. And the multitude eagerly helped 
 them. It was the first experience that Paul had of purely Gentile 
 opposition. He would know a great deal more of it by and bye. 
 The perils he met before had been caused by the Jews. But 
 the Jews, to do them justice, were inspired in their opposition 
 to Paul by nobler motives than the love of gain. They were at 
 least disinterested ; theirs was a purely religious zeal, not accord- 
 ing to knowledge, but still not in itself to be condemned. But 
 this outburst of anger at Philippi, like the subsequent one at 
 Ephesus,^ has nothing noble, generous, or disinterested in it. 
 Their motive in both cases was sheer greed, and their anger 
 arose because the hope of their gain was gone. If Paul had got 
 for the moment out of the reach of the bitterness which springs 
 from religious zeal, he had also come within the range of the 
 violence which springs from frustrated greed ; and the latter is 
 baser than the former. 
 
 Paul and Silas were hurried into the presence of the magis- 
 « Mark i. 25. » Acts xvi, 18. 3 ibid. xix. 
 
AT PHILIPPI. 
 
 91 
 
 trates, or Prastors. The accusation preferred against them is 
 put into general terms, and there is no mention of the particular 
 cause of the tumult. The charge runs thus : "These men, 
 being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, and set forth 
 customs which it is not lawful for us to receive or to observe, 
 being Romans." ■ Not a word about the loss of gain. Their 
 accusers set themselves first to arouse the Roman aversion 
 against the Jews, and then charged them with an attempt to 
 corrupt Roman manners, and in other ways to trouble the city 
 exceedingly. The multitude, in an intense state of excitement, 
 rose up together against Paul and Silas ; the magistrates 
 were so intimidated, that they lost all appearance of judicial 
 calm ; rashly and violently they laid hands on them, and without 
 attempt at trial, "rent their garments off them, and commanded 
 to beat them with rods." = It was foolishly and cruelly done. 
 To be beaten with rods by a Roman lictor was a cruel and a 
 painful thing. They were beaten on the naked body till the 
 blood came. Then they were sent to prison, and the jailer 
 received a charge to keep them safely. He, with the rough 
 Roman fidelity which looked always to the keeping of his 
 trust inviolate at whatever cost to other people, thrust them 
 into the inner prison, a dark, unventilated place, and probably, 
 as such places often were, foul and loathsome. Not content 
 •with this precaution, he, in addition, made their feet fast 
 in the stocks. Thus they were left to pass the night. Their 
 bodies beaten black and blue, their wounds open and sore, 
 kept by the stocks in a constrained attitude which would 
 have prevented them from obtaining rest, even if they had 
 been in perfect health and strength. Thus in a few brief 
 hours Paul and Silas are hurried away from their friends, 
 beaten and tortured, shut up in prison, and left alone to pass 
 the hours in pain and darkness. We do not think it was more 
 painful to them within the prison than it was for Timothy, and 
 Luke, and Lydia, and the other friends outside the prison- 
 house. For the hearts of the latter were wrung with anguish, 
 and with the bitter agony of being compelled to witness the 
 torture and suffering of their loved and venerated leader without 
 being able to help him. We may be sure that with sad hearts 
 they kept their sleepless vigil through the night, and often did 
 their cry ascend to God on behalf of His servants. 
 
 » Acts xvi. 20, 21. ' Ibid. xvi. ax. 
 
92 ST. PAUL. 
 
 As for Paul and Silas, they spent the night in a triumphant 
 way. They were able to disregard the pain and anguish caused 
 by wounds. They rose in triumph over them. They passed 
 the night, not in moans and groans, but in devotion. And 
 God's song was theirs in the night. 
 
 " Stone walls do not a prison make. 
 Nor iron bars a cage." 
 
 God was with His servants in the prison-house, and He com- 
 forted and refreshed them. So that "about midnight Paul 
 and Silas were praying and singing hymns unto God, and the 
 prisoners were listening unto them." ■ Not hearkening merely, 
 but listening with the most intense eagerness, with an intentness 
 born of surprise both at the unusual nature of the occurrence 
 and at the strange words of hope and peace used by Paul and 
 Silas. Surely such sounds were never heard in a prison-house 
 at the midnight hour before ! But a prison rarely held such 
 prisoners as they were. It is a striking practical comment on 
 the words St. Paul in later days wrote to the Philippian 
 Church : " I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therein to 
 be content." ' In this conflict, as in others of a similar kind, 
 " he was more than conqueror through Him that loved him." ^ 
 
 Suddenly a great earthquake was felt : the foundations of the 
 prison-house were shaken ; the doors were flung open ; and the 
 fetters which bound the prisoners, hand and foot, were loosed. 
 As in a former instance the place was shaken wherein the 
 Apostles were gathered together, so it happened again.'' God 
 was not forgetful of His servants, nor unmindful of their need. 
 To Paul and Silas it was the sign and token of the Divine 
 presence ; what it was to the other prisoners we may imagine. 
 It filled them with amazement and awe. But to the jailer it was 
 as if the end of all things had come. He was roused out of 
 sleep by the shock. He saw the prison doors open. He 
 thought the prisoners had escaped, as they might have done 
 easily enough in the confusion, but they had quietly stayed 
 where they were. It is both true to the fact and appropriate to 
 the situation that the first thought of the Roman official was 
 with regard to those for whose safe custody he was responsible. 
 A Roman soldier, as this man had been in former days, was 
 
 » Acts xvi. 25. » Phil. iv. ii. 
 
 » Rom. viii. 37. t Acts iv, 31. 
 
AT PHILIPPI. 93 
 
 trained to absolute fidelity. He must never be untrue to his 
 trust. But he thought he had somehow been unfaithful, and 
 he could not survive the disgrace. He drew his sword, and 
 was about to kill himself. This also is characteristic of the 
 Roman soldier of the period. He could not see the prisoners 
 from the place where he was, but apparently they could see him 
 as he was looking into the darkened rooms, and they were 
 looking out from them. Paul, having heard the sound made 
 by the drawing of the sword, and perhaps having seen the flash 
 of the weapon, instantly cried with a loud voice, " Do thyself 
 no harm : for we are all here." ' The jailer called for lights, and 
 sprang in, and, being terror-stricken, he fell down before Paul 
 and Silas. The presence of Paul and Silas in the prison, and 
 the fact that they had not fled when the doors were open, 
 impressed him strangely. He also connected their imprison- 
 ment with the events which had taken place. The feeling 
 came over him that these were men of no common kind, and 
 his attitude in their presence became one of fear and suppli- 
 cation. His self-possession was quite destroyed, and the old 
 foundations on which his belief and confidence had rested were 
 now gone, and, both fearing and hoping, he hardly knew what, 
 he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved .'"° His prisoners 
 have suddenly become to him people of acknowledged supe- 
 riority, and he speaks to them in tones of great respect and 
 reverence. The form of his petition may have been determined 
 by his having heard of the saying of the possessed woman, or 
 by what he had heard of Paul and Silas and their work during 
 the preceding weeks. He had heard of salvation, and the 
 events of the night constrained him to ask for salvation. 
 
 The answer came at once, prompt and clear, " Believe on the 
 Lord Jesus,3 and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house."* This 
 is the outline of the teaching, which was filled up throughout 
 the night. For this was not all that Paul spoke that night. He 
 told the jailer and his house who the Lord Jesus was, what 
 He had done, in some such manner as he had taught 
 the Corinthians.5 All we are told is that they gpake the 
 word of the Lord unto him and all that were in his house, 
 
 ' Acts xvi. 28. = Ibid. xvi. 30. 
 
 3 The Revised Version, in accordance with the evidence of the oldest 
 authorities, omits the word Christ. 
 * Acts xvi. 31, 5 I Cor. xi. 1-7. 
 
94 ST. PAUL. 
 
 But they spake in such a way that he believed ; he was per- 
 suaded that the Lord Jesus was a real person, one who could 
 help and save and bless him. The messengers of such a Saviour 
 must, he felt, be treated by him with all respect and kindness. 
 With all haste he sought to undo what he had formerly done. 
 He washed their stripes, and set meat before them. He had 
 not thought of their pain when he had thrust them into the 
 inner prison ; now he bound up their wounds, and treated them 
 with tender care. He overflows with kindness, and his heart is 
 filled with unspeakable joy. He and his house are baptized, 
 the second household in Philippi of which this is recorded. Thus 
 ended the story of that day and night, a story full of picturesque 
 and typical details. It is a striking testimony to the power of 
 the gospel. Looking to what is told us of the work at Philippi, 
 we see how well it illustrates the universality of the message 
 Paul had to deliver. The heart of Lydia was quietly opened to 
 receive the gospel ; the girl possessed by a spirit of divination 
 is compelled to show forth the greater power of the Spirit of 
 Christ ; arid the Roman jailerj his Roman pride and self-posses- 
 sioitt flung to the ground, owns the supremacy of a greater 
 Lord than Caesar. In this first European mission we have 
 trophies of the power of the gospel in the persoa of Lydia from 
 Asia, in the person of this Greek girl, and in the person of this 
 Roman soldier, a type and prophecy (is it not ?) of what this 
 European mission is to grow to. 
 
 The magistrates also had their reflections through the night, 
 feut of a less happy sort than fell to the lot of the jailer and his 
 prisoners. They waited till it was day, and they could wait no 
 longer. That they seat the sergeants as soon as it was day 
 shows how uneasily they bad passed the night. They must have 
 been conscious of having failed in the discharge of their duty. 
 Ministers of justice, they had done injustice, not merely suffered 
 it, to be doae. Now with the morniiig light they send the 
 Uctors— the men who had beaten Paul and Silas with rods— to 
 convey to the jailer the command, " Let those men go." " The 
 jailer bears the message to Paul and Silas, and invites them to. 
 come forth and go in peace. But Paul was in no mood to go at 
 the magistrates' bidding. Nqt that he ever cared to stand on 
 his right, or that he was in the habit of complaining loudly when 
 fee was wronged. He had gone without remark when the peopJe 
 ' Acts xvi. 35, 
 
AT PHILIPPl. 95 
 
 of Lystra had risen against him. That, however, was the act of a 
 people roused to passion, and the men in authority had talcen 
 no part in it. But this deed was done by men in authority, and 
 it was well that they should be taught the responsibility attached 
 to their office. Besides, Paul had also in view the interests of 
 the Church at Philippi. It might save them much sorrow and 
 suffering in the future if the magistrates were taught a lesson. 
 So for these and other reasons Paul said, " They have beaten 
 us publicly, uncondemned, men that are Romans, and have 
 cast us into prison ; and do they now cast us out privily ? 
 Nay verily ; but let them come themselves and bring us out.'" 
 He lays stress on the particular instances of injustice they had 
 received. They were beaten as those are who are tied to pubhc 
 whipping-posts ; they got no trial, for the magistrates had 
 listened to the accusations, but gave them no opportunity of 
 defence ; the accusers had raised a prejudice against them by 
 calling them Jews, so Paul places alongside of that the words, 
 " men that are Romans." It was a grave charge to be brought 
 against Roman magistrates. The sergeants left the prison, and 
 reported the words of Paul to the magistrates, who were filled 
 with fear when they heard that they were Romans. For every 
 Roman citizen had the right of appeal to the Emperor, and 
 injustice done to a Roman was strictly inquired into and visited 
 with severe punishment. Their sin had found them out, and 
 they submitted to the humihating conditions dictated by Paul. 
 " They came and besought them ; and when they had brought 
 them out, they asked them to go away from the city."" They 
 were glad to get rid of them on any terms. It does not appear 
 that Paul and Silas departed at once. Perhaps they waited 
 until they were fit to travel. At all events they did not depart 
 until they had seen the brethren. They went to the house of 
 Lydia, not to receive comfort, but to give it. What the comfort 
 was may be gathered from the Epistle he afterwards wrote to 
 this Church. The greatest comfort of all was that he appears 
 to have left Luke with them. For at this point the narrative 
 no longer uses the first person ; it speaks of Paul and Silas. 
 What more likely than the inference that Paul, thus suddenly 
 called away, left Luke behind to carry on the work, and build 
 up the Church, until he should be free to rejoin Paul at some 
 other place ? Be this as it may, it is evident that the parting 
 between Paul and the brethren must have been most pathetic. 
 ' Acts xvi. 37. ■ Ibid. xvi. 39. 
 
96 ST. PAUL. 
 
 We may at this point look more narrowly at the Epistle he 
 sent to them from Rome, while he himself was languishing in 
 captivity. Our aim is not to expound the doctrine of the 
 Epistle ; it is something much more simple— to glean from the 
 allusions in the Epistle what may serve to throw light on his 
 work at Philippi, and on the conditions under which it was 
 carried on by him. One thing is very evident, that the Philip- 
 pian Church lay very near his heart, and he rejoiced over them 
 with great joy. To them he wrote no reproving word. They 
 gave him no cause for sorrow. So great was his affection for 
 them, and confidence in them, that he made an exception in 
 their favour. " When I departed from Macedonia no Church 
 had fellowship with me in the matter of giving and receiving, but 
 ye only ; for even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto 
 my need." ' He knew that this action of his would not be mis- 
 understood by them as it might have been by some other 
 Churches. He would not be suspected by them of making again 
 of his Apostolic calling. Thus he writes to the Corinthians : " I 
 robbed other Churches, taking wages of them that I might 
 minister unto you ; and when I was present with you, and was 
 in want, I was not a burden on any man ; for the brethren, 
 when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my 
 want ; and in everything I kept myself from being burdensome 
 unto you, and so will I keep myself." ' The contrast is great, 
 and continued to be great. To the one Church he says that he 
 will keep himself from being burdensome ; to the other he writes 
 from Rome, gratefully acknowledging the things which came 
 from Philippi, and he sees in the gifts "an odour of a sweet 
 smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God." 3 
 
 This giving and receiving is but the outward expression of 
 the affection and confidence which subsisted between the 
 Apostle and the Philippian Church. They had begun early to 
 manifest their love and care for him, even as he says " in the 
 beginning of the Gospel." Ten years or so afterwards he has a 
 lively recollection of their gifts, and of the spirit prompting 
 them. In sore distress he had left them, and their hearts 
 had gone forth after him. He had suffered much, and had 
 been shamefully entreated at Philippi,'' but not at the hands 
 of the Church. He has a vivid recollection of them all, and of 
 
 ' Phil. iv. IS, i6. » 2 Cor. xi. 8, g. 
 
 3 Phil. iv. i8. 4 I Thess. ii, a. 
 
AT PHILIPPI. 97 
 
 many individuals among them. He mentions Euodia and 
 Syntyche, women who had likely been helpful to him when he 
 ministered at Philippi. We do not think it necessary to discuss 
 the fanciful allegorizing of their names, nor to inquire whether 
 they were two neighbouring congregations, one of Jewish and 
 the other of Gentile tendencies. Who they were we do not 
 know, but that they were individual women, who had not at all 
 times been of the same mind, admits of no doubt. It is likely, 
 too, that their houses had been places where the Philippian 
 Christians often met, as was the case with the house of Lydia. 
 He exhorts them that they should be of the same mind in the 
 Lord.' They had laboured with him in the Lord, and it pains 
 him that there should be between them any shadow of dis- 
 agreement. In order to reconcile them he puts forth all his 
 efforts, calls in the help of one whom he addresses as " true yoke- 
 fellow,'"' and also the help of Clement, and the rest of his fellow- 
 workers, whose names are written in the Book of Life. Who 
 the true yoke-fellow is we do not know, whether we think with 
 Bishop Lightfoot ^ that he was most probably Epaphroditus, or 
 with Weizsacker,'' that he was a person whose name was Syn- 
 zygos. The important thing to observe is the close relation which 
 subsisted between Paul and the Philippians, and the vivid recol- 
 lection he had of individual members of that Church. 
 
 As he himself had suffered in Philippi, so, he reminds them, 
 had they. "To you it hath been granted, in the behalf of 
 Christ, not only to believe on Him, but to suffer in His behalf ; 
 having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to 
 be in me." ^ They had suffered, and they had overcome 
 their adversaries notwithstanding. He is persuaded that 
 the good work begun in them will be made perfect. He 
 is sure that their forbearance will be known of all men. It 
 is to this Church that he wrote the great sentence, " What- 
 soever things are true, whatsoever things are honourable, 
 whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, 
 whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good 
 report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think 
 on these things." ^ In truth, as Paul thinks of the past, of his 
 own work among them when the Church was founded, of their 
 
 » Phil. iv. 2. ^ Ibid. iv. 3. - Lightfoot on Phil., p. 156. 
 
 4 Weizsacker, " Das Apostolische Zeitalter," p. 247. 
 
 5 Phil, i, 29, 30. ' Ibid. iv. 8. 
 
98 ST. PAUL. 
 
 enduring affection for him, and liberality to him, of their patient 
 continuance in well-doing, of their heroic endurance, and of 
 their steadfast hope, his heart overflows, and again and again 
 he utters a note of exultant joy. He rejoices, and he calls on 
 them to rejoice. 
 
 The picture is not without its shadows. If these were alto- 
 gether absent it would not be an Epistle suited to a militant 
 Church in this sinful and imperfect world. There are still some 
 tendencies against which they must be warned, and many causes 
 of sorrow to him and them. Paul himself feels that the spirit of 
 faction is still abroad, though not so virulent as the spirit he had 
 to contend with at Corinth, or in connection with Galatia. Some 
 may preach Christ of faction, yet if Christ is preached Paul will 
 not complain ; rather he will rejoice. But he felt that faction 
 might have, or might win, a place in the Philippian Church, and 
 that divisions might possibly arise. So he exhorts them to be of 
 one mind, doing nothing through faction or vainglory. He may 
 have remembered some tendencies in this direction, which had 
 been held down by his presence and example, but which might 
 arise again in his absence. In order utterly to overcome this 
 tendency he pens that magnificent description of the mind 
 " which was also in Christ Jesus '' — one of the greatest passages 
 he ever wrote, and one which has given occasion to some to 
 suggest that this is not one of Paul's Epistles. We may not 
 discuss the question here, and we need not, for the Epistle is 
 rooted too securely in history to admit of any serious discussion 
 of its authorship. 
 
 We note also the touching and tender references toTimothy and 
 Epaphroditus, and with these the Epistle seems about to close. 
 But he begins anew with another theme, which may be con- 
 sidered a variation of the former discussion about vainglory 
 and faction. Something may have recalled to his mind the way 
 in which Jews were wont to speak of the Gentiles. He is 
 writing to a Gentile Church, a Church greatly beloved by him; 
 and to the Jews these Gentiles were not better than dogs. 
 Along with that came anew the feeling that danger might again 
 arise from these Judaizing teachers. There is no trace in this 
 Epistle that these were so active and dangerous as they had 
 been, but there was always the danger that the Philippians and 
 others might put their trust in the flesh. Therefore yet again 
 Paul will set forth the true view, and confirm it from his own 
 
AT PHILIPPI. 99 
 
 experience. So he tells them to beware of dogs, of evil workers, 
 of the concision. They are mere mutilators of the flesh. The 
 true circumcision is with those " who worship by the Spirit of 
 God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the 
 flesh." ' Then he shows how little value he had attached to all 
 that he had once possessed, and which had been his glory and 
 his confidence. Quick and fast came the thronging memories 
 of what he had been, and of the things he counted loss for 
 Christ. Quickly, too, there passed before his mind the aim of 
 his new life, the hope that had sustained him through these 
 years of many toils and of many perils, " that I may gain 
 Christ." He tells them that he is still pressing on, stretching 
 forward, pressing on toward the goal unto the prize of the high 
 calling of God in Jesus Christ. Let the Philippian Church press 
 on in his footsteps, ever remembering that their citizenship is 
 in heaven. " From whence also we wait for a Saviour, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ : who shall fashion anew the body of our 
 humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, 
 according to the working whereby He is able even to subject 
 all things unto Himself." ' 
 
 Both the light and the shadows, both the congratulations and 
 the warnings contained in the Epistle written in Rome, go back 
 to the time when Paul laboured in Philippi. The historical 
 colour is rich and precise, and takes its tone as much from 
 memory of the past as from present information at the disposal 
 of the Apostle. This short account of the Epistle will not be out 
 of place if it enables us to discern more clearly the conditions of 
 his work at Philippi, and to understand more fully the tender- 
 ness, the clinging love that longed for love, the cravjng for 
 human sympathy, and the generous nobility of soul which 
 caused him to value so highly the grace and goodness, the gifts 
 and attainments, of other people. No other of his Epistles 
 reveals so much of the winning tenderness and personal fasci- 
 nation of the great Apostle. 
 
 « Phil. iii. 3. ■ Ibid. iii. 20, 21. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THESSALONICA, BERCEA, ATHENS. 
 
 Thessalonica — Among the Jews — Riot in Thessalonica — Assault on Jason — 
 Epistles to the Thessalonians— In Beroea— In Athens — What St. Paul 
 said — How he felt— Character of the Athenians — Greek philosophy — 
 The speech of the Apostle — Contents of the- speech — Its abrupt con- 
 clusion — Results of the speech. 
 
 They next passed to Thessalonica, a place about one hundred 
 miles south-west of Philippi. They travelled along the great 
 military road which led from Byzantium to the Adriatic coast. 
 It would take them three or four days to accomplish the journey. 
 They passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia. In the 
 Itinerariuin Aiitonini Augusti the journey is as follows : From 
 Philippi to Amphipolis, thirty-two miles ; from An-:phipolis to 
 Apollonia, thirty-two miles ; from Apollonia to Thessalonica, 
 thirty-six miles.' It does not appear that they made any stay 
 in these places ; at least there is no record of it if they did. 
 Luke gives us only one paragraph on the work in Thessalonica. 
 It had been a famous place, and had been noted for a long time 
 for its hot springs, which were highly valued for their medicinal 
 properties. Its former name was Therma, and it was called 
 Thessalonica either after a sister of Alexander the Great, or 
 after a sister or daughter of Cassander, who rebuilt it about the 
 year 315 B.C. It stood at the head of the Thermaic gulf, and 
 was at the time of Paul's visit a most important city, and one of 
 
 ' Quoted in Hackett's " Comjueiuiiry on the Acts of the Aposlks,'' 
 p, 207. 
 
THESSALONICA, BERCEA, ATHENS. 101 
 
 the centres of trade in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean 
 Sea. It has had many vicissitudes in the course of history, but 
 is still an important place with a large Jewish and Christian 
 population. 
 
 His arrival at Thessalonica was ever to Paul a memorable 
 event, as well remembered by him as his departure from 
 Phiiippi. The First Epistle to the Thessalonians is full of 
 allusions to both events. With some exaltation of feeling, notwith- 
 standing the weariness of his protracted journey, he had entered 
 Thessalonica. He began work at once. He made his way to 
 the synagogue. For apparently the Jews were sufficiently 
 numerous to have provided for themselves a building in which 
 to worship. For three successive Sabbaths he reasoned with 
 them. He met them on the common ground of the Old Testa- 
 ment Scriptures familiar to them and to him from their earliest 
 days. With great brevity Luke gives us the sum of his reason- 
 ing. Paul undertook to prove from the Scriptures that the 
 Messiah was to be a suffering Messiah ; that it was necessary 
 for the Messiah to suffer, to die, and to rise again from the dead.' 
 His argument reminds us of the words of the Risen Lord, as re- 
 corded in the Gospel according to Luke : "And beginning from 
 Moses and from all the prophets. He interpreted to them in all the 
 Scriptures the things concerning Himself" ' It was a hard thesis 
 to prove to a Jew, who had fed his imagination with the glowing 
 pictures of the Messiah and Messiah's reign which are in the 
 Old Testament, and ignored all those lines of suffering and 
 humiliation characteristic of the Messiah, as in truth all Jews had 
 ignored them until they were drawn forth and illuminated by 
 the life and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. The course of 
 Paul's argument seems evident enough. He first expounded 
 the Scriptures, and then he showed that all the lines of 
 prophecy met in Christ ; that Jesus was the kind of Messiah 
 thev ought to have expected. So with urgency and authority, 
 with all the strength which springs from assured conviction, 
 Paul affirmed that "this Jesus whom I proclaim unto you is 
 the Christ." 3 Jesus had both suffered and died and risen again 
 according to the Scriptures, and Paul witnessed to the truth 
 and reality of the events of the life, death, and resurrection of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 His work among them was not without result. Some of the 
 " Acts xvii. 3. ' Luke xxiv. 27. 3 Acts xvii. 3. 
 
102 ST. PAUL, 
 
 Jews were persuaded, cast in their lot with Paul and Silas, and 
 decided to join their community. A considerable congregation 
 gathered round him, consisting of those who had already been 
 worshippers at the synagogue. The proselytes of the gate, 
 heathen by birth, who had already embraced the Jewish faith, 
 now became believers in Christ. " Of the devout Greeks a great 
 multitude, and of the chief women not a few." ' The Jews, how- 
 ever, who did not believe, were filled with envy, and, moved with 
 jealousy, could not bear that the number of their adherents 
 should be so conspicuously lessened. It was provoking to them 
 that so many should leave them, and follow Paul in the new 
 way of faith in Christ. Great magnanimity, and something 
 more than magnanimity, is needed to say of any cause, It must 
 increase, and our cause must decrease. The Jews of Thessalo- 
 nica were not of that rare order of men. The steps they took 
 betray their consciousness of a losing cause. They gathered to 
 them a number of people described as " certain vile fellows of 
 the rabble, and gathering a crowd, set the city on an uproar."' 
 The people they gathered were the " loafers " in the market- 
 place, who had not strength of character to follow honest, steady 
 industry, and who were always ready to go whither excitement or 
 gain might lead them. At the head of this miserable multitude, 
 the Jews, who had known where to find Paul and Silas, as- 
 saulted the house of Jason, with whom the Apostle lived. Not 
 finding them there, they dragged Jason and certain brethren 
 before the rulers' of the city, and accused them of being enemies 
 of the Roman power. The accusation was deftly contrived to 
 secure for the Jews as large a following as possible. " These 
 that have turned the world upside down are come hither also ; 
 whom Jason hath received : and these all act contrary to the 
 decreesof Cagsar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus."'' 
 It was just such a charge as would trouble the people and 
 disturb the rulers. That they were revolutionists, that they 
 were encouraged by Jason, that they were rebels against Ceesar, 
 and followers of a rival king, were heavy charges, and had some 
 plausibility. For no doubt Paul had spoken of Jesus as King, 
 and of His kingdom. The rulers, however, were men of more 
 
 » Acts xvii. 4. = Ibid. xvii. 5. 
 
 < The title folitarch is found in an inscription preserved on an arch 
 which spans a street in Salonilti— another illustration of the supreme his- 
 torical accuracy of Luke. 4 Acts xvii. 6, 7. 
 
THESSALONICA, BERCEA, ATHENS. 1 03 
 
 Strength than were those of Philippi, and acted in a manner 
 more consistent with justice. They made Jason and the rest 
 responsible, and took security from them and let them go. 
 They simply took measures for preserving the public peace, and 
 did nothing further. But the uproar caused by the Jews put an 
 end to Paul's personal work in Thessalonica. The situation had 
 become dangerous, and Paul and Silas departed by night to 
 Beroea. 
 
 From this brief account we obtain but a faint conception of 
 the greatness of the work done in Thessalonica, and of the 
 conditions under which the work was done. The converts at 
 Thessalonica to whom Paul wrote, were of Gentile descent, and 
 had been of Gentile belief and habit. For he tells how they 
 " turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God." ' 
 But their faith was as conspicuous as their idolatry had been. 
 Nor were they either idle or inactive in the Christian life, or in 
 the endeavour to do Christian work. From them " the word of 
 the Lord had sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, 
 but in every place their faith to God- ward had gone forth."* 
 This is the more noteworthy when we consider the social 
 position occupied by these converts. They were chiefly Gentile 
 workmen, and earned but scanty wages. This is clear from the 
 following passage. " For ye remember, brethren, our labour and 
 travail : working night and day, that we might not burden any 
 of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God." ^ Thus while 
 he gave the sabbath days to the Jews and proselytes who 
 worshipped in the synagogue, his week-days were divided 
 between working at his trade and preaching to the Gentile 
 workmen. Thus the Apostle literally wrought night and day. 
 He would not encroach on the scanty earnings of these working 
 men, but even with all his toil he was not able to earn enough 
 to support himself and his company. For he was glad to 
 accept the help sent him once and again from Philippi. His 
 stay in Thessalonica must have been for a considerable period, 
 for it would take some time for messengers in those days to 
 travel to and fro from Thessalonica to Philippi. Nor have w« 
 any note of time in Luke's description of the worii in Thessalo- 
 nica save what is contained in the " three sabbath days,'' which 
 really does not determine anything. That the time was 
 somewhat protracted, appears from what he wrote ia his 
 
 « i Thess. Lg. ' Ibid. i. 8. 3 IWd. u. 5. 
 
I04 ST. PAUL. 
 
 Second Epistle: "For yourselves know how ye ought to 
 imitate us : for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among 
 you ; neither did we eat bread for nought at any man's hand, 
 but in labour and travail, working night and day, that we might 
 not burden any of you : not because we have not the right, but 
 to make ourselves an ensample unto you, that ye should imitate 
 us." ' 
 
 The tone of the Epistles seems thus to bear traces of the 
 character of the community to which they were addressed. 
 They are addressed to working men by one who had toiled with 
 them, and who knew the severity and sacredness of daily 
 labour. He can enter into the needs aad surroundings of those 
 to whom he writes. Every extiortation almost is based on the 
 recognition of the worth of labour. " Be not weary in well- 
 doing." Paul knew also the kind of restlessness which comes 
 over working men, so he exhorts them "that ye study to 
 be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your 
 hands, as we charged you."' These Epistles are throughout 
 addressed to men who led a full and busy life, who had no idle 
 time on their hands, but who were in the true sense of the word 
 busy workers. The topics discussed, too, are not doctrinal, but 
 practical and personal. The difSculties he has to remove are 
 not speculative, nor are the dangers against which he forewarns 
 of a speculative kind. They are intensely practical, and such 
 as men, who have little time for reflection, are liable to meet. 
 
 His main theme is the coming of the Lord, which he sets 
 forth in varied ways, but always with a practical end in view. 
 We need not, however, analyse the Epistles. Our object has been 
 to ascertain the nature and conditions of his work at 
 Thessalonica, and what particular motives he brought to bear on 
 the Thessalonians. His aim was that they should bring to bear 
 on their Christian life the practical earnestness and business 
 sagacity which they manifested in their common life. Let them 
 serve the living God and wait for His Son from heaven, for 
 they know not how soon their work may be done. It has been 
 urged that these Epistles are insignificant in their contents, and 
 has no special aim. But this remark is itself aimless, and when- 
 the Epistle is studied in the light of its occasion and origin, it 
 causes us to wonder more and more at the wisdom, sympathy, 
 and insight which made Paul all things to all men. " In no 
 » a Tbess. iii. 7-9, » i Xhess. iv. «. 
 
THESSALONICA, BERCEA, ATHENS. I05 
 
 Epistle is the character of Paul more frankly disclosed. His 
 affectionate and ardent disposition, his devotedness to the wel- 
 fare ofhis fellow-men, his generous recognition of the beginnings 
 of good in his converts, his solicitude for their progress, his 
 purity of motive, and untiring energy are clearly reflected in this 
 letter. He felt for his converts all the love and responsibility 
 of a parent. It was with pain he absented himself from them, 
 with difficulty he was prevented from revisiting them, with 
 delight that he looked forward to the time when this should 
 be possible. A great nature absorbed in great aims shines 
 through every page of the letter." ' 
 
 From Thessalonica we follow the Apostle in his journey by 
 night to Beroea, which is 'situated at the southern extremity of 
 Macedonia. Here, too, Paul had to suffer from " unreasonable 
 and evil men," ' but before they followed him from Thessalonica 
 he had had an opportunity of preaching the gospel quietly 
 and undisturbed. As was his custom he began at Beroea by 
 visiting the synagogue. The Jews at Beroea were conspicuous 
 among all their kinsmen for the fair and candid hearing they 
 gave to the message spoken by Paul. They did not refuse him 
 a hearing, nor did they accept all at once his reasoning. Paul 
 had based his message on the Scriptures, but his view was new 
 to them, and they set themselves diligently to examine into the 
 grounds of what he alleged. They are willing to sift the evi- 
 dence, they are not willing to take anything for granted ; an 
 attitude of mind well pleasing to him who wrote the words, 
 "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good,"^ They 
 brought Paul's teaching to the test of the Scriptures, but they 
 had already received it with all readiness of mind. Their whole 
 bearing and attitude call forth the emphatic approval of Luke, 
 and he sets it down as a " noble " thing for them to have done. 
 They had received the same message, and from the same lips, 
 as they of Thessalonica, but they received it in a different spirit. 
 Nor did they linger long in a merely critical attitude. " Many 
 of them believed ; also of the Greek women of honourable 
 estate, and of men, not a few."* These events, so rapidly 
 described by Luke, must have taken some time. 
 
 The Jews of Thessalonica did not know in what direction Paul 
 went when he made his secret flight by night, and they would 
 
 ■ Dr. Dods, " Introduction to the New Testament," p. 158. 
 
 ' 2 ThesE. iii. 2. ^ i Thess. v. 20. * Acts xvii. ig. 
 
