I "Igwet/ufeBaote t far ¦ the. founding fef a. Cofltgt bttM(^f&xj/!' 'YAIUE-'^MIWIElSSII'inf- ¦ ILUBIRAISBr • DIVINITY SCHOOL TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY GIFT OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE LIBRABY Professor C. P. Kent. A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH BY OLIVER J. THATCHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO BOSTON^&aD^ HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY. Sthe tttoer^ibe jpn£& cause we have no literature from that period, but we can be sure from various arguments that it lasted until the Fall of Jerusalem. It ended in a half victory and half defeat for both parties. For, contrary to Paul, the church came to believe that the law is binding on all ; but contrary to the Judaizers, that it is not to be understood literally but allegorically. The council failed to bring James and the Gen tile Christians any nearer together. He still re mained attached to the law, and there is nothing to show that he ever yielded from this position, but he always regarded even the Gentile Chris tians as ceremonially unclean, and therefore un able to associate with the Jews. It produced no change in the conduct of Paul. He continued to associate with the Gentiles freely, but for his own person at least when among the Jews, because he wished to preach to them, he still kept the law. But it by no means followed that THE BURNING QUESTION. 157 he regarded it as necessary. On the contrary, he continually taught that it was a matter of entire indifference. There is no trace in his letters that he ever had anything to say about the use of blood, but he often spoke against fornication. In 1 Corinthians he told them that of itself the use of meats offered to idols was perfectly proper ; but for the sake of the conscience of the weaker brethren who would thereby be offended, they ought to abstain from its use. This was therefore wholly in accordance with the agreement made in the council. It cannot be said that it affected Paul in any way in his mission work.1 He con- 1 It is perfectly clear that Paul denied any religious value to the observance of the law. It would logically follow that as a religious obligation it was no longer binding on the Jew any more than on the Gentile. So far Paul went. But did it follow that the Jew ought to cease to observe the law ? Not at a'l, for that would be to give up his nationality. Paul seems n°t to have taught the Jews to cease observing the law, but only to have put such observance on the proper basis ; that is, the Jew Juight con tinue to observe the law as a national, not as a relijrious duty. Among the Jews Paul seems to have lived as a Jew, but among the Gentiles he certainly to some extent, if not wholly, disregarded the law. He adopted the policy of being all things to a'* men, a Jew to the Jews, a Gentile to the Gentiles (1 Cor. ix. 18-23). What can that mean except that among the Gentiles he I>ved as the Gentiles ? Again, at Antioch (Gal. ii. 11-21) Paul implies that both he and Peter, although Jews, had ceased to live as Jews, and were living as Gentiles. And yet the Acts say Miat Paul thought the Jews ought to keep the law and say that he himself kept it. For Timothy was a Jew, and so had to be cir cumcised. If the account in Acts xxi. 17-26 is true, Paul took upon himself the vow of the four men for the express purpose of proving to the Jews and the Jewish Christians of Jerusalem that he had not been teaching the Jews to forsake Moses, to cease cii- 158 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. tinued to preach among the Jews wherever he went, and although he may not have urged them to give up the observance of the law, he certainly taught that it was of no religious value, but that they were to be made members of the Messiah's kingdom by believing in him, and not by their works of the law. In this he may have acted in accordance with the letter of the agreement, but hardly in the spirit of it. As is so often the case in agreements that partake of the nature of a compromise, each party regarded the result as a victory for itself, and acted accordingly. It was certainly very quickly disregarded by all, and nei ther the Judaizers nor Paul regarded themselves as bound by it. The only result of the council therefore was that the Gentiles were recognized as Christians by James, Peter, and John, but the line of separation between them and the Jewish Christians was more closely drawn than ever. The question had still to be decided. The real struggle was yet to come. The Council had but cleared the deck for action. It had made plain to all par ties what the real issue was. And this was fought out between Paul and the Judaizers in the next years, which were so full of trial and bitterness of spirit for Paul. cumcising their children and to desert the customs, and that he himself also walked orderly, keeping the law. Others may decide whether this is contradictory to Paul's principle as expressed in his authentic letters. CHAPTER VII. THE BEST TEARS OP PAUL.1 From the Council to Paul's arrest in the spring of 58 is a period of about eight years, which in clude his best work, his widest travels, his greatest influence, and his most successful labors. Above all, to this period belong his most important letters, which have been justly regarded as the most pre cious heirlooms of this great man. Thanks to the account in the Acts, which becomes more exact and detailed, and especially to the letters which he wrote, we are able to follow him more closely and to con struct a much more complete history of him dur ing this period than at any other time of his life. Compared with this period, all his previous labors had been very circumscribed. But now his hori zon extends itself. He begins to look beyond Asia into Europe. At first he thought he would be satisfied if he could see Rome, but it soon became known to him that Rome already had a large and flourishing congregation, and as it was his prin ciple not to linger where others had labored and planted Christianity, his thoughts ran on to Spain, 1 Read Acts xv. 36-xxi. 26, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Romans. 160 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. and it became his fixed purpose to carry the Gos pel to that far-off land. We also notice a change in his policy from this time. He had traveled with only one or two helpers before this, but he now begins to surround himself with his young disciples, to train them for the work and to send them out to carry on his mission work, sometimes in new fields, sometimes in places where he had already established a con gregation. In this way he multiplied himself and greatly increased his influence. But there was an other change which was quite as important. He had indeed for a few years been in Antioch and had made that the centre of his labors. But when he set out on his journey with Barnabas, he seems not to have confined himself to the large cities, but even in the villages by the way he had stopped to preach. But during this period he changed his policy and began to lay much more emphasis on the work in the cities. He seems to have felt that it would be impossible for him to evangelize the whole world, but with the instinct of a genuine conqueror he determined to plant Christianity in the great centres of life and trade. And so we find him spending eighteen months at Corinth and soon afterward beginning a three years' residence in Ephesus. These eight years are generally di vided into two periods of nearly equal length, and called respectively the second and third missionary journeys. For the sake of convenience these des ignations may be retained, but it must be remem- THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 161 bered that nearly half of the time occupied by the first missionary journey was spent at Corinth, and almost all the third one was spent at Ephesus. From this it will be seen that they were not so much journeys as a change of residence. Some time after the council at Jerusalem it is said that Paul proposed to Barnabas to revisit the churches which they had established. According to the language of the Acts it might be inferred that Paul's purpose was simply to revisit these, and that he had no thought of extending his work. But Paul undoubtedly, as we know from other sources, had a desire to penetrate further into Asia Minor, and as he must pass by his congrega tions he wished to revisit them by the way. Bar nabas wished to take Mark with them again, but Paul was by no means willing to trust him a sec ond time. He had deserted them and refused to go with them to the work once, and Paul was unwill ing to give him another trial. There was a sharp contention between them, of a purely personal nature, and as they could not agree they sepa rated, each going his own way. Barnabas took Mark and sailed away to Cyprus and is lost to our view, for we have no more information about him except the single reference in 1 Cor. ix. 5, from which we infer that he was still at work in the year 56. But we know nothing more about him. It is possible that he wrote the letter to the "Hebrews," for this is almost certainly not by Paul, although it has been attributed to him. But 162 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. this is only a supposition ; there is no direct proof that Barnabas wrote it. But Paul chose Silas, who had been until recently a resident of Jerusalem, and began his journey into the interior of Asia Minor. It is barely possible that this Silas is identical with the Silvanus who is named in 1 Peter v. 12, since Silvanus was often contracted into Silas. This would be another con necting link between Peter and Paul. They chose the land route, and from Antioch passed through Syria into Cilicia and then up into Cappadocia to Derbe and Lystra. Only the barest outlines of the journey are given. They revisited the churches there and encouraged and strengthened them. It was probably at Lystra that Paul found " a certain disciple named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewess, but his father was a Greek." He was already favorably known as a Christian mis sionary, and enjoyed the confidence and good opin ion of the brethren in those parts. Recognizing his ability, Paul was determined that he should go with him to a wider field of labor and usefulness. Since his mother was a Jewess, Timothy was also regarded as a Jew. In accordance with his principle of being a Jew to the Jews, and a Greek to the Greeks, he now had Timothy circumcised, that he might have a ready entrance into the society of the Jews wher ever he came. Thougb free from the law, for the sake of others he could sacrifice his freedom, that he might thereby bring them into a greater freedom. Though not bound to regard the prejudices and THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 163 ignorance of others, the law of Christ, which is the law of love and service, made him the servant of all. So long as his fundamental principle was not in question, he could, on the principle of Christian brotherly love, yield everything. Besides, Timothy was regarded as a Jew, and the common opinion was that the law was still binding on the Jews. From this region, Paul and his companions turned to the west into Phrygia, and it is probable that even at this time Paul had it in mind to go to Ephe sus. That is evidently the inference to be drawn from the expression in Acts xvi. 6, " Having been forbidden to speak the word in Asia." "Asia" was the name of the Roman province which was formed by the three ancient divisions, Lydia, Caria, and Lycia, the capital of which was Ephesus. They wished to pass from Phrygia into this province, but something which was interpreted as the disapproval of the Holy Spirit prevented them, so they turned back from Phrygia into Galatia. Here as we have seen, Paul was taken sick (Gal. iv. 13). He was no longer able to travel, but he could still preach the gospel, so his illness resulted in the establish ment of Christianity among the Galatians. We have no details of the work done in this region, since the author of the Acts simply says that " they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia." In Gal. iv. 13 Paul only refers to his illness, which was of such a character as to render him an object of loathing and disgust to the Gentiles, but they had received him as an angel, nay, even as Christ him- 164 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. self ; a remarkable expression, showing how eagerly the gospel was accepted by many of the Gentiles, because it so completely satisfied the deepest long ings of their heart. Passing through Galatia they intended to go into Bithynia, but again something intervened which closed the way to them. They were now hemmed in. The way to the southeast they had just traveled ; the ways to the southwest and to the north were closed to them. There were but two possibilities left. They could turn to the northeast into Paphla- gonia, or to the western coast, from which the pas sage to Europe was easy. There is an uneasiness and restlessness in his motions that show that Paul's horizon was widening. The thought of establishing his gospel in Europe had taken hold of his mind. Paul seems to have felt the greatness of the occasion. Apparently not stopping to preach anywhere, he hastened through Mysia to Troas, for already he felt the premonitions of the call to a more distant field. He would have been glad to remain in Asia, for he saw much to do there. But he was impelled forward, though still full of uncertainty as to whether he should go to Europe or not. It was a period of most painful uncertainty and doubt' for him, which has left its traces in his let ters to the Corinthians. He was conscious of the great national differences between the Greeks of the mainland of Europe and the mixed peoples of Asia. The Greeks loved the beautiful to such an extent that they were really unable to appreciate THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 165 anything unless it were presented in a pleasing form. A technical knowledge and application of rhetoric and the use of fine language were among the first requisites in a public speaker among them. Paul knew that he was not a trained rhetorician, nor a philosopher acquainted with all the systematic teachings and formulas of the schools of thought and able to present his gospel in such a way as to make it attractive to the aesthetic and philosoph ical Greeks. The Greeks were accustomed to being entertained and pleased by traveling rhetoricians and philosophers. Was it possible that he would be able to compete against these with his simple gospel of the death and resurrection of Christ ? We know that he had a peculiar style of rhetoric and dialectics, thougb they were not those of the schools, but he modestly estimated this very low. From his own words, we may be sure that he never felt at home on this Greek soil. In Athens, as we shall see, he made little impression, and at Corinth he was unable to hide the fact that he felt this weak ness and was filled with fear and trembling for the result. And this very weakness of the apostle was afterwards used as the ground of contempt by some of his opponents, in their attempt to alienate the affections of the Corinthians from him. All these considerations now made him hesitate. But in this state of doubt and indecision the " vision of the man of Macedonia " determined his course. He regarded the dream as an indication that it was the will of God that he should go and preach the gospel unto them also. 166 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. And here begin those remarkable " we " pieces which continue with some interruptions to the end of the book. These exhibit their true character at once. They are undoubtedly from the diary of an eye-witness. He indicates that they had a favor able wind, for they made a straight course to Samo- thrace, a large island in the .ZEgean Sea, and this lasted but one day, "for on the day following" they reached Neapolis. By selecting the passages in which "we" occurs, and noting these little pecu liarities, we get a good idea of this diary, which served as one of the sources for .the history we have in the Acts. But unfortunately the author never tells us his name, or how he came into the society of Paul, or why he accompanied him. He never once indulges in personal reminiscences, or auto biographical details. His modesty is commendable, but we are the losers by it. How interesting it would be if he had but given us the pages on which he described his first interview with Paul, or the first sermon he heard from his lips, or the impres sion which the first message of the gospel made upon him. Neapolis was but the port of Philippi, which was eight miles distant from the coast. Here we see one of the first traces of Paul's change of policy in regard to the cities. He passed by Neapolis and went at once to the great city of Philippi. This was near a famous battle ground, for it was on the plains of Philippi that in the year 42 B. C. the civil war that followed the murder of Julius Caesar was THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 167 ended. Here Octavius and Antony met and over came Brutus and Cassius, who in despair ended their lives.1 In honor of this victory, which opened the way for all his future greatness, Octavius made Philippi a Roman colony. That is, the inhabitants were made Roman citizens and the city received the laws and government of Rome. In Philippi there were not many Jews. They seem not even to have had a synagogue, but only " a place of prayer." Outside the city walls, under the shadow of the trees on the river bank, they found a few women who had come together, and they sat down among them and told them the story of the cross. Of these women some were Jewish prose lytes ; another fact in proof of what has been al ready said in regard to the missionary efforts of the Jews. Although there were so few Jews in Philippi that they did not have a house for their meetings, yet they had made proselytes, and that too among the better classes. One of these was Lydia, who had come from" Thyatira and settled in Philippi that she might carry on the sale of the finely colored garments which were exported from her home in the province of Lydia. If not a pros elyte, she was at least " one that feared God." She was apparently rich, for she had a house and was able to entertain Paul and his company of helpers, which now numbered at least four persons. They remained in Philippi probably some 1 In connection with Philippi see Shakespeare, Julius Ccesar, ActV. 168 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. months, during which time they seem not to have had any other place of worship than the place of prayer already mentioned. There is no trace of any struggle with the Jews, who, we are led to infer, were persuaded by Paul and believed in Christ. Their stay here was abruptly ended by a persecution the cause of which is minutely de scribed. We meet here again with one of those strange cases so frequently mentioned in ancient writers, which baffle us because we have no scien tific description of them, and all the information that we have about them is so colored by the superstitions of the age that it is impossible to form a clear idea of the nature of the disease. It is probable that this "maid having a spirit of divination " was suffering from hysteria or some similar form of nervous and mental disease, and that her masters had control over her to such an extent that they could in some way force her to fall into a fit of hysteria. In this condition she spoke with a strange tone, which the ancients called ventriloquism, and was regarded as the peculiar speech of soothsayers and fortune-tellers. It was the common belief that the poor creatures thus afflicted could foretell the future, and her masters were thus imposing on the credulity of the people and using her for the purpose of making gain, a very common form of swindle practiced in those days. " But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they laid hold on Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 169 before the rulers." But they were careful to frame their charges in such a way as to make it appear that Paul and Silas were offending against the laws of the state. In the first place, it was said that they were Jews. Of course this in itself was not a criminal offense ; it was only an appeal to the popular dislike of the Jews. Being Jews, it was to be expected that they had done something offensive and worthy of punishment. The real charge was that they were trying to introduce a foreign religion, one that was regarded as unlaw ful. Attention has already been called to the fact that Eastern religions were forbidden in the West, and Paul and Silas were charged with having acted contrary to this law. " These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, and set forth customs which it is not lawful for us to receive, or to ob serve, being Romans " (Acts xvi. 20, 21). The trial is passed over so rapidly that we cannot follow it. It appears that the crowd made a demonstration against them, and that the magistrates, probably without an examination, ordered them to be beaten with rods and then put into prison. On the following day the magistrates sent their officers to have them released, but now Paul de clares that they are Roman citizens and that the magistrates must make certain amends for having beaten them. Beating with rods was a punish ment for slaves, but free Roman citizens were protected against all such dishonoring forms of punishment. But why did Paul allow himself to 170 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. be beaten ? Why did he not at once declare that he was a Roman citizen ? What purpose can he have had in allowing himself thus to be beaten when he might by a word have escaped it ? Ques tions which we cannot answer. Perhaps he sub mitted to the punishment in order that he might get some power over the magistrates by being able to assume the position of an injured party. Per haps he thought he could thereby make better terms with them, and so secure the Christians from all molestation. It is possible too that the magis trates paid no attention to his claims to Roman citizenship, for Paul himself says that he had been three times beaten with rods (2 Cor. xi. 25). This was the Roman form of punishment, while the Jews used scourges. So that three times at least his Roman citizenship had not protected him. Paul also refers to this in his first letter to the Thessalonians (ii. 2), where he reminds them that in spite of his sufferings and the shameful treat ment which he had received at Philippi, he had boldly preached the gospel of God to them. The church at Philippi is especially interesting to us on many accounts. There were few Jews there, and this seems to have had some effect on its history and development. It remained true to Paul, and we have no traces of the work and influence of the Judaizers among its members. The letter which Paul wrote to this church from Rome, about the year 62, is one of the most in teresting and charming that we have from his pen. THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 171 From the whole tone of the letter, as well as from the many endearing expressions which occur in it, we might justly say that it was Paul's favorite congregation. From this letter, as well as from the Acts, we learn that there was a unique, intimate relation existing between them. No other congre gation seems to have come so close to Paul's heart. This is apparent from two facts; the one, that Paul allowed himself to be entertained by one of its members, the other that on several occasions he accepted money from them. It was entirely con trary to his custom to be entertained by his con verts, for he generally worked with his hands and supported himself by his own labors, that he might not seem to be making gain out of the gospel. But at Philippi, from some cause or other, he saw that he could allow himself to be entertained by Lydia without incurring such a charge. And sev eral times afterward they sent him money to re lieve his wants. While he was at Thessalonica they sent him money " once and again," or as we would say, " a few times " (Phil. iv. 16). While he was at Corinth he refused to receive any sup port in any way from the Corinthians, although he was in want. Yet Silas and Timothy, when they came from Macedonia, brought him further gifts from the churches there. But this was not a passing affection for the apostle on the part of the Philippians. It lasted throughout his whole life. For, years afterward, when he was a prisoner in Rome, they again sent him money by the hand 172 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. of Epaphroditus, one of their number. We know little of the history of the congregation, but it seems to have been noted for its liberality. From 2 Cor. viii. 1-5, we learn that its members were subjected to a good deal of persecution, but that in spite of this they were contributing largely to the funds that were being collected for the poor at Jerusalem. His stay in Philippi was cut short by the scourg ing and imprisonment. The magistrates, fearing the violence of the mob, asked them to leave the city. They were not ordered to go away, but as Paul always had regard for the public peace and never wantonly provoked opposition of any kind, they called the brethren together, comforted them, and took their departure. Their next field of labor was Thessalonica, a large city having a numerous Jewish population. At this time there was a severe famine in the city and the neighboring country, and there was much want and distress there. This accounts therefore for the fact that the Philippians sent him money during his stay in Thessalonica (Phil. iv. 16). As usual, Paul began in the synagogue, proving from the Scriptures of the Old Testament that the common Messianic expectations were false, but that the Messiah should suffer, and then showing how these prophecies had been fulfilled in the history of Jesus. The make-up of this congregation is clearly stated. Some of the Jews were persuaded, but evi dently not many of them. A great multitude of THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 