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diff --git a/21828.txt b/21828.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..990619b --- /dev/null +++ b/21828.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5158 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Life of St. Paul, by James Stalker, et al + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Life of St. Paul + + +Author: James Stalker + + + +Release Date: June 14, 2007 [eBook #21828] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF ST. PAUL*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustration (map). + See 21828-h.htm or 21828-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/8/2/21828/21828-h/21828-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/8/2/21828/21828-h.zip) + + + + + +THE LIFE OF ST. PAUL + +by + +PROF. JAMES STALKER, D.D. + +Author of "The Life of Jesus Christ" + +With Foreword by + +Wilbert W. White, D.D. +President of the Bible Teachers' Training School, New York + +New and Revised Edition + + + + + + + +New York ---- Chicago ---- Toronto +Fleming H. Revell Company +London and Edinburgh + +Copyright, 1912, by +American Tract Society + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + FOREWORD + I. HIS PLACE IN HISTORY + II. HIS UNCONSCIOUS PREPARATION FOR HIS WORK + III. HIS CONVERSION + IV. HIS GOSPEL + V. THE WORK AWAITING THE WORKER + VI. HIS MISSIONARY TRAVELS + VII. HIS WRITINGS AND HIS CHARACTER + VIII. PICTURE OF A PAULINE CHURCH + IX. HIS GREAT CONTROVERSY + X. THE END + HINTS TO TEACHERS AND QUESTIONS FOR PUPILS + + + + +FOREWORD + +By Wilbert W. White, D.D. + +When asked to write a foreword to Dr. Stalker's "Life of St. Paul," I +thought of two things: first the impression which I had received from a +sermon that I heard Dr. Stalker preach a good many years ago in his own +pulpit in Glasgow, Scotland, and secondly, the honor conferred in this +privilege of writing a foreword to one of Dr. Stalker's books. + +I felt sure before even glancing at the pages that I should be pleased +and profited by their perusal. + +The first thing that I did was to glance over the pages for the +headings of chapters and the summaries of paragraphs. I found the +arrangement admirable, and would advise those into whose hands this +fine volume may come to follow this plan. + +The only sentence apart from the headings which I read in the aforesaid +preview was the last one in Chapter X, and that because the closing +words, "the best of friends," especially arrested my attention. + +I wondered before I read this sentence if the author was saying of Paul +that he was going out of the world to the One who had been to him the +best of friends. From this you may gather--what you like. Only I felt +sure before reading the pages that Dr. Stalker would interpret Paul in +a manner such as I could enthusiastically approve. + +And now having read the volume I heartily commend it. It is the best +brief life of Paul of which I know. + +Before reading the book I said to myself, I shall put down what I think +the writer will make the heart of the secret of Paul. It was this: The +key to Paul's efficiency was his wholehearted persistent loyalty to +Christ, his Saviour and Friend. He was not disobedient to the heavenly +vision. He stood fast in the liberty wherewith Christ set him free. +He was three things all stated in one verse, and put thus: "I am +crucified with Christ--Christ liveth in me--I live in faith." + +Here are some, a very few of many striking, true thoughts presented by +Dr. Stalker: + +"Paul was the interpreter of Christ, saying what Christ Himself would +have said under the circumstances." + +"Paul's entire theology was nothing but the explication of his own +conversion." + +"In bringing Paul West, Providence gave to Europe a blessed priority, +and the fate of our continent was decided, when Paul crossed the +Aegean." + +"A secret of Paul's success was his sense of having a mission and his +freedom alike from the bondage of bigotry and the bondage of liberty." + +A writer recently gave me this thought about Paul: "What makes St. Paul +so interesting is his conception of the dimensions of life." + +Back to Christ? Yes, the whole world needs it, but the way to get back +to Christ is through the Apostolic interpretation of Christ in words +and life. This is the only way, and Dr. Stalker's book is a great help +in this direction. + + + + +THE LIFE OF ST. PAUL + + +CHAPTER I + +HIS PLACE IN HISTORY + +Paragraphs 1-12. + + 1, 2. The Man Needed by the Time. + 3, 4. A Type of Christian Character. + 5-8. The Thinker of Christianity. + 9-12. The Missionary of the Gentiles. + + +1. The Man for the Time.--There are some men whose lives it is +impossible to study without receiving the impression that they were +expressly sent into the world to do a work required by the juncture of +history on which they fell. The story of the Reformation, for example, +cannot be read by a devout mind without wonder at the providence by +which such great men as Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and Knox were +simultaneously raised up in different parts of Europe to break the yoke +of the papacy and republish the gospel of grace. When the Evangelical +Revival, after blessing England, was about to break into Scotland and +end the dreary reign of Moderatism, there was raised up in Thomas +Chalmers a mind of such capacity as completely to absorb the new +movement into itself, and of such sympathy and influence as to diffuse +it to every corner of his native land. + + +2. This impression is produced by no life more than by that of the +Apostle Paul. He was given to Christianity when it was in its most +rudimentary beginnings. It was not, indeed, feeble, nor can any mortal +man be spoken of as indispensable to it; for it contained within itself +the vigor of a divine and immortal existence, which could not but have +unfolded itself in the course of time. But, if we recognize that God +makes use of means which commend themselves even to our eyes as suited +to the ends He has in view, then we must say that the Christian +movement at the moment when Paul appeared upon the stage was in the +utmost need of a man of extraordinary endowments, who, becoming +possessed with its genius, should incorporate it with the general +history of the world; and in Paul it found the man it needed. + + +3. A Type of Christian Character.--Christianity obtained in Paul an +incomparable type of Christian character. It already, indeed, +possessed the perfect model of human character in the person of its +Founder. But He was not as other men, because from the beginning He +had no sinful imperfection to struggle with; and Christianity still +required to show what it could make of imperfect human nature. Paul +supplied the opportunity of exhibiting this. He was naturally of +immense mental stature and force. He would have been a remarkable man +even if he had never become a Christian. The other apostles would have +lived and died in the obscurity of Galilee if they had not been lifted +into prominence by the Christian movement; but the name of Saul of +Tarsus would have been remembered still in some character or other even +if Christianity had never existed. Christianity got the opportunity in +him of showing to the world the whole force it contained. Paul was +aware of this himself, though he expressed it with perfect modesty, +when he said, "For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief +might Jesus Christ show forth all His long-suffering for an ensample of +them who should hereafter believe on Him to everlasting life." + + +4. His conversion proved the power of Christianity to overcome the +strongest prejudices and to stamp its own type on a large nature by a +revolution both instantaneous and permanent. Paul's was a personality +so strong and original that no other man could have been less expected +to sink himself in another; but, from the moment when he came into +contact with Christ, he was so overmastered with His influence that he +never afterward had any other desire than to be the mere echo and +reflection of Him to the world. + +But, if Christianity showed its strength in making so complete a +conquest of Paul, it showed its worth no less in the kind of man it +made of him when he had given himself up to its influence. It +satisfied the needs of a peculiarly hungry nature, and never to the +close of his life did he betray the slightest sense that this +satisfaction was abating. His constitution was originally compounded +of fine materials, but the spirit of Christ, passing into these, raised +them to a pitch of excellence altogether unique. + +Nor was it ever doubtful either to himself or to others that it was the +influence of Christ which made him what he was. The truest motto for +his life would be his own saying, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth +in me." Indeed, so perfectly was Christ formed in him that we can now +study Christ's character in his, and beginners may perhaps learn even +more of Christ from studying Paul's life than from studying Christ's +own. In Christ Himself there was a blending and softening of all the +excellences which makes His greatness elude the glance of the beginner, +just as the very perfection of Raphael's painting makes it +disappointing to an untrained eye; whereas in Paul a few of the +greatest elements of Christian character were exhibited with a +decisiveness which no one can mistake, just as the most prominent +characteristics of the painting of Rubens can be appreciated by every +spectator. + + +5. A Great Thinker.--Christianity obtained in Paul, secondly, a great +thinker. This it specially needed at the moment. Christ had departed +from the world, and those whom He had left to represent Him were +unlettered fishermen and, for the most part, men of no intellectual +mark. In one sense this fact reflects a peculiar glory on +Christianity, for it shows that it did not owe its place as one of the +great influences of the world to the abilities of its human +representatives: not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of God, +was Christianity established in the earth. Yet, as we look back now, +we can clearly see how essential it was that an apostle of a different +stamp and training should arise. + + +6. Christ had manifested forth the glory of the Father once for all +and completed his atoning work. But this was not enough. It was +necessary that the meaning of his appearance should be explained to the +world. Who was he who had been here? what precisely was it he had +done? To these questions the original apostles could give brief +popular answers; but none of them had the intellectual reach or the +educational training necessary to put the answers into a form to +satisfy the intellect of the world. Happily it is not essential to +salvation to be able to answer such questions with scientific accuracy. +There are tens of thousands who know and believe that Jesus was the Son +of God and died to take away sin and, trusting to Him as their Saviour, +are purified by faith, but who could not explain these statements at +any length without falling into mistakes in almost every sentence. +Yet, if Christianity was to make an intellectual as well as a moral +conquest of the world, it was necessary for the Church to have +accurately explained to her the full glory of her Lord and the meaning +of his saving work. + +Of course Jesus had himself had in his mind a comprehension both of +what he was and of what he was doing which was luminous as the sun. +But it was one of the most pathetic aspects of his earthly ministry +that he could not tell all his mind to his followers. They were not +able to bear it; they were too rude and limited to take it in. He had +to carry his deepest thoughts out of the world with him unuttered, +trusting with a sublime faith that the Holy Ghost would lead his Church +to grasp them in the course of its subsequent development. Even what +he did utter was very imperfectly understood. + +There was one mind, it is true, in the original apostolic circle of the +finest quality and capable of soaring into the rarest altitudes of +speculation. The words of Christ sank into the mind of John and, after +lying there for half a century, grew up into the wonderful forms we +inherit in his Gospel and Epistles. But even the mind of John was not +equal to the exigency of the Church; it was too fine, mystical, +unusual. His thoughts to this day remain the property only of the few +finest minds. There was needed a thinker of broader and more massive +make to sketch the first outlines of Christian doctrine; and he was +found in Paul. + + +7. Paul was a born thinker. His mind was of majestic breadth and +force. It was restlessly busy, never able to leave any object with +which it had to deal until it had pursued it back to its remotest +causes and forward into all its consequences. It was not enough for +him to know that Christ was the Son of God: he had to unfold this +statement into its elements and understand precisely what it meant. It +was not enough for him to believe that Christ died for sin: he had to +go farther and inquire why it was necessary that He should do so and +how His death took sin away. + +But not only had he from nature this speculative gift: his talent was +trained by education. The other apostles were unlettered men; but he +enjoyed the fullest scholastic advantages of the period. In the +rabbinical school he learned how to arrange and state and defend his +ideas. We have the issue of all this in his Epistles, which contain +the best explanation of Christianity possessed by the world. The right +way to look at them is to regard them as the continuation of Christ's +own teaching. They contain the thoughts which Christ carried away from +the earth with him unuttered. Of course Jesus would have uttered them +differently and far better. Paul's thoughts have everywhere the +coloring of his own mental peculiarities. But the substance of them is +what Christ's must have been if he had himself given them expression. + + +8. There was one great subject especially which Christ had to leave +unexplained--his own death. He could not explain it before it had +taken place. This became the leading topic of Paul's thinking--to show +why it was needed and what were its blessed results. But, indeed, +there was no aspect of the appearance of Christ into which his +restlessly inquiring mind did not penetrate. His thirteen Epistles, +when arranged in chronological order, show that his mind was constantly +getting deeper and deeper into the subject. The progress of his +thinking was determined partly by the natural progress of his own +advance in the knowledge of Christ, for he always wrote straight out of +his own experience; and partly by the various forms of error which he +had at successive periods to encounter, and which became a providential +means of stimulating and developing his apprehension of the truth, just +as ever since in the Christian Church the rise of error has been the +means of calling forth the clearest statements of doctrine. The ruling +impulse, however, of his thinking, as of his life, was ever Christ, and +it was his lifelong devotion to this exhaustless theme that made him +the Thinker of Christianity. + + +9. The Missionary of the Gentiles.--Christianity obtained in Paul, +thirdly, the missionary of the Gentiles. It is rare to find the +highest speculative power united with great practical activity; but +these were united in him. He was not only the Church's greatest +thinker, but the very foremost worker she has ever possessed. We have +been considering the speculative task which was awaiting him when he +joined the Christian community; but there was a no less stupendous +practical task awaiting him too. This was the evangelization of the +Gentile world. + + +10. One of the great objects of the appearance of Christ was to break +down the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile and make the +blessings of salvation the property of all men, without distinction of +race or language. But he was not himself permitted to carry this +change into practical realization. It was one of the strange +limitations of his earthly life that he was sent only to the lost sheep +of the house of Israel. It can easily be imagined how congenial a task +it would have been to his intensely human heart to carry the gospel +beyond the limits of Palestine and make it known to nation after +nation; and--if it be not too bold to say so--this would certainly have +been his chosen career, had he been spared. But he was cut off in the +midst of his days and had to leave this task to his followers. + + +11. Before the appearance of Paul on the scene, the execution of this +task had been begun. Jewish prejudice had been partially broken down, +the universal character of Christianity had been in some measure +realized, and Peter had admitted the first Gentiles into the Church by +baptism. But none of the original apostles was equal to the emergency. +None of them was large-minded enough to grasp the idea of the perfect +equality of Jew and Gentile and apply it without flinching in all its +practical consequences; and none of them had the combination of gifts +necessary to attempt the conversion of the Gentile world on a large +scale. They were Galilean fishermen, fit enough to teach and preach +within the bounds of their native Palestine. But beyond Palestine lay +the great world of Greece and Rome--the world of vast populations, of +power and culture, of pleasure and business. It needed a man of +unlimited versatility, of education, of immense human sympathy and +breadth, to go out there with the gospel message--a man who could not +only be a Jew to the Jews, but a Greek to the Greeks, a Roman to the +Romans, a barbarian to the barbarians--a man who could encounter not +only rabbis in their synagogues, but proud magistrates in their courts +and philosophers in the haunts of learning--a man who could face travel +by land and by sea, who could exhibit presence of mind in every variety +of circumstances, and would be cowed by no difficulties. No man of +this size belonged to the original apostolic circle; but Christianity +needed such an one, and he was found in Paul. + + +12. Originally attached more strictly than any of the other apostles +to the peculiarities and prejudices of Jewish exclusiveness, he cut his +way out of the jungle of these prepossessions, accepted the equality of +all men in Christ, and applied this principle relentlessly in all its +issues. He gave his heart to the Gentile mission, and the history of +his life is the history of how true he was to his vocation. There was +never such singleness of eye or wholeness of heart. There was never +such superhuman and untiring energy. There was never such an +accumulation of difficulties victoriously met and of sufferings +cheerfully borne for any cause. In him Jesus Christ went forth to +evangelize the world, making use of his hands and feet, his tongue and +brain and heart, for doing the work which in His own bodily presence He +had not been permitted by the limits of His mission to accomplish. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HIS UNCONSCIOUS PREPARATION FOR HIS WORK + +Paragraphs 13-36. + + 14-16. DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH. His Love + of Cities. 17, 18. HOME. + 19-26. EDUCATION. 19. Roman citizenship; 20. Tent-making; + 21, 22. Knowledge of Greek Literature; 23-26. + Rabbinical Training. Gamaliel. Knowledge of + Old Testament. + 27-30. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT. + 28. The Law; 29, 30. Departure from and return to + Jerusalem. + 31-33. STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. + Stephen. 34-36. THE PERSECUTOR. + + +13. God's Plan.--Persons whose conversion takes place after they are +grown up are wont to look back upon the period of their life which has +preceded this event with sorrow and shame and to wish that an +obliterating hand might blot the record of it out of existence. St. +Paul felt this sentiment strongly: to the end of his days he was +haunted by the specters of his lost years, and was wont to say that he +was the least of all the apostles, who was not worthy to be called an +apostle, because he had persecuted the Church of God. But these somber +sentiments are only partially justifiable. God's purposes are very +deep, and even in those who know Him not He may be sowing seeds which +will only ripen and bear fruit long after their godless career is over. +Paul would never have been the man he became or have done the work he +did, if he had not, in the years preceding his conversion, gone through +a course of preparation designed to fit him for his subsequent career. +He knew not what he was being prepared for; his own intentions about +his future were different from God's; but there is a divinity which +shapes our ends, and it was making him a polished shaft for God's +quiver, though he knew it not. + + +14. Birth and Birthplace.--The date of Paul's birth is not exactly +known, but it can be settled with a closeness of approximation which is +sufficient for practical purposes. When in the year 33 A.D. those who +stoned Stephen laid down their clothes at Paul's feet, he was "a young +man." This term has, indeed, in Greek as much latitude as in English, +and may indicate any age from something under twenty to something over +thirty. In this case it probably touched the latter rather than the +former limit; for there is reason to believe that at this time, or very +soon after, he was a member of the Sanhedrin--an office which no one +could hold who was under thirty years of age--and the commission he +received from the Sanhedrin immediately afterward to persecute the +Christians would scarcely have been entrusted to a very young man. +About thirty years after playing this sad part in Stephen's murder, in +the year 62 A.D., he was lying in a prison in Rome awaiting sentence of +death for the same cause for which Stephen had suffered, and, writing +one of the last of his Epistles, that to Philemon, he called himself an +old man. This term also is one of great latitude, and a man who had +gone through so many hardships might well be old before his time; yet +he could scarcely have taken the name of "Paul the aged" before sixty +years of age. + +These calculations lead us to the conclusion that he was born about the +same time as Jesus. When the boy Jesus was playing in the streets of +Nazareth, the boy Paul was playing in the streets of his native town, +away on the other side of the ridges of Lebanon. They seemed likely to +have totally diverse careers. Yet, by the mysterious arrangement of +Providence, these two lives, like streams flowing from opposite +watersheds, were one day, as river and tributary, to mingle together. + + +15. The place of his birth was Tarsus, the capital of the province of +Cilicia, in the southeast of Asia Minor. It stood a few miles from the +coast, in the midst of a fertile plain, and was built upon both banks +of the river Cydnus, which descended to it from the neighboring Taurus +Mountains, on the snowy peaks of which the inhabitants of the town were +wont, on summer evenings, to watch from the flat roofs of their houses +the glow of the sunset. Not far above the town the river poured over +the rocks in a vast cataract, but below this it became navigable, and +within the town its banks were lined with wharves, on which was piled +the merchandise of many countries, while sailors and merchants, dressed +in the costumes and speaking the languages of different races, were +constantly to be seen in the streets. The town enjoyed an extensive +trade in timber, with which the province abounded, and in the long fine +hair of the goats kept in thousands on the neighboring mountains, which +was made into a coarse kind of cloth and manufactured into various +articles, among which tents, such as Paul was afterward employed in +sewing, formed an extensive article of merchandise all along the shores +of the Mediterranean. Tarsus was also the center of a large transport +trade; for behind the town a famous pass, called the Cilician Gates, +led up through the mountains to the central countries of Asia Minor; +and Tarsus was the depot to which the products of these countries were +brought down, to be distributed over the East and the West. + +The inhabitants of the city were numerous and wealthy. The majority of +them were native Cilicians, but the wealthiest merchants were Greeks. +The province was under the sway of the Romans, the signs of whose +sovereignty could not be absent from the capital, although Tarsus +itself enjoyed the privilege of self-government. The number and +variety of the inhabitants were still further increased by the fact +that, like the city of Glasgow, Tarsus was not only a center of +commerce, but also a seat of learning. It was one of the three +principal university cities of the period, the other two being Athens +and Alexandria; and it was said to surpass its rivals in intellectual +eminence. Students from many countries were to be seen in its streets, +a sight which could not but awaken in youthful minds thoughts about the +value and the aims of learning. + + +16. Who does not see how fit a place this was for the Apostle of the +Gentiles to be born in? As he grew up, he was being unawares prepared +to encounter men of every class and race, to sympathize with human +nature in all its varieties, and to look with tolerance upon the most +diverse habits and customs. In after life he was always a lover of +cities. Whereas his Master avoided Jerusalem and loved to teach on the +mountainside or the shore of the lake, Paul was constantly moving from +one great city to another. Antioch, Ephesus, Athens, Corinth, Rome, +the capitals of the ancient world, were the scenes of his activity. +The words of Jesus are redolent of the country, and teem with pictures +of its still beauty or homely toil--the lilies of the field, the sheep +following the shepherd, the sower in the furrow, the fishermen drawing +their nets; but the language of Paul is impregnated with the atmosphere +of the city and alive with the tramp and hurry of the streets. His +imagery is borrowed from scenes of human energy and monuments of +cultivated life--the soldier in full armor, the athlete in the arena, +the building of houses and temples, the triumphal procession of the +victorious general. So lasting are the associations of the boy in the +life of the man. + + +17. Paul's Home.--Paul had a certain pride in the place of his birth, +as he showed by boasting on one occasion that he was a citizen of no +mean city. He had a heart formed by nature to feel the warmest glow of +patriotism. Yet it was not for Cilicia and Tarsus that this fire +burned. He was an alien in the land of his birth. His father was one +of those numerous Jews who were scattered in that age over the cities +of the Gentile world, engaged in trade and commerce. They had left the +Holy Land, but they did not forget it. They never coalesced with the +populations among which they dwelt but, in dress, food, religion and +many other particulars remained a peculiar people. As a rule, indeed, +they were less rigid in their religious views and more tolerant of +foreign customs than those Jews who remained in Palestine. But Paul's +father was not one who had given way to laxity. He belonged to the +straitest sect of his religion. It is probable that he had not left +Palestine long before his son's birth, for Paul calls himself a Hebrew +of the Hebrews--a name which seems to have belonged only to the +Palestinian Jews and to those whose connection with Palestine had +continued very close. + +Of his mother we hear absolutely nothing, but everything seems to +indicate that the home in which he was brought up was one of those out +of which nearly all eminent religious teachers have sprung--a home of +piety, of character, perhaps of somewhat stern principle, and of strong +attachment to the peculiarities of a religious people. He was imbued +with its spirit. Although he could not but receive innumerable and +imperishable impressions from the city he was born in, the land and the +city of his heart were Palestine and Jerusalem; and the heroes of his +young imagination were not Curtius and Horatius, Hercules and Achilles, +but Abraham and Joseph, Moses and David and Ezra. As he looked back on +the past, it was not over the confused annals of Cilicia that he cast +his eyes, but he gazed up the clear stream of Jewish history to its +sources in Ur of the Chaldees; and, when he thought of the future, the +vision which rose on him was the kingdom of the Messiah, enthroned in +Jerusalem and ruling the nations with a rod of iron. + + +18. The feeling of belonging to a spiritual aristocracy, elevated +above the majority of those among whom he lived, would be deepened in +him by what he saw of the religion of the surrounding population. +Tarsus was the center of a species of Baal-worship of an imposing but +unspeakably degrading character, and at certain seasons of the year it +was the scene of festivals, which were frequented by the whole +population of the neighboring regions, and were accompanied with orgies +of a degree of moral abominableness happily beyond the reach even of +our imaginations. Of course a boy could not see the depths of this +mystery of iniquity, but he could see enough to make him turn from +idolatry with the scorn peculiar to his nation, and to make him regard +the little synagogue where his family worshiped the Holy One of Israel +as far more glorious than the gorgeous temples of the heathen; and +perhaps to these early experiences we may trace back in some degree +those convictions of the depths to which human nature can fall and its +need of an omnipotent redeeming force which afterward formed so +fundamental a part of his theology and gave such a stimulus to his work. + + +19. Trade.--The time at length arrived for deciding what occupation +the boy was to follow--a momentous crisis in every life--and in this +case much was involved in the decision. Perhaps the most natural +career for him would have been that of a merchant; for his father was +engaged in trade, the busy city offered splendid prizes to mercantile +ambition, and the boy's own energy would have guaranteed success. +Besides, his father had an advantage to give him specially useful to a +merchant: though a Jew, he was a Roman citizen, and this right would +have given his son protection, into whatever part of the Roman world he +might have had occasion to travel. How the father got this right we +cannot tell; it might be bought, or won by distinguished service to the +state, or acquired in several other ways; at all events his son was +free-born. It was a valuable privilege, and one which was to prove of +great use to Paul, though not in the way in which his father might have +been expected to desire him to make use of it. But it was decided that +he was not to be a merchant. The decision may have been due to his +father's strong religious views, or his mother's pious ambition, or his +own predilections; but it was resolved that he should go to college and +become a rabbi--that is, a minister, a teacher and a lawyer all in one. +It was a wise decision in view of the boy's spirit and capabilities, +and it turned out to be of infinite moment for the future of mankind. + + +20. But, although he thus escaped the chances which seemed likely to +drift him into a secular calling, yet, before going away to prepare for +the sacred profession, he was to get some insight into business life; +for it was a rule among the Jews that every boy, whatever might be the +profession he was to follow, should learn a trade, as a resource in +time of need. This was a rule with wisdom in it; for it gave +employment to the young at an age when too much leisure is dangerous, +and acquainted the wealthy and the learned in some degree with the +feelings of those who have to earn their bread with the sweat of their +brow. The trade which he was put to was the commonest one in +Tarsus--the making of tents from the goat's-hair cloth for which the +district was celebrated. Little did he or his father think, when he +began to handle the disagreeable material, of what importance this +handicraft was to be to him in subsequent years: it became the means of +his support during his missionary journeys, and, at a time when it was +essential that the propagators of Christianity should be above the +suspicion of selfish motives, enabled him to maintain himself in a +position of noble independence. + + +21. Education.