Io6 ST. PAUL. 
 
 not likely know where he was for some time. So Paul could 
 pursue his work quietly and unmolested by these "unreasonable 
 and wicked men." But soon news came to them that Paul was 
 preaching the word of God at Beroea, and it stirred them to 
 action. They came to Beroea, and proceeded forthwith to agitate 
 against Paul. The descriptive words as given in the Revised 
 Version show how eagerly and energetically they set to work, 
 but they also indicate that they needed to put forth energy. 
 "Stirring up and troubling the multitudes."' The first word, 
 suggestive of the stormy sea lashed into foam by the winds, indi- 
 cates both the strength and the violence of the Jews ; and the 
 second word tells us of the kind of accusation brought against 
 Paul, the same as was brought against" him at Thessalonica. We 
 do not know the end of the agitation. For the brethren, taking 
 thought for the safety of the Apostle, who was so apt not to take 
 care of himself, did not allow his health or life to be risked. 
 " They sent him forth to go as far as to the sea," ' and they sent 
 him forth alone. It was likely that the fury of the persecutors 
 would abate as soon as they discovered the absence of the man 
 against whom their anger was chiefly excited. Silas and 
 Timothy, remained in Beroea, as Luke had been left at 
 Philippi. 
 
 Those who were sent with Paul not only brought him " as 
 far as to the sea," but they went with him to Athens. It is 
 likely that they went by sea. For many reasons this is 
 most probable. There is no mention of any place visited by 
 him between Beroea and Athens, nor any record of his having 
 preached the gospel at any intermediate station. Nor would 
 they allow the Apostle to undertake an aimless journey by land, 
 with all its terrible fatigue and unnecessary danger, when a 
 short and easy journey by sea would bring him safely to Athens. 
 Those who conducted him found, when they reached the sea, 
 an opportunity of sailing without delay ; they seemingly em- 
 braced it, and, going along with him, they soon found themselves 
 in the intellectual capital of the world. From Athens they 
 speedily returned, bearing with them a commandment unto 
 Silas and Timothy to hasten their departure and to come with 
 all speed. 
 
 Paul at Athens, a typical Israelite, one of the race which em- 
 bodied the moral consciousness of humanity, and was the 
 ' Acts xvii, 13. » Ibid. xvii. 14, 
 
THESSALONICA, BERCEA, ATHENS. 1 07 
 
 incarnate conscience of the race, in the city which had been 
 the home of intellect, art, and science ! Here the two main 
 streams of ancient civilisation meet, and only meet ; they do not 
 mingle as yet, nor will they for some time to come. To bring the 
 wisdom, the intellect, the manifold versatility of Greek science 
 and art into the service of the moral and spiritual life which had 
 its home among the Jews, and which had come to full growth 
 and realisation in and through Jesus Christ, was a mighty 
 task, but one which in some measure was accomplished in the 
 course of time. But we must resist the temptation to dilate on 
 the topic of the Jew and the Greek, and their respective places 
 in the providential order of the world. Nor may we dwell on 
 the various influences which were exerted by the one or the 
 other from the time when they were brought into close contact by 
 the victories of Alexander the Great. It would be a fascinating 
 task to describe the growth of a spirit and a literature which 
 sprang into being through the cross-fertilisation of Hebrew 
 and Greek ideas. But we must limit ourselves to the instance 
 before us, and leaving wider issues to a more convenient season, 
 take with us only what is indispensable for the right under- 
 standing of the narrative before us. 
 
 Paul was all alone at Athens. He had leisure to wander 
 through the city alone. It was a great contrast to Jerusalem. 
 There no statue was to be found, no altar save the altar in the 
 Temple. The Jews had grown to the conviction that images of 
 all sorts were unlawful, and through the stringent teaching of 
 the past had been persuaded that only one altar was to be 
 allowed. But in Athens there were statues at every corner, and 
 altars in every street. As Paul waited, and wandered through 
 the city, his spirit was stirred within him to an intense degree. 
 He was in a " paroxysm." It is the same word which describes 
 the contention between him and Barnabas, but there it is the 
 noun, here it is the verb. It means that the sight of the idols 
 became so great a source of provocation to him that he could 
 not bear it. His spirit was provoked, and the fire within burnt 
 so intensely, that it became a source of even physical 
 uneasiness. He must do something, and what he did was 
 characteristic of the man. It appears that there was a 
 synagogue at Athens, and to it he went at first. He ex- 
 pected that the Jews would be in full sympathy with him in his 
 excitement against idolatry. The Jews and the devout persons 
 
Io8 ST. PAUL. 
 
 ought to have been with him, and to have felt, as he did, the 
 offence of idolatry. It appears, however, that they did not feel 
 as he did. For the conference he had with them is described as 
 a "dispute," and therefore we must infer that he was unable to 
 stir up the Jews and proselytes, or to raise them to the height of 
 his own excitement. Perhaps custom had deadened their sense 
 of the heinousness of the sin of idolatry ; perhaps, too, they felt 
 that they were only a tolerated people in Athens, and had no 
 right to meddle with the customs of the people. It was enough 
 for them that they kept themselves and their synagogue free 
 from the taint. At all events Paul could not rouse them to the 
 pitch of enthusiastic disapproval, nor induce them to take any 
 step, or give him any help in his crusade against idolatry. 
 
 He passed from the synagogue to the streets, and daily in 
 the market-place he had earnest conversations with them that 
 he happened to meet. Some centuries earlier Socrates, in a 
 similar way, had stood in the market-place, or walked about the 
 streets of Athens, eagerly laying hold of all who would listen, 
 trying to make them think seriously of truth, and virtue, and 
 righteousness, and to malce them know the reality of knowledge 
 and their responsibihty with regard to it. Now another than 
 Socrates stands in the market-place of Athens, and with similar 
 eagerness strives to lead the people to higher things : one, 
 however, who has a clearer message and a higher truth than 
 even Socrates knew — a truth which had found him before he 
 had found it. So the eager Apostle enters into conversation 
 with passing members of the idle crowd. He, weighted with the 
 sense of the nearness and of the personality of the living God, 
 burning with the desire of doing good, and with the necessity of 
 redeeming the time, comes into contact with these idle triflers, 
 who had no other aim in life than to pass the time in a graceful, 
 artistic, indolent fashion, and to have their curiosity tickled with 
 the latest news. Surely humanity could afford no greater contrast 
 than that between the earnest, burdened Apostle and the grace- 
 ful, idle, trifling Athenians "who spent their time in nothing 
 else but either to tell or to hear some new thing."' It is a 
 graphic description of a frivolous and purposeless life, and 
 there is good ground for believing an accurate account of the 
 Athenian hfe of the period. 
 
 It is not necessary to say much, if anything, about the various 
 * Acts xvii. 2j;, 
 
THESSALONICA, BERCEA, ATHENS. I09 
 
 schools of Greek philosophy, two of which are mentioned here ; 
 all the more because we may quite well understand the situa- 
 tion and the Apostle's speech without any such disquisition. 
 He does not enter into a discussion of the questions which 
 separated the Stoic from the Epicurean, or the Peripatetic from 
 the Academician. The matters he brings before them lie out- 
 side, or rather underlie, all such differences, and touch a broader 
 human interest. As the Stoics and Epicureans are mentioned, 
 we may, however, describe their peculiar tenets in a few sen- 
 tences. Both systems of philosophy sprang from a desire to 
 find something better and more satisfying to the nature of man 
 than could be found in the religions and mythologies of Greece 
 and Rome. But the better part of their influence had long 
 passed away, and the Epicureans and Stoics of Athens were but 
 degenerate representatives of these systems as they once were. 
 According to Zeno, the founder of the Stoics, to practise virtue 
 was the highest duty of man, but knowledge was needed in 
 order to practise virtue. How, then, shall we obtain sure and 
 certain knowledge ? The only knowledge which is sure, cer- 
 tain, immediate, and real, is the knowledge we have through 
 the senses. Thus their theory of knowledge was sensualistic 
 and materialistic. It was also pantheistic, for God was the 
 soul of the universe, from whom all things came, to whom all 
 things return, in cycles which are reproduced in a rhythmic 
 manner, governed by unchanging law. Individuals were of 
 little importance ; there was a providence, but providence cared 
 only for the whole. They were thus materialists, pantheists, 
 fatalists, who constantly strove to maintain always and every- 
 where undisturbed peace of mind. If they were uncomfortable 
 in this world, they had always the resource of sending them- 
 selves out of it. They began with a desire to find a system to 
 guide life and promote moral conduct, they ended with a system 
 which made life a thing to be disposed of at the caprice of him 
 who possessed it. 
 
 The Epicureans made pleasure the end of life. By the 
 word pleasure they did not understand what was profligate or 
 really sensual, but that state of body and mind which might be 
 called tranquillity, freedom from disturbance and care. Along 
 with this great practical aim they usually held that there was 
 no real moral government of the world, that there was no Maker 
 of the world, and that the world had come to be by some happy 
 
no ST. PAUL. 
 
 chance, or by some fortuitous concourse of atoms. Thus the 
 Epicureans pictured for themselves a' world made by chance, 
 ruled by no fixed law, cared for by no God, for the gods lived 
 apart, careless of mankind, intent only on maintaining their own 
 happiness. We may readily enough imagine how this system 
 should lend itself to the encouragement and to the production 
 of an idle, careless, pleasure-seeking mode of living, in which 
 the thought of duty found no place. 
 
 Certain of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered 
 Paul and began to question him. From their remarks we 
 gather that Paul, though his spirit had been provoked to 
 action by the sight of a city full of idols, had not spoken 
 much against idolatry. He had, on the contrary, set forth the 
 positive aspects of the truth, and had told them of Jesus and the 
 resurrection. So much appears evident from the questions 
 they ask. " Some said. What would this babbler say .' other 
 some. He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods : because 
 he preached Jesus and the resurrection." ' One set of his 
 critics were offended at the manner of the speaker. He seemed 
 to them a babbler, one who had not the polish of a person 
 trained in the schools at Athens. Where was the studied 
 antithesis, the balanced rhythm to which they were accustomed 
 in Greek orators? Where were the technical terms, the 
 rhetorical illustrations, the ample sweep of analogical argu- 
 ment ? There were none of these in the conversational state- 
 ment of the Apostle. But there were others who were disposed 
 to overlook all outward defects of manner, and who would 
 listen to one who, at all events, spoke with all the appearance 
 of earnest conviction. It was a new thing in the Athens 
 of the time for a man to speak in this fashion. They 
 understood enough to be able to know that Paul had some- 
 thing to say which they had not heard before. Jesus and 
 the resurrection ! What did Paul mean by them ? Their 
 curiosity was greatly excited. Here was a new sensation. So 
 a pubhc meeting was called, and Paul was brought to the 
 Areopagus, and courteously asked, " May we know what this 
 new teaching is, which is spoken by thee ? For thou bringest 
 certain strange things to our ears : we would know therefore 
 what these things mean." = Then Paul stood in the midst of 
 the Areopagus, and gave utterance to the remarkable speech 
 ■ Acts xvii. i8. » Ibid. xvii. 19, 20. 
 
THESSALONICA, BERCEA, ATHENS. Ill 
 
 recorded for us by Luke. It is impossible to say whether we 
 have here an outline only of what Paul said, or all that he was 
 allowed to say. On the one hand it is so condensed that it may 
 well be only the heads of his oration, but on the other hand we 
 have the statement that as soon as he began to speak of the 
 resurrection the meeting broke up, and it is not likely that Paul 
 would have spoken for any time without speaking of Jesus and 
 His resurrection. Be this as it may, the speech in itself, as given 
 in the Acts, is of the highest importance. It agrees with what 
 we know to have been a deep-seated belief, and reasoned con- 
 viction in the mind of Paul. Usually in his Epistles he is able 
 to take for granted the things he says here ; but once at least 
 he feels constrained to write : "For the invisible things of Him 
 since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived 
 through the things that are made, even His everlasting power 
 and divinity." ' To speak as he did at Athens was, therefore, 
 quite in keeping both with what he said at Lystra and with 
 what he wrote to Rome. The more oratorical form depends on 
 the audience. 
 
 He seeks to find some ground common to him and the 
 Athenians. Having found a point of contact with them, he 
 makes it a point of departure, from whence he might lead them 
 to higher truths. This point he finds in an inscription he had 
 observed on an altar, " To an unknown God." ° We may remark 
 in passing that many people in reading this speech at Athens 
 seem to see nothing else in it than this inscription. Sir William 
 Hamilton, in a famous passage which has been often quoted, 
 makes mention of the inscription, as if it were the culmination 
 of all religious philosophy. Apparently he had not observed 
 that Paul makes use of the words, "To an unknown God," for the 
 sake of showing that God could be known. From this sentence 
 as a starting-point Paul goes on to tell the Athenians of God. He 
 is no Epicurean deity, nor is He the soul of the world as the 
 Stoics said. He is the Maker of heaven and earth. He made 
 the world and all things therein. The Greeks had sought after 
 Him, and the inscription on the altar plainly said they had not 
 found Him. Paul had come to set forth to them what they had 
 worshipped in ignorance. He did not accuse them of want of 
 reverence, or of want of diligence ; rather, he had found in them 
 a misdirected reverence, and a belief that had gone beyond the 
 * Rom . i. 20. ^ Acts xvii. 23. 
 
112 ST. PAUL. 
 
 facts. But now Paul has come, a man sent from God, to tell 
 them who God is, and what He would have them to do. Having 
 described God as the Maimer of the world and all things therein, 
 he tells of the kind of service that man owed to Him. "He, 
 being Lord of heaven and earth, dwclleth not in temples made 
 with hands ; neither is He served by men's hands, as though He 
 needed anything, seeing He Himself giveth to all life, and breath, 
 and all things.'" It will not help Athens that she has some of 
 the most beautiful and most celebrated temples in the world, for 
 the service which the living God requires cannot be rendered 
 by hands alone. Nor must they think of God as if He needed 
 or was dependent on the gifts and sacrifices of men. They 
 must think of Him as the Giver, not as the Receiver. Life, 
 health, all things flow from Him. 
 
 Having thus briefly and pregnantly set forth the doctrine of 
 God as Maker of the world, and the service which man may 
 and may not render to Him, he describes God's relation to 
 man in particular. " He made of one" every nation of men to 
 dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their 
 appointed seasons and the bounds of their habitation." The 
 doctrine of Divine providence was never more clearly or more 
 beautifully expressed, nor the great doctrine of the unity of 
 mankind. The true reading does not lay stress merely on the 
 physical unity of mankind, but on their moral and spiritual 
 oneness. He made them like each other, for He had made 
 them in His own image. He provided for them a home on 
 this bounteous and beautiful earth. He-gave them seedtime 
 and harvest, .summer and winter, and so ordained these that 
 the earth was a fit home for man, and He appointed for them 
 the boundaries of their habitations. Thus Paul teaches that as 
 there was one God, so also humanity is one. On this founda- 
 tion he builds the doctrine of the Divine Fatherhood a 
 little later. But this, he proceeds to tell them, God has done 
 with a purpose. God made them, gave them a home, provided 
 for them, ruled them in order that they might seek Him. The 
 world was a place in which man might find God. True, man's 
 search after God had been like the efforts of one groping in the 
 dark. " If haply they might feel after Him and find Him."^ 
 Paul does not tell here, what he afterwards told in the Epistle 
 
 • Acts xvii. 24. ' Actsxvii. 26. All the best MSS. omit "blood," 
 
 3 Acts xvii. 27. 
 
THESSALONICA, BERCEA, ATHENS. II3 
 
 to the Romans, the reasons why they did not succeed in finding 
 God. True, they might have found Him. " He is not far from 
 any one" of us.'' " For in Him we live, and move, and have our 
 being." The hving God is near to man. He does not dwell in 
 some distant, inaccessible sphere ; and of this one of their own 
 poets had a glimpse. Aratus of Cilicia had written, "For we 
 are also His offspring.'' Here the Apostle finds another point of 
 contact with his auditors, and uses it to enforce his message. 
 
 Man is the offspring of God ; surely it is absurd to think that 
 the Godhead is like material things ! Man is greater than things, 
 how much greater is the Godhead ! Men ought not to have 
 such unworthy thoughts of God as they had, but they did 
 have such thoughts, and did think that God was hke unto gold, 
 or silver, or stone, graven by art or man's device. God had 
 patience with this ignorance, but now the time has come 
 when " He commanded men that they should all every- 
 where repent." Repentance is urgent, for the judgment shall 
 come : the day is appointed in which all shall be tried. God's 
 revelation in nature, of which man made so little, and which he 
 had so much misread, is now made perfect by a higher 1 
 revelation. God has spoken through His Son. God will 
 assuredly bring man into judgment. " He hath given assurance 
 unto all men of the judgment by the resurrection of Jesus from 
 the dead." 
 
 Here the speech was abruptly stopped ; some mocked, and 
 others thought that they might have another opportunity. But 
 Paul went out from among them, and Athens saw him no more. 
 His visit to Athens was not without result. "Certain men 
 clave unto him, and believed ; among whom was Dionysius 
 the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with 
 them." 
 
 I do not stay to deal with the doubts which Weizsacker ' and 
 others have cast on the historical character of this scene at 
 Athens. We know that Paul was at Athens," and was alone 
 there. We know also that what is recorded here is quite 
 characteristic of the Apostle, and we can see also that the line 
 of thought and the particular views set forth in the speech 
 were familiar to him. There is a striking agreement between 
 what is set forth here, and his teaching in his Epistles, with 
 regard to God, to worship, to Divine providence, to the judg- 
 » " Das Apostolische Zeitalter," p. 265. " i Thess. iii. i. 
 
 9 
 
114 ST. PAUL. 
 
 ment, and to the fact that Christ is Judge of all. There is also 
 striking confirmation in the reference to Dionysius the Areo- 
 pagite contained in Eusebius. " Beside, the Areopagite called 
 Dionysius, whom Luke has recorded in his Acts, after Paul's 
 address to the Athenians, is mentioned by Dionysius, another 
 of the ancients, and pastor of the church at Corinth, as the 
 first bishop of the Church at Athens." ' 
 
 ■ H. £. iii. 4 i see also iv. 33. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 IN CORINTH. 
 
 Corinth — Character of its people — Aquila and Priscilla — Arrival of Silas 
 and Timothy — Aggressive worli — Titus Justus — Crispus — Progress of 
 the worlc — Opposition of the Jews — They accuse St. Paul — Gallio — 
 His decision — Trustworthiness of the account of Paul's work con- 
 tained in the Book of Acts — Weizsacker — The Epistles to the Corin- 
 thians — Conditions and character of St. Paul's work among them — 
 Methods and principles by which the Apostle settled questions of 
 doctrine, morals, and ecclesiastical order. 
 
 From Athens he went to Corinth, the capital of the Roman 
 province of Achaia, and then the most important city of 
 Greece. Its situation gave its inhabitants the command of all 
 traffic between the peninsula and the rest of Greece ; and 
 with its two ports, one on the east, and one on the west, Corinth 
 was in a position to win a large share of the sea-borne traffic. 
 It was a place of high culture, famous also for its connection 
 with the Isthmian games. It had, however, a reputation of 
 a more sinister kind. To " Corinthianize," to live as a Corin- 
 thian, meant a life of the most licentious sort. A " Corinthian 
 banquet," a "Corinthian drinker," had passed into proverbs, 
 and become part of current speech. Outward prosperity, com- 
 bined with utter dissoluteness of life, were the characteristics 
 of the city to which Paul now came. 
 
 Following the accounts in the Acts of the Apostles, we read 
 that here Paul " found a certain Jew, Aquila, a man of Pontus 
 by race, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because 
 Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart Irom Rome." 
 It is not said that Aquila and Priscilla were Christians beibre 
 
Il6 ST. PAUL. 
 
 Paul met them. Probably not, as he is called a Jew, not 
 merely by race, but by religion. We may easily conceive how 
 the meeting between Paul and them took place. Paul came 
 as a solitary individual into Corinth, and naturally the first 
 thing for a stranger to do vj^as to find work and lodgings. 
 He sought the place where the tent-makers lived, and found 
 a Jewish family who followed his own trade. What more 
 natural than that the double bond of kinship and common 
 occupation should draw the two men together, both compara- 
 tive strangers to all in that great city ? A third bond was 
 soon to bind them more closely together. Aquila and 
 Priscilla believed in the gospel which Paul preached. Thus 
 at the outset Paul had found a family, work, and a place 
 he could consider a home for the time. But his main work 
 was not forgotten. " He reasoned in the synagogue every 
 sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks." ' Thus the time, 
 fully occupied, wore away, until Silas and Timothy did 
 arrive. 
 
 When they came, Paul, strengthened and refreshed by their 
 presence, took a more aggressive attitude, and his preaching 
 became more incisive. He did not need now to labour so 
 much at his trade, as the contribution from the Philippian 
 Church had made this unnecessary. At all events we note a 
 change. " Paul was constrained by the word." ' The word 
 led him on, and his testimony became more urgent and 
 pressing. He could not help himself, and with greater 
 insistence he testified that Jesus was the Christ. Whatsoever 
 had been the substance of his reasoning formerly, now he 
 confines himself to the one topic, and the proofs of it, that 
 Jesus was indeed the Messiah whom the Jews had long 
 expected. But he preached to the Jews in vain. They were 
 resolute in opposition, as if they were entrenched in a sxrong 
 position from which no effort of his could dislodge them. 
 Nor did they confine themselves to a sullen, dogged resistance ; 
 they spoke evil of the truth which St. Paul preached, they 
 " blasphemed." Paul did not persevere in the teeth of such 
 implacable animosity to Jesus and the gospel. He turned away 
 from them, and with the significant gesture of entire renun- 
 ciation. "He shook out his raiment," ^ to tell them that hence- 
 forth they will not be in his thoughts. To them must attach 
 ' Acts xviii. 4. ' Ibid, xviii. 5. 3 Ibid, xviii. 6. 
 
IN CORINTH. 117 
 
 the responsibility of rejecting the gospel. St. Paul was free ; he 
 had done what he could, and froxn henceforth in Corinth his 
 work will lie among the Gentiles. To the Gentiles he went 
 and he found a house suitable for teaching and worship, close 
 by the synagogue. It does not appear that St. Paul dwelt in 
 the house. He may have remained with Aquila and Priscilla. 
 The house of Titus Justus became the headquarters of the 
 mission, and for eighteen months Paul taught the word of 
 God among them. 
 
 His work among the Jews had not been altogether in vain. 
 All of them had not been obdurate and impenitent. " Crispus, 
 the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his 
 house." ' He was one of those whom Paul himself baptized." 
 As soon as he was baptized, Crispus would at once leave the 
 synagogue, and the Jews would speedily choose another ruler. 
 Accordingly we find that a few verses further on Sosthenes is 
 described as the ruler of the synagogue. He may have been 
 successor to Crispus, if there were only one synagogue in Corinth 
 and, as far as the account in the Acts of the Apostles goes, 
 mention is made of only one synagogue. To have one like 
 Crispus who had occupied the high position of ruler of the 
 synagogue, and one like Titus Justus who is briefly described 
 as " one that worshipped God," gave to Paul a vantage-ground 
 from which he could press on to win more people for Christ. 
 The work went bravely on ; nor were there wanting to Paul 
 other signs and tokens of Divine strength and encouragement. 
 Many of the Corinthians had believed and were baptized. 
 This might in other circumstances have been sufficient to have 
 encouraged Paul to persevere. From whatever reason, he 
 must have needed more strength than he could receive from 
 the direct results of his preaching. The vision and the reve- 
 lation he received were surely needed by him, or they would 
 not have come. " The Lord said unto Paul in the night by a 
 vision. Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace : 
 for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee : 
 fori have much people in this city."^ He is to speak more 
 urgently than ever, and work on till the Lord had found the 
 people. Paul obeyed, and continued to give his testimony 
 regarding Jesus, until it was made plain to him that he was 
 called to preach the gospel to other cities also. 
 
 ' Acts xviii. 8. ' t Cor. i. 14. 3 Acts xviii. 9-10. 
 
Il8 ST. PAUL. 
 
 We have no more details of his work in Corinth in the 
 Acts of the Apostles, but we have one illustrative incident. 
 We know not the precise date, nor whether it was early or late in 
 the time of Paul's sojourn at Corinth. The only note of time 
 is that it happened when " Gallio was proconsul of Achaia." 
 Gallio was the brother of the more famous Seneca, who was 
 tutor to the Emperor Nero. Gallio was a man highly esteemed 
 and much loved by his Roman contemporaries, and many 
 pleasant things said of him have been preserved in extant 
 literature — an easy, pleasant, popular man, and a favourite 
 with everybody. The Jews resolved to try that plan in Corinth 
 which had been found successful elsewhere. " They with one 
 accord rose up against Paul, and brought him before the 
 judgment-seat." ' They had already driven him from Beroea 
 and from Thessalonica, and now they seek to drive him from 
 Corinth. But theirs was a diminishing success, and at 
 Corinth they failed altogether to effect their purpose. They 
 brought an accusation against Paul. Luke gives only a 
 summary of the accusation, for it is evident, from Gallio's reply, 
 that the Jews had entered into many details. They accused 
 him thus: " This man persuadeth men to worship God contrary 
 to the law." The accusation was not so cunning as, though it was 
 more honest, than those usually brought against Paul. He was 
 not accused even of doing anything against Roman law nor of 
 treason against Cffisar. They invoked the power of the pro- 
 consul to protect the Jewish law. Gallio listened until they 
 had stated their case ; nor did he allow Paul to reply. He 
 feels he does not need to hear the defence. He sees it is not 
 a matter of wrong or of wicked villany ; there is here no breach 
 of law or equity. He will not enter into questions about words 
 and names, and if it is merely a question of Jewish law, let 
 them look to it themselves. " I am not minded to be a judge 
 of these matters." " The case was ended, the lictors are com- 
 manded to disperse them, and the Jews are driven from the 
 judgment-seat. 
 
 The Jews had gained nothing this time by their accusation 
 against Paul. They were plainly told they had no case. But 
 the tone and attitude of the proconsul had an effect which he 
 had not foreseen. The crowd who had gathered round to hear 
 the accusation, and the decision, instantly took action. They 
 » Acts xviii. 12. ' Ibid, xviii. 15. 
 
IN CORINTH. 119 
 
 did not like the Jews, and the present seemed a fit opportunity 
 to gratify their dislike. They, therefore, to mark their dis- 
 approval of the action of the Jews in bringing Paul before the 
 Judgment-seat, laid rough and violent hands on Sosthenes, the 
 ruler of the synagogue, the man who had been the spokesman 
 of the Jews, and beat him before the judgment-seat. This was 
 done even in the presence of the proconsul. But it is added, 
 " Gallio cared for none of these things '' ; he had no interest in the 
 question they had raised, nor had he much regard to the life 
 and comfort of those whom he regarded as mere Jews. The 
 incident is altogether characteristic of the man, and of the 
 Roman imperious carelessness about the life or comfort of those 
 whom they looked on as inferior races. 
 
 This, then, is the account which Luke gives us of the work of 
 Paul at Corinth — an account which a good many critics have 
 looked on as unhistorical and untrustworthy. It would lead us 
 too far afield to enumerate all that has been written on this 
 head. We may, however, look at what has been said, by one of 
 the latest, as he is also one of the most distinguished of these 
 critics. Weizsacker ' finds the whole account to be historically 
 untenable. The preaching to the Jews, their rejection of him, 
 and his consequent departure to the Gentiles, are unhistorical ; so 
 also is the fact recorded by Luke, that all those who company 
 with Paul are Jews, with the single exception of Titus Justus. 
 This, he says, is utterly opposed to the facts recorded in the 
 First Epistle to the Corinthians. The section about Aquila and 
 Priscilla also is untrustworthy, since from i Cor. xvi. 19 and 
 Rom. xvi. 3 we find them at Ephesus, in possession of a house, 
 which is large and convenient enough to be the meeting-house 
 of a Church. But the account of them in Acts is neither 
 clear nor consistent. Crispus is rather a difficulty to Weiz- 
 Eacker's view, but he gets rid of it by saying that from the 
 passage in I Cor. i. 1 1 it is not clear that he was a Jew, and 
 Paul tells us nothing of Titus Justus. In short, Weizsacker 
 says that the scenes which set forth the accusation of the 
 Jews, and its result, and the indifference of the proconsul, are 
 due to the " pragmatism " of the writer. 
 
 Next he tries to show that the statement in the section 
 regarding Aquila and Priscilla is inconsistent with the statement 
 that follows, in so far as in the first section Luke says that Paul 
 " Weizsacker. " Das Apostolische Zeitalter," pp. 268-272. 
 
I20 ST. PAUL. 
 
 " sought to persuade Jews and Greeks," while in the s ™ond 
 section he represents the activity of Paul among the Greciis to 
 have begun after the arrival of Silas and Timothy, and after the 
 rupture with the Jews. These are specimens of the sort of 
 argumentation by which it is sought to disparage this section of 
 the Acts of the Apostles as a source of history. There are 
 others which also may be touched on, but at present let us look 
 at them. The underlying ground of Weizsacker's objection is 
 his view that it was unlikely that Paul would preach so much in 
 the synagogue of the Jews. If there were a synagogue of the 
 Jews in Corinth — and no one has ventured to deny that there 
 was — it was in accordance with Paul's custom that he should 
 begin at the synagogue. It was his invariable custom so to do. 
 He did it when Barnabas was his companion, he did it in 
 Europe, at Philippi, at Thessalonica, and now at Corinth. If 
 there was in Corinth no reference to his usual custom, we should 
 have looked for an explanation of his deviation from his usual 
 practice. 
 
 As to the statement that in the Acts of the Apostles all the 
 names of those with whom Paul associates are Jewish names 
 with the exception of Titus Justus, while in the Epistle the 
 names are Greek, such as Stephanas, Fortunatus, Achaicus, 
 the observation is true as far as it goes, with a few exceptions. 
 We have already noticed that the name of Crispus presents a 
 difficulty to Weizsacker, of which he presents a most inadequate 
 explanation. The names of Crispus and Gaius, with Acjuilaand 
 Priscilla, form links of connection between the narrative in the 
 historical book and the allusions of the Epistles. As to his 
 reference to Aquila and Priscilla, it strikes us as sheer trifling. 
 Luke says that they went with Paul from Corinth to Ephesus, 
 and the First Epistle to the Corinthians has the following : 
 "Aquila and Prisca salute you much in the Lord, with the 
 church that is in their house." ' What is there to make it at all 
 unlikely that both statements are true ? We may say that the 
 accounts are clear and consistent enough. No doubt it is true 
 that Paul does not say, when he mentions their names, that they 
 had been with him at Corinth, that they wrought with him at 
 tent-making, and had travelled with him to Ephesus. But we 
 venture to submit that Paul was not bound to write a biography 
 of every person whose name he mentions. It appears, however, 
 ^ I Cor. xvi. 19. 
 
IN CORINTH. 121 
 
 that they had a good house in Ephesus. Well, they had a house 
 in Corinth sufficiently large to enable them to offer hospitality 
 to Paul, and it is possible that they may have been in better 
 circumstances at Ephesus. Property, which they could not have 
 realised before their hasty departure from Rome, may have 
 been realised afterwards. It is clear, therefore, that Weizsacker's 
 difficulty is a manufactured article. 
 
 We are glad, however, to agree with the view of Weizsacker, 
 " that the two Epistles of the Apostle to this congregation are in 
 the highest sense historical." ' This, indeed, is no new view 
 of his. He had formerly described it as " a fragment of ecclesi- 
 astical history like no other," and the sections which he gives to 
 its exposition in the work we have frequently referred to are of 
 very great value. But while he holds the historical worth of 
 the Epistles to be of such unique value, it is quite gratuitous on 
 his part to cast doubts on the historical worth of the Acts of the 
 Apostles. The agreement between the two accounts becomes 
 more manifest the more the two are studied. It by no means 
 lies on the surface ; it forms an underlying harmony. We read 
 in the Acts that Paul was in a depressed state of mind such as 
 made him long for encouragement, and the encouragement he 
 receives in a vision. We are not told what the cause was of 
 his mental depression. As far as the story is concerned it may 
 have been fear of the Jews, it may have been bodily weakness, 
 or any other cause. We are simply informed of its existence and 
 of its removal. When we turn to the First Epistle we read what 
 precisely fills up the space left vacant, as it were, in the history : 
 " I was with you in weakness and fear and in much trembling." 
 It is not thus that a man describes bodily weakness or the 
 apprehension he has of danger or of persecution. These words 
 do not suggest to us thoughts of such a trouble as he describes 
 wheu he speaks of the thorn in the flesh, the buffeting messenger 
 of Satan. Weakness, fear, and much trembling indicate 
 much more — causes of a mental, moral, and spiritual sort. Nor 
 are these far to seek. The words follow closely on his descrip- 
 tion of the resolution he had formed not to know anything 
 among them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He had not 
 come among them with " excellency of speech or of wisdom, 
 proclaiming to you the mystery of God." ° The source of his 
 weakness, fear, and trembling was, how would this hne of con- 
 ' Op. ciL, p. 265. ' I Cor. ii. i. 
 