173 the Greeks that had already been under the influ ence of the teachings of Judaism, and quite a num ber of women who were members of the principal families in the city, believed. Here, as everywhere else, women of rank and wealth had embraced the principal truths of Judaism, "but now readily ac cepted Christianity and were of the greatest influ ence in spreading it among the members of their households. But the Jews were stirred up by the success of Paul in spreading what they regarded as abom inable heresy, and began an agitation against him which was destined to make Thessalonica unsafe •for him and so to compel him to leave. Since they were Jews their opposition must have been purely from religious motives, but, as is generally the case, the means employed were far from being religious. They easily found the means of gath ering a mob of the lazy loafers that throng the streets of every southern city, ready for any act of violence that offers either pleasure or profit.. With these they assaulted the house of Jason, who was apj>arently one of the principal converts, and dragged him and some of the other brethren before the magistrates. They very shrewdly kept their religious hatred in the background, and preferred only political charges against them. It is interest ing to note how easily the language of the gospel could be made to appear treasonable. Paul cer tainly preached that Jesus was the Messiah, that he had established the kingdom of God, but the 174 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. Jews clearly knew that he did not preach that Jesus was to be made king in the place of the Roman emperor. There was nothing in his preaching that would lead to a revolt against the Roman government. Yet his language could easily be so twisted "and garbled as to make it ap pear that he was preaching treason and endeavor ing to set up another kingdom. They gave the Messiahship of Jesus a political coloring, for they knew that no other charge would so quickly arouse the government to vigorous action as the danger of a political insurrection. The character of the Jew is apparent in this whole transaction. Everywhere he was turbulent, and always causing the Roman authorities trouble ; at every opportunity he stirred up a mob and raised the standard of revolt. He was the most unpa triotic, the least Roman, of all the nationalities that formed a part of the Empire. But now, when it served his purpose, he could throw up his hat and shout for Caesar, and be the first to denounce the followers of "another king, Jesus." In this at tempt against Paul they were unsuccessful, for they were unable to find him. Jason and his friends were able to give security that he would keep the peace, and to persuade the authorities that he was not guilty of treason, so he was set free. But the city was no longer safe for Paul and Silas. They were sent away to Bercea by night. From this fact we may form some estimate of the danger of the situation. But although Paul THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 175 and Silas escaped, the Christians whom they left behind were exposed to many persecutions. In the course of a few months at most, Paul reached Corinth, from which place he wrote the two letters to the Thessalonians. By studying these we are able to glean some information about the condition of the church and the character and contents of the gospel which he preached. In the first letter he praises them very much, that they had accepted the gospel in the face of opposition and persecution. They had become imitators of Christ and of Paul in that they had " received the word in much affliction." They had also become imitators of the Christian churches in Judaea, for as the Jewish Christians had suffered at the hands of the unbelieving Jews, so also the heathen Christians at Thessalonica had suffered at the hands of their heathen neighbors. In the second chapter Paul indulges in a kind of review of his conduct while he was among them, remind ing them of the kind of life he had led while there, his manner of dealing with each one, his blameless conduct, and his many exhortations that they " should walk worthily of God," who was calling them into his glorious kingdom. We learn, too, that Paul had been compelled to leave Thessalonica before he was sure that the gospel had been firmly established, and he had earnestly desired to return to them. .Indeed he seems to have made an effort more than once to get back, but " Satan " hindered him, which means 176 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. that because of the persecutions and opposition he had not been able to return. But since he him self could not come, he had sent Timothy to com fort and strengthen them and to encourage them in the persecution that was troubling them so. Timothy had just returned to him at Corinth, bringing good news from them, which comforted him, although he himself was in great distress and affliction. Something was oppressing him, and he seems to have been unable to work with all his accustomed energy in Corinth, until Timothy and Silas* joined him. The good news which they brought from the churches in Macedonia, and especially from the Thessalonians, at once cheered him, and he " was constrained by the word," as the author of the Acts expresses it (xviii. 5). Paul regarded it as a new lease of life, for he wrote them, " For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord." But he still hoped to return to them, for night and day he was praying that he might see their face again, and that God would direct his way to them. But it was some years before Paul actually was able to go to Thessalonica again, and we know nothing at all of the condition in which he found them then. The fourth chapter begins with a dis cussion of two closely related questions which had to be discussed in every church that was established among the Gentiles, namely, those of chastity and of marriage. The prevailing heathen ideas and practices were so far from what they should have THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 177 been, that especial efforts had to be made to secure the proper conduct on the part of the heathen Christians. The question of the resurrection and the fate of those who died before the coming of Christ were also troubling the Thessalonians, and Paul takes this opportunity of assuring them that it is immaterial whether they live until Christ comes or not. For those who have died will be raised from the dead, and those that are still alive will be caught up in the air to meet the Lord, and, what was of most importance, they should all " be forever with the Lord." But for his appearance all should be continually on the watch, for no one knows the time of his coming. And this watch fulness consists in the proper kind of life, in living as is becoming the sons of light. They should be sober, and guard and fight against sin of every kind. Some of their number had taken it upon themselves to labor for the spread of the gospel, and for their edification and instruction. Since all such had voluntarily taken upon themselves this work of love, they were to be highly esteemed and regarded with honor for the work's sake. The disorderly should be admonished, the fearful ones encouraged, the weak supported. Above all the spirit must not be quenched, but each one should have the right to speak whatever message he might have received. These prophesyings should not be despised, but they were to be tested, and that which is good and approved must be held fast. 178 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. The second letter : was written very soon after wards. The first letter had undoubtedly had good effect on them, but there were some questions still agitating them, and there were signs of an increasingly unhealthy condition. The persecu tions and troubles from the heathen were still con tinued. Perhaps that had something to do with the growing enthusiasm that was now threatening to injure the congregation. They were all espe cially interested in the question of the return of Christ, and many of them had given up their occu pations, had quit their work, and were spending their time in discussing this. It had already led to great disorder in the congregation. Paul re bukes all such, and emphasized the fact that all Christians should attend to their duties, living soberly, quietly, and honorably before all. ' In regard to the second coming of Christ, Paul probably made the matter very clear to the Thessa lonians in the first twelve verses of the second chap ter. They may have understood it, but it is cer tain that no one now knows what he meant. His language is simply inexplicable. Every one who has written about it has had some more or less ingenious explanation of it, but no one is able to say what it means. It is hopelessly dark and ob scure. He speaks of the " falling away," but of the 1 There are many who question the genuineness of the second letter to the Thessalonians. There are some difficulties connected with it, but it is by no means sure that this is not a genuine letter of the Apostle Paul. THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 179 falling away of what ? And of " the man of sin, the son of perdition," who exalts himself against all that is called God, or that is worshiped ; he sits in the temple of God, he claims to be God, but who or what this is, it is impossible to say. There is something that restrains, but what it is, or what it restrains, is not clear. " The mystery of law lessness is already at work," he says, but what this is still remains a mystery. Something re strains until something is taken out of the way, but there is no clew as to what either of the " somethings " is. . And then the " lawless one shall be revealed," but who he is, no one knows. The language is all so indefinite that it can easily be made to apply to almost anything, and so the commentators have all tried to exhibit their originality and penetration of intellect by giving out some new and startling interpretation of this passage. It is safe to say that no one has been able to solve its difficulties. It is curious to note that some one had already been forging letters in Paul's name (ii. 2), and he saw himself compelled to guard against all such forgeries in the future by signing his letters himself (iii. 17). From Thessalonica they came to Beroea, where they had more success among the Jews than in any other place. Apparently the majority of the Jews there believed, as well as many of their prose lytes. But the Jews of Thessalonica are said to have followed them to Bercea, and to avoid the danger Paul was sent off to Athens, but Silas and Timothy remained in Macedonia. 180 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. Paul waited in Athens for the coming of Silas and Timothy. Whether they actually came, or not, we cannot tell. It is probable that Timothy came alone, but Paul was so exercised in mind about the Thessalonians that he at once sent him back to Macedonia to visit and strengthen them (1 Thess. iii. 2.) But although alone in Athens, he was by no means idle. He was in the very citadel of heathenism, of idolatry. Athens was the seat of the greatest university in the world, and its profes sors were of course all heathen. It exerted the greatest influence on the thought and culture of the world. It long remained the university, and even Christian parents sent their children there to be educated. Some of the great church fathers received their education at the heathen university of Athens. It became the centre of literary and philosophical opposition to Christianity until 529 A. d., when the Emperor Justinian drove out the professors and forbade all further instruction to be given by heathen teachers. At this time it was the home of philosophy and philosophers. They wandered about through the streets, market places, and cool colonnades, surrounded by their pupils, discussing the highest and most important questions as well as the most trivial. But Athens was also the home of the gods, for no other city had so many fine temples as she. Only a few of them are still standing, and al though desolate and robbed of their ornaments and works of art, they are still the wonder and THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. " 181 admiration of the world. She was rich in works of art of all kinds, but especially in statues. They were everywhere. The temples, the market places, and even the streets were crowded with them, so that one writer said that in Athens it was easier to find a god than a man. But Athens was now falling into decay. Her supremacy had passed away. Her sister city, Corinth, had robbed her of her commerce, and she was no longer the capital, but ranked as a provincial city. Her vis itors were composed largely of students and philo sophers, artists, and pilgrims, who came to study or worship at her famous altars. The great tide of travel between the East and the West swept past without touching her. She was now neglected, and nearly a hundred years were to pass away be fore the world should again be filled with admira tion and veneration for her. She was yet to expe rience a period of restoration and renovation, and even of wealth and prosperity, but at this time her fortunes and name were at their ebb. Time and the rest of the world had sped on, leaving her by the way. And as in some sleepy, inland college town, where the pulse-beats of life are slow and the sharp competition and stir of commerce are un known, the people spent their time in the discus sion of the most varied topics. All the life she had was intellectual, all her energies were con sumed in discussion. The genius of Paul is again made apparent by his conduct here. He easily adapted himself to 182 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. the situation, and adopted the methods of the phi losophers, and went about through the streets en tering into conversation whenever opportunity pre sented itself. He met some of the philosophers themselves, and to the gaping crowds that gathered about him he told the story of the cross and of the resurrection. But they did not understand him. It seemed to them that he was trying to introduce two new gods, whom he called Jesus and the Resurrection. They were greatly interested in that, for what could be more interesting to them than the announcement of a new god ? And here were two of them at once ! It seems strange to us that they should have thought of the Resurrec tion as a god, but we must remember that they had peopled the groves with gods ; they looked upon every stream as the home of spirits, and the winds as manifestations of various gods. In short they brought everything into direct connection with some god ; .hence it is not strange that they thought of Jesus and of the Resurrection as new gods, with whose powers they were eager to be come acquainted. The crowd of curious listeners was so great that a larger space was necessary, and in their eagerness they hurried him up to the broad rocky plateau overlooking the city, and asked him to explain his teaching at greater length. And here on Mars' Hill, in the midst of the expectant throng, Paul preached one of the greatest sermons of his life. It was a supreme moment in his life and in the history of Christian- THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 183 ity. The simple gospel which had its beginning in the far-off Galilee was here face to face with the representatives and teachers of the world's reli gion. It was like " bearding the lion in his den," for Christianity was here attacking the very strong hold of polytheism. There is something dramatic in the situation and impressive in the thought. The occasion was inspiring, and Paul felt the im portance of the hour. The author of the Acts felt it, too, for in describing this his style and language became more elevated. Paul's text was " The unknown God." It is a fact attested by more than one reliable ancient author that there were altars in Athens erected to unknown divinities, and as Paul had been wander ing about through the city, his eye caught one of those strange inscriptions which furnished him with both text and sermon. The thought of this address is akin to that of the first three chapters of Romans, where Paul declares that God had written his law in the hearts of the heathen. For Paul sees in the Athenians a deep religious sense, perverted to idols, to be sure, and mixed with much ignorance and superstition, but still in its inmost purpose inspired by, and directed to, the one true God. In the fact that they had erected altars to an unknown god, Paul sees the proof that their many gods had not satisfied them ; there were aspirations and desires which their known gods did not fulfil. The deeper thoughts and affections of the soul looked beyond the known gods to one al- 184 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. though unknown, yet dimly felt, who would satisfy the soul thus feeling after its Creator. So Paul begins, not with a tirade on the sin of idolatry, but, genius-like, finding common ground on which to stand with them, and naturally and beautifully introducing his message of the one true God. He did all he could to put his audience and himself on good terms with each other, for he be gan his address with a compliment to his hearers. The Athenians were proud of the reputation which they enjoyed of being devotedly religious. Every god found a welcome among them, and a temple or an altar where he might be worshiped. Be cause of their care of the gods they were every where spoken of as the most religious people of the world. And Paul in his first sentence admitted that they indeed deserved this praise. " Ye men of Athens, I see that you are indeed very religious, for fearful lest through ignorance you should fail to pay the proper homage to all, you have even erected an altar with the inscription ' To an un known God.' " 1 In a masterly way he assumes that this unknown God is the God of the Old Tes tament, the God whom Jesus had revealed as the 1 King James's version as well as the Revisers by their false translation have here made Paul appear to be guilty of insulting the Athenians by his first words by declaring that they were very superstitious. But any one who reads the whole passage and con siders its tone will see at once that Paul did not mean to insult them, but that he really recognized that their reputation was well founded, and that they were exceedingly religious, and to the best of their knowledge careful for the honor of the gods. THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 185 Father of all, and declares that he brings them a message from Him. He then sets forth his char acter. He is the Creator of all things, the Lord of Heaven and Earth ; He needs nothing from his creatures, nay, rather, He gave them all they have. He it is that has created all men of one race, and hence all are his offspring, his children. He does not dwell in temples made by our hands, for He is exalted above all such things. Since we are his children, we ought to suppose that we resemble Him, and from what we know of ourselves we ought to be able to form a better estimate of Him and of his character. We ought not to think that He can be worthily represented by any statue, of whatever material. From our own character, our sense of right and wrong, of justice, and from all the nobler qualities which we possess, we ought to be able to think of Him in a far more becoming way. Paul appeals to their moral sense. This unknown God now calls on men everywhere to repent, for He has appointed a day of judgment on which all will receive rewards or punishments according to their conduct. He has given a sure proof of this in that He raised up the man Jesus from the dead. The resurrection of the dead was a stumbling- block to the Greeks, and at the mention of this some mocked ; others said, " We will hear you again," a polite way of saying that they were not persuaded by his words. He had little success there. The gospel was too simple for them. It 186 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. may be remarked here that Christianity was gene rally not acceptable to the Greeks until the simple teaching of Christ, the most of which deals with character and conduct, was perverted into a philo sophical, speculative, theological system, and the essence of religion was made to consist in know ledge instead of the childlike attitude of the heart toward God. But what impression did all the beauties of Athens make on Paul ? Probably he was insensi ble to her aesthetic side, the beauty of her temples, and her works of art. For Paul was a Jew, and the Jews were bitterly opposed to all representa tions of the human body. And besides, much of the art was idolatrous, and hence must have been an abomination in his eyes. But his greatness was apparent in the fact that he did not indulge in invective or violence, but in their idolatry sought for some great thought that would lead them to the recognition of a higher truth. Corinth formed, in almost every respect, a sharp contrast to Athens. It was a port lying on the highway between the East and West, the resort of sailors, who have always been noted the world over for their bad morals. It was one of the great mar kets of the world, and hence the resort of mer chants from every part of the Empire. It has always been observed that the majority of travel ers leave their character at home, and lead while among strangers a free and easy life. Corinth abounded in temptations of every kind. Gambling THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 187 was carried on to a frightful extent, and the very name of Corinth had become a by-word because of the evil reputation of her women. There was here a famous temple of Aphrodite, a part of whose wor ship consisted in breaking the seventh command ment. And here were hundreds of women who passed their lives in the temple or visited it regu larly in the service of this goddess. It was proba bly the most immoral city in the world. Here Paul made the acquaintance of two persons who were to be of the greatest service and comfort to him. Aquila and Priscilla had recently come from Rome, in consequence of the action of the Emperor Claudius, who forbade the Jews to hold their meetings in Rome. They were tent-makers, too, and by means of their common occupation he was able to make their acquaintance and enter into close relations with them. We are not told whether they were already Christians, or not ; at any rate they were soon his best helpers. It is curious to note that at first the name of Aquila precedes that of his wife, but soon her name takes the first place, from which it has been inferred that she was probably the abler of the two, and more efficient in the work. They remained with Paul throughout his whole stay of eighteen months in Corinth, went with him to Ephesus, where they took a house and made it the centre for missionary operations, making it the place of meeting for all the Christians near them, thus establishing a "church in their house." 'They were still in 188 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. Ephesus when Paul wrote the first letter to the Corinthians, and he could write to their former friends and acquaintance in Corinth, " Aquila and Priscilla send you their very best greetings." A year or two later, when he wrote the letter to the Romans, they had returned to their former home in Rome, had again taken a house, and were pur suing the same course as in Ephesus. In Corinth, as has been said, Paul was rejoined by Timothy and Silas, who came from Macedonia bringing good news," which so cheered Paul that he began to prosecute his work with greater energy and enthusiasm. From here he wrote the two let ters to the Thessalonians, which have already been discussed. As usually happened, only some of the Jews be lieved, and the opposition became so great that he was compelled to quit visiting the synagogue and to open another place of worship and meeting for the Christians. For this purpose he secured the house of Titus Justus, who either was a proselyte, or had been under Jewish instruction. For it is said that he was " one who worshiped God." Of all these eighteen months there is recorded only one event, which shows how very sketchy and in complete the book of Acts is as history. Toward the end of the reign of Claudius, Gallio was made proconsul of the province of Achaia, which includes all Greece. This must have been in the year 53 or 54. Gallio was the brother of the famous stoic philosopher and writer, Seneca, both of whom were THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 189 put to death by Nero. He was himself the author of several plays and works on science. He was a learned man, the friend and companion of many of the greatest literary men of his day. He was noted, too, for his mild and gentle disposition. Seneca, his brother, showed his love for him by dedicating some of his works to him.1 The Jews are again represented as the cause of the trouble and opposition. They brought Paul before Gallio with the charge that he was teaching men to worship God contrary to their law. They did not attempt to hide the real nature of the charges and there was no resort to any political ac cusations. It seems strange that they should have made purely religious charges against any one be fore the local magistrates, for in religious matters the Jewish synagogues are supposed everywhere to have had independent jurisdiction. Gallio looked upon the whole matter as one of little moment. He was angry that they should have disturbed him and tried to make him the judge in the matter of their 1 This contact of Paul with Gallio was probably in part the basis of the famous forgery of the correspondence of Paul and Sen eca. But only in part, for the Christians of the third and fourth centuries, like some of a much later day, could not admit that the heathen were capable of producing anything good. But in the writings of Seneca they found much that agreed with the best Chris tian principles. The only way to solve the problem was to declare that Seneca had known Paul and had got all his good things from him. To support this, these letters were forged, in which Paul is made to impart the Christian teachings to Seneca. The letters were for a long time regarded as genuine, but they are undoubtedly a forgery, and cannot be earlier than the third century. 