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BS 2505 .W58 1911

Wise, Clement.

The new life of St. i-au

THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

THE
NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

CLEMENT WISE

Author of
Darkness and Dawn, Universalism, Etc.

a/3Tt'ytvwo-Kto Ik fxepovs, rore Se 'cTrtyvojcro/xafc KaO(o<s
Kal ' eirey vioa-Orjv.

{Kop : A. K€cfi : 13-12).

LONDON :

FRANCIS GRIFFITHS,

34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C.

1911.

DEDICATION.

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE SACRED MEMORY OF MY

FATHER, IN WHOSE commonpi^ace books I

DISCOVERED THAT HE WAS IN PAUL
BEFORE ME.

December, 1910,

PREFACE.

" Why another Life of St. Paul, when their name
is legion ? " The reply is, " Because the subject
is inexhaustible." And to the end of Time we shall
never plumb either the significance of his Life and
still less his Writings.

Moreover, this Essay differs in its treatment from
the ordinary method.

It has undertaken by imaginative sketches to
supply the lacunce that have been left in the historical
sources. Therefore, though these insertions are
worthless as facts, the author ventures to believe
that they will be found congruous and helpful to a
vivid apprehension of that great Personality who
has more deeply influenced the minds and hearts
of men than any other, but One.

Of course, I have consulted many Biographies of
St. Paul, English and Continental, but apart from
the standard work of Conybeare and Howson, I
have not found them serviceable. They have either
affronted me, or beclouded the Vision that the Lucan
original and the immortal Epistles begot within
me. Hence I put them aside and confined myself
to Paul's fellow voyager and my own conceptions.

viii. PREFACE

As to che Doctrine of St. Paul, involving a stud}r
of the Epistles and their Authorship (beyond a.
suggestion which I have offered as to the Treatise
for the Hebrews), space would not permit of any
excursions whatever. If the present work should meet
with any favour at all, I should desire— indeed, am
urged— to attempt to touch the overpowering attrac-
tion, though even upon a most inadequate scale.

So I may entertain the hope, if God wills, to meet
my readers again. 1

^ CLEMENT WISE.

30th November, 1910.

CONTENTS

Introductory
Chapter i.

• • •

Life at Tarsus

Page-
1

ii.

Paul's Youth at Tarsus continued

iii.

After the Abyss

iv.

Passover at Home

Paul goes to Jerusalem

»>

vi.

Paul at Jerusalem

vii.

Paul with Gamaliel

>•»

viii.

Paul in Arabia .

ix.

Paul in Arabia (continued)

107

xi.

Jerusalem at the Epoch .
The Church before Tribulation

117
133

xii.

The Church plunged in
Tribulation .

139

xiii.

Paul's Conversion

158

»9

xiv.

St. Paul at Damascus, just
after his Conversion

185

XV,

Paul in Arabia the second
time

190

xvi.

Paul goes to Damascus
and then to Jerusalem

203

»>

xvii.

The Lost Apostle Discovered

210

xviii.

Antioch

214

xix.

Paul's Personality

218

XX.

"Antioch (continued)

22T

:x. CONTENTS

Page

Chapter xxl Paul's first Missionary

Journey . 244

„ xxii. Iconium , 277

,, xxiii. The Church's Measles 291
„ xxiv. Paul's second Missionary

Journey . . 303

„ XXV. Parenthetical Period of the
Spirit's Direct Action,
within the Infant Churches 313

„ xxvi. The second Missionary

Journey (continued) . 317

,, xxvii. St. Paul at Athens, Corinth

and Ephesus . 356

„ xxviii. An Episode. A Martyr

at Ephesus . 390

„ xxix. Third Missionary Journey 401

„ XXX. The Voyage to Rome 447

Appendix A. On Miracles . 479

,, B. Towards a New Philosophy 481

„ C. Chronological Table 485

IMap of St. Paul's Journeys

THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Introductory

Without Father, without Mother, without Descent,
there stepped into the field of history the greatest
Prophet after our Lord, and was anointed to his
office by the blood of the first Martyr.

It was given him to become the great High Priest
of the Gentile Church, chiefly, changing the customs,
laws, and faith of many Kingdoms, establishing
them in a new order, and conferring upon Christen-
dom an endless Life.