122 ST. PAUL. 
 
 duct succeed ? How would the Greeks receive such a message, 
 delivered in such a manner ? Here, when he had cut himself 
 loose from the synagogue, he would be far from the help he 
 was wont to receive from the law and the prophets, and from 
 the manifold associations he had in common with Jews and 
 proselytes. Nor had he merely to deal with the rude and crude 
 polytheism and nature worship of uncultured races, such as he 
 had seen in Lycaonia ; nor with the stronger, simpler natures 
 such as he had found in the Roman colony at Pbilippi, and 
 among the working men at Thessalonica. The situation is quite 
 new to him. He is to face a cultured Greek audience, and he has 
 deliberately resolved to seek no adventitious help from excellence 
 of speech, or dialectical skill, or from the graces of oratorical 
 art. These — may we not say ? — he had tried at Athens, with the 
 result that he never got his message delivered. He is resolved 
 to put in the forefront the simple testimony to Jesus and His 
 Cross. What shall the issue be of such a venture? As he 
 weighed the possible consequences of his resolution, and 
 realised the vast issues involved, we do not wonder that he was 
 in fear and in much trembling, and that he recorded the word 
 sent him in a vision. " Fear not — I have much people in this 
 city." 
 
 Thus encouraged the Apostle persevered, and spoke of Jesus 
 Christ and Him crucified. His speech and his preaching were 
 not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the 
 Spirit and of power. He had his reward for setting aside those 
 helps to persuasion which men had laid so much stress on, for the 
 faith of the Corinthians, looking past the speaker to his message, 
 grounded itself, not on the wisdom of men. but on the power of 
 God. There was also a certain penalty he had to pay for his 
 daring resolution. His opponents felt and expressed a sort of 
 contempt for him and for his mental power. They felt that his 
 bodily presence was weak, and his speech of no account, that 
 he was rude in speech.' So he quotes their sayings when he 
 writes the Second Epistle to them. He was content to run the 
 risk. He is persuaded that Christ is the power of God and the 
 wisdom of God. He is persuaded also that " God chose the 
 foolish things of the world, that He might put to shame them 
 that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, that 
 He might put to shame the things that are strong ; and the base 
 ' 2 Cor. X. II., xi. 6. 
 
IN CORINTH. 123 
 
 things of the world, and the things that are despised, did God 
 choose, yea and the things that are not, that He might bring to 
 nought the things that are." ' In writing thus he was able to 
 see that his resolution and his conduct had been right and 
 successful. But it needed great courage and great faith to make 
 the experiment. It was the strain and agony of making this 
 resolution which made him afraid, and here, therefore, we have 
 the point of contact between the history and the Epistle. 
 
 When we look with some care into these Corinthian Epistles 
 for traces of the historical conditions under which Paul began 
 his work among the Greeks, we are amply rewarded. No 
 doubt there is also a number of questions we may ask to 
 which only a very inadequate answer can be given. But we 
 obtain many glimpses into actual life and real history which 
 are invaluable. We learn that Paul was unmistakably the 
 founder of the Corinthian Church. It was he who planted ; ' 
 it was he who, as a master-builder, had laid the foundation.^ 
 Others may have watered what he had planted, or may have 
 built on the foundation he had laid, but no one could claim to 
 say as he could say, "Are not ye my work in the Lord?"* 
 " Though ye should have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet 
 have ye not many fathers : for in Christ Jesus I begat you 
 through the gospel." 5 They were "the seal of mine apostle- 
 ship in the Lord."' And further, to clench the whole matter, 
 he says again, "Ye are our epistle. Written in our hearts, known 
 and read of all men ; being made manifest that ye are an 
 epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but 
 with the Spirit of the living God ; not in tables of stone, but in 
 tables which are hearts of flesh." ' Thus he vindicates his claim 
 to be their spiritual father, and at the same time shows of what 
 kind his work among them had been. In entire agreement 
 with the Acts of the Apostles, he reminds them that with 
 Silvanus and Timothy ^ he had preached the gospel unto them, 
 that his main business among them had been to preach the 
 gospel. True, he had baptized Crispus and Gaius and the 
 household of Stephanas, but he came not to baptize, but to 
 preach. 
 
 There is no difficulty about the fact that the house of 
 
 ' I Cor. i. 27-28. ' Ibid. iii. 6. 3 Ibid. iii. 10. 
 
 * Ibid. ix. i. 5 Ibid. iv. 15. ' Ibid. ix. 3, 
 
 7 2 Cor. iii. 2, 3. ^ Ibid. i. 19. 
 
124 ST. PAUL. 
 
 Stephanas was the firstfruits of Achaia." Some, indeed, find 
 this statement inconsistent with the other statement contained 
 in the Acts of the Apostles, that Paul knew Aquila and 
 Priscilla before he knew any other one at Corinth. Let it be 
 granted that they were his first converts at Corinth, yet they 
 were Jews, not Gentiles, dwellers at Rome and at Ephesns, 
 who had been at Corinth only for a short time, and they could 
 not, in any proper sense of the word, be said to be the first- 
 fruits of Achaia. The people to whom he writes were for the 
 most part of Gentile origin, as the topics he had to discuss 
 with them were such as could have arisen only among people 
 who had been trained under Gentile influences. They had 
 been Gentiles. " Ye know that when ye were Gentiles ye were 
 led away unto those dumb idols, howsoever ye might be led."' 
 They had fallen away from faith in the one God. They were 
 of those v\rho had misread the first and primary revelation of 
 God, and were of the world which by wisdom had not known 
 God. " Seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through 
 its wisdom knew not God," a statement which sets forth both 
 the eagerness and the failure of the Greek search after God. To 
 them, then, he had given the Divine message, and had told of 
 Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He had not set speculation 
 against speculation, but against speculation he had placed what 
 he calls the foolishness of preaching. The weak things had been 
 stronger than the strong. In his preaching, and in their recep- 
 tion of it ; in their own life, and in their social standing, the 
 same principles found illustration. " The weakness of God 
 was stronger than men.'' He had fed them with milk, and not 
 with meat, for they were not able to bear anything stronger ; ' 
 and in this fact he finds the peril of transition from the story 
 of his past treatment of them to the teaching he has yet to 
 give. 
 
 His first aim is to put an end to the divisions in the Church 
 of Corinth. These had been many and grievous. They had 
 not reached so far as to break the external unity of the Church, 
 but they had been productive of very mischievous effects. We 
 do not intend to enter on the great subject of the history and 
 character of these divisions. Nor need we inquire what was 
 the origin of the various parties, the party of ApoUos, of 
 Cephas, of Christ, of Paul. We may say that these divisions, 
 ' I Cor. xvj. 15. ' Ibid. xii. i. J Ibid. iii. i, ■^. 
 
IN CORINTH. 125 
 
 in the very number and variety of them, are inconsistent with 
 the view talcen of them by Baur and his followers. That there 
 were an Apollos-party and a Christ-party is proof sufficient of 
 this. For in no way can these be brought into harmony with 
 the view which splits up the Christian Church into two great 
 parties, the Pauline and the Petrine. But we may not deal 
 more fully with this point. 
 
 In order to settle the questions on which an appeal was made 
 to him, Paul sets himself first to vindicate his Apostolic authority. 
 This he does in such a way as to win the assent of all parties 
 in the congregation, and to induce them to recognise his 
 authority. All parties in Corinth agree to submit to him 
 who was their founder, their father in Christ Jesus; for all, 
 wherever they were, were watering what he had planted, and 
 building on the foundation he had laid. He needed no other 
 proof of his Apostleship than the fact of their own existence 
 as Christians. They were the proofs of his Apostleship. Party 
 names and party spirit should vanish, for all alike belonged to 
 them. So he disposes of the party question. He has next to 
 give his decision on the other questions submitted to him, some 
 of which are of a purely moral order, some belong to public 
 worship, and some to doctrine. The questions submitted to 
 him were particular, had a local colour, and many peculiarities 
 of time and place and circumstance. The answers he gives to 
 them are universal ; they are based on grounds which transcend 
 time and place, and avail for man's moral guidance everywhere 
 and always. 
 
 How does Paul win his way to those universal principles on 
 which his particular decisions are given ? Many of the topics 
 which he has to discuss, and on which he has to decide, were such 
 as could not have been raised in a congregation that knew the 
 Old Testament. They could arise only among a people who 
 had once been heathen ; some of them could arise only among 
 Greeks, or those who are ethnically akin to Greeks. The 
 question as to the nature and character of the resurrection was 
 essentially a Greek question. Paul could not decide these 
 questions by the exercise of mere personal authority, nor could 
 he settle them by an appeal to the Scriptures of the Old 
 Testament. What is his method, and what is his principle ? 
 It is most instructive to watch his procedure, and to observe 
 how he ascends to what is universal. His method is to 
 
126 ST. PAUL. 
 
 ascend from each particular question to Christ. He assumes 
 that Christ is universal, that what can be drawn from Christ 
 is of universal application. Take the party question. " Each 
 one of you saith, I am of Pkul ; and I of Apollos ; and 1 of 
 Cephas ; and I of Christ." " How does Paul resolve the 
 difficulty ? By a reference to the historical Christ, to the unity, 
 and to the uniqueness of the work and power of Christ. At 
 the beginning of the argument by the indignant series of 
 questions, " Is Christ divided } was Paul crucified for you ? or 
 were ye baptized into the name of Paul ?" and after his long 
 argumentation by the affirmations, " For all things are yours ; 
 whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or 
 death, or things present, or things to come ; all are yours ; and 
 ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's,"' he settles the question 
 of divisions, and settles it by reference to the merits of Christ's 
 person and the unexampled greatness of Christ's work. Chris- 
 tians cannot call themselves by any lesser name than His. 
 To do so would raise the other name to a false position, would 
 do dishonour to Christ's name, and would defraud the Christian 
 of his greatest possession, which is Christ, 
 
 From these Epistles we gather further illustrations of the 
 manner in which Paul finds universal principles in order to 
 settle particular questions, and finds them in Christ. Has 
 he to decide questions of practical discipline involving the 
 peace and purity of the Church, he finds the decision, and the 
 principle which rules the decision, in the presence and the 
 person of the Risen Lord. The body is sacred, belongs to 
 Christ, and must therefore be kept pure. Thus the doctrine of 
 the Risen Christ gives to the Apostle a new basis and a new 
 sanction for morality. He does not need to travel far, nor to 
 discuss questions of the schools, in order to vindicate the 
 sacredness of the moral life and the necessary purity of social 
 relations. He gets the principle at one step by asking, " Know 
 ye not that your bodies are menibers o.f Christ ? '•" ^ 
 
 With like simplicity and directness he is able to guide the 
 conscience of the people in the grave question of Christian 
 liberty generally, and with special regard to the use which 
 Christians might make of things sacrificed to idols. Here, 
 too, he finds a solution in the gospel of Christ and Him 
 crucified. There is " One Lord Jesua Christ, through whons 
 ■ 1 Cor. i. 12. ' Ibid. iii. 23. 3 Ibid. vi. 15. 
 
IN CORINTH. 127 
 
 are all things, and we through Him.'" Those who can rise to 
 the knowledge that there is only one God, and that idols are 
 nothing, are free, and may act at their discretion. But there 
 is one limit to their freedom, and the place and manner in 
 which the limit is set down by Paul is characteristic of the 
 way in which out of particular instances he evolves a universal 
 principle. The man who has been persuaded that an idol is 
 nothing may not act on this principle if he cause his brother 
 to offend. A man may not use his liberty if the exercise of it 
 becomes a stumbling-block to the weak. Why ? We note the 
 answer. It is not because there may be selfishness in that 
 use of liberty, nor that it injures the conscience of others, nor 
 that it is generally injurious, but because the weak one who 
 perisheth is a " brother for whose sake Christ died." So here 
 also the restraint on liberty is itself a sign of freedom, and 
 is brought by Paul into the closest relation with the work of 
 Christ, and with loyalty to the person of Christ. 
 
 The instructions given as to Church order, as to the 
 administration of the Lord's Supper, and as to the orderly 
 arrangement of the worship of the sanctuary, are, in like 
 manner, found in the relation which public worship bears to 
 Christ. " The bread which we break, is it not a communion 
 of the body of Christ ? " ' And Christ is one. So Christ is 
 the head of every man, and because of that principle Paul 
 lays down that women are to have no part in the leading of 
 the prayers of the congregation. The existence and the working 
 of spiritual gifts in the Church, whatsoever and however various 
 these gifts, are to be ruled by the reference they bear to Christ. 
 They are to be exercised in subordination to the unity of the 
 Church, and the unity of the Church is determined by its 
 union with the one Lord. 
 
 Paul finds also that what he has come to know of the person 
 and work of the Lord Jesus Christ gives him a key for the settle- 
 ment of all doctrinal questions which may arise. The most 
 striking illustration of this statement is found in the great dis- 
 cussion contained in the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle. 
 There the doctrine of the person of Christ becomes for him the 
 key to unlock the mystery of the universe, and to unveil the 
 mystery of the future life. It enables him to see and to teach 
 that Christ must work on till the kingdom of God is complete, 
 ' I Cor. viii. 6. ' Ibid. i. 16. 
 
128 ST. PAUL. 
 
 and until the unity to which His work tends is attained, till He 
 shall deliver up the kingdom unto the Father, that God may be 
 all in all. It enables him also to grasp the mystery of the spiritual 
 body, and both to understand and teach that the body of the 
 risen shall be perfectly fitted for the manifestation of spirit. 
 For in the phrase spiritual body, spiritual does not express the 
 stuff or substance of which the body is made, but the purpose 
 which it is fitted to make manifest. To pass from that, we see 
 that the doctrine of Christ gives to the Apostle a principle, to 
 enforce order, to banish divisions, to maintain purity, to guide 
 worship, to teach the place and use of gifts, and to maintain 
 sound doctrine. We do not at present make any further study 
 of these Epistles. We have said so much on them, for the light 
 thus cast on the conditions of his work at Corinth. He did not 
 determine to know anything among them save Jesus Christ and 
 Him crucified. How will this resolution of his bear on the 
 workings of the subtle Greek mind ? The Greeks had been 
 for ages accustomed to the most thorough discussion of all 
 sorts of subjects, and had fashioned for themselves the most 
 powerful instruments of discussion that the world had ever 
 seen. Questions of physics, of psychology, of metaphysics, of 
 ethics, had eagerly been discussed, and the discyssion was not 
 any nearer an end. Can the Apostle bring to bear on the settle- 
 ment of such questions a principle which will work, and afford 
 practical solutions ? These Epistles are the answer to such 
 questions. They prove that he was wise and wisely guided in 
 his resolution. And we see how grandly the doctrine of Jesus 
 Christ and Him crucified gives direct answers to the questions 
 which arose, and to other questions which Greece had asked 
 throughout the ages, and had asked in vain. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 IN EPHESUS. 
 
 Visit to Jerusalem — Journey through Phrygia and Galatia— Apollos — 
 Ephesus— John's disciples — In the synagogue — Work in Ephesus — Its 
 nature and its conspicuous success — Triumph of the gospel — Exorcists 
 and their defeat — Burning of the magic books — Demetrius — Loss of 
 trade — The tumult at Ephesus — The town clerk — Historical illustra- 
 tion of the truth of the narrative in Book of Acts — Perils of the Apostle 
 — His toils and labours — The Epistle to the Ephesians — The Ephesian 
 Church. 
 
 Paul, having for the time completed his work in Corinth, 
 departed for Syria. He toolc with him Priscilla and Aquila. It 
 is mentioned also that, at Cenchrea, the eastern port of Corinth, 
 he had shorn his head, for he had a vow. What the vow was, 
 and for what purpose made, we do not know ; but the fact itself 
 is not without significance. It shows that for himself Paul had 
 no objection to conform to Jewish observances, and it shows 
 also and explains the resolute manner in which he set aside all 
 solicitations to turn aside, and made his way as directly and 
 swiftly as possible to Jerusalem. When he arrived at Ephesus 
 he found an opportunity of speaking to the Jews, and he 
 promptly availed himself of it. His reception was of a most 
 encouraging nature : so willingly did they receive him that they 
 were reluctant to let him go. But he could not abide with them. 
 Perhaps he had with him the contributions which he had com- 
 manded to be made in all the Churches for the poor saints of Jeru- 
 salem. Some pressing need urged him on, and he departed, 
 giving them a promise that he would return again as soon as he 
 could. Of the people whom he saw, of the words he spake, and 
 of the deeds he did at Jerusalem during this visit, Luke says 
 
13° ST. PAUL. 
 
 nothing. All that is said is, " He went up and saluted the 
 Church, and went down to Antioch." Not a word either about 
 his stay at Antioch, only that he had "spent some time there, 
 and then went through the region of Galatia and Phrygia in 
 order, stablishing all the disciples." ' 
 
 At this point Luke tells us the story of ApoUos, on which 
 much might be said, were there time. It is of great value 
 because of the light it casts on the state of belief in many Jewish 
 minds, and because of the confirmation it lends to the historical 
 character of the Acts of the Apostles. It indicates that many 
 Jews had been influenced by John the Baptist, had accepted 
 his baptism, and had believed the testimony which John had 
 given to the Messiah. They had, however, not advanced beyond 
 the position of John, and did not know what had come to 
 pass since then. Apollos was one of these, and while he taught 
 what he knew, he had an open mind, and was ready to be more 
 fully instructed. This instruction was given him by Aquila and 
 Priscilla, and he was persuaded and taught with incisive power 
 that Jesus was the Christ. Then we are told that he passed 
 over into Achaia, made Corinth his headquarters, and " helped 
 them much who had believed through grace," ' thus giving us 
 the true historical explanation of the rise of an ApoUos-party 
 at Corinth, and giving an invaluable testimony to the historic 
 verity of the Acts of the Apostles. 
 
 Meanwhile Paul, " having passed through the upper country, 
 came to Ephesus." It is likely that he passed through Lycaonia, 
 Galatia, Phrygia, and then through Philadelphia, on to 
 Ephesus, a city which was to be his home for about three 
 years, and in which he was to have many strange experiences. 
 The first thing recorded of him is his finding of certain 
 disciples, who had been baptized into John's baptism, and who 
 had not been more fully instructed. Paul, thinking them to be 
 believers in Christ, from the company in which he found them, 
 asked, " Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed ? " ' 
 Their reply was, " Nay, we did not so much as hear whether the 
 Holy Ghost was given."'' As they were disciples of John the 
 Baptist, they must have heard of his testimony to One who 
 should baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire, but they had 
 not heard of the actual outpouring of the Holy Ghost, and were 
 ignorant of the fulfilment of the prophecy of the Baptist. To 
 I Acts xviii. 23. " Ibid, xviii. 27. 3 Ibid. xix. 1. 4 Ibid. xix. a. 
 
IN EPHESUS. 131 
 
 them Paul gives the needed explanation. He recognised fully 
 the state in which they were, and also the value of the work of 
 the Baptist. "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, 
 saying unto the people, that they should believe on Him which 
 should come after him, that is, on Jesus." ' So they were bap- 
 tized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and soon had full 
 experience of the power and grandeur of the new dispensation. 
 " The Holy Ghost came on them ; and they spake with tongues, 
 and prophesied.," ' We see here how Paul was wont to deal 
 with Christians who were imperfectly informed, and how he led 
 them to make full proof of the reality of their faith. 
 
 Remembering the principle involved in his own statement, 
 " To the Jew first," Paul begins his Ephesian ministry in the 
 synagogue. But the promise of his former flying visit is not 
 realised. Having for some three months striven to persuade the 
 Jews of the things concerning the kingdom of God, and finding 
 that some of them were hardened and disobedient, that they 
 were speaking evil of the Way among the multitude, he departed 
 from them. "The Way" seems to have become a name for 
 the Christian religion. The Jews not only were hardened and 
 disobedient, but they strove to arouse the multitude against the 
 Christians. When the tumult arose later on, we see that the 
 Jews took an active part in it — at least they wished to show that 
 they did not approve of the action of Paul.3 Paul, therefore, 
 took no further part in the worship of the synagogue, separated 
 the disciples from the Jews, and daily — not merely at the time 
 when the synagogue met — set forth the argument for the faith. 
 He found a meeting-place in the school of Tyrannus. Of his 
 laborious, continuous, and arduous ministry, he himself speaks 
 thus : " I shrank not from declaring unto you anything that 
 was profitable, teaching you publicly, and from house to house, 
 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, 
 and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."'' For two years he 
 thus went on — for nearly three years altogether, counting the 
 three months of his work in ttie synagogue — and the results 
 were of the most striking order. They heard the word in 
 Ephesus, and from Ephesus the word went forth thoughout all 
 Proconsular Asia. From this time also the rise of the Seven 
 Churches may be dated, and such other Churches as that at 
 Colossas. 
 
 ■ Acts xix. 4. » Ibid. xix. 6. 3 Ibid. xix. 34. * Ibid. xx. 20. 
 
132 ST. PAUL. 
 
 The work at Ephesus is described by Luke in the most 
 exalted terms. Divine power rested manifestly and con- 
 tinuously upon the Apostle. It was present not merely to 
 enlighten the minds, renew the wills, and give new hearts to 
 the people. The Divine power overflowed the spiritual kingdom, 
 passed over into the natural world, and wrought continuously 
 through the Apostle. " God wrought special miracles by the 
 hands of Paul : insomuch that unto the sick were carried away 
 from his body handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases de- 
 parted from them, and the evil spirits went out." ' It is worthy 
 of note that the power is not ascribed to Paul, but to God. 
 God works through Paul. This is recognised by all, even by the 
 sons of Sceva, who feel that it is not to Paul, but to Jesus, that 
 the power is to be ascribed. There were many pretenders to 
 miraculous powers in Ephesus, and manifold were the charms 
 and rites by which they were supposed to be exerted. But all 
 recognised that with Paul there was a difference. For Paul 
 had no power in himself, nor by means of any incantation. 
 The power was wielded by Paul's Master. There may have 
 been a good deal of superstition mixed with the true and 
 real faith of those who received the handkerchiefs and aprons 
 from the body of Paul, but it was not to the superstition, but to 
 the faith, that the reward of healing was given. God does recog- 
 nise and bless real faith, though it may be mixed with super- 
 stitious elements, and when this is so, true faith will soon root 
 out and eliminate that extraneous and unnecessary ingredient. 
 
 Luke gives us, as is usual with him, two scenes from the 
 Ephesian ministry of Paul. Both of them illustrate the 
 Ephesian state of mind, and the difficulties which encum- 
 bered the way of Paul. The first incident reveals the 
 unbounded superstition of the people of Ephesus ; the second 
 shows how the greed of gain fosters superstition, and how it 
 makes those who benefit by superstition resent every means 
 of enlightenment. The wonderful works which God wrought 
 by means of Paul excited the curiosity and greed of certain 
 strolling Jews. These seem to have gone from place to 
 place preying on the ignorance and credulity of the people. 
 They made a profession of it, and were utterly unscrupulous 
 in the means they used for amusing and gratifying the super- 
 stitious longings of the multiuide. They always had, or 
 
 ' Acts Xix. 12. 
 
IN EPHESUS. 133 
 
 professed to have, spells and charms for the cure of diseases. 
 They thought that the name of Jesus was simply a spell by 
 which Paul worked, and that the spell wrought irrespective of 
 all moral conditions. They resolved to add this charm to the 
 others they were wont to use. It seems there were many of 
 these strolling Jews who " took upon them to name over them 
 which had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, 
 I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth." ' There was a 
 widespread belief among the Jews as to the effect which might 
 be wrought through the utterance of the name of God. And 
 this belief found expression here. There were seven sons of 
 one Sceva, a chief priest, which did this. They were men who 
 were exorcists, who professed to be able to expel evil spirits. 
 Apparently they felt that they were surpassed in their own 
 particular sphere by Paul, and tKey determined to use the 
 spell used by Paul. They did so, to their own surprise and utter 
 discomfiture. To their adjuration the evil spirit answered : 
 "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?"° As 
 if he had said, I recognise that Jesus has power over me, and 
 I know that Paul is the servant of Jesus, through whom Jesus 
 works ; but you are no followers of Jesus. And the man, with 
 that unusual power which madmen so often can exert, " leaped 
 on them, and mastered both of them, and prevailed against 
 them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded." 
 Only two of the seven who had agreed to use the new formula 
 were present when'it failed. 
 
 It must have caused great excitement among those who 
 witnessed the hurried flight of the two men, with clothes torn 
 to shreds and bodies which bore the marks of the madman's 
 fierce onslaught. The news quickly spread, and made a great 
 impression. Both Jews and Greeks heard it, and all felt that 
 the trade of exorcism had received a deadly shock. The first 
 impression was fear. Jews and Greeks alike felt themselves to 
 be in the presence of a power which they could not measure^ 
 and magnified that power and the name which to them 
 symbolised it. But this impression was even greater on the 
 minds of those who had beheved, and who up to this time 
 had not realised that faith in Jesus was incompatible with the 
 practice of charms and with belief in spells. It brought home 
 to them the conviction that as followers of Christ they must 
 ' Acts xix. 13. " Ibid. xix. 15. 
 
134 ST. PAUL. 
 
 have done with all kinds of sorcery ; so they came confessing 
 and declaring their deeds. It is not necessary for us to enter 
 into a discussion, or to give a description, of the curious arts or 
 of the books which contained the rules of such arts. They 
 are not of so much importance as to justify such waste of 
 time. Ephesian curious arts had much in common with arts 
 of the same kind still in vogue, which ought to meet the 
 fate which befell the books at Ephesus. The thing worthy of 
 being noted is the fact that the people who believed in these 
 arts ceased to believe in them : and they brought their 
 books together and burned them in the sight of all. They 
 had themselves suffered from them, and they resolved that 
 henceforth these books should no longer be sources of temp- 
 tation to other people. Though they were of the value of 
 fifty thousand pieces of silver, yet they were burnt. It must 
 have been a business that brought much gain, and was very 
 profitable, since the stock-in-trade was so costly. This triumph 
 over greed and superstition is set down by the historian as a 
 victory won by the Word of God ; and he adds, " So mightily 
 grew the word of the Lord and prevailed." " 
 
 A sacrifice so costly seemed to show that the Church at 
 Ephesus was firmly built on the one foundation, and Paul, 
 therefore, felt free to form those great and far-reaching plans 
 for the propagation of the gospel which would have led him to 
 the bounds of the known world. He purposed to go again 
 through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, and then 
 to Rome. In order to be prepared, he sent Timothy and 
 Erastus to Macedonia, that the contributions of the Churches 
 might be in readiness. He stayed in Asia for a time. While 
 he thus waited an incident occurred which made manifest how 
 great was the progress made by the gospel in Ephesus, and how 
 it was modifying the character and customs of the inhabitants. 
 We know from many sources, and particularly from Pliny's 
 letter to Trajan ° about the Christians, that the effect of 
 Christianity was to make the temples desolate, to cause the 
 sacred solemnities to cease, and to make the purchasers of the 
 meat offered to idols very few in number. In a similar way, 
 the trade of the silver-shrine makers at Ephesus was en- 
 dangered by the spread of Christianity. Christians naturally 
 
 ■ Acts xix. 20. 
 
 » Hardy, " Pliny's Correspondence with Trajan," p. 215. 
 
IN EPHESUS. 135 
 
 ceased to purchase them, and those who were not Christians 
 would be influenced by their example. The trade had been 
 most lucrative. Apparently these little models in silver of the 
 temple, or of the shrine in which the image was preserved, 
 were made of various sizes, and were decorated with all the 
 resources of Greek art. They might be used both as orna- 
 ments and as charms. They gratified at once the Greek love 
 of the beautiful and the Greek desire for devotion. Very likely 
 also a great number was bought by the visitors and pilgrims to 
 Ephesus. 
 
 The trade had been decreasing for some time, but the 
 decrease became alarming after the scene of the public burn- 
 ing of the magic books. The gains of the craftsmen were 
 vanishing, and it was their sense of loss which caused the 
 uproar. The man who gathered the craftsmen together and 
 took the leading part in the movement was Demetrius. The 
 speech he is said to have delivered was a most skilful one, and 
 the motives he appeals to are such as are always easily stirred. 
 His first appeal is to their self-interest. They were all engaged 
 in the manufacture of these shrines, and their living depended 
 on its prosperity. But the appeal to self-interest, though keenly 
 felt by these workmen, could not be made so evident to others, 
 so it is fortified by an appeal to religion and to patriotism. 
 He shows them that Paul had, both at Ephesus and almost 
 throughout all Asia, persuaded the people that there are no 
 gods made with hands ; and the people had believed him. 
 They ceased to worship Diana, and ceased to buy her shrines. 
 So trade was in danger, and religion was brought into neg- 
 lect ; and if matters were allowed to go on, " the temple of 
 the great goddess Diana should be made of no account, and 
 she should even be deposed from her magnificence, whom 
 all Asia and the world worshippeth." ' The way in which 
 the religious question is mixed up with the question of private 
 gain is characteristic. It was also quite successful ; for a man 
 who might not care to agitate because of private interest would 
 find a good plea for agitation when the interests of religion 
 were supposed to be at stake. 
 
 It was the religious cry that topk the multitude. At the deft 
 touch of Demetrius they were filled with wrath, and responsive 
 to his crafty lead, they cried out, " Great is Diana of the 
 ' Acts xix. 26, 27. 
 
136 ST. PAUL. 
 
 Ephesians." ' The sudden angry shout of the assembled 
 craftsmen filled the city with confusion. The citizens were 
 agitated by the presence and demeanour of these excited 
 men ; though they might not have much interest in the ga;ns 
 of the craftsmen, they had an interest in the temple, and 
 in the goddess of the temple. At the cry, which seemed to 
 indicate that the temple or the goddess was in some danger, 
 the people rushed into the streets, and gathering round the 
 makers of the tumult, they followed them in their rush into the 
 theatre. They had laid hold of Gains and Aristarchus, Paul's 
 companions in travel, and had carried them with them into the 
 theatre. Paul would have entered into the theatre to share the 
 peril of his companions, but the disciples prevented him. The 
 Asiarchs — the officers who presided over the games and festi- 
 vals, and who were people of position and importance — knowing 
 better than Paul did what risks he would run, sent to beseech 
 him not to enter into the theatre. So he was constrained to 
 wait in safety, though in great anxiety about his friends. 
 
 Meanwhile there was a strange scene within the theatre. 
 We feel that there is a gleam of humour in the mind of Luke 
 as he describes the situation. Some cried one thing, and some 
 another. All was in confusion. There was no one to explain 
 why they had gathered together, and the most part knew not 
 wherefore they were come together. Demetrius did not attempt 
 to put himself forward, nor were the people in a mood to listen 
 to any one. They were in that state of mind, deeply alarmed, 
 vaguely apprehensive of danger, which might lead to the most 
 violent outrages, and to destruction of property and of life. It 
 was well indeed that the Apostle was not in their view, for his 
 presence might have given aim and directness to their anger, 
 and he might have fallen a victim to their fury. The Jews 
 sought to take advantage of the Gentile tumult. They put 
 forward one Alexander — for what purpose we scarcely know. 
 It may have been that they were afraid of being identified with 
 Paul, and were alarmed at the prospect of the popular fury 
 turning against themselves. At the sight of the Jewish features 
 the excitement of the people increased. They reiused a hearing 
 to Alexander, and occupied themselves with the on!y thing that 
 occurred to them. They showed their zeal and their devotion, 
 and their physical endurance, by continuing to shout for two 
 
 ' Acts xix. 29. 
 
IN EPHESUS. 137 
 
 hours, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." The frenzy of 
 fanaticism had been kindled, and was persisted in till they 
 were exhausted. Two hours spent in energetic shouting was 
 enough to exhaust the energy of the strongest man. 
 
 At length the town clerk succeeded in obtaining a hearing. 
 In the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles we meet with 
 many official people, and with many magistrates. Perhaps the 
 most calm, wise, and judicious of them all is this town clerk 
 of Ephesus. Evidently he is a man of great dignity, shrewd- 
 ness, and sagacity, and suited to the high office he filled in that 
 great city. If Demetrius knew well how to play upon the greed 
 and religious enthusiasm of the people, the town clerk knew 
 what to bring forward in order to make the people feel their 
 responsibility and realise the risks they ran. The speech is a 
 masterpiece, and touches briefly and aptly on all that required 
 to be said. There is first the concession to the rehgious 
 devotion and religious feehngs of the people of Ephesus. 
 He concedes to the full the claims of Diana and her image, 
 and reminds them that the Ephesian city is the temple-keeper 
 of the great Diana. Why should they do anything rashly, or 
 why should they have apprehended these men, "which are 
 neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess " ? ' 
 As to him who was chief promoter of the uproar, if Deme- 
 trius and the craftsmen had any ground of complaint, there 
 were ways whereby they might be satisfied without involving 
 other people. To make a riot was neither the proper nor 
 the safe way to remedy a grievance. The courts are open, 
 and there are proconsuls. If it is a matter that could not well 
 be settled before the proconsuls, there are other and regular 
 ways by which these matters can be settled. Let them call a 
 regular assembly. Having thus disposed both of the religious 
 pretence and of the special grievance of Demetrius, the town 
 clerk points out to them the great risk they had run in making 
 this tumult. How should they answer for it if they were ever 
 accused about the riot they had made ? Thus with dignified 
 common sense he brought the multitude back to calmness, and 
 made them feel how foolish they had been. Having thus 
 spoken, he dismissed the assembly, and they went to their 
 homes sadder and wiser men. 
 
 Confirmations of the historical truth and appropriateness 
 • Acts xix. 37. 
 