190 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. law. It was only a Jewish theological quarrel and they might settle it among themselves. He was will ing to act as judge in matters which involved the principle of right and wrong, but in their wars about words he would take no part. With this rebuke he ordered them to be driven from his presence. But this was not the end of the matter. They had dug a pit for another, they themselves were yet to fall into it. Their turbulence and troublesomeness had made even the mild Gallio impatient and indif ferent, and the fickle mob took advantage of the opportunity to vent their dislike upon them. They laid hold of Sosthenes, who had been made ruler of the synagogue in place of Crispus who had be come a Christian, and gave him a sound beating. It seems to have had a good effect on him, for later we find that he had become a Christian and was in Ephesus with Paul when he wrote the first letter to the Corinthians. For a year and a half Paul remained in Corinth. Whether he was in the city all the time or not it is impossible to say. But Christianity certainly spread beyond the limits of the city, for the second letter is addressed not only to the " church of God which is at Corinth," but also to " all the saints which are in the whole of Achaia." At length the time came for a change of residence. He evidently thought that Christianity was firmly established in Corinth, so he and Aquila and Priscilla sailed away to Asia, intending to establish themselves there. In regard to the vow which is spoken of, only two THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 191 things are clear ; first, that there was a vow, and second, that it was fulfilled at Corinth. But it is by no means clear who had made the vow, or what its purport was. From the Greek it is impossible to say to whom it refers. It may have been either Aquila or Paul, though one has the impression that the author had Paul in mind. It was not a Naz- arite vow, but Paul, if it was he, had vowed that he would accomplish a certain thing, and as a sign of the vow until it was accomplished he would not allow his hair to be cut ; for that was the ordinary form of such vows, which were by no means uncom mon. They landed at Ephesus, where Aquila and Pris cilla remained, but Paul is said to have gone on to Caesarea, and from there he " went up," that is, to Jerusalem, and after saluting the church there re turned to Antioch. Here he remained only a short time and then set out through Asia Minor, passing through Galatia and Phrygia to Ephesus, where he had long desired to establish Christianity. This is the beginning of what is commonly called the third missionary journey, but it was rather simply a change of residence from Corinth to Ephesus, which now became his headquarters. Ephesus (since 133 b. c, when the Pergamenian kingdom passed into the hands of Rome) was the capital of the province of Asia, which consisted of Mysia, Ly dia and Caria. Paul had an eye for the strategic points. Ephesus was a large and beautiful city, exceedingly rich, for her commerce was even greater 192 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. than that of Corinth. She had almost all the advantages of a port town, although she was not directly on the sea. And she was the terminus of the great caravan route through Asia Minor to the East. Fine roads led to the interior of the country and gave excellent facilities for travel. She was in touch with both Europe and Asia, and from here Paul had a wide horizon, for he could be constantly in contact with people from all quarters of the Em pire. Christianity was sure to spread along the _ lines of travel. Here was the seat of the worship of Artemis (or Diana, as it is improperly translated in both the authorized and revised versions) whose temple was one of the seven wonders of the world. Paul certainly reached Ephesus in the year 54, but in the mean time a new apostle had appeared on the scene. Apollos had come from Alexandria to Ephesus. It is said that he was a learned man and mighty in the Scriptures, which means that he was trained in the allegorical method of interpreta tion and was very skillful in it. The church at Alexandria, which afterwards played such a promi nent part in the history of the church and in the development of doctrine, is in the deepest obscurity until toward the end of the second century. This is one of the obscure notices from which we get all the knowledge we have of it, until suddenly at the end of the second century it springs into full view as the seat of a famous Christian catechetical school, with able teachers and a large and flourish ing congregation. Now we learn that Apollos was THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 193 engaged in preaching the gospel of Jesus. " He had been instructed in the way of the Lord," and he spoke and taught carefully and with great zeal the things concerning Jesus. That can only mean that he was a Christian, and that like Paul he was a traveling missionary. But the strange thing is that he knew nothing about a form of Christian baptism. He practiced baptism to be sure, but it wan the baptism of John, that is, a baptism as the symbol of repentance and not in the name of Jesus. Here then we learn of two things that are both in teresting and strange. The first is that the move ment begun by John the Baptist had spread beyond the boundaries of Palestine. It had even reached Alexandria, where Apollos had learned of it and adopted it. The other is that there were Chris tians who did not practice baptism in the name of Jesus, but had an entirely different form. The same thing is to be observed in regard to the " cer tain disciples " spoken of in Acts xix. 1. They were Christians, but knew nothing of a form of Christian baptism. How such a state of affairs was possible it is difficult to say, but the fact cannot be ques tioned. How widely this type of Christianity with out Christian baptism was spread, and how long it lasted, we cannot say, but the fact that it was in cities so widely separated as Alexandria and Ephe sus, and that too nearly thirty years after the death of Christ, shows that there must have been many who either did not know of Christian baptism or did not regard it as essential, and that there must 194 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. have been an extensive propagation of Christianity without a Christian form of baptism. It is interesting to note that Christianity, al though of this peculiar form, was thus early in Alexandria. Apollos was further instructed by Aquila and Priscilla, and, as he desired to pass over to Europe, took letters of introduction to the Christians at Corinth. It would seem that after Paul's departure from Corinth the Jews had been having the best of it in the many disputations which they had with the Christians. For inter course was not wholly broken off between the Christians and the Jews, but they undoubtedly continued their discussions and arguments. But they were no match for Apollos, who was trained in the Alexandrian school of logic, philosophy, and exegesis, and knew the Scriptures thoroughly and was master of all the arts which are so neces sary to the debater. In Ephesus Paul again began with the Jews. Although there were Christians already there, yet they had not separated from the Jews, but were still attending the synagogue ; they seem not to have had a separate place of worship. Paul con tinued this for three months, laboring to persuade the Jews of the Messiahship of Jesus, but at last the opposition was so great and violent that he had to withdraw from them. The school of Tyrannus was probably a building much like our " town halls," which was for rent and was used by the traveling philosophers, rhetoricians, teachers, and THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 195 all such who wished to meet the public. Paul now rented this hall and made it the regular place of meeting for the Christians and the centre of his missionary work. Here for three years (xx. 31) he continued to teach and preach the gospel, extending his influence through his disciples and helpers until, as it is said, "All them that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks." In these few years he laid the founda tion of the future greatness of the church in Asia Minor. All the west part of the country must have been evangelized. There were many cities there, and undoubtedly the beginning of their churches falls in this period. In the next century Asia Minor is the stronghold of Christianity ; the heathen temples were deserted, the animals of sacrifice remained unsold, and it seemed that all the people were turned Christian. That such pro gress was possible was due to the labors of Paul and his companions, with Ephesus for their head quarters. The immediate success iu Ephesus was very great. Many from all classes believed ; even many of the religious mountebanks and swindlers were converted and gave up the practice of their deceptive arts. The Asiarchs, or as it is trans lated, " the chief officers of Asia " (xix. 31), were what we would call a standing committee that had charge of the temples, the sacrifices, the public games, and the great celebrations which frequently took place. They had to provide for all such 196 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. events, make the necessary arrangements and pre side over them, and so were in the very midst of the idolatrous life and practices of the people. And yet Paul had made friends, and we may cer tainly conclude disciples, among even these. In these three years Christianity made great inroads on the heathenism of the city. So great were the numbers of its adherents, that toward the end of his stay here the trade in images of the goddess and her temple was so diminished that the workmen were losing their employment ; there was so little demand for these objects. This led to a great demonstration on the part of the workmen against Paul. The account which we have of it is unfortunately very brief, but very lifelike. This Demetrius was a silversmith and the head of a firm which manufactured images of the goddess. We are accustomed to think of labor unions, and Knights of Labor, and all similar organizations as something quite modern, but they were just as frequent and prominent at that time in Asia Minor as to-day in America. The work men of every particular craft formed a guild or labor union, and these numerous unions were united into a great organization. At the head of this was this Demetrius, who therefore occupied much the same position as the president of the Knights of Labor to-day. A great mass meeting of the " workmen of like occupation " was held, which was addressed by him. That is, it was a meeting of all those who were engaged in the THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 197 manufacture of all those little statues which were so common in antiquity. They were made of gold, silver, bronze, and baser metals, often of clay, and the makers of all these are included under the " workmen of like occupation." The excavations of Mr. Wood have brought to light a great many inscriptions and much material which throw light on this account in the Acts, and show that the author was well informed about various peculiar local customs which differed from those of other Greek cities. They show, too, what this chapter in the Acts also shows, 'that the temple and worship of Artemis, and the many in terests connected therewith, dominated the life and thought of the whole city. In the inscrip tions Artemis is called "the great goddess," and " the greatest goddess " (see Acts xix. 27). It is said in the twenty -ninth verse that "they rushed with one accord into the theatre," which seems strange, for in the Greek cities all public meetings were generally held in the market-place. But the inscriptions show that in Ephesus the great theatre was the place where all such meet ings were held. The town clerk also is mentioned in the inscriptions, and it is clear that he was the keeper of the records of the city ; it was his duty to see that the laws and edicts were inscribed on the walls or set up in a prominent place in the the atre. In verse thirty-nine mention is made of the "regular assembly," and the inscriptions show that this was the technical name of the mass meeting 198 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. of the citizens which they held a certain number of times a year for the purpose of transacting busi ness of various kinds ; for the city was democratic in its form of government. On the walls of the very theatre in which this mass meeting was held was an inscription which defined robbery of the temple and various other acts as sacrilegious, and the town clerk could easily point to that and say, " These men are not guilty of sacrilege, they have never robbed the temple or blasphemed our god dess." Ephesus is also called " temple keeper of the great Artemis which fell down from heaven." " Temple keeper," we learn, was a title of honor, which might be assumed by any city that should build and support a temple for the worship of any particular god. So that Ephesus, since she had built the temple to Artemis, bore the honorary title of "temple keeper to the great Artemis." And in this temple, we know from other sources, was a very ancient statue representing the goddess, which was confidently believed to have fallen from heaven. Our author has given us a good glimpse of the mob as the workmen were joined by the idlers on the street, all of whom caught up the cry, " Great is Artemis of the Ephesians." They all rushed into the theatre, but very few of them knew why they were shouting or what the cause of the demon stration was. It is a picture from life of a riotous crowd bent on mischief, without knowing why or to what purpose. The officials of the city were THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 199 anxious to prevent any violence and to quiet the mob, for the city would be in danger of the charge of riot and illegal public meetings, and so might be deprived of some of her privileges or compelled to pay a heavy fine. These three years at Ephesus were the most difficult and distressing of all Paul's life. They were far worse than the years of his imprison ment, galling as they must have been to his rest less spirit. He recognized the great opportunities that Ephesus offered for missionary work, for he wrote to the Corinthians, " But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost, for a great door and effectual is opened unto me," but he adds with great significance, " and there are many adver saries " (1 Cor. xvi. 9). His recollections of this have colored his words to the principal members of the church at Ephesus when he called them to come to Miletus to see him. He remembered it as a time of tears and of trials by the plots of the Jews. To this also refer the words in 2 Cor. i. 8-10 : " For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, insomuch that we despaired even of life : yea, we ourselves have had the an swer of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead : who delivered us out of so great a death, and will deliver : on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us." These words 200 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. can have no other meaning than that in some way Paul had been brought face to face with a violent death from which he barely escaped. His death had seemed so certain that his escape seemed almost miraculous, and he attributed it to God. The sentence of death had been passed upon him, but God had delivered him. In Rom. xvi. 3-4 we have another of these mysterious references to some danger of death that had threatened to overtake him, but from which he had been deliv ered by the heroic action of Priscilla and Aquila, who had themselves risked their lives on his behalf. " Salute Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus, who for my life laid down their own necks ; unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles." But we have a more explicit reference to one of the dangers that had befallen him. In 1 Cor. xv. 32 he says, " If after the manner of men I have fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what doth it profit me?" This is not a mere figure of speech, as some have supposed ; not at all. It means that Paul had actually been condemned to be thrown to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre. That was a common form of punishment, but not all who were thrown to the beasts were killed. It some times happened that they succeeded in killing the beast, and so they themselves escaped. Of course we cannot follow this out in the case of Paul, for unfortunately we know nothing of the details, but there can be no reasonable doubt that this was a THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 201 part of his terrible experiences in these three years. It is interesting to note too that the second letter to the Corinthians, which was written just after the close of this period, is full of reminiscences of his sufferings. Read chapters iv., vi., and x. of this letter and see what his condition must have been. The life and death struggle in which he had been so long engaged had made an indelible impression on his mind, which is apparent in the whole epistle. His troubles still lay on him like a burden that oppressed and disquieted him. His opponents were of three classes, the hea then, the Jews, and the Judaizers. We cannot follow them in all their machinations and violence, but we have seen how his life was endangered by the demonstration under Demetrius. The Jews were also assisting in this, for we find them put ting forward Alexander to attack Paul and further increase the blind hatred of the populace. These facts, taken together with those above mentioned, the many adversaries, the sentence of death that had been passed upon bim, the trials with the plots of the Jews, the circumstances that required Aquila and Priscilla to risk their lives for him, and his fighting with wild beasts, — what more is required to show that these three years were full of dangers and trials that would have conquered many another heart, however brave. What a light they throw on the zeal and devotion of Paul ! The facts merely are given, leaving the imagination to supply the details. 202 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. But the Judaizers caused him even more an guish of heart, for they were endeavoring to de stroy his life work, and more than once it seemed that they would succeed. They had before this begun to make systematic efforts to alienate the affections of his congregations from him. They sent out their missionaries everywhere on his track, sowing slanders of many kinds against him, and preaching another gospel ; that is, they told his converts that they were not perfect Christians and that they could not hope to become partakers of the Messiah's kingdom until they had outwardly become Jews and observed the law of Moses. Everywhere they stirred up commotions, and threw the Gentile Christians into great perplexity, doubt, and distress of mind. Their arguments were plausible, their zeal great, and often they found ready credence. Where their success was not immediate they continued their efforts with such persistency, and were so shrewd in their arguments, and especially in the charges which they made against Paul, that in the end they were sure to prevail. And Paul found his congrega tions on all hands slowly deserting him and giv ing up his gospel of the freedom of salvation and of the right to the Messiah's kingdom through faith, and accepting the law of Moses, hoping by these observances to have a right to eternal life. So that during these years he had to fight not only for his life against the heathen and Jews, but also for the life of his congregations and for the THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 203 existence and preservation of his gospel. It is always sad when a man, who has spent the best years of his life in some great work and has seen his efforts crowned with success, is suddenly made aware that all his work is about to be undone, and is compelled to begin again, and, as it were, do the whole work over. The anxiety and anguish of mind are always touching in the extreme. How much more is this true of Paul, who saw his con gregations falling away from him, his free gospel, his religion of the heart, displaced by the round of legal observances, and his own character tra duced and all manner of false charges heaped upon him. He himself has given expression to the torture and distress of soul which he felt under the figure which to the ancients was the most expressive of pain ; " My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you." The struggle was a bitter one, and often Paul did not know on whose side the victory would be. It weighed upon him even more than the dangers that surrounded his person. For after speaking of the hardships which he had had to endure, the beatings and stonings, the shipwrecks, the fatiguiug journeys, and the ever-present perils, he adds, " Beside those things that are without, there is that which presseth upon me daily, anx iety for all the churches." This is wrung from him ; it comes like a sob of pain from the depths of his heart. The perils, the physical dangers, that dogged his footsteps were as nothing compared 204 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. with the auxiety of his soul as he saw the. results of his years of labor about to be destroyed. On his way to Ephesus in the year 54 he had passed through Galatia and even then had seen signs of the coming storm, and had warned the Ga latians that those who received circumcision, hoping thereby to receive some spiritual advantage, were in reality bound to observe the whole Mosaic law ; and he further pronounced a curse on all who should preach to them a gospel that differed from his own. But this had not had the desired effect, for soon after reaching Ephesus he heard that the Judaizers had been at least in part successful. Some of the Galatians had been persuaded by them to receive circumcision and were beginning to observe some of the Jewish feasts, regarding certain days and seasons as particularly holy, and thinking that they were pleasing God by such ex ternal observances. The Judaizers had made them believe that in order to become Christians they must first become Jews and accept at least a part of the Mosaic and levitical regulations as binding. They had further attempted to fortify their position by attacking Paul. For if they could succeed in discrediting him, it would of course be much easier to persuade his converts that his gospel was insufficient. The charges were as follows : they declared that Paul was not on an equality with the other apos tles, for he had not seen Jesus and had never re ceived a commission from him to preach his gos- THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 205 pel as the others had. His authority then was not equal to that of the Twelve, for they had theirs di rectly from Jesus. If Paul had any right at all to preach, he must have got it from some man or men. He was not an independent apostle ; he had received all his knowledge of the Messiah and of his gospel from others. Since he is inferior in au thority to the Twelve, in every question in which they differ they are to be accepted as supreme. What Paul says is to be corrected by what they say. Further, although he had got his gospel from them it was said that he had not preserved it in purity. He was no longer preaching the pure gos pel as the others were, but he had corrupted it. He was no longer preaching the truth, but had changed it that he might please men. He was a coward and was not preaching for the truth's sake, but was using any means that seemed to promise success. Besides, he was covetous of ' fame and wealth, and was using his congregations to become famous and rich. It was a bitter attack on his apostleship, his gospel, and his character. So he wrote his answer, his letter to the Gala tians, — one of those fiery, indignant letters which must have made the Galatians wince more than once as they read it. He first takes up the ques tion of his apostleship. He declares that he is an independent apostle and the equal of any, for he had his apostleship, not from men nor through any man, but directly from God through Jesus Christ. And for his gospel he was not indebted to any 206 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. man, for no man taught it to him, or was in any way instrumental in giving it to him. But when Jesus had been revealed to him as the Messiah, it had all been made plain to him. He then reminds the Galatians that he had been so zealous for the law that he had most bitterly persecuted the Chris tians. But when it had pleased God to reveal his Son in him, to make known to him Jesus as the Messiah, he had at the same time been called to preach his gospel to the Gentiles. And immedi ately he had begun this. Without conferring with flesh and blood, without going up to Jerusalem to get the consent of the apostles, he went away to Arabia and at once entered upon the work to which he was called. So far from being dependent on the Twelve for his call to the apostleship and for his gospel and for the right to preach to the Gentiles, he had actually been for three years engaged in this before he even so much as saw one of the Twelve. It is clear from this that Paul must have been at work before he saw Peter, or his argument is worth nothing at all. If he had been simply meditating these three years in Arabia, if he had not been engaged in mission work, his opponents could easily overcome all he might say by simply calling attention to the fact that although he might claim to have been called by Christ, yet he did not begin his work until he had gone to Jerusalem to see Peter and get his permission to serve as a mis sionary. But that cannot be, for he proves the independence of his apostleship and of his gospel THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 207 by saying that he began work at once, and had been three