God Almighty will share His creative power
when He makes a new World. His beloved Son
will be given companionship in founding His Empire.
The Holy Spirit is homeless and cannot work apart
from Man— the object of Eternal Trinitial Love.

The bringing into being the ordained and prepared
human instrume*its for the only glorious chapters
in human history demanded the providential selec-
tion of every Ancestor. Every alliance will shape
the new child and leave its enduring marks and
modifications in each succeeding generation ; but
the chiefly modifying influence, cancelling often
special strains, is the dominating power of God's
Spirit.

Canny, deceitful and covetous were both the
great Ancestors of Paul, but as the great Apostle
lay in the loins of Jacob and in the womb of Rachel,
he was the inheritor of special blessings, on account
of his parents' mutual faith, their trials, and God's
covenant with Abraham.

2 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Jacob wrested with the Angel and prevailed,
wherefore his name was changed to that of Israel :
for as a Prince had he power with God and with
men, and did prevail. While Rachel prevailed
not in her hard labour with Benoni and called him
her sorrow when she was departing, her husband
changed that into Benjamin— the Son of my right
hand.

He was not unmindful of his dream. " Behold
the Lord stood above the ladder, and said, " I am
the Lord God of Abraham thy Father, and the God
of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest, to thee I will
give it, and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as
the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad
to the West and to the East and to the North and
to the South. And in thee and in thy seed shall all
the families of the earth be blessed. And behold,
I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places
whither thou goest and will bring thee again into
this land : for I will not leave thee, until I have done
that which I have spoken to thee of " (Genesis xxviii.
13-15).

And again at Penuel, God blessed him, causing
Jacob to say, " I have seen God face to face and my
life is preserved " (Genesis xxxii. 30). Blessings
continued to be pronounced at Bethel. " I am
God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply ; a nation
and a company of nations shall be of thee and Kings
shall come of thy loins : And the land which I gave
Abraham and Isaac to thee I will give it, and to thy
seed after thee will I give the land " (Genesis xxxv.
11-12).

Every child born into the World is predestined—
first by its heredity, secondly by the appointed

INTRODUCTORY 8

destiny pronounced in infinite wisdom and love for
its required services and its future. There was no
escape for Benjamin ; no escape from becoming
the Ancestor of Saul of Tarsus. No escape, when
the Almighty dipped His cup into the stream of
Jewish life in Tarsus and lifted out the Apostle
Paul and poured it out around the little seed which
He was purposing to plant at Antioch, to become
the great tree of Christendom, destined to over-
shadow and tumble its fruits to all the waste places
of the World. But it took seventeen and a half
centuries to make the Author of the Epistle to the
Romans. Not a day, not an hour was unnecessary,
nor superfluous. Rachel had to surrender her own
life for her new son, but the aimless wailings of the
infant, who knew not it was orphaned, and whose
small end at the candle of life it was so difficult to
light, was carefully shielded by Angelic ministry—
from being blown out— for within the loins of the
infant Benjamin, lay the Apostle Paul.

Benjamin — " little Benjamin " was the special
comforter of the aged Patriarch, when the son of his
love, Joseph, " was not." The guilty brethren were
forced to bestow upon Benjamin feelings of an oppo-
site character to those they indulged towards Joseph.
Time, too, had devoured their jealousy and remorse
stole over their hearts to darken solitary hours and
to awaken spectres at the thought of their odious
crime.

Benjamin was carefully looked after. *' Take care
of Benjamin for Father's sake "—doubly bereaved by
Rachel and by Joseph. " Take up tenderly and
lift with care the baby boy when he wanted a camel
ride ; for all the household knew that Jacob's life

4 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL i

was bound up in the lad's life, and Judah was ready
to become surety for him when Benjamin's sack
was opened and the fatal cup turned up. Superfluous
precautions ! for the Tree of Christendom lay in the
boy.

Seventeen centuries and a half— that was the
gestation of the Apostle— Heredity and decreed
Predestination governing the whole long period.
Strange strains of ancestry revealing themselves.
Jacob's blessing upon Benjamin seems like a post-
script ; his former chief comforter seems to have
deeply disappointed him— the lad, having been
spoiled, it was not unlikely. The blessing was,
" Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf : in the morning
he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide
the spoil."