138 ST. PAUL. 
 
 of this story have recently been brought to light. We take 
 the following summary from Bishop Lightfoot," who has made 
 use of Wood's " Ephesus " in drawing it up. From the inscrip- 
 tions we read with regard to the goddess, that " not only in this 
 city, but everywhere temples are dedicated to the goddess, and 
 statues erected and altars consecrated to her, on account of the 
 manifest epiphanies which she vouchsafes ;" that a month bears her 
 name, and during that month " solemn assembUes and rehgious 
 festivals are held more specially in this one city, which is the 
 nurse of its own Ephesian goddess," and that therefore " the 
 people of the Ephesians, considering it meet that the whole of 
 this month which bears the divine name, should be kept holy 
 and dedicated to the goddess, has decreed accordingly." " For 
 so the cultus being set on a better footing, our city will continue to 
 grow in glory, and to be prosperous to all time." Ephesus had, 
 we find, a special sense of belonging to the goddess, and she also 
 belonged to the city. She is called " the supremely great god- 
 dess ; " she has her priestesses, her temple curators, her divines, 
 and many other classes of servants. Fines and endowments are 
 appropriated to her service, decrees are issued for the public exhi- 
 bition of her treasures, and she is as much at home in the theatre 
 as she is in her own sanctuary. Then the theatre is the recog- 
 nised place of public assembly. " Here edicts are proclaimed, 
 and decrees recorded, and benefactors crowned. When the 
 mob, under the leadership of Demetrius, gathered here for the 
 demonstration against St. Paul and his companions, they would 
 find themselves surrounded by memorials, which might stimu- 
 late their zeal for the goddess. If the ' town clerk ' had desired 
 to make good his assertion, ' What man is there that knoweth 
 not that the city of the Ephesians is sacristan of the great 
 goddess Artemis ? ' he had only to point to the inscriptions 
 which lined the theatre for confirmation. The very stones 
 would have cried out from the walls in response to his appeal." 
 Dr. Lightfoot points out also how accurately Luke uses the 
 names, and how exactly he discriminates the offices of the 
 various magistrates. He mentions three of them, the pro- 
 consul, the town clerk, and the Asiarchs or presidents of the 
 games and other religious ceremonials, and shows that the 
 inscriptions and the Acts of the Apostles are always in exact 
 correspondence. Other illustrations also occur, as, when the 
 = " On Supernatural Religion," pp. 298-300. 
 
IN EPHESUS. 139 
 
 town clerk says, These men are " neither robbers of temples 
 nor blasphemers of our goddess." We find from the Inscrip- 
 tions that these were crimes of the gravest order. Dr. Light- 
 foot " has other illustrations of the fact that the author of the 
 Acts writes with the most minute accuracy, and manifests the 
 most perfect knowledge of his subject. 
 
 We find, however, that the Acts of the Apostles, in the account 
 of Paul's work at Ephesus, conveys to us but a faint impression 
 of the difficulties he had to meet, and the perils and toils he had 
 to undergo during the three years of his residence there. In 
 his farewell address at Miletus to the elders of Ephesus he 
 speaks of himself as " serving the Lord with all lowliness of 
 mind, and with tears, and with trials which befell me by the 
 plots of the Jews ; "' plots of which we find hardly a trace in 
 Luke's narrative. In the Second Epistle to the Corinthians 
 he refers to the " affliction which befell us in Asia, that we 
 were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, insomuch 
 that we despaired even of life."^ This must have taken place at 
 Ephesus. Paul frequently uses the name of a province for the 
 name of its chief city. The trouble which he describes in 
 such terms must have been one of no ordinary kind even in 
 his experience. Perhaps the most striking of all the references 
 to his Ephesian experiences is found in the First Epistle to the 
 Corinthians, written during his residence in Ephesus. The 
 Apostle is speaking of the constant peril in which he stood. 
 He is in jeopardy every hour. " I protest by that glorying in 
 you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily."'* He 
 is evidentlyspeaking under the pressure of present painful experi- 
 ence, and the next verse gives us even more the impression of 
 a real and recent event. " If after the manner of men I fought 
 with beasts at Ephesus, what doth it profit me?" This is no 
 mere metaphor ; it is a reference to a matter of fact. To refer 
 to his Roman citizenship as if the possession of it by him would 
 have rendered it impossible that he should have been con- 
 strained to fight literally with wild beasts, is altogether beside 
 the mark. Paul had been thrice beaten with rods, and once 
 had been stoned, and these things happened to him, his Roman 
 citizenship notwithstanding. Nor does a comparison with the 
 narrative in Acts help us in any attempt to understand the 
 
 • Lightfoot, op. cit., p. 299. " Acts xx. 19. 
 
 3 2 Cor. i. 8. * I Cor. xv. 31, 32. 
 
I40 ST. PAUL. 
 
 reference figuratively. As far as the narrative in Acts goes, 
 this might have happened either before or after the uproar 
 excited by Demetrius. There is nothing more likely than that 
 the people, in a sudden outburst of frenzy, may have compelled 
 Paul to fight for his life with wild beasts. That there is no 
 reference to such an event in the Acts of the Apostles, is true ; 
 but how many events of a similar kind happened to Paul, of 
 which no hint is given in the Acts ! 
 
 We therefore take the statement in its literal meaning. It is 
 a conflict not with men ferocious as wild beasts, but with wild 
 beasts themselves, to which the Apostle refers, as an illustration 
 of the fact that he is in jeopardy every hour, and dies daily. 
 This was one of the great perils from which he was rescued, and 
 it may well be that his peril and deliverance were the means of 
 his obtaining a new standing-ground, from which he might win 
 men for Christ. This event may be the explanation of his 
 resolution. " For I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost ; for 
 a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are 
 many adversaries.'" At all events, this passage along with 
 others gives us some conception of the tremendous difficulties 
 he had to meet, and of the awful conditions under which he had 
 to carry on his work. He literally had to carry his life in his 
 hand. The plots of the Jews might suddenly be crowned with 
 success. The sudden rage of the Greeks might consign him to 
 the wild beasts, and yet, notwithstanding these risks, Paul con- 
 tinued for three years to work on in Ephesus and its neighbour- 
 hood. As we think of all the circumstances, we are impressed 
 with the calm courage and mighty endurance of the man. He 
 will not shrink from his work, nor will he leave his post till his 
 work is done. One day in the arena fighting with wild beasts, 
 and delivered from them — we know not how — and the next day, 
 perhaps, setting himself to dictate those letters to the Corin- 
 thians which have been as the very Word of God to many 
 generations ; and that work done, going forth from house to 
 house to comfort and strengthen the disciples, and in the evening 
 preaching the gospel to the assembled people. What a vast 
 and compUcated variety of duties fall to this man, and with 
 what wondrous strength, versatility, and wisdom he rises 
 equal to the discharge of them all 1 
 
 The perils and travail he has to undergo, he can calmly think 
 
 ' I Cor. xvi. 8, 9. 
 
IN EPHESUS. 141 
 
 of and describe as "things that are without,"' and he accepts 
 them as they come. He feels more deeply the burden, " that 
 which presseth on me daily, anxiety for all the churches." 
 This anxiety he had in abundant measure during the time of 
 his stay at Ephesus. The letters written from it show how 
 painfully he feels this anxiety, and how he laboured to warn, 
 exhort, instruct, and guide all the Churches he had founded. 
 We may thus form some conception of the conditions under 
 which Paul carried on his work. Truly he might well say, 
 " I hold not my life of any account, as dear unto myself, so that 
 I may accomplish my course, and the ministry which I received 
 from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." ' 
 We know also that at Ephesus he had to bear along with all 
 other burdens the burden of physical toil. " I coveted no man's 
 silver, or gold, or apparel. Ye yourselves know that these hands 
 have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with 
 me." 3 
 
 From the Epistle which Paul, during the time of his imprison- 
 ment at Rome, wrote to the Ephesians, we do not obtain any- 
 thing illustrative of the conditions under which his work at 
 Ephesus was carried on. The Epistle is almost entirely lacking 
 in personal allusions, and we shall not therefore dwell on it 
 here. But we may glance for a moment at the address he gave 
 to the elders when he bade them farewell. He foresaw that 
 both from without and from within perils would arise which 
 should threaten the peace of the flock. " Grievous wolves shall 
 enter in among you, not sparing the flock"; and from within 
 from among themselves men should arise, speaking perverse 
 things, to draw any disciples after them. His fears were too 
 soon realised. He found himself slighted and forgotten, after 
 all his care and sufferings in their behalf. He writes with great 
 sadness to Timothy : " Thou knowest, that all that are in Asia 
 turned away from me ; of whom are Phygelus and Hermo- 
 genes."* The old magic arts and superstitions had resumed 
 their ancient sway, and wrought mischief withinthe Church itself 
 " Evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving 
 and being deceived ;"' and false teachers were at work, with their 
 profane babblings : "for they will proceed further in ungodli- 
 ness, aijd their word will eat as doth a gangrene : of whom is 
 
 ' a Cor. xii. 28. ^ Acts xx. 24. 3 Ibid. xx. 33-35. 
 
 • 2 Tim. i. 15. 5 Ibid. iii. 13, 
 
142 ST. PAUL. 
 
 Hymenaeus and Philetus ; men who concerning the truth have 
 erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow 
 the faith of some."" With an anxiety born of the memory of 
 former labours among them, and of present love for them, Paul 
 exhorts Timothy to be faithful, and to guide them back into the 
 ways of truth. We need not be surprised that these tenden- 
 cies should have showed themselves in this home of Greek 
 speculation about the nature and the law of things. From the 
 time of Heraclitus onwards Ephesus had been a centre of 
 Greek speculation, rivalling Athens in this respect ; and here 
 also was abundant evidence of the influence of Asiatic ten- 
 dencies and modes of thought and life. And we should natu- 
 rally have expected that Paul would write to them, and to 
 Churches in the same region, those Epistles which set forth 
 his deepest and widest thoughts on God and His eternal pur- 
 pose ; on Christ, His person, His cosmical position, and His work ; 
 and on man his nature, vocation, and destiny. 
 
 Nor need we be surprised, when we consider all the forces and 
 tendencies which met in Ephesus, that here, in the providence 
 of God, the last survivor of the Apostles should have for years 
 his residence, and from it should go forth the gospel he lived 
 to write. John, the beloved disciple, came to the Church 
 founded by Paul, and took charge of the Church which had 
 been rent by wolves, and torn by traitors from within. H? 
 found the Church at Ephesus fallen from the depth and fervour 
 of her first love, but with various redeeming features, which 
 had prevented her from falling to the depth of unconscious 
 degradation to which Laodicea had come. The Ephesiai;i 
 Church had works, and labour, and patience ; they could no.t 
 bear evil men ; they had offered a steadfast resistance to those 
 who claimed the office and name of Apostles that they might 
 undo the work of Paul. All these things they had, and with 
 a return to the fervour of their first love it would still be 
 well with them. How great that fervour had been, may be seen 
 by recalling the scene of the burning of the magic books. Full 
 of interest also is the later history of the Church of Ephesus, 
 but on it we may not dwell. Tndeed what we have said has 
 been said mainly for the light it throws on the nature, extent, 
 and intensity of the work of Paul, and for the illustration it gives 
 of the truth, tenderness, and endurance of his great character. 
 ' 2 Tim. ii. i6, 17. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FROM EPHESUS TO JERUSALEM. 
 
 Visit to the Cliurclies of Piiilippi, Thessalonica, and Greece — ^Jewish plot — 
 Tile companions of tiie Apostle — A day in Troas — Its incidents and 
 results — At Miletus — Address to the elders of Ephesus — The pathetic 
 farewell — Voyage to Tyre — Warnings — In Cassarea — Philip the Evan- 
 gelist — Agabus the prophet — His symbolic prophecy — St. Paul's resolve 
 ^-Arrival at Jerusalem — Meeting with James and the brethren — Their 
 3dvice to St. Paul — He acts on it — Result. 
 
 In fulfilment of the purpose he had formed, Paul, as soon as he 
 could after the uproaj- had ceased at Ephesus, left for Mace- 
 donia. He went first to Troas, expecting to meet Titus there. 
 " When I came to Troas fpr the gospel of Christ, and when a 
 door was opened to me in the Lord, I had no relief for my 
 spirit, because I found not Titus niy brother : but taking my 
 leave of them, I went forth into Macedonia." ' He visited the 
 Chiirches of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Bercea, and passed on 
 to Greece. It is likely that in some one of these places he 
 found Luke, who may have been here ever since the former 
 visit of Paul. For we find that the narrative at this point is 
 again resumed in the first person. Paul was in Greece for three 
 months ; he was about to sail for Asia when he received such 
 tidings of a Jewish plot against him as made him change the 
 direction of his journey. The Jews at Corinth, who had for- 
 merly tried to prejudice Gallio against him, were resolved to 
 take matters in their own hands. The particulars of the plot 
 are not made known to us, but it must have been intended 
 to be carried out at sea. Some Jews had probably arranged 
 
 * 2 Cor. ii. 12, 13. • 
 
144 ST. PAUL. 
 
 to sail in the same ship with him, and to watch for an oppor- 
 tunity of slaying hira. Those who had a knowledge of the plot 
 warned Paul or his friends, and he went by land through 
 Macedonia. 
 
 Qujte a large company went before, and waited for Paul at 
 Troas. There were " Sopater of Bercea, the son of Pyrrhus ; 
 and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus ; and 
 Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy ; and of Asia, Tychicus and 
 Trophimus." ' These all were loyal and devoted friends, who 
 were faithful to him now and at a later period, and whose names 
 are often mentioned in his later Epistles. Paul and Luke were 
 able to get safely away from Philippi, where they had tarried 
 until the days of unleavened bread were over — a remark which 
 shows how much attached was Paul to all the ordinances of his 
 people, which he could observe without the sacrifice or the com- 
 promise of his Christian principles. After five days they arrfve 
 at Troas, a place which to Paul, Timothy, and Luke must have 
 been full of interest. A few years before the three had ven- 
 tured forth from it to the countries of Europe to preach the 
 gospel among strange peoples. What a tale of work, of suf- 
 fering, of endurance, they had to tell since then ! But also what 
 a tale of triumphant success, and of enduring and eternal 
 results 1 But four Christians had gone westwards, and now the 
 European Christians were numbered by the thousand. It was 
 no doubt with feelings of thankful gladness that they spoke to 
 one another of allthat had happened, and made one another 
 acquainted with the particulars of how they had fared and of 
 what they had done. 
 
 We have some account of a day they spent in Troas. It 
 was the Lord's day, which was now observed by Christians in 
 memory of the Resurrection. " Upon the first day of the week, 
 when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed 
 with them, intending to depart on the morrow," * Luke was 
 present, as we observe from the " we " which is rightly used in 
 the Revised Version. They had come together to break bread, 
 that is, to observe the Lord's Supper. It would be observed 
 after the manner set forth by Paul in the First Epistle to thet 
 Corinthians. We are told also that Paul discoursed witbi 
 them, which does not mean a sermon, but a conversafioni 
 in which difficulties and perplexities were propounded,, ajjdi 
 ' Acts XX. 4. » Ibid. XX, 7. 
 
FROM EPHESUS TO JERUSALEM. 145 
 
 were solved or cleared away by the Apostle. The meeting was 
 prolonged until midnight. The speedy departure of the Apostle, 
 the reluctance of the Church to part with him, and the number 
 of topics on which they needed his advice, served to make this 
 meeting most memorable. The place where they had met, and 
 the "many lights," show that there were many people present. 
 The thought of parting gave an unusual pathos to their last 
 meeting. 
 
 We are taken away from what Paul said, and from the ques- 
 tions asked and answered, to the description of one of those 
 incidents which Luke likes to tell. As the meeting went on, a 
 young man who sat in the window " was borne down with deep 
 sleep." He was overpowered, overcome with sleep ; he could not 
 resist it any longer. We need not suppose him to have been a 
 careless or uninterested hearer ; only there was a limit to his 
 strength. "And as Paul discoursed yet longer, being borne down 
 by his sleep he fell down from the third story, and was taken up 
 dead."' The window was open, and the lad, buried in deep 
 sleep, fell down to the ground, to the great alarm of the congrega- 
 tion. Paul went swiftly down by the outside stair — the usual 
 way of access in Eastern houses to the upper stories. He fell 
 on the young man, as was done in similar cases by Elijah " and 
 Elisha,3and he embraced him, and he knew that the youth was 
 living. To the people he said : " Make ye no ado ; for his life 
 is in him." * The worship, interrupted by the fall of Eutychus, 
 was resumed, and they continued together, with deeply 
 solemnised feelings, till break of day — a night to be remem- 
 bered by all present, and especially by him who was still in 
 the land of the living. It appears also that, in order to satisfy 
 all the people of the lad's welfare, they brought him again to 
 the upper room, and at the sight of him they were not a little 
 comforted. 
 
 Luke and the other companions of Paul went on board and 
 sailed for Assos, but Paul went by land, as he could easily do 
 by t le Roman road which passed from Troas through Assos. 
 Why he should have chosen to go by land — a walk of twenty 
 miles — we do not know. He was taken on board at Assos, and 
 the voyage continued along the coast to Mitylene, and thence 
 touching at various other points, they reached Miletus, some 
 thirty miles distant from Ephesus. He had resolved not to 
 
 ■ Acts XX. g. =1 Kings xvii. 21. 3 2 Kings iv. 34. * Acts xx. 11. 
 
146 ST. PAUL. 
 
 visit Ephesus. He was pressed for time, and he had made up 
 his mind to reach Jerusalem, if possible, on or before the day 
 of Pentecost. Many things might have caused delay had he 
 visited Ephesus, and he resolved not to risk delay. The ship 
 must have stayed at Miletus for two or three days. For Paul's 
 messengers must have had time to go to Ephesus, and to return 
 with the elders for whom they had been sent. " He called to 
 him the elders of the Church," ' whom he also calls "bishops" 
 a little later. It is acknowledged now on all hands that in the 
 New Testament these words have the same meaning. When 
 the elders of the Church were come to him, he spake to them in 
 the most touching way. It is one of the most pathetic speeches 
 in all literature, and it is marked throughout with phrases 
 characteristically Pauline. Other speeches given by Luke may 
 be a report in his own words ; this speech seems to be in the 
 very words used by Paul. It begins abruptly with the words, 
 "Ye yourselves know." He reminds them of the past, and of 
 the work he had done amoflg them. He tells them of his own 
 immediate future, as far as it lay open to his view. He knew 
 that, go where he would, in every city bonds and afflictions 
 awaited him. His one great aim was to testify to the gospel of the 
 grace of God. One thing he knew, that they would see his face 
 no more. This was his farewell. And as for themselves and 
 their own future, let them feed the Church of God, which He 
 purchased with His own blood ; let them watch against wolves 
 from without and against traitors from within ; let them follow 
 the example of him who shrank not from declaring the whole 
 counsel of God, so shall they also be pure from the blood of 
 all men ; and then the prayer, " I commend you to God, and 
 to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, 
 and to give you the inheritance among all them that are 
 sanctified.'' ' 
 
 He has yet one word to say even after he has commended 
 them to God, and to the word of His grace. He remembers 
 how many of his new converts are weak, and how ready they 
 are to stumble and fall. He will strive to enlist the sympathy 
 of these elders, who are strong and wise, on behalf of those 
 people who are morally and spiritually weak. He has appealed 
 to them to follow his own example ; he enforces that appeal 
 by the example of a greater than himself. He recalls to 
 « Acts XX. 17. = Ibid. XX. 32. 
 
FROM EPHESUS TO JERUSALEM. 147 
 
 mind an otherwise unrecorded saying of the Lord Jesus 
 "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He Himself 
 said, It is more blessed to give than to receive " ' — words 
 which the Church would not willingly let die, which condense 
 into one brief saying the whole spirit of the gospel, and of Him 
 who is the gospel. Let the Ephesian elders remember this 
 saying of the Lord, and be ready to help the weak, in every 
 possible way, with sympathy, with thought, with time, with 
 strength, and with money, making human need the measure 
 of their giving, and Christ their Lord the motive of it. So 
 ended this memorable farewell discourse, which has been 
 so fruitful in the guidance of the elders of the Church from 
 that day to this. We shall not attempt to paraphrase or to 
 summarise the touching words in which Luke, with sublime 
 simplicity, describes the parting scene : " And when he had 
 thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all. And 
 they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him, 
 sorrowing most of all for the word which he had spoken, that 
 they should behold his face no more " =" — words which, in the 
 pure simplicity of the deep emotion they express, and in the 
 pathos of the final farewell between Paul and his people which 
 they set forth, can touch even our colder western natures, 
 and compel our eyes to glisten with unshed tears, and our 
 hearts to heave with the emotion we fear to show. It is_ one 
 of the most pathetic scenes of Holy Writ, and the pathos is 
 heightened by the simple words which follow: "And they 
 brought him on his way to the ship."^ 
 
 As we shall see later, it is probable that Paul was able once 
 more to visit Ephesus in the interval between his first and 
 second imprisonment at Rome ; but this we merely mention 
 at present, we shall discuss it more fully in its proper place. 
 
 The elders did not leave the shore until the ship had set 
 sail, and with sad hearts they returned to Ephesus. The ship, 
 with a fair wind, went with a straight course to Cos, and 
 thence to Rhodes, and on the third day reached Patara on 
 the coast of Lydia. There they found a ship loading for Tyre. 
 Being pressed for time, they left the vessel which traded from 
 port to port along the coast, and went aboard the ship which 
 was about to sail straight for Phoenicia. They set sail, 
 and leaving Cyprus on the left, they landed at Tyre. Paul 
 ' Acts XX. 35. = Ibid. XX. 36-38. 3 Ibid. xx. 38. 
 
148 ST. PAUL. 
 
 could see Cyprus as he was carried past it, and he must have 
 thought of the time when with Barnabas he had laboured 
 there. Memories of his work, and of the men with whom 
 he had worked, and of all that had come and gone since then, 
 must have thronged on him. Then he was at the beginning 
 of his Apostolic work, now he had preached the gospel from 
 Jerusalem to the Adriatic coast, and in every city there was 
 a company of people, called, and chosen, and faithful, who 
 were ready to follow whithersoever Christ led them. Amid all 
 the cares and anxieties that weighed him down, and amid the 
 uncertainties of the future, Paul must have been joyful as he 
 recalled to mind the results of those momentous years. For 
 he had succeeded in planting the gospel in many places, and 
 many people had turned from idols to serve the living God. 
 
 At Tyre they were landed. It was a famous city, and full 
 of interest, on account of its strange, eventful history. It was 
 itself a mighty city, and the mother of other cities greater even 
 than itself Its story stretched back into the remote past, 
 and touched the histories of all the ancient world-empires. 
 Assyria, Babylon, Egypt were all in close relations with Tyre ; 
 and it lays hold of the history of Israel in the closest way, 
 specially in the times of Solomon and of Ahab. From the 
 time of its siege and capture by Alexander the Great, its 
 ancient glory was gone, and the Apostolic company must have 
 thought of the oracles of the prophets when they trod its 
 streets. It gives to Tyre a deeper interest when we remember 
 that Christ had once come into its borders, and had that inter- 
 view with the Syrophoenician woman recorded for us in the 
 Gospels.' The good news which had come to her alone in 
 the earthly ministry of our Lord, had now come to many in 
 Phoenicia. For there was a Church at Tyre, dating from the 
 time of the death of Stephen. We read that those scattered 
 abroad upon the tribulation that rose about Stephen travelled 
 as far as Phcenicia." It was not one of the Churches founded 
 by Paul, but his name was knovvn, and his work acknowledged 
 there. For seven da>s he stayed with them at Tyre. He 
 found that he could now easily reach Jerusalem at the 
 appointed time. He had no longer to take into account the 
 uncertainty of a coasting voyage. He could easily calculate 
 the time needed for the journey from Tyre to Jerusalem. The 
 • Mark vii. ;4-30. ' Acts xi. 19. 
 
FROM EPHESUS TO JERUSALEM. 149 
 
 Church at Tyre tried hard to dissuade him from the perilous 
 journey. They knew well the feelings of the Jews and of the 
 Judaizing Christians against him. They knew how daring-, 
 and unscrupulous, and cunning the Jews were, and they were 
 aware that nothing would hinder them from attempting the life 
 of the Apostle. This they knew from ordinary sources of 
 information. 
 
 But they also had this knowledge from another and a 
 higher source. The Spirit showed to his friends at Tyre that 
 Paul must suffer many things at the hands of his countrymen, 
 and the Spirit had shown to Paul also, that in every city 
 " bonds and afflictions " awaited him. From this fact the 
 Church at Tyre inferred that Paul ought not to go to 
 Jerusalem, and Paul himself felt that he was bound to go, and 
 to suffer, if need be, for the name of Christ, and for the sake 
 of the gospel. It reminds one of the similar conflict between 
 Luther and his friends as to the danger he should encounter if 
 he appeared before the emperor. Paul resolved that he must 
 go to Jerusalem, and his friends ceased to urge him to the 
 contrary. After seven days they set out, and all the Christian 
 community escorted them out of the city. The families of the 
 congregation, husbands, wives, and children, accompanied 
 the Apostolic company so far on their way, " and kneeling down 
 on the beach, we prayed, and bade each other farewell ; and we 
 went on board the ship, but they returned home again." ' It 
 is of interest to note some things in this short paragraph. 
 One thing is the recognition of the place and significance of the 
 family within the Christian Church, and the permission granted 
 to the children that they should be present when the congrega- 
 tion bade farewell to the Apostle ; another thing is the attitude 
 assumed in prayer by Paul and the congregation both here and 
 at Miletus. We note these things and pass on. 
 
 From Tyre they sailed to Ptolemais, and there also they 
 found some brethren, disciples of the Lord Jesus, and stayed a 
 day with them ; then the journey by sea came to an end, and 
 next day, going round Carmel, they arrived at CKsarea. Here 
 Paul met with one who was an older Christian than himself; 
 one who was a deacon and an evangelist while Paul was a 
 persecutor of the Church. Philip was named next after Stephen 
 in the narrative of the choosing and ordaining of the Seven, and 
 ' Acts xxi. 6. 
 
ISO ST. PAUL. 
 
 he is mentioned as the first to carry the gospel to the Samari- 
 tans, as he was also the first to receive a Gentile into the Church 
 of Christ. How great an act of faith and courage was the bap- 
 tism of the Ethiopian eunuch we can realise only when we bear 
 in mind the agitation and the long and bitter controversy which 
 arose in connection with the conversion of the Gentiles and 
 their reception into the Christian Church. May we not sup- 
 pose that it was at Csesarea that Luke became acquainted with 
 the facts regarding Philip's ministry among the Samaritans, and 
 his meeting with, and baptism of, the Ethiopian eunuch ? Surely 
 he would use this opportunity of making himself acquainted with 
 all the facts he could find about the growth of Christianity, 
 more especially if he were already gathering the materials for 
 the history of the planting of the Church. He must indeed 
 have already formed the purpose of writing the Gospel, and it 
 is likely that during his residence in Jerusalem the Gospel took 
 its final shape in his hands. He could not have spent the "many 
 days " in the house of Philip at Caesarea without making use of 
 them to learn all that Philip and his daughters could tell him of 
 the wondrous story of the increase of the Word of God. 
 
 The family of Philip the Evangelist followed in his steps, and 
 took part in his work. They, too, bore their part in the 
 preaching of the gospel. For the word " prophecy," used of 
 the work and function of the daughters of Philip, does not 
 mean so much the prediction of the future as the proclama- 
 tion of the gospel and the pressing of its truths home to the 
 heart and conscience of the people. The daughters of the 
 Evangelist were themselves evangelists, as far as was possible 
 for them. It was an active, lively, beautiful Christian home in 
 which Paul and his companions dwelt during the many days of 
 their stay at Cassarea. It was a home also to which many 
 Christians were wont to come, and to which they were always 
 welcome. It was a place to which many came as they journeyed 
 from Jerusalem to other cities in Syria, Asia Minor, or Europe. 
 This appears from the visit of Agabus, who arrived from Judsa 
 while Paul was staying with Philip. He is likely the same man 
 whom Paul had met at Antioch long before, the man who had 
 foretold the famine which had come to pass in the days of 
 Claudius Caesar." This famine it was that gave rise to the custom 
 of making collections to help the saints at Jerusalem, the first 
 * Acts xi. 27. 
 
FROM EPHESUS TO JERUSALEM. 151 
 
 systematic attempt at Christian organised liberality. Paul and 
 Agabus were, therefore, old friends ; at all events, he was known 
 to Paul long before Paul had met any other person of that 
 company. 
 
 Agabus was a Jew, and imitated the symbolic action of the 
 ancient prophets of Israel. It was usual for the prophets to set 
 forth in some symbol the gist of the message they had to deliver. 
 To walk barefoot, as Isaiah did ; to portray the siege of Jeru- 
 salem on a tile, or to cut off his hair, as Ezekiel did — not to 
 mention other instances — were some of the ways in which the 
 prophets sought to reach the heart of the people, quicken their 
 fears, and arouse their conscience. So Agabus acts. He draws 
 near to Paul, and takes his girdle. The girdle was the band 
 used to gather the loose robe which Eastern people wear, and 
 draw it together at the waist. It was large, and served not only 
 to draw the loose robe tight round the waist, but also for the 
 purpose of a pocket. With this girdle Agabus bound his own 
 hands and legs. Knowing that he was a prophet, the company 
 watched him with an interest heightened by fear. What can 
 be the meaning of the mysterious movements and actions of 
 the prophet.? At length, when the action was complete, he 
 spoke these words : "So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the 
 man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the 
 hands of the Gentiles." " This fell in with and intensified the 
 impression already made on the minds of the friends of Paul, 
 by the action of the Church at Tyre. The emotion became 
 more intense, and found expression in entreaties that he would 
 not go to Jerusalem. They besought him even with tears. It 
 is a striking scene ; the prophet bound hand and foot with the 
 girdle of the Apostle ; the friends of the Apostle, with tears in their 
 eyes, and with voices broken in the utterance : and the Apostle 
 himself, moved with intense feeling, sharing their emotion but 
 not their hopelessness. At length he breaks forth into words : 
 " What do ye, weeping and breaking my heart ? for I am ready 
 not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name 
 of the Lord Jesus." ' 
 
 There are times in the history of every conscientious man 
 
 when he himself alone is the proper judge of what he ought to 
 
 do. Perhaps at such times his worst advisers are those who 
 
 love him most. Because they love him, they are unwilling that 
 
 * Acts xxi. II. * Ibid xxi. 13. 
 
153 ST. PAUL, 
 
 he should face danger and incur risk. Or, if he must run the 
 risk, let him take every precaution. How nobly is the situation 
 set forth in Millais' picture of the Huguenot ! All the pleading 
 face asks is, that he should tie the white badge around his arm, 
 or let her tie it. But it cannot be, and he must be true to his 
 own conviction of duty. So he goes forth to death because he 
 can do no otherwise. Paul feels that he must go to Jerusalem. 
 He is persuaded that his Master has called him there. It 
 almost breaks his heart to see the distress of his friends, and 
 yet he will not be persuade.d. He must go to Jerusalem. Are 
 we not reminded of One, a greater than Paul, even Paul's 
 Master, who, knowing what awaited him at Jerusalem, yet 
 steadfastly and resolutely made up His mind to go ? He resisted 
 the entreaty of His friends. He knew He had a baptism to be 
 baptized with, and He was straitened till it was accomplished. 
 Christ, too, felt the presence of the necessity that urged Him 
 on, and He yielded to it, and He gladly gave Himself to duty, 
 and drank the cup put to His lips by the Father's hand. His 
 servant now, in a similar case, faces duty with a spirit that does 
 not quail. He knows of the bonds and afflictions ; he is now 
 told that he shall be made a prisoner ; but suffering and imprison- 
 ment, even death itself, can be borne, if Paul is persuaded that 
 this is the way by which the Lord would have him walk. 
 He is not only persuaded himself that he must go to Jerusalem ; 
 he is able also to persuade others. "We ceased, saying, The 
 will of the Lord be done."' They were bound to use every 
 lawful means in order to save a life so precious as that of Paul. 
 But there was a point at which theit efforts should cease, and 
 the point was reached when Paul declared what his conviction 
 was. They came to know that he must be led in a way that 
 they had not known, and that he must have the guidance of 
 Christ in this resolute determination, from which no persuasion 
 of theirs could turn him back. For them, as for Paul, the 
 highest was to know what the Lord would have them to do. 
 Once the will of the Lord is known, all struggle, all doubt 
 should end, and the minds of men should rest in the thought 
 that He who appoints both the suffering and the work, will 
 also give the strength to bear, and the grace and wisdom to 
 accomplish. His will. 
 
 So the matter was settled ; the Iwethren ceased to resist, and 
 ' Acts xxi. 14. 
 