years in the field before he made the acquaintance of one of the Twelve. Besides, he had been with Peter only two weeks, and had seen no other apostle, but admits that he had seen James. From Jerusalem he went away into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, continuing his work, and re mained unknown to the churches of Judaea and the other apostles until fourteen years after, when he went up to lay before them his gospel and his work. With this he turns to another point. The inde pendence of his apostleship and of his gospel is proved, but he must now show that the Twelve, or at least the representatives of the church at Jeru salem, -have recognized him as their equal, that he had been intrusted with the gospel to the Gentiles, and that he was preaching a genuine gospel. So he refers to the conference which he had had with them about four or five years before. He and Barnabas had gone up to Jerusalem, taking with them Titus, who was a Greek. And he had laid before them his gospel, and showed them Titus as a sample of its fruits among the Gentiles. And although some of the Judaizers demanded that Titus be circumcised, regarding him with abhor rence since he was levitically unclean, yet Paul had resisted them and successfully opposed their demands, so that the apostles had not required his circumcision. They also made no addition to Paul's gospel ; " they imparted nothing " to him, but they 208 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. recognized that he was doing the Lord's work, for the Lord was with him. And since they saw that the grace of the Lord had been given him, they also strove against him no further, but gave him the right hand of fellowship. They stipulated, however, that he should go only to the Gentiles with his gospel, while they should continue with their gospel to the Jews. They made only one further request, namely, that Paul should remem ber the poor in Jerusalem. But Paul has a still more convincing argument in the conduct of Peter at Antioch. For he had come down to Antioch and was so thoroughly agreed with Paul in all these things, that he asso ciated freely with the uncircumcised Gentile Chris tians without any regard to the levitical law, thus by his conduct admitting that it was worthless, that it was no longer binding on either Jews or Gentiles and that its observance was a matter- of entire indifference. He thus showed that there was complete agreement between himself and Paul. But here Paul tacitly admits that James did not agree with him, for he says that after " certain came from James," Peter, fearing the displeasure Of James and the opposition of the Jewish Chris tians at Jerusalem, drew back from associating with the Gentiles. He feared to lose caste in Jeru salem, for he remembered that they had opposed him before when he had preached the gospel to Cornelius. But Paul publicly rebuked him, accus ing him of hypocrisy because he knew that the law THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 209 was not binding, and yet in order to have a good name with the Jewish party at Jerusalem he had acted contrary to his better knowledge and judg ment. With the third chapter he begins to discuss the relation existing between the law and the gospel. Abraham received the blessing simply because he believed God. The promise was made to him, not because he was keeping the law, but because he believed what God said to him. The great inheri tance was promised him on this condition, and hence was for all who, like him, believed God. This promise God had confirmed by an oath. But four hundred and thirty years afterward God gave the law too to his descendants, but this could not annul the promise. For the inheritance had been made dependent simply on faith, and hence it could not now be made dependent on the observance of the law. The law had a different purpose, namely, to act as our tutor, to show us what sin is and lead us to Christ. But now that Christ is come we are no longer under this tutor, for Christ has re vealed God as our Father, and through him we have received the adoption of sons, so that we are no longer bond-servants under the law but free sons of God. But it by no means follows from the abolition of the law that we may indulge in sin. We are in deed free, but not free to sin, for a new principle of life has been implanted in us. We belong to God through Christ, and as his sons we must imi- 210 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. tate Him. We must walk in his spirit, and be come like Him in character. If we have the spirit of Christ we must produce the same fruits in our lives which he produced in his. " For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temper ance ; against such there is no law." With the eleventh verse of the last chapter Paul begins to write the salutation with his own hand, for up to this point he has dictated and another has written. He tells them that these Judaizers have a special, selfish motive in persuading others to keep the law ; it was that they, as Jewish Chris tians, might not be persecuted by their unbelieving brethren. It was that they might say that al though they believed in Jesus, they were yet zeal ous for the law, and since they regarded it as the principal thing, they might thus recommend them selves to their Jewish brethren, and on this account escape the persecution that was falling upon other Christians. And now he closes with the indignant words, " From henceforth let no man trouble me : for I bear branded on my "body the marks of Jesus." He has spoken the last word ; they may attack him if they choose, they may desert his gospel if they will, but let them trouble him no further, for he knows that he is the servant of Jesus. He bears on his body the marks of his apostleship. His back seamed by the rods of the Roman officers and the scourges of the Jewish authorities, and THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 211 his body scarred by the stones of the mob at Lystra, were sufficient proofs to him of the genu ineness of his apostleship, of the correctness of his gospel, and of the uprightness of his charac ter. They may believe him or not, but he will not again condescend to defend himself against such base slanders. The letter is severe, and written not without some hardness and bitterness (see especially v. 12), but it seems to have had the desired effect. For, a few months later, when writing to the Co rinthians, he could inform them that the churches in Galatia were also taking part in the collection, and that the Christians at Corinth should follow the same method of making the collection as they. The crisis in Galatia was passed, and Paul had remained victor there ; but the battle was yet to be waged all along the line. It was but the first skirmish, the prelude to a contest the end of which Paul himself was not to live to see. Soon bad news came from the west. The church at Corinth was in a sad state. There were flagrant cases of fornication among the members. This sin, so frightfully common among the hea then, had polluted even the church. One of the members of the congregation had married his father's wife, that is, his stepmother. Whether she had been divorced or was a widow, it is not said, but the simple fact, under whatever circum stances, was an abomination, a pollution that could not be endured in the Christian community. In 212 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. order to rebuke this and to put an end to it, Paul, as we learn from 1 Cor. v. 5, wrote them a letter telling them that Christians dare not associ ate with such. " I wrote you in my epistle to have no company with fornicators." His letter was disregarded. Apparently the transgressor was a man of influence, and the others, or at least some of them, did not wish to put him out of the con gregation. So they pretended to misunderstand Paul's words. He had written that they should " have no company with fornicators." " Well, if that is the case," they said, " it will be necessaiy for us to go out of the world entirely. It is abso lutely impossible to exist in the world and shun all such," and with this sham plea they excused them selves from acting against the one who had sinned in this way, and he remained as before, a mem ber " in good standing." This letter of which Paul speaks and from which he quotes is lost. It is idle to speculate what the letter contained be sides this. That the letter is lost need not be sur prising, for it is not at all probable that we have all the letters that Paul and the other Apostles wrote. Does it seem likely that such a busy man as Paul, who founded so many churches and un doubtedly tried to keep in touch with as many of them as possible, should, in all the thirty years or more of his missionary activity, have written only a dozen letters ? When we put the question in this way, the improbability of it is at once clear. This lost letter to the Corinthians failed to ac- THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 213 complish its purpose; the guilty ones were not punished, but on the contrary the others were puffed up, as if, because they were Christians, they had the special right to allow such things to be practiced among them. From comparison of Acts with 1 Corinthians we are able to determine the course of events as fol lows : This lost letter had no effect, but affairs in the congregation had grown worse in many ways. Under these circumstances Paul was visited in Ephesus by certain members of the household of Chloe, who were at the same time members of the neighboring church at Cenchreae. These came bringing him an account of the condition of the rival church, which was divided into factions and parties (see 1 Cor. i. 11). Paul himself either could not or did not wish to go to Corinth, so he sent Timothy on a double errand. In the first place he should go with Erastus to Macedonia and arrange for the grand collection which he was already planning to take with him to Jerusalem, and then proceed to the south, to Corinth, and settle the difficulties there (1 Cor. iv. 7, xvi. 10, 11, Acts xix. 22). The way through Macedonia was of course much longer than by sea, and i' would necessarily be some time before Timothy would reach Corinth. But matters grew rapidly worse in the congre gation. Several questions were being discussed, to which they could give no satisfactory answer, so they decided to ask Paul's advice. For this 214 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. purpose they sent three men, Stephanus, Fortuna- tus, and Achaicus, with a letter to Paul, asking his opinion on several weighty matters which were before them. From this letter, and especially from the three men who had just come, Paul learned the exact condition of the church. In answer to their letter (which is lost), Paul wrote at once the letter which we call 1 Corinthians and sent it the short way, by the sea, expecting that it would reach Corinth before the arrival of Timothy (1 Cor. xvi. 10, 11). Let us now turn to the letter itself, and see what the condition of the church was. The first thing we learn is, that the church was divided into parties because of personal preferences for the various leading missionaries that had been among them. It lay in the character of the Greeks to form parties and cliques. They had a strong social instinct, and could not live apart from others. This led him to develop what we may call a most vigorous club-life. They had an almost infinite number of clubs, guilds, associa tions, and societies of all kinds. It was the mis fortune of the Greeks that they never could agree. It was this spirit of contention that ruined Greece. It appeared in everything, not only in their politi cal life, in trade, and handicraft, but also in their schools of philosophy and rhetoric. The students of one professor jostled and hooted those of an other in the street, and often there were broken heads and bloody faces when they came into too THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 215 close quarters. The Greek gave his whole self to the cause that he espoused or to the opinion that he adopted, with the necessary consequence that he was always in a clique with those who agreed with him, and in bitter strife with those who dif fered from him. This national habit or characteristic showed itself in the church at Corinth. Some of them were devoted admirers of Paul and of his way of presenting the truth. They preferred him because of his manner, or because of his teachings. They had probably caught up some of his peculiar words and phrases which pleased them, and which seemed to express the truth better than any other form of words. But others preferred Apollos. He had come among them, a skilled philosopher and rhetorician ; thoroughly trained in the schools, and able by the skill with which he arranged and clothed his ideas to impress and please those who had great aesthetic pleasure in such things. His teaching had been cast in a philosophical mould ; he had had much to say of "knowledge" and " wisdom ; " he had used the technical terms that were in use in the philosophical schools, and these had made a great impression on his hearers, who were thus delighted with the learning of the man, and fancied that they had arrived at a higher stage of truth through his instruction than through that of Paul. It has already been said that the Greeks laid all emphasis on knowledge. That was the principal 216 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. thing, for virtue consisted in knowledge, not in the condition of the heart and character. So these Greeks at Corinth were especially pleased with Apollos and his form of teaching, because it seemed to fall in with their ideas about the importance and value of philosophical knowledge and speculation. Their knowledge and conception of Christianity were so superficial, that Christ was nothing, his min isters everything. To correct this false impression Paul takes up the first four chapters of this letter with a contrast between the gospel and philosophy. The teaching of Christ is not a philosophy, and it is not to be compared with any of the Greek sys tems. It is not the wisdom for which the Greek so longs, but is something quite different. The gospel is the sure news which Christ has brought, that there is a God who is the Father of all ; that He is gracious and merciful to his children, and has shown his attitude towards them and his affection for them in the person of Jesus, who died for them ; and whom He raised from the dead to a position of power, thus putting a seal upon his work and teach ing, that all might trust Him, and as children of God walk worthily of their high position. Paul admits that he had been tempted to try the philosophical form for his teaching, for that would have pleased the Greek taste, but then he had de termined to preach the simple gospel ; to know nothing among them but Christ crucified, for Christ is shown to be the power and wisdom of God, in the new motives and impulses, and consequently in THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 217 the new life, which we have from and through him. But Paul further excuses himself for not having used this form of teaching, because the Corinthians had not yet learned the rudiments of Christianity ; they were still babes; they were carnal. To be spiritually minded, to have the mind of Christ, was to walk as Christ walked, in purity of life and character, without jealousy and strife ; it was to be like Christ, pleasing God by keeping our hearts pure, and by doing the duties which we owe Him and others. If they had reached this stage, then they might speculate if they chose, but until they had learned the one all-important thing, it was im possible for him to proceed beyond the simple truths of the gospel. This is the gospel. Others may build further, but let each one see how he builds. This truth in Christ is the essential thing ; it is Christianity. It stands secure. But the work of each one, that is, the further additions and specula tions of each, shall be tried. One may have built well, may have found out much truth and been thereby helpful to others ; all such shall receive a reward. Another may have gone entirely wrong in what he has thought and said ; his further philo sophical speculations may be all false, but if he has left the foundation truth untouched, although his work shall perish he shall not himself miss the kingdom of God. In fact, it is necessary that each should be an in dependent worker and builder on this foundation, for each has his own work. Each is a steward, and 218 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. a steward must be found faithful in the manage ment and development of that intrusted to him. Paul had expressed the truth as God had given it to him ; all that he is he has received from God. Apollos had his own way of teaching, but he too had received everything from God. They could not agree absolutely in everything, for they were two individuals, two personalities, and every per sonality received its peculiar characteristics and distinctions from God. The spirit speaks through these. It must not be expected that all shall say the same things in the same way. But each must be faithful to God, to himself, and to the truth which God gave him to see. Paul himself had come to the Corinthians, not with the words of wisdom, but with this simple gospel which to the learned seemed foolishness, but with it he had laid the foundation. That is, he had given them a knowledge of the essential truth. But Apollos had come, and, in a different way, built further, but had not destroyed the foundation or laid another one. In all this he has been carrying on a gentle re buke to the Corinthians. He has been thinking all the time of Apollos and himself, for he says : " Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes ; that in us ye might learn not to go beyond the things that are written, that no one of you be puffed up for -the one against the other." That is, " the differences between Apollos and me are not so great as you have imagined, for you have attrib- THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 219 uted too much weight and importance to the form of the teaching and to the secondary truths which you have learned from him. I gave you all the essential truth of Christianity. That is sufficient, but if you make further speculations let them not be pressed into differences and made causes for division. Above all, personal preferences should have no such influence. For what is Apollos, and what is Paul ? Only servants, who served each with the gifts which God had given him, for which each shall receive his peculiar reward." Knowing the great value attributed by the Greeks to knowledge, and the constant danger to which they were exposed in this direction, with chapter iii. 18 he begins a brief warning against the " wisdom of this world ; " and by that he means undoubtedly the speculations about the many questions which were agitating the minds of men, and were discussed with such subtlety by the phi losophers. They were questions about the sub stance of the world, its nature and essence, its origin, its destiny, about the mysteries of life and death, and the thousand and one other questions that come to every one who stops to observe and think about the things that are about him. These things are foolishness if they are thought to be re ligious or if put into the place of religion, for they are knowledge which shall be done away. But the true wisdom is the knowledge of God which has been revealed through Christ, and if they possess that they possess all things. 220 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. Instead of striving about who . is the greatest, they ought rather to rejoice in the possession of. all things, since no matter what the explanation of the mysteries of the world, of life and death ; no mat ter what the course of things may bring forth, they are safe in the keeping of Christ, and he is safe in the keeping of God. But instead of this childlike trust in God, this leaving everything to his fatherly care, they had been puffed up as if they owed Him nothing; as if they had filled them selves and made themselves rich. They had for gotten their position as servants, and had assumed the place of rulers ; they had forgotten the humble position which Paul occupied, and were not follow ing his example. And then in a few sharp sen tences and with the finest irony he reminds them of his condition, and contrasts it with their high pretensions. They had forgotten him, their spir itual father, and were reigning without him. He had had no share in their glory. But no, you have not really reigned, but, " I would that ye did reign, that I also might reign with you. For I think God hath set forth us the apostles last of all, as men doomed to death : for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ ; we are weak, but ye are strong ; ye have glory, but we have dishonor. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place ; and we toil, working with our own hands : being THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 221 reviled, we bless ; being persecuted, we endure ; being defamed, we intreat : we are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things, even until now " (iv. 8-13). This was Paul's con dition, although he was an apostle. Let the Co rinthians remember that the time is not yet come for reigning. It is the time for serving and suf fering, for doing the work that God has given to each. But there was also a party in Corinth which pre ferred Peter. From the fact that there were such, it is almost certain that Peter had also been in Corinth in the mean time, though probably only for a short time, and some had thought him greater than either Apollos or Paul. They were saying, " I am of Paul," and "I am of Apollos," and " I am of Peter," but Paul in a single sentence administers the sharpest rebuke possible, for he adds, " I am of Christ, yet you, by your cliques, divide Christ. Has Paul been cruci fied for you ? " There was also the beginning of another party, which later was to develop into a strong, violent opposition to Paul. Some of them were puffed up, and were saying that Paul did not dare come to Corinth. It must be noted that in all this discussion about Apollos, Peter, and himself, there is nothing that would indicate that there was any opposition exist ing among themselves. He speaks of Apollos in terms of the highest recognition, and there is not 222 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. a word of blame or detraction against either him or Peter. On the contrary, the language used of Apollos in chapter xvi. 12 shows that Paul and Apollos were on the most friendly terms, for Paul wished Apollos to return to Corinth to help settle the difficulties that were troubling the congrega tion. But Apollos had evidently had enough of the Corinthians and was greatly displeased with their conduct. For, although Paul had begged him to return, he had persistently and determinedly refused. But still Paul hoped that he would come at some future time. In the fifth chapter he turns to the flagrant case of fornication, and demands that the whole con gregation shall meet and solemnly expel the of fender, and that they shall refuse to readmit him to their society or fellowship until he has repented. More than that, they must have no fellowship with fornicators, with covetous, with idolators, with re- vilers, with extortioners. For the church must consist of those who have ceased to practice such abominations and are striving to imitate the con duct of Christ, and to live according to the laws of the kingdom of God. There was further a lack of Christian brotherly love among them. They quarreled with each other, and were having lawsuits, and, although they were Christian brethren, they appealed to heathen judges to settle their difficulties (vi. 1-11). It was a great defect in them that they had such differences at all. Why not rather suffer wrong ? Why not rather THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 223 submit to being defrauded ? For that certainly is more in keeping with the teaching and example of Christ, than that they should themselves defraud and wrong others. Above all, they should by no means appeal to the heathen to decide between them, but rather let some Christian brother settle their strifes. Again he turns to the question of fornication (vi. 12). The whole defect was that they did not look upon this as a sin. Especially among the Greeks, the view was prevalent that lust was a nat ural appetite, just like hunger and thirst, and that the satisfying of the one was as innocent as that of the other. As the belly is for meats and meats for the belly, so the body is for fornication. So far from being a sin, it was even looked upon as a part of the worship of some of the gods. But Paul re minds them that there is a world-wide difference between them, for fornication is a defilement of the body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit. With the seventh chapter Paul begins to answer certain questions which they had asked him in the letter which the three brethren had brought with them. The question of marriage and the marriage duty was agitating them. They were not clear whether marriage was right or not, and the mutual rights and duties of husband and wife were in con troversy. The question was still more perplexing if the husband or wife were an unbeliever. Was it not necessary that the Christian husband or wife should be separated from his unbelieving partner? 