--It is a question natural to ask, whether, before +leaving home to go and get his training as a rabbi, Paul attended the +University of Tarsus. Did he drink at the wells of wisdom which flow +from Mount Helicon before going to sit by those which spring from Mount +Zion? From the fact that he makes two or three quotations from the +Greek poets it has been inferred that he was acquainted with the whole +literature of Greece. But, on the other hand, it has been pointed out +that his quotations are brief and commonplace, such as any man who +spoke Greek would pick up and use occasionally; and the style and +vocabulary of his Epistles are not those of the models of Greek +literature, but of the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew +Scriptures, which was then in universal use among the Jews of the +Dispersion. Probably his father would have considered it sinful to +allow his son to attend a heathen university. Yet it is not likely +that he grew up in a great seat of learning without receiving any +influence from the academic tone of the place. His speech at Athens +shows that he was able, when he chose, to wield a style much more +stately than that of his writings, and so keen a mind was not likely to +remain in total ignorance of the great monuments of the language which +he spoke. + + +22. There were other impressions, too, which the learned Tarsus +probably made upon him: its university was famous for those petty +disputes and rivalries which sometimes ruffle the calm of academical +retreats; and it is possible that the murmur of these, with which the +air was often filled, may have given the first impulse to that scorn +for the tricks of the rhetorician and the windy disputations of the +sophist which form so marked a feature in some of his writings. The +glances of young eyes are clear and sure, and even as a boy he may have +perceived how small may be the souls of men and how mean their lives, +when their mouths are filled with the finest phraseology. + + +23. The college for the education of Jewish rabbis was in Jerusalem, +and thither Paul was sent about the age of thirteen. His arrival in +the Holy City may have happened in the same year in which Jesus, at the +age of twelve, first visited it, and the overpowering emotions of the +boy from Nazareth at the first sight of the capital of his race may be +taken as an index of the unrecorded experience of the boy from Tarsus. +To every Jewish child of a religious disposition Jerusalem was the +center of all things; the footsteps of prophets and kings echoed in the +streets; memories sacred and sublime clung to its walls and buildings; +and it shone in the glamor of illimitable hopes. + + +24. It chanced that at this time the college of Jerusalem was presided +over by one of the most noted teachers the Jews have ever possessed. +This was Gamaliel, at whose feet Paul tells us he was brought up. He +was called by his contemporaries the Beauty of the Law, and is still +remembered among the Jews as the Great Rabbi. He was a man of lofty +character and enlightened mind, a Pharisee strongly attached to the +traditions of the fathers, yet not intolerant or hostile to Greek +culture, as were some of the narrower Pharisees. The influence of such +a man on an open mind like Paul's must have been very great; and, +although for a time the pupil became an intolerant zealot, yet the +master's example may have had something to do with the conquest he +finally won over prejudice. + + +25. The course of instruction which a rabbi had to undergo was +lengthened and peculiar. It consisted entirely of the study of the +Scriptures and the comments of the sages and masters upon them. The +words of Scripture and the sayings of the wise were committed to +memory; discussions were carried on about disputed points; and by a +rapid fire of questions, which the scholars were allowed to put as well +as the masters, the wits of the students were sharpened and their views +enlarged. The outstanding qualities of Paul's intellect, which were +conspicuous in his subsequent life--his marvelous memory, the keenness +of his logic, the super-abundance of his ideas, and his original way of +taking up every subject--first displayed themselves in this school, and +excited, we may well believe, the warm interest of his teacher. + + +26. He himself learned much here which was of great moment in his +subsequent career. Although he was to be specially the missionary of +the Gentiles, he was also a great missionary to his own people. In +every city he visited where there were Jews he made his first public +appearance in the synagogue. There his training as a rabbi secured him +an opportunity of speaking, and his familiarity with Jewish modes of +thought and reasoning enabled him to address his audiences in the way +best fitted to secure their attention. His knowledge of the Scriptures +enabled him to adduce proofs from an authority which his hearers +acknowledged to be supreme. + +Besides, he was destined to be the great theologian of Christianity and +the principal writer of the New Testament. Now the New grew out of the +Old; the one is in all its parts the prophecy and the other the +fulfillment. But it required a mind saturated not only with +Christianity, but with the Old Testament, to bring this out; and, at +the age when the memory is most retentive, Paul acquired such a +knowledge of the Old Testament that everything it contains was at his +command: its phraseology became the language of his thinking; he +literally writes in quotations, and he quotes from all parts with equal +facility--from the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Thus was the +warrior equipped with the armor and the weapons of the Spirit before he +knew in what cause he was to use them. + + +27. His Religious Life.--Meantime what was his moral and religious +state? He was learning to be a religious teacher; was he himself +religious? Not all who are sent to college by their parents to prepare +for the sacred office are so, and in every city of the world the path +of youth is beset with temptations which may ruin life at its very +beginning. Some of the greatest teachers of the Church, such as St. +Augustine, have had to look back on half their life blotted and scarred +with vice or crime. No such fall defaced Paul's early years. Whatever +struggles with passion may have raged in his own breast, his conduct +was always pure. Jerusalem was no very favorable place, in that age, +for virtue. It was the Jerusalem against whose external sanctity, but +internal depravity, our Lord a few years afterward hurled such +withering invectives; it was the very seat of hypocrisy, where an able +youth might easily have learned how to win the rewards of religion, +while escaping its burdens. But Paul was preserved amidst these +perils, and could afterward claim that he had lived in Jerusalem from +the first in all good conscience. + + +28. He had brought with him from home the conviction, which forms the +basis of a religious life, that the one prize which makes life worth +living is the love and favor of God. This conviction grew into a +passionate longing as he advanced in years, and he asked his teachers +how the prize was to be won. Their answer was ready--By the keeping of +the law. It was a terrible answer; for the Law meant not only what we +understand by the term, but also the ceremonial law of Moses and the +thousand and one rules added to it by the Jewish teachers, the +observance of which made life a purgatory to a tender conscience. + +But Paul was not the man to shrink from difficulties. He had set his +heart upon winning God's favor, without which this life appeared to him +a blank and eternity the blackness of darkness; and, if this was the +way to the goal, he was willing to tread it. Not only, however, were +his personal hopes involved in this, the hopes of his nation depended +on it too; for it was the universal belief of his people that the +Messiah would only come to a nation keeping the law, and it was even +said that, if one man kept it perfectly for a single day, his merit +would bring to the earth the King for whom they were waiting. Paul's +rabbinical training, then, culminated in the desire to win this prize +of righteousness, and he left the halls of sacred learning with this as +the purpose of his life. The lonely student's resolution was momentous +for the world; for he was first to prove amidst secret agonies that +this way of salvation was false, and then to teach his discovery to +mankind. + + +29. At Jerusalem.--We cannot tell in what year Paul's education at the +college of Jerusalem was finished or where he went immediately +afterward. The young rabbis, after completing their studies, scattered +in the same way as our own divinity students do, and began practical +work in different parts of the Jewish world. He may have gone back to +his native Cilicia and held office in some synagogue there. At all +events, he was for some years at a distance from Jerusalem and +Palestine; for these were the very years in which fell the movement of +John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus, and it is certain that Paul +could not have been in the vicinity without being involved in both of +these movements either as a friend or as a foe. + + +30. But before long he returned to Jerusalem. It was as natural for +the highest rabbinical talent to gravitate in those times to Jerusalem +as it is for the highest literary and commercial talent to gravitate in +our day to the metropolis. He arrived in the capital of Judaism very +soon after the death of Jesus; and we can easily imagine the +representations of that event and of the career thereby terminated +which he would receive from his Pharisaic friends. + +We have no reason to suppose that as yet he had any doubts about his +own religion. We gather, indeed, from his writings that he had already +passed through severe mental conflicts. Although the conviction still +stood fast in his mind that the blessedness of life was attainable only +in the favor of God, yet his efforts to reach this coveted position by +the observance of the law had not satisfied him. On the contrary, the +more he strove to keep the law the more active became the motions of +sin within him; his conscience was becoming more oppressed with the +sense of guilt, and the peace of a soul at rest in God was a prize +which eluded his grasp. + +Still he did not question the teaching of the synagogue. To him as yet +this was of one piece with the history of the Old Testament, whence +looked down on him the figures of the saints and prophets, which were a +guarantee that the system they represented must be divine, and behind +which he saw the God of Israel revealing himself in the giving of the +law. The reason why he had not attained to peace and fellowship with +God was, he believed, because he had not struggled enough with the evil +of his nature or honored enough the precepts of the law. Was there no +service by which he could make up for all deficiencies and win that +grace at last in which the great of old had stood? This was the temper +of mind in which he returned to Jerusalem, and learned with +astonishment and indignation of the rise of a sect which believed that +Jesus who had been crucified was the Messiah of the Jewish people. + + +31. State of the Christian Church.--Christianity was as yet only two +or three years old, and was growing very quietly in Jerusalem. +Although those who had heard it preached at Pentecost had carried the +news of it to their homes in many quarters, its public representatives +had not yet left the city of its birth. At first the authorities had +been inclined to persecute it, and checked its teachers when they +appeared in public. But they had changed their minds and, acting under +the advice of Gamaliel, resolved to neglect it, believing that it would +die out, if let alone. The Christians, on the other hand, gave as +little offence as possible; in the externals of religion they continued +to be strict Jews and zealous of the law, attending the temple worship, +observing the Jewish ceremonies and respecting the ecclesiastical +authorities. + +It was a kind of truce, which allowed Christianity a little space for +secret growth. In their upper rooms the brethren met to break bread +and pray to their ascended Lord. It was the most beautiful spectacle. +The new faith had alighted among them like an angel, and was shedding +purity on their souls from its wings and breathing over their humble +gatherings the spirit of peace. Their love to each other was +unbounded; they were filled with the inspiring sense of discovery; and, +as often as they met, their invisible Lord was in their midst. It was +like heaven upon earth. While Jerusalem around them was going on in +its ordinary course of worldliness and ecclesiastical asperity, these +few humble souls were felicitating themselves with a secret which they +knew to contain within it the blessedness of mankind and the future of +the world. + + +32. But the truce could not last, and these scenes of peace were soon +to be invaded with terror and bloodshed. Christianity could not keep +such a truce; for there is in it a world-conquering force, which impels +it at all risks to propagate itself, and the fermentation of the new +wine of gospel liberty was sure sooner or later to burst the forms of +the Jewish law. + +At length a man arose in the Church in whom these aggressive tendencies +embodied themselves. This was Stephen, one of the seven deacons who +had been appointed to watch over the temporal affairs of the Christian +society. He was a man full of the Holy Ghost and possessed of +capabilities which the brevity of his career only permitted to suggest +but not to develop themselves. He went from synagogue to synagogue, +preaching the Messiahship of Jesus and announcing the advent of freedom +from the yoke of the law. Champions of Jewish orthodoxy encountered +him, but were not able to withstand his eloquence and holy zeal. +Foiled in argument, they grasped at other weapons, stirring up the +authorities and the populace to murderous fanaticism. + + +33. Stephen.--One of the synagogues in which these disputations took +place was that of the Cilicians, the countrymen of Paul. May he have +been a rabbi in this synagogue and one of Stephen's opponents in +argument? At all events, when the argument of logic was exchanged for +that of violence, he was in the front. When the witnesses who cast the +first stones at Stephen were stripping for their work, they laid down +their garments at his feet. There, on the margin of that wild scene, +in the field of judicial murder, we see his figure, standing a little +apart and sharply outlined against the mass of persecutors unknown to +fame--the pile of many-colored robes at his feet, and his eyes bent +upon the holy martyr, who is kneeling in the article of death and +praying: "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." + + +34. The Persecutor.--His zeal on this occasion brought Paul +prominently under the notice of the authorities. It probably procured +him a seat in the Sanhedrin, where we find him soon afterward giving +his vote against the Christians. At all events, it led to his being +entrusted with the work of utterly uprooting Christianity, which the +authorities now resolved upon. He accepted their proposal; for he +believed it to be God's work. He saw more clearly than any one else +what was the drift of Christianity; and it seemed to him destined, if +unchecked, to overturn all that he considered most sacred. The repeal +of the law was in his eyes the obliteration of the one way of +salvation, and faith in a crucified Messiah blasphemy against the +divinest hope of Israel. Besides, he had a deep personal interest in +the task. Hitherto he had been striving to please God, but always felt +his efforts to come short; here was a chance of making up for all +arrears by one splendid act of service. This was the iron of agony in +his soul which gave edge and energy to his zeal. In any case he was +not a man to do things by halves; and he flung himself headlong into +his task. + + +35. Terrible were the scenes which ensued. He flew from synagogue to +synagogue, and from house to house, dragging forth men and women, who +were cast into prison and punished. Some appear to have been put to +death, and--darkest trait of all--others were compelled to blaspheme +the name of the Saviour. The Church at Jerusalem was broken in pieces, +and such of its members as escaped the rage of the persecutor were +scattered over the neighboring provinces and countries. + + +36. It may seem too venturesome to call this the last stage of Paul's +unconscious preparation for his apostolic career. But so indeed it +was. In entering on the career of a persecutor he was going on +straight in the line of the creed in which he had been brought up; and +this was its reduction to absurdity. Besides, through the gracious +working of Him whose highest glory it is out of evil still to bring +forth good, there sprang out of these sad doings in the mind of Paul an +intensity of humility, a willingness to serve even the least of the +brethren of those whom he had abused, and a zeal to redeem lost time by +the parsimonious use of what was left, which became permanent spurs to +action in his subsequent career. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +HIS CONVERSION + +Paragraphs 37-50. + + 37, 38. Severity of the Persecution. + 39-42. Kicking against the Goad. + 43, 44. The Vision of Christ. + 45-48. Effect of his Conversion on his Thinking. + 49, 50. Its Effect on his Destiny. + + +37. Severity of the Persecution.--It was the persecutor's hope utterly +to exterminate Christianity. But little did he understand its genius. +It thrives on persecution. Prosperity has often been fatal to it, +persecution never. "They that were scattered abroad went everywhere +preaching the word." Hitherto the Church had been confined within the +walls of Jerusalem; but now all over Judaea and Samaria, and in distant +Phoenicia and Syria, the beacon of the gospel began in many a town and +village to twinkle through the darkness, and twos and threes met +together in upper rooms to impart to each other their joy in the Holy +Ghost. + + +38. We can imagine with what rage the tidings of these outbreaks of +the fanaticism which he had hoped to stamp out would fill the +persecutor. But he was not the person to be balked, and he resolved to +hunt up the objects of his hatred even in their most obscure and +distant hiding-places. In one strange city after another he +accordingly appeared, armed with the apparatus of the inquisitor, to +carry his sanguinary purpose out. Having heard that Damascus, the +capital of Syria, was one of the places where the fugitives had taken +refuge, and that they were carrying on their propaganda among the +numerous Jews of that city, he went to the high priest, who had +jurisdiction over the Jews outside as well as inside Palestine, and got +letters empowering him to seize and bind and bring to Jerusalem all of +the new way of thinking whom he might find there. + + +39. Kicking Against the Goad.--As we see him start on this journey, +which was to be so momentous, we naturally ask what was the state of +his mind. His was a noble nature and a tender heart; but the work he +was engaged in might be supposed to be congenial only to the most +brutal of mankind. Had his mind, then, been visited with no +compunctions? Apparently not. We are told that, as he was ranging +through strange cities in pursuit of his victims, he was exceedingly +mad against them; and, as he was setting out to Damascus, he was still +breathing out threatenings and slaughter. He was sheltered against +doubt by his reverence for the objects which the heresy imperiled; and, +if he had to outrage his natural feelings in the bloody work, was not +his merit all the greater? + + +40. But on this journey doubt at last invaded his mind. It was a long +journey of over a hundred and sixty miles; with the slow means of +locomotion then available, it would occupy at least six days; and a +considerable portion of it lay across a desert, where there was nothing +to distract the mind from its own reflections. In this enforced +leisure doubts arose. What else can be meant by the word with which +the Lord saluted him: "It is hard for thee to kick against the goad!" +The figure of speech is borrowed from a custom of Eastern countries: +the ox-driver wields a long pole, at the end of which is fixed a piece +of sharpened iron, with which he urges the animal to go on or stand +still or change its course; and, if it is refractory, it kicks against +the goad, injuring and infuriating itself with the wounds it receives. +This is a vivid picture of a man wounded and tortured by compunctions +of conscience. There was something in him rebelling against the course +of inhumanity on which he was embarked and suggesting that he was +fighting against God. + + +41. It is not difficult to conceive whence these doubts arose. He was +a scholar of Gamaliel, the advocate of humanity and tolerance, who had +counseled the Sanhedrin to leave the Christians alone. He was himself +too young yet to have hardened his heart to all the disagreeables of +such ghastly work. Highly strung as was his religious zeal, nature +could not but speak out at last. But probably his compunctions were +chiefly awakened by the character and behavior of the Christians. He +had heard the noble defense of Stephen and seen his face in the +council-chamber shining like that of an angel. He had seen him +kneeling on the field of execution and praying for his murderers. +Doubtless, in the course of the persecution he had witnessed many +similar scenes. Did these people look like enemies of God? As he +entered their homes to drag them forth to prison, he got glimpses of +their social life. Could such spectacles of purity and love be +products of the powers of darkness? Did not the serenity with which +his victims went to meet their fate look like the very peace which he +had long been sighing for in vain? + +Their arguments, too, must have told on a mind like his. He had heard +Stephen proving from the Scriptures that it behooved the Messiah to +suffer; and the general tenor of the earliest Christian apologetic +assures us that many of the accused must on their trial have appealed +to passages like the fifty-third of Isaiah, where a career is predicted +for the Messiah startlingly like that of Jesus of Nazareth. He heard +incidents of Christ's life from their lips which betokened a personage +very different from the picture sketched for him by his Pharisaic +informants: and the sayings of their Master which the Christians quoted +did not sound like the utterances of the fanatic he conceived Jesus to +have been. + + +42. Such may have been some of the reflections which agitated the +traveler as he moved onward, sunk in gloomy thought. But might not +these be mere suggestions of temptation--the morbid fancies of a +wearied mind, or the whispers of a wicked spirit attempting to draw him +off from the service of Heaven? The sight of Damascus, shining out +like a gem in the heart of the desert, restored him to himself. There, +in the company of sympathetic rabbis and in the excitement of effort, +he would dispel from his mind these fancies bred of solitude. So +onward he pressed, and the sun of noonday, from which all but the most +impatient travelers in the East take refuge in a long siesta, looked +down upon him still urging forward his course toward the city gate. + + +43. The Vision of Christ.--The news of Saul's coming had arrived at +Damascus before him; and the little flock of Christ was praying that, +if it were possible, the progress of the wolf, who was on his way to +spoil the fold, might be arrested. Nearer and nearer, however, he +drew; he had reached the last stage of his journey; and at the sight of +the place which contained his victims his appetite grew keener for the +prey. But the Good Shepherd had heard the cries of the trembling flock +and went forth to face the wolf on their behalf. Suddenly at midday, +as Paul and his company were riding forward beneath the blaze of the +Syrian sun, a light which dimmed even that fierce glare shone round +about them, a shock vibrated through the atmosphere, and in a moment +they found themselves prostrate upon the ground. The rest was for Paul +alone: a voice sounded in his ears, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou +Me?" and, as he looked up and asked the radiant Figure that had spoken, +"Who art Thou, Lord?" the answer was, "I am Jesus, whom thou art +persecuting." + + +44. The language in which he ever afterward spoke of this event +forbids us to think that it was a mere vision of Jesus he saw. He +ranks it as the last of the appearances of the risen Saviour to His +disciples, and places it on the same level as the appearances to Peter, +to James, to the eleven, and to the five hundred. It was, in fact, +Christ Jesus in the vesture of His glorified humanity, who for once had +left the spot, wherever it may be in the spaces of the universe, where +now he sits on His mediatorial throne, in order to show Himself to this +elect disciple; and the light which outshone the sun was no other than +the glory in which His humanity is there enveloped. An incidental +evidence of this was supplied in the words which were addressed to +Paul. They were spoken in the Hebrew, or rather the Aramaic +tongue--the same language in which Jesus had been wont to address the +multitudes by the Lake and converse with His disciples in the desert +solitudes; and, as in the days of His flesh He was wont to open His +mouth in parables, so now He clothed His rebuke in a striking metaphor: +"It is hard for thee to kick against the goad." + + +45. Effect on Paul's Thought.--It would be impossible to exaggerate +what took place in the mind of Paul in this single instant. It is but +a clumsy way we have of dividing time by the revolution of the clock +into minutes and hours, days and years, as if each portion so measured +were of the same size as another of equal length. This may suit well +enough for the common ends of life, but there are finer measurements +for which it is quite misleading. The real size of any space of time +is to be measured by the amount it contains of the soul's experience; +no one hour is exactly equal to another, and there are single hours +which are larger than months. So measured, this one moment of Paul's +life was perhaps larger than all his previous years. The glare of +revelation was so intense that it might well have scorched the eye of +reason or burnt out life itself, as the external light dazzled the eyes +of his body into blindness. + +When his companions recovered themselves and turned to their leader, +they discovered that he had lost his sight, and they had to take him by +the hand and lead him into the city. What a change was there! Instead +of the proud Pharisee riding through the streets with the pomp of an +inquisitor, a stricken man, trembling, groping, clinging to the hand of +his guide, arrives at the house of entertainment amidst the +consternation of those who receive him and, getting hastily to a room +where he can ask them to leave him alone, sinks down there in the +darkness. + + +46. But, though it was dark without, it was bright within. The +blindness had been sent for the purpose of secluding him from outward +distractions and enabling him to concentrate himself on the objects +presented to the inner eye. For the same reason he neither ate nor +drank for three days. He was too absorbed in the thoughts which +crowded on him thick and fast. + + +47. In these three days, it may be said with confidence, he got at +least a partial hold of all the truths he afterward proclaimed to the +world; for his whole theology is nothing but the explication of his own +conversion. First of all, his whole previous life fell down in +fragments at his feet. It had been of one piece, and wonderfully +complete. It had appeared to himself to be a consistent deduction from +the highest revelation he knew and, in spite of its imperfections, to +lie in the line of the will of God. But, instead of this, it had been +rushing in diametrical opposition against the will and revelation of +God, and had now been brought to a stop and broken in pieces by the +collision. That which had appeared to him the perfection of service +and obedience had involved his soul in the guilt of blasphemy and +innocent blood. Such had been the issue of seeking righteousness by +the works of the law. At the very moment when his righteousness seemed +at last to be turning to the whiteness so long desired, it was caught +in the blaze of this revelation and whirled away in shreds of shriveled +blackness. It had been a mistake, then, from first to last. +Righteousness was not to be obtained by the law, but only guilt and +doom. This was the unmistakable conclusion, and it became the one pole +of Paul's theology. + + +48. But, while his theory of life thus fell in pieces with a crash +that might by itself have shaken his reason, in the same moment an +opposite experience befell him. Not in wrath and vengeance did Jesus +of Nazareth appear to him, as He might have been expected to appear to +the deadly enemy of His cause. His first word might have been a demand +for retribution, and His first might have been His last. But, instead +of this, His face had been full of divine benignity and His words full +of considerateness for His persecutor. In the very moment when the +divine strength cast him down on the ground he felt himself encompassed +by the divine love. This was the prize he had all his lifetime been +struggling for in vain, and now he grasped it in the very moment in +which he discovered that his struggles had been fightings against God; +he was lifted up from his fall in the arms of God's love; he was +reconciled and accepted forever. As time went on, he was more and more +assured of this. In Christ he found without effort of his own the +peace and the moral strength he had striven for in vain. And this +became the other pole of his theology--that righteousness and strength +are found in Christ without man's effort by mere trust in God's grace +and acceptance of His gift. There were a hundred other things involved +in these two which it required time to work out; but within these two +poles the system of Paul's thinking ever afterward revolved. + + +49. Effect on his Future.--The three dark days were not done before he +knew one thing more--that his life was to be devoted to the +proclamation of these discoveries. In any case this must have been. +Paul was a born propagandist and could not have become the possessor of +such revolutionary truth without spreading it. Besides, he had a warm +heart, that could be deeply moved with gratitude; and, when Jesus, whom +he had blasphemed and tried to blot out of the memory of the world, +treated him with such divine benignity, giving him back his forfeited +life and placing him in that position which had always appeared to him +the prize of life, he could not but put himself at His service with all +his powers. He was an ardent patriot, the hope of the Messiah having +long occupied for him the whole horizon of the future; and, when he +knew that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah of his people and the +Saviour of the world, it followed as a matter of course that he must +spend his life in making this known. + + +50. But this destiny was also clearly announced to him from the +outside. Ananias, probably the leading man in the small Christian +community at Damascus, was informed, in a vision, of the change which +had happened to Paul, and was sent to restore his sight and admit him +into the Christian Church by baptism. + +Nothing could be more beautiful than the way in which this servant of +God approached the man who had come to the city to take his life. As +soon as he learned the state of the case, he forgave and forgot all the +crimes of his enemy and sprang to clasp him in the arms of Christian +love. Certain as may have been the assurance which in the inner world +of the mind Paul had in those three days received of forgiveness, it +must have been to him a most welcome reassurance when, on opening his +eyes again upon the external world, he was met with no contradiction of +the visions he had been looking on, but the first object he saw was a +human face bending over him with looks of forgiveness and perfect love. +He learned from Ananias the future the Saviour had appointed him: he +had been apprehended by Christ in order to be a vessel to bear His name +to Gentiles and kings and to the children of Israel. He accepted the +mission with limitless devotion; and from that hour to the hour of his +death he had but one ambition--to apprehend that for which he had been +apprehended of Christ Jesus. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HIS GOSPEL + +Paragraphs 51-67. + + 51-53. SOJOURN IN ARABIA. + 54-58. FAILURE OF MAN'S RIGHTEOUSNESS. + 56. Failure of the Gentiles. 57. Failure of the + Jews. 58. The Fall the ultimate Cause of Failure. + 59-65. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. The New Adam. The New Man. + 66, 67. LEADING PECULIARITIES OF THE PAULINE GOSPEL. + + +51. Sojourn in Arabia.--When a man has been suddenly converted, as +Paul was, he is generally driven by a strong impulse to make known what +has happened to him. Such testimony is very impressive; for it is that +of a soul which is receiving its first glimpses of the realities of the +unseen world, and there is a vividness about the report it gives of +them which produces an irresistible sense of reality. Whether Paul +yielded at once to this impulse or not we cannot say with certainty. +The language of the book of Acts, where it is said that "straightway he +preached Christ in the synagogues," would lead us to suppose so. But +we learn from his own writings that there was another powerful impulse +influencing him at the same time; and it is uncertain which of the two +he obeyed first. This other impulse was the wish to retreat into +solitude and think out the meaning and issues of that which had +befallen him. It cannot be wondered at that he felt this to be a +necessity. He had believed his former creed intensely and staked +everything on it; to see it suddenly shattered in pieces must have +shaken him severely. The new truth which had been flashed upon him was +so far-reaching and revolutionary that it could not be taken in at once +in all its bearings. Paul was a born thinker; it was not enough for +him to experience anything; he required to comprehend it and fit it +into the structure of his convictions. + +Immediately, therefore, after his conversion he went away, he tells us, +into Arabia. He does not, indeed, say for what purpose he went; but, +as there is no record of his preaching in that region and this +statement occurs in the midst of a vehement defense of the originality +of his gospel, we may conclude with considerable certainty that he went +into retirement for the purpose of grasping in thought the details and +the bearings of the revelation he had been put in possession of. In +lonely contemplation he worked them out; and, when he returned to +mankind, he was in possession of that view of Christianity which was +peculiar to himself and formed the burden of his preaching during the +subsequent years. + + +52. There is some doubt as to the precise place of his retirement, +because Arabia is a word of vague and variable significance. But most +probably it denotes the Arabia of the Wanderings, the principal feature +of which was Mount Sinai. This was a spot hallowed by great memories +and by the presence of other great men of revelation. Here Moses had +seen the burning bush and communed with God on the top of the mountain. +Here Elijah had roamed in his season of despair and drunk anew at the +wells of inspiration. What place could be more appropriate for the +meditations of this successor of these men of God? In the valleys +where the manna fell and under the shadows of the peaks which had +burned beneath the feet of Jehovah he pondered the problem of his life. + +It is a great example. Originality in the preaching of the truth +depends on the solitary intuition of it. Paul enjoyed the special +inspiration of the Holy Ghost; but this did not render the concentrated +activity of his own thinking unnecessary but only lent it peculiar +intensity; and the clearness and certainty of his gospel were due to +these months of sequestered thought. His retirement may have lasted a +year or more; for between his conversion and his final departure from +Damascus, to which he returned from Arabia, three years intervened; and +one of them at least was spent in this way. + + +53. We have no detailed record of what the outlines of his gospel were +till a period long subsequent to this; but, as these, when first they +are traceable, are a mere cast of the features of his conversion, and, +as his mind was working so long and powerfully on the interpretation of +that event at this period, there can be no doubt that the gospel +sketched in the Epistles to the Romans and the Galatians was +substantially the same as he preached from the first; and we are safe +in inferring from these writings our account of his Arabian meditations. + + +54. Failure of Man's Righteousness.--The starting-point of Paul's +thinking was still, as it had been from his childhood, the conviction, +inherited from pious generations, that the true end and felicity of man +lay in the enjoyment of the favor of God. This was to be attained +through righteousness; only the righteous could God be at peace with +and favor with His love. To attain righteousness must, therefore, be +the chief end of man. + + +55. But man had failed to attain righteousness and had thereby come +short of the favor of God, and exposed himself to the divine wrath. +Paul proves this by taking a vast survey of the history of mankind in +pre-Christian times in its two great sections--the Gentile and the +Jewish. + + +56. The Gentiles failed. It might, indeed, be supposed that they had +not the preliminary conditions for entering on the pursuit of +righteousness at all, because they did not enjoy the advantage of a +special revelation. But Paul holds that even the heathen know enough +of God to be aware of the obligation to follow after righteousness. +There is a natural revelation of God in His works and in the human +conscience sufficient to enlighten men as to this duty. But the +heathen, instead of making use of this light, wantonly extinguished it. +They were not willing to retain God in their knowledge and to fetter +themselves with the restraints which a pure knowledge of Him imposed. +They corrupted the idea of God in order to feel at ease in an immoral +life. The revenge of nature came upon them in the darkening and +confusion of their intellects. They fell into such insensate folly as +to change the glorious and incorruptible nature of God into the images +of men and beasts, birds and reptiles. This intellectual degeneracy +was followed by still deeper moral degeneracy. God, when they forsook +Him, let them go; and, when His restraining grace was removed, down +they rushed into the depths of moral putridity. Lust and passion got +the mastery of them, and their life became a mass of moral disease. In +the end of the first chapter of Romans the features of their condition +are sketched in colors that might be borrowed from the abode of devils, +but were literally taken, as is too plainly proved by the pages even of +Gentile historians, from the condition of the cultured heathen nations +at that time. This, then, was the history of one half of mankind: it +had utterly fallen from righteousness and exposed itself to the wrath +of God, which is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of +men. + + +57. The Jews were the other half of the world. Had they succeeded +where the Gentiles had failed? They enjoyed, indeed, great advantages +over the heathen; for they possessed the oracles of God, in which the +divine nature was exhibited in a form which rendered it inaccessible to +human perversion, and the divine law was written with equal plainness +in the same form. But had they profited by these advantages? It is +one thing to know the law and another thing to do it; but it is doing, +not knowing, which is righteousness. Had they, then, fulfilled the +will of God, which they knew? + +Paul had lived in the same Jerusalem in which Jesus assailed the +corruption and hypocrisy of scribes and Pharisees; he had looked +closely at the lives of the representative men of his nation; and he +does not hesitate to charge the Jews in mass with the very same sins as +the Gentiles; nay, he says that through them the name of God was +blasphemed among the Gentiles. They boasted of their knowledge and +were the bearers of the torch of truth, the fierce blaze of which +exposed the sins of the heathen; but their religion was a bitter +criticism of the conduct of others; they forgot to examine their own +conduct by the same light; and, while they were repeating, Do not +steal, Do not commit adultery, and a multitude of other commandments, +they were indulging in these sins themselves. What good in these +circumstances did their knowledge do them? It only condemned them the +more; for their sin was against light. While the heathen knew so +little that their sins were comparatively innocent, the sins of the +Jews were conscious and presumptuous. Their boasted superiority was +therefore inferiority. They were more deeply condemned than the +Gentiles they despised, and exposed to a heavier curse. + + +58. The truth is, Gentiles and Jews had both failed for the same +reason. Trace these two streams of human life back to their sources +and you come at last to a point where they are not two streams but one; +and, before the bifurcation took place, something had happened which +predetermined the failure of both. In Adam all fell, and from him all, +both Gentiles and Jews, inherited a nature too weak for the arduous +attainment of righteousness; human nature is carnal now, not spiritual, +and, therefore, unequal to this supreme spiritual achievement. + +The law could not alter this; it had no creative power to make the +carnal spiritual. On the contrary, it aggravated the evil. It +actually multiplied offenses; for its clear and full description of +sins, which would have been an incomparable guide to a sound nature, +turned into temptation for a morbid one. The very knowledge of sin +tempts to its commission; the very command not to do anything is to a +diseased nature a reason for doing it. This was the effect of the law: +it multiplied and aggravated transgressions. And this was God's +intention. Not that He was the author of sin; but, like a skillful +physician, who has sometimes to use appliances to bring a sore to a +head before he heals it, He allowed the heathen to go their own way and +gave the Jews the law, that the sin of human nature might exhibit all +its inherent qualities, before He intervened to heal it. The healing, +however, was His real purpose all the time: He concluded all under sin, +that He might have mercy upon all. + + +59. The Righteousness of God.--Man's extremity was God's opportunity; +not, indeed, in the sense that, one way of salvation having failed. +God devised another. The law had never, in His intention, been a way +of salvation. It was only a means of illustrating the need of +salvation. But the moment when this demonstration was complete was the +signal for God to produce His method, which He had kept locked in His +counsel through the generations of human probation. It had never been +His intention to permit man to fail of his true end. Only He allowed +time to prove that fallen man could never reach righteousness by his +own efforts; and, when the righteousness of man had been demonstrated +to be a failure, He brought forth His secret--the righteousness of God. + +This was Christianity; this was the sum and issue of the mission of +Christ--the conferring upon man, as a free gift, of that which is +indispensable to his blessedness, but which he had failed himself to +attain. It is a divine act; it is grace; and man obtains it by +acknowledging that he has failed himself to attain it and by accepting +it from God; it is got by faith only. It is "the righteousness of God, +by the faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe." + + +60. Those who thus receive it enter at once into that position of +peace and favor with God in which human felicity consists and which was +the goal aimed at by Paul when he was striving for righteousness by the +law. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our +Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace +wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." It is a +sunny life of joy, peace and hope which those lead who have come to +know this gospel. There may be trials in it; but, when a man's life is +reposing in the attainment of its true end, trials are light and all +things work together for good. + + +61. This righteousness of God is for all the children of men--not for +the Jews only, but for the Gentiles also. The demonstration of man's +inability to attain righteousness was made, in accordance with the +divine purpose, in both sections of the human race; and its completion +was the signal for the exhibition of God's grace to both alike. The +work of Christ was not for the children of Abraham, but for the +children of Adam. "As in Adam all died, so in Christ shall all be made +alive." The Gentiles did not need to undergo circumcision and to keep +the law in order to obtain salvation; for the law was no part of +salvation; it belonged entirely to the preliminary demonstration of +man's failure; and, when it had accomplished this service, it was ready +to vanish away. The only human condition of obtaining God's +righteousness is faith; and this is as easy for Gentile as Jew. + +This was an inference from Paul's own experience. It was not as a Jew, +but as a man, that he had been dealt with in his conversion. No +Gentile could have been less entitled to obtain salvation by merit than +he had been. So far from the law raising him a single step toward +salvation, it had removed him to a greater distance from God than any +Gentile, and cast him into a deeper condemnation. How, then, could it +profit the Gentiles to be placed in this position? In obtaining the +righteousness in which he was now rejoicing he had done nothing which +was not competent to any human being. + + +62. It was this universal love of God revealed in the gospel which +inspired Paul with unbounded admiration for Christianity. His +sympathies had been cabined, cribbed, confined in a narrow conception +of God; the new faith uncaged his heart and let it forth into the free +and sunny air. God became a new God to him. He calls his discovery +the mystery which had been hidden from ages and generations, but had +been revealed to him and his fellow-apostles. It seemed to him to be +the secret of the ages and to be destined to usher in a new era, far +better than any the world had ever seen. What kings and prophets had +not known had been revealed to him. It had burst on him like the dawn +of a new creation. God was now offering to every man the supreme +felicity of life--that righteousness which had been the vain endeavor +of the past ages. + + +63. This secret of the new epoch had not, indeed, been entirely +unanticipated in the past. It had been "witnessed by the law and the +prophets." The law could bear witness to it only negatively by +demonstrating its necessity. But the prophets anticipated it more +positively. David, for example, described "the blessedness of the man +unto whom God imputed righteousness without works." Still more clearly +had Abraham anticipated it. He was a justified man; and it was by +faith, not by works, that He was justified--"he believed God, and it +was imputed unto him for righteousness." The law had nothing to do +with his justification, for it was not in existence for four centuries +afterward. Nor had circumcision anything to do with it, for he was +justified before this rite was instituted. In short, it was as a man, +not as a Jew, that he was dealt with by God, and God might deal with +any human being in the same way. It had once made the thorny road of +legal righteousness sacred to Paul to think that Abraham and the +prophets had trodden it before him; but now he knew that their life of +religious joy and psalms of holy calm were inspired by quite different +experiences, which were now diffusing the peace of heaven through his +heart also. But only the first streaks of dawn had been descried by +them; the perfect day had broken in his own time. + + +64. The Old Adam and the New.--Paul's discovery of this way of +salvation was an actual experience; he simply knew that Christ, in the +moment when He met him, had placed him in that position of peace and +favor with God which he had long sighed for in vain, and, as time went +on, he felt more and more that in this position he was enjoying the +true blessedness of life. His mission henceforth must be to herald +this discovery in its simple and concrete reality under the name of the +Righteousness of God. But a mind like his could not help inquiring how +it was that the possession of Christ did so much for him. In the +Arabian wilderness he pondered over this question, and the gospel he +subsequently preached contained a luminous answer to it. + + +65. From Adam his children derive a sad double heritage--a debt of +guilt, which they cannot reduce, but are constantly increasing, and a +carnal nature, which is incapable of righteousness. These are the two +features of the religious condition of fallen man, and they are the +double source of all his woes. + +But Christ is a new Adam, a new head of humanity, and those who are +connected with Him by faith become heirs of a double heritage of a +precisely opposite kind. On the one hand, just as through our birth in +the first Adam's line we get inevitably entangled in guilt, like a +child born into a family which is drowned in debt, so through our birth +in the line of the second Adam we get involved in a boundless heritage +of merit, which Christ, as the Head of His family, makes the common +property of its members. This extinguishes the debt of our guilt and +makes us rich in Christ's righteousness. "As by one man's disobedience +many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made +righteous." On the other hand, just as Adam transmitted to his +posterity a carnal nature, alien to God and unfit for righteousness, so +the new Adam imparts to the race of which He is the Head a spiritual +nature, akin to God and delighting in righteousness. + +The nature of man, according to Paul, normally consists of three +sections--body, soul and spirit. In his original constitution these +occupied definite relations of superiority and subordination to one +another, the spirit being supreme, the body undermost, and the soul +occupying the middle position. But the fall disarranged this order, +and all sin consists in the usurpation by the body or the soul of the +place of the spirit. In fallen man these two inferior sections of +human nature, which together form what Paul calls the Flesh, or that +side of human nature which looks toward the world and time, have taken +possession of the throne and completely rule the life, while the +spirit, the side of man which looks toward God and eternity, has been +dethroned and reduced to a condition of inefficiency and death. Christ +restores the lost predominance of the spirit of man by taking +possession of it by his own Spirit. His Spirit dwells in the human +spirit, vivifying it and sustaining it in such growing strength that it +becomes more and more the sovereign part of the human constitution. +The man ceases to be carnal and becomes spiritual; he is led by the +Spirit of God and becomes more and more harmonious with all that is +holy and divine. + +The flesh does not, indeed, easily submit to the loss of supremacy. It +clogs and obstructs the spirit and fights to regain possession of the +throne. Paul has described this struggle in sentences of terrible +vividness, in which all generations of Christians have recognized the +features of their deepest experience. But the issue of the struggle is +not doubtful. Sin shall not again have dominion over those in whom +Christ's Spirit dwells, or dislodge them from their standing in the +favor of God. "Neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities +nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor +depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the +love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." + + +66. The Pauline Gospel.--Such are the bare outlines of the gospel +which Paul brought back with him from the Arabian solitudes and +afterward preached with unwearied enthusiasm. It could not but be +mixed up in his mind and in his writings with the peculiarities of his +own experience as a Jew, and these make it difficult for us to grasp +his system in some of its details. The belief in which he was brought +up, that no man could be saved without becoming a Jew, and the notions +about the law from which he had to cut himself free, lie very distant +from our modern sympathies; yet his theology could not shape itself in +his mind except in contrast to these misconceptions. This became +subsequently still more inevitable when his own old errors met him as +the watchwords of a party within the Christian Church itself, against +which he had to wage a long and relentless war. Though this conflict +forced his views into the clearest expression, it encumbered them with +references to feelings and beliefs which are now dead to the interest +of mankind. But, in spite of these drawbacks, the Gospel of Paul +remains a possession of incalculable value to the human race. Its +searching investigation of the failure and the wants of human nature, +its wonderful unfolding of the wisdom of God in the education of the +pre-Christian world, and its exhibition of the depth and universality +of the divine love are among the profoundest elements of revelation. + + +67. But it is in its conception of Christ that Paul's gospel wears its +imperishable crown. The Evangelists sketched in a hundred traits of +simple and affecting beauty the fashion of the earthly life of the man +Christ Jesus, and in these the model of human conduct will always have +to be sought; but to Paul was reserved the task of making known, in its +heights and depths, the work which the Son of God accomplished as the +Saviour of the race. He scarcely ever refers to the incidents of +Christ's earthly life, although here and there he betrays that he knew +them well. To him Christ was ever the glorious Being, shining with the +splendor of heaven, who appeared to him on the way to Damascus, and the +Saviour who caught him up into the heavenly peace and joy of a new +life. When the Church of Christ thinks of her Head as the deliverer of +the soul from sin and death, as a spiritualizing presence ever with her +and at work in every believer, and as the Lord over all things who will +come again without sin unto salvation, it is in forms of thought given +her by the Holy Ghost through the instrumentality of this apostle. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE WORK AWAITING THE WORKER + +Paragraphs 68-78. + + 68-70. Eight years of Comparative Inactivity at Tarsus. + Gentiles admitted to Christian Church. + 71, 72. Paul discovered by Barnabas and brought to + Antioch. His Work there. + 73-78. THE KNOWN WORLD OF THAT PERIOD. + 75. The Greeks; 76. The Romans; 77. The Jews; + 78. Barbarians and Slaves. + + +68. Years of Inactivity.--Paul was now in possession of his gospel and +was aware that it was to be the mission of his life to preach it to the +Gentiles; but he had still to wait a long time before his peculiar +career commenced. We hear scarcely anything of him for seven or eight +years; and yet we can only guess what may have been the reasons of +Providence for imposing on His servant so long a time of waiting. + + +69. There may have been personal reasons for it connected with Paul's +own spiritual history; because waiting is a common instrument of +providential discipline for those to whom exceptional work has been +appointed. A public reason may have been that he was too obnoxious to +the Jewish authorities to be tolerated yet in those scenes where +Christian activity commanded any notice. He had attempted to preach in +Damascus, where his conversion had taken place, but was immediately +forced to flee from the fury of the Jews; and, going thence to +Jerusalem and beginning to testify as a Christian, he found the place +in two or three weeks too hot to hold him. No wonder; how could the +Jews be expected to allow the man who had so lately been the chief +champion of their religion to preach the faith which they had employed +him to destroy? When he fled from Jerusalem, he bent his steps to his +native Tarsus, where for years he remained in obscurity. No doubt he +testified for Christ there to his own family, and there are some +indications that he carried on evangelistic operations in his native +province of Cilicia: but, if he did so, his work may be said to have +been that of a man in hiding, for it was not in the central or even in +a visible stream of the new religious movement. + + +70. These are but conjectural reasons for the obscurity of those +years. But there was one undoubted reason for the delay of Paul's +career of the greatest possible importance. In this interval took +place that revolution--one of the most momentous in the history of +mankind--by which the Gentiles were admitted to equal privileges with +the Jews in the Church of Christ. This change proceeded from the +original circle of apostles, in Jerusalem, and Peter, the chief of the +apostles, was the instrument of it. By the vision of the sheet of +clean and unclean beasts, which he saw at Joppa, he was prepared for +the part he was to play in this transaction, and he admitted the +Gentile Cornelius, of Caesarea, and his family to the Church by baptism +without circumcision. This was an innovation involving boundless +consequences. It was a necessary preliminary to Paul's mission-work, +and subsequent events were to show how wise was the divine arrangement +that the first Gentile entrants into the Church should be admitted by +the hands of Peter rather than by those of Paul. + + +71. As soon as this event had taken place, the arena was clear for +Paul's career, and a door was immediately opened for his entrance upon +it. Almost simultaneously with the baptism of the Gentile family at +Caesarea a great revival broke out among the Gentiles of the city of +Antioch, the capital of Syria. The movement had been begun by +fugitives driven by persecution from Jerusalem, and it was carried on +with the sanction of the apostles, who sent Barnabas, one of their +trusted coadjutors, from Jerusalem to superintend it. + +This man knew Paul. When Paul first came to Jerusalem after his +conversion and assayed to join himself to the Christians there, they +were all afraid of him, suspecting the teeth and claws of the wolf +beneath the fleece of the sheep. But Barnabas rose superior to these +fears and suspicions and, having taken the new convert and heard his +story, believed in him and persuaded the rest to receive him. The +intercourse thus begun only lasted a week or two at that time, as Paul +had to leave Jerusalem; but Barnabas had received a profound impression +of his personality and did not forget him. When he was sent down to +superintend the revival at Antioch, he soon found himself embarrassed +with its magnitude and in need of assistance; and the idea occurred to +him that Paul was the man he wanted. Tarsus was not far off, and +thither he went to seek him. Paul accepted his invitation and returned +with him to Antioch. + + +72. The hour he had been waiting for had struck, and he threw himself +into the work of evangelizing the Gentiles with the enthusiasm of a +great nature that found itself at last in its proper sphere. The +movement at once responded to the pressure of such a hand; the +disciples became so numerous and prominent that the heathen gave them a +new name--that name of "Christians," which has ever since continued to +be the badge of faith in Christ--and Antioch, a city of half a million +inhabitants, became the headquarters of Christianity instead of +Jerusalem. Soon a large church was formed, and one of the +manifestations of the zeal with which it was pervaded was a proposal, +which gradually shaped itself into an enthusiastic resolution, to send +forth a mission to the heathen. As a matter of course, Paul was +designated for this service. + + +73. The Known World of that Period.--As we see him thus brought at +length face to face with the task of his life, let us pause to take a +brief survey of the world which he was setting out to conquer. Nothing +less was what he aimed at. In Paul's time the known world was so small +a place, that it did not seem impossible even for a single man to make +a spiritual conquest of it; and it had been wonderfully prepared for +the new force which was about to assail it. + + +74. It consisted of a narrow disc of land surrounding the +Mediterranean Sea. That sea deserved at that time the name it bears, +for the world's center of gravity, which has since shifted to other +latitudes, lay in it. The interest of human life was concentrated in +the southern countries of Europe, the portion of western Asia and the +strip of northern Africa which form its shores. In this little world +there were three cities which divided between them the interest of +those ages. These were Rome, Athens and Jerusalem, the capitals of the +three races--the Romans, the Greeks and the Jews--which in every sense +ruled that old world. It was not that each of them had mastered a +third part of the circle of civilization, but each of them had in turn +diffused itself over the whole of it, and either still held its grip or +at least had left imperishable traces of its presence. + + +75. The Greeks were the first to take possession of the world. They +were the people of cleverness and genius, the perfect masters of +commerce, literature and art. In very early ages they displayed the +instinct for colonization and sent forth their sons to find new abodes +on the east and the west, far from their native home. At length there +arose among them one who concentrated in himself the strongest +tendencies of the race and by force of arms extended the dominion of +Greece to the borders of India. The vast empire of Alexander the Great +split into pieces at his death; but a deposit of Greek life and +influence remained in all the countries over which the deluge of his +conquering armies had swept. Greek cities, such as Antioch in Syria +and Alexandria in Egypt, flourished all over the East; Greek merchants +abounded in every center of trade; Greek teachers taught the literature +of their country in many lands; and--what was most important of +all--the Greek language became the general vehicle for the +communication of the more serious thought between nation and nation. +Even the Jews in New Testament times read their own Scriptures in a +Greek version, the original Hebrew having become a dead language. +Perhaps the Greek is the most perfect tongue the world has known, and +there was a special providence in its universal diffusion before +Christianity needed a medium of international communication. The New +Testament was written in Greek, and, wherever the apostles of +Christianity traveled, they were able to make themselves understood in +this language. + + +76. The turn of the Romans came next to obtain possession of the +world. Originally a small clan in the neighborhood of the city from +which they derived their name, they gradually extended and strengthened +themselves and acquired such skill in the arts of war and government +that they became irresistible conquerors and marched forth in every +direction to make themselves masters of the globe. They subdued Greece +itself and, flowing eastward, seized upon the countries which Alexander +and his successors had ruled. The whole known world, indeed, became +theirs from the Straits of Gibraltar to the utmost East. They did not +possess the genius or geniality of the Greeks; their qualities were +strength and justice; and their arts were not those of the poet and the +thinker, but those of the soldier and the judge. They broke down the +divisions between the tribes of men and compelled them to be friendly +toward each other, because they were all alike prostrate beneath one +iron rule. They pierced the countries with roads, which connected them +with Rome and were such solid triumphs of engineering skill that some +of them remain to this day. Along these highways the message of the +gospel ran. Thus the Romans also proved to be pioneers for +Christianity, for their authority in so many countries afforded to its +first publishers facility of movement and protection from the arbitrary +justice of local tribunals. + + +77. Meanwhile the third nation of antiquity had also completed its +conquest of the world. Not by force of arms did the Jews diffuse +themselves, as the Greeks and Romans had done. For centuries, indeed, +they had dreamed of the coming of a warlike hero, whose prowess should +outshine that of the most celebrated Gentile conquerors. But he never +came: and their occupation of the centers of civilization had to take +place in a more silent way. + +There is no change in the habits of any nation more striking than that +which passed over the Jewish race in that interval of four centuries +between Malachi and Matthew of which we have no record in the sacred +Scriptures. In the Old Testament we see the Jews pent within the +narrow limits of Palestine, engaged mainly in agricultural pursuits and +jealously guarding themselves from intermingling with foreign nations. +In the New Testament we find them still, indeed, clinging with a +desperate tenacity to Jerusalem and to the idea of their own +separateness; but their habits and abodes have been completely changed: +they have given up agriculture and betaken themselves with +extraordinary eagerness and success to commerce; and with this object +in view they have diffused themselves everywhere--over Africa, Asia, +Europe--and there is not a city of any importance where they are not to +be found. By what steps this extraordinary change came about it were +hard to tell and long to trace. But it had taken place; and this +turned out to be a circumstance of extreme importance for the early +history of Christianity. + +Wherever the Jews were settled, they had their synagogues, their sacred +Scriptures, their uncompromising belief in the One true God. Not only +so: their synagogues everywhere attracted proselytes from the +surrounding Gentile populations. The heathen religions were at that +period in a state of utter collapse. The smaller nations had lost +faith in their deities, because they had not been able to defend them +from the victorious Greeks and Romans. But the conquerors had for +other reasons equally lost faith in their own gods. It was an age of +skepticism, religious decay and moral corruption. But there are always +natures which must possess a faith in which they can trust. These were +in search of a religion, and many of them found refuge from the coarse +and incredible myths of the gods of polytheism in the purity and +monotheism of the Jewish creed. The fundamental ideas of this creed +are also the foundations of the Christian faith. Wherever the +messengers of Christianity traveled, they met with people with whom +they had many religious conceptions in common. Their first sermons +were delivered in synagogues, their first converts were Jews and +proselytes. The synagogue was the bridge by which Christianity crossed +over to the heathen. + + +78. Such, then, was the world which Paul was setting out to conquer. +It was a world everywhere pervaded with these three influences. But +there were two other elements of population which require to be kept in +mind, as both of them supplied numerous converts to the early +preachers: they were the original inhabitants of the various countries; +and there were the slaves, who were either captives taken in war or +their descendants, and were liable to be shifted from place to place, +being sold according to the necessities or caprices of their masters. +A religion the chief boast of which it was to preach glad tidings to +the poor could not neglect these down-trodden classes, and, although +the conflict of Christianity with the forces of the time which had +possession of the fate of the world naturally attracts attention, it +must not be forgotten that its best triumph has always consisted in the +sweetening and brightening of the lot of the humble. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +HIS MISSIONARY TRAVELS + +Paragraphs 70-114. + + 79-88. THE FIRST JOURNEY. 79, 80. His Companions. + 81. Cyprus. Change of his Name. 82-87. + The Mainland of Asia Minor. 83. Desertion of Mark. + 84. Antioch-in-Pisidia and Iconium. 86-87. Lystra + and Derbe. 88. Return. + 89-108. THE SECOND JOURNEY. 90, 91. Separation + from Barnabas. 92, 93. Unrecorded Half of + the Journey. 94-96. Crossing to Europe. 97-108. + Greece. 97-101. Macedonia. 99. Women and the + Gospel. 100. Liberality of Churches. 102-108. + Achaia. 103-105. Athens. 106-108. Corinth. + 109-114. THE THIRD JOURNEY. Ephesus, Polemic + against Superstition. + + +THE FIRST JOURNEY + +79. Paul's Companions.--From the beginning it had been the wont of the +preachers of Christianity not to go alone on their expeditions, but two +by two. Paul improved on this practise by going generally with two +companions, one of them being a younger man, who perhaps took charge of +the traveling arrangements. On his first journey his comrades were +Barnabas and John Mark, the nephew of Barnabas. + + +80. We have already seen that Barnabas may be called the discoverer of +Paul; and, when they set out on this journey together, he was probably +in a position to act as Paul's patron; for he enjoyed much +consideration in the Christian community. Converted apparently on the +day of Pentecost, he had played a leading part in the subsequent +events. He was a man of high social position, a landed proprietor in +the island of Cyprus; and he sacrificed all to the new movement into +which he had been drawn. In the outburst of enthusiasm which led the +first Christians to share their property with one another, he sold his +estate and laid the money at the apostles' feet. He was constantly +employed thereafter in the work of preaching, and he had so remarkable +a gift of eloquence that he was called the Son of Exhortation. An +incident which occurred at a later stage of this journey gives us a +glimpse of the appearance of the two men. When the inhabitants of +Lystra mistook them for gods, they called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul +Mercury. Now, in ancient art Jupiter was always represented as a tall, +majestic and benignant figure, while Mercury was the small, swift +messenger of the father of gods and men. Probably it appeared, +therefore, that the large, gracious, paternal Barnabas was the head and +director of the expedition, while Paul, little and eager, was the +subordinate. The direction in which they set out, too, was the one +which Barnabas might naturally have been expected to choose. They went +first to Cyprus, the island where his property had been and many of his +friends still were. It lay eighty miles to the southwest of Seleucia, +the seaport of Antioch, and they might reach it on the very day they +left their headquarters. + + +81. Cyprus--Change of Name.--But, although Barnabas appeared to be the +leader, the good man probably knew already that the humble words of the +Baptist might be used by himself with reference to his companion, "He +must increase, but I must decrease." At all events, as soon as their +work began in earnest, this was shown to be the relation between them. +After going through the length of the island, from east to west, +evangelizing, they arrived at Paphos, its chief town, and there the +problems they had come out to face met them in the most concentrated +form. + +Paphos was the seat of the worship of Venus, the goddess of love, who +was said to have been born of the foam of the sea at this very spot; +and her worship was carried on with the wildest licentiousness. It was +a picture in miniature of Greece sunk in moral decay. Paphos was also +the seat of the Roman government, and in the pro-consular chair sat a +man, Sergius Paulus, whose noble character but utter lack of certain +faith formed a companion picture of the inability of Rome at that epoch +to meet the deepest necessities of her best sons. In the proconsular +court, playing upon the inquirer's credulity, a Jewish sorcerer and +quack, named Elymas, was flourishing, whose arts were a picture of the +lowest depths to which the Jewish character could sink. The whole +scene was a kind of miniature of the world the evils of which the +missionaries had set forth to cure. + +In the presence of these exigencies Paul unfolded for the first time +the mighty powers which lay in him. An access of the Spirit seizing +him and enabling him to overcome all obstacles, he covered the Jewish +magician with disgrace, converted the Roman governor, and founded in +the town a Christian church in opposition to the Greek shrine. From +that hour Barnabas sank into the second place and Paul took his natural +position as the head of the mission. We no longer read, as heretofore, +of "Barnabas and Saul," but always of "Paul and Barnabas." The +subordinate had become the leader; and, as if to mark that he had +become a new man and taken a new place, he was no longer called by the +Jewish name of Saul, which up to this point he had borne, but by the +name of Paul, which has ever since been his designation among +Christians. + + +82. The Mainland of Asia.--The next move was as obviously the choice +of the new leader as the first one had been due to Barnabas. They +struck across the sea to Perga, a town near the middle of the southern +coast of Asia Minor, then right up, a hundred miles, into the mainland, +and thence eastward to a point almost straight north of Tarsus. This +route carried them in a kind of half circuit through the districts of +Pamphylia, Pisidia and Lycaonia, which border, to the west and north, +on Cilicia, Paul's native province; so that, if it be the case that he +had evangelized Cilicia already, he was now merely extending his labors +to the nearest surrounding regions. + + +83. At Perga, the starting-point of this second half of the journey, a +misfortune befell the expedition: John Mark deserted his companions and +sailed for home. It may be that the new position assumed by Paul had +given him offense, though his generous uncle felt no such grudge at +that which was the ordinance of nature and of God. But it is more +likely that the cause of his withdrawal was dismay at the dangers upon +which they were about to enter. These were such as might well strike +terror even into resolute hearts. Behind Perga rose the snow-clad +peaks of the Taurus Mountains, which had to be penetrated through +narrow passes, where crazy bridges spanned the rushing torrents, and +the castles of robbers, who watched for passing travelers to pounce +upon, were hidden in positions so inaccessible that even the Roman army +had not been able to exterminate them. When these preliminary dangers +were surmounted, the prospect beyond was anything but inviting: the +country to the north of the Taurus was a vast tableland, more elevated +than the summits of the highest mountains in this country, and +scattered over with solitary lakes, irregular mountain masses and +tracts of desert, where the population was rude and spoke an almost +endless variety of dialects. These things terrified Mark, and he drew +back. But his companions took their lives in their hand and went +forward. To them it was enough that there were multitudes of perishing +souls there, needing the salvation of which they were the heralds; and +Paul knew that there were scattered handfuls of his own people in these +remote regions of the heathen. + + +84. Can we conceive what their procedure was like in the towns they +visited? It is difficult, indeed, to picture it to ourselves. As we +try to see them with the mind's eye entering any place, we naturally +think of them as the most important personages in it; to us their entry +is as august as if they had been carried on a car of victory. Very +different, however, was the reality. They entered a town as quietly +and as unnoticed as any two strangers who may walk into one of our +towns any morning. Their first care was to get a lodging; and then +they had to seek for employment, for they worked at their trade +wherever they went. Nothing could be more commonplace. Who could +dream that this travel-stained man, going from one tentmaker's door to +another, seeking for work, was carrying the future of the world beneath +his robe! + +When the Sabbath came round, they would cease from toil, like the other +Jews in the place, and repair to the synagogue. They joined in the +psalms and prayers with the other worshipers and listened to the +reading of the Scriptures. After this the presiding elder might ask if +any one present had a word of exhortation to deliver. This was Paul's +opportunity. He would rise and, with outstretched hand, begin to +speak. At once the audience recognized the accents of the cultivated +rabbi: and the strange voice won their attention. Taking up the +passages which had been read, he would soon be moving forward on the +stream of Jewish history, till he led up to the astounding announcement +that the Messiah hoped for by their fathers and promised by their +prophets had come; and he had been sent among them as His apostle. +Then would follow the story of Jesus; it was true, He had been rejected +by the authorities of Jerusalem and crucified, but this could be shown +to have taken place in accordance with prophecy; and His resurrection +from the dead was an infallible proof that He had been sent of God: now +He was exalted a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance unto Israel +and the remission of sins. + +We can easily imagine the sensation produced by such a sermon from such +a preacher and the buzz of conversation which would arise among the +congregation after the dismissal of the synagogue. During the week it +would become the talk of the town: and Paul was willing to converse at +his work or in the leisure of the evening with any who might desire +further information. Next Sabbath the synagogue would be crowded, not +with Jews only, but Gentiles also, who were curious to see the +strangers; and Paul now unfolded the secret that salvation by Jesus +Christ was as free to Gentiles as to Jews. This was generally the +signal for the Jews to contradict and blaspheme; and, turning his back +on them, Paul addressed himself to the Gentiles. But meantime the +fanaticism of the Jews was roused, who either stirred up the mob or +secured the interest of the authorities against the strangers; and in a +storm of popular tumult or by the breath of authority the messengers of +the gospel were swept out of the town. This was what happened at +Antioch in Pisidia, their first halting-place in the interior of Asia +Minor; and it was repeated in a hundred instances in Paul's subsequent +life. + + +85. Sometimes they did not get off so easily. At Lystra, for example, +they found themselves in a population of rude heathens, who were at +first so charmed with Paul's winning words and impressed with the +appearance of the preachers that they took them for gods and were on +the point of offering sacrifice to them. This filled the missionaries +with horror, and they rejected the intentions of the crowd with +unceremonious haste. A sudden revolution in the popular sentiment +ensued, and Paul was stoned and cast out of the city apparently dead. + + +86. Such were the scenes of excitement and peril through which they +had to pass in this remote region. But their enthusiasm never flagged; +they never thought of turning back, but, when they were driven out of +one city, moved forward to another. And, total as their discomfitures +sometimes appeared, they quitted no city without leaving behind them a +little band of converts--perhaps a few Jews, a few more proselytes, and +a number of Gentiles. The gospel found those for whom it was +intended--penitents burdened with sin, souls dissatisfied with the +world and their ancestral religion, hearts yearning for divine sympathy +and love; "as many as were ordained to eternal life believed;" and +these formed in every city the nucleus of a Christian church. Even at +Lystra, where the defeat seemed so utter, a little group of faithful +hearts gathered round the mangled body of the apostle outside the city +gates; Eunice and Lois were there with tender womanly ministrations; +and young Timothy, as he looked down on the pale and bleeding face, +felt his heart forever knit to the hero who had courage to suffer to +the death for his faith. + + +87. In the intense love of such hearts Paul received compensation for +suffering and injustice. If, as some suppose, the people of this +region formed part of the Galatian churches, we see from his Epistle to +them the kind of love they gave him. They received him, he says, as an +angel of God, nay, as Jesus Christ Himself; they were ready to have +plucked out their eyes and given them to him. They were people of rude +kindness and headlong impulses; their native religion was one of +excitement and demonstrativeness, and they carried these +characteristics into the new faith they had adopted. They were filled +with joy and the Holy Ghost, and the revival spread on every hand with +great rapidity, till the word, sounding out from the little Christian +communities, was heard all along the slopes of Taurus and down the +glens of the Cestrus and Halys. + +Paul's warm heart could not but enjoy such an outburst of affection. +He responded to it by giving in return his own deep love. The towns +mentioned in their itinerary are the Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, +and Derbe; but, when at the last of them he had finished his course and +the way lay open to him to descend by the Cilician Gates to Tarsus and +thence get back to Antioch, he preferred to return by the way he had +come. In spite of the most imminent danger he revisited all these +places to see his dear converts again and cheer them in face of +persecution; and he ordained elders in every city to watch over the +churches in his absence. + + +88. The Return.--At length the missionaries descended again from these +uplands to the southern coast and sailed back to Antioch, from which +they had set out. Worn with toil and suffering, but flushed with the +joy of success, they appeared among those who had sent them forth and +had doubtless been following them with their prayers; and, like +discoverers returned from the finding of a new country, they related +the miracles of grace they had witnessed in the strange world of the +heathen. + + +THE SECOND JOURNEY + +89. In his first journey Paul may be said to have been only trying his +wings; for his course, adventurous though it was, only swept in a +limited circle round his native province. In his second journey he +performed a far more distant and perilous flight. Indeed, this journey +was not only the greatest he achieved but perhaps the most momentous +recorded in the annals of the human race. In its issues it far +outrivaled the expedition of Alexander the Great, when he carried the +arms and civilization of Greece into the heart of Asia, or that of +Caesar, when he landed on the shores of Britain, or even the voyage of +Columbus, when he discovered a new world. Yet, when he set out on it, +he had no idea of the magnitude which it was to assume or even the +direction which it was to take. After enjoying a short rest at the +close of the first journey, he said to his fellow-missionary, "Let us +go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached +the word of the Lord and see how they do." It was the parental longing +to see his spiritual children which was drawing him; but God had far +more extensive designs, which opened up before him as he went forward. + + +90. Separation from Barnabas.--Unfortunately the beginning of this +journey was marred by a dispute between the two friends who meant to +perform it together. The occasion of their difference was the offer of +John Mark to accompany them. No doubt when this young man saw Paul and +Barnabas returning safe and sound from the undertaking which he had +deserted, he recognized what a mistake he had made; and he now wished +to retrieve his error by rejoining them. Barnabas naturally wished to +take his nephew, but Paul absolutely refused. The one missionary, a +man of easy kindliness, urged the duty of forgiveness and the effect +which a rebuff might have on a beginner; while the other, full of zeal +for God, represented the danger of making so sacred a work in any way +dependent on one who could not be relied upon, for "confidence in an +unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth or a foot out +of joint." + +We cannot now tell which of them was in the right or if both were +partly wrong. Both of them, at all events, suffered for it: Paul had +to part in anger from the man to whom he probably owed more than to any +other human being; and Barnabas was separated from the grandest spirit +of the age. + + +91. They never met again. This was not due, however, to an +unchristian continuation of the quarrel; for the heat of passion soon +cooled down and the old love returned. Paul mentions Barnabas with +honor in his writings, and in the very last of his Epistles he sends +for Mark to come to him at Rome, expressly adding that he is profitable +to him for ministry--the very thing he had disbelieved about him +before. In the meantime, however, their difference separated them. +They agreed to divide between them the region they had evangelized +together. Barnabas and Mark went away to Cyprus; and Paul undertook to +visit the churches on the mainland. As companion he took with him +Silas, or Silvanus, in the place of Barnabas; and he had not proceeded +far on his new journey when he met with one to take the place of Mark. +This was Timothy, a convert he had made at Lystra in his first journey; +he was youthful and gentle; and he continued a faithful companion and a +constant comfort to the apostle to the end of his life. + + +92. Unrecorded Work.--In pursuance of the purpose with which he had +set out, Paul began this journey by revisiting the churches in the +founding of which he had taken part. Beginning at Antioch and +proceeding in a northwesterly direction, he did this work in Syria, +Cilicia and other parts, till he reached the center of Asia Minor, +where the primary object of his journey was completed. But, when a man +is on the right road, all sorts of opportunities open up before him. +When he had passed through the provinces which he had visited before, +new desires to penetrate still farther began to fire his mind, and +Providence opened up the way. + +He still went forward in the same direction through Phrygia and +Galatia. Bithynia, a large province lying along the shore of the Black +Sea, and Asia, a densely populated province in the west of Asia Minor, +seemed to invite him and he wished to enter them. But the Spirit who +guided his footsteps indicated, by some means unknown to us, that these +provinces were shut to him in the meantime; and, pushing onward in the +direction in which his divine Guide permitted him to go, he found +himself at Troas, a town on the northwest coast of Asia Minor. + + +93. Thus he had traveled from Antioch in the south-east to Troas in +the northwest of Asia Minor, a distance as far as from Land's End to +John O' Groat's, evangelizing all the way. It must have taken months, +perhaps even years. Yet of this long, laborious period we possess no +details whatever, except such features of his intercourse with the +Galatians as may be gathered from the Epistle to that church. The +truth is that, thrilling as are the notices of Paul's career given in +the Acts, this record is a very meager and imperfect one, and his life +was far fuller of adventure, of labors and sufferings for Christ, than +even Luke's narrative would lead us to suppose. The plan of the Acts +is to tell only what was most novel and characteristic in each journey, +while it passes over, for instance, all his repeated visits to the same +scenes. There are thus great blanks in the history, which were in +reality as full of interest as the portions of his life which are fully +described. + +Of this there is a startling proof in an Epistle which he wrote within +the period covered by the Acts of the Apostles. His argument calling +upon him to enumerate some of his outstanding adventures, "Are they +ministers of Christ?" he asks, "I am more; in labors more abundant, in +stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the +Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten +with rods. Once was I stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night +and a day have I been in the deep. In journeyings often, in perils of +water, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in +perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the +wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in +weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in +fastings often, in cold and nakedness." + +Now, of the items of this extraordinary catalogue the book of Acts +mentions very few: of the five Jewish scourgings it notices not one, of +the three Roman beatings only one; the one stoning it records, but not +one of the three shipwrecks, for the shipwreck so fully detailed in the +Acts happened later. It was no part of the design of Luke to +exaggerate the figure of the hero he was painting; his brief and modest +narrative comes far short even of the reality; and, as we pass over the +few simple words into which he condenses the story of months or years, +our imagination requires to be busy, filling up the outline with toils +and pains at least equal to those the memory of which he has preserved. + + +94. Crossing to Europe.--It would appear that Paul reached Troas under +the direction of the guiding Spirit without being aware whither his +steps were next to be turned. But could he doubt what the divine +intention was when, gazing across the silver streak of the Hellespont, +he beheld the shores of Europe on the other side? He was now within +the charmed circle where for ages civilization had had her home; and he +could not be entirely ignorant of those stories of war and enterprise +and those legends of love and valor which have made it forever bright +and dear to the heart of mankind. + +At only four miles' distance lay the Plain of Troy, where Europe and +Asia encountered each other in the struggle celebrated in Homer's +immortal song. Not far off Xerxes, sitting on a marble throne, +reviewed the three millions of Asiatics with which he meant to bring +Europe to his feet. On the other side of that narrow strait lay Greece +and Rome, the centers from which issued the learning, the commerce and +the armies which governed the world. Could his heart, so ambitious for +the glory of Christ, fail to be fired with the desire to cast himself +upon these strongholds, or could he doubt that the Spirit was leading +him forward to this enterprise? He knew that Greece, with all her +wisdom, lacked that knowledge which makes wise unto salvation, and that +the Romans, though they were the conquerors of this world, did not know +the way of winning an inheritance in the world that is to come; but in +his breast he carried the secret which they both required. + + +95. It may have been such thoughts, dimly moving in his mind, that +projected themselves into the vision which he saw at Troas; or was it +the vision which first awakened the idea of crossing to Europe? As he +lay asleep, with the murmur of the Aegean in his ears, he saw a man +standing on the opposite coast, on which he had been looking before he +went to rest, beckoning and crying, "Come over into Macedonia and help +us." That figure represented Europe, and its cry for help Europe's +need of Christ. Paul recognized in it a divine summons; and the very +next sunset which bathed the Hellespont in its golden light shone upon +his figure seated on the deck of a ship the prow of which was moving +toward the shore of Macedonia. + + +96. In this passage of Paul, from Asia to Europe, a great providential +decision was taking effect, of which, as children of the West, we +cannot think without the profoundest thankfulness. Christianity arose +in Asia and among an Oriental people; and it might have been expected +to spread first among those races to which the Jews were most akin. +Instead of coming west, it might have gone eastward. It might have +penetrated into Arabia and taken possession of those regions where the +faith of the False Prophet now holds sway. It might have visited the +wandering tribes of Central Asia and, piercing its way down through the +passes of the Himalayas, reared its temples on the banks of the Ganges, +the Indus and the Godavery. It might have traveled farther east to +deliver the swarming millions of China from the cold secularism of +Confucius. Had it done so, missionaries from India and Japan might +have been coming to England and America at the present day to tell the +story of the Cross. But Providence conferred on Europe a blessed +priority, and the fate of our continent was decided when Paul crossed +the Aegean. + + +97. Macedonia.--As Greece lay nearer than Rome to the shore of Asia, +its conquest for Christ was the great achievement of his second +missionary journey. Like the rest of the world it was at that time +under the sway of Rome, and the Romans had divided it into two +provinces--Macedonia in the north and Achaia in the south. Macedonia +was, therefore, the first scene of Paul's Greek mission. It was +traversed from east to west by a great Roman road, along which the +missionary moved, and the places where we have accounts of his labors +are Philippi, Thessalonica and Beroea. + + +98. The Greek character in this northern province was much less +corrupted than in the more polished society to the south. In the +Macedonian population there still lingered something of the vigor and +courage which four centuries before had made its soldiers the +conquerors of the world. The churches which Paul founded here gave him +more comfort than any he established elsewhere. There are none of his +Epistles more cheerful and cordial than those to the Thessalonians and +the Philippians; and, as he wrote the latter late in life, the +perseverance of the Macedonians in adhering to the gospel must have +been as remarkable as the welcome they gave it at the first. At Beroea +he even met with a generous and open-minded synagogue of Jews--the +rarest occurrence in his experience. + + +99. Women and the Gospel.--A prominent feature of the work in +Macedonia was the part taken in it by women. Amid the general decay of +religions throughout the world at this period, many women everywhere +sought satisfaction for their religious instincts in the pure faith of +the synagogue. In Macedonia, perhaps on account of its sound morality, +these female proselytes were more numerous than elsewhere; and they +pressed in large numbers into the Christian Church. This was a good +omen; it was a prophecy of the happy change in the lot of women which +Christianity was to produce in the nations of the West. If man owes +much to Christ, woman owes still more. He has delivered her from the +degradation of being man's slave and plaything and raised her to be his +friend and his equal before Heaven; while, on the other hand, a new +glory has been added to Christ's religion by the fineness and dignity +with which it is invested when embodied in the female character. + +These things were vividly illustrated in the earliest footsteps of +Christianity on our continent. The first convert in Europe was a +woman, at the first Christian service held on European soil the heart +of Lydia being opened to receive the truth; and the change which passed +upon her prefigured what woman in Europe was to become under the +influence of Christianity. In the same town of Philippi there was +seen, too, at the same time an equally representative image of the +condition of woman in Europe before the gospel reached it, in a poor +girl, possessed of a spirit of divination and held in slavery by men +who were making gain out of her misfortune, whom Paul restored to +sanity. Her misery and degradation were a symbol of the disfiguration, +as Lydia's sweet and benevolent Christian character was of the +transfiguration of womanhood. + + +100. Liberality of the Churches.