FROM EPHESUS TO JERUSALEM. 1 53 
 
 Paul and his friends went up to Jerusalem. Some of the con- 
 gregation at Csesarea went with him. They were concerned as 
 they thought of the risk run by Paul, and they were anxious 
 also that he should have somewhere to lodge.. One of them, 
 however, who belonged to Cyprus, but who now had a house in 
 Jerusalem, went with them, and it was arranged that Paul 
 should stay with him. Mnason, we are told, was " an early 
 disciple," ■ perhaps one of those who had become a Christian 
 on the day of Pentecost. It was necessary to secure a lodging 
 beforehand. At the feast Jerusalem was full of people who 
 came from all quarters. The kindness of Mnason removed all 
 cause of anxiety from the minds of Paul and his friends, and 
 they were set free to attend to other things, and truly they had 
 many things to make them anxious and full of uneasiness. We 
 feel sure that the calmest, easiest mind of all that company was 
 that of Paul himself. His mind was made up ; doubt and hesita- 
 tion were at an end ; he had simply to follow whither his Master 
 led him ; while the others were racked with anxiety on his 
 behalf 
 
 For the fifth and last time since his conversion, Paul is in 
 Jerusalem. On various occasions, and for various purposes, he 
 had visited that city. At every visit he had been pressed with 
 much care, but never were the issues involved greater than on 
 the present occasion. He had not now to win recognition for 
 himself, or for his Apostolic office, or for the gospel he preached. 
 But he had still to disarm the prejudices, and soften the keen- 
 ness of the suspicions, aroused against him by the machinations 
 of the Jewish party among the Christians. His name was 
 honoured, and the greatness of his work recognised by all. 
 But many false, or at least e.xaggerated, reports had been cir- 
 culated about him, and these had to be set right. The brethren 
 assembled at Mnason's house received them gladly. By the 
 " brethren '' is here meant, not a formal meeting of the Church 
 of Jerusalem, but the friends of Mnason and of Paul, people, for 
 the most part, of Paul's way of thinking, who had met to greet 
 the Apostle on his arrival. Paul's visit gave no little anxiety 
 to the heads of the Church at Jerusalem ; they knew how keen 
 was the feeling against him and his methods, and they feared 
 lest some trouble should arise. But the matter must be faced. 
 The ne6ct day Paul went to James. Luke was present at the 
 ' Acts xxi, 16. 
 
154 ST. PAUL. 
 
 meeting, and gives us an account of what took place at it.' 
 There is no mention of any of the Apostles, so it is not probable 
 that any of them were present. Along with Paul were all those 
 who. had had a share inhis labours, and along with James were all 
 the authorities of the Jerusalem Church. James is he who had 
 presided at the council, and who had drawn up the decree, 
 which, for the time, had provided a modus vivendi between 
 the Jewish and Gentile sections of the Church. 
 
 The first thing done by Paul and his friends was to " rehearse 
 one by one the things which God had wrought among the Gen- 
 tiles by his ministry " ' His rehearsal contained many things 
 fitted to make glad the hearts of all those who believed in the 
 Lord Jesus, and who cared for the salvation of men. It was 
 a tale of continued progress, of fresh conquests, and of 
 new cities won for Christ. Those to whom the report was 
 given, received it with all thankfulness, and glorified God when 
 they heard the glad tidings. We know not how much time was 
 given to this great object. Paul's statement was sure to be 
 long, for he had much to tell. It is sad to think that James 
 and the elders should have been constrained to pass from the 
 great topic of the conversion of the world to Christ, and come 
 with all speed to the devising of measures by which they might 
 avert the threatened trouble, and calm the disturbed minds of 
 the party who suspected Paul. It is sad to think of how 
 much time has been spent by Church assemblies from that day 
 till now, in the unwelcome and weary task of healing divisions 
 and averting ruptures. Regret becomes all the keener as we 
 reflect on the temporary character and comparatively trifling 
 importance of these causes of dispute. To confine ourselves, 
 however, to the matter in hand, the matter which gave so much 
 concern to the elders at Jerusalem was one which, within a 
 brief period, was destined to trouble the Church no longer. 
 Soon it will be a question without interest or practical import- 
 ance to anybody, whether disciples of Christ should or should 
 not conform to " the customs." It undoubtedly was a question 
 of pressing urgency to the Church at Jerusalem. In it there 
 were many extreme men, many zealous for the law, many who 
 had not yet learned to distinguish between the temporary and 
 permanent elements of the Old Testament dispensation. If 
 the extreme men are very often the people who take the heaviest 
 ■ Acts x.xi. 17. » Ibid. xxi. 19. 
 
FROM EPHESUS TO JERUSALEM. 155 
 
 share of work, they are also the men who usually give the 
 Church most trouble. It is they also, who help in causing the 
 Church to turn aside from the main stream of duty and of work, 
 in order to try her temper and waste her strength on matters of 
 little intrinsic importance. 
 
 Thus the Church at Jerusalem turned away from the account 
 of g'.orious work among the Gentiles, to consider the trouble 
 amon^ themselves. They resolved to cast themselves on the 
 generosity of Paul, and made an appeal to his forbearance. 
 Their statement of the case was, both an excuse for the 
 believing Jews, and also, in effect, a condemnation of the 
 position they assumed. It was natural that Jews should still be 
 zealous for the law, and that they should not feel that, by be- 
 coming Christians, they had ceased to be Jews. It would 
 appear also that there was practical agreement among the 
 believing Jews, of whom there were many thousands in Jeru- 
 salem and elsewhere. " Thou seest, brother, how many 
 thousands there are among the Jews of them which have 
 believed; and they are all zealous for the law,"" so ran the 
 opening words of their statement. It continued, "They have 
 been informed concerning thee, that thou teachest all the Jews 
 which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them 
 not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the 
 customs." ' The historical situation is much more advanced 
 than it was at the Council of Jerusalem. Then the ques- 
 tion was, whether Gentiles were to be circumcised when 
 they became Chiistians : the decision had then been given 
 against the Jewish party, and they had seemingly ceased form- 
 ally to resist it. Now what alarmed them is Paul's alleged 
 practice of teaching Jews to forsake Moses, not to circumcise 
 their children, nor to walk after the customs. Having yielded 
 once, the Jewish party would not be likely to yield again. 
 They were embittered also by the reports which had been per- 
 sistently spread until they had come thoroughly to believe them. 
 When news of Paul's intended visit had reached the Church at 
 Jerusalem, all his adversaries had set to work, and had roused 
 the prejudices of the people against him. 
 
 The charges against him were untrue, a gross exaggeration 
 and perversion of the truth. Pie had taught the Gentile con- 
 . verts of the Corinthian Church — " Was any man called being 
 ' Acts xxi. 30. ' Ibid. xxi. 21. 
 
156 ST. PAUL. 
 
 circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised ; '' ' that is, he 
 allowed the Jews to maintain all their pecuharities. He would 
 not permit them to force their peculiarities on other people. So 
 he ordained in all the Churches. It may have been indeed that 
 those Jews who had entered into and mastered Paul's teaching 
 on the relations of the law to the gospel may have consideied 
 themselves no longer bound to keep the customs. It was easy 
 also to lay hold of the Apostle's words to his Gentile converts, 
 and to misrepresent them. It was easy to say that his statement, 
 oft repeated, that " neither is circumcision anything, nor uncir- 
 cumcision," justified the inference that Paul was bringing 
 circumcision into contempt. If Paul's principles were admitted, 
 then indeed the rite of circumcision would soon fall away of 
 itself. But Paul had not done anything violently or arbitrarily to 
 hasten that result. Nay, as often as he had opportunity, and as 
 far as possible, he had fallen in with Jewish customs. He was 
 ready again to become a Jew to Jews, if he might win them. 
 
 They must arrange some plan of action ; for the multitude 
 must come together, and before they came, the elders recom- 
 mended to Paul such a course of action as would make it evident 
 to Jewish Christians that he walked orderly " keeping the 
 law.'" He was to take part in the ceremonies of a Nazarite 
 vow. There were four men who had a vow on them, and Paul 
 was asked to purify himself with them, and bear the charges 
 which these men were bound to pay. To the thing in itself 
 Paul could have had no objection. For but recently he had 
 himself made a vow, and had observed the appointed cere- 
 monial. Along with this recommendation to Paul, the elders 
 and James reaffirmed the decree of the Council of Jeru- 
 salem, and expressly stated that the Gentiles were free from 
 the observance of the Mosaic law, only " that they should 
 keep themselves from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, 
 and from what is strangled, and from fornication. Then Paul 
 took the men, and the next day, purifying himself with them, 
 went into the temple, declaring the fulfilment of the days of puri- 
 fication, until the offering was offered for every one of them." 3 
 This well-meant concession to prejudice was destined to have 
 no effect. The multitude never came together, Paul had no 
 opportunity of explaining to the mass of the congregation what 
 his practice and principles really were, nor had they any oppor- 
 » X Cor, vii. 18. " Acts xxi. 24. 3 Ibid. xxi. 25, 26. 
 
FROM EPHESUS TO JERUSALEM. 157 
 
 tunity of giving their view. The matter was taken out of the 
 hands of Paul, of James and the elders, and of the congregation 
 alike, and the question which troubled them was never to have 
 an answer. Thus we may leave the advice of the elders and 
 Paul without further discussion. 
 
CHAPTER Xir. 
 
 IN JERUSAIEM AND C^SAREA. 
 
 The Apostle assaulted by Asiatic Jews — Rescued by Claudius Lysias — 
 Speech from the castle stairs — The Apostle claims his rights as a 
 Roman citizen — Before the Sanhedrin — Incidents — The Apostle in 
 imprisonment — His state of mind — Plot against him— His removal 
 to Csesarea — Trial before Felix — Intercoiurse with Felix — Procrastina- 
 tion of Felix. 
 
 The seven days during which the Nazarite must avoid all 
 persons and places which would cause ceremonial defilement 
 were almost ended, when all at once that plan was brought to 
 an abrupt conclusion. There were certain Jews from Asia 
 present at the feast ; they knew Paul and his work. Perhaps 
 they were of those who had opposed him in Ephesus, and had 
 come to Jerusalem for the same purpose. They must have 
 come recently from Asia ; for they knew that Trophimus was 
 an Ephesian and a Gentile. We see also that Trophimus, who 
 had been of Paul's company from Troas to Ephesus, had 
 accompanied him to Jerusalem. These Jews of Asia, finding 
 Paul in the temple, and having seen him in the" company of 
 Trophimus in the city a few days before, rushed to the con- 
 clusion that he had brought Trophimus into the temple. To 
 have been with Trophimus at all and to eat with him and dwell 
 in the same house with him, as they thought Paul had done, was 
 itself a grave ofl^ence in the eyes of a strict Jew. To have 
 brought this Gentile friend into the temple was simply sacri- 
 lege. Furious with excitement and rage, they shouted, " Men 
 of Israel, help : This is the man that teacheth all men every- 
 where against the people, and the law, and this place : and 
 further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath defiled 
 
IN JERUSALEM AND C^SAREA. 159 
 
 this holy place." ' The form of the outcry makes it plain 
 that these Jews of Asia had already made the fact of Paul's 
 visit, and the kind of work he had done in Asia, somewhat 
 widely known. They had told what they had witnessed of his 
 doings in Ephesus and elsewhere. He had brought the people 
 into contempt, and he had crowned his career of wrong-doing 
 by desecrating the temple. 
 
 They stirred up the people, laid violent hands on Paul, and 
 dragged him out of the temple. The whole city was in com- 
 motion, and history tells what the excitement of a Jerusalem 
 riot was like. Even in their frenzy and excitement they re- 
 spected the temple, and their violence was measured until they 
 got beyond its precincts. The authorities were on the alert, 
 and as soon as the multitude were outside they promptly 
 shut the gates, that the temple might suffer no profana- 
 tion from the riot already begun. The Apostle was in im- 
 minent danger. He was in the hands of a multitude eager 
 to put him to death, and the fate of the first martyr was likely 
 to be also the fate of him, who as a young man had witnessed 
 his murder and approved it. But his time was not yet : he 
 had some more work to do. 
 
 " Tidings came up to the chief captain of the band that all 
 Jerusalem was in confusion."' The messenger who brought 
 the news had not far to go. The chief captain of the Roman 
 garrison in Jerusalem was stationed in the tower of Antonia, 
 which was on the north-west of the temple. He was thus in 
 the best position for the proper supervision of the city. We 
 know from the Gospels how anxious the Jewish authorities were 
 to avoid all causes of popular excitement during the feasts. 
 " Not on the feast-day lest there be an uproar among the 
 people." The Roman authorities shared that anxiety. For at 
 the feast religious feeling ran high, and the people would be 
 very prompt to resent anything like profanation of the temple, 
 or what might be corjstrued into disrespect of its services. 
 The chief captain, with haste that shows he had been pre- 
 pared, forthwith took soldiers and centurions and ran down 
 with them. He came just in time. Those who had dragged 
 Paul out of the temple were dehberately seeking to kill him, 
 and already they had maltreated him severely. The arrival 
 of the Roman soldiers put an end to the beating of Paul. 
 ' Acts xxi. 28. ' Ibid. xxi. 31. 
 
l6o ST. PAUL. 
 
 Immediately Paul was arrested, and was ordered to be bound 
 with two chains. Then it was demanded who he was and what 
 he had done. No definite answer was given. There was noise 
 enough ; for some shouted one thing and some another ; 
 possibly most of those present had nothing definite to say, so 
 they shouted all the louder ; they could know nothing of the 
 reason why the clamour was raised. The chief captain could 
 make nothing of it, and he commanded Paul to be brought 
 into the castle. As he was brought to the stairs which led from 
 the temple and up to the tower of Antonia, he had to be 
 carried by the soldiers ; for the people, filled with rage as they 
 saw him borne beyond their reach, pressed riotously on the 
 soldiers. They shouted " away with him," the cry which they 
 had formerly shouted as vehemently against Paul's Lord and 
 Master. Some of the soldiers had to keep the people back 
 from the stairs, while their comrades lifted him and placed him 
 beyond the reach of the multitude. 
 
 No danger could disturb Paul's presence of mind ; 
 suddenly grasped and dragged out of the temple, beaten by 
 the angry people, hurried breathless up the castle stairs, one 
 would naturally suppose him to be in a state unfit for further 
 exertion. After all he had suffered at the hands of his 
 countrymen, and after all his experience of their obduracy, he 
 yet did not despair of them. He is ready to try once more. 
 If he could only reach their hearts, and persuade them that 
 their Messiah had indeed come. He spoke to the chief 
 captain, rather to the captain's surprise. The chief captain 
 thought he had to do with the Egyptian who had stirred the 
 people to sedition, " and had led out into the wilderness the 
 four thousand men of the Assasins." ' We need not describe 
 the Assasins ; a full account of their rise and character is given 
 by Josephus.' Enough to say, that they were one of the worst 
 signs of that tendency to utter lawlessness and universal dis- 
 order which culminated in Jerusalem during the siege, and 
 manifested itself fully during that revolt which was so sharply 
 put down by Hadrian. 
 
 The chief captain was surprised that Paul could speak 
 
 Greek. He had the notion that Paul was that noted offender, 
 
 the Egyptian, and it would appear that the Egyptian could not 
 
 speak Greek. Paul's answer is brief and to the point. He 
 
 ' Actsxxi. 38. " " Wars of the Jews," n. 13, 3, 
 
IN JERUSALEM AND C^SAREA. l6l 
 
 does not take the trouble of denying that he was " that 
 Egyptian." He simply says, " I am a Jew, of Tarsus in 
 Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city," ' and asks leave to speak 
 unto the people. Leave is granted to him, and Paul standing 
 on the temple stairs has at last the opportunity of speaking to 
 the gathered thousands of his nation, in the city of Jerusalem. 
 The multitude is before him, near enough to hear all he has to 
 say. The Roman soldiers are below him, at the foot of the 
 stairs, facing the multitude and keeping them back, and above 
 them stands Paul and the chief captain, who have had their 
 brief conversation together. Paul beckoned with his hand, 
 thus showing that his hand was free. Either the command of 
 the chief captain that Paul should be bound with two chains 
 had not been carried out, or he had been so impressed with 
 Paul's conversation as to free his right hand from the chain. 
 Surprise held the people silent. They were astonished that he 
 should desire to speak to them. The silence deepened as his 
 voice reached them speaking words of their ancient mother 
 tongue. The people made no movement, and Paul spoke his 
 defence. 
 
 His defence is the story of his life, and particularly the story 
 of his conversion. He tells them what his Ufe had been, of 
 his persecution of the Christians, of the commission he had 
 received from the Jewish authorities to persecute the Christians 
 in Damascus. He tells them of his conversion. He gives 
 time and place and circumstance. Then he tells them that he 
 was constrained to recognise the right of Christ to dispose of 
 his life, and to appoint him his work. It was Christ who had 
 told him that the Jews would not hear his testimony, and it 
 was Christ who had sent him to the Gentiles. It is a speech 
 quite characteristic of the Apostle. We notice the grand 
 assumption which none but an innocent and conscientious man 
 would make, that a statement of his history would be sufficient 
 to clear him from every possible .charge. It was Paul's usual 
 mode of defence. He knew that he could explain why he had 
 become a Christian, and why he had preached Christ unto the 
 Gentiles. His one explanation was Christ, and the command 
 of Christ. One point deserves notice : it was brought back to 
 Paul's mind by the place where he stood, and is, when rightly 
 viewed, a remarkable confirmation of the authenticity of his 
 ' Acts xxi. 39. 
 12 
 
l62 ST. PAUL. 
 
 speech. He remembers that it was in this very temple, at the 
 solemn moment of prayer, that the Lord of him and of the 
 temple had commanded him to go to the Gentiles. It was 
 both a vindication of his own conduct and a subtle, indirect 
 appeal to them who reverenced the temple. He who had 
 come to the temple to pray was not likely to profane the 
 temple, or to think lightly of it. And then it showed also that 
 Christ, the Crucified One, could use the temple and walk with 
 His servant in it. Thus prayer in the temple was made the 
 occasion of a new departure, the issue of which was to super- 
 sede the temple. But the reverence for the temple, which was 
 felt both by Paul and by his hearers, was for the moment a bond 
 of union between them. 
 
 He held them as long as he could. He brought forward 
 at the outset only those things which were least likely to offend 
 them, but he must come to the parting of the ways. He must 
 speak the word they hated. No sooner had he spoken the word 
 " Gentiles " than their feelings broke loose ; they could no 
 longer restrain themselves. A howl of execration arose ; they 
 cried " away with such a fellow from the earth r for it is not fit 
 that he should live." ' Their emotion must somehow find vent. 
 They could not endure the interference with the freedom of 
 movement caused by the loose upper robe they wore. Violent 
 emotion must find relief in physical action ; that they might be 
 free to move they must cast off their garments. This was 
 almost the first action of a Jewish crowd when they grew 
 excited. But along with this came the symbolic action, by 
 which they signified their utter detestation of Paul and his 
 views. They cast dust into the air, nay, even cast it at Paul. 
 They could not reach nor injure him, but their powerless rage 
 fed on itself and grew from more to more. Their cry and their 
 symbolic action show what they would have done to him if 
 they had only had the power. 
 
 The scene was ended by Paul's removal. The chief captain 
 ordered him to be brought into the castle. He could not under- 
 stand what Paul had said to the people, and therefore could not 
 know the cause of their sudden excitement. Paul must have 
 said something very offensive indeed to make them shout at 
 him so. The chief captain orders that Paul shall be examined 
 by scourging. With the skill that comes from use the Roman 
 ^ Acts xxii. 22. 
 
IN JERUSALEM AND C^SAREA. 163 
 
 soldiers did the bidding of their captain. They tied him up 
 with the thongs, stretching his body forward that it might be in 
 a fit position to receive the scourge. As he was being thus tied 
 up, Paul said to the centurion, "Is it lawful for you to scourge 
 a Roman, and uncondemned." ' It was a rare thing for a man 
 to lay claim to Roman citizenship, if he did not really possess 
 the privilege. To make such a claim was a grave offence, and 
 one which was visited with the most severe penalties. To make 
 a false claim would make a prisoner's case a great deal worse. 
 Knowing these things the centurion at once believed Paul, and 
 went immediately to the chief captain. For all the soldiers, 
 and specially the officers, would receive blame if they scourged 
 a Roman citizen. So with some abruptness the centurion 
 bluntly said, " What art thou about to do ? for this man is a 
 Roman." ' The chief captain came to make inquiry. " Tell 
 me, art thou a Roman ? and he said, Yea. And the chief cap- 
 tain answered, With a great sum obtained I this citizenship. 
 And Paul said, But I am a Roman born." 3 It gives one a high 
 conception of the might and majesty of Roman law, when we 
 find that the claim of Roman citizenship, once made and 
 acknowledged, was sufficient to stay the hands of the chief 
 captain and his soldiers. They did not pause nor hesitate, but 
 at once recognised the limit set to their power ; and those who 
 were about to scourge him, made haste to untie the thongs and 
 to set him free. They departed from him as if ashamed. The 
 chief captain also was afraid. Not only did he cease from the 
 attempt to scourge Paul, but he was alarmed when he thought 
 that he had ordered a Roman citizen to be bound to the post to 
 which criminals were tied for the purpose of scourging. It is 
 good to recognise here the grand function of Roman law, and 
 the moral restraint it laid on physical force. In truth, outside 
 of Christianity there is nothing grander in human history than 
 the great impartial legal system of Rome ; in itself and in its 
 influence, a mighty factor in the preparation of the nations for 
 something greater than itself which in the fulness of time was 
 to come. 
 
 The chief captain was conscious that he had made a mistake, 
 
 and, anxious that justice should be done, set Paul free from his 
 
 bonds and brought him before the Sanhedrin. He had come 
 
 to know that Paul had somehow done something to offend the 
 
 ' Acts xxIl 25. ' IbicJ,,xxii, 26. 3 Ibid..xxii. 47-28. 
 
1 64 ST. PAUL. 
 
 religious eelings of the Jews. Desiring to know the truth, he 
 sumn:ioned the religious authorities of the Jews to a meeting, 
 and brought Paul before them. As his Master had stood before 
 the Sanhedrin, as Peter and John and Stephen had stood 
 before them, so Paul now stands. The similarity in the circum- 
 stances was great, but so also was the difference. Paul had 
 been trained as his judges were ; he knew as well as they did 
 the law they professed to administer ; he had been one of them- 
 selves, and could measure and understand their feelings and 
 their prejudices. For he had been a Pharisee of the Pharisees, 
 and had been filled with the same religious zeal, and had shared 
 the same religious feeUng of intolerance. Like them also he had 
 led a strict and blameless outward life, and had given himself to 
 a serious study of the traditions of the fathers. But he has been 
 changed, and because of the change he is a prisoner before them. 
 Another difference is that he is herfe under the protection of 
 Roman law. They cannot commit him to prison as they had 
 done to Peter ; nor can the crowd, impelled by religious hatred, 
 hurry him to death as they hurried Stephen. He can speak 
 with some freedom. He will speak not as a prisoner, but as an 
 equal to equals. Looking steadfastly at the council, he began, 
 "Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience 
 until this day." ' It is impossible to say whether these were the 
 very words which Paul said, or whether they are the only words 
 he was allowed to speak. It is possible that he was allowed to 
 speak one sentence and no more. It is possible also that Luke 
 preserves for us that sentence which appeared to him to arouse 
 the anger of the high priest. It seems to us, however, that the 
 first view is the more probable, and that we have the exact 
 words, and the only words Paul was permitted to speak. Why 
 should they have aroused the anger of the high priest? Pos- 
 sibly because of the tone and manner of his speech, as that of 
 an equal unto equals ; possibly also because of the familiar word 
 " brethren " with which he began, as if he had not recognised 
 the high and authoritative character of the assembly before 
 which he stood. His protest that he had lived before God in 
 all good conscience, itself only a plea of not guilty, could not 
 have aroused the anger of the high priest. It must have been 
 the manner, rather than the matter of his address, which 
 brought upon him the rebuke of the high priest. 
 ^ Acl^xiii. ±. 
 
IN JERUSALEM AND CiESAREA. 165 
 
 Be this as it may, we have in the conduct of the high priest an 
 illustration of how judicial power ought not to be exercised. And 
 when Ananias ordered him to be smitten on the mouth, he 
 exceeded his authority as a judge. What is more to be regretted 
 is that his violence led to equal violence on the part of Paul, and 
 to one of those exhibitions of infirmity on his part, which make 
 us feel how much his character and his conduct come short of 
 the character and conduct of his Master. Irritated and offended 
 at the command of the high priest, Paul says, " God shall smite 
 thee, thou whited wall ; for sittest thou to judge me according 
 to the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the 
 law." ' All we shall say here is that this is not like the conduct of 
 Him who left us an example that we should follow His steps, 
 " Who when He was reviled, reviled not again ; when He suffered, 
 threatened pot.'"' The words may be justified, for the high 
 priest sat as the minister of justice, and had acted unjustly; but 
 none the less may we regret that the Apostle used them. The 
 bystanders interfered ; "Revilest thou God's high priest," they 
 asked. Ewald calls attention to the language they use : " No- 
 thing shows so strongly the stage which the development had 
 then reached as the term the high priest of Godj an expression 
 of a nature much more presumptuous than occurs in earlier 
 times than those before us." ^ As the religious character of a 
 priesthood diminishes their religious pretensions and claims 
 increase. The two are usually in inverse proportion to one 
 another. Paul, in answer, tells them of his regret and assures 
 them that he would not have spoken so had he known he was 
 high priest. He was ready to show submission to the ruler of 
 his people. It appears that the high priest might preside at the 
 meeting of the Sanhedrin without distinctive costume. Ananias 
 had been appointed to the officj since Paul had ceased to be a 
 resident at Jerusalem, and was thus personally unknown to 
 Paul ; at all events, Paul had not known that the command to 
 smite him had proceeded from the high priest. He expresses 
 his sorrow and regret for the words he had used. 
 
 Then matters took a strange turn. " Paul perceived that 
 the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees.""' There 
 
 ' Acts xxiii. 3 ^ I Pet. ii. 23. 
 
 i "History of Israel," vol. vii. p. 435. Note a. 
 4 Acts -vixiii. 6. 
 
l66 ST. PAUL. 
 
 was no love lost between the two, for they were antagonistic to 
 each other in their beliefs, hopes, fears, aims, and conduct. 
 Though compelled to meet together in the Sanhedrin, most 
 likely they would sit apart, and any one who knew both, could 
 readily enough tell, from dress and demeanour, which were 
 Sadducees, and which were Pharisees. From the short account 
 which Luke gives us, we feel that we do not know all the cir- 
 cumstances, nor the precise way in which, nor the purpose for 
 which Paul raised the question of the resurrection. He wished 
 to have an opportunity of setting forth the certainty of the 
 resurrection, and more particularly that great doctrine of Chris- 
 tianity, the resurrection of Christ. He may have hoped that 
 the avowal of his being a Pharisee, and of his being a son of 
 Pharisees, would induce the Pharisees, to give him a patient 
 hearing. We feel persuaded that his intention was not to 
 cast a bone of contention among his judges. It is true that 
 he had beliefs which the Pharisees also held. He and they 
 believed in the resurrection of the dead. It is true also that he 
 had little or nothing in common with the Sadducees, who were 
 mainly a political, aristocratic, worldly party, whose main interest 
 lay in keeping things as they were. Paul and they were utterly 
 opposed, and with them he could have no sympathy. May not 
 his hope have been to win those who believed in a resurrection 
 to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ ? 
 
 The result of his statement "touching the hope and resurrec- 
 tion of the dead I am called in question " ' was to divide the 
 assembly. Sadducee and Pharisee alike forgot Paul and the 
 case in hand, and set themselves to discuss the questions about 
 angels, spirits, and the resurrection, on which both sides would 
 have a great deal to say. From these questions they turned to 
 think of Paul in the light of what he had just said. His state- 
 ment made the Sadducees more indignant with him. They 
 had ever been hostile to Christianity, and had been the first to 
 take action against it. And now they are angry not only with 
 Paul, but with the Pharisees- also. Then, again, the Pharisees 
 seem to be divided into a section more opposed to Paul, and a 
 section which thought there ought to be further inquiry. These 
 were "the Scribes of the Pharisees' part," who seem not to have 
 forgotten either the teaching or the advice of Gamaliel. They 
 plainly said that they could find no fault in him. "We find no 
 ' Acts xxiii. 6. 
 
IN JERUSALEM AND C^SAREA. l&J 
 
 evil m this man ; and what if a spirit hath spoken to him or an 
 angel ? " £t would be well to inquire into the matter, and 
 ascertain what the spirit or the angel had really said. The 
 confusion was great, and grew greater every moment. Every- 
 body spoke at once. The dignity of a judicial court was quite 
 forgotten, and the highest authorities of the Jews, in whom all 
 spiritual power was vested, behaved in the most unseemly 
 way. It was time'to end the matter. The chief captain, who 
 had been present all the time, in fear lest Paul should be torn 
 an pieces by them, led him back for safety to the castle. The 
 judges were far from being agreed, and the Apostle, though 
 still a prisoner, had won a substantial victory. 
 
 These events must, however, have been a great discourage- 
 ment to him. They dispelled any lingering hopes he may have 
 had of conciliating- the Jews. He had undertaken the Naza- 
 rite vow in vain. Though downcast, the Apostle, with that 
 power of making the best of the existing situation so charac- 
 teristic of him, began to think of other plans. Again it has been 
 made plain to him that he can do no work for Christ in Jeru- 
 salem. As in a former instance, so now, the Lord appeared to 
 him, and caused him to hope that this thing might also be for 
 the furtherance of the gospel. The Lord had not forsaken 
 him. He stood by him, and commanded him to be of good 
 cheer. " As thou hast testified concerning me at Jerusalem, so 
 must thou bear witness also at Rome." " He had oftentimes 
 purposed to go to Rome,^ but could never find the opportunity. 
 For some time he had firmly resolved that he must see Rome, 
 and there bear testimony to Christ and His salvation. Now 
 in a most unexpected way, the visit to Rome becomes possible. 
 Paul may not yet know the precise manner in which he shall 
 reach Rome, but the Master tells him that the way will be 
 found. Thus Paul is comforted and made strong to bear the 
 enforced inaction of the time of his imprisonment. 
 
 While the Apostle was thus receiving strength from Christ to 
 be.^r the disappointment, and to hope for the future, the Jews 
 were very differently occupied. Some of them banded themselves 
 together, "and bound themselves under a curse saying that they 
 would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul." * It was a 
 
 ' The Revised Version rightly omits the phrase, " Let us not fight 
 against God " (Acts xiiii. 9). 
 " Ibid. x.xui, 11. ■> Rom. i. 13. * Acts judii. 14. 
 
1 68 ST. PAUL. 
 
 great vexation to them that they had been thwarted in their pur- 
 pose. The sudden onset of the Roman soldiers had taken the 
 Apostle out of their power. But they were resolved to kill him, 
 and to kill him speedily. The kind of oath they took shows how 
 much in earnest they were. They invoked the vengeance of 
 God on themselves if they failed to keep their vow, and they 
 bound themselves to abstain from food and drink till it was 
 accomplished. Such vows were not uncommon among the 
 Zealots of the period. The number of those who bound them- 
 selves was more than forty. Their plan was exceedingly 
 simple. Their difficulty was to get within reach of the Apostle. 
 He was in the castle, safe under the guardianship of the Roman 
 soldiers. If on some pretence he could be brought again into 
 the presence of the people, then a band of resolute men might 
 be able to kill him. True, indeed, many of them might lose 
 their lives in the attempt. But they were in that state of 
 excited and angry feeling, vphich caused them freely to risk 
 their lives, and if necessary to throw their life away. The con- 
 spirators sought the help of the chief priests and elders. They 
 went to the chief priests and elders, frankly told them what they 
 purposed to do, and said " do ye with the council signify to the 
 chief captain that he bring him down unto you, as though ye 
 would judge of his case more exactly ; and we, or ever he come 
 near, are ready to slay him." ' We do not know the reception 
 given by the chief priests and elders to this proposal. We 
 know that neither the Sadducees nor the Pharisees were very 
 scrupulous, Still they may have hesitated to aid and help in 
 the commission of direct murder. If it could be done under 
 form of law, or if it were done in a sudden tumult of the people, 
 they would have rejoiced at the removal of Paul. But to plot 
 beforehand and act with a view to such a crime, was, we may 
 well believe, a thing they could not do. A certain sense of 
 responsibility clings to all exercise of authority. 
 
 The conspirators apparently took no pains to hide their plot. 
 They counted on the silence of the Jews. They were sure that 
 no Jew would tell the Romans of it. But news of it came to 
 Paul's sister's son, and he immediately made it known to Paul. 
 As the Apostle was in custody not for a crime, but for safety, 
 his friends had free access to him, and no doubt many of them 
 
 ' Acts xxiii. 13. 
 
IN JERUSALEM AND CiESAREA. 169 
 
 had come to hirtl during these days of imprisonment.' As soon 
 as Paul heard of the conspiracy he resolved to make it known 
 to the chief captain. He called a centurion, afid asked him to 
 bring his nephew to the chief captain, who, informed of the 
 plot, and seeing how serious was the state of matters thus 
 revealed, resolved to send Paul to Caesarea, for he was re- 
 sponsible both for the life of the prisoner and for the peace of 
 the city. Charging the young man to keep the matter secret, 
 he made rapid preparations for the journey, and on the same 
 night sent Paul away under a strong guard. The rapidity of 
 the preparation, the secrecy with which it was done, and the 
 strength of the guard, reveal to us the estimate the chief 
 captain had formed of the gravity of the crisis. Had the Jews 
 heard of the proposed expedition, or had the guard been 
 less strong, an attack might have been made by them on the 
 party. Every precaution was therefore taken. The soldiers, 
 with Paul, set out at the third hour of the night ; and guarded 
 by two hundred soldiers, two hundred spearmen, and seventy 
 horsemen, he travelled all night, and reached Antipatris. From 
 this place the soldiers and spearmen returned to Jerusalem, and 
 the horsemen conducted Paul to CKsarea, and handed him over 
 to Felix, the Roman governor. Antipatris was about fifty-two 
 miles from Jerusalem, and about twenty-six from Caesarea. 
 