224 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. Paul says in reply, " It is a good thing not to marry ; I say unto the unmarried and widows, it is good for them that they abide even as I," that is, unmar ried. But all do not have the gift of continence, and therefore, that temptation and sin may be avoided, it is better that each man have his own wife and each woman her own husband. For the mar ried state is not sinful, but is in accordance with the will and arrangements of God. But if the un believing partner is unwilling to continue the mar riage relation with a Christian, let no force be used to compel him to do so, for the Christian wife or husband thus deserted is without fault or blame. Since circumcision was not of any religious value, some of the Jewish Christians were endeavoring by artificial means to remove the mark of circumcision, which among the Greeks was a sign of barbarism and was looked upon with disgust. Others, on the contrary, were receiving it as if it were of value. To these, Paul says, both are wrong, for there is no value in either circumcision or uncircumcision. The one thing is to do the will of God by perform ing faithfully the duties of our calling. With the preaching of the gospel and the bro therhood of believers, the question of slavery at once arose, and might at any moment become a burning one. If a slave is a free man in Christ, and the brother of his master, can it be right for him to remain in the position of a slave ? Ought he not rather to insist on being set free and in all things recognized as the equal of his master ? Paul's an- THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 225 swer is, No, each one should remain in the occupa tion in which Christianity found him. Christianity is not to bring about a revolution; it is not to overthrow the social and economic system by vio lent measures. On the contrary, it is to sanctify and ennoble every honest calling, every duty, and all the relations of life. Religion has nothing to do with the external or social condition, but each should remain where the gospel found him. For the slave is a free man in Christ, and the free man is a slave in Christ, for all are brethren by the law of Christ. In the matter of marriage and in the giving or withholding of a daughter in marriage, Paul gives his own judgment, his opinion, for he says that Christ left no command in regard to those things. He lays it upon them, not as a command, but as his opinion. It is what his " sanctified common- sense " tells him is right. Remain as you are ; if married, seek not a divorce ; if unmarried, seek not a partner ; but if you do marry, you have committed no sin. But the time is short, we are in the last days, and we ought to be careful for the things of the Lord, and to be ready for what is coming. But he who marries, assumes duties and relations which must necessarily hinder him from being so careful for the things of the Lord as he might otherwise be. According to the customs of those times, the father had the sole right to dispose of his daughter's hand in marriage. Paul found no fault with this, but said that each father should act in this matter 226 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. as seemed good to him. If he chose to give his daughter in marriage, it was good, if not, however, it was better ; for Paul believed that because of the " present distress " and of the " shortness of the times" she would be happier unmarried, for she would thereby escape much tribulation in the flesh. In the eighth chapter he answers their question about meats that had been sacrificed to idols. It was the custom to offer an animal in sacrifice in the temple, have the flesh prepared, and invite one's friends to take part in this temple meal. The Co rinthian Christians were at a loss to know whether they might accept such an invitation, or whether they might under any circumstances partake of such flesh. Paul says in answer : Of course you know that these idols are nothing ; there is but one God, who has made, controls, and knows all things. You know that eating of itself has nothing to do with religion ; you can neither please nor displease God thereby. It is perfectly proper to accept such an invitation, for you would eat of this flesh as coming from God's hand ; you would eat it to his glory. But some one who does not have this knowledge may see you seated in a heathen temple taking part in one of these temple meals. He would regard this as a sin, and would be offended at it ; or he might think that he might do the same thing, and so would take part in such a meal as if it were really a sacrifice to another god, and thus bring upon himself the guilt of idolatry. So that, although you have a right to take part in such meals, yet if THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 227 you thereby wound the weak conscience of a bro ther, or lead him to fall into sin, you should deny yourselves of the privilege. If need be, you should abstain wholly from such meals. But some went further, and said that it was per fectly proper for the Christian to go through the motions of offering sacrifice. They know that these idols are nothing, and can therefore perform these rites without being guilty of idolatry. But here Paul draws the line. The idols to which the heathen sacrifice are, to be sure, not gods, but they are demons, evil spirits, and if we offer them sacrifices, we thereby show that we wish to have communion with them. But we cannot have fel lowship with these and at the same time with Christ. And again Paul repeats what he has said in the eighth chapter: these things are lawful, each one has the abstract right to practi"e them, but there is a higher power that may forbid it. Each one is bound to build up, to strengthen, his fellow-Christians. He must do nothing which will cause another to stumble. Therefore if you are invited to a feast, and choose to accept, go and eat what is set before you without asking any ques tions, for you give thanks to God, the Giver of all. But if some Christian brother with a weak con science tells you that this flesh has been offered to idols, you must abstain from eating, lest you wound his conscience and lead him into sin. For in all things we must imitate Christ, who sought not his own pleasure, but came to serve. 228 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. Paul had asserted the high principle, that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female. That is, all are on an equality. It follows necessarily from this that slaves ought to be free and that women should have equal rights with the men. That is just the conclusion which some of the slaves were making, as we have seen from 1 Cor. vii. 21, and now we learn that the women had begun to act on this logical inference. They appeared in the meetings of the Christians, and took part in the worship, praying and prophesying with uncovered heads, that is, with unveiled faces. They thought Christianity was to produce a revolution in the social customs, and free them from all the limita tions that were to them, no doubt, very burden some. This new-found liberty and equality were to be used to the full, regardless of the conse quences. But such conduct was contrary to all of the world's conceptions of modesty and proper con duct on the part of women. It was exceedingly offensive to every one. If this should be identified as a part of Christian teaching and principle, it would cause a total misconception of the essential character of Christianity, and bring about opposi tion, contempt, and ridicule. So, of course, Paul opposes it. But his arguments are drawn wholly from the universal sense of propriety. He indeed says that the woman was created for the man, and not the man for the woman, but he at once de prives this of all weight, by saying that the man THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 229 without the woman is nothing, even as also the woman without the man. He says, too, that the woman ought to have authority on her head be cause of the angels, but what Paul meant by that no one now knows. Further than this he could only add, " Does not nature, that is, your sense of propriety, tell you that the woman ought to have her head covered ? " But here he does not criticise the woman for taking part in the services, but only because they did so with the head uncovered. But in 1 Cor. xiv. 34 he returns to the question, and forbids the women to speak in the church because it is regarded as improper ; it is contrary to pub lic opinion ! Paul, with the ninth chapter, turns to his per sonal opponents, to refute them and defend him self against their false charges. From this we learn something of their opposition to him, and the charges which they made against him. They too had denied his apostleship ; he had not seen Christ as the other apostles had. He was not a free, independent apostle as the Twelve were. But Paul replies, " although I may not be regarded as an apostle by others, yet I certainly am an apos tle to you, for I preached Christ to you." His success was sufficient proof of his apostleship. This was his defense to those who attacked his authority. They had further said that the reason Paul had not received money from his churches was that he had no right to do so. They knew it was his custom always to work to support himself, 230 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. and they declared that he had made a virtue out of necessity, and had pretended to do so from choice. No, he was not a free genuine apostle, equal to the others ; they might receive support from their churches, but he had no such right. They even made capital out of the fact that the other apostles were married and Paul was not. In some way this was explained to his disadvantage. Both Paul and Barnabas were attacked in this way. But Paul defends himself and Barnabas with sev eral arguments. No soldier ever serves at his own expense ; no man plants a vineyard without having a right to eat of its fruit ; no man feeds a flock without having the right to the milk which it pro duces ; even God had provided that no one should work for others without being supported by them, since he had commanded that even the ox should not be muzzled while he was at work, but should be allowed to have his share of the grain which he had helped to till and thresh. Besides, Paul had brought them spiritual possessions, which are of far more value than temporal goods : had he not the right to receive the smaller in return for the greater ? Since he had been the first to bring them the truth, had he not a greater right than those who came after him ? Further, it is the rule, the world over, that those who minister in sacred things, and are connected with a temple, should live from the gifts to the temple. But he has even a still higher authority, for Christ himself had de clared that those who went out to proclaim his THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 231 gospel should live thereby. But while Paul knew that this was his right, he had not used it. He had determined to make the gospel free, that it might be clear to all that his motives were pure, and that he was preaching, not' for the sake of the gain, but because of his love and devotion to Christ. He had not used all of his rights, but had denied himself in many ways. Although free from the observance of the law of Moses, he had yet lived as though bound by it, in order that he might win those who were still under it. To the heathen who were without the law of Moses he had shown that he also was without that law, but that he was under the law of Christ, the law of love and ser vice, that he might win these for Cbrist. Let no one suppose that this was easy for him to do ; by no means, for it is a hard struggle, and it is neces sary for him to buffet his body and bring it into subjection. It is a duty laid upon him, and it is necessary that he be found faithful, or he may lose his reward, and himself be rejected. From 2 Corinthians we learned that this party was not silenced by this defense, but the opposition contin ued until it reached its climax, and led to a sharp crisis in the congregation, as we shall see when we come to speak of that later. The passage 1 Cor. xi. 17-34, shows us a strange picture of the affairs in the church and especially of the way in which the Lord's supper was cele brated. In the first place, they carried their party strifes and divisions even into this. It was the 232 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. custom for all the members to bring food with them to the place of meeting, and all was then put to gether and a meal prepared of which all were to eat without any distinction. Then, at a convenient moment, probably at the end of the meal, reference was made to the sufferings and death of Jesus, and all partook of the bread and wine. Thus it formed the close of a greater meal, just as on the night of its institution it formed the close of the passover meal. But in Corinth the members were divided into cliques, and even this meal was no longer a common one, for some had an abundance and others had nothing. By some it was made an occasion of feasting and drinking, while others even suffered hunger. It was impossible, therefore, for them to observe the Lord's supper. It had been instituted as a common meal, a symbol of the Christian equal ity and brotherhood, but they were making it a mark of division. The chapters twelve to fourteen are taken up with the discussion of what is called spiritual gifts. The conception on which this is based is as follows : Every Christian has the Spirit, which inspires him, or leads him to do what he can for the general or particular welfare of the congregation, or of the whole body of Christians. This activity, of what ever kind, was regarded as a gift of the Spirit. Some were apostles, others were prophets, others were teachers, others could work miracles or pow ers (but we are nowhere told what these were) ; others spoke with tongues, others could interpret THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 233 these, others had the "word of wisdom or know ledge," that is, they could give satisfactory answers to the many deep, dark questions which were then disturbing the minds of men ; others had the gift of serving in various ways, the gift of liberality, mercy, hospitality, and so forth. Thus every ac tivity in the congregation was regarded as a gift of the Spirit. Each one therefore, according to his ability, which was his gift, worked for the welfare of all. Some services were, of course, in the eyes of men more honorable than others, but all were necessary. And just as there can be no jealousy and strife between the various members of the body, so there ought to be none between the members of Christ's body, all of whom are thus inspired by the same spirit. But some might profess to be Chris tians, to have the Spirit, and yet be wrong, and deceive others. How were these to be tested ? How could one guard against this danger ? There are two tests to be applied to all who claim to have the spirit. In the first place, we must ask, " What is your attitude to the person of Jesus ? " No one who opposes Jesus or sets himself above him has the Spirit. Such a one is false and must not be trusted. The other test is the one which Jesus him self gave, " By their fruits ye shall know them ; " that is, by their manner of life. If they follow the principles which Christ taught, if they exhibit an undisturbed trust in God, if they deny themselves by doing their duty, rather than seeking their own pleasure, and if they serve others in love ; in a word, 234 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. if they imitate Jesus in their daily lives, they have the Spirit of God and are to be listened to. Now what was the trouble at Corinth ? Every thing had fallen into disorder because, in a spirit of strife and pride, each one insisted that his gift was the most important of all, and that when he had anything to say the others must keep still. Their meetings, instead of being orderly and becoming, had become a bedlam of confusion and contention, each demanding that he be heard, and refusing to give place to another. One gift especially seems to have been cultivated almost to the exclusion of others. They were seized with a kind of craze for it, and esteemed it above all others in value and importance. They looked upon the speaking of tongues as far more important and honorable than the simple preaching of the word. There was a showiness and mystery about this which attracted all and made them despise other gifts. The mysterious eestacy of the speaker, the strange influence of the Spirit, the " unknown tongue," all were looked upon with honor and envy, although the message was seldom understood. And so taken up were they with this, that they each strove to surpass the other, and boasted of their much speaking. They would estimate a man's goodness and dignity by the amount of this power which he possessed, while the one who wished to speak a plain word for their edification was scarcely al lowed the time for such a commonplace act. But Paul rebukes them for this, because they are mea- THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 235 suring everything by a false standard. They look simply at the externals, at that which is calculated to fill one with awe and admiration. He then gives them the true standard for measuring the value of all these gifts. He lays down the principle that that gift is highest and most valuable which brings the greatest profit to the greatest number; that gift is lowest and of least value which benefits the smallest number. Speaking with tongues was showy, but it helped no one except its possessor, because generally no one else could understand it. That it could be helpful to others, it was necessary that it be interpreted. Consequently it was one of the lowest and least valuable gifts. The working of wonders is put very low too, because it affects only a few. The gift of prophesying, of preaching, of instruction in the way of the Lord, of exhor tation, is of very great value, because it benefits almost the whole congregation. They should all, therefore, desire the greater spiritual gifts, those by which they would be most serviceable to the whole body of Christians. But is it not impossible for all to have the greater gifts ? No, for the greatest gift is in the reach of all; the gift, too, without which all other gifts are entirely valueless. So Paul shows them a still more excellent way in that grand lyric of Christian love (ch. xiii.) whose teaching has never yet been adequately ex emplified in the life of the Christian church. The power to speak with all tongues, of both men and angels, all the power of prophecy, the knowledge of 236 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. all mysteries, the power to work miracles, the greatest liberality, the greatest self-sacrifice, with out love, are nothing (vss. 4-7). Prophecies and tongues and theological specula tions are imperfect ; they are connected with the limitations that now hem us in. But when the per fect time comes they shall all cease. But love shall never end. It is greater than all other gifts, even than faith and hope. For faith and hope, although of the utmost importance, are individual, they affect directly and principally only their possessors. But love affects all, indeed, it is essential to the very existence of the church. It is the family affection, without which Christians cannot recognize each other as brethren. It is that which binds all to gether and makes each one willing to spend himself in the service of others. The point of view from which everything is to be looked at and judged is that of the whole church and not that of the indi vidual. From this point of view love is the greatest of all. Not the love that consists in a theoretical enthusiasm for humanity in general, and exhausts itself in writing aesthetic essays about the dignity and nobility of man, but a feeling of sympathy translated into action, into a life of service and help fulness for others. And this inestimable gift is in the reach of all, for every one can serve his brethren with all his powers. " He that would be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, let him be the servant of all." In the fifteenth chapter Paul discusses the res- THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 237 urrection. Some in Corinth had denied that there is such a thing as the resurrection of the dead, and that not even Jesus made an exception to this rule. Paul refutes this, first, by reminding them that it was an essential part of his gospel that Jesus had been raised from the dead. He names those to whom he had appeared, first to Peter, then to the Twelve, then to more than five hundred brethren at once, many of whom were still alive and could testify to the fact ; then to James, and again to all the first disciples, and last of all to himself. Paul bases everything on the resurrection of Christ ; if he was not raised then we have no assurance that we shall be raised. But the fact stands secure, that the Christ still lives. The testimony for it cannot be doubted. The proofs are overwhelming. Mocking, they had asked, " but with what kind of body shall the dead be raised ? Shall these bodies which we now have be restored ? " They could form no clear idea of what the resurrection body would be, and therefore the resurrection seemed to them impossible. In the first place, we must not think that we shall be raised with these bodies, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And then Paul uses a comparison, the point of which has been generally overlooked. A seed of wheat, for instance, is cast into the ground, quickens, and dies, but from it there springs up, not another grain of wheat, but a stalk of different form or body, but such as God has appointed to it. So also of the resurrection body. The body which we 238 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. now have is weak, inglorious, corruptible, natural. But it is laid away and " dies," and as the form of the plant differs from that of the seed, so the form of the resurrection body shall differ from that of the body that is laid away. But God will give to each the proper form. What it will be, we do not know. We can only say of it that it will be incor ruptible, glorious, not subject to weakness, spirit ual. For Jesus has become a life-giving spirit, and we shall be like him. Although we have now the image of the earthly, we shall bear the image of the heavenly ; for Jesus has made it possible for us to become partakers of the divine nature. In the last chapter he gives them directions about making the collection for the Church at Jerusalem. On the first day of the week each should lay by him in store, as he has prospered during the week. Paul does not yet know whether he shall go to Jerusalem with this collection, or send it by messengers. He promises to come to them after he has passed through Macedonia, for it is his intention to make a tour through that prov ince. His further movements are, as yet, uncer tain. He may even spend the next winter in Cor inth, but excuses himself for not coming to them at once, on the ground that he could remain with them but a short time, and he does not wish to see them simply " by the way," but wishes to " tarry a while with them." For the present, therefore, he will remain in Ephesus, for he is in the midst of great opportunities. THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 239 There is no mention of any church officers, no deacons and elders. We learn only that the mem bers of the house of Stephanas have set themselves to minister unto the saints ; that is, to manage the affairs of the congregation and attend to the vari ous needs of the church. They had set themselves to do this, for this, too, was a gift and not an office. Such devotion deserves recognition. Let the Co rinthians show them, and all others who engage in this work, the proper respect and due reverence. What the effect of the letter was we can only infer. Apparently it accomplished its purpose, for in the second letter nothing is said about any of these questions. It failed, however, in one point. It did not quiet the opponents of Paul. On the contrary, their opposition increased to such a pitch that he thought it best to make a journey directly to Corinth without waiting to go through Macedonia. He hoped by going in person to be able to silence them, to secure thereby the recognition of his apos tleship and the deference due him, and to restore peace to the congregation. We know of this visit only from the second letter to the Corinthians. In chapter ii. 1 he says, " But I determined this for myself, that I would not come again to you with sorrow." That is, he had already come to them once with sorrow ; but that certainly cannot apply to the stay of eighteen months during his first mis sionary journey. In xii. 14 he says, " Behold, this is the third time I am ready to come to you," and in xiii. 1, " this is the third time I am coming to 240 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. you," and xiii. 2, " I have said beforehand, and I do say beforehand, as when I was present the sec ond time." Evidently, therefore, some time after the writing of 1 Corinthians he made a visit to Corinth. But this visit was by no means a success. The opponents had been very bold, and he had not been able to silence them. He had made a very poor impression on them. He had written in the first letter that he was coming to them shortly and he would know " not the word of them which are puffed up, but the power." And unfortunately that is just what he did " know," for they were too strong for him. They now had ground to say that his letters were violent and blustering, and full of threats, but if he came in person he was weak and contemptible and could do nothing by his words. They had successfully resisted him, and almost the whole congregation had either agreed with them or at least were very cold in their support of him. Under these circumstances Paul left Corinth and went up into Macedonia, intending to return again to Corinth and from there to go to Jerusalem. But after reaching Macedonia he changed his mind and determined not to go back to Corinth. This, also, led to the charge of fickleness ; he was a man who did not know his own mind (i. 15-17). He now explains this charge. He had not returned because he wished to avoid the " scene " that must necessarily follow between him and his opponents. He had come to them with sorrow once, he would not do so again. The Corinthians had not treated THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 241 him as they should. His opponents were bitter. If he should return, he must rebuke them severely. He must overcome them. This would be too painful for them, as well as for himself. So he determined to spare them. In stead of returning to Corinth he wrote them an other letter (a third), sharp, severe, which