--Another feature which prominently +marked the Macedonian churches was a spirit of liberality. They +insisted on supplying the bodily wants of the missionaries; and, even +after Paul had left them, they sent gifts to meet his necessities in +other towns. Long afterward, when he was a prisoner at Rome, they +deputed Epaphroditus, one of their teachers, to carry thither similar +gifts to him and to act as his attendant. Paul accepted the generosity +of these loyal hearts, though in other places he would work his fingers +to the bone and forego his natural rest rather than accept similar +favors. Nor was their willingness to give due to superior wealth. On +the contrary, they gave out of deep poverty. They were poor to begin +with, and they were made poorer by the persecutions which they had to +endure. These were very severe after Paul left, and they lasted long. +Of course they had broken first of all on Paul himself. Though he was +so successful in Macedonia, he was swept out of every town at last like +the off-scourings of all things. It was generally by the Jews that +this was brought about. They either fanaticized the mob against him, +or accused him before the Roman authorities of introducing a new +religion or disturbing the peace or proclaiming a king who would be a +rival to Caesar. They would neither go into the kingdom of heaven +themselves nor suffer others to enter. + + +101. But God protected His servant. At Philippi He delivered him from +prison by a physical miracle and by a miracle of grace still more +marvelous wrought upon his cruel jailor; and in other towns He saved +him by more natural means. In spite of bitter opposition, churches +were founded in city after city, and from these the glad tidings +sounded out over the whole province of Macedonia. + + +102. Achaia.--When, leaving Macedonia, Paul proceeded south into +Achaia, he entered the real Greece--the paradise of genius and renown. +The memorials of the country's greatness rose around him on his +journey. As he quitted Beroea, he could see behind him the snowy peaks +of Mount Olympus, where the deities of Greece had been supposed to +dwell. Soon he was sailing past Thermopylae, where the immortal Three +Hundred stood against the barbarian myriads; and, as his voyage neared +its close, he saw before him the island of Salamis, where again the +existence of Greece was saved from extinction by the valor of her sons. + + +103. Athens.--His destination was Athens, the capital of the country. +As he entered the city, he could not be insensible to the great +memories which clung to its streets and monuments. Here the human mind +had blazed forth with a splendor it has never exhibited elsewhere. In +the golden age of its history Athens possessed more men of the very +highest genius than have ever lived in any other city. To this day +their names invest it with glory. Yet even in Paul's day the living +Athens was a thing of the past. Four hundred years had elapsed since +its golden age, and in the course of these centuries it had experienced +a sad decline. Philosophy had degenerated into sophistry, art into +dilettanteism, oratory into rhetoric, poetry into versemaking. It was +a city living on its past. Yet it still had a great name and was full +of culture and learning of a kind. It swarmed with so-called +philosophers of different schools, and with teachers and professors of +every variety of knowledge; and thousands of strangers of the wealthy +class, collected from all parts of the world, lived there for study or +the gratification of their intellectual tastes. It still represented +to an intelligent visitor one of the great factors in the life of the +world. + + +104. With the amazing versatility which enabled him to be all things +to all men, Paul adapted himself to this population also. In the +market-place, the lounge of the learned, he entered into conversation +with students and philosophers, as Socrates had been wont to do on the +same spot five centuries before. But he found even less appetite for +the truth than the wisest of the Greeks had met with. Instead of the +love of truth an insatiable intellectual curiosity possessed the +inhabitants. This made them willing enough to tolerate the advances of +any one bringing before them a new doctrine; and, as long as Paul was +merely developing the speculative part of his message, they listened to +him with pleasure. Their interest seemed to deepen, and at last a +multitude of them conveyed him to Mars' Hill, in the very center of the +splendors of their city, and requested a full statement of his faith. +He complied with their wishes and in the magnificent speech he there +made them, gratified their peculiar tastes to the full, as in sentences +of the noblest eloquence he unfolded the great truths of the unity of +God and the unity of man, which lie at the foundation of Christianity. +But, when he advanced from these preliminaries to touch the consciences +of his audience and address them about their own salvation, they +departed in a body and left him talking. + + +105. He quitted Athens and never returned to it. Nowhere else had he +so completely failed. He had been accustomed to endure the most +violent persecution and to rally from it with a light heart. But there +is something worse than persecution to a fiery faith like his, and he +had to encounter it here: his message roused neither interest nor +opposition. The Athenians never thought of persecuting him; they +simply did not care what the babbler said; and this cold disdain cut +him more deeply than the stones of the mob or the lictors' rods. Never +perhaps was he so much depressed. When he left Athens, he moved on to +Corinth, the other great city of Achaia; and he tells us himself that +he arrived there in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. + + +106. Corinth.--There was in Corinth enough of the spirit of Athens to +prevent these feelings from being easily assuaged. Corinth was to +Athens very much what Glasgow is to Edinburgh. The one was the +commercial, the other the intellectual capital of the country. Even +the situations of the two places in Greece resembled in some respects +those of these two cities in Scotland. But the Corinthians also were +full of disputatious curiosity and intellectual hauteur. Paul dreaded +the same kind of reception as he had met with in Athens. Could it be +that these were people for whom the gospel had no message? This was +the staggering question which was making him tremble. There seemed to +be nothing in them on which the gospel could take hold: they appeared +to feel no wants which it could satisfy. + + +107. There were other elements of discouragement in Corinth. It was +the Paris of ancient times--a city rich and luxurious, wholly abandoned +to sensuality. Vice displayed itself without shame in forms which +struck deadly despair into Paul's pure Jewish mind. Could men be +rescued from the grasp of such monstrous vices? Besides, the +opposition of the Jews rose here to unusual virulence. He was +compelled at length to depart from the synagogue altogether, and did so +with expressions of strong feeling. Was the soldier of Christ going to +be driven off the field and forced to confess that the gospel was not +suited for cultured Greece? It looked like it. + + +108. But the tide turned. At the critical moment Paul was visited +with one of those visions which were wont to be vouchsafed to him at +the most trying and decisive crises of his history. The Lord appeared +to him in the night, saying, "Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not +thy peace; for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt +thee; for I have much people in this city." The apostle took courage +again, and the causes of discouragement began to clear away. The +opposition of the Jews was broken, when they hurried him with mob +violence before the Roman governor, Gallio, but were dismissed from the +tribunal with ignominy and disdain. The very president of the +synagogue became a Christian, and conversions multiplied among the +native Corinthians. Paul enjoyed the solace of living under the roof +of two leal-hearted friends of his own race and his own occupation, +Aquila and Priscilla. He remained a year and a half in the city and +founded one of the most interesting of his churches, thus planting the +standard of the cross in Achaia also and proving that the gospel was +the power of God unto salvation even in the headquarters of the world's +wisdom. + + +THE THIRD JOURNEY + +109. It must have been a thrilling story Paul had to tell at Jerusalem +and Antioch when he returned from his second journey; but he had no +disposition to rest on his laurels, and it was hot long before he set +out on his third journey. + + +110. In Asia.--It might have been expected that, having in his second +journey planted the gospel in Greece, he would in his third have made +Home his principal aim. But, if the map be referred to, it will be +observed that, in the midst, between the regions of Asia Minor which he +evangelized during his first journey and the provinces of Greece in +which he planted churches in his second journey, there was a +hiatus--the populous province of Asia, in the west of Asia Minor. It +was on this region that he descended in his third journey. Staying for +no less than three years in Ephesus, its capital, he effectively filled +up the gap and connected together the conquests of his former +campaigns. This journey included, indeed, at its beginning, a +visitation of all the churches formerly founded in Asia Minor and, at +its close, a flying visit to the churches of Greece; but, true to his +plan of dwelling only on what was new in each journey, the author of +the Acts has supplied us only with the details relating to Ephesus. + + +111. Ephesus.--This city was at that time the Liverpool of the +Mediterranean. It possessed a splendid harbor, in which was +concentrated the traffic of the sea which was then the highway of the +nations; and, as Liverpool has behind her the great towns of +Lancashire, so had Ephesus behind and around her such cities as those +mentioned along with her in the epistles to the churches in the book of +Revelation--Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and +Laodicea. It was a city of vast wealth, and it was given over to every +kind of pleasure, the fame of its theater and race-course being +world-wide. + + +112. But Ephesus was still more famous as a sacred city. It was a +seat of the worship of the goddess Diana, whose temple was one of the +most celebrated shrines of the ancient world. This temple was +enormously rich and harbored great numbers of priests. At certain +seasons of the year it was a resort for flocks of pilgrims from the +surrounding regions; and the inhabitants of the town flourished by +ministering in various ways to this superstition. The goldsmiths drove +a trade in little silver models of the image of the goddess which the +temple contained and which was said to have fallen from heaven. Copies +of the mystic characters engraven on this ancient relic were sold as +charms. The city swarmed with wizards, fortune-tellers, interpreters +of dreams and other gentry of the like kind, who traded on the +mariners, merchants and pilgrims who frequented the port. + + +113. Paul's work had therefore to assume the form of a polemic against +superstition. He wrought such astonishing miracles in the name of +Jesus that some of the Jewish palterers with the invisible world +attempted to cast out devils by invoking the same name; but the attempt +issued in their signal discomfiture. Other professors of magical arts +were converted to the Christian faith and burnt their books. The +vendors of superstitious objects saw their trade slipping through their +fingers. To such an extent did this go at one of the festivals of the +goddess that the silversmiths, whose traffic in little images had been +specially smitten, organized a riot against Paul, which took place in +the theater and was so successful that he was forced to quit the city. + + +114. But he did not go before Christianity was firmly established in +Ephesus, and the beacon of the gospel was twinkling brightly on the +Asian coast, in response to that which was shining from the shores of +Greece on the other side of the Aegean. We have a monument of his +success in the churches lying all around Ephesus which St. John +addressed a few years afterward in the Apocalypse; for they were +probably the indirect fruit of Paul's labors. But we have a far more +astonishing monument of it in the Epistle to the Ephesians. This is +perhaps the profoundest book in existence; yet its author evidently +expected the Ephesians to understand it. If the orations of +Demosthenes, with their closely packed arguments between the +articulations of which even a knife cannot be thrust, be a monument of +the intellectual greatness of the Greece which listened to them with +pleasure; if the plays of Shakspeare, with their deep views of life and +their obscure and complex language, be a testimony to the strength of +mind of the Elizabethan Age, which could enjoy such solid fare in a +place of entertainment; then the Epistle to the Ephesians, which sounds +the lowest depths of Christian doctrine and scales the loftiest heights +of Christian experience, is a testimony to the proficiency which Paul's +converts had attained under his preaching in the capital of Asia. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +HIS WRITINGS AND HIS CHARACTER + +Paragraphs 115-127. + + 115-119. HIS WRITINGS. 115, 116. Principal Literary + Period. 117. Form of his Writings. 118. His + Style. 119. Inspiration. + 120-127. HIS CHARACTER. 121. Combination of + Natural and Spiritual. + 122-127. Characteristics. 122. Physique; 123. Enterprise; + 124. Influence over Men; 128. Unselfishness; + 126. Sense of having a Mission; 127. Personal + Devotion to Christ. + + +115. Principal Literary Period.--It has been mentioned that the third +missionary journey closed with a flying visit to the churches of +Greece. This visit lasted several months; but in the Acts it is passed +over in two or three verses. Probably it was little marked with those +exciting incidents which naturally tempt the biographer into detail. +Yet we know from other sources that it was nearly the most important +part of Paul's life; for during this half-year he wrote the greatest of +all his Epistles, that to the Romans, and two others only less +important--that to the Galatians and the Second to the Corinthians. + + +116. We have thus alighted on the portion of his life most signalized +by literary work. Overpowering as is the impression of the +remarkableness of this man produced by following him, as we have been +doing, as he hurries from province to province, from continent to +continent, over land and sea, in pursuit of the object to which he was +devoted, this impression is immensely deepened when we remember that he +was at the same time the greatest thinker of his age, if not of any +age, and, in the midst of his outward labors, was producing writings +which have ever since been among the mightiest intellectual forces of +the world, and are still growing in their influence. + +In this respect he rises sheer above all other evangelists and +missionaries. Some of them may have approached him in certain +respects--Xavier or Livingstone in the world-conquering instinct, St. +Bernard or Whitefield in earnestness and activity. But few of these +men added a single new idea to the world's stock of beliefs, whereas +Paul, while at least equaling them in their own special line, gave to +mankind a new world of thought. If his Epistles could perish, the loss +to literature would be the greatest possible with only one +exception--that of the Gospels which record the life, the sayings and +the death of our Lord. They have quickened the mind of the Church as +no other writings have done, and scattered in the soil of the world +hundreds of seeds the fruits of which are now the general possession of +mankind. Out of them have been brought the watchwords of progress in +every reformation which the Church has experienced. When Luther awoke +Europe from the slumber of centuries, it was a word of Paul which he +uttered with his mighty voice: and when, one hundred years ago, our own +country was revived from almost universal spiritual death, she was +called by the voices of men who had rediscovered the truth for +themselves in the pages of Paul. + + +117. Form of his Writings.--Yet in penning his Epistles Paul may +himself have had little idea of the part they were to play in the +future. They were drawn out of him simply by the exigencies of his +work. In the truest sense of the word they were letters, written to +meet particular occasions, not formal writings, carefully designed and +executed with a view to fame or to futurity. Letters of the right kind +are, before everything else, products of the heart; and it was the +eager heart of Paul, yearning for the weal of his spiritual children or +alarmed by the dangers to which they were exposed, that produced all +his writings. They were part of his day's work. Just as he flew over +sea and land to revisit his converts, or sent Timothy or Titus to carry +them his counsels and bring news of how they fared, so, when these +means were not available, he would send a letter with the same design. + + +118. His Style.--This may seem to detract from the value of these +writings. We may be inclined to wish that, instead of having the +course of his thinking determined by the exigencies of so many special +occasions and his attention distracted by so many minute particulars, +he had been able to concentrate the force of his mind on one perfect +book and expound his views on the high subjects which occupied his +thoughts in a systematic form. It cannot be maintained that Paul's +Epistles are models of style. They were written far too hurriedly for +this; and the last thing he thought of was to polish his periods. +Often, indeed, his ideas, by the mere virtue of their fineness and +beauty, run into forms of exquisite language, or there is in them such +a sustained throb of emotion that they shape themselves spontaneously +into sentences of noble eloquence. But oftener his language is rugged +and formless; no doubt it was the first which came to hand for +expressing what he had to say. He begins sentences and omits to finish +them; he goes off into digressions and forgets to pick up the line of +thought he has dropped; he throws out his ideas in lumps instead of +fusing them into mutual coherence. + +Nowhere perhaps will there be found so exact a parallel to the style of +Paul as in the Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell. In the +Protector's brain there lay the best and truest thoughts about England +and her complicated affairs which existed at the time in that island; +but, when he tried to express them in speech or letter, there issued +from his mind the most extraordinary mixture of exclamations, +questions, arguments soon losing themselves in the sands of words, +unwieldy parentheses, and morsels of beautiful pathos or subduing +eloquence. Yet, as you read these amazing utterances, you come by +degrees to feel that you are getting to see the very heart and soul of +the Puritan Era, and that you would rather be beside this man than any +other representative of the period. You see the events and ideas of +the time in the very process of birth. + +Perhaps, indeed, a certain formlessness is a natural accompaniment of +the very highest originality. The perfect expression and orderly +arrangement of ideas is a later process; but, when great thoughts are +for the first time coming forth, there is a kind of primordial +roughness about them, as if the earth out of which they are arising +were still clinging to them: the polishing of the gold comes late and +has to be preceded by the heaving of the ore out of the bowels of +nature. Paul in his writings is hurling forth the original ore of +truth. We owe to him hundreds of ideas which were never uttered before. + +After the original man has got his idea out, the most commonplace +scribe may be able to express it for others better than he, though he +could never have originated it. So throughout the writings of Paul +there are materials which others may combine into systems of theology +and ethics, and it is the duty of the Church to do so. But his +Epistles permit us to see revelation in the very process of birth. As +we read them closely, we seem to be witnessing the creation of a world +of truth, as the angels wondered to see the firmament evolving itself +out of chaos and the multitudinous earth spreading itself forth in the +light. Minute as are the details he has often to deal with, the whole +of his vast view of the truth is recalled in his treatment of every one +of them, as the whole sky is mirrored in a single drop of dew. What +could be a more impressive proof of the fecundity of his mind than the +fact that, amid the innumerable distractions of a second visit to his +Greek converts, he should have written in half a year three such books +as Romans, Galatians and Second Corinthians? + + +119. His Inspiration.--It was God by His Spirit who communicated this +revelation of truth to Paul. Its own greatness and divineness supply +the best proof that it could have had no other origin. But none the +less did it break in upon Paul with the joy and pain of original +thought; it came to him through his experience; it drenched and dyed +every fiber of his mind and heart; and the expression which it found in +his writings was in accordance with his peculiar genius and +circumstances. + + +120. The Man Revealed in his Letters.--It would be easy to suggest +compensations in the form of Paul's writings for the literary qualities +they lack. But one of these so outweighs all others that it is +sufficient by itself to justify in this case the ways of God. In no +other literary form could we, to the same extent, in the writings have +got the man. Letters are the most personal form of literature. A man +may write a treatise or a history or even a poem and hide his +personality behind it; but letters are valueless unless the writer +shows himself. Paul is constantly visible in his letters. You can +feel his heart throbbing in every chapter he ever wrote. He has +painted his own portrait--not only that of the outward man, but of his +innermost feelings--as no one else could have painted it. It is not +from Luke, admirable as is the picture drawn in the Acts of the +Apostles, that we learn what the true Paul was, but from Paul himself. +The truths he reveals are all seen embodied in the man. As there are +some preachers who are greater than their sermons, and the principal +gain of their hearers, in listening to them, is obtained in the +inspiring glimpses they obtain of a great and sanctified personality, +so the best thing in the writings of Paul is Paul himself, or rather +the grace of God in him. + + +121. His character presented a wonderful combination of the natural +and the spiritual. From nature he had received a strongly marked +individuality; but the change which Christianity produces was no less +obvious in him. In no saved man's character is it possible to separate +nicely what is due to nature from what is due to grace; for nature and +grace blend sweetly in the redeemed life. In Paul the union of the two +was singularly complete; yet it was always clear that there were two +elements in him of diverse origin; and this is, indeed, the key to a +successful estimate of his character. + + +122. Physique.--To begin with what was most simply natural--his +physique was an important condition of his career. As want of ear may +make a musical career impossible or a failure of eyesight stop the +progress of a painter, so the missionary life is impossible without a +certain degree of physical stamina. To any one reading by itself the +catalogue of Paul's sufferings and observing the elasticity with which +he rallied from the severest of them and resumed his labors, it would +naturally occur that he must have been a person of Herculean mold. On +the contrary, he appears to have been little of stature, and his bodily +presence was weak. This weakness seems to have been sometimes +aggravated by disfiguring disease; and he felt keenly the +disappointment which he knew his bodily presence would excite among +strangers; for every preacher who loves his work would like to preach +the gospel with all the graces which conciliate the favor of hearers to +an orator. God, however, used his very weakness, beyond his hopes, to +draw out the tenderness of his converts; and so, when he was weak, then +he was strong, and he was able to glory even in his infirmities. + +There is a theory, which has obtained extensive currency, that the +disease he suffered from was violent ophthalmia, causing disagreeable +redness of the eyelids. But its grounds are very slender. He seems, +on the contrary, to have had a remarkable power of fascinating and +cowing an enemy with the keenness of his glance, as in the story of +Elymas the sorcerer, which reminds us of the tradition about Luther, +that his eyes sometimes so glowed and sparkled that bystanders could +scarcely look on them. + +There is no foundation whatever for an idea of some recent biographers +of Paul that his bodily constitution was excessively fragile and +chronically afflicted with shattering nervous disease. No one could +have gone through his labors or suffered the stoning, the scourgings +and other tortures he endured without having an exceptionally tough and +sound constitution. It is true that he was sometimes worn out with +illness and torn down with the acts of violence to which he was +exposed; but the rapidity of his recovery on such occasions proves what +a large fund of bodily force he had to draw upon. And who can doubt +that, when his face was melted with tender love in beseeching men to be +reconciled to God or lighted up with enthusiasm in the delivery of his +message, it must have possessed a noble beauty far above mere +regularity of feature? + + +123. Enterprise.--There was a good deal that was natural in another +element of his character on which much depended--his spirit of +enterprise. There are many men who like to grow where they are born; +to have to change into new circumstances and make acquaintance with new +people is intolerable to them. But there are others who have a kind of +vagabondism in the blood; they are the persons intended by nature for +emigrants and pioneers; and, if they take to the work of the ministry, +they make the best missionaries. + +In modern times no missionary has had this consecrated spirit of +adventure in the same degree as that great Scotchman, David +Livingstone. When he first went to Africa, he found the missionaries +clustered in the south of the continent, just within the fringe of +heathenism; they had their houses and gardens, their families, their +small congregations of natives; and they were content. But he moved at +once away beyond the rest into the heart of heathenism, and dreams of +more distant regions never ceased to haunt him, till at length he began +his extraordinary tramps over thousands of miles where no missionary +had ever been before; and, when death overtook him, he was still +pressing forward. + +Paul's was a nature of the same stamp, full of courage and adventure. +The unknown in the distance, instead of dismaying, drew him on. He +could not bear to build on other men's foundations, but was constantly +hastening to virgin soil, leaving churches behind for others to build +up. He believed that, if he lit the lamp of the gospel here and there +over vast areas, the light would spread in his absence by its own +virtue. He liked to count the leagues he had left behind him, but his +watchword was ever Forward. In his dreams he saw men beckoning him to +new countries; he had always a long unfulfilled program in his mind; +and, as death approached, he was still thinking of journeys into the +remotest corners of the known world. + + +124. Influence Over Men.--Another element of his character near akin +to the one just mentioned was his influence over men. There are those +to whom it is painful to have to accost a stranger even on pressing +business; and most men are only quite at home in their own set--among +men of the same class or profession as themselves. But the life he had +chosen brought Paul into contact with men of every kind, and he had +constantly to be introducing to strangers the business with which he +was charged. He might be addressing a king or a consul the one hour +and a roomful of slaves or common soldiers the next. One day he had to +speak in the synagogue of the Jews, another among a crowd of Athenian +philosophers, another to the inhabitants of some provincial town far +from the seats of culture. But he could adapt himself to every man and +every audience. To the Jews he spoke as a rabbi out of the Old +Testament Scriptures; to the Greeks he quoted the words of their own +poets; and to the barbarians he talked of the God who giveth rain from +heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. + +When a weak or insincere man attempts to be all things to all men, he +ends by being nothing to anybody. But, living on this principle, Paul +found entrance for the gospel everywhere, and at the same time won for +himself the esteem and love of those to whom he stooped. If he was +bitterly hated by enemies, there was never a man more intensely loved +by his friends. They received him as an angel of God, or even as Jesus +Christ himself, and were ready to pluck out their eyes and give them to +him. One church was jealous of another getting too much of him. When +he was not able to pay a visit at the time he had promised, they were +furious, as if he had done them a wrong. When he was parting from +them, they wept sore and fell on his neck and kissed him. Numbers of +young men were continually about him, ready to go on his errands. It +was the largeness of his manhood which was the secret of this +fascination; for to a big nature all resort, feeling that in its +neighborhood it is well with them. + + +125. Unselfishness.--This popularity was partly, however, due to +another quality which shone conspicuously in his character--the spirit +of unselfishness. This is the rarest quality in human nature, and it +is the most powerful of all in its influence on others, where it exists +in purity and strength. Most men are so absorbed in their own +interests and so naturally expect others to be the same that, if they +see any one who appears to have no interests of his own to serve but is +willing to do as much for the sake of others as the generality do for +themselves, they are at first incredulous, suspecting that he is only +hiding his designs beneath the cloak of benevolence; but, if he stand +the test and his unselfishness prove to be genuine, there is no limit +to the homage they are prepared to pay him. As Paul appeared in +country after country and city after city, he was at first a complete +enigma to those whom he approached. They formed all sorts of +conjectures as to his real design. Was it money he was seeking, or +power, or something darker and less pure? His enemies never ceased to +throw out such insinuations. But those who got near him and saw the +man as he was, who knew that he refused money and worked with his hands +day and night to keep himself above the suspicion of mercenary motives, +who heard him pleading with them one by one in their homes and +exhorting them with tears to a holy life, who saw the sustained +personal interest he took in every one of them--these could not resist +the proofs of his disinterestedness or deny him their affection. + +There never was a man more unselfish; he had literally no interest of +his own to live for. Without family ties, he poured all the affections +of his big nature, which might have been given to wife and children, +into the channels of his work. He compares his tenderness toward his +converts to that of a nursing-mother to her children; he pleads with +them to remember that he is their father who has begotten them in the +gospel. They are his glory and crown, his hope and joy and crown of +rejoicing. Eager as he was for new conquests, he never lost his hold +upon those he had won. He could assure his churches that he prayed and +gave thanks for them night and day, and he remembered his converts by +name at the throne of grace. How could human nature resist +disinterestedness like this? If Paul was a conqueror of the world, he +conquered it by the power of love. + + +126. His Mission.