 The chief captain sent with them a letter to Felix, to explain 
 the steps he had taken and the reasdns vihy he had taken them. 
 The letter was probably written in Latin, and Luke gives us the 
 substance of it in Greek. As the letter would be read in open 
 court, a copy of it could easily be procured by Luke. Claudius 
 tells how the prisoner was rescued by him from great danger, 
 how he sought to find oUt of what he was accused, how he 
 found he had committed no crime, and how he found that Paul 
 was in great danger from the hatred of the Jews ; he, therefore, 
 had sent him to Felix. The question, he explains, was one 
 about the Jewish law. He felt that this was a matter not for 
 him, but for the chief governor of the province. Claudius con- 
 cludes by stating that he has charged the accusers of Paul to 
 appear before the governor, in order to make good the charges 
 they had brought against Paul. Felix, thus suddenly brought 
 
 • The margin of the Revised Version (Acts xxiii. 16) has a reading which 
 suggests the way in which Paul's sister's son made discovery of the plot — 
 " he heard of their lying in wail, having come in upon them." 
 
17° ST. PAUL. 
 
 before us in the Acts of the Apostles, had been procurator of 
 Judaea since the year 53 A.D. He was not a man of high 
 character. On the contrary, he was cruel as a ruler, and in his 
 personal conduct was mean, impure, and profligate. He con- 
 tinued to hold office in Judsea for two years after Paul was 
 brought to Caesarea, and during that time Paul was kept 
 prisoner. 
 
 By the action of Claudius Lysias the situation at Jerusalem 
 was changed. Both parties in the Sanhedrin, which had been 
 disunited for the moment, had now again agreed in opposition 
 to Paul. However much they were opposed to each other, 
 their common opposition to Paul was much greater. Knowing 
 as they did the character of Felix, they did not expect to meet 
 much difficulty in procuring from him a sentence unfavourable 
 to Paul. They were all the more earnest in this, as they had 
 come to know that Paul was the most energetic, most able, and 
 most zealous of all the Christian leaders. By his removal they 
 might hope to strike a deadly blow at Christianity itself. It 
 seemed to them that they should leave no stone unturned to 
 gain their end. It was an occasion which demanded the 
 presence of the high priest himself. All parties in the 
 Sanhedrin were now agreed that they should be influentially 
 represented at the trial of Paul, and they deliberately constructed 
 the charge against him, and employed an advocate — an orator, 
 one TertuUus — to set forth the charge with all possible skill. 
 Meanwhile Paul had been brought before Felix. The questions 
 put to him by the governor were mainly formal. He asked him 
 of what province he was, and having been answered, he 
 deferred the further hearing of the case until the accusers had 
 come. Paul was kept a prisoner in Herod's palace. Most 
 likely this was the palace which Herod had erected for himself, 
 now used as the residence of the Roman governor. 
 
 After five days the trial began. The high priest and his 
 company had come, with their advocate ; and it would seem, 
 at first in private, "they informed the governor against 
 Paul."' At length Paul is brought forth, and stands face 
 to face with his accusers. TertuUus, chosen because of his 
 skill in Roman law, steps forward to state the case, and 
 to make the accusation. The gist of the accusation is 
 that Paul was a person dangerous to the Roman power, and 
 ■ Acts xxiv, I. 
 
IN JERUSALEM AND CiESAREA. I7I 
 
 not merely offensive to the Jews. It is only a summary of the 
 speech which Luke records. The fulsome and servile flatteries 
 of the governor need not detain us. The charges run thus, 
 " We have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of 
 sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ring- 
 leader of the sect of the Nazarenes : who moreover assayed to 
 profane the temple."' The sum of it all was that Paul was a 
 disturber of the public peace, and a bad man. When TertuUus 
 had finished, the Jews joined in the charge and testified to the 
 truth of the accusation. 
 
 It was now the turn of Paul. He made his defence with 
 great dignity and self-possession, and easily disposed of all the 
 points made against him. He begins with a reference to the 
 governor, gracefully given and at the same time true altogether 
 to fact. Felix had been for many years a judge unto the Jews, 
 and his knowledge of the Jews and their customs would enable 
 him to judge regarding the truth of Paul's statements. He knew 
 that the feasts brought many foreign Jews to Jerusalem. He 
 might easily learn that it was not more than twelve days since 
 Paul had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and that " neither in 
 the temple did they find me disputing with any man, or stirring 
 up a crowd, nor in the synagogues, nor in the city."^ As for 
 proof of these statements the prosecutor had none to offer, at 
 least no such proof as the law required. We quote his own 
 words — " But this I confess unto thee, that after the Way which 
 they call a sect, so serve I the God of our fathers, believing all 
 things which are according to the law, and which are written in 
 the prophets ; having hope toward God, which these also 
 themselves look for, that there shall be a resurrection both of 
 the just and unjust. Herein do I also exercise myself to have a 
 conscience void of offence toward God, and man alway. Now 
 after many years I came to bring alms to my nation, and 
 offerings ; amidst which they found me purified in the temple, 
 with no crowd, nor yet with tumult ; but there were certain 
 Jews from Asia, who ought to have been here before thee, and 
 to make accusation if they had aught against me. Or else let 
 these men themselves say what wrong doing they found, when 
 I stood before the council, except it be for this one voice, that 
 I cried standing among them. Touching the resurrection of the 
 jdead I am called in question this day.''^ The reply was 
 
 ' Acts xxiv. s-8. ' Ibid. xxiv. 12. 3 Ibid. xxiv. 14-21. 
 
172 ST. PAXIL. 
 
 triumphant. He had overthrown the contentions of the prac- 
 tised orator one by one. He had shown how blameless his 
 conduct had been in Jerusalem, how innocent was the motive 
 which had brought him to Jerusalem, and how far his adver- 
 saries were from having proved anything against him. Paul's 
 skilful defence made Felix understand that a condemnation was 
 impossible. Paul had not even been accused of a violation of 
 Roman law. The right course for Felix would have been to 
 dismiss the case. He was, unwilling to do so, as it would have 
 offended the Jews, and he took the -middle course of deferring 
 a decision till Lysias should arrive. 
 
CHAPTER XIII, 
 
 PROM C/ESAREA TO ROME. 
 
 Captivity at Cassarea — Felix — His character and motives — His reca!l— 
 
 Festus and liis treatment of tiie Apostle — Trial before King Agrippa 
 — Appeal unto Caesar' — Sent to Rome — Incidents of the voyage— Ship- 
 wrecked at Malta— Incidents at Malta. 
 
 The trial had come to an end, to the satisfaction of no one 
 concerned. The Jews were dissatisfied, as they had not 
 obtained the condemnation of Paul ; and he had good reason 
 for complaining that but scanty justice had been meted out to 
 him. That a man should, untried and uncondemned, be kept 
 in prison for years, indicates a manifest failure of justice. The 
 Jews practically gained their end, for they had got him removed 
 from active life, who had been so active and successful in 
 propagating the religion of Jesus of Nazareth. Imprisonment, 
 with every indulgence compatible with its maintenance, was 
 the measure meted out to Paul by Felix. His friends were 
 allowed to see him, and neither the Church at Cassarea, nor 
 Philip the Evangelist would be likely to forget him. From the 
 language used by Luke we may infer that his friends did come 
 to minister unto him. Felix, too, seemed to have been not 
 unfriendly, and was accustomed to commune much with him. 
 One conversation is narrated in outline by the historian. Felix 
 and his wife Drusilla sent for Paul on an early day, and heard 
 him concerning the faith in Christ Jesus. Drusilla was a 
 Jewess, a daughter of that King Agrippa whose sudden death 
 is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.' She must have known 
 something of the Christians, if for no other reason than because 
 ' xii. 33. 
 
174 ST. PAUL. 
 
 of the way in which the Christian cause was associated with 
 her father's death. She was six years old when her father died'. 
 Her marriage with a Gentile and a Roman proves that she was 
 by no means a strict or patrio:tic Jewess. 
 
 There is something very like irony in the account we have of 
 the interview, and of the subject of conversation. Felix, like 
 other Romans, had some interest in, and liked to know some- 
 thing of the beliefs of other peoples. Eastern beliefs, particularly 
 those of Syria and Egypt, had a strange fascination for the 
 practical Roman mind. The old f^ith of Rome had crumbled, 
 and the formal worship, of the Roman state as embodied in the 
 emperor was rapidly becoming the official religion of the empire. 
 The Romans were a people in search of a religion ; and Felix 
 had heard in Paul's statement in defence of himself som-e 
 things which whetted his curiosity and made him desirous of 
 hearing more. Perhaps he had noted the words used by Paul, 
 and the strangeness of them to Roman ears might have struck 
 him. Paul had spoken of " the way," and of the resi^rectioa 
 of the dead. What could " the way " mean, and what was the 
 Christian doctrine of the Resurrection, and wherein did it differ 
 from the usual philosophical speculations as to a future life ? 
 Felix may have expected some abstract discussion, or some 
 Eastern parallel to such writings as are contained in the philo- 
 sophical works of Cicero. At all events he does not seem to 
 have got from Paul what he desired. For Paul could never 
 have lost himself in an abstract discussion, or have permitted 
 himself ever to lose sight of conduct. He no doubt did teB 
 Felix of the faith in Christ, that Jesus had risen from the dead, 
 and that Jesus was the Messiah expected of the Jews. Paul 
 would not leave the governor ignorant of the faith in Christ 
 Jesus. 
 
 But this faith issued in conduct. It was not one on which men 
 might dwell in a merely logical and speculative manner. It was 
 intensely practical. In Paul's hands it became a reasoning "of 
 righteousness and temperance and judgment to come'" ; the three 
 qualities which were conspicuously absent from the life and con- 
 duct of Felix. Here is the irony of the situation. Felix expected 
 to gratify an intellectual curiosity. He found himself in the grasp 
 of one who aroused his conscience, brought his sin and mis- 
 conduct to remembrance, and filled him with a serious fore- 
 ' Acts xxiv. 25. 
 
FROM C^SAREA TO ROME. 175 
 
 boding and anxiety as to the judgment to come. Felix trembled 
 as in the presence of his judge. The positions were reversed ; 
 the governor is the person who trembles at the bar of con- 
 science, and the prisoner has become the judge, with steady 
 hand holding the scales of justice, and with clear voice pro- 
 claiming the stern, inflexible principles on which the world is 
 governed, and by which all men must finally be tried. He 
 trembled, and did no more. His trembling did not lead to 
 repentance, no, not even to the discharge of the plain obvious 
 duty of setting the prisoner free. 
 
 All that Felix did was to rid himself of the immediate occasion 
 of his trembling. He sent Paul away. He was ashamed of 
 himself, and of his terror. He did make a sort of apology for 
 sending him away, and a kind of promise to resume the con- 
 versation. In the absence of Paul his spirits assumed their 
 wonted tone, and his trembling passed away. He never found 
 the convenient season of which he spoke. Though he often 
 conversed with Paul, yet the time when he could tremble passed 
 away never to return. There is something unutterably sad in 
 the conduct of the man, who immediately after he has trembled 
 at the thought of eternal righteousness and final judgment, 
 should plan and hope to sell justice for money. He con- 
 tinues to send for the Apostle, and to talk with him, but his 
 motive now is not to learn of Christ, nor to listen to the Apostle's 
 reasoning, but to get Paul to influence the Christians to pay his 
 ransom. There was no change in the conduct of Felix. For 
 two years he kept Paul a prisoner, and at the end of his period 
 of government left Paul in bonds. This hP did in order to gain 
 favour with the Jews. He knew how angry the Jews were with 
 him, and he dreaded the effect of the charges they might bring 
 against him after his recall. Thus he sought in various ways to 
 make merchandise of the Apostle. Had he been bribed, he 
 would have released Paul. Since Paul would not bribe him. he 
 withdrew from him all the favour with which he had trealed 
 him, and by leaving him in bonds, naturally gave to his suc- 
 cessor the impression that Paul was a criminal. But the Jews 
 did not relax their efforts. They brought their charges against 
 him before Nero, and Felix narrowly escaped punishment. Of 
 his future life history has no record; 
 
 History is silent also with regard to Paul, and the thoughts 
 of Paul, during these two years. It must have been hard for him 
 
1 75 ST. PAUL. 
 
 to reconcile himself to this time of uiactivity. How the care of 
 the Churches must have occupied his thoughts, and have bur- 
 dened him all the more on account of his enforced absence from 
 them. He could not have beeii idle, but we need not conjecture, 
 for we shall never know. There is no record of any deed of 
 his, nor of any letter from his pen. 
 
 The two year* came to an end. A new governor is come, 
 and new measures must be taken. Festus came to Csesarea. 
 " Having entered upon his province, he, three days after, went 
 up to Jerusalem." • He was in haste to acquaint himself with 
 the principal city in his province, as Jerusalem had been the 
 chief source of anxiety to all the governors, from the days 
 when it became part of a Roman province. On his arrival at 
 Jerusalem the chief priests and the principal men informed him 
 against Paul. It was a legal charge that they brought against 
 him. We gain a new insight into the depth of the Jewish hatred 
 against Paul, and their pertinacity, when we reflect that for two 
 years they had kept their eye on Paul, and brought their charges 
 against him on the first opportunity. Now the chief priests 
 themselves purpose to do what the forty conspirators had for- 
 merly proposed to them. They want to get rid of Paul by any 
 means, fair or foul. They ask Festus to bring Paul to Jeru- 
 salem. They intended to kill him by the way. Their hatred to 
 Paul had evidently grown during these years, and the longer 
 they waited the more they thirsted for his life. But Festus 
 would not listen to their proposal. He replied, '' that Paul was 
 kept in charge at Cassarea, and that he himself was about to 
 depart thither shortly." '^ He invited the accusers of Paul to 
 come to Csesarea, and promised them a fair hearing of the case. 
 The invitation is somewhat peculiar. " Let them, therefore, 
 which are of power among you go down with me ; " ^ such men 
 of influence and authority as would fitly represent the accusers. 
 
 Some eight or ten days thereafter he went down to Csesarea, 
 and on the day after his arrival he summoned Paul before him. 
 He who, untried and uncondemned, had already suffered im- 
 prisonment so long, is tried by a new governor, and again he 
 fails to obtain justice. The boasted impartiality of Roman 
 law again failed, owing to the weakness of those to whom 
 its administration was entrusted. The accusers brought many 
 
 » Acts XXV. i. Revised Version margin. 
 " Acts XXV. 4. J Acts XXV. 5. 
 
FROM CjESAREA TO ROME. I77 
 
 grievous charges against him, but they had no evidence to prove 
 them. Paul steadfastly maintained his innocence. More curtly 
 than before, and with a touch of impatience in his tone, he says, 
 " Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, 
 nor against Caesar have I sinned at all."' Clearly Festus was 
 of opinion that the charge had broken down, at least as far as 
 regards Roman law. But might there not be something in the 
 other charges ? Festus knew nothing of the Jewish law, and 
 but little of Jewish customs. He suggests that Paul might be 
 tried at Jerusalem. " Wilt thou go to Jerusalem, and there be 
 judged of these things before me?"'' He wished to gain the 
 favour of the Jews, and perhaps he really felt himself to be 
 helpless and unfit to judge the case. The iinpatience of the 
 Apostle grew greater. Delayhad already tired him, and almost 
 worn him out. And there is a ring of manly indignation in 
 the words which he spake : " I am standing before Caesar's 
 judgment seat, where I ought to be judged ; to the Jews I have 
 done no wrong, as thou also very well knowest. If then I am 
 a wrong-doer, and have committed anything worthy of death, I 
 refuse not to die ; but if none of these things is true whereof 
 these accuse me, no man can give me up unto them. I appeal 
 unto Caesar." 3 
 
 The fateful words are spoken. The Apostle, wearied of the 
 endless delays, and of the insincerity both of Felix and of 
 Festus, is constrained to make the appeal which takes him and 
 the case out of their hands, and places them in the hands of 
 the Emperor himself. For years he had waited in patience, 
 but he could endure no more when he saw that Festus was fol- 
 lowing the example of his predecessor, and was seeking " to do 
 the Jews a pleasure." The Apostle will be no party to such 
 continued malversation of justice. Nor is his appeal one that 
 can be disregarded. It paralysed the hands of Festus, and 
 constrained him to yield. He took the opinion of his assessors, 
 and they seemingly agreed that Paul's appeal must have effect. 
 So the governor said : " Hast thou appealed unto Caesar ? 
 Unto Cffisar shalt thou go."* 
 
 Some time elapsed before Paul could be sent to Rome. Nor 
 was the governor in any haste to send him. For he was in a 
 somewhat awkward position. A man had been kept in prison 
 
 * Acts XXV. 8. ■ Ibid. xxv. 9. 
 
 3 Ibid, xxv, 10, II. * Ibid. xxv. 12. 
 
 13 
 
r78 ST. PAUL. 
 
 for years, and at last had appealed unto Caesar, and the 
 governor had great difficulty in stating the charge against 
 him. Festus seems to have felt keenly the difficulty, and to 
 have feared lest he should be blamed by the Emperor. To be 
 found partial or careless in the administration of justice at the 
 beginning of his term of office might have serious consequences. 
 He seized the occasion of a visit of King Agrippa and Bernice, 
 to lay the matter before the King. The King, being acquainted 
 with Jewish ways of thinking, and Jewish customs, and himself 
 also bearing the burden of rule over the Jews, might be able to 
 advise. It is not necessary to say anything of this King and 
 his sister, nor to relate what' has been said of them both by 
 Jewish and by Roman writers. The story of the Herods is, from 
 first to last, one about which as little as possible should be 
 written. After they had been at Cssarea for some time Festus 
 brought the case of Paul before the King. He states that Paul 
 had been left in bonds by Felix, that the Jews had, when Festus 
 had been at Jerusalem, asked for sentence against him. It was 
 not the Roman custom to condemn a man without a trial, and 
 the trial had been held. But Festus found no charge of crime 
 had been made. It was a question about the Jews' religion, 
 about " one Jesus who was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be 
 alive." ' In his perplexity the governor had proposed to shift 
 the trial to Jerusalem, and let the prisoner be judged there, but 
 Paul had appealed to Cassar. He was now in safe keeping till a 
 fitting opportunity of sending him should be found. On this 
 statement being made. King Agrippa said, " I also could wish to 
 hear the man myself." ' The hearing was fixed for the next day. 
 With the fondness for display characteristic of the house of 
 Herod, the King and his sister came with great pomp to the 
 place of hearing. They were accompanied by the chief cap- 
 tains and the principal men of the city. Having seated 
 themselves Paul was brought in. The governor in fitting terms 
 stated the reason why the court had met. The prisoner had 
 been accused by the Jews, and Festus had found that he had 
 committed nothing worthy of death. And the present hearing 
 of the case was held, " For it seemeth to me unreasonable, in 
 sending a prisoner, not withal to signify the charges against 
 him." 3 But the perplexity of the governor arose from the fact 
 
 ' Acts XXV. 19. ' Ibid. xxv. 22. 3 Ibid. xxv. 27. 
 
FROM CiESAREA TO ROME. 1 79 
 
 that he had nothing definite to say, " No certain thing to write 
 unto my lord." 
 
 Paul had now an opportunity of making his defence. He had 
 begun his defence on the stairs of the temple, and had been 
 interrupted. He had again and again tried to state his case 
 fully, and had never been allowed to finish it. Shall he be 
 allowed to make his defence now ? and be allowed to continue 
 to the end ? We shall see. At all events, Paul will make such 
 use of the opportunity as he can. He is in the presence of the 
 King and his sister. He has to speak before the Roman Governor 
 and the chief captains of the garrison of Cassarea. Around him, 
 too, must have been people of many nationalities, and Jews 
 violently opposed to him, and both Jewish and Gentile Chris- 
 tians devotedly attached to him. Paul is permitted to speak 
 for himself, and so much of his speech as he was permitted to 
 give lies before us in the Acts of the Apostles. In main outline 
 it is the defence with which we are already familiar. Paul has 
 the conviction that his best defence is to give a narrative of the 
 facts of his life. Then he tells the King of his manner of life 
 before he became a Christian, of his hatred of Jesus and His 
 followers, of the manner of his conversion, and of the com- 
 mission given him by Christ. These are the main points set 
 forth by the Apostle, and they are in essential agreement with 
 Luke's narrative of the conversion, and with the speech 
 delivered from the temple stairs. The variations are such as 
 may be readily explained, nor need the explanation detain us 
 here. Having been sent forth by Christ, Paul had gone to 
 Damascus, Judaea, to the Gentiles, to preach repentance and 
 faith, and everywhere to declaie "that the Christ must suffer, 
 and how that he first, by the resurrection of the dead, should 
 proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles." 
 
 It is really curious that when Paul speaks to Romans or 
 Greeks of the resurrection of the dead, he should always at 
 that point be interrupted. It seems to be a notion that they 
 could not grasp, and if they did grasp it, it seemed to them to 
 be utter madness. They could understand the doctrine of 
 immortality, but that form of immortality brought to light by 
 the gospel seemed to them, as it seems to many now, to be 
 foolishness, or worse. Festus hstened up to this point, and he 
 heard the gospel compressed into a single sentence. Christ by 
 suffering, dying, and rising again, had become the source of 
 
I So ST. PAUL. 
 
 light and life to Jew and Gentile alike. But this seemed to him 
 to be mere madness. He interrupted somewhat rudely. With 
 a loud voice he said: "Paul, thou art mad; thy much learning 
 doth turn thee to madness." ' It is scarcely possible for us, to 
 whom the teaching of Paul has become the very elements of 
 our thinking and acting, to enter into the state of mind which 
 could find in this speech nothing but the ravings of a diseased 
 mind. Festus could see that there was a kind of method in 
 this madness. It was not the ravings of an ordinary lunatic, 
 but it was the unsoundness of mind produced by much learn- 
 ing. Gleams of insight were in it, flashes of glorious meaning 
 were there, but to Festus these seemed only to bring forth into 
 clear prominence the lunatic absurdity of the other beliefs of 
 the Apostle. Paul's reply was as much marked for the courtesy 
 of its tone and manner, as the remark of the governor was for 
 its rudeness. " I am not mad, most excellent Festus ; but speak 
 forth words of truth and soberness." He answers with gentle- 
 ness, gives the governor the title of respect due to his position, 
 and claims for himself that his words are the words of truth 
 and soberness, utterly opposed to the very possibility of mad- 
 ness. 
 
 Turning now to the King, who had listened with attention to 
 what Paul had said, he appeals to Agrippa's personal know- 
 ledge. The King must have known of the rise of Christianity, 
 and must have known of the life, the death, and the resurrec- 
 tion of Jesus. None of these things could be hidden from him. 
 Then comes the sentence which contains the essential position 
 of Christian apologetics : " For this hath not been done in a 
 corner." ° Christianity has taken hold of history, and forced it 
 to record its appearance in this world, and its course therein. 
 Itself of an origin beyond history and tirtie, and having in it 
 something that transcends tirhe, it has entered into human 
 history, laid hold of all the laws, forces, and conditions which 
 make history, stamped them with its own impress, and used 
 them for its own purpose. No, these things were not done in 
 a corner. They could not be hid, and from this time forth 
 they have become the ruling power of history, and will 
 become so more and more. Nor had it come without a pre- 
 paration being made for its coming, both in Israel and 
 among other peoples. Paul could testify that he was " saying 
 ' Acts XXV. 24. » Ibid. xxv. 26. 
 
FROM C^SAREA TO ROME. l8l 
 
 nothing but what the proptets and Moses did say should come." ' 
 Believing that the teaching of the prophets had their fLilfilment 
 in Christ, Paul appeals to King Agrippa, " Believest thou the 
 prophets .' " and immediately answers his own question, " I know 
 that thou believest." What was the kind of faith which Agrippa 
 had in the prophets we may not well determine, but that he 
 did believe them in some measure and to some extent is certain. 
 He foresees, however, that Paul would speedily make use of this 
 concession, and proceed to build on it an argument for Chris- 
 tianity. With some haste he anticipates the further remarks of 
 the Apostle. " With but little persuasion thou wouldest fain 
 make me a Christian." ' The Revised Version more truly 
 represents the sense of the Greek than does the Authorised 
 Version. The King saw that Paul strove to convince him. 
 He saw also that Paul sought to persuade him by means of 
 the Old Testament, and he frustrated the hope of the Apostle 
 by his words. Suppose that he did believe the prophets, it 
 by no means followed that he believed them in the Apostle's 
 sense. The meaning of the King is that the attempt of the 
 Apostle was so much labour lost. It would take a great deal 
 more to persuade him to be a Christian. Paul's dignified reply 
 ends the scene : " I would to God, that whether with little or 
 with much, not thou only, but also all that hear me this day, 
 might become such as I am, save these bonds." ' 
 
 Thus Paul's last recorded apology for himself and for his faith 
 came to an end. It remains, like all the others, unfinished. So 
 far he was allowed to speak, and no farther. He had never been 
 permitted to say all he wished to say, and now the time is 
 nearly come when this weary imprisonment at Csesarea shall be 
 over. For the governor and the King agreed that Paul had 
 done nothing worthy of death or of bonds, and Agrippa had 
 stated his view without reserve that Paul might have been set 
 at liberty if he had not appealed unto C^sar. It seems cruel 
 that Paul should have been constrained, through the persistence 
 of his enemies, and the weakness of two Roman governors, to 
 appeal to the Emperor. In one view it seemed to prolong his 
 imprisonment. But in another view the wrath and the weak- 
 ness of men were elements in the working out of the purpose 
 of God. These were stages on the way to Rome. 
 
 Paul and Aristarchus and Luke — we know not whether there 
 ' Acts xzri. 22. ', Ibid. xxvi. 28. 3 Ibid. xxvi. 2g, 
 
102 ST. PAUL. 
 
 were any more of Paul's friends — were taken on board a ship. 
 Paul and other prisoners were placed in the charge of Julius, a 
 centurion of the Augustan band, who was made responsible 
 for them and was bound to present them at Rome. The ship 
 was a coasting vessel, and traded from port to port along the 
 coast of Asia Minor, from Ceesarea to Sidon, where Paul was 
 allowed to go on shore and refresh himself and to see his 
 friends ; and from Sidon, passing between Cyprus and the 
 mainland, they came to Myra, a city of Lycia. Luke mentions, 
 as if in remembrance of the work of Paul in these regions, 
 that they sailed " across the sea which is off Cilicia and 
 Pamphylia." " Already Paul seems to have won the confidence 
 and trust of Julius the centurion. For he was allowed to go 
 ashore at Sidon apparently without a guard. 
 
 At Myra they leave the coasting vessel and embark on board 
 a ship of Alexandria, sailing for Italy. It is not our purpose to 
 narrate in detail the incidents of this eventful and perilous 
 voyage. The narrative of Luke is exceedingly graphic and 
 easy to be understood. The course of the voyage has also 
 been minutely mapped out and the story verified in almost 
 every particular. From the outset it was a disastrous voyage. 
 They were kept back by head-winds. They sailed slowly for 
 many days, and made but little progress. They altered their 
 course and sailed under the lee of Crete, over against Salmone, 
 and with difficulty coasting along it came to Fair Havens, near 
 to the city of Lasea. These places have been identified and 
 fully described in " The Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul," 
 by Smith of Jordan Hill. At this point of the story we are 
 reminded of the difference between seafaring life in ancient 
 and in modem times. Navigation was attempted in that day 
 only during the more favourable months of the year. The 
 weather was now dangerous, and Paul had been making 
 observations both with regard to the season of the year and to 
 the condition of the ship. We have a note of time in the 
 remark that " the Fast " was now past. The fast was that of the 
 great day of atonement, and we thus know that it was now 
 in the month of September or October, It forms also a 
 strange comment on the Jewish accusation against Paul, that 
 he disregarded "the customs," to find him and his friends 
 keeping the Fast when they were far away at sea. 
 ' Acts xxvii. 5. 
 
FROM C^SAREA TO ROME. 1 83 
 
 Paul spoke his mind freely to the people on board. He 
 perceived that the voyage would involve risk and danger to 
 ship and cargo and also to the lives of all on board, and 
 apparently he advised them to winter at Crete ; but the 
 centurion gave more heed to the master and owner of the 
 ship, and accordingly on a day when the south wind blew softly, 
 they set sail from Crete with the view of reaching the com- 
 modious harbour of Phoenix, where they might conveniently and 
 safely pass the winter. They sailed close in shore. Soon they 
 were caught by the tempestuous wind called Euraquilo, a 
 wind which was so common as to have a distinctive name, 
 descriptive both of its violence and of the direction from 
 whence it came. The wind mastered them ; they could not 
 bear up against it, and were compelled to run before it. The 
 various incidents bring before us in a vivid manner the perils 
 through which they passed. As they passed under the lee of 
 Cauda, and were sheltered for a little time, they made an 
 attempt to secure the safety of the boat, which had been 
 towing after the ship all the time. After great difficulty they 
 hoisted it on board. Then, to help the ship to bear the strain, 
 they drew strong cables round the hull of the ship several 
 times to keep the timbers from parting. Fearing lest they 
 should be driven ashore on the African coast, upon the Syrtis, 
 a noted quicksand, they took down everything they could, and 
 allowed themselves to be driven before the storm. 
 
 One day they cast the cargo overboard, and the next day 
 they cast out what Luke describes as " the tackling of the 
 ship." Everything not absolutely necessary was thrown over- 
 board to lighten the ship and give them a chance for their 
 lives. Hope was given up. Neither sun nor stars were seen 
 by them for many days. They had lost their reckoning, and 
 there was no abatement of the storm. So discouraged and 
 hopeless were they all that they had not taken any food for 
 some time. " When they had been long without food," ' is the 
 phrase with which Luke describes the state of despair into 
 which they had fallen. There had been no preparation of 
 food and no regular meal time on board the ship. It was in 
 this state of matters that Paul came forward and practically 
 took command of all on board. He alone had withstood the 
 influence of circumstances and had risen superior to the peril 
 » Acts xxvii. 21. 
 
I §4 ST. PAUL. 
 
 in which they all stood. He had been often in dangers as 
 great. Thrice already had he suffered shipwreck, a day and 
 a night had he once spent in the deep.' And he knew 
 how necessary it was in moments of danger for men to main- 
 tain their physical strength and to keep their courage up. But 
 the calmness and courage of the Apostle were fetched not 
 froni his experience of past dangers, nor from a natural 
 hardihood of temperament, but from a widely different source. 
 In these days of toil, discomfort, and peril, Paul had been deep 
 in prayer, and had obtained an answer to his prayer. He now 
 stands forth as a messenger of God to these perplexed, wearied, 
 and despairing people. He reminds them of the little heed 
 they had given to his advice not to loose from Crete. He bids 
 them hope. He assures them that neither ship nor life shall 
 be lost. He tells them that he has received a message from 
 God, " the God whose I am and whom I serve." ' The Apostle 
 had cried unto God in the common distress, and the Lord had 
 heard and answered, " Fear not, Paul ; thou shalt stand before 
 Csesar : and lo, God hath granted thee all them that sail with 
 thee." 3 He added that it was his firm belief that it would be 
 well with them and no life be lost. 
 
 The effect of the Apostle's statement, and the sight of his 
 calm and undaunted bearing, must have had a stimulating effect 
 on the soldiers and crew. By this time all of them must have 
 known that Paul was a man to be trusted. He had been closely 
 associated with them all. Shut up within the narrow space on 
 board the ship, forced to come into close contact with him, 
 they must have observed his bearing in times of danger, and 
 must have come to some accurate knowledge of what manner 
 of man he was. And they could not help being impressed 
 with his earnest and thorough belief in the truth and reality of 
 what he promised. For fourteen nights, since they had left Fair 
 Havens, they had helplessly drifted to and fro in the sea of Adria 
 — a name which was not then limited as now to the Adriatic sea, 
 but meant that part of the Mediterranean which lies between 
 Greece, Italy, and Africa. About midnight the sailors surmised 
 that they were nearing land. They sounded and found twenty 
 fathoms, and after a little space they so^gded again and found 
 fifteen fathoms. " They cast four anchors out of the stern, and 
 wished for the day." Such are the simple, touching words in 
 ' 2 Cor. xi. 25. = Acts xxvii. 23. 3 Ibid, xxyii. 24. 
 
FROM C^SAREA TO ROME. 185 
 
 which Luke describes the feeling of those on board. We find 
 next the only touch of baseness and cowardice recorded by 
 Luke during all that wearisome voyage. The sailors, feeling 
 they were within reach of land, forgetful of their duty, resolved 
 to make for the shore. They pretended that they were to lay 
 out anchors from the foreship, and had lowered the boat, 
 when their purpose was thwarted by the prompt interference of 
 the Apostle. He knew that the skill of the sailors was needed 
 in the crisis in which they were. The soldiers and prisoners 
 would be helpless in the midst of scenes and dangers to which 
 they were not accustomed. True, God had promised to Paul 
 the lives of all in the ship ; but Paul knew also that every 
 human effort, must be made, and if the sailors deserted the 
 ship the others could not be saved. The centurion, on Paul's 
 suggestion, took steps to defeat the purpose of the sailors. 
 They cut away the ropes of the boat and let her fall off. 
 