would " cause sorrow." " For though I made you sorry with my epistle, I do not regret it, though I did regret ; for I see that that epistle made you sorry, though but for a season." " For behold, this selfsame thing, that ye were made sorry after a godly sort, what earnest care it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indig nation, yea, what fear, yea, what longing, yea, what zeal, yea, what avenging ! In everything ye ap proved yourselves to be pure in the matter " (vii. 8-11). " For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears ; not that ye should be made sorry, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you " (ii. 4). Such language cannot refer to 1 Corin thians, for there is nothing in that letter which would justify such words. Evidently in this letter he told them the plain truth. It was a letter that would bring about a crisis. They must either right the wrong they had done him, rebuke his opponents and stand squarely upon his side, or they must break entirely with him. There could no longer be any half-way mea- 242 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. sures. They must decide either for or against him. This letter he sent by Titus to Corinth, but he himself returned to Asia, perhaps to Ephesus ; but his anxiety was so great that he soon went to Troas, hoping there to meet Titus with an answer from the Corinthians. And although " a door was opened unto him in the Lord " he had no relief for his spirit, because Titus was not there (ii. 12). He could not endure the suspense. He feared that the Corinthians had entirely deserted him. So he went over into Macedonia again, hoping to meet Titus there, but still he had not come. His anxiety in creased. He was afflicted on all sides ; without were fightings, within were fears. He wished he had not written them so sharply. He could not en dure it if the Corinthians should cast him off and go with his opponents. The suspense was intoler able. But at last Titus came with good news. The majority of the congregation had, at the critical moment, been faithful to him. They now longed for him, they mourned that they had offended him, they showed great zeal for him. They had cleared themselves of all blame, by punishing the principal offender. The opposition to him was put down ; it no longer ruled, although some still bitterly opposed him (vi. 11-13, and vii. 2-16). Filled with joy at this news, Paul now wrote a fourth letter to the Corinthians (our 2 Cor.), which is hearty, tender, and thankful, except the last four chapters, which deal with those who still opposed THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 243 him. This letter he sent to Corinth by TituS, who was accompanied by two other brethren (viii. 16-22). Turning to the letter itself, we see, first of all, that it was only the majority of the congregation that had been true to him, and even their support was not as hearty and as enthusiastic as he desired. For they had acknowledged him only in part (i. 14). He begs them to lay aside their coldness to him ; his heart is enlarged toward them. They are not straitened in him, but they are straitened in their own affections ; let them repay him by enlarging their hearts toward him (vi. 11-13). Again he begs them to open their hearts to him, for he had not wronged any of them ; he had taken advantage of none of them ; they are " in his heart to die to gether and live together " (vii. 2-4). In viii. 24 he begs them to receive Titus and the two brethren who are representatives of other churches in such a way as to show them that they really love him and are true to him. He is careful to tell them all the good things he has been saying about them ; among other things he has been boasting to the Macedonians that the Corinthians have been ready with their contributions for a year. Throughout the letter there are traces of this effort on the part of Paul to smooth over all the difficulties and make them forget all the late unpleasantness. That he is still under its shadow, however, and that he feels that he is treading on dangerous ground, is apparent from the fact that he more than 244 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. once corrects himself, after appearing to have given a command, and says that he does not mean to give them orders, but that he seeks the proof of their love. Thus in the eighth chapter he tells them to be sure to abound in the grace of giving, for he wishes to take a large collection to Jerusalem ; but lest they should be offended and say that he was assuming authority over them, he at once says, " I speak not by way of commandment, but as prov ing, through the earnestness of others, the sincerity also of your love." If we ask who were the originators of this trouble in Corinth, we learn that they were not original members of the church, but had come from some other place, fortified with letters of recommenda tion (iii. 1). They claimed to have the truth in a direct way from Jesus, and apparently laid stress on the fact, either that they had seen him, or that they were authorized by some one who had stood very near to him while on earth (x. 7). In answer to this Paul says that it is not the Christ as He was in the flesh, but the Christ that lives, having been raised from the dead, that has all power and is of decisive importance. They were undoubtedly members of the party that was so zealous for the law. They had begun their work in Corinth by attacking Paul, hoping in this way to make the introduction of the law easy. The size and activity of this party may be inferred from Paul's language in chap. ii. 17, " we are not as the many, corrupting the word of God." According to THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 245 Paul's own admission this party in the church was then in the majority. But besides these " foreigners," there was espe cially one member of the congregation who had made common cause with them, and had even sur passed them in violence and bitterness against Paul (ii. 5-11). There had evidently been a violent en counter between them. Paul felt himself greatly injured by this one, and in his letter demanded that they punish the offender. This they had done. But as he had repented, they had forgiven him, and Paul says that he also forgives him, and that the penitent one should now be restored. But Paul hints at other opponents, who had been guilty of grave moral offenses, and who had been unwilling to submit to the censures which he had passed upon them. For in xii. 20—21, and xiii. 2 he fears that he shall find strife, jealousy, wraths, factions, backbiting, whisperings, swellings, tu mults, and that he will be compelled 'to mourn over those who have sinned and have not heeded his warnings and threats. The charges against him were many and various. They said he was fickle, changeable, and never knew his own mind (i. 17). No attention was to be paid to him, for he was " out of his head," he was beside himself (v. 13) ; he was rude in speech, as much as to say, " he is no preacher " (xi. 6) ; his let ters were violent and threatening, but he was quite harmless and meek when he came in person (x. 1 and 10). One of their charges had especially of- 246 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. fended Paul ; they said he was a boaster, a braggart, always praising and bragging about himself. That cut him to the quick. He is continually referring to it in this letter. Whenever he has said anything about himself, he at once says, " Do you think I am boasting and commending myself again ? " (iii. 1, v. 12, x. 18). This hurt and hemmed him all the time, till finally (xi. 16) he breaks over all restraint and says that since others (that is, his opponents) boast, he will also boast. Even at the risk of ap pearing to be a foolish boaster, he will speak freely about himself, for in his laborings and sufferings, as in the blessings that have fallen to him, he is not afraid to compare himself with others. He ad mits that it is " foolish " to do so, but they have compelled him to this ; he has had to defend him self; the situation has demanded it, because the Corinthians themselves had not defended him as they should (xii. 11). The fact that he had not received money from the Corinthians was used against him in a double way. It was said that that was a proof that he was not a genuine apostle ; he had not the authority which belonged to the others (xi. 7). And on the other hand, it was said that he had had some deep purpose in this. He had not indeed taken their money, but that was a part of a plan by which he was going to get a much larger sum from them, The motive that had controlled him in this was not pure, as he had said ; it was a shrewd, crafty policy, meant to deceive them. He had done this only that THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 247 when the time came he might easily succeed in his nefarious purpose. Undoubtedly all this had refer ence to the collection which ' he was causing to be made in all his churches. It was a plausible charge, for how could they know whether Paul really de livered all the money that was passed over to him ? Paul was wise enough to see that such charges were likely to be made, and had forestalled them by arranging that every congregation that sent money should also send a delegate with it, to see that their contribution reached its destined place. In the whole matter of the contribution he had asked the churches to appoint some one to travel with him, " one whose praise in the gospel is known through out all the churches, that he might help in the col lection and management of the money ; for he had determined to make it impossible that any one should blame him and charge him with dishonesty in money matters. So we find several " messengers of the churches " with him, a part of whose duty it was to see that the money reached its destination (viii. 16-24). This throws a strong side light on the character of Paul. They further said that he was not the equal of the apostles ; he was not a genuine apostle ; his gos pel was false ; he handled the word of God deceit fully, and his conduct was full of guile (xi. 5, iv. 2). His defense is given with some bitterness, for he does not hesitate to pronounce a curse on them and all others who differ from him in his conception of the gospel (xi. 4). He calls them false apostles, 248 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. deceitful workers, ministers of Satan claiming to be apostles of Christ (xi. 13-15). His refutation of these charges is his success and the history of his life. The Corinthians ought to know that he is an apostle, for they had received the gospel through him. He surely did not need let ters of introduction and recommendation to them ! It could not be necessary for others to write to them that Paul was an apostle ! They themselves were his letters, the proof of his apostleship, since it was through him that they had believed. His work among them had been eminently successful. He had not been behind even the very chiefest of the apostles. All the signs of an apostle had been wrought among them. Let not the Corinthians think that they had been converted through the efforts of a second-class apostle, for the same signs and wonders and mighty works had been performed among them as in other places. They were in no respect inferior to other congregations. " And yet there is one point in which you are inferior to others ; I was not a burden to you ; I did not re ceive any money from you, as other missionaries received from their converts. Forgive me this wrong ! " (xii. 12-13). Such keen irony must have made them wince. All his missionary life is also a proof of his apostleship, for he has suffered more than anyone else for the cause of Christ. This accounts for the fact that there are so many personal reminiscences in this letter. He wishes to remind them of his THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 249 life and all the opposition that he has endured. Unfortunately the charge of boastfulness oppressed him, and he could not speak freely of himself for fear that they would only laugh at him and regard what he said as proof of his boasting spirit. In spite of this, however, the letter is largely taken up with himself. He felt this, and at the end said, " I know that you are thinking that I am boasting all the time and excusing myself, and I admit it ; but it is that I may strengthen your confidence in me and that you may be able to use this about me in arguments with those who oppose me and deny my apostleship." The whole letter is an apology, a defense of himself. Read such passages as iv., vi. 1—10, and xi. 22, if you would get an impression of the burden that he daily bore, and the dangers that hourly beset him. Much of the letter is taken up with himself and his work, but it was the only way to defend himself. But it is not written in the spirit of boasting. On the contrary, it is wrung from him with great anguish and pain. Paul kept the promise which he had made to visit them soon. From Acts xx. 2 we learn that he spent some time in Macedonia. It is possible that he went further into the interior, and even reached the borders of Illyricum ; for in Romans xv. 19 he says that he had preached the gospel even unto Illyricum. This must have taken place either at this time or during his first stay in Mace donia. He reached Corinth in the autumn of 57, where 250 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. he spent three months. From here he wrote his letter to the Romans. The character of this letter is determined by the fact that neither Paul nor any of his immediate helpers had been in Rome. He was not acquainted with them and hence could not write a personal letter. It lacks the warm per sonal coloring of his other letters, for this can come only from intimate acquaintance. The letter is the ripest expression of Paul's views about the relation of the gospel to the law. In the struggle against the Judaizers he had developed his argu ments and become perfectly clear about his doc trine. The letter is an attempt to outgeneral the Judaizers, and win the Roman church to his views before the Judaizers should enter the field. He determined to lay his gospel before them by letter, since he could not go in person. He first shows that the Jew through the teaching of the law, and the Gentile through the teaching of his conscience, must feel that they are sinners before God. It is impossible to earn salvation. The only way to ob tain it is to believe God's word, and accept it as his free gift through Jesus Christ. He excuses himself for not having come to them ; it has ever been his desire to visit them, but thus far it has been impossible. For the present he must go to Jerusalem, but he expects then to go to Spain and will stop in Rome on his way. After spending three months in Corinth he set out for Jerusalem in company with the various representatives of the churches in charge of the THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 251 contribution. Because of the plot of the Jews he could not go by sea, but returned through Mace donia, and sailed from there just after the Pass over. The account of the journey is exact and detailed, for it is taken from the diary of one of the company. The movements of the various mem bers of the company are described as only an eye witness could describe them. The journey was a rapid one, for Paul wished to be in Jerusalem by Pentecost. On this account he could not visit Ephesus, but sent for the prin cipal members of the church to meet him at Mi letus, a port lying some miles to the southwest. After comforting and warning them, he continued his journey. The two chapters in which this is described are full of the most interesting details, which could have been given only by an eye-wit ness. The journey was in many respects a sad one for Paul. " Coming events cast their shadow before," and everywhere Paul was warned that dangers awaited him at Jerusalem. Even before he left Corinth he had been conscious that the Jews and Jewish Christians in Palestine would do all in their power to destroy him. All along the way prophets raised warning voices, forbidding him " through the Spirit " to enter Jerusalem. In every city the Holy Spirit testified that bonds and afflictions were in store for him there. But he was not to be disturbed by these things. Nothing can more clearly show how bitter was the hatred of the Jews and Jewish Christians to Paul, than the 252 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. fact that everywhere the opinion prevailed that he could not safely venture into Jerusalem. At Caes- area they were the guests of Philip the Evangelist, also one of the seven, whose four daughters were prophetesses. From here they took up their luggage and went up to Jerusalem in company with some of the Christians from Caesare^i, and one of the early con verts, Mnason of Cyprus, with whom they were to lodge in Jerusalem. The very next day Paul with his companions visited James and the principal members of the church, and told of his labors among the Gentiles. With this they were well pleased, but they could not assure Paul that it would be so acceptable to all as it was to them. They called his attention to the fact that there were many thousands of believ ing Jews, but they were still zealous for the law. And these were informed that Paul had been teaching the Jews to disregard the law, and were consequently very angry at him. In other words, Paul was in danger from the Christians in Jeru salem as well as from the unbelieving Jews. It was impossible that they should not learn of Paul's arrival ; it was necessary, therefore, to take such measures as would prevent their doing any violence to him. There were four men at hand who had a vow upon them, and Paul was asked to join them in this and show his fidelity to the law by paying the costs which attended the completion of the vow. It seems strange that a man who had writ- THE BEST YEARS OF PAUL. 253 ten the letters to the Galatians, the Corinthians, and the Romans could have seen his way clear to take part in this matter, but the author of the Acts tells us that he did. It looks to us very much like deception on his part, but undoubtedly he felt that it was entirely in accordance with his princi ple, to become all things to all men that he might win some to Christ. Or -shall we say that it is impossible that Paul should have engaged in such questionable conduct, and therefore the author of the Acts has not given us a correct account of this occurrence ? It must be noted that the Christians here appear in the temple, which is still the centre of their religious life. They are still Jews, and have not separated themselves from those who re fuse to accept Jesus as the Messiah. CHAPTER VIH. THE LAST TEARS OF PAUL. While in Ephesus the plots of the Jews had caused him much trouble and suffering, and al though he had left that city he could not escape their hostility. It was some Jews from Ephesus that caused his arrest. When they saw him in the temple they gathered a mob, seized Paul, and. were about to make an end of him, when the captain of the Roman troops, stationed at Jerusalem, rescued him. He was taking him into the castle as a pris oner, to find out what the charges against him were, when, to his surprise, Paul spoke to him in Greek. He had thought that he was a certain Egyptian who not long before this had gathered together a band of four thousand Sicarii, or dag- germen. These were most bitter opponents of everything that was Roman. They carried short daggers concealed under their robes, and managed to stab their enemies while they were surrounded by crowds, so that they could not be detected. Four thousand of these were brought together, and with them the Egyptian leader attempted to over throw the Roman government. In the battle which followed they were nearly all slain, but the leader es- THE LAST YEARS OF PAUL. 255 caped. The governor thought he had captured this leader in the person of Paul. But when quiet was restored, Paul began to speak to the crowds, most of whom knew nothing of the cause of the disturb ance. They listened till he began to tell them that he had been sent to preach to the Gentiles, when his voice was drowned by their shouts de manding his death. The captain ordered him to be scourged, in order to compel him to confess, when Paul informed him that he was a Roman citizen. His trial was set for the next day before the Sanhedrin. In the midst of the trial Paul discov ered that there were both Sadducees and Pharisees in the council, and very shrewdly set them against each other by declaring that the whole question was simply in regard to the resurrection of the dead. By this means he introduced strife among his opponents, and so escaped. The strife about him waged so warmly, however, that the captain feared he would be torn in pieces, so he took him back to the castle. Because of a plot to assassi nate him the captain sent him to Caesarea to the governor, Felix, and told his accusers they should appear before him with their charges. After five days the high priest and some of the elders came to Caesarea, bringing with them an orator, or as we would say, a lawyer, to plead their case. This ora tor, Tertullus, began his speech with words of flat tery for the proconsul, for then as now the prin cipal effort was not to get at the truth in the trials. 256 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. but to win the jury. In this case it was the good will of the proconsul that was to be won, and both parties had only good words for Felix. But Felix was won by neither party. He put off the decision until Lysias, the captain at Jerusalem, should come. In the mean time he kept Paul in safety, allowing him to see his friends and receive their care and attention. His conduct shows that he had some conscience, but no character. At times he listened to the gospel from Paul's lips, but was never quite ready to believe. At other times he was willing to favor the Jews, or at least unwilling to displease them, so he kept Paul a prisoner. Again, his cupidity showed itself, for he hoped that he might get a part of the contribution which Paul had brought up to Jerusalem. In the account of all this it is very strange that not a word is said about any effort on the part of James and the Christians in Jerusalem to deliver Paul. They do not appear in any way as his de fenders or even as his friends. For two years he was kept in prison. It must have come as a much-needed vacation, for the years of restless activity and suffering had almost worn him out. In the spring of 60 Felix was succeeded by Festus, who, on his arrival at Palestine, at once went up to Jerusalem. The Jews laid another plot against the life of Paul, but Festus ordered them to appear before him in Caesarea, if they had any charges to make against him. They came, charg ing him with being a transgressor of their laws and THE LAST YEARS OF PAUL. 257 a political offender against Rome. He was said to be speaking against Caesar by setting up another king, Jesus. It was very necessary for Festus, who had just come into the country, to get the good-will of the Jews. So he was willing to favor them. He was about to give Paul up to be judged by them according to their laws. Paul knew that that of course meant death, so he now at last made use of his right of Roman citizenship and appealed to Caesar ; that is, he claimed the right to appear in person before the Emperor Nero to be tried by him. That was the only way to escape. Festus was willing to sacrifice him to gain the good-will of the Jews. His only hope was in Nero. Besides, he had long been looking longingly toward Rome, and even though a prisoner he felt that he could yet accomplish something there, and he hoped, too, that he would thereby be freed from the plots of the Jews. In the days of his residence at Caesarea, Festus was visited by Agrippa IL, King of Iturea, Ba- tanea, and Abilene (50-100 a. d.), who came to congratulate him on his accession to the high office. - He was accompanied by his wife, who was also his sister. They came in great pomp, and were re ceived with honor. During their stay Festus re membered that he had a strange prisoner, and thought to add to the festivities of the occasion by making a show of Paul. The case was a puz zling one, for he could not understand the moral earnestness of Paul or the animosity of the Jews. 258 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. Paul was brought before them and was told that he might speak for himself. True to his character Paul began with the most polite and deferential forms of address. Again he told the story of his life, and grew eloquent as he spoke of his Master. But Festus was unmoved. He saw in Paul only an old man whose head was addled by long disputing about trifling questions concerning the law. In the midst of Paul's address he called out " Paul, Paul, you are crazy," and at tempted thus to end the interview. Paul knew that Festus was a Roman, but he hoped he might have had better success with Agrippa, who was a Jew. So he turned to him with an appealing question : " I am not mad, most excellent Festus ; but speak forth words of truth and soberness. For the king knoweth of these things, unto whom also I speak freely : for I am persuaded that none of these things is hidden from him ; for this hath not been done in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou the pro phets? I know that thou believest." But Agrippa was in the presence of a Roman who was ridicul ing Paul and had no sympathy for either Judaism or Christianity. He did not wish to expose him self to the same ridicule, so he gave an evasive an swer, " You think you can make me a Christian with little argument ; " that is, " you think it will be an easy matter to convince me." The language is non-committal and ambiguous. Their meaning depends altogether on how the words were spoken. Seeing that the opportunity for further speech THE LAST YEARS OF PAUL. 259 was gone, Paul called out : " I wish that all men, whether with little or great difficulty, were brought to be Christians as I am." But remembering that he was in chains, he quickly added in a half-play ful way, " except that I would not wish to see them in bonds as I am." Agrippa expressed it as