--The two most distinctively Christian features of +his character have still to be mentioned. One of these was the sense +of having a divine mission to preach Christ, which he was bound to +fulfill. Most men merely drift through life, and the work they do is +determined by a hundred indifferent circumstances; they might as well +be doing anything else, or they would prefer, if they could afford it, +to be doing nothing at all. But, from the time when he became a +Christian, Paul knew that he had a definite work to do; and the call he +had received to it never ceased to ring like a tocsin in his soul. +"Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel;" this was the impulse which +drove him on. He felt that he had a world of new truths to utter and +that the salvation of mankind depended on their utterance. He knew +himself called to make Christ known to as many of his fellow-creatures +as his utmost exertions could enable him to reach. It was this which +made him so impetuous in his movements, so blind to danger, so +contemptuous of suffering. "None of these things move me, neither +count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with +joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to +testify the gospel of the grace of God." He lived with the account +which he would have to give at the judgment-seat of Christ ever in his +eye, and his heart was revived in every hour of discouragement by the +vision of the crown of life which, if he proved faithful, the Lord; the +righteous Judge, would place upon his head. + + +127. Devotion to Christ.--The other peculiarly Christian quality which +shaped his career was personal devotion to Christ. This was the +supreme characteristic of the man, and from first to last the +mainspring of his activities. From the moment of his first meeting +with Christ he had but one passion; his love to his Saviour burned with +more and more brightness to the end. He delighted to call himself the +slave of Christ, and had no ambition except to be the propagator of His +ideas and the continuer of His influence. + +He took up this idea of being Christ's representative with startling +boldness. He says the heart of Christ is beating in his bosom toward +his converts; he says the mind of Christ is thinking in his brain; he +says that he is continuing the work of Christ and filling up that which +was lacking in His sufferings; he says the wounds of Christ are +reproduced in the scars upon his body; he says he is dying that others +may live, as Christ died for the life of the world. But it was in +reality the deepest humility which lay beneath these bold expressions. +He had the sense that Christ had done everything for him; He had +entered into him, casting out the old Paul and ending the old life, and +had begotten a new man, with new designs, feelings and activities. And +it was his deepest longing that this process should go on and become +complete--that his old self should vanish quite away, and that the new +self, which Christ had created in His own image and still sustained, +should become so predominant that, when the thoughts of his mind were +Christ's thoughts, the words on his lips Christ's words, the deeds he +did Christ's deeds, and the character he wore Christ's character, he +might be able to say, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +PICTURE OF A PAULINE CHURCH + +Paragraphs 128-144. + + 128, 129. THE EXTERIOR AND THE INTERIOR VIEW OF HISTORY. + 130-143. A CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN A HEATHEN CITY. 131. The + Place of Meeting. 132, 133. The Persons Present. + 134-137. The Services. 138-148. Abuses and + Irregularities. 139, 140. Of Domestic Life. + 141-143. Inside the Church. + 144. INFERENCES. + + +128. History Without and Within.--A holiday visitor to a foreign city +walks through the streets, guidebook in hand, looking at monuments, +churches, public buildings and the outsides of the houses, and in this +way is supposed to be made acquainted with the town; but, on +reflection, he will find that he has scarcely learned anything about +it, because he has not been inside the houses. He does not know how +the people live--not even what kind of furniture they have or what kind +of food they eat--not to speak of far deeper matters, such as how they +love, what they admire and pursue, and whether they are content with +their lot. + +In reading history one is often at a loss in the same way. It is only +the outside of life that is made visible. It is as if the eye were +carried along the external surface of a tree, instead of seeing a +cross-section of its substance. The pomp and glitter of the court, the +wars waged and the victories won, the changes in the constitution and +the rise and fall of administrations, are faithfully recorded; but the +reader feels that he would learn far more of the real history of the +time if he could see for one hour what was happening beneath the roofs +of the peasant, the shopkeeper, the clergyman and the noble. + +Even in Scripture-history there is the same difficulty. In the +narrative of the Acts of the Apostles we receive thrilling accounts of +the external details of Paul's history; we are carried rapidly from +city to city and informed of the incidents which accompanied the +founding of the various churches; but we cannot help wishing sometimes +to stop and learn what one of these churches was like inside. In +Paphos or Iconium, in Thessalonica or Beroea or Corinth, how did things +go on after Paul left? What were the Christians like, and what was the +aspect of their worship? + + +129. Happily it is possible to obtain this interior view of things. +As Luke's narrative describes the outside of Paul's career, so Paul's +own Epistles permit us to see its deeper aspects. They rewrite the +history on a different plane. This is especially the case with those +Epistles written at the close of his third journey, which cast a flood +of light back upon the period covered by all his journeys. In addition +to the three Epistles already mentioned as having been written at this +time, there is another belonging to the same part of his life--the +First to the Corinthians--which may be said to transport us, as on a +magician's mantle, back over two thousand years and, stationing us in +mid-air above a great Greek city, in which there was a Christian +church, to take the roof off the meeting-house of the Christians and +permit us to see what was going on within. + + +130. A Christian Gathering in Corinth.--It is a strange spectacle we +witness from this coigne of vantage. It is Sabbath evening, but of +course the heathen city knows of no Sabbath. The day's work at the +busy seaport is over, and the streets are thronged with gay revelers +intent on a night of pleasure, for it is the wickedest city of that +wicked ancient world. Hundreds of merchants and sailors from foreign +parts are lounging about. The gay young Roman, who has come across to +this Paris for a bout of dissipation, drives his light chariot through +the streets. If it is near the time of the annual games, there are +groups of boxers, runners, charioteers and wrestlers, surrounded by +their admirers and discussing their chances of winning the coveted +crowns. In the warm genial climate old and young are out of doors +enjoying the evening hour, while the sun, going down over the Adriatic, +is casting its golden light upon the palaces and temples of the wealthy +city. + + +131. Meanwhile the little company of Christians has been gathering +from all directions to their place of worship; for it is the hour of +their stated assembly. The place of meeting itself does not rise very +clearly before our view. But at all events it is no gorgeous temple +like those by which it is surrounded; it has not even the pretensions +of the neighboring synagogue. It may be a large room in a private +house or the wareroom of some Christian merchant cleared for the +occasion. + + +132. Glance round the benches and look at the faces. You at once +discern one marked distinction among them: some have the peculiar +facial contour of the Jew, while the rest are Gentiles of various +nationalities; and the latter are the majority. But look closer still +and you notice another distinction: some wear the ring which denotes +that they are free, while others are slaves; and the latter +preponderate. Here and there among the Gentile members there is one +with the regular features of the born Greek, perhaps shaded with the +pale thoughtfulness of the philosopher or distinguished with the +self-confidence of wealth; but not many great, not many mighty, not +many noble are there; the majority belong to what in this pretentious +city would be reckoned the foolish, the weak, the base and despised +things of this world; they are slaves, whose ancestors did not breathe +the pellucid air of Greece but roamed in savage hordes on the banks of +the Danube or the Don. + + +133. But observe one thing besides on all the faces present--the +terrible traces of their past life. In a modern Christian congregation +one sees in the faces on every hand that peculiar cast of feature which +Christian nurture, inherited through many centuries, has produced; and +it is only here and there that a face may be seen in the lines of which +is written the tale of debauchery or crime. But in this Corinthian +congregation these awful hieroglyphics are everywhere. "Know ye not," +Paul writes to them, "that the unrighteous shall not inherit the +kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, +nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, +nor thieves, nor covetous, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom +of God. And such were some of you." Look at that tall, sallow-faced +Greek: he has wallowed in the mire of Circe's swine-pens. Look at that +low-browed Scythian slave: he has been a pickpocket and a jail-bird. +Look at that thin-nosed, sharp-eyed Jew: he has been a Shylock, cutting +his pound of flesh from the gilded youth of Corinth. + +Yet there has been a great change. Another story besides the tale of +sin is written on these countenances. "But ye are washed, but ye are +sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by +the Spirit of our God." Listen, they are singing; it is the fortieth +Psalm: "He took me from the fearful pit and from the miry clay." What +pathos they throw into the words, what joy overspreads their faces! +They know themselves to be monuments of free grace and dying love. + + +134. The Services.--But suppose them now all gathered; how does their +worship proceed? There was this difference between their services and +most of ours, that instead of one man conducting them--offering their +prayers, preaching, and giving out the psalms--all the men present were +at liberty to contribute their part. There may have been a leader or +chairman; but one member might read a portion of Scripture, another +offer prayer, a third deliver an address, a fourth raise a hymn, and so +on. Nor does there seem to have been any fixed order in which the +different parts of the service occurred; any member might rise and lead +away the company into praise or prayer or meditation, as he felt +prompted. + + +135. This peculiarity was due to another great difference between them +and us. The members were endowed with very extraordinary gifts. Some +of them had the power of working miracles, such as the healing of the +sick. Others possessed a strange gift called the gift of tongues. It +is not quite clear what it was; but it seems to have been a kind of +tranced utterance, in which the speaker poured out an impassioned +rhapsody by which his religious feeling received both expression and +exaltation. Some of those who possessed this gift were not able to +tell others the meaning of what they were saying, while others had this +additional power; and there were those who, though not speaking with +tongues themselves, were able to interpret what the inspired speakers +were saying. Then again, there were members who possessed the gift of +prophecy--a very valuable endowment. It was not the power of +predicting future events, but a gift of impassioned eloquence, the +effects of which were sometimes marvelous: when an unbeliever entered +the assembly and listened to the prophets, he was seized with +uncontrollable emotion, the sins of his past life rose up before him, +and, falling on his face, he confessed that God was among them of a +truth. Other members exercised gifts more like those we are ourselves +acquainted with, such as the gift of teaching or the gift of +management. But in all cases there appears to have been a kind of +immediate inspiration, so that what they did was not the effect of +calculation or preparation, but of a strong present impulse. + + +136. These phenomena are so remarkable that, if narrated in a history, +they would put a severe strain on belief. But the evidence for them is +incontrovertible; for no man, writing to people about their own +condition, invents a mythical description of their circumstances; and +besides, Paul was writing to restrain rather than encourage these +manifestations. They show with what mighty force, at its first +entrance into the world, Christianity took possession of the spirits +which it touched. Each believer received, generally at his baptism, +when the hands of the baptizer were laid on him, his special gift, +which, if he remained faithful to it, he continued to exercise. It was +the Holy Spirit, poured forth without stint, that entered into the +spirits of men and distributed these gifts among them severally as He +willed; and each member had to make use of his gift for the benefit of +the whole body. + + +137. After the services just described were over, the members sat down +together to a love-feast, which was wound up with the breaking of bread +in the Lord's Supper; and then, after a fraternal kiss, they parted to +their homes. It was a memorable scene, radiant with brotherly love and +alive with outbreaking spiritual power. As the Christians wended their +way homeward through the careless groups of the heathen city, they were +conscious of having experienced that which eye had not seen nor ear +heard. + + +138. Abuses and Irregularities.--But truth demands that the dark side +of the picture be shown as well as the bright one. There were abuses +and irregularities in the Church which it is exceedingly painful to +recall. These were due to two things--the antecedents of the members +and the mixture in the Church of Jewish and Gentile elements. If it be +remembered how vast was the change which most of the members had made +in passing from the worship of the heathen temples to the pure and +simple worship of Christianity, it will not excite surprise that their +old life still clung to them or that they did not clearly distinguish +which things needed to be changed and which might continue as they had +been. + + +139. Yet it startles us to learn that some of them were living in +gross sensuality, and that the more philosophical defended this on +principle. One member, apparently a person of wealth and position, was +openly living in a connection which would have been a scandal even +among heathens, and, though Paul had indignantly written to have him +excommunicated, the Church had failed to obey, affecting to +misunderstand the order. Others had been allured back to take part in +the feasts in the idol temples, notwithstanding their accompaniments of +drunkenness and revelry. They excused themselves with the plea that +they no longer ate the feast in honor of the gods, but only as an +ordinary meal, and argued that they would have to go out of the world +if they were not sometimes to associate with sinners. + + +140. It is evident that these abuses belonged to the Gentile section +of the Church. In the Jewish section, on the other hand, there were +strange doubts and scruples about the same subjects. Some, for +instance, revolted with the loose behavior of their Gentile brethren, +had gone to the opposite extreme, denouncing marriage altogether and +raising anxious questions as to whether widows might marry again, +whether a Christian married to a heathen wife ought to put her away, +and other points of the same nature. While some of the Gentile +converts were participating in the idol feasts, some of the Jewish ones +had scruples about buying in the market the meat which had been offered +in sacrifice to idols, and looked with censure on their brethren who +allowed themselves this freedom. + + +141. These difficulties belonged to the domestic life of the +Christians; but, in their public meetings also, there were grave +irregularities. The very gifts of the Spirit were perverted into +instruments of sin; for those possessed of the more showy gifts, such +as miracles and tongues, were too fond of displaying them, and turned +them into grounds of boasting. This led to confusion and even uproar; +for sometimes two or three of those who spoke with tongues would be +pouring forth their unintelligible utterances at once, so that, as Paul +said, if any stranger had entered their meeting, he would have +concluded that they were all mad. The prophets spoke at wearisome +length, and too many pressed forward to take part in the services. +Paul had sternly to rebuke these extravagances, insisting on the +principle that the spirits of the prophets were subject to the +prophets, and that, therefore, the spiritual impulse was no apology for +disorder. + + +142. But there were still worse things inside the Church. Even the +sacredness of the Lord's Supper was profaned. It seems that the +members were in the habit of taking with them to church the bread and +wine which were needed for this sacrament; but the wealthy brought +abundant and choice supplies and, instead of waiting for their poorer +brethren and sharing their provisions with them, began to eat and drink +so gluttonously that the table of the Lord actually resounded with +drunkenness and riot. + + +143. One more dark touch must be added to this sad picture. In spite +of the brotherly kiss with which their meetings closed, they had fallen +into mutual rivalry and contention. No doubt this was due to the +heterogeneous elements brought together in the Church; but it had been +allowed to go to great lengths. Brother went to law with brother in +the heathen courts instead of seeking the arbitration of a Christian +friend. The body of the members was split up into four theological +factions. Some called themselves after Paul himself. These treated +the scruples of the weaker brethren about meats and other things with +scorn. Others took the name of Apollonians from Apollos, an eloquent +teacher from Alexandria, who visited Corinth between Paul's second and +third journeys. These were the philosophical party; they denied the +doctrine of the resurrection, because it was absurd to suppose that the +scattered atoms of the dead body could ever be united again. The third +party took the name of Peter, or Cephas, as in their Hebrew purism they +preferred to call him. These were narrow-minded Jews, who objected to +the liberality of Paul's views. The fourth party affected to be above +all parties and called themselves simply Christians. Like many +despisers of the sects since then, who have used the name of Christian +in the same way, these were the most bitterly sectarian of all and +rejected Paul's authority with malicious scorn. + + +144. Inferences.--Such is the checkered picture of one of Paul's +churches given in one of his own Epistles; and it shows several things +with much impressiveness. It shows, for instance, how exceptional, +even in that age, his own mind and character were, and what a blessing +his gifts and graces of good sense, of large sympathy blended with +conscientious firmness, of personal purity and honor, were to the +infant Church. It shows that it is not behind but in front that we +have to look for the golden age of Christianity. It shows how perilous +it is to assume that the prevalence of any ecclesiastical usage at that +time must constitute a rule for all times. Everything of this kind was +evidently at the experimental stage. Indeed, in the latest writings of +Paul we find the picture of a very different state of things, in which +the worship and discipline of the Church were far more fixed and +orderly. It is not for a pattern of the machinery of a church we ought +to go back to this early time, but for a spectacle of fresh and +transforming spiritual power. This is what will always attract to the +Apostolic Age the longing eyes of Christians; the power of the Spirit +was energizing in every member, the tides of fresh emotion swelled in +every breast, and all felt that the dayspring of a new revelation had +visited them; life, love, light were diffusing themselves everywhere. +Even the vices of the young Church were the irregularities of abundant +life, for the lack of which the lifeless order of many a subsequent +generation has been a poor compensation. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +HIS GREAT CONTROVERSY + +Paragraphs 145-162. + + 146-148. THE QUESTION AT ISSUE. + 149-153. THE SETTLEMENT OF IT. 149, 150. By + Peter; 151. By Paul; 152, 153. By the Council of + Jerusalem. 154-156. Attempt to unsettle it. 157, + 158. Paul crushes the Judaizers. 159-162. A + subordinate Branch of the Question: the Relation of + Christian Jews to the Law. + + +145. The version of the apostle's life supplied in his own letters is +largely occupied with a controversy which cost him much pain and took +up much of his time for many years, but of which Luke says little. At +the date when Luke wrote, it was a dead controversy, and it belonged to +a different plane from that along which his story moves. But at the +time when it was raging, it tried Paul far more than tiresome journeys +or angry seas. It was at its hottest about the close of his third +journey, and the Epistles already mentioned as having been written then +may be said to have been evoked by it. The Epistle to the Galatians +especially was a thunderbolt hurled against his opponents in this +controversy; and its burning sentences show how profoundly he was moved +by the subject. + + +146. The Question at Issue.--The question at issue was whether the +Gentiles were required to become Jews before they could be true +Christians; or, in other words, whether they had to be circumcised in +order to be saved. + + +147. It had pleased God in the primitive times to choose the Jewish +race from among the nations and make it the repository of salvation; +and, till the advent of Christ, those from other nations who wished to +become partakers of the true religion had to seek entrance as +proselytes within the sacred enclosure of Israel. Having thus destined +this race to be the guardians of revelation, God had to separate them +very completely from all other nations and from all other aims which +might have distracted their attention from the sacred trust which had +been committed to them. For this purpose he regulated their whole life +with rules and arrangements intended to make them a peculiar people, +different from all other races of the earth. Every detail of their +life--their forms of worship, their social customs, their dress, their +food--was prescribed for them; and all these prescriptions were +embodied in that vast legal instrument which they called the Law. The +rigorous prescription of so many things which are naturally left to +free choice was a heavy yoke upon the chosen people; it was a severe +discipline to the conscience, and such it was felt to be by the more +earnest spirits of the nation. + +But others saw in it a badge of pride; it made them feel that they were +the select of the earth and superior to all other people; and, instead +of groaning under the yoke, as they would have done if their +consciences had been very tender, they multiplied the distinctions of +the Jew, swelling the volume of the prescriptions of the law with +stereotyped customs of their own. To be a Jew appeared to them the +mark of belonging to the aristocracy of the nations; to be admitted to +the privileges of this position was in their eyes the greatest honor +which could be conferred on one who did not belong to the commonwealth +of Israel. Their thoughts were all pent within the circle of this +national conceit. Even their hopes about the Messiah were colored with +these prejudices; they expected Him to be the hero of their own nation, +and the extension of His kingdom they conceived as a crowding of the +other nations within the circle of their own through the gateway of +circumcision. They expected that all the converts of the Messiah would +undergo this national rite and adopt the life prescribed in the Jewish +law and tradition; in short, their conception of Messiah's reign was a +world of Jews. + + +148. Such undoubtedly was the tenor of popular sentiment in Palestine +when Christ came; and multitudes of those who accepted Jesus as the +Messiah and entered the Christian Church had this set of conceptions as +their intellectual horizon. They had become Christians, but they had +not ceased to be Jews; they still attended the temple worship; they +prayed at the stated hours, they fasted on the stated days, they +dressed in the style of the Jewish ritual; they would have thought +themselves defiled by eating with uncircumcised Gentiles; and they had +no thought but that, if Gentiles became Christians, they would be +circumcised and adopt the style and customs of the Jewish nation. + + +149. The Settlement.--The question was settled by the direct +intervention of God in the case of Cornelius, the centurion of +Caesarea. When the messengers of Cornelius were on their way to the +Apostle Peter at Joppa, God showed that leader among the apostles, by +the vision of the sheet full of clean and unclean beasts, that the +Christian Church was to contain circumcised and uncircumcised alike. +In obedience to this heavenly sign Peter accompanied the centurion's +messengers to Caesarea and saw such evidences that the household of +Cornelius had already, without circumcision, received the distinctively +Christian endowments of faith and the Holy Ghost, that he could not +hesitate to baptize them as being Christians already. When he returned +to Jerusalem, his proceedings created wonder and indignation among the +Christians of the strictly Jewish persuasion; but he defended himself +by recounting the vision of the sheet and by an appeal to the clear +fact that these uncircumcised Gentiles were proved by their possession +of faith and of the Holy Ghost to have been already Christians. + + +150. This incident ought to have settled the question once for all; +but the pride of race and the prejudices of a lifetime are not easily +subdued. Although the Christians of Jerusalem reconciled themselves to +Peter's conduct in this single case, they neglected to extract from it +the universal principle which it implied; and even Peter himself, as we +shall subsequently see, did not fully comprehend what was involved in +his own conduct. + + +151. Meanwhile, however, the question had been settled in a far +stronger and more logical mind than Peter's. Paul at this time began +his apostolic work at Antioch, and soon afterward went forth with +Barnabas upon his first great missionary expedition into the Gentile +world; and, wherever they went, he admitted heathens into the Christian +Church without circumcision. + +Paul in thus acting did not copy Peter. He had received his gospel +directly from heaven. In the solitudes of Arabia, in the years +immediately after his conversion, he had thought this subject out and +come to far more radical conclusions about it than had yet entered the +minds of any of the rest of the apostles. To him far more than to any +of them the law had been a yoke of bondage; he saw that it was only a +stern preparation for Christianity, not a part of it; indeed, there was +in his mind a deep gulf of contrast between the misery and curse of the +one state and the joy and freedom of the other. To his mind to impose +the yoke of the law on the Gentiles would have been to destroy the very +genius of Christianity; it would have been the imposition of conditions +of salvation totally different from that which he knew to be the one +condition of it in the gospel. + +These were the deep reasons which settled this question in this great +mind. Besides, as a man who knew the world and whose heart was set on +winning the Gentile nations to Christ, he felt far more strongly than +did the Jews of Jerusalem, with their provincial horizon, how fatal +such conditions as they meant to impose would be to the success of +Christianity outside Judaea. The proud Romans, the highminded Greeks, +would never have consented to be circumcised and to cramp their life +within the narrow limits of Jewish tradition; a religion hampered with +such conditions could never have become the universal religion. + + +152. But, when Paul and Barnabas came back from their first missionary +tour to Antioch, they found that a still more decisive settlement of +this question was required; for Christians of the strictly Jewish sort +were coming down from Jerusalem to Antioch and telling the Gentile +converts that, unless they were circumcised, they could not be saved. +In this way they were filling them with alarm, lest they might be +omitting something on which the welfare of their souls depended, and +they were confusing their minds as to the simplicity of the gospel. To +quiet these disturbed consciences it was resolved by the church at +Antioch to appeal to the leading apostles at Jerusalem, and Paul and +Barnabas were sent thither to procure a decision. This was the origin +of what is called the Council of Jerusalem, at which this question was +authoritatively settled. + +The decision of the apostles and elders was in harmony with Paul's +practice: the Gentiles were not to be required to be circumcised; only +they were enjoined to abstain from meat offered in sacrifice to idols, +from fornication, and from blood. To these conditions Paul consented. +He did not, indeed, see any harm in eating meat which had been used in +idolatrous sacrifices, when it was exposed for sale in the market; but +the feasts upon such meat in the idol temples, which were often +followed by wild outbreaks of sensuality, alluded to in the prohibition +of fornication, were temptations against which the converts from +heathenism required to be warned. The prohibition of blood--that is, +of eating meat killed without the blood being drained off--was a +concession to extreme Jewish prejudice, which, as it involved no +principle, he did not think it necessary to oppose. + + +153. So the agitating question appeared to be settled by an authority +so august that none could question it. If Peter, John and James, the +pillars of the church at Jerusalem, as well as Paul and Barnabas, the +heads of the Gentile mission, arrived at a unanimous decision, all +consciences might be satisfied and all opposing mouths stopped. + + +154. Attempt to Unsettle.--It fills us with amazement to discover that +even this settlement was not final. It would appear that, even at the +time when it was come to, it was fiercely opposed by some who were +present at the meeting where it was discussed; and, although the +authority of the apostles determined the official note which was sent +to the distant churches, the Christian community at Jerusalem was +agitated with storms of angry opposition to it. Nor did the opposition +soon die down. On the contrary, it waxed stronger and stronger. It +was fed from abundant sources. Fierce national pride and prejudice +sustained it; probably it was nourished by self-interest, because the +Jewish Christians would live on easier terms with the non-Christian +Jews the loss the difference between them was understood to be; +religious conviction, rapidly warming into fanaticism, strengthened it; +and very soon it was reinforced by all the rancor of hatred and the +zeal of propagandism. For to such a height did this opposition rise +that the party which was inflamed with it at length resolved to send +out propagandists to visit the Gentile churches one by one and, in +contradiction to the official apostolic rescript, warn them that they +were imperilling their souls by omitting circumcision, and could not +enjoy the privileges of true Christianity unless they kept the Jewish +law. + + +155. For years and years these emissaries of a narrow-minded +fanaticism, which believed itself to be the only genuine Christianity, +diffused themselves over all the churches founded by Paul throughout +the Gentile world. Their work was not to found churches of their own; +they had none of the original pioneer ability of their great rival. +Their business was to steal into the Christian communities he had +founded and win them to their own narrow views. They haunted Paul's +footsteps wherever he went, and for many years were a cause to him of +unspeakable pain. They whispered to his converts that his version of +the gospel was not the true one, and that his authority was not to be +trusted. Was he one of the twelve apostles? Had he kept company with +Christ? They represented themselves as having brought the true form of +Christianity from Jerusalem, the sacred headquarters; and they did not +scruple to profess that they had been sent from the apostles there. +They distorted the very noblest parts of Paul's conduct to their +purpose. For instance, his refusal to accept money for his services +they imputed to a sense of his own lack of authority: the real apostles +always received pay. In the same way they misconstrued his abstinence +from marriage. They were men not without ability for the work they had +undertaken: they had smooth, insinuating tongues, they could assume an +air of dignity, and they did not stick at trifles. + + +156. Unfortunately they were by no means without success. They +alarmed the consciences of Paul's converts and poisoned their minds +against him. The Galatian church especially fell a prey to them; and +the Corinthian church allowed its mind to be turned against its +founder. But, indeed, the defection was more or less pronounced +everywhere. It seemed as if the whole structure which Paul had reared +with years of labor was to be thrown to the ground. For this was what +he believed to be happening. Though these men called themselves +Christians, Paul utterly denied their Christianity. Theirs was not +another gospel; if his converts believed it, he assured them they were +fallen from grace; and in the most solemn terms he pronounced a curse +on those who were thus destroying the temple of God which he had built. + + +157. Paul Crushes the Judaizers.