 That they might be better prepared to use every means for 
 reaching land, Paul urged them to take food, for they had been 
 very irregular in this, as in most other things, during the 
 fourteen days of their perilous voyage. They had taken a 
 little now and then, but the Apostle asks them now to prepare 
 and to take sufficient food to strengthen them for the work that 
 required to be done. He assured them of their safety. He 
 asked them to take every precaution, he showed them the 
 example, took bread, gave thanks to God and did eat. And 
 they followed him and were not a little strengthened. They 
 then with renewed courage set to work and lightened the ship 
 by casting the wheat into the sea. Thus prepared, they waited 
 for the day, and when daylight appeared they found themselves 
 near an unknown land. Their hope now was to run the ship 
 on shore as safely as possible. They perceived a certain bay 
 with a beach, and they took counsel whether they could drive 
 the ship upon it. But they could not make it out. They got 
 much nearer the shore than they were at first, but the vessel 
 struck and they had after all to swim for their lives. Those 
 who could swim cast themselves overboard, and the rest, some 
 on planks and some on other things from the ship, got safe to 
 land. Not one perished. The prisoners had escaped death 
 in various forms, and at the last had narrowly escaped a new 
 peril, for the soldiers, afraid lest they should swim out and 
 escape, resolved to kill the prisoners ; but the centurion, 
 
1 86 ST. PAUL. 
 
 desirous to save Paul, stayed them from their purpose. Of the 
 two hundred, three score and sixteen souls on board that ship 
 not one was lost. They all got safe to land. We need make 
 no remark on the enthralling interest, nor on the graphic 
 powers and evident truth of the narrative. We feel as if we 
 were present, as if we also felt the chill of the cold, vapour- 
 laden atmosphere, as if we too drifted at the mercy of wind 
 and wave, till we know not where we are, and hope becomes 
 cold and dead. We feel how the steadfast courage of one man 
 may serve to animate a great number of men ; and above 
 all we note how faith in God and fellowship with Him lifts a 
 man above the circumstances and dangers of time. The soul 
 fixed on God has the calmness of eternity. A man who can 
 call on God, who can say with Paul, " The God whose I am 
 and whom I serve," has no fear of evil tidings. His heart is 
 fixed, he trusts in God, and he is safe. 
 
 They were shipwrecked on the island of Malta. It is not 
 necessary to discuss the opinion that they were landed on an 
 island in the Gulf of Venice. We may feel assured that 
 modern investigation has set that matter for ever at rest, and 
 Malta is the place. The shipwrecked crew and 'passengers 
 were received by the inhabitants with all kindness. They 
 kindled a fire, evidently the first thing to be done, as they 
 were all chilled to the bone. Paul, ever ready to take part 
 in needful work, whether that work was to advise, or to com- 
 fort, or to help by bodily toil, set himself actively to help. 
 He gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire. 
 Among the sticks which he gathered was a viper, which, 
 numbed by the cold, had been powerless to move. It woke 
 into life with the heat, sprung away from it, and fastened on 
 the hand of Paul. That the viper was poisonous we see from 
 the conduct of the people, who expected that Paul should 
 have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly. The people had 
 their own way of interpreting events, and their own natural 
 theology. At first they thought that Paul was a murderer. 
 They believed in retribution, and they said among them- 
 selves, " No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he 
 hath escaped from the^sea, yet Justice hath not suffered to live."' 
 When Paul shook off the viper into the fire, and felt no harm, 
 and when they saw no harm come to him, they thought he 
 ^ Acts xxviii. 4. 
 
FROM C^SAREA TO ROME. 1 87 
 
 was a god. The shipwrecked people were hospitably received 
 and entertained by the people, and Publius, the chief man, 
 received the centurion and Paul and others. He said that 
 by means of Paul they more than repaid the kindness they 
 received. The father of Publius was healed by Paul, and 
 many others who had diseases in the island came, and were 
 healed. Thus conferring and ' receiving benefits, the three 
 months of their stay in Malta passed away. Paul and his 
 friends were honoured with many honours, and when they 
 departed they were loaded with such things as were necessary. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 IN ROME. 
 
 Departure from Malta— Arrival in Rome — Last appeal to the Jews, and its 
 result — The Church at Rome, and the Epistle to the Romans — Post- 
 ponement of the trial — The work of the Apostle — The Epistles of 
 the captivity — The friends of the Apostle — His manifold labours^ 
 His future plans — The Pastoral Epistles as a source for the Apostle's 
 biography — His release^His movements in the interval between his 
 first and second imprisonment — His second arrest — His demeanour in 
 view of the end — His solitude — His confidence — His martyrdom. 
 
 When the winter was over, and the usual time for sailing 
 had come, St. Paul and his friends set sail in a ship of 
 Alexandria, which had wintered in the island. They had a 
 prosperous voyage, and speedily reached Syracuse, where 
 they made a stay of three days. With a fair south wind, on 
 "the second day they reached Puteoli, and their voyage by 
 sea came to an end. Here they found a Christian Church, 
 and abode with them for about seven days ; " and so we 
 came to Rome."' The Christian Church at Rome had, 
 during these seven days, heard of the arrival of the Apostle 
 at Puteoli, and heard also of the time when he was likely 
 to set out for Rome. They went forth to meet St. Paul as far 
 as the Market of Appius and The Three Taverns. The first- 
 mentioned of these places was about forty miles from Rome, 
 and the other about thirty miles. The Church at Rome knew 
 the name of the Apostle well. They had received from him 
 his greatest Epistle, and had for a long time expected his 
 coming to them. Now they meet him, as a prisoner who 
 has come to stand his trial before the Emperor. St. Paul, 
 ' Acts xxviii. 24. 
 
IN ROME. 189 
 
 too, had hoped to come to them " in the fulness of the 
 blessing of Christ."' So indeed he did come, but with the 
 drawback of imprisonment. But even this turned out in the 
 long run to be for the furtherance of the gospel of Christ. 
 When the Apostle saw the Roman Christians, " he thanked 
 God, and took courage." " 
 
 The centurion, glad that the journey was at an end and his 
 time of anxious responsibility over, delivered up the prisoners. 
 St. Paul was allowed to dwell by himself with the soldier who 
 guarded him. To this there are frequent allusions in the 
 Epistles of the imprisonment. For it was the custom that the 
 soldier and the prisoner should be chained to one another. 
 As soon as these necessary preliminaries were over, and the 
 Apostle knew where he was to be for a time, he sent for the 
 representatives of the Jews at Rome. In accordance with his 
 principle, " to the Jew first," he now, and apparently for the 
 last time, sought to persuade his kinsmen that the Messiah 
 had come. At the first meeting he explained to them the 
 causes of his imprisonment. He explains why he has ap- 
 pealed. In his own defence, and not as an accuser of the 
 Jews, he had made the appeal to Cassar. But there was 
 something greater involved, because, if his bondage were 
 rightly understood, it would be found that for the hope of 
 Israel was he bound with this chain. The Jews informed 
 him that they knew nothing of the matter. They had re- 
 ceived no letters from Judaea, nor had any reports about the 
 Apostle reached them. They knew, however, that the Christian 
 sect was everywhere spoken against by the Jews. However, 
 they were willing to hear what he had to say. 
 
 On the day appointed a great number of them came to the 
 place where the Apostle lodged. With great deliberation and 
 care, and with a fervent wish to persuade them, he spoke to 
 them, "testifying the kingdom of God, and persuading them 
 concerning Jesus, both from the law of Moses, and from the 
 prophets, from morning till evening." ^ Some there were 
 who believed, and some did not believe. They did not agree 
 among themselves, and this disagreement may serve to explain 
 why they did not seek to hasten the trial of the Apostle. But 
 it served also to show to the Apostle that henceforth in Rome 
 his work must be not among them, but among the Gentiles. 
 » Rom. XV. 29. ' Acts xxviii. 15. 3 Ibid, xxviii. 23. 
 
I go ST. PAUL. 
 
 How often he had tried, and in how many places, to reach his 
 kinsmen, and how passionately he loved them, we may gather 
 from his words : " I could wish that I myself were anathema 
 from Christ for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the 
 flesh : who are Israelites ; whose is the adoption, and the glory, 
 and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service 
 of God, and the promises ; whose are the fathers, and of whom 
 is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed 
 for ever. Amen." ' But they would not be persuaded, and 
 the Apostle had to bid them farewell. Slowly and sorrowfully 
 he recognised the facts, and bowed to their strength. With 
 that word from Isaiah, which had been used by the Master, 
 he leaves them and turns to the Gentiles. 
 
 In the final words of his history Luke tells us that "he 
 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."' While we had the 
 light of the Acts of the Apostles to guide us, we scarcely 
 knew how great and how indispensable was the help given 
 us in our attempt to follow the footsteps of the Apostle. 
 When, however, the light has failed us, and we are left to 
 grope our way by the dim taper of tradition, we see how 
 much we owe to Luke. Two whole years' work are com- 
 pressed into a sentence, a sentence full and descriptive, 
 certainly, but painfully lacking in particulars. No doubt 
 we may gather something from the four Epistles which he 
 wrote from Rome during these years, and much regarding 
 the topics which occupied his thoughts. We should not forget 
 the light cast on these concluding verses, by the fact that 
 the Apostle had already written the Epistle to the Romans. 
 When he received all that went in unto him, we may think 
 of the members of the Roman Church coming to the Apostle 
 to be instructed by him in the things pertaining to the king- 
 dom of God. They may have come one by one, or they may 
 have come in such numbers as could find room in the Apostle's 
 hired dwelling ; at all events, these two years were among the 
 most fruitful years in his most fruitful life. 
 
 We cannot here enter into any discussion of the Epistle to 
 the Romans, nor discuss the questions which arise regarding 
 • Rom. ix. 3-5, » Acts xxviii. 30. 31. 
 
IN ROME. 191 
 
 the origin and character of the Roman Church. Within our 
 limits it is impossible to do so, and it would be presumptuous 
 to attempt it. We shall only say here that the Roman Church 
 was from the beginning in perfect spiritual sympathy with 
 the Apostle, that it was likely founded by his own disciples 
 and converts, and would be universally recognised as pertain- 
 ing to his domain. As to the Epistle itself, what can be said ? 
 Only this, that it is one of those Epistles, if not the only one 
 in which the Apostle is free to unfold his thought without 
 interruption and distraction. In other Epistles he must write 
 with a view to the needs of a particular Church ; he must 
 recognise and remove their special doubts, difficulties, and 
 errors ; he must reprove, rebuke, exhort ; and must write, not 
 what he would, but what he, can. In the Epistle to the 
 Romans he writes in order, and passes on from the doctrine 
 of human sin and sorrow to the supreme remedy for both, 
 to faith, righteousness, hope, and peace, and to the purpose of 
 God, fully realised in Christ. Here, too, as elsewhere, we see 
 that for St. Paul Christ is the solution of every problem, the 
 solvent of every doubt. But on this we may not linger. We 
 must try to trace the life of the Apostle until the end came. 
 
 One thing is clear, that the trial of the Apostle did not 
 take place during the two years mentioned in the Acts of the 
 Apostles. His accusers had not arrived before him, since the 
 Jews at Rome had not heard from Jerusalem, nor was there 
 any speaking against St. Paul in the synagogue at Rome. In 
 the absence of the accusers the trial was necessarily postponed. 
 The result was that the Apostle was kept a prisoner for an 
 indefinite period. The imprisonment was as lenient as was 
 consistent with safe keeping. The Apostle was permitted to 
 live in his own house ; his friends were allowed free access 
 to him ; and he could communicate by letter with as many as 
 he pleased. In fact, though confined to one place, and always 
 in the custody of a soldier, his was a life of unusual activity 
 and of commanding influence. When he was unable to go 
 to the people, the people came to him. His former friends 
 sought him out, and he made many new friends. He was also 
 in frequent communication with the Churches he had founded. 
 Luke and Aristarchus were seemingly with him during all these 
 two years. Tychicus," who was the bearer of his letter to 
 • Col. iv. 7. 
 
192 ST. PAUL, 
 
 the Church at Ephesus, had been for some time with him. 
 Timothy,' who had been a companion and fellow-labourer of 
 his for so long a time, was also with him at Rome, and the 
 Apostle joins him with himself in the greeting to the Churches 
 of Philippi and Colossi, and in the letter to Philemon. Epaphro- 
 ditus ' had come from Philippi to rejoice the heart of the 
 Apostle with a gift valuable in itself, but enhanced in value to a 
 measureless degree because it was a sign of the love and affec- 
 tion of the Philippian Church to him. Mark,3 the cousin of 
 Barnabas, now reinstated in the friendship and esteem of the 
 Apostle, and Justus, a fellow-labourer of the Apostle, are 
 described as " men that have been a comfort to me." 
 Epaphras also, from Colossse, had come to visit the Apostle, 
 and to tell him of the state of the Churches at Colossi, 
 Laodicea, and Hierapolis. He would soon return, bearing 
 with him the greetings of St. Paul to these Churches. 
 Others there were, such as Demas, who, constant for a 
 time, yet grieved him, as afterwards he has to write con- 
 cerning him, " Demas forsook me, having loved this present 
 world."'' 
 
 St. Paul had been cheered and comforted by the presence 
 and sympathy of these men, all of whom took great delight in 
 ministering to his necessities both of body and of spirit. Per- 
 haps the most interesting episode of his prison life known to 
 us is contained in his letter to Philemon. It illustrates the 
 character of the Apostle and it throws light on the method of 
 his work. It is the story of an Asiatic slave, Onesimus, who 
 belonged to a Christian named Philemon, a membA- of the 
 Church at Colossse. Onesimus had robbed his master. He was a 
 thief and a runaway, offences by no means uncommon among 
 slaves, for slaves were treated by the law as if they had no rights, 
 and on their side they acted as if they had no responsibilities. 
 Onesimus had fled to Rome, as the place where he could best 
 find concealment. But in the great city he somehow came in 
 contact with St. Paul. He may have heard of the Apostle, 
 may, indeed, have seen him, and now, impelled by some motive, 
 was constrained to seek the Apostle's presence. Once in the 
 presence of St. Paul, he was caught more securely than if he 
 had been seized by his enraged master. Onesimus was con- 
 
 ' Phil. i. I ; Col. i. i ; Philemon i. 8. • Phil. iv. i8. 
 
 ' Col. iv. lo-ii. ♦ 2 Tim. iv. lo. 
 
IN ROME. 193 
 
 verted to Christ, and confessed to the Apostle that he had 
 defrauded his master, and other errors of his past sinful life. 
 We see here how thoroughly the Apostle had learned the 
 practical application of the principles he had preached. The 
 Apostle found in Onesimus, not a slave, a human chattel with- 
 out legal rights, but " a brother beloved." St. Paul found some- 
 thing very winning and helpful in the character of Onesimus, 
 and he, the free Roman citizen, recognising none of the artificial 
 distinctions on which human society lays so much stress, treated 
 the runaway slave as a brother and an equal. The distinction 
 between bond and free had vanished in the new equality insti- 
 tuted by Christ. But even more noteworthy is the resolution 
 of St. Paul to send Onesimus back to his master. Hcwill not 
 act without the consent of Philemon. Onesimus has erred 
 and repented, but he must also make restitution. He must 
 return to service ; he must restore what he took away. The 
 Apostle undertook the payment of the money debt, the other 
 Onesimus must himself pay. To make the matter easier for 
 the penitent, Paul undertook to write the letter now in our 
 hands, one of the most interesting in all literature, even if we 
 look at the merely human interest of the matter. The splendid 
 courtesy, the noble generosity, the inflexible sense of justice and 
 righteousness, the delicate sympathy, and the supreme practical 
 wisdom of the Apostle, all receive illustration in this brief 
 letter. Nor are the wider interests left without recognition. 
 The spirit of this letter has so interpenetrated society that now 
 no man can be held as the chattel of another. We do not 
 hesitate to believe that Philemon obeyed the request of his 
 spiritual father, and did receive Onesimus, " no longer as a ser- 
 vant, but more than a servant, a brother beloved." ' 
 
 Thus many interests and many friends helped to cheer and 
 enliven the Apostle during the time of his captivity. But the 
 fact and the misery of imprisonment remained, and were gall- 
 ing to the mind and body of the Apostle. In his Epistles he 
 speaks frequently of himself as "I, Paul, the prisoner of the 
 Lord," " or calls on his friends to remember his bonds. He 
 makes his bonds the frequent occasion of appeal to his people 
 that they should " live soberly, righteously, and godly." He re- 
 minds them that he could never move without the clanking ot 
 the chain. In the last of the Epistles, which he wrote during 
 • Phil. 16. " Eph. ill. I ; iv, i. 
 
 14 
 
194 ST. PAUL. 
 
 this time of imprisonment— that to the Philippians— he is in 
 anxiety as the time of his trial draws near. He is both doubt- 
 ful and hopeful as to the issue. " Him (Timothy) I hope to 
 send forthwith as soon as I shall see how it will go with me ; 
 but I trust in the Lord that I myself shall come shortly." ' His 
 anxiety did not, however, impair his cheerfulness, nor lead him 
 into discontent. He had learned contentment, but it was a 
 hard lesson. He may have, nay, he must have, fretted, must 
 have been impatient during his long time of imprisonment at 
 Caesarea, but now he has overcome that feeling. He can now 
 look back on all the way by which he has been led, and can see 
 how all things have worked together for good ; not merely for 
 his own personal good, but for that which he had more at 
 heart, the furtherance of the gospel. " I would have you know, 
 brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen 
 out rather unto the progress of the gospel ; so that my bonds 
 became manifest in Christ throughout the whole Praetorian 
 guard, and to all the rest." ' By means of his imprisonment 
 the gospel had been preached to those to whom it would not 
 otherwise have been preached. The Church at Rome had been 
 greatly strengthened since his arrival at Rome, and the brethren, 
 encouraged by the example of the Apostle, were " more abun- 
 dantly bold to speak the word of God without fear." ^ Thus, on 
 all sides, apart from his own situation, the Apostle had cause 
 for gladness. Believers in Christ had increased in number, in 
 zeal, and energy ; and they were of all ranks and classes, from 
 the runaway slave, like Onesimus, up to those that were of 
 Caesar's household. 
 
 Even in his imprisonment, and with all the work now accumu- 
 lated on his hands — the direct work of preaching Christ to all 
 who came to him, and the other work of the guidance of 
 distant Churches by his Epistles — he was forming wider and 
 more far-reaching plans for the progress of the gospel. We 
 know that he hoped, as soon as his trial was over, to visit 
 Ephesus, ColossEE, Laodicea, and the other Churches in that 
 neighbourhood ; for he writes to Philemon, " Withal prepare me 
 also a lodging, for I hope that through your prayers, I shall be 
 granted unto you." * When he writes to the Philippians he is 
 confidently persuaded that he shall be able to visit them again. 
 ■ Phil. ii. 23, 24. ' Ibid. i. 12. 13. 
 
 i Ibid. i. 14. 4 Pliilemon 2a. 
 
IN ROME. 195 
 
 " I know that I shall abide, yea, and abide with you all, for 
 your progress and joy in the faith ; that your glorying may abound 
 in Christ Jesus in me, through my presence with you again." ' 
 Were these hopes of his realised ? Did the Apostle visit the 
 scene of his first European work again, and was he able to enjoy 
 the hospitality of Philemon ? The answer to these questions 
 depends on the view taken of the Pastoral Epistles, and of their 
 Pauline authorship. If they were written by St. Paul, then we 
 have clear evidence of his release from imprisonment, and of 
 his abundant work and travel during the few years which elapsed 
 between his first and his second imprisonment at Rome. It is 
 keenly debated at the present time whether St. Paul was 
 released from the captivity recorded by Luke, whether he 
 wrote the Pastoral Epistles, and whether we have any trust- 
 worthy information of his movements after this date. 
 
 It is obvious that we may not discuss these questions here ; 
 but something must be said to justify the use we are to make 
 of the Pastoral Epistles. It has been urged that there is no 
 room for these Epistles, and no fit place for them in the life of 
 Paul as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. This may be 
 readily granted. It is so obvious on the slightest examination 
 of the facts, that it is scarcely necessary to mention it. But 
 the remark is as irrelevant as it is true. To say that we can 
 find no room, in a narrative which does not record anything 
 that happened after the year a.d. 63, for letters which were 
 written subsequent to that time, is as relevant for any practica, 
 purpose as the remark would be that Tacitus does not refer to 
 the battle of Waterloo. Before the observation can have any 
 point it ought to be shown by historical evidence that the 
 Apostle did not survive the year a.d. 64, and also that the 
 narrative in the Acts of the Apostles contains the whole of 
 his active life. But such evidence it is impossible to produce. 
 A stronger argument against the Pauline authorship of the 
 Pastoral Epistles is found in the number of words and phrases 
 found in them and not found in the other Epistles of St. Paul. 
 It is quite true that there are such peculiarities of diction. On 
 this point Dr. Salmon writes as follows : " The difficulty arising 
 from peculiarities of diction we have already learned to dis- 
 regard. The Epistles which I have previously examined exhibit 
 in Paul's writings very great varieties of expression, showing 
 • Phil. i. 25, 26. 
 
igo ST. PAUL. 
 
 him to be a man of considerable mental pliability, and not one 
 whose stock of phrases would be likely to be stereotyped when 
 he came to write these letters. But I willingly concede that the 
 argument from the diction makes it likely that the Pastoral 
 Epistles were written at no great distance of time from each 
 other, and probably at some distance of time from the other 
 Epistles. For in Paul's Epistles we find great likeness of expres- 
 sion between Epistles written at nearly the same time, as, for 
 instance, between those to the Romans and Galatians, between 
 those to the Ephesians and Colossians, while the different groups 
 of Epistles differ considerably in words and topics from each 
 other. This is what we find on examining the different works of 
 any author who has written much, viz., considerable resemblance 
 in style between works of the same period ; but often modifica- 
 tions of style as he advances in life. Now, though each group of 
 Paul's Epistles has its peculiarities of diction, there are links of 
 connection between the phraseology of each group, and that of 
 the next in order of time ; and there are such links between that 
 of the Pastoral Epistles and of the letters of the imprison- 
 ment." ' Such links of connection Dr. Salmon points out, and 
 they are obvious when pointed out. A full discussion of this 
 and other points may be found in Dr. Huther's Commentary 
 on the Epistles of St. Paul to Timothy and Titus, which forms 
 ' part of Meyer's " Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the 
 New Testament," an English translation of which is published 
 by Messrs. T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh. 
 
 Another difficulty is found in the traces which they bear 
 of an ecclesiastical organization and theological development 
 which it is alleged belong to a later age than that of St. Paul. 
 The force of this argument is by no m.eans obvious. We find 
 traces of ecclesiastical organization in other Epistles of St. 
 Paul. He writes " to all the saints which are at Philippi with 
 the bishops and deacons," "" which proves that the Church at 
 Philippi was definitely organized, with proper office-bearers, 
 having distinctive functions and duties. " That the Epistles 
 imply an ecclesiastical organization in advance of that which 
 their supposed date warrants can scarcely be maintained. The 
 letters themselves were written because as yet there was no 
 definite, well-understood organization. They were meant to 
 
 « " Tntroduction to the New Testament," second edition, pp. 418-9. 
 » PhU. i. I. 
 
IN ROME. 197 
 
 guide Timothy and Titus in matters so fundamental as the 
 character requisite in those who were ordained as elders and 
 deacons. Besides, we find in these Epistles precisely what was 
 characteristic of apostolic times and not of the second century, 
 the plurality and equality of presbyters in each Church. There 
 is no trace of the monarchical episcopate elevating itself above 
 the presbyterial administration. For the tradition mentioned 
 by Eusebius, that Timothy was 'bishop ' of Ephesus, and Titus 
 'bishop of Crete' is refuted by the letters themselves, which 
 amply prove that the office, if such it may be called, held by 
 these friends of Paul, was merely temporary." ' Add to this 
 the significant fact that all Paul's other Epistles were written to 
 congregations, and were concerned mainly with questions of 
 doctrine and conduct, and that these Pastoral Epistles were 
 written to men who were pastors, teachers, rulers in the Church, 
 and we have a sufficient explanation of the prominent position 
 which questions of ecclesiastical order and Church government 
 hold in them. The different purpose accounts for the difference 
 in the topics discussed and in the mode of discussion. More 
 than this we need not say, as this is sufficient to justify us in 
 using these Epistles as material for the biography of the 
 Apostle. We get from them these facts, that St. Paul was 
 released from imprisonment, that he resumed his work, that 
 after a time he was again arrested and brought to Rome, and 
 while there waiting his trial a second time, wrote these, or at 
 least one of these. Epistles, for the future guidance of the 
 Churches he had founded. 
 
 From a passing reference we gather that his first trial was 
 past, and that he was acquitted. "At my first defence no 
 one took my part, but all forsook me ; may it not be laid to 
 their account. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened 
 me : that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, 
 and that all the Gentiles might hear ; and I was delivered out 
 of the mouth of the lion." ' While he stood before the Roman 
 Emperor, no one of his friends was with him, and he himself 
 was ready to live or die according to the will of Christ. He 
 h^d a desire to depart and be with Christ, " For it is very 
 far better." ^ But he recognised that there might yet be work 
 for him to do, and he doubtless used all available means for 
 ' Dr. Marcus Dods, " Introduction to the New Testament," p. 176. 
 » 2 Tim, jv. 16-17. ^ Phil. i. 23- 
 
ig8 ST. PAUL. 
 
 his acquittal, and he was acquitted, to begin a new course of 
 work, for the advance of the kingdom of Christ. By the 
 witness of the Pastoral Epistles we know that he revisited 
 Ephesus.' On his liberation he seems to have left Rome, and 
 travelled by the usual route to Macedonia, as he expected to 
 do when he wrote the Epistle to the Philippians.' We 
 may imagine the joy of his meeting with the Church at 
 Philippi. The greater his joy in them, and the more perfect 
 his satisfaction with them, the shorter would his stay be ; for 
 they did not need his presence as much as the Churches in 
 Asia Minor. These Churches were already in the grasp of 
 incipient heresy, and he had many things to say to them. 
 
 What these heresies were may be gathered from the Epistle 
 to the Colossians and from the Pastoral Epistles. We may not 
 describe them here, as it would lead us too far afield. He may 
 have visited Colossas and Laodicea, and it is almost certain 
 that he was at Ephesus, for in the verse already referred to, he 
 tells us that he had left Timothy at Ephesus, while he himself 
 was on his way to Macedonia. There is no room for this visit 
 in the accounts of Paul's residence at Ephesus, as recorded in 
 the Acts of the Apostles ; for on his first visit he went, not to 
 Macedonia, but to Syria,^ and on the termination of his second 
 visit he did indeed depart for Macedonia, but he did not leave 
 Timothy in Ephesus, having already sent him to Macedonia.* 
 So there is no place for the visit mentioned here, except 
 during the journey after the first Roman imprisonment of the 
 Apostle. He could not stay for any length of time, and he left 
 Timothy behind to finish the work he could not accomplish. 
 To this end he wrote the First Epistle to Timothy, in order to 
 strengthen his hands, and to lay down permanent principles for 
 his guidance in dealing with heretics, unbelievers, and, ia 
 short, with all the problems which might arise in the course 
 of his ministry. 
 
 From the Epistle toTituswe learn that the Apostle had recently 
 been with Titus in Crete,^ and was on his way westward when he 
 wrote it. We know too little to be able to say with certainty 
 when this visit to Crete took place. It may have been on his 
 return from Ephesus, or it may have been at some other time, 
 say on his visit to Spain, if he did indeed go to Spain. That 
 
 ' I Tim. i. 3. ^ Phil. ii. 24, 3 Acts xviii. 19-21. 
 
 « Ibid. xix. 22. ! Titus i. 5. 
 
IN ROME. 199 
 
 he had been with Titus in Crete is sure, and that when he 
 wrote to him he intended to winter at Nicopolis ' is clear 
 enough. But the data are too scanty for us to construct an 
 itinerary from them, such as Luke has given us in the Acts 
 of the Apostles. The stay of the Apostle in that island was 
 but brief, and he left Titus to " set in order the things that 
 were wanting, and to appoint elders in every city." ^ The 
 Church in Crete had already been in existence when he visited 
 it, but not organized nor instructed as it ought to have been. 
 To Titus was entrusted the task of organizing the Church in 
 Crete, and as soon as h»had accomplished it, he was instructed 
 to come to Paul at Nicopolis, in Epirus, where he had deter- 
 mined to winter. 
 
 In the Second Epistle to Timothy we find that the Apostle 
 is back in Rome. He had recently been at Troas, Corinth, and 
 Miletus. At Troas he had left a cloak with Carpus, with 
 books and parchments.^ So this journey must have been quite 
 recent. At Miletus he had left Trophimus in sickness, and 
 Erastus he had left at Corinth. In Rome he had been again 
 imprisoned, and was now persuaded that the end was near. 
 But he has still some hope that he may be again delivered ; at 
 all events, he writes to Timothy, " Do thy diligence to come 
 before winter."* We see that the time of the Apostle was 
 fully occupied, that in the interval between his first and second 
 imprisonments he was in many places, and was pressed with 
 anxieties and cares as much as ever. He may indeed have 
 travelled as far as Spain, as he formerly intended,^ and as a 
 very early tradition affirms. " Owing to envy, Paul also 
 obtained the reward of patient continuance, after being seven 
 times thrown into captivity, compelled to flee, and stoned. 
 After preaching both in the east and in the west, he gained the 
 illustrious reputation due to his faith, having taught righteous- 
 ness to the whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the 
 west, and suffered martyrdom under the prefects."* Such is 
 the testimony of Clement of Rome, and it was also a pretty 
 constant tradition after his time. It is possible, indeed likely, 
 that the Apostle did visit Spain. But we need not enter into 
 controversy on the point ; because even if we were able to 
 
 » Titus iii. 12. ' Ibid. i. 5. » a Tim. iv, 13, 
 
 ■• 2 Ibid. iv. 22. S Rom. xv. 24. 
 
 * "Apostolic Fathers," p, ji (T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh). 
 
20O ST. PAUL. 
 
 prove the fact of his visit, we should still be quite ignorant of 
 what he said and did, of what he planned and suffered on that 
 western journey. 
 
 We come back, then, to the second imprisonment of the 
 Apostle, and to the state of isolation in which he found him- 
 self. We earnestly long to know what were the circumstances 
 which led to his arrest. He may have been arrested in 
 Nicopolis, and sent to Rome for trial. His arrest may have 
 been the occasion on which the courage, endurance, and faith 
 of Demas was tried and found wanting. " Demas forsook 
 me, having loved this present world.*' He chose to desert 
 the Apostle, and to go to Thessalonica. Titus indeed had 
 reached him, but he had been sent to Dalmatia ; Crescens 
 was sent to Galatia ; and of all his friends and followers, only 
 Luke was with him. He longs for the presence of Timothy 
 and Mark. He has need of all the strength which their 
 presence could give him. We know how greatly he depended 
 on the sympathy of his friends, and now their absence was felt 
 by him as a bereavement. 
 
 Traces appear of the fact that his second imprisonment was 
 much more severe than his first. " I suffer hardship unto 
 bonds, as a malefactor." ' He has not the same freedom ; 
 his friends still have access to him, but under more severe 
 -estrictions. It takes great courage and great affection for him on 
 the part of those who desire to come to him and to minister to 
 him. Many were ashamed of his chain, and many, foreseeing' 
 danger, took themselves out of the way. He keenly remembers 
 both kinds of people. He remembers how Phygelus and 
 Hermogenes 3 had, along with others in Asia, turned away 
 from him ; how Demas had forsaken him ; how they all had 
 left him in the hour of his sorest need. He remembers 
 also how Onesiphorus ■• had sought him out, earnestly and 
 diligently; how he scorned every danger, rose superior to every 
 fear, and was content to front every danger, if he could only 
 help the Apostle. With what fervent, glowing words he 
 records his feelings of thankfulness, and how much he was 
 refreshed by the true and tender courage of his friend. Though 
 many had forsaken him, yet some friends remained. Luke 
 was with him, and with him also were the friends whose 
 
 ' 2 Tim. iv. lo. • Ibid. ii. g. 
 
 3 Ibid. i. 15. 4 Ibid. i. 16. 
 
IN ROME. 20I 
 
 salutations he sends to Timothy. "Eubulus saluteth thee, 
 and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren." ' 
 
 In no unmanly spirit does the great Apostle face the perils 
 in which he stood, nor is the time or thought he bestows 
 on himself unduly great. He lets us see how keenly he 
 felt the desertion of his friends, and how much he delighted 
 in the love and generosity of those who were faithful. But he 
 is even more concerned about the Churches he may no longer 
 serve, and the perils they may have to pass through. He 
 knows that there are people whose " words will eat as doth a 
 gangrene,'"' and he is afraid lest his converts should make ship- 
 wreck. He will not spend his time in thinking about himself 
 or his defence, or about the imminent peril in which he stands. 
 He speaks words which burn, and breathe, which brace the 
 heart to battle, and the mind to endurance and hope. He 
 is anxious and troubled, but it is for other people. He is 
 afraid, but his fear is lest error and sin should creep in and 
 destroy the flock. As for himself, he knows that " the Lord 
 will deliver me from every evil work, and will save me unto 
 His heavenly kingdom." ^ He saw before him the near 
 approach of death in a cruel form. He knew that from the 
 chains and fetters of imprisonment he was to have only one 
 release. But he can calmly, nay, triumphantly, say, " I am 
 already being offered, and the time of my departure is come. 
 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have 
 kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of 
 righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give 
 to me at that day ; and not only to me, but also to all them 
 that have loved His appearing."'' In this spirit he waits for the 
 end, and the end is soon to come. 
 