his opinion that Paul might have been -set free, but since he had appealed to Caesar, to Caesar he must go. The details of the voyage are given by one who saw them. It is de scribed with some fullness and accuracy, and much of our knowledge of the technical terms of ancient navigation is derived from this description. The voyage was begun in the autumn of 60, but so late that the sea was already dangerous. The storms overtook them and they were shipwrecked on the isle of Melita, which is the famous Malta of the middle ages. After spending three months there 'they again sailed, and safely reached Puteoli near Naples. Here there were Christians who cared for Paul in every way possible during his brief stay there. Soon he began the long journey on foot to Rome. Some of the Christian brethren in the city had been informed of his coming and went out to meet him. At the forum of Appius, forty-three miles from Rome, a company of Christians cheered him with a warm welcome, and at the Three Tav erns, ten miles nearer the city, still another little band came to meet him, and filled his heart with good courage. It was a great relief to him to find the Roman Christians so interested in him. For 260 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. three years he had been in prison, and during all this time the Judaizers had been carrying on their missionary efforts. He did not know but that all his work was destroyed, and that they had tri umphed everywhere. No wonder then that he thanked -God and took courage when he found that the brethren in Rome were still so interested in and attached to him that they would come so far to meet and greet him. True to his principle he first tried to reach the Jews. He asked many of them to come to see him and made known his gospel to them, but with only moderate success. From the nature of his case he was not housed with the criminals, but was put into the hands of the Praetorian Guard until such time as it should please Nero to listen to his appeal. For two years he waited, enjoying the privilege of living in a hired house where he could receive his friends and carry on the work so dear to his heart. But the prisoner's chain was upon him day and night. He was bound to soldiers who relieved each other at regular intervals. There are four letters in the New Testament that are attributed to Paul, which were written during this period of imprisonment in Rome : the letters to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, to the Colos- sians, and to Philemon. But the genuineness of the letter to the Ephesians is questioned by a great many. For our purpose it matters very little whether it was written by Paul or not, for it lacks local color, and we learn almost nothing of the con- THE LAST YEARS OF PAUL. 261 dition of the writer or of the church or churches to which it is addressed. In i. 15 the people are praised for their general faithfulness in time of danger. In chapters iii. and iv. there are some references to the Gnostic ideas that were beginning to become prevalent. In sev eral places there are indications that the author is a prisoner, and it is said that Tychicus will carry the letter to them and tell them more about his condition. The letter to the Philippians is one of thanks. They had more than once given him money, and now that he was in prison they remembered that he would probably be in need and so sent one of their number, Epaphras, with another gift. Evi dently Paul's condition seemed to Epaphras a hard one. In his zeal to do something for him he exposed himself and in consequence fell dangerously ill (ii. 25-30). This became known to the Philippians, and they now had a double trouble. Not only the situation of Paul weighed upon them. They feared also that their brother Epaphras would die. But he recovered, and as soon as he was able, Paul sent him back and with him this letter. It has been called a letter of rejoicing. But in spite of the many exhortations to rejoice, an infinite sadness and touching resignation pervade it. His situation was distressing, but with the true Christian spirit he was able to get comfort out of it all. He thanks them for their gift, but will not speak of his want, for he had learned (literally, " he had been initiated 262 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. into the mystery ") to be content in any condition. He feels that life is hanging heavily upon him and wishes that it were ended. His heart is sore and bitter at the success of the Judaizing Christians, whom he calls " dogs, evil workers," and " enemies of the cross of Christ." Evidently that faction in the church was still laboring with great zeal to compel the Gentile Christians to observe the law, and that was a great trial to Paul. Besides, there was strife in the church at Rome. There was rivalry between some of the leaders and Paul. They were envious of his popularity, and were preaching Christ in a factional spirit, trying to surpass him in success and popularity. It grieved him, but he felt no envy. It seemed to him that everything brought him trouble. But in one thing at least God had been merciful to him ; he had spared the life of Epaphras that " I might not have sorrow upon sorrow." And he desires them to rejoice, that he may have a share in their gladness, and so be less sorrowful. He bids others rejoice. He declares that he himself is rejoicing, but it is clear that he was almost overwhelmed by sorrows and difficulties. There was almost nothing in his situation to cheer and gladden him. The letter to the Colossians is interesting, and at the same time difficult, because of the references to the Gnosticism of the day, which was beginning to appear in the churches. This was a philosophi cal system of theology. It undertook to explain and define God, creation, sin, and redemption. It THE LAST YEARS OF PAUL. 263 was at the same time a philosophy, a theology, and a religion. God was regarded as an infinite, in definable, impassive spirit, so ethereal and fine that anything that is pure matter could have no con nection with Him. He is the source of all good, while matter is the source and seat of all evil. The great question which troubled them was, How can God who is spirit and good create the world of matter, which is evil ? An infinite chasm separates between God and matter. How can this be bridged ? Can God be brought into con nection with evil ? How is creation possible ? Their answer was as follows : God began the work of creation by producing from himself a creature only a little less fine in substance than himself, and from this He then caused another to emanate, which was still a little less fine, and from this another, and so on until He had at last produced one which was so coarse in substance that it could produce the world of matter. This one then created the world. These numerous creatures were all divided into certain ranks, and such names as "powers, and principalities, and thrones" were applied to the various grades. When people, who believed in these, heard of Christ and believed in him, one of the first questions which confronted them was, Where is Christ's place in this system ? To what rank does he belong ? These questions were much discussed and variously answered. It was to guard against error that Paul wrote to the Colossians that "Christ is the image of the in- 264 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. visible 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, or powers; all things have been created in him and unto him, and he is before all things, and in him all things consist." Paul says, no matter how many angels and powers and the like you believe there are, Christ is above them all. But people were at the same time seeking the way of redemption. They were asking how they might be delivered from evil and sin. From their idea of the character and seat of sin, the answer was not difficult. The flesh is the seat of sin ; the spirit is sinless, except as it is contaminated by its contact with matter. To get rid of sin therefore one must get rid of one's body. To do so and live was of course impossible, but one must come just as near to this as possible. That led to asceticism. One must fast and scourge his body. " Touch not, taste not, handle not " was the common motto of many, as if they could be pol luted by anything external. Paul has to remind them again that Christianity does not consist in such things, but rather in a heart right before God. This is the belief which made asceticism and mo- nasticism possible. Unfortunately, Paul's rebuke of it was not able to destroy it. It has colored the belief and practice of the church ever since. Philemon was a resident of Colossae, who had been converted by Paul. Onesimus, his slave, THE LAST YEARS OF PAUL. 265 after committing some crime, which is hinted at in the letter, ran away and went to Rome as the place where he could most easily escape detection. In some way he had been brought into contact with Paul, from whom he heard the gospel. After having brought him to a belief in Jesus, Paul sent him back to his former master with this letter. It is a charming one, which shows that Paul was truly human and not above making a pun. Onesi mus means " profitable," and Paul easily makes a play on the word. It is as if he had written "Thy servant Profitable, who was formerly Unprofitable, but now Profitable to thee and to me." Paul says he would have been glad to keep Onesimus, since he needed the services of some one, but he felt it would have been presuming on the generosity of Philemon. According to the law a master could inflict whatever punishment he chose on a runaway slave. But Paul makes great demands for friend ship's sake. He begs Philemon to receive him as he would himself ; not as a runaway slave, but as a beloved brother. He also promises to make good whatever Philemon has lost through Onesimus. There is nothing said about freeing the slave, but he is to be treated as a brfither. This is in accordance with what Paul elsewhere says of slavery.1 Nothing else would have more quickly put all the upper classes in opposition to Christianity than the announcement that it de manded that all slaves should be set free. Not 1 1 Cor. vii. 20, 21 ; Col. iv. 1 ; 1 Tim. i. 2, and elsewhere. 266 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. only Paul, but also all the writers of the New Tes tament saw this great danger. When in Corinth the slaves began to agitate the question of free dom, Paul wrote them that even if they had the opportunity to become free they should rather re main slaves, since before God they were free. But he marked out lines of conduct for both master and slave which would have reduced the evils of slavery to a minimum. It was all-important that the true character of Christianity should be known. It changes society, not by violent upheavals and revolutions, not by clearing away all the existing relations and introducing new ones made to order, but by changing the hearts of men. No change of the physical or social conditions of men will make them better. The change must work from within outward. Christianity was meant to sanctify all relations and positions in life by filling the heart with Christian love and love to God. Although in prison, Paul was surrounded by some of his helpers. He is sure that he is about to be set free. So great is his confidence of this that he asks Philemon to prepare him a lodging in Colossae, for he intends to go, not to Spain, but to the East. This brings us to the spring of the year 63. Paul was in prison, but he expected to be set free soon, and was intending to go to the East. His trial was not over, but he was sure that it would end in his favor. But did it ? There are some who say that he was never set free, but that he suffered death THE LAST YEARS OF PAUL. 267 at the hands of Nero. But it is more probable that he was not put to death at this time. His cause had progressed so favorably that he was con fident that he would be set at liberty. It must be noted again that this was in the spring of 63, but the persecution under Nero did not take place till August of 64. Besides, the letter to Timothy and to Titus cannot easily be located unless Paul was released.1 We conclude, then, that Paul was re leased in the spring of 63. It is impossible to fol low him with any degree of certainty from this time on. It had been his desire and intention to go to Spain, but we are not sure that he did so. There are two witnesses to this journey which seem to make it very probable that he actually made it. The first of these is the so-called first letter of Clement of Rome. In a somewhat rhetorical pas sage he reminds the Corinthians that Paul had taught the whole world and had gone to the " limit of the West." These words can hardly be under stood to mean anything else than that Paul had gone to Spain, which was commonly called the " limit of the West." It would be very strange if a Roman should speak of Rome as the " limit " of the West. The other witness is -the so-called Muratorian fragment, which speaks of the departure of Paul 1 These letters are seriously questioned in nearly every quarter to-day, but there are certain parts of them that are genuine be yond all doubt. Nearly all of even the most radical critics admit this. 268 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. from the city (Rome) for Spain. No other church writers of the first centuries give any proof of this journey, and some even make sport of it, but it is certainly made probable by the testimony of these two good witnesses. From the letter to Titus we get very little infor mation. It is said that Paul and Titus had been in Crete, where Titus had been left to do certain work. Paul himself was going to winter in Nico- polis, but there were so many cities of that name that it is impossible to say which one is meant. From 1 Timothy we learn that Paul and Tim othy had been in Ephesus, where Paul had left his companion and gone on to Macedonia, where he expects to remain only for a short time, and then will return again to Ephesus. We learn, too, that danger was threatening the Christians from the civil authorities. The rulers were disturbing them, but these were not to be cursed, but to be prayed for that the Christians might not be troubled by them. Reference is also made to the Gnostic ideas, and it is said that some were making gain out of Christianity, — swindlers, practicing on the credu- Jity of the brethren. When 2 Timothy was written Paul was a pris oner in Rome. From this letter the probable course of events may be made out as follows: from iv. 13 we learn that Paul had been in Troas, where he had left his winter cloak and some parchments. From what follows it is probable that this was on his way to Ephesus, where he had been arrested. THE LAST YEARS OF PAUL. 269 Alexander the coppersmith, of iv. 16, is to be iden tified with the Alexander of Acts xix. 33. Paul had been arrested and had had a trial, during which he was deserted by all his Christian friends. They had left him to his fate. This points to a different condition of affairs. It is now dangerous to con fess Christianity or to be known as a friend of its great missionary. Paul was bound and treated as a malefactor because he was a Christian (ii. 9). Even Demas had not had the courage to remain with Paul. He had not become an apostate, but was afraid to face the danger of death. Crescens and Titus were gone, but we cannot tell whether Paul blames them or not. But Onesiphorus made a brilliant exception to the general cowardice in Ephesus. He had cared for Paul and done all he could for him, in spite of the dangers that threat ened ; all the rest might turn away and desert the once popular preacher, but Onesiphorus remained faithful. He even followed Paul to Rome and there sought through all the prisons till he found him and ministered to him there also. Paul felt this desertion keenly. It is impossible not to feel the pathos of the words, " Only Luke is with me." He knows that his race is run. " Dying with Christ," which had so long been his favorite figure of speech, is about to become a real ity. Of the end there can be little doubt. There is a strong and steady tradition that he was be headed in Rome. In later times this was greatly embellished and added to, but there is no good 270 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. reason for doubting the fact. Clement of Rome, in the letter to the Corinthians (about 96 A. r>.), takes it for granted that Paul had suffered martyrdom in Rome. About 200 a. d. Caius declares that the tomb of Paul was to be seen on the Ostian Way, just outside of Rome. The testimony of several others might also be quoted. The death of Paul ends for us the apostolic age. Writh this event we leave sure history for the un certain and conflicting traditions, which have been made more doubtful by the doubts which careful and thoughtful as well as biased historians have cast upon them. It will be well, however, for the sake of completeness to add what is most probable in regard to the other disciples. They may be dis missed with a few words, because so little is known of them, and it is not the purpose of this book to discuss theories and suppositions. Of nine of the twelve we have absolutely no au thentic information, but a learned German professor has collected three large volumes of the stories that were told about them during the Middle Ages. James, the brother of John, was slain by Herod in the year 44. The life of Peter was one of progress. His de velopment has already been indicated in what has been said of his relations to Paul and to the Juda izers. We can trace it in the narratives about his preaching to Cornelius, the Council at Jerusalem, his conduct at Antioch, and his preaching at Cor inth. THE LAST YEARS OF PAUL. 271 There is good evidence that he also ended his life by martyrdom at Rome. In the Gospel of John (xxi. 18—23) Christ is said to have foretold his im prisonment, and the author of this gospel under stood it to refer to his death. The account was writ ten long after Peter's death, so we may be sure that this also agreed with the real history of his end. Clement of Rome also speaks of his martyrdom, and connects him with those who suffered death under Nero. Ignatius, the Chronicles of Phlegon, Papias, Dionysius of Corinth, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Caius, all of the second century, bear witness to the fact that Peter had been in Rome, and was in a peculiar way connected with the church there. Dogmatic reasons have caused many Protestant writers to declare that he was never in Rome. But the weight of testimony is against them, and it may be accepted as a well-founded fact that Peter suf fered martyrdom in Rome, probably in the last years of Nero. The course of the life of the Apostle John is veiled in obscurity. The tradition which has most for itself is to the effect that after the death of Peter and Paul he removed to Asia Minor and settled in Ephesus, where he died at a great age. He is said to have been at the head of the Christian churches of Asia Minor. About the year 96 it is said that he was banished to Patmos, and that he died two years later. Several stories about him have been preserved by the writers of the second and third centuries, some of them very beautiful 272 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. But this tradition of his residence in Ephesus is not without its difficulties. In the first place, Cle ment of Rome, in the year 96, wrote as if all the apostles were dead. It is very improbable that he would have been ignorant of the fact if John had been still alive. A still graver doubt is thrown on this tradition through the fact that Ignatius, who lived and wrote his seven letters between the years 107 and 140, makes no mention of John. He was at the time passing through Asia Minor, a prisoner on his way to Rome, and wrote letters to the Ephe sians, to the Philadelphians, to the Smyrnaeans, to the Magnesians, to the Trallians, to the Philippians, and to the Romans. He speaks of Peter and Paul, but never once of John. If John had lived in Ephesus and labored throughout Asia Minor, is not this silence very strange, especially since his death must have been quite recent? But it is im possible with the present state of our sources to know what the end of John was. The fate of James, the brother of Christ, is de scribed by Josephus. He says that about the year 62 the high priest and the Sadducee party in Jeru salem caused his death. CHAPTER IX. THE OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITY. Christianity had two foes, Judaism and hea thenism. From the first, the Christian preaching was polemic and apologetic against the Jews. They had the same book. The difference was one of in terpretation. But so far as we know there were no written apologies addressed to the Jews during this period. Suoh writings did not appear until in the second century. The Epistle to the Hebrews was polemic, and written to show that Christianity is in every way better than Judaism. It is a com parison of the two, but it is addressed, not to the Jews, but to Christians. The Revelation is, in certain particulars at least, bitterly hostile to the Jews, but it is not addressed to them. In Palestine there was apparently no opposition for three or four years after the death of Christ. The explanation of this is to be found in the fact that, in spite of the rhetorical passages in the Acts, Christianity did not make any great noise for a while, and its adherents were very conservative. The first opposition of which we learn was in con nection with the dispute and address of Stephen. His free criticism of the Mosaic worship brought 274 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. the mob upon him, and not only he suffered death, but there was a general persecution of the Chris tians in Jerusalem, many of whom had to flee from the city. We have only hints as to what they suf fered, but it is clear that the Jewish authorities were in earnest in their efforts to crush out the young and rising heresy. Saul, it is said, was " breathing slaughter," which may be taken as re presentative of the attitude of the Jews. According to Paul's words he imprisoned men and women, scourged them in the synagogues, and even went to foreign cities to carry on his work of persecu tion. When they were put to death, he rejoiced at their fate. Possibly the letter to the Hebrews is addressed to the Jewish Christians in Palestine. If that be the case, some of them had endured a great conflict of sufferings. They had been in bonds for the truth's sake, and many had been deprived of their possessions (x. 32-34). The death of James and the seizure of Peter are attributed to Herod, but the fact that these things pleased the Jews makes it not improbable that they had some thing to do with it. In other countries their opposition was none the less bitter, although they were not always able to convert their hatred into action. No matter where Paul went, he was seldom free from their plots and violence. From Rev. ii. 9 and iii. 9 we learn that there was trouble there between the Christians and the Jews, who are called the syna gogue of Satan, because they were trying to im prison the Christians. THE OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITY. 275 The means which they used were various. Whenever they could, they stirred up the mob as the surest way of accomplishing their purpose. References to this method of procedure are common, as in Acts xiv. 19, where it is said that the Jews from Antioch and Iconium persuaded the multi tudes and stoned Paul and left him for dead. In xvii. 6 the Jews of Thessalonica are said to have got a mob together to drive out Paul and Silas. Before the governors they also made charges against the Christians that they were traitors to the government and were preaching another king, Jesus. Sometimes they appealed to the authorities to stop the spread of the sect simply on religious grounds. They demanded that the Roman law protect and assist them in their efforts to compel the observance of the law. In order to inflame the populace against the Christians, they also spread abroad evil slanders concerning them and their meetings. Thus it was declared that in their nightly meetings under the cover of the darkness they practiced unnatural crimes, indulged their lust promiscuously, and even murdered children, whose flesh they ate and whose blood they drank. The early fathers say that all these stories originated with the Jews. The only trace of such things to be found in the New Testa ment is in Acts xx. 8. At Troas, where Paul preached late into the night, the author is careful to say that there were many lights in the room where they were gathered together. This sounds 276 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. strange. What need was there of making such a statement ? We would think it entirely unneces sary. It is probable that the author wished to guard against malicious slanders and evil surmis- ings, and so emphasized the fact that the room was well lighted, and hence there would be no possibil ity of practicing the evil deeds with which they were charged. At Philippi and at Ephesus Paul and his com panions were subjected to persecution and violence, because their work had cut off the gains of certain men or classes of men.1 The heathen writers of the first century took no notice of Christianity. They did not think it worth refuting, and they did not regard it as powerful enough to be dangerous to the state. Their silence is not strange, for most of the Christians belonged to the lower classes. Chris tianity was not a fashionable religion. As a move ment it did not attract the attention of the educated. It built no great temples ; it had no mysterious and imposing sacrifices or ritual. Be sides, it came from the Jews. It was in fact 1 The reader will easily recall the opposition with which Panl met at Damascus, Jerusalem, Antioch, and elsewhere, but if he wishes to get the full force of this, he should collect all the passages in the writings of the New Testament which refer to opposition or persecution. In this way he will get a good im pression of the bitterness and violence to which the Christians were subject by the plots of the Jews. It is needless to say that since