--He was not, however, the man to +allow such seduction to go on among his converts without putting forth +the most strenuous efforts to counteract it. He hurried, when he +could, to see the churches which were being tampered with; he sent +messengers to bring them back to their allegiance; above all, he wrote +letters to those in peril--letters in which the extraordinary powers of +his mind were exerted to the utmost. He argued the subject out with +all the resources of logic and Scripture; he exposed the seducers with +a keenness which cut like steel and overwhelmed them with sallies of +sarcastic wit; he flung himself at his converts' feet and with all the +passion and tenderness of his mighty heart implored them to be true to +Christ and to himself. We possess the records of these anxieties in +our New Testament; and it fills us with gratitude to God and a strange +tenderness to Paul himself to think that out of his heart-breaking +trial there has come such a precious heritage to us. + + +158. It is comforting to know that he was successful. Persevering as +his enemies were, he was more than a match for them. Hatred is strong, +but stronger still is love. In his later writings the traces of his +opposition are slender or entirely absent. It had given way before the +crushing force of his polemic, and its traces had been swept off the +soil of the Church. Had the event been otherwise, Christianity would +have been a river lost in the sands of prejudice near its very source; +it would have been at the present day a forgotten Jewish sect instead +of the religion of the world. + + +159. Christian Jews and the Law.--Up to this point the course of this +ancient controversy can be clearly traced. But there is another branch +of it about the course of which it is far from easy to arrive at with +certainty. What was the relation of the Christian Jews to the law, +according to the teaching and preaching of Paul? Was it their duty to +abandon the practices by which they had been wont to regulate their +lives and abstain from circumcising their children or teaching them to +keep the law? This would appear to be implied in Paul's principles. +If Gentiles could enter the kingdom without keeping the law, it could +not be necessary for Jews to keep it. If the law was a severe +discipline intended to drive men to Christ, its obligations fell away +when this purpose was fulfilled. The bondage of tutelage ceased as +soon as the son entered on the actual possession of his inheritance. + + +160. It is certain, however, that the other apostles and the mass of +the Christians of Jerusalem did not for many a day realize this. The +apostles had agreed not to demand from the Gentile Christians +circumcision and the keeping of the law. But they kept it themselves +and expected all Jews to keep it. This involved a contradiction of +ideas, and it led to unhappy practical consequences. If it had +continued or been yielded to by Paul, it would have split up the Church +into two sections, one of which would have looked down upon the other. +For it was part of the strict observance of the law to refuse to eat +with the uncircumcised; and the Jews would have refused to sit at the +same table with those whom they acknowledged to be their Christian +brethren. This unseemly contradiction actually came to pass in a +prominent instance. The Apostle Peter, chancing on one occasion to be +in the heathen city of Antioch, at first mingled freely in social +intercourse with the Gentile Christians. But some of the stricter +sort, coming thither from Jerusalem, so cowed him that he withdrew from +the Gentile table and held aloof from his fellow-Christians. Even +Barnabas was carried away by the same tyranny of bigotry. Paul alone +was true to the principles of gospel freedom, withstanding Peter to the +face and exposing the inconsistency of his conduct. + + +161. Paul never, indeed, carried on a polemic against circumcision and +the keeping of the law among born Jews. This was reported of him by +his enemies; but it was a false report. When he arrived in Jerusalem +at the close of his third missionary journey, the Apostle James and the +elders informed him of the damage which this representation was doing +to his good name and advised him publicly to disprove it. The words in +which they made this appeal to him are very remarkable. "Thou seest, +brother," they said, "how many thousands of Jews there are who believe; +and they are all zealous of the law; and they are informed of thee that +thou teachest all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, +saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to +walk after the customs. Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have +four men who have a vow on them. Take them and purify thyself with +them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads; and +all may know that those things whereof they were informed concerning +thee are nothing, but thou thyself also walkest orderly and keepest the +law." + +Paul complied with this appeal and went through the rite which James +recommended. This clearly proves that he never regarded it as part of +his work to dissuade born Jews from living as Jews. It may be thought +that he ought to have done so--that his principles required a stern +opposition to everything associated with the dispensation which had +passed away. He understood them differently, however, and had a good +reason to render for the line he pursued. + +We find him advising those who were called into the kingdom of Christ +being circumcised not to become uncircumcised, and those called in +uncircumcision not to submit to circumcision; and the reason he gives +is that circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. The +distinction was nothing more to him, in a religious point of view, than +the distinction of sex or the distinction of slave and master. In +short, it had no religious significance at all. If, however, a man +professed Jewish modes of life as a mark of his nationality, Paul had +no quarrel with him; indeed, in some degree he preferred them himself. +He stickled as little against mere forms as for them; only, if they +stood between the soul and Christ or between a Christian and his +brethren, then he was their uncompromising opponent. But he knew that +liberty may be made an instrument of oppression as well as bondage, +and, therefore, in regard to meats, for instance, he penned those noble +recommendations of self-denial for the sake of weak and scrupulous +consciences which are among the most touching testimonies to his utter +unselfishness. + + +162. Indeed, we have here a man of such heroic size that it is no easy +matter to define him. Along with the clearest vision of the lines of +demarcation between the old and the new in the greatest crisis of human +history and an unfaltering championship of principle when real issues +were involved, we see in him the most genial superiority to mere formal +rules and the utmost consideration for the feelings of those who did +not see as he saw. By one huge blow he had cut himself free from the +bigotry of bondage; but he never fell into the bigotry of liberty, and +had always far loftier aims in view than the mere logic of his own +position. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE END + +Paragraphs 163-189. + + 163, 164. RETURN TO JERUSALEM. Prophecy of + Approaching Imprisonment. + 165-168. ARREST. 166. Tumult in Temple; 167. Paul + before the Sanhedrim; 168. Plot of Zealots. + 169-172. IMPRISONMENT AT CAESAREA. 170. + Providential Reason for this Confinement. 171. + Paul's later Gospel. 172. His Ethics. + 173-176. JOURNEY TO ROME. 173. Appeal to + Caesar. 174. Voyage to Italy. 175. Arrival in + Rome. + 176-182. FIRST IMPRISONMENT AT ROME. 176. + Trial delayed. 177-182. Occupations of a Prisoner. + 178. His Guards Converted; 180. Visits of Apostolic + Helpers; 181. Messengers from his Churches; 182. + His Writings. + 183-188. LAST SCENES. 185. Release from Prison; + New Journeys. 186. Second Imprisonment at Rome. + 187, 188. Trial and Death. + 189. EPILOGUE. + + +163. Return to Jerusalem.--After completing his brief visit to Greece +at the close of his third missionary journey, Paul returned to +Jerusalem. He must by this time have been nearly sixty years of age; +and for twenty years he had been engaged in almost superhuman labors. +He had been traveling and preaching incessantly, and carrying on his +heart a crushing weight of cares. His body had been worn with disease +and mangled with punishments and abuse; and his hair must have been +whitened, and his face furrowed with the lines of age. As yet, +however, there were no signs of his body breaking down, and his spirit +was still as keen as ever in its enthusiasm for the service of Christ. + +His eye was specially directed to Rome, and, before leaving Greece, he +sent word to the Romans that they might expect to see him soon. But, +as he was hurrying toward Jerusalem along the shores of Greece and +Asia, the signal sounded that his work was nearly done, and the shadow +of approaching death fell across his path. In city after city the +persons in the Christian communities who were endowed with the gift of +prophecy foretold that bonds and imprisonment were awaiting him, and, +as he came nearer to the close of his journey, these warnings became +more loud and frequent. He felt their solemnity; his was a brave +heart, but it was too humble and reverent not to be overawed with the +thought of death and judgment. He had several companions with him, but +he sought opportunities of being alone. He parted from his converts as +a dying man, telling them that they would see his face no more. But, +when they entreated him to turn back and avoid the threatened danger, +he gently pushed aside their loving arms, and said, "What mean ye to +weep and to break my heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but +also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." + + +164. We do not know what business he had on hand which so peremptorily +demanded his presence in Jerusalem. He had to deliver up to the +apostles a collection on behalf of their poor saints, which he had been +exerting himself to gather in the Gentile churches; and it may have +been of importance that he should discharge this service in person. Or +he may have been solicitous to procure from the apostles a message for +his Gentile churches, giving an authoritative contradiction to the +insinuations of his enemies as to the unapostolic character of his +gospel. At all events there was some imperative call of duty summoning +him, and, in spite of the fear of death and the tears of friends, he +went forward to his fate. + + +165. Paul's Arrest.--It was the feast of Pentecost when he arrived in +the city of his fathers, and, as usual at such seasons, Jerusalem was +crowded with hundreds of thousands of pilgrim Jews from all parts of +the world. Among these there could not but be many who had seen him at +the work of evangelization in the cities of the heathen and come into +collision with him there. Their rage against him had been checked in +foreign lands by the interposition of Gentile authority; but might they +not, if they met with him in the Jewish capital, wreak on him their +vengeance with the support of the whole population? + + +166. This was actually the danger into which he fell. Certain Jews +from Ephesus, the principal scene of his labors during his third +journey, recognized him in the temple and, crying out that here was the +heretic who blasphemed the Jewish nation, law and temple, brought about +him in an instant a raging sea of fanaticism. It is a wonder he was +not torn limb from limb on the spot; but superstition prevented his +assailants from defiling with blood the court of the Jews, in which he +was caught, and, before they got him hustled into the court of the +Gentiles, where they would soon have despatched him, the Roman guard, +whose sentries were pacing the castle-ramparts which overlooked the +temple-courts, rushed down and took him under their protection; and, +when their captain learned that he was a Roman citizen, his safety was +secured. + + +167. But the fanaticism of Jerusalem was now thoroughly aroused, and +it raged against the protection which surrounded Paul like an angry +sea. The Roman captain on the day after the apprehension took him down +to the Sanhedrin in order to ascertain the charge against him; but the +sight of the prisoner created such an uproar that he had to hurry him +away, lest he should be torn in pieces. Strange city and strange +people! There was never a nation which produced sons more richly +dowered with gifts to make her name immortal; there was never a city +whose children clung to her with a more passionate affection; yet, like +a mad mother, she tore the very goodliest of them in pieces and dashed +them mangled from her breast. Jerusalem was now within a few years of +her destruction; here was the last of her inspired and prophetic sons +come to visit her for the last time, with boundless love to her in his +heart; but she would have murdered him; and only the shields of the +Gentiles saved him from her fury. + + +168. Forty zealots banded themselves together under a curse to snatch +Paul even from the midst of the Roman swords; and the Roman captain was +only able to foil their plot by sending him under a heavy escort down +to Caesarea. This was a Roman city on the Mediterranean coast; it was +the residence of the Roman governor of Palestine and the headquarters +of the Roman garrison; and in it the apostle was perfectly safe from +Jewish violence. + + +169. Imprisonment at Caesarea.--Here he remained in prison for two +years. The Jewish authorities attempted again and again either to +procure his condemnation by the governor or to get him delivered up to +themselves, to be tried as an ecclesiastical offender; but they failed +to convince the governor that Paul had been guilty of any crime of +which he could take cognizance or to persuade him to hand over a Roman +citizen to their tender mercies. The prisoner ought to have been +released, but his enemies were so vehement in asserting that he was a +criminal of the deepest dye that he was detained on the chance of new +evidence turning up against him. Besides, his release was prevented by +the expectation of the corrupt governor, Felix, that the life of the +leader of a religious sect might be purchased from him with a bribe. +Felix was interested in his prisoner and even heard him gladly, as +Herod had listened to the Baptist. + + +170. Paul was not kept in close confinement; he had at least the range +of the barracks in which he was detained. There we can imagine him +pacing the ramparts on the edge of the Mediterranean, and gazing +wistfully across the blue waters in the direction of Macedonia, Achaia +and Ephesus, where his spiritual children were pining for him or +perhaps encountering dangers in which they sorely needed his presence. + +It was a mysterious providence which thus arrested his energies and +condemned the ardent worker to inactivity. Yet we can see now the +reason for it. Paul was needing rest. After twenty years of incessant +evangelization he required leisure to garner the harvest of experience. +During all that time he had been preaching that view of the gospel +which at the beginning of his Christian career he had thought out, +under the influence of the revealing Spirit, in the solitudes of +Arabia. But he had now reached a stage when, with leisure to think, he +might penetrate into more recondite regions of the truth as it is in +Jesus. And it was so important that he should have this leisure that, +in order to secure it. God even permitted him to be shut up in prison. + + +171. Paul's Later Gospel.--During these two years he wrote nothing; it +was a time of internal mental activity and silent progress. But, when +he began to write again, the results of it were at once discernible. +The Epistles written after this imprisonment have a mellower tone and +set forth a profounder view of doctrine than his earlier writings. +There is no contradiction, indeed, or inconsistency between his earlier +and later views: in Ephesians and Colossians he builds on the broad +foundations laid in Romans and Galatians. But the superstructure is +loftier and more imposing. He dwells less on the work of Christ and +more on His person; less on the justification of the sinner and more on +the sanctification of the saint. + +In the gospel revealed to him in Arabia he had set Christ forth as +dominating mundane history, and shown His first coming to be the point +toward which the destinies of Jews and Gentiles had been tending. In +the gospel revealed to him at Caesarea the point of view is +extra-mundane: Christ is represented as the reason for the creation of +all things, and as the Lord of angels and of worlds, to whose second +coming the vast procession of the universe is moving forward--of whom, +and through whom, and to whom are all things. + +In the earlier Epistles the initial act of the Christian life--the +justification of the soul--is explained with exhaustive elaboration: +but in the later Epistles it is on the subsequent relations to Christ +of the person who has been already justified that the apostle chiefly +dwells. According to his teaching, the whole spectacle of the +Christian life is due to a union between Christ and the soul; and for +the description of this relationship he has invented a vocabulary of +phrases and illustrations: believers are in Christ, and Christ is in +them: they have the same relation to Him as the stones of a building to +the foundation-stone, as the branches to the tree, as the members to +the head, as a wife to her husband. This union is ideal, for the +divine mind in eternity made the destiny of Christ and the believer +one; it is legal, for their debts and merits are common property; it is +vital, for the connection with Christ supplies the power of a holy and +progressive life; it is moral, for, in mind and heart, in character and +conduct, Christians are constantly becoming more and more identical +with Christ. + + +172. His Ethics.--Another feature of these later Epistles is the +balance between their theological and their moral teaching. This is +visible even in the external structure of the greatest of them, for +they are nearly equally divided into two parts, the first of which is +occupied with doctrinal statements and the second with moral +exhortations. The ethical teaching of Paul spreads itself over all +parts of the Christian life; but it is not distinguished by a +systematic arrangement of the various kinds of duties, although the +domestic duties are pretty fully treated. Its chief characteristic +lies in the motives which it brings to bear upon conduct. + +To Paul Christian morality was emphatically a morality of motives. The +whole history of Christ, not in the details of His earthly life, but in +the great features of his redemptive journey from heaven to earth and +from earth back to heaven again, as seen from the extramundane +standpoint of these Epistles, is a series of examples to be copied by +Christians in their daily conduct. No duty is too small to illustrate +one or other of the principles which inspired the divinest acts of +Christ. The commonest acts of humility and beneficence are to be +imitations of the condescension which brought Him from the position of +equality with God to the obedience of the cross; and the ruling motive +of the love and kindness practised by Christians to one another is to +be the recollection of their common connection with Him. + + +173. Appeal to Caesar.--After Paul's imprisonment had lasted for two +years, Felix was succeeded in the governorship of Palestine by Festus. +The Jews had never ceased to intrigue to get Paul into their hands, and +they at once assailed the new ruler with further importunities. As +Festus seemed to be wavering, Paul availed himself of his privilege of +appeal as a Roman citizen and demanded to be sent to Rome and tried at +the bar of the emperor. This could not be refused him; and a prisoner +had to be sent to Rome at once after such an appeal was taken. Very +soon, therefore, Paul was shipped off under the charge of Roman +soldiers and in the company of many other prisoners on their way to the +same destination. + + +174. Voyage to Italy.--The journal of the voyage has been preserved in +the Acts of the Apostles and is acknowledged to be the most valuable +document in existence concerning the seamanship of ancient times. It +is also a precious document of Paul's life; for it shows how his +character shone out in a novel situation. A ship is a kind of +miniature of the world. It is a floating island, in which there are +the government and the governed. But the government is, like that of +states, liable to sudden social upheavals, in which the ablest man is +thrown to the top. This was a voyage of extreme perils, which required +the utmost presence of mind and power of winning the confidence and +obedience of those on board. Before it was ended Paul was virtually +both the captain of the ship and the general of the soldiers; and all +on board owed to him their lives. + + +175. Arrival in Rome.--At length the dangers of the deep were left +behind; and Paul found himself approaching the capital of the Roman +world by the Appian Road, the great highway by which Rome was entered +by travelers from the East. The bustle and noise increased as he +neared the city, and the signs of Roman grandeur and renown multiplied +at every step. For many years he had been looking forward to seeing +Rome, but he had always thought of entering it in a very different +guise from that which now he wore. He had always thought of Rome as a +successful general thinks of the central stronghold of the country he +is subduing, who looks eagerly forward to the day when he will direct +the charge against its gates. Paul was engaged in the conquest of the +world for Christ, and Rome was the final position he had hoped to carry +in his Master's name. Years ago he had sent to it the famous +challenge, "I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome +also; for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power +of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." But now, when he +found himself actually at its gates and thought of the abject condition +in which he was--an old, gray-haired, broken man, a chained prisoner +just escaped from shipwreck--his heart sank within him, and he felt +dreadfully alone. + +At the right moment, however, a little incident took place which +restored him to himself: at a small town forty miles out of Rome he was +met by a little band of Christian brethren, who, hearing of his +approach, had come out to welcome him; and, ten miles farther on, he +came upon another group, who had come out for the same purpose. +Self-reliant as he was, he was exceedingly sensitive to human sympathy, +and the sight of these brethren and their interest in him completely +revived him. He thanked God and took courage; his old feelings came +back in their wonted strength; and, when, in the company of these +friends, he reached that shoulder of the Alban Hills from which the +first view of the city is obtained, his heart swelled with the +anticipation of victory; for he knew he carried in his breast the force +which would yet lead captive that proud capital. + +It was not with the step of a prisoner, but with that of a conqueror, +that he passed at length beneath the city gate. His road lay along +that very Sacred Way by which many a Roman general had passed in +triumph to the Capitol, seated on a car of victory, followed by the +prisoners and spoils of the enemy, and surrounded with the plaudits of +rejoicing Rome. Paul looked little like such a hero: no car of victory +carried him, he trode the causewayed road with wayworn foot; no medals +or ornaments adorned his person, a chain of iron dangled from his +wrist; no applauding crowds welcomed his approach, a few humble friends +formed all his escort; yet never did a more truly conquering footstep +fall on the pavement of Rome or a heart more confident of victory pass +within her gates. + +176. Imprisonment.--Meanwhile, however, it was not to the Capitol his +steps were bent, but to a prison; and he was destined to lie in prison +long, for his trial did not come on for two years. The law's delays +have been proverbial in all countries and at all eras; and the law of +imperial Rome was not likely to be free from this reproach during the +reign of Nero, a man of such frivolity that any engagement of pleasure +or freak of caprice was sufficient to make him put off the most +important call of business. The imprisonment, it is true, was of the +mildest description. It may have been that the officer who brought him +to Rome spoke a good word for the man who had saved his life during the +voyage, or the officer to whom he was handed over, and who is known in +profane history as a man of justice and humanity, may have inquired +into his case and formed a favorable opinion of his character; but at +all events Paul was permitted to hire a house of his own and live in it +in perfect freedom, with the single exception that a soldier, who was +responsible for his person, was his constant attendant. + + +177. Occupation in Prison.--This was far from the condition which such +an active spirit would have coveted. He would have liked to be moving +from synagogue to synagogue in the immense city, preaching in its +streets and squares, and founding congregation after congregation among +the masses of its population. Another man, thus arrested in a career +of ceaseless movement and immured within prison walls, might have +allowed his mind to stagnate in sloth and despair. But Paul behaved +very differently. Availing himself of every possibility of the +situation, he converted his one room into a center of far-reaching +activity and beneficence. On the few square feet of space allowed him +he erected a fulcrum with which he moved the world, establishing within +the walls of Nero's capital a sovereignty more extensive than his own. + + +178. Even the most irksome circumstance of his lot was turned to good +account. This was the soldier by whom he was watched. To a man of +Paul's eager temperament and restlessness of mood this must often have +been an intolerable annoyance; and, indeed, in the letters written +during this imprisonment he is constantly referring to his chain, as if +it were never out of his mind. But he did not suffer this irritation +to blind him to the opportunity of doing good presented by the +situation. Of course his attendant was changed every few hours, as one +soldier relieved another upon guard. In this way there might be six or +eight with him every four-and-twenty hours. They belonged to the +imperial guard, the flower of the Roman army. + +Paul could not sit for hours beside another man without speaking of the +subject which lay nearest his heart. He spoke to these soldiers about +their immortal souls and the faith of Christ. To men accustomed to the +horrors of Roman warfare and the manners of Roman barracks nothing +could be more striking than a life and character like his; and the +result of these conversations was that many of them became changed men, +and a revival spread through the barracks and penetrated into the +imperial household itself. His room was sometimes crowded with these +stern, bronzed faces, glad to see him at other times than those when +duty required them to be there. He sympathized with them and entered +into the spirit of their occupation; indeed, he was full of the spirit +of the warrior himself. + +We have an imperishable relic of these visits in an outburst of +inspired eloquence which he dictated at this period: "Put on the whole +armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the +devil; for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against +principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of +this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore +take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand +in the evil day and, having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, +having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate +of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel +of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be +able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet +of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." +That picture was drawn from the life, from the armor of the soldiers in +his room; and perhaps these ringing sentences were first poured into +the ears of his warlike auditors before they were transferred to the +Epistle in which they have been preserved. + + +179. Visitors.--But he had other visitors. All who took an interest +in Christianity in Rome, both Jews and Gentiles, gathered to him. +Perhaps there was not a day of the two years of his imprisonment but he +had such visitors. The Roman Christians learned to go to that room as +to an oracle or shrine. Many a Christian teacher got his sword +sharpened there; and new energy began to diffuse itself through the +Christian circles of the city. Many an anxious father brought his son, +many a friend his friend, hoping that a word from the apostle's lips +might waken the sleeping conscience. Many a wanderer, stumbling in +there by chance, came out a new man. Such an one was Onesimus, a slave +from Colossae, who arrived in Rome as a runaway, but was sent back to +his Christian master, Philemon, no longer as a slave, but as a brother +beloved. + + +180. Still more interesting visitors came. At all periods of his life +he exercised a strong fascination over young men. They were attracted +by the manly soul within him, in which they found sympathy with their +aspirations and inspiration for the noblest work. These youthful +friends, who were scattered over the world in the work of Christ, +flocked to him at Rome. Timothy and Luke, Mark and Aristarchus, +Tychicus and Epaphras, and many more came, to drink afresh at the well +of his ever-springing wisdom and earnestness. And he sent them forth +again, to carry messages to his churches or bring him news of their +condition. + + +181. Of his spiritual children in the distance he never ceased to +think. Daily he was wandering in imagination among the glens of +Galatia and along the shores of Asia and Greece; every night he was +praying for the Christians of Antioch and Ephesus, of Philippi and +Thessalonica and Corinth. Nor were gratifying proofs awanting that +they were remembering him. Now and then there would appear in his +lodging a deputy from some distant church, bringing the greetings of +his converts or, perhaps, a contribution to meet his temporal wants, or +craving his decision on some point of doctrine or practice about which +difficulty had arisen. These messengers were not sent empty away: they +carried warm-hearted messages of golden words of counsel from their +apostolic friend. + +Some of them carried far more. When Epaphroditus, a deputy from the +church at Philippi, which had sent to their dear father in Christ an +offering of love, was returning home, Paul sent with him, in +acknowledgment of their kindness, the Epistle to the Philippians, the +most beautiful of all his letters, in which he lays bare his very heart +and every sentence glows with love more tender than a woman's. When +the slave Onesimus was sent back to Colossae, he received, as the +branch of peace to offer to his master, the exquisite little Epistle to +Philemon, a priceless monument of Christian courtesy. He carried, too, +a letter addressed to the church of the town in which his master lived, +the Epistle to the Colossians. + +The composition of these Epistles was by far the most important part of +Paul's varied prison activity; and he crowned this labor with the +writing of the Epistle to the Ephesians, which is perhaps the +profoundest and sublimest book in the world. The Church of Christ has +derived many benefits from the imprisonment of the servants of God; the +greatest book of uninspired religious genius, the Pilgrim's Progress, +was written in a jail; but never did there come to the Church a greater +mercy in the disguise of misfortune than when the arrest of Paul's +bodily activities at Caesarea and Rome supplied him with the leisure +needed to reach the depths of truth sounded in the Epistle to the +Ephesians. + + +182. His Writings.