 Eusebius thus writes, " Whilst he was a prisoner, he wrote 
 his Second Epistle to Timothy, in which he both mentions his 
 first defence and his impending death. Hear, on these points, 
 his own testimony respecting himself : ' In my former defence 
 no one was present with me, but all deserted me. May it not 
 be laid to their charge. But the Lord was with me, and 
 strengthened me, that through me the preaching of the gospel 
 might be fulfilled, and all the nations hear it. And I was 
 delivered out of the lion's mouth.' He plainly intimates in 
 these words, ' On the former occasion he was rescued from the 
 ' 2 Tim. iv. 21. ' 2 Ibid, ii, 17. 3 Ibid. iv. 18. ■• Ibid. iv. 6-8. 
 
202 ST. PAUL. 
 
 lion's mouth that the preachjng of the gospel might be accom- 
 plished,' that it was Nero to whom he referred by this ex- 
 pression, as is probable on account of his cruelty. Therefore 
 he did not subsequently subjoin any such expression as, ' He 
 will rescue me from the lion's mouth,' for he saw in spirit how 
 near his approaching death was. Hence after the expression, 
 ' and I was rescued from the lion's mouth,' this also, ' the Lord 
 will rescue me from every evil work, and will save me unto His 
 heavenly kingdom,' indicating the martyrdom he would soon 
 suffer ; which he more clearly expresses in the same Epistle, 
 ' for I am already poured out, and the time of my departure is 
 at hand.' And indeed in this Second Epistle to Timothy he 
 shows that Luke alone was with him when he wrote, but at his 
 former defence not even he. Whence it is probable that Luke 
 wrote his Acts of the Apostles about this time, continuing his 
 history down to the time that he was with Paul. Thus much 
 we have said to show that the martyrdom of the Apostle did 
 not take place at that period of his stay at Rome when Luke 
 wrote his history. It is, indeed, probable that as Nero was 
 more disposed to mildness in the beginning, the defence of the 
 Apostle's doctrine would be more easily received ; but as he 
 advanced to such criminal excesses as to disregard all right, 
 the Apostles also, with others, experienced the effect of the 
 measures pursued against them." ' A little further on Eusebius 
 says, " Paul is therefore said to have been beheaded at Rome." " 
 Thus, at the will of a capricious madman, the great Apostle 
 of the Gentiles ended his long career of suffering and of work, 
 and by the sharp stroke of the headsman's sword entered into 
 his rest. He rests from his labours, and his works do follow 
 him, as his was one of the richest, fullest, most faithful lives that 
 the world has ever seen. 
 
 « "Ecclesiastical History," p. 63. Translated by Rev. C. F. Cruse. 
 • Ibid. p. 68. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PAULINE THEOLOGY. 
 
 Pauline Theology ; its sources, its nature — The Epistles of the Imprison- 
 ment — His relation to Christ — St. Paul not the Founder of Christianity. 
 
 It is not intended to give anything like a full account of the 
 teaching and doctrine of the Apostle, nor to estimate his place, 
 rank, and influence in the spread of Christianity. Many treatises 
 have been written on Pauline theology, and many attempts 
 made to set forth his doctrine. And there is yet a great deal to 
 be done ere we can be said fully to have mastered Paulinism. 
 Our aim in this concluding chapter is to give such a brief 
 account of his thoughts, his influence, and his character, as will 
 fitly form the crown of the work. 
 
 We are inclined to think that most treatises on Pauline 
 theology have erred from over-elaborateness, and from seeking 
 too many sources and influences for his doctrine. As a typical 
 example we may take Weiss, who begins his study of Paulinism 
 as follows : " In consequence of his natural speculative genius, 
 as well as of his rabbinico-dialectic training, Paul possessed the 
 ability and the inclination to strike out a more sharply-defined 
 mode of teaching, and to work it out into an almost systematic 
 completeness." ■ Starting with this conception of the Apostle, 
 we are not surprised to find that to Weiss speculation and 
 Rabbinism play a considerable part in ascertaining and setting 
 forth the doctrine of St. Paul. Others, again, find that the 
 Apostle is an incipient Gnostic. It seems to me that the men 
 who lay stress on these supposed traits of the Apostle's mind, 
 are liable to make a great mistake, and are apt to overlook the 
 great and decisive effect made on him by the manifestation to 
 him of the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus. From that 
 ' "Biblical Theology," vol. i. p. 274. Clark's translation. 
 
204 ST. PAUL. 
 
 time Christ ruled not only his life, but also his thinking. And 
 the secret of his theology is found, not in his speculative power, 
 nor in his rabbinical training, nor in his dialectics, but in the 
 conception he had formed of the Lord Jesus Christ. To him 
 Christ was the motive of all right living ; He was also the test 
 of all true thinking. As we have said above,' Paul brought all 
 speculative and all practical questions to the test of the Person 
 and work of Christ. This held his speculative power in sub- 
 ordination ; it kept his dialectics within limits ; and in the 
 hands of the Apostle it gave a ready answer to every perplexity. 
 We saw him in the Epistles to the Corinthians apply it to solve 
 problems of morality, church order, and doctrine. All his 
 Epistles supply ready illustrations of this practice. 
 
 The most striking illustrations are found in the Epistles of 
 the Captivity. These were written to people who represent a 
 more advanced stage of thought and life than those to whom 
 his other Epistles were addressed. Christian ideas had pene- 
 trated further, had obtained a deeper influence, and had come 
 into closer relation with many thoughts and systems of Gentile 
 origin. Many questions were thus raised, many foreign elements 
 were brought into relation with the Gospel, and with these the 
 Apostle had to deal. What he had to contend with at Colossi, 
 was something far more subtle and more fascinating than the 
 Pharisaic Judaism which he refuted in the Epistle to the 
 Galatians, and more profound than the moral and doctrinal 
 questions he had to answer in the Epistles to the Corinthians. 
 " The questions in which the Colossian heresy was interested 
 lie at the very root of our Christian consciousness. The im- 
 pulse was given to its speculations by an overwhelming sense 
 of the unapproachable majesty of God, by an instinctive recog- 
 nition of the chasm which separates God from man, from the 
 world, from matter. Its energy was sustained by the intense 
 yearning after some mediation which might bridge over this 
 chasm, might establish intercommunion between the finite and 
 the Infinite." " How shall the Apostle deal with speculations 
 such as these ? How shall he deal with the ascetic tendencies, 
 with the longing after perfection, and with the other tendencies, 
 speculative and practical, which are manifest in the Colossian 
 Church? By counter-speculation ? By processes of rabbinical 
 dialectics ? Nay, not so ; but in the same manner as he dealt 
 » Page 126. » Lightfoot on " Colossians, " pp.i8o-i. 
 
PAULINE THEOLOGY. 205 
 
 "SvitTi the Galatian and Corinthian troubles. He meets them by 
 the conception of the Person of Christ. He unfolds that doctrine 
 to meet the new issues. He shows that Christ is the Mediator 
 between God and man. Vast as was the difference between 
 God and man, wide and deep as was the chasm between the 
 finite and the Infinite, yet there was no need of infinite grades 
 of being to bridge the chasm. Christ was the only, He was 
 also the all-sufficient Mediator. In a calm, authoritative way, 
 mot as if he was building up a speculation, but as one who has 
 a firm footing on fact, th« Apostle proceeds to tell them who 
 Christ is, what the position of Christ in the universe is, and 
 •what His function and His work are. By (h's calm exposition 
 ■and description of the Person of Christ he sets aside the 
 *' voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels " into which 
 they were about to fall. They needed no man nor angel to 
 stand between them and God, for they had Christ ; and in Him 
 they had redemption, and through Him they had access unto 
 the Father. The answer to their speculative difficulties, the 
 solution of their religious perplexities was as simple as it 
 was beautiful. It was to tell them of Christ, " Who is the 
 image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation : for in 
 Him were all things created, in the heavens, and upon the 
 earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or 
 dominions or principalities <jr power? ; all things have been 
 creat«d through Him, and unto Him ; and He is before all 
 things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of 
 the body, the Church : who is the beginning, the firstborn from 
 the dead ; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence." ' 
 So writes the Apostle, as if he were setting forth a simple state- 
 ment of fact, tif} pne need hesitate to say that if this be a true 
 statement of Christ, and His cosmical position, it was a real 
 answer to the questions and speculations of the Colossian 
 heresy. What, however, we are here concerned with, is the 
 constant practice of the Apostle of answering all questions 
 by referring them to the doctrine of the Person of Christ. 
 
 Equally decisive in this respect is the Epistle to the Ephe- 
 sians. In it the Apostle sets forth the whole economy of the 
 New Covenant, " as something which was determined upon, 
 and existed in the min'd of God from the beginning, both as a 
 whole and in its details. It lays down the doctrine of the uni- 
 ■ Col. i. IS- 18. 
 
2o6 ST. PAUL. 
 
 versality of the plan which embraces all intelligent creature^ 
 bridges the gulf between heaven and earth, and breaks down 
 the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile, and then goes 
 on to make specially prominent, above all else, the doctrine of 
 election, with reference to those who actually attain to salvation."" 
 But in the centre of the whole economy, both as the goal to 
 which it moves, and as the source from which it springs, is the 
 I^rd Jesus Christ. He is the goal, for God has summed upi 
 " all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things 
 on the earth." " He is also the source of this great Divine plan, 
 for, apart from Him, it could be neither formed nor realised.. 
 In Him also are the power and the means by which this great 
 Divine purpose can be translated into fact. So the Apostle 
 exhorts them to cling to Christ, because in Him alone are 
 found the treasures of knowledge and of wisdom, they have 
 vainly sought elsewhere. He is the power of God and the 
 wisdom of God. In Christ alone could be seen " the exceedipg 
 greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to 
 the working of the strength of His might which He wrought in 
 Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to 
 sit at His right hand in the heavenly places, fat above all rule, 
 and authority, and power, and' dominion, and every name thait 
 is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is td 
 come : and He put all things in subjection under His feet, and 
 gave Him to be head over all things to the Church, which is His 
 body, the fulness, of Him that fiUeth all in all." 3 Thus by Christ 
 and through Htm men are put in possession of the Divine powei? 
 and grace which raise them to a new life, and secure to thent 
 fulness of knowledge and indwelling in God. It is vain and 
 useless for them to seek elsewhere for any of these possessions, 
 which they can find in Christ alone. For the satisfaction of 
 their intellectual striving after knowledge, for the assuaging of 
 their thirst after truth, and for the gratification of their desire 
 for fulness of life, the Ephesians need not seek elsewhere ; all 
 they need they shall find in Christ, truth for the intelligence, 
 guidance for the will, life for the heart. 
 
 We must be brief, but what has been said will suffice to show 
 how this main thought of his theology is set by the Apostle in 
 the forefront, and how the doctrine of the Person of Christ is 
 
 • Reuss, " History of the New Testament," p. 112, Clark's translation. 
 
 ' Eph. i. 10. 3 Ibid. i. 19-23. 
 
PAULINE THEOLOGY. 207 
 
 for him the key to the solution of every problem of life and 
 duty. What we find in these Epistles of the Imprisonment is 
 in harmony with the contents of the other Epistles. It is but 
 the application of his universal principle to questions which had 
 not emerged previously ; and the application is made at once, 
 and with a firm, unfaltering hand. He simply restates the 
 doctrine, and the result is seen at once. We may indeed 
 rejoice that the emergency arose which called for the re-state- 
 ment of the doctrine. For the re-statement gives us elements 
 of the doctrine, and of the cosmical and universal significance 
 of Christ, without which our theology would have been all the 
 poorer. As it is we have learned Christ, and we know some- 
 what of His significance in relation to the Father, and to the 
 mind, and to man. In Christ all men may " see what is the 
 dispensation of the mystery, which from all ages hath been hid 
 in God who created all things ; to the intent that now unto the 
 principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be 
 made known through the Church the manifold wisdom of God, 
 according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ 
 Jesus our Lord." ' 
 
 It is a task which might easily be accomplished, to place 
 all the distinctive teaching of the Apostle in due relation to this 
 leading thought. What he teaches about God and about man ; 
 all his significant words and phrases, such as flesh, spirit, sin, 
 righteousness, salvation and redemption, law, grace, fall into 
 rank, order, and due subordination in the light of the doctrine 
 pf the Person of Christ. If we separate these words from the 
 great central fact which fills the Apostle's mind, if we treat them 
 as merely abstract doctrines — as has so frequently been done — 
 we shall both misunderstand his teaching and misrepresent his 
 meaning. Tajke the doctrine, or the words in which the Apostle 
 states his doctrine, out of this relation, and they easily become 
 untrue. For \yifh St. Paul there are really no abstract doc- 
 trines, all his doctrines are expressions of the relations in which 
 Christ stands. Take the doctrine of justification, and inquire 
 as to its meaning and working. What is it as conceived and 
 set forth by the Apostle ? He had himself tried with all his 
 might to attain to righteousness. He had striven to rise to the 
 legal standard, and he had failed. The law, in its purity and 
 breadth, had condemned him ; yea, the more holy, Divine, and 
 ■ Eph. iii. 9, II. 
 
203 ' ST. PAUL. 
 
 good, the law was recognised by him to be, the worse for him. 
 Righteousness, by keeping the law, was unattainable. All at 
 once Christ came to him, and lifted him into a new world, and 
 for the Apostle all things became new. He was in a world in 
 which righteousness came down from heaven, and in which for- 
 giveness was freely given. To him, struck down with blindness, 
 amid the shattered ruins of his old life came the word of Christ, 
 telling him that Christ Jesus had come into the world to save 
 sinners ; that in Christ he had redemption through His blood, 
 even the forgiveness of his sins ; that acceptance, peace, and 
 assurance of the love of God belonged to him, when he belonged 
 to Christ ; and the Apostle, believing these things, became a 
 new man, in a new world. In Christ he saw the meaning and 
 purpose of God, in creation, in history, and in grace, and he 
 girded himself to the task of making, them known to men. 
 Both in his own experience and in his teaching this principle of 
 righteousness through Christ stands in the forefront. " There 
 is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." ' They 
 are in Christ, surrounded by love, encompassed by mercy. And 
 for them the past with its sting, fear, and condemnation, is 
 gone, and they are done with it. 
 
 For life and work in the present, and for all the trials of the 
 future, the Apostle had Christ. Wisdom, righteousness, sancti- 
 fication, and redemption, were assured to him, since he had 
 Christ as companion, guide, and friend. The good work begun 
 would not be left incomplete, for Christ had the work in hand, 
 and " God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not 
 reckoning unto them their trespasses."" He had security, then, 
 that the sinful nature within him would be overcome, and the 
 flesh, with all its tendencies and lusts, would be subdued, and he 
 would be more than conqueror through Christ that loved hirn. 
 It all lay in Christ ; and Paul bowed himself in loving adoration 
 of the truth and grace and love of Christ. With real gladness, 
 with a wonder that ever grew, he laid hold of Christ, and with 
 the reception of Christ he felt that he had received all things — 
 salvation, redemption, righteousness. All his being set to 
 Christ. His thinking, his feeling, his power of will, were all 
 ruled by Christ, and he yielded himself without reserve to that 
 gracious influence. Every desire, every aspiration, every thought 
 of the Apostle, are in subjection to Christ ; and the consciousnesa 
 * 2 Cor. V. iQ. " Rom. viii. *. 
 
PAULINE THEOLOGY. 209 
 
 that he belongs to Christ is never absent from him. It finds 
 vent in faith, love, loyalty, worship, adoration, and in measure- 
 less obedience. We need not quote the words which express 
 this attitude of the Apostle to his Masier. It is as conspicuous 
 in his earlier, as it is in his later Epistles, and, in fact, it is the 
 feature of his Apostolic life. 
 
 The Apostle never separates what Christ taught from what 
 Christ is. For the Apostle, as in truth for all Christians, this is 
 impossible. Other masters may give us their systems in an 
 impersonal way, and we may get all that they can give us 
 though we know nothing of their personality. But Christ is the 
 truth he teaches, and apart from Him, who is the Way, the 
 Truth, and the Life, we cannot have this highest truth. Now 
 St. Paul is emphatic on this point ; emphatic not only in his 
 practice, but also in his teaching. All doctrines are but expres- 
 sions of what Christ is, and of what are His relations to God, to 
 man, and to the world. All sin, all evil, is but resistance to 
 Christ, or opposition to Him, and, in truth all the Apostle's 
 teaching may be duly arrayed in relation to this central 
 thought. 
 
 It would lead us too far afield to ask the question how the 
 
 Apostle received this impression of Christ, and to inquire into 
 
 the relation between the Christ set forth in the Gospels, and the 
 
 Christ set forth in the Epistles of St. Paul. We refer to the 
 
 matter here because it has been most widely discussed, and has 
 
 led to many strange results. Into these we shall not enter here. 
 
 I shall only say, at present, that there is no contrariety between 
 
 the Christ of the Gospels and the Christ of Paul. Nor is Paul's 
 
 conception of Christ the result of any mere dialectic process on 
 
 his part ; nor is there any difference between the conception of 
 
 Christ as set forth in the earlier and in the later Epistles of the 
 
 Apostle. The unique position, the sinless character, and the 
 
 other features of the Christ, are as apparent in Thessalonians 
 
 as they are in Colossians. The only difference is that the more 
 
 developed nature of the questions discussed and the difficulties 
 
 present to the Apostle's mind led him to give a fuller statement 
 
 of the doctrine of the Person of Christ in the later Epistles than 
 
 he had given in the earlier ones. But evidently to the Apostle 
 
 himself the fuller statement was no speculative deduction, nor 
 
 was a statement of fact revealed to him. To us, therefore, who 
 
 believe that the Apostle was divinely guided in what he taught, 
 
 IS 
 
310 ST. PAUL. 
 
 his statements become facts, and are to be made the basis of 
 our faith, life, and thought. For the PauHne view of Christ is 
 in no way the product of speculation. It is rooted in history. 
 St. Paul delights to give the very words of Christ, as he does, 
 for example, in his account of the institution of the Lord's 
 Supper — " I have received of the Lord that which also I have 
 delivered to you ; " ' or in his speech to the elders of Ephesus — 
 " It is more blessed to give than to receive."" He lays strong 
 emphasis on the facts of Christ's historical life, on the deeds 
 which Christ did, on the lowly circumstances in which His life 
 was spent, on the death He died, on His resurrection and 
 ascension, and on the work which Christ continues to do. 
 " Still the Christ of Paul is the Lord who met him by the way. 
 It is Christ dead, risen, and ascended ; it is Christ with the 
 reason and the result of His finished work made plain ; it is 
 Christ with no vail now on the deep and wonderful relation He 
 sustains to men that live by Him ; Christ with the significance 
 for believers of all His wonderful history shining out from Him ; 
 Christ vesHHcs Evangelic. In the Gospels we see Christ in the 
 flesh of His humiliation, under the limits to which He submitted, 
 that He might share our state and bear our burdens ; we see 
 Him in the pathways of a Jewish life revealing a perfect good- 
 ness and a perfect dignity ; also we see Him full of a wonderful 
 purpose of good-will to men, which He bears to them from His 
 Father ; it overflows in His words and works, and in the prose- 
 cution of it He moves on to die. But now He has gone up 
 above all worlds. No longer is He hedged about by the 
 necessities of mortal life ; no longer tied by earthly bonds to 
 some places and some men, and one nation. He is glorified ; 
 all fulness dwells in Him ; in Him all the purposes of God are 
 seen to centre." ^ 
 
 We ought also to remember the way and manner in which 
 St. Paul's teaching was given to the world. It was given in no 
 systematic way. It was occasional ; and both form and matter 
 were determined by the needs of the hour. His Epistles were 
 written to individual Churches or persons. Questions had been 
 asked ; difficulties had arisen ; tidings had been brought to the 
 Apostle of the existence of doubts and perplexities within the 
 
 » I Cor. xi. 23, =* Acts xx. 35. 
 
 " Princpal Rainy, on Paul the Apostle. "Evangelical Succession," 
 vol. i. pp. 29, 30. 
 
PAULINE THEOLOGY. 211 
 
 Church ; or he was informed that some Churches had erred in 
 faith, or had fallen into sin ; and his immediate object in almost 
 every Epistle was to set them right. The situations which he 
 looked at were definite, limited in time and space, determined 
 by the moral, intellectual, and spiritual condition of the Churches. 
 Much of what he wrote bore directly on the needs of his own 
 time. But these are regarded by him in the light of eternity. 
 Even his passing remarks, drawn from him by the occasion, have 
 no mere temporal or occasional mark on them. They shine with 
 a light which is more than temporal, because of his habit of 
 referring all his thoughts to their eternal ground and reason. His 
 views and decisions have, therefore, a direct bearing on all 
 kinds of questions, and give to us principles of conduct which 
 afford guidance to every age and in all sorts of circumstances. 
 His way of dealing with questions makes it easy for us to dis- 
 entangle the permanent principle from its occasional and 
 temporary setting. From him, and from his writings, we may 
 see how the new Christian principle of loyalty to Christ acts in 
 all spheres of human activity. We may see it in its power of 
 renewing the heart and transforming the character of those who 
 give it full and free scope. We may see it setting a man in 
 direct and permanent hostility to sin in all its forms and effects ; 
 setting in motion a warfare which shall never cease until the 
 whole man is set free from sin, and lives according to the law 
 of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus. We may see it 
 give a new colour and tone to all the relations of life in which 
 a man stands to his fellow men, to the world, and to God. Such 
 a picture of the new man might easily be drawn from the 
 Epistles of the Apostle. 
 
 The historical significance of St. Paul and his work lies in 
 his relation to Jesus Christ. His estimate of himself is that he 
 is a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. On the other hand, the 
 tendency of modern critical inquiry is to enhance the signifi- 
 cance of St. Paul, and to make him in effect the author of 
 Christianity. The practice is almost universal. Firom Baur to 
 Pfteiderer, amid all the differences in detail which characterise 
 the various attempts to account for the origin of Christianity, 
 this is common to them all ; attention is concentrated on St. 
 Paul, and the Person and work of Christ are allowed to fall into 
 the background. Christianity is turned into a process which 
 seems somehow to have begun after Christ, The roost con- 
 
212 ST. PAUL. 
 
 spicuous example of this tendency we find in Pfleiderer's 
 " Urchristenthum." His metliod is to ascertain from the genuine 
 Epistles of St. Paul what is his conception of Christianity, and 
 then to show how this conception governs all the other docu- 
 ments of the New Testament. Whether we consider the 
 acknowledged writings of St. Paul, or deal with the Gospels, 
 or with any of the other books of the New Testament, we 
 never (according to Pfleiderer) get beyond the influence of 
 the Apostle, or the influence of the tendency which he set in 
 motion. We never get near to the historical Christ, for His 
 teaching and His work have come down to us in the form and 
 colour given them by the Apostle of the Gentiles. It is im- 
 possible to say, on this theory, whether we really have any true 
 account of the historical Christ. We have from Pfleiderer a 
 history of ideas. St. Paul came somehow to have a conception 
 of the risen Christ, which is set forth in his acknowledged 
 Epistles. When this conception became current in the Church 
 she set herself to obtain for it a local habitation and a name. 
 The Gospel of Mark is the first attempt to translate into fact the 
 theological conception of St. Paul. Then there resulted a two- 
 fold process. On the one hand the theological conception of 
 Paul grew from more to more, until it culminated in the Epistles 
 to the Ephesians and Colossians, wrongly ascribed to the Apostle, 
 and on the other hand the process of translating into fact the 
 growing conceptions of the Church, went on with an equal pace. 
 The Gospels, iVIark, Luke, Matthew, John, are the successive 
 stages of the process of translation into fact. Whosoever 
 wishes, may see the twofold process described at length in the 
 pages of "Urchristenthum." 
 
 Adequately to criticise the theory is impossible here. The 
 result is to give us a Christianity without Christ. We have 
 ideas in abundance, but we have no facts. Ideas are first, 
 and the facts, or what people were wont to believe to be facts, 
 are simply symbolic, the time-vesture of the idea. There is no 
 reason given by Pfleiderer why the process should have begun ; 
 nor any reason why it stopped short, when it did. There is no 
 account- no explanaiion of the creative personality of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, nor of the influence which He exerted on the 
 Apostle of the Gentiles. The whole business has an air of 
 unreality. It looks as if the theory could have been elaborated 
 nowhere except in a heated class-room, or within the cloistered 
 
PAULINE THEOLOGY. 21 3 
 
 walls of a university, apart from the healthy conditions of com- 
 mon every-day life. It is the day-dream of a student, who has 
 never come into contact with reality, and who does not know 
 by what motives men are really actuated. Ideas do not make 
 facts. The consciousness of the Church did not create Christ : 
 it was Christ who made the consciousness of the Church. The 
 task imposed by theories of this kind on the Christian con- 
 sciousness is of the most transcendental sort. The work 
 ascribed to the Church is nothing less than the creation of the 
 sublime figure of the Christ. According to Pfleiderer we may 
 trace the steps of the process, and observe the successive 
 stages by which the great character of the Lord Jesus Christ 
 was built up. For the words put into His mouth, and the deeds 
 said to be done by Him, are but the reflections of the age and 
 surroundings of the various writers of the New Testament 
 documents. Suppose for a moment that this is possible, our 
 task of explaining the origin of Christianity is only begun. 
 What is the explanation of the Christian consciousness ? How 
 came it to be, and to appear at the time when it did ? How 
 did the Christian consciousness of the First Century attain to 
 the unique position it has since occupied in history ? How did 
 it become the norm, the test, and the standard of Christian 
 consciousness to the present hour .'' It would need also to be 
 explained how the Christian consciousness is so elevated, so 
 pure, so full of spiritual insight, as it is expressed in the 
 canonical documents of the New Testament, and how it is so 
 thin, and poor, and uncertain, as set forth in all other extant 
 Christian literature of the first two Centuries. These are 
 questions which press on all men who strive to account for 
 Christianity apart from Christ. If we accept the character of 
 Christ, His work, and His historical position, as these are set 
 forth in the New Testament, then the problem becomes one 
 that may be solved. Christ explains Christianity, explains also 
 the Christian consciousness. In itself the Christian conscious- 
 ness is quite inexplicable on grounds of ordinary human expe- 
 rience. We get a sufficient account of the origin of Christianity, 
 when we say that it sprang from the creative personality of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Is there any plausibility in the statement that the Apostle of 
 the Gentiles was the real author of Christianity .' No ; for 
 great as the Apostle is, he is not equal to the burden thus laid 
 
214 ST. PAUL. 
 
 upon him ; he is not great enough to be the founder of Chris- 
 tianity. He has his limitations and his imperfections ; and in 
 all respects he comes immeasurably short of the stature of his 
 Master. In the writings of the Apostle we find nothing of that 
 sympathy with and insight into nature of which the words pt 
 Jesus Christ are so full. St. Paul lives in the world of men. City 
 life seems to be the only kind of life he understands, and the 
 country seems to be a space to be swiftly passed over as he 
 hurries on from city to city. How different was it with the 
 Master. While His sympathy with men, their occupations and 
 pursuits, are as great, nay greater than those of His servant, He 
 manifests a range of sympathy with nature, a sphere into which 
 St. Paul never enters. "In the domain of nature," as Keim finely 
 says, " His observations were full of deep thought and fine 
 discernment ; from the splendid white fragrant lily, as He 
 depicts it in His Sermon on the Mount; the hen with passionate 
 maternal love clucking to gather its young beneath the shelter 
 of its wide-spread wings ; the birds of the air drawing for their 
 sustenance on the world's great store, free from consuming 
 care ; the lambs blithely following their shepherd, yet going 
 astray and roaming in the wild,— to the fox, that in the thicket 
 builds his haunt and home : still more, by far, mankind — the 
 games of the young in the market place, the wedding proces- 
 sions of the grown, the castles of princes, and the silken court 
 costumes of the magnates of Tiberias, as well as the field 
 employ of the sower and the vine-dresser, the sweat of the 
 labourer, the sighs of prisoners in chains. Nor did He step 
 on the surface ; in the light of their possessions, their joys 
 and griefs, of their speeches and their deeds. He interpreted 
 mankind, and noted with the self-same sharpness of discrimi- 
 nation the goodness of heart which comes out in the circle of 
 human society, and the race and chase of grw^ij of ambition, 
 of lust and selfishness, of stormy wrath and humoursome 
 vexation." ' Of this breadth and variety of interest in nature 
 there is no trace in the writings of the Apostle. Nor do we 
 find much of it in any set of people until we come to times 
 quite recent. And this aspect of the teaching of Christ re- 
 mained almost unappreciated until the modern feeling for 
 external nature arose. And now people are beginning to 
 understand the bearing of the Christ in the presence of the 
 • Keim, "Jesus of Nazara," vpl ii. p. i6j, 
 
PAULINE THEOLOGY. 21$ 
 
 works of God, and to understand the truth that Christ is the 
 Contemporary and the Teacher of every age. 
 
 In other ways, too, St. Paul falls short of the universality of 
 the Master. The difference is as manifest, when we consider the 
 bearing and demeanour of the two in their relations to man and 
 to God, as it is in their relation to nature. Both in Christ and 
 in St. Paul we find compassion for men, sympathy with men, 
 good will to men, help for men, but how different are the modes 
 of their manifestation. How perfect is the expression of 
 Christ's compassion for men ! How calm and sovereign His 
 manifestations of happiness ! With what delight He brings 
 His sympathy and His help to the most needy and the most 
 sinful 1 How eagerly He seeks to awaken in them such a dis- 
 position of heart and mind as would make it possible for Him 
 to help them ! With what forgetfulness of self does He labour 
 for them ! Truly He saves others, and Himself He did not 
 save. It would do injustice to the Apostle to compare Him with 
 his Master. For in the presence of the true, perfect, and com- 
 plete manhood of our Lord, and in comparison with His perfect 
 ways of showing sympathy, compassion, and helpfulness, the 
 ways of other men must always appear broken and imperfect. 
 In truth, St. Paul's ways of being all things to all men, while true 
 and characteristic, yet form a contrast to the perfect action of 
 Jesus. They lack the breadth, the universality, and the sove- 
 reign freedom of Jesus Christ. 
 
 There is also a marked difference in the way of speech between 
 the Apostle and His Master. When Jesus speaks, He speaks as 
 one having authority. He speaks out of the depths of His 
 insight into men and things. He speaks straight to the heart 
 of man, and His words find men, and enter into the mind and 
 heart of people of every land, of every age and condition. 
 Christ speaks with simple Divine calmness ; His words are the 
 words of a Master, who does not seem laboriously, as other men 
 do, to join proposition to proposition in order to reach truth, 
 but who, without effort, states at once the essential truth of the 
 matter in hand. His mode of speech is so simple, so calm, that 
 it is only on reflection that men come to see how profound and 
 universal their meaning is. What a contrast to the passionate 
 vehemence, the rugged reasoning, the involved and difficult 
 argumentation of the Apostle ! St. Paul seems often to be 
 under the necessity of writing to make his meaning clear to him- 
 
2l6 ST. PAUL. 
 
 self. But the Master always speaks with authority, and His 
 words are, in short. Divine. We feel that Christ Jesus has the 
 secret of another and a higher world, and He speaks of what 
 He has known, and testifies of what He has seen. He makes 
 manifest that He is in perfect harmony with the Divine order 
 He came to reveal. He can tell men of the Father. He is Him- 
 self the truth He teaches. Christ is great with a greatness we 
 can apprehend but never fully understand. 
 
 We are able to measure the greatness of the Apostle. It is of 
 a kind akin to that of other men. He has none of the calm 
 simplicity, nothing of the breadth and universality of his Master. 
 He is conscious all through his life that he has erred, failed, and 
 has been saved from himself and his failure. He is full of self- 
 condemnation, and yet more full of a passionate gratitude 
 that must find vent for itself in the devotion of a whole life. 
 He is the servant of Another ; He does not belong to him- 
 self. He feels that he owes himself, and all that is his, to 
 Christ. All he possesses he has by the grace of Christ. His 
 faith, his hope, his place in (he unseen world, his assurance of 
 salvation, his work here, all depend on Christ and his relation to 
 Christ. In the presence of Christ we feel that we have to do 
 with One who has not to attain, or to become perfect. Christ is 
 in full possession of all His powers. But in the presence of the 
 Apostle we feel we have to do with one who has to struggle, to 
 fight the good fight of faith, who knows in his own life what sin 
 and failure mean, and who has learnt the blessedness of repent- 
 ance, faith, and forgiveness. Great as St. Paul is, his is "not 
 the greatness of the founder of a religion. From first to last he 
 gives only what he has received. He is one who has been 
 much forgiven ; and he strives with all his strength to lead 
 others to Jesus Christ. As he says, " We preach not ourselves, 
 but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for 
 Jesus' sake.'' ' 
 
 * 2 Cor. iv, 5. 
 
 THE END. 
 
ii'-Jll-iii.ii 
 
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