the Christians came into power with Constantino they have repaid the Jews with heavy interest. THE OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITY. 277 regarded as a Jewish sect, and so its adherents were regarded with the same dislike and prejudices as the Jews. More than this, there were no Chris tian writers that appealed by their writings to the general public. They addressed no apologies to the heathen, and produced no polite literature that would challenge the attention of the educated world. Not one of the writings of the New Testa ment is addressed to the heathen. Christianity was for a long time propagated by the spoken,' not by the written word. But there were certain things about Christianity which made it impossible for the local Roman offi cers to let it go unnoticed. The government was very watchful against the nightly meetings of clubs and secret societies, for they were likely to be the hotbed of conspiracies. The character of their meetings made the Christians seem very like such a club, and hence their meetings might be inter rupted and punished by the police at any time. Eastern religions, except Judaism, were for bidden. So long as Christianity could pass as a Jewish sect, it was undisturbed, but when it became clearly differentiated from Judaism it became at the same time a proscribed religion, and to be a Christian was to be a criminal in the eyes of the law. Another ground of persecution was found in the attitude of the Christians to the heathen temples and idols, their holy days and processions. Almost every neighborhood had its temple and god, which 278 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. was regularly honored on fixed days by a great gathering, a feast, and a grand procession. Nat urally, the Christians withdrew from these cele brations. Nothing could have been more offensive to their friends and neighbors, for their conduct seemed to be inviting the wrath and vengeance of the god. They attributed the breaking out of an epidemic disease, or the failure of the crops, drought, storms, or any calamity, to the anger of the gods, the cause of which was not far to seek : they were offended at the Christians who despised them and refused to pay them their proper honors. Such " atheists " must be brought to sacrifice, or be removed from the land. In consequence of this, the Christians in many places suffered violence at the hands of the infuriated mob that had taken it upon themselves to guard the honor of their gods and remove the cause of their anger. The rise and rapid spread of the worship of the Emperor has already been spoken of. It had per vaded the life of the people to such an extent that it was the most common form of idolatry practiced in the empire. To refuse to sacrifice to the Em peror was to be guilty of both sacrilege and high treason, the punishment of which was death by beheading, burning, or by being thrown to the wild beasts in the arena. To refuse to • sacrifice before his statue was to be guilty of sacrilege, because it showed a lack of respect for holy things ; and it was treason, because it was an offense against the Em peror's majesty and a denial of his divine dignity. THE OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITY. 279 It was here that the Jews showed their malignity, and found ample opportunity to vent their religious hatred under cover of the law. They early learned that the safest way was to inform the officers of the government of the presence of Christians. Their religious enmity was the moving cause, but in each case they made the charges which would be most effective and have greatest weight with the author ities. It is a significant fact that in almost all the accounts of martyrdoms in the second and third centuries there are Jews present, stirring up the people and urging on the punishment of the Chris tians. The form of the trial was, for the Christians, a most unfortunate one. There was but one way to clear themselves of the charge, and that was by offering sacrifice before the statue of the Emperor or at the altar of some idol. In order to be set free they must defile their conscience and deny their God. They were not asked whether they were guilty of any crime, such as murder, fraud, or theft. It mattered not how pure their lives, how upright their conduct ; simply to be a Christian was to be a criminal, and the only satisfactory evidence to the contrary could be furnished in but one way, by sacrificing to the gods and denying the name of Christ. Throughout the first three centuries there is one long protesting cry heard from the Christians against such unfair treatment. They urged that a crime could not consist in a name, and pointed to the gross injustice that was apparent in setting a 280 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. thief or libertine free because he worshiped the gods and denied Christ, while the pure and upright were put to death, simply because they confessed the name of Christ. There are many references in the book of Reve lation to the worship of the Emperor and to those who had suffered martyrdom because of their refusal to take part in it. The oft-recurring ex pression " to worship the beast and his image " means to worship the Emperor and his statue. In ii. 13, it is said that Satan's throne is at Pergamum, an expression which refers to the great number of heathen temples there. Among them was one to the Roman Emperor, and Antipas had suffered mar tyrdom because he had refused to worship him. A careful study of the whole book will reveal the fact that nearly all the martyrs that are mentioned have suffered for this same cause. It will be seen, too, that the background of the book is not Rome and the persecution of Nero, but Asia Minor and the general attitude of the government to the Chris tians, which often caused local persecution and oppression. Two Roman Emperors of the first century have covered themselves with lasting infamy by their treatment of the Christians. These are Nero (54- 68) and Domitian (81-96). The persecution by Nero is connected with the burning of Rome. On the night of the 18th of July, in the year 64, a fire broke out in the city and raged for six days and seven nights before it THE OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITY. 281 could be extinguished. But it soon broke out again in a new quarter of the city, and it was three days before it could be brought under control. About two thirds of the city were in ashes, the people were without shelter, and most of them could not even distinguish the place where their homes had once been. But worst of all, their beloved temples and favorite altars were swept away too. The common belief was that Nero had caused the city to be burned. This was strengthened by the fact that the second fire began in the house of one of his favorites. It must be said, however, that he him self was not in the city when the fire began. It is known that Nero had expressed a wish to rebuild Rome and to beautify it. The streets were crooked, narrow, and in many places unsightly. It was his ambition to make these straight, and, by entirely rebuilding the city, to have a good pretext for nam ing it after himself, " Neropolis." Besides, there was ground in various parts of the city which he wished to possess, but thus far it had been impos sible for him to obtain it. But after the fire it is a well-known fact that he seized possessions in many places, a thing which was very easy, since all the landmarks were gone. At any rate, there was a strong belief that he had done the mischief, and the people were raging against him. It was necessary for him to have a scapegoat that he might be able to turn the suspicion and anger from himself. Tacitus tells us that under these circumstances some Christians were seized and charged with the 282 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. crime. Being put to the torture, they confessed that they were guilty, and gave the names of many of their fellow-Christians, who were seized and put to death with the most refined cruelty. Some of them were crucified. Others were sewed up in skins to resemble wild animals, and fierce hunting dogs were turned loose upon them. Others were covered with inflammable material, dipped in pitch, and elevated on poles to serve as torches to illumi nate the garden of Nero in which races were held. Nero himself, in the dress of a charioteer, con tended in the races. The age of Nero was intensely realistic in art. On the stage, it often happened that the play ended literally with the death of the actors. For such characters, criminals were used. Many of the myths were dramatized and exhibited as " liv ing pictures." Some of the Christians were used for this purpose also. Dirce, the enchantress, had used her arts on Antiope, but her two sons avenged their mother by tying Dirce to the horns of a wild bull and causing her to be dragged to death. This story of Dirce has been represented in plastic art in the famous group known as the Farnese Bull. This had been dramatized, and Christian girls and women were compelled to play the part of Dirce, being tied to the horns of the infuriated beasts and dashed to death as they rushed about the arena. Still others had to play the part of the daughters of Danaus. We do not know in just what form this myth had been dramatized, though it is not THE OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITY. 283 improbable that they were given over to the lust of men, possibly of the soldiers. Such were the punishments, but how many suf fered? We have no means of knowing:. Both Tacitus and Clement, writing entirely indepen dently of each other, say " a great multitude," but this is only a general expression, and does not help us to form an opinion of the exact number. To any humane man, even fifty such sufferers would seem a great multitude. We must seek to discover why the Christians should be chosen as the scapegoat and the crime laid upon them. Suetonius says it was in part be cause they were given to a new and criminal super stition. That is, because they were addicted to a new Eastern religion, which was forbidden by the laws of Rome. Tacitus says that Nero charged them with the burning of Rome, but implies that the Romans did not believe them guilty, but that he merely took advantage of the fact that they were hated by the people, in order to turn the at tention of the populace from himself. Their un popularity may be attributed to two causes : first, they were hated because of the base deeds which they were thought to commit in their nightly meet ings ; and second, they were said to hate the whole human race, since they took the surest means to bring destruction upon it, by refusing to honor the gods and to perform the duties of good citizens. But still we may ask the question, why did Nero select the Christians ? Why not the Jews, for they 284 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. also were unpopular. There are two possible explanations of this. The wife of Nero, Poppaea, was either a Jewess or a proselyte. She was the friend and advocate of the Jews at the court, and was surrounded by them. Through her influence Nero was also friendly to the Jews, and many of his favorites were of that nationality. When we consider the bitter hostility which the Jews had toward the Christians, it at once becomes very probable that the Jews at the court of Nero took this opportunity of involving the Christians of Rome in ruin. It would be easy for them to sug gest to him that the language and belief of the Christians could easily be interpreted in such a way as to make it appear that they were probably the guilty ones, for they constantly spoke of the kingship of Jesus, and of his return to judgment, and of the destruction of the world by fire. Their words could be easily garbled and given a political coloring. But it is possible that this was brought on them through the action of some faction in the Roman Church. For Clement of Rome says that the per secution was caused through " envy and strife," but the envy and strife of whom ? Of the Jews, of the Judaizers, or of some faction among the Christians themselves ? Only two years before this, Paul had written to the Philippians that some were preaching Christ " out of envy and strife." All these are possibilities. It is impossi ble to say which is the more probable. THE OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITY. 285 There is still one question which we must ask about this persecution. Did it extend beyond Rome, or was it confined wholly to the city? There is not the least evidence to show that the Christians outside of Rome were troubled by it. There was no general edict against the Christians, and none were arrested except those of the city. The whole per secution was improvised. Nero neither knew about nor cared for Christianity, but he was suddenly brought into such a situation that it was necessary for him to find some one whom he could treat as guilty, and so turn the anger of the people from himself. It was simply the misfortune of the Christians that in some way his attention was turned to them, and they had to suffer. The state was not persecuting Christianity as such, but in an evil hour they were called on to suffer through the caprice and cruelty of the Emperor. And yet the persecution did affect the standing of- the Christians, at least in many provinces. It made it clear to all the local authorities that the Christians were not the favorites of the Emperor, and hence might be punished with impunity. It no doubt led to greater vigilance on the part of the officers of the state, and hence to many single arrests and executions. Through this, the situation of the Christians was made much less secure, and they were exposed as never before to petty annoy ances and to the dangers of arrest. It was this change in the general situation and safety of the Christians that forms the background of the book of Revelation. 286 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. The persecution under Domitian was by no means a general one, and it is probable that only a few individuals were affected by it. The fate of Flavius Clemens and Domitilla has already been recounted. Eusebius, in his Chronicon, says that many Christians were put to death in the last years of his reign. Clement of Rome excuses the Roman Christians for not having written earlier to the Corinthians because of the sudden misfortunes and calamities that had befallen the congregation in quick succession. Domitian's cruelty was caused largely by the fact that he was in need of money. This led him to make use of spies and informers, whose business it was to hunt out all those who could be charged with any infraction of the laws, and bring them before the Emperor that he might invent some pretext for seizing their property. In this way, some Christians suffered rather because of his cruelty than because they were Christians. Yet it is possible that he also issued edicts ainied against both Christians and Jews, for Dion Cassius says that his successor, Nerva, when he came to the throne, pardoned those who had been condemned because of " impiety " (a common charge against the Christians), recalled those who had been ban ished, and forbade that any should be tried on the charge of " impiety," or for adopting the Jewish faith. This can only mean that he undid the action of Domitian, his predecessor, but it is not clear just what shape this action had taken. The persecutions of the early Christians have THE OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITY. 287 been greatly exaggerated for rhetorical as well as apologetical purposes, but enough has been said to show that their situation was far from a safe one. The real history of their sufferings has never yet been written by man. Only brief fragments of it have escaped the oblivion of the years, but even these fill us with a strange sadness and sympathy, and give us the desire to know all that they dared and suffered for their faith. It would show us the measure of their attachment to Jesus. But this will not be known till that great day when all hidden things shall be brought to light. CHAPTER X. AUTHORITIES, GOVERNMENT, AND WORSHIP. We must begin with the fundamental fact that every Christian was thought to possess the Holy Spirit by virtue of his confession of his belief in Jesus as the Messiah. He received the Holy Spirit, which brought him into a direct and intimate rela tion with God. He received the spirit of adoption which enabled him to call God " Father," and ad dress Him as a child would address its father. This filial relation and intercourse of the individual be liever with God because of the possession of the Holy Spirit is one of the basal beliefs of the first Christians. The believer is said to walk in this spirit, to live in it, and to be controlled by it. Paul felt this truth perhaps most strongly of all the writers of the New Testament, and gave it its clas sical expression when he said, " I live no longer, but Christ lives in me." Whatever natural means or ability the believer possessed were regarded as a gift, a Charisma, which must be used in some kind of service for his fellow- Christians. Paul often gave expression to this truth. In Romans xii. 4 ff. he says, "For even as we have many members in one body, and all the AUTHORITIES, GOVERNMENT, WORSHIP. 289 members have not the same office : so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally mem bers one of another. And having gifts differing according to the' grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the propor tion of our faith ; or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry ; or he that teacheth, to his teach ing ; or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting : he that giveth, let him do it with liberality ; he that ruleth, with diligence ; he that sheweth mercy, with cheer fulness." Thus he regarded the ability to prophesy, to minister, to teach, to exhort, to give, to rule, to show mercy, as gifts of the Holy Spirit out of God's free grace. In similar language in his first letter to the Corinthians he tells us that there is but one spirit, but a great variety of gifts, as of wisdom, of knowledge, of faith, of healings, of prophecy, of speaking with tongues, of helps, of gifts, and so on indefinitely. Every believer was raised to the high position of a king and priest before God, for he was destined to reign with Him, and had access to his presence in prayer without the intervention of any man or class of men whose special prerogative it was to deal with holy things. Every one who has the Spirit has direct access to the Holy of Holies, to the throne of God himself. What need was there then that any one should be invested with a special authority ? What room or place was there for the thought of a special inspiration which should give its possessor an absolute authority ? If each one lives in direct communication with God, how 290 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. can he admit that any man or book may have an authority for him ? For himself he needed no ex ternal authority. This was the theory of the early Christians, but facts are more powerful than the ories. The practical exigencies of the situation radically modified the workings of their theory. The belief in the Messiahship of Jesus carried with it one duty. It was the duty of the individual as well as of the whole body of believers to con vince both Jews and heathen that Jesus was the Messiah sent of God. To do this, they had to have authorities and proofs. Besides that, in a few years after the death of Christ, ideas and be liefs were entertained by many in the church which seemed to others to be hostile to Christianity and subversive of its principles. To refute these and protect the church there was need of authorities. The first of these was the Old Testament. Every where in the New Testament we find the Old quoted, and used as an authority which must not be questioned. Jesus himself used it as an au thority, in spite of the fact that he at times quoted it only to replace its teachings by his own. He did not hesitate to set over against " It is writ ten," "But I say unto you."1 He recognized its authority in a general way, but put above it the higher truth which he felt himself to possess. 1 In Matthew, ch. v., Jesus uses the formula, " It has been said," or, " Ye have heard that it was said," to introduce quota tions from the Old Testament, and then offers his teaching in opposition to it. AUTHORITIES, GOVERNMENT, WORSHIP. 291 Paul declared that the whole Old Dispensation with all its authorities were forever done away and were no longer binding on the Christians, and yet he drew from the Old Testament collateral evi dence for many of his teachings and principles. Above all, he used it to prove that Jesus was the promised Messiah, by showing that many of its prophecies and much of its language applied to him. But it is safe to say that the Old Testament would not have held its place on the same plane of authority with the words of Jesus but for the fact that it was so constantly used to prove his Messiah- ship. The highest authority of all was Jesus, as repre sented by his words and deeds. To be able to quote one of his sayings was to settle any point of dispute or uncertainty. Our Gospels are meant to be simply collections of his sayings, though they do not contain them all. When writing to the Corinthians, Paul was often able to quote some saying of Christ bearing on the question in hand, and in such a case there was no further appeal. The matter was decided once for all. He was careful to distinguish between the words of Jesus and his own opinions, and never thought of putting them on the same plane of authority. When he could not quote a saying of Christ he sometimes said, " I give you my opinion ; I believe I have the Spirit, but you may take it for what it is worth." Besides the words of Jesus, his deeds, or better, perhaps, his life, were regarded as an authority. 292 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. His was the normal life which was to be imitated by his followers. His deeds, such as the institution of the Lord's Supper, his death and resurrection, were regarded as having an absolute value, and must not in any way be questioned or denied. Besides these, there were prophetical and apoca lyptic writings in circulation, which have found a place in neither the Old nor the New Testament, which were, however, regarded as authoritative. It was taken for granted that these possessed au thority, for they were believed to be the product of the Holy Spirit.1 Several of these enjoyed a high reputation and were for a long time read in the churches, and almost succeeded in maintaining a place in the canon of the New Testament. A certain authority was thought to attach to all those whose calling it was to speak for the edifica tion of believers. There were apostles, prophets, and teachers, whose gift it was to speak the word of the Lord. Not only the Twelve, but all who were sent to bear the message of the gospel, were called apostles. This is made clear from 1 Corin thians xii. 28, and from the "Teachings of the Twelve Apostles " (chapters 11-13), which throws much light on the passage in Corinthians in which apostles, prophets, and teachers are mentioned. These did not belong to the local band of Chris tians, but as the prophets of old were sent to the whole Jewish nation, so these apostles, prophets, and teachers were given to the whole church, and 1 Two such writings are quoted in the Epistle of Jude. AUTHORITIES, GOVERNMENT, WORSHIP. 293 therefore they were regarded as having a certain degree of authority. Lastly, it was felt that those who had first em braced Christianity, those who were " presbyters," that is, " seniors " in years and experience, were entitled to a regard and reverence which amounted to admitting them to the rank of authorities. These were the various authorities of the early Christians, all of which can be easily discovered from the writings of the New Testament. They were not coordinated or arranged in the proper order, nor was the amount of authority attaching to each determined. They did not form a legal and dogmatically fixed canon of authority. They simply had authority from the very nature of the case, and not because of any dogmatic consider ations. They had authority because of their character, which appealed to the common sense of those who believed. The pupil has some reverence for his teacher. The convert looks up to the missionary who instructed him in the way of life. The man who knows much about any subject is an authority for those who are ignorant about it. These things are so naturally, not because of any dogmatic reasons. Above all, the modern dog matic idea of inspiration must not be applied to them. For such a thing is entirely foreign to the writers of the New Testament. The possession of the Spirit did not confer an absolutely infallible authority. Two men might "have the Spirit," and the one refuse to obey the 294 HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. other. This is clear from the account in Acts concerning Paul's last journey to Jerusalem. In every city the Holy Spirit testified unto him that bonds and afflictions awaited him there. The disciples said to him through the Holy Spirit that he should not set foot in Jerusalem, but he heeded them not, because he felt that he also had the Spirit. From this point of view it is not difficult to say a few plain words about the government of the early church. It was a gift and not an office. Just as there were those who had the gift of ex hortation or of prophecy, so there were those who had the gift of ruling. Just as some set them selves to minister to the poor, so others took it upon themselves to manage the affairs of the con gregation. All who served in any capacity were " deacons," for deacon means one who serves or helps. It was many years before this word hard ened into the technical meaning of " a church officer inferior to the presbyters, whose duty it was to look after the temporal affairs of the congrega tion." In the New Testament, SiaKovos occurs about thirty times. Only three times is it trans lated " deacon ; " in every other case it is translated "minister" or "servant." The verb 8la.Kove