--It may have seemed a dark dispensation of +providence to Paul himself that the course of life he had pursued so +long was so completely changed; but God's thoughts are higher than +man's thoughts and His ways than man's ways; and He gave Paul grace to +overcome the temptations of his situation and do far more in his +enforced inactivity for the welfare of the world and the permanence of +his own influence than he could have done by twenty years of wandering +missionary work. Sitting in his room, he gathered within the sounding +cavity of his sympathetic heart the sighs and cries of thousands far +away, and diffused courage and help in every direction from his own +inexhaustible resources. He sank his mind deeper and deeper in +solitary thought, till, smiting the rock in the dim depth to which he +had descended, he caused streams to gush forth which are still +gladdening the city of God. + + +183. Release from Prison.--The book of Acts suddenly breaks off with a +brief summary of Paul's two years' imprisonment at Rome. Is this +because there was no more to tell? When his trial came on, did it +issue in his condemnation and death? Or did he get out of prison and +resume his old occupations? Where Luke's lucid narrative so suddenly +deserts us, tradition comes in proffering its doubtful aid. It tells +us that he was acquitted on his trial and let out of prison; that he +resumed his travels, visiting Spain among other places; but that before +long he was arrested again and sent back to Rome, where he died a +martyr's death at the cruel hands of Nero. + + +184. New Journeys.--Happily, however, we are not altogether dependent +on the precarious aid of tradition. We have writings of Paul's own +undoubtedly subsequent to the two years of his first imprisonment. +These are what are called the Pastoral Epistles--the Epistles to +Timothy and Titus. In these we see that he regained his liberty and +resumed his employment of revisiting his old churches and founding new +ones. His footsteps cannot, indeed, be any longer traced with +certainty. We find him back at Ephesus and Troas; we find him in +Crete, an island at which he touched on his voyage to Rome and in which +he may then have become interested; we find him exploring new territory +in the northern parts of Greece. We see him once more, like the +commander of an army who sends his aides-de-camp all over the field of +battle, sending out his young assistants to organize and watch over the +churches. + + +185. But this was not to last long. An event had happened immediately +after his release from prison which could not but influence his fate. +This was the burning of Rome--an appalling disaster, the glare of which +even at this distance makes the heart shudder. It was probably a mad +freak of the malicious monster who then wore the imperial purple. But +Nero saw fit to attribute it to the Christians, and instantly the most +atrocious persecution broke out against them. Of course the fame of +this soon spread over the Roman world; and it was not likely that the +foremost apostle of Christianity could long escape. Every Roman +governor knew that he could not do the emperor a more pleasing service +than by sending to him Paul in chains. + + +186. Second Imprisonment.--It was not long, accordingly, before Paul +was lying once more in prison at Rome; and it was no mild imprisonment +this time, but the worst known to the law. No troops of friends now +filled his room; for the Christians of Rome had been massacred or +scattered, and it was dangerous for any one to avow himself a +Christian. We have a letter written from his dungeon, the last he ever +wrote, the Second Epistle to Timothy, which affords us a glimpse of +unspeakable pathos into the circumstances of the prisoner. He tells us +that one part of his trial is already over. Not a friend stood by him +as he faced the bloodthirsty tyrant who sat on the judgment-seat. But +the Lord stood by him and enabled him to make the emperor and the +spectators in the crowded basilica hear the sound of the gospel. The +charge against him had broken down. But he had no hope of escape. +Other stages of the trial had yet to come, and he knew that evidence to +condemn him would either be discovered or manufactured. + +The letter betrays the miseries of his dungeon. He prays Timothy to +bring a cloak he had left at Troas, to defend him from the damp of the +cell and the cold of the winter. He asks for his books and parchments, +that he may relieve the tedium of his solitary hours with the studies +he had always loved. But, above all, he beseeches Timothy to come +himself; for he was longing to feel the touch of a friendly hand and +see the face of a friend yet once again before he died. + +Was the brave heart then conquered at last? Read the Epistle and see. +How does it begin? "I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not +ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is +able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." +How does it end? "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my +departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my +course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a +crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give +me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them that love His +appearing." That is not the strain of the vanquished. + + +187. Trial.--There can be little doubt that he appeared again at +Nero's bar, and this time the charge did not break down. In all +history there is not a more startling illustration of the irony of +human life than this scene of Paul at the bar of Nero. On the +judgment-seat, clad in the imperial purple, sat a man who in a bad +world had attained the eminence of being the very worst and meanest +being in it--a man stained with every crime, the murderer of his own +mother, of his wives and of his best benefactors; a man whose whole +being was so steeped in every namable and unnamable vice that body and +soul of him were, as some one said at the time, nothing but a compound +of mud and blood; and in the prisoner's dock stood the best man the +world contained, his hair whitened with labors for the good of men and +the glory of God. Such was the occupant of the seat of justice, and +such the man who stood in the place of the criminal. + + +188. Death.--The trial ended, Paul was condemned and delivered over to +the executioner. He was led out of the city with a crowd of the lowest +rabble at his heels. The fatal spot was reached; he knelt beside the +block; the headsman's axe gleamed in the sun and fell; and the head of +the apostle of the world rolled down in the dust. + + +189. So sin did its uttermost and its worst. Yet how poor and empty +was its triumph! The blow of the axe only smote off the lock of the +prison and let the spirit go forth to its home and to its crown. The +city falsely called eternal dismissed him with execration from her +gates; but ten thousand times ten thousand welcomed him in the same +hour at the gates of the city which is really eternal. Even on earth +Paul could not die. He lives among us to-day with a life a hundredfold +more influential than that which throbbed in his brain whilst the +earthly form which made him visible still lingered on the earth. +Wherever the feet of them who publish the glad tidings go forth +beautiful upon the mountains, he walks by their side as an inspirer and +a guide; in ten thousand churches every Sabbath and on a thousand +thousand hearths every day his eloquent lips still teach that gospel of +which he was never ashamed; and, wherever there are human souls +searching for the white flower of holiness or climbing the difficult +heights of self-denial, there he whose life was so pure, whose devotion +to Christ was so entire, and whose pursuit of a single purpose was so +unceasing, is welcomed as the best of friends. + + + + +HINTS TO TEACHERS AND QUESTIONS FOR PUPILS + +Teacher's Apparatus.--English theology has no juster cause for pride +than the books it has produced on the Life of Paul. Perhaps there is +no other subject in which it has so outdistanced all rivals. Conybeare +and Howson's _Life and Epistles of St. Paul_ will probably always keep +the foremost place; in many respects it is nearly perfect; and a +teacher who has mastered it will be sufficiently equipped for his work +and require no other help. The works of Lewin and Farrar are written +on the same lines; the former is rich in maps of countries and plans of +towns; and the strong point of the latter is the analysis of Paul's +writings--the exposition of the mind of Paul. Sir William Ramsay has +made the whole subject peculiarly his own by the enthusiasm and labors +of a lifetime. The German books are not nearly so valuable. +Hausrath's _The Apostle Paul_ is a brilliant performance, but it is as +weak in handling the deeper things as it is strong in coloring up the +external and picturesque features of the subject. Baur's work is an +amazingly clever _tour de force_, but it is not so much a +well-proportioned picture of the apostle as a prolonged paradox thrown +down as a challenge to the learned. The latest large German work, +Clemen's _Paulus_, proceeds on the principle that the miracle is +untrue, and the effect may be sufficiently seen in the account it gives +of the first visit to Philippi. In Weinal's _Paulus_, pp. 312, 313, +there appears a forbidding picture of the effects produced by the +teaching of the subject in the author's country; in our country, on the +contrary, it has long been among the most attractive subjects for both +teachers and students. Adolphe Monod's _Saint Paul_, a series of five +discourses, is an inquiry into the secret of the apostle's life, +written with deep sympathy and glowing eloquence; and Renan's work, +with the same title, gives, with unrivaled brilliance, a picture of the +world in which the apostle lived, if not of the apostle himself. There +are books on the subject which do honor to American scholarship from +the pens of Cone, Gilbert, Bacon and A. T. Robertson, the last +mentioned with a valuable bibliography. But the best help is to be +found in the original sources themselves--the cameolike pictures of +Luke and the self-revelations of Paul's Epistles. The latter +especially, read in the fresh translation of Conybeare, will show the +apostle to any one who has eyes to see. Johnstone's wall-map of Paul's +journey is indispensable in the class-room. + + + +CHAPTER I + +Paragraph 2. Subject of class essay--Paul and the other Apostles: +Points of Connection and Contrast. + +5. Subject of class essay--Relation of Christianity to Learning and +Intellectual Gifts: its Use of them and its Independence of them. + + +9. _Quote passages of Scripture in which Paul's destination to be the +missionary of the Gentiles is expressed._ + + + +CHAPTER II + +On the external features of the period embraced in this chapter compare +the corresponding pages of Hausrath; on the internal features see +Principal Rainy's lecture on Paul in _The Evangelical Succession +Lectures_, vol. i. + +14. On the chronology of Paul's life see the notes at the end of +Conybeare and Howson, and Farrar, ii. 623. + +The principal dates may be given at this stage from Conybeare and +Howson, for reference throughout: + + A.D. + 36. Conversion. + 38. Flight to Tarsus. + 44. Brought to Antioch by Barnabas. + 48. First Missionary Journey. + 50. Council at Jerusalem. + 51-54. Second Missionary Journey. 1 and 2 _Thessalonians_ + written at Corinth. + 54-58. Third Missionary Journey. + 57. 1 _Corinthians_ written at Ephesus; 2 _Corinthians_, in + Macedonia; _Galatians_, at Corinth. + 58. _Romans_ written at Corinth. Arrest at Jerusalem. + 59. In prison at Caesarea. + 60. Voyage to Rome. + 62. _Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians_, + written at Rome. + 63. Release from prison. + 67. 1 _Timothy_ and _Titus_ written. + 68. In prison again at Rome. 2 _Timothy_. Death. + +With these may be compared some of Ramsay's dates--the conversion, 33; +First Missionary Journey, 47-49; Second, 50-53; Third, 53-57; Voyage to +Rome, 59, 60; Trial and Acquittal, 61; Second Trial, 67. + +Whereas Conybeare and Howson consider Galatians to have been written, +in close conjunction with Romans, at Corinth during the Fourth +Missionary Journey, Ramsay believes it to have been written at Antioch +before this journey commenced; and, whereas the older authorities +suppose it to be addressed to Galatians evangelized by Paul during the +Second Missionary Journey, though no details of such a conquest are +found in Acts, Ramsay holds the recipients of the Epistle to have been +the churches in the interior of Asia Minor evangelized during the First +Missionary Journey, the regions of Phrygia and Lycaonia in which these +were situated forming at that time part of the Province of Galatia, the +boundaries of which had been extended. This is the South Galatian +theory, the fullest statement and defence of which will be found in +Hastings' _Dictionary of the Bible_, vol. v. + +15. The goat's-hair cloth was called "cilicium," from the name of the +province. + +16. Dean Howson's _Metaphors of St. Paul_. Also Hausrath, p. 15. + +18. Compare the long lists of sins frequent in the Epistle. + +23. Subject for class essay: Paul's First Sight of Jerusalem. + +27. A startling picture of the state of society in Jerusalem might be +constructed from the materials supplied in Matt. xxiii. + +28. Detailed comparison of the experience of Paul with that of Luther: +their early religious ideas; the state of religion around them; their +failure to find peace and their sufferings of conscience; their +discovery of the righteousness of God. + +On the religious associations of Paul's early life see the first 100 +pages of Reuss' _Christian Theology in the Apostolic Age_. + +31. On the history of Christianity between the death of Christ and the +conversion of St. Paul see Dykes' _From Jerusalem to Antioch_. + +34. The question whether Paul was married. His views on the place of +woman. + +35. Perhaps Acts xxvi. 11 may not imply that any of the Christians +yielded to his endeavors to make them blaspheme. + + +15. _What was the Latin name for a town enjoying the political +privileges possessed by Tarsus?_ + +16. _What are Paul's principal metaphors?_ + +17. _Where does he make this boast?_ + +19. _What was the Latin name for the Roman citizenship, and what +privileges did it include? On what occasions is Paul recorded to have +used it? On what occasions might he have been expected to use it, when +he omitted to do so? What reasons may be given for the omission?_ + +20. _Name friends of Paul who were engaged in the same trade as he._ + +21. _Give Paul's quotations from the Greek poets. Do you know the +authors he quoted from? Explain Septuagint and Diaspora._ + +22. _Where does Paul refer to the sophists and rhetoricians?_ + +26. _Make a collection of Paul's quotations from the Old Testament, +showing whence each of them was taken._ + +28. _What does Paul mean by the Law?_ + +32. _Trace out the points of contact between the language and views of +Stephen's speech and those of Paul. Explain--_ + + "_Si Stephanus non orasset_, + _Ecclesia Paulum non haberet._" + +34. _Where is it said that Paul voted in the Sanhedrim?_ + +45. _Collect Paul's references to the persecution and bring out how +severe it was._ + + + +CHAPTER III + +On Paul's mental processes before and at the time of his conversion see +Principal Rainy's lecture, already quoted. + +The conversion of Paul is one of the strong apologetic positions of +Christianity. See this worked out in Lyttelton's _Conversion of St. +Paul_. But it might be worked out afresh on more modern lines. + +40. Principal Rainy, in the lecture above referred to, says that he +sees no evidence of such a conflict as this in Paul's mind; but what, +then, is the meaning of "It is hard for thee to kick against the +pricks"? + +41. The general tenor of the earliest Christian apologetic, as it is +to be found in the speeches of the Acts of the Apostles. + +44. Nothing could be more alien to the spirit of the New Testament +than to turn this round the other way, and, assuming that what Paul saw +was only a vision, argue that the other appearances of Christ, because +they are put on the same level, may have been only visions too. This +is a mere stroke of dialectical cleverness, which shows no regard to +the obvious intention of the writers. + + +_There are three accounts of the conversion of Paul in the Acts. What +is the significance of this reduplication in so small a book? +Enumerate the differences between these accounts, and explain them._ + +38. _Prove that the first Christians called Christianity_ THE WAY, +_and explain the signification of this name._ + + + +CHAPTER IV + +On the subject of this chapter see the works on Pauline Theology by +Pfleiderer, Bruce, Du Bose, Titius and Stevens, also the relevant +portions of any of the Handbooks of New Testament Theology--Weiss, +Reuss, Schmid, van Oosterzee, Beyschlag, Holtzmann, and Stevens. +Weiss' exposition is among the most solid and trustworthy. He divides +Paulinism into four sections:-- + +I. THE EARLIEST GOSPEL OF PAUL DURING THE HEATHEN MISSION (gathered +from Thessalonians). One chapter--the Gospel as the Way of Deliverance +from Judgment. + +II. THE DOCTRINAL SYSTEM OF THE FOUR GREAT DOCTRINAL AND CONTROVERSIAL +EPISTLES (Corinthians, Romans, Galatians). Ch. i. Universal Sinfulness +of Man; ch. ii. Heathenism and Judaism; ch. iii. Prophecy and +Fulfilment; ch. iv. Christology; ch. v. Redemption and Justification; +ch. vi. The New Life; ch. vii. The Doctrine of Predestination; ch. +viii. The Doctrine of the Church; ch. ix. The Last Things. + +III. THE DEVELOPMENT OP THE DOCTRINE IN THE EPISTLES WRITTEN IN PRISON +(Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians, Philemon). Ch. i. The Pauline +Foundations; ch. ii. Further Development of Doctrine. + +IV. THE TEACHING OF THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. One chapter--Christianity +as Doctrine. + +51. Subject for class essay. The Sources of St. Paul's Theology. + +52. Luther in the Wartburg. + +54-65. As these paragraphs are nothing but a paraphrase of Rom. +i.-viii., pupils ought to be asked to compare with them the +corresponding paragraphs of the Epistle. + +56. Compare Tholuck, The Moral Character of Heathendom. + +65. On Paul's Psychology see the monograph of Simon and the Handbooks +of Biblical Psychology by Delitzsch and Beck: also Heard, _The +Tripartite Nature of Man_, Laidlaw, _The Bible Doctrine of Man_, and +Dickson, _St. Paul's Use of the Terms Flesh and Spirit_. + +67. Compare Somerville, _St. Paul's Conception of Christ_, and +Knowling, _The Testimony of St. Paul to Christ_. + + +51. _Where does Paul mention his journey to Arabia?_ + +56. _What is the connection between moral and intellectual degeneracy?_ + +62. _Where does Paul speak of the Gospel as a "mystery," and what does +he mean by this word?_ + +65. _Does Paul divide human nature into two or into three sections? +Do you know the theological names for these alternatives? Does Paul +regard the unregenerate man as possessing the part of human nature +which he calls "spirit"?_ + +67. _Enumerate the incidents of Christ's earthly life referred to by +Paul._ + + + +CHAPTER V + +On this subject see the first two chapters of Conybeare and Howson; +_New Testament Times_ of Hausrath or Schuerer; Fairweather, _From the +Exile to the Advent_, Moss, _From Malachi to Matthew_. + +72. Subject of class essay: The Origin and Significance of the name +"Christian." + + +72. _By what other names were the Christians called in New Testament +times, among themselves or among their enemies?_ + +78. _What did the Greeks, the Romans, and the Jews severally +contribute to Christianity?_ + + + +CHAPTER VI + +The aim of this Handbook, as of _The Life of Jesus Christ_ in the same +series, being to show at a single glance the general course of the life +and the principal objects it touched, a good many details have been +omitted. This is especially the case in this chapter and in chapter x. +The omissions cause those great features to stand out more prominently +which details are apt to obscure. In this chapter an endeavor has been +made to show in this way what were the different regions into which the +apostle traveled, and what the peculiarities and the extent of the work +he did in each. But in an extended Bible Class course the lessons will +naturally go more into detail, and perhaps the incidents which took +place in each town may generally form a lesson. Here, therefore, and +at the beginning of chap. x., a few hints may be given of the +viewpoints for the lessons, in so far as these are not already supplied +in the text. + + Acts xiii. 1-12. First Footsteps of Christian Missions. + " " 14-52. _Antioch_. Paul's Missionary Method. + " xiv. 1-6. _Iconium_. Among the Jews. + " " 6-20. _Lystra_. Among the Heathens. + " " 21-28. Paul as a Pastor. + " xv. Paul as an Ecclesiastic. + Acts xvi. 1-6. The New Companion. + " " 6-10. Opening up Virgin Soil. + " " 12-40. _Philippi_. Transfiguration and Disfiguration + of Humanity. + " xvii. 1-9. _Thessalonica_. An Honorable Reproach. + " " 10-14. _Beroea_. Rare Freedom from Prejudice. + " " 15-34. _Athens_. The Gospel and Intellectual + Curiosity. + " xviii. 1-3. _Corinth_. Paul's earthly Home. + " " 4-17. The Missionary's Discouragements + and Encouragements. + " " 23-28. A polished Shaft in God's Quiver. + " xix. _Ephesus_. See the text. Also, Conflict of + Christianity with Vested Interests and + Mob Violence. + + +79. Howson's _Companions of St. Paul_. + +81. A minute inspection of Acts xiii. 9 will confirm the view here +given of the change of name, though it is difficult to get rid of the +idea that the conversion of the governor, who bore the same name, had +something to do with it. + +84. On the worship of the synagogue see Farrar's _Life of Christ_, i. +220. + +89. On the Council of Jerusalem, which took place between the first +and second journeys, see ch. ix. + +93. What is here said of the plan of the Acts explains still more +strikingly the meagerness of the record of the third journey. + +97. Beroea was to the south of the Via Egnatia. + +99. Subject of class essay: The Influence of Christianity on the Lot +of Woman. + +103. Subject of class essay: Paul at Athens. + +104. Subject of class essay: Paul and Socrates. + +113. A strong argument against the mythical theory of the miracles of +our Lord may be constructed from the paucity of the miracles attributed +to Paul. If that age naturally wove miraculous legends round great +names, why did it not encircle Paul with a continuous web of miracle? +and why does the New Testament admit that the Baptist worked no miracle? + +114. See Ramsay, _Letters to the Seven Churches_. + + +79. _Give a list of Paul's companions and friends mentioned in the New +Testament._ + +84. _What were the charges generally brought against him before the +authorities?_ + +91. _Where in his writings does he mention Barnabas and Mark?_ + +93. _Give the places in Acts where the items of this catalogue are +recorded._ + +94. _Mention other classical associations of this region._ + +98. _What two kings of Macedonia are famous in history?_ + +102. _Expand these allusions to Greek history._ + +103. _Give a number of the names associated with the golden age of +Athens and mention what they were famous for._ + +108. _Find out all the visions mentioned in Paul's life, and prove +that they were given him at the crises of his history._ + +110. _Distinguish our Asia and Asia Minor from the Asia of the New +Testament._ + + + +CHAPTER VII + +In the chronological table, p. 138, the dates of the Epistles have +already been given and the points of the history indicated where they +come in. It is a pity the Epistles are not arranged in chronological +order in our Bibles. Their characteristics may be mentioned: + + 1 and 2 _Thessalonians_. Simple beginnings. Attitude + to Christ's second coming. + 1 _Corinthians_. Picture of an apostolic church. + 2 _Corinthians_. Paul's portrait of himself. + _Galatians_. Vehement polemic against Judaizers. + _Romans_. Paul's gospel. + _Philemon_. Example of Christian courtesy. + _Colossians_ and _Ephesians_. Paul's later gospel. + _Philippians_. Picture of Roman imprisonment. + 1 _Timothy_ and _Titus_. Form of the church. + 2 _Timothy_. The last scenes. + +Ramsay places _Galatians_ before 1 and 2 _Corinthians_; compare p. 139 +above. + +116. Compare Shaw, _The Pauline Epistles_. + +118. On Paul's style see Farrar's Excursus at the close of vol. i. +The comparison of it to that of Thucydides is more dignified than that +of the text, but less true. + +119. Inspiration did not interfere with natural characteristics of +style. It made the writer not less but more himself, while of course +it imparted to the products of his pen a divine value and authority. + +120-127. Howson's _Character of St. Paul_; Speer, _The Man Paul_; +Hausrath, 45-57; Baur's remarks (ii. 294 ff.) on his intellectual +character are very good. But the principal sources are 2 Corinthians +and Acts xx. + +122. Farrar's treatment of Paul's bodily infirmities is a serious blot +on his book; for these are obtruded with a frequency and exaggeration +which produce an impression quite different from that made by the +references to them in Scripture. This is still truer of Baring-Gould's +_Study of St. Paul_. For a treatment of the same subject, realistic, +but full of sympathy and delicacy, see Monod. Ramsay is of opinion +that the "thorn in the flesh" was chronic malarial fever. + + +122 ff. _Illustrate these paragraphs fully from Scripture._ + +128. _Compare Paul with Livingstone and other missionaries._ + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +On this subject compare Neander's _Planting of Christianity_, Book ii., +ch. 7, and Schaff's _Church History_; also Bannerman's _Church of +Christ_. This chapter is only a piecing together of the information +scattered through 1 Corinthians. It would be well to get pupils to +seek out the passages of the Epistle which correspond to the different +paragraphs. A picture of a Pauline church of a later date might be +compiled in the same way from the Pastoral Epistles. + +136. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit was revealed "at sundry times and +in divers manners," and the complete doctrine is to be obtained by +uniting the representations of the various writers of Scripture. In +the New Testament there are four phases--1. In the Synoptical Gospels +the Holy Spirit is set forth in His influence on the human nature of +Christ; 2. in the Acts and Paul, as the power for founding the Church +and converting the world; 3. in Paul as the principle of the new life +of Christians; 4. in John as the Comforter. + +138. Compare the irregularities of other periods of vast change, +_e.g._, the Reformation. + +144. On the extent to which an authoritative ecclesiastical system is +given in the New Testament compare _Jus Divinum Presbyterii_ and +Hooker's _Ecclesiastical Polity_. + +130. _Give the names of the principal games of ancient times, derived +from the places where they were held._ + +131. _Where are churches mentioned as meeting in the houses of +individuals?_ + +132. _Explain the words "barbarian," "Scythian," in Col. iii. 11._ + +135. _What modern divine endeavored to revive these phenomena, and +what is the name of the church he founded? What is the meaning of the +word "charism"? Were the tongues of Pentecost the same as those of 1 +Corinthians? Give instances in which New Testament prophets did +predict future events._ + + + +CHAPTER IX + +The criticism which seeks to disintegrate the New Testament writings +and set the apostles against one another is founded on a revival of the +claim of the Judaizers that their propaganda had the sanction of Peter +and the other original apostles. In a Handbook like this it is +impossible to discuss at any length the Tuebingen Theory. But some of +its points are silently met in the text; and the whole theory is +answered by an attempt to give a view of the course of the controversy +which covers all the facts. The distinction drawn in paragraphs 159 +ff. between the central question in dispute and a subordinate aspect of +the controversy will be found to clear up many intricacies. Compare +Sorley's _Jewish Christians and Judaism_. + +This chapter is full of references to passages in Acts and Galatians, +which pupils ought to be asked to produce. + + + +CHAPTER X + +Viewpoints for lessons on details omitted or only lightly referred to +in the text: + + Acts xx. 4-16. Paul the Hirer of Laborers for Christ's + Vineyard: the Unwearied Preacher (_Troas_). + " " 17-38. The Man of Heart (_Miletus_). + " xxii. Final Effort to save his Country. + " xxiii. 1-10. In the Dock where he had placed others. + " xxiii. 22-27. The Preacher of Righteousness. + " xxvi. The Inspired Student. + " xxvii. Paul as a Ruler of Men. + " xxviii. The benevolence of Nature and that of Grace (_Malta_). + +171. See notes on ch. iv., p. 141. + +The authenticity of Ephesians and Colossians can only be denied by +ignoring the impression of majesty and profundity which they have made +on the greatest minds. (See the Introductions in Meyer and Alford.) +What other mind of those ages except Paul's could have erected a +structure so magnificent on the very foundations of the Epistle to the +Romans? or in what other mind was there such a union of the doctrinal +and the ethical? + +In John's writings the relation of believers to Christ is illustrated +by a far higher comparison: it is compared to the union of Father and +Son in the Deity. + +172. See Ernesti: _The Ethic of Paul_; also Juncker. + +174. See Smith's _Voyage of St. Paul_; also Sir William Ramsay's +article on Roads and Travel in Hastings' _Dictionary of the Bible_, +vol. v. + +176. Burrus, the Praetorian Prefect. So Conybeare and Howson; but +Ramsay, following Mommsen, holds the officer to have been the princeps +peregrinorum, whose quarters lay on the Coelian Hill. + +On the various kinds of imprisonment in Roman law see Ramsay's _Roman +Antiquities_, ch. ix. + +177-182. The materials for this account of Paul's prison life at Rome +are chiefly gathered from the Epistle to the Philippians. + +184. On the genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles see essay by Findley +in Sabatier's _The Apostle Paul_. The comparative lack of doctrinal +matter in them is accounted for by the fact that they were written to +ministers well acquainted with his doctrinal system. + +188. At Tre Fontane, to the south of Rome, the traditional scene of +the execution is still pointed out; and not far off stands St. +Paul's-outside-the-Walls, one of the most gorgeous churches in the +world. + + +164. _Trace out the different collections which Paul is recorded to +have been engaged with._ + +166. _What were the courts of the temple; and what was the name of the +Roman fortress which overlooked them?_ + +171. _How often does the phrase "in Christ" (or "in" with pronouns +referring to Christ) occur in Ephesians?_ + +172. _Give examples from Paul's writings of the application of great +principles to small duties._ + +175. _Give the names and localities of other great Roman roads. +Describe a Roman triumph._ + +179. _Narrate the story of Onesimus, gathering it from the Epistle to +Philemon._ + +184. _Explain the name of the Pastoral Epistles._ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF ST. 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