Seventeen centuries and a half and that blessing
was preserved. Not only did the tribe of Benjamin
become noted for its valour, but in two pitched battles
it slew 40,000 of their brethren, and only by stratagem
was it overcome. And it had accomplished that
slaughter in no holy cause, but defending that polluted
city, Gibeah, where sons of Belial were found within
the borders of Benjamin, in the days when there
was no King in Israel and every man did what was
right in his own eyes.

Seventeen centuries and a half and Benjamin
ravins at Damascus as a wolf, or wanted to. But
his letters of authority to hale men and women to
prison and to death are scattered on the road. That
night he has no spoil to divide ; next morning he
has no Christian prey to devour. The opposite
blessing of Moses was beginning to work. " And
of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the Lord shall

INTRODUCTORY 5

dwell in safety by him and the Lord shall cover
him all the day long, and he shall dwell between
his shoulders " (Deuteronomy xxxiii. 12), Benjamin's
blessing by Moses was being transferred from Saul
to the threatened Church.

From the tribe of Benjamin the first King of
Israel was selected. Among the mighty men of
valour for which the tribe was distinguished, one
was pre-eminent in stature, strength, and comeliness.
Samuel kissed him, for he was both modest and
martial, and had hid himself among the stuff. But
King Saul had no charmed career and tainted strains
from Gibeah gave tokens of a piebald character.
In the visions given to Saul, the persecutor of Christian
disciples, even these strains would not be entirely
burnt up. They were confessed by the man Paul
when writing to the Romans, Leader as he was
over the New Israel he was creating, he cried out,
under the Benjamite heredity, '' That which I
do, I allow not : for what I would, that do I not :

but what I hate, that do I For I

delight in the law of God after the inward man,
but I see another law in my members, warring against
the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members. Oh !
wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from
the body of this death ? I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans vii. 15, 22—25).

Of the immediate ancestors of St. Paul we have
no records. The most honourable and the most
beneficient labours ever go without adequate recog-
nition in this world.

Who thinks of the Father or the mother of dis-
tinguished names in history ? The brightest luminary

6 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

excludes from notice those associated with its rising.
Who asks for a piece of the root when he is enjoying
the fruit ? Who thanks the worms for the richness
of the crop ? Who made and sustains the forest ?
Who when struck dumb by the pride and power of a
wondrous civilisation enquires after the " hands,"
Who put it up and keeps it going ?

The younger children in a large family scarcely
ever see their father, and the elder ones are perfectly
indifferent as to what he is doing. His early leaving
and late arrival relieves them of his presence, and
from the wife of his bosom all cares, troubles and
impending dangers are kept back. People are
glad to look at the face of the clock, careless of the
works behind, but if they go wrong, or stop, there
is notice enough.

So of those benefactors to the Human Race — St.
Paul's father and mother -we are left without any
knowledge.

The World might be orphaned for any obvious
manifestation of fatherly compassion or care. For
that, the World had to wait until Christ came in
Person to reveal and demonstrate it. And the first
Person in the Trinity : for want of Incarnation, does
not, and cannot, receive the warm and absorbed
devotion which the Son claims and gets.

It is in Heaven itself that the Father comes to
His own, where the Father shall be seen and wor-
shipped as the Son is ; and when the Kingdom of
human hearts is handed over to Him Who gave the
Son and God be all in all.

As for Paul, his calling to the Apostleship ended
for him, private and tribal relationship. With his
eyes open he saw clearly that any or all ambitions

INTRODUCTORY 7

he ever entertained for himself, his family, or his
people, were done with for ever. He died unto fleshly-
ties, in the hour when he became alive in the Spirit.
Dear reminiscences of the old life in Tarsus. Parental
solicitude for his career. Pride in his successes at
the feet of Gamaliel. Budding purposes to shake
his nation free from the Roman yoke. Resolutions
to raise it religiously by informing the traditions of
the Elders with the purer lore of the Prophets.
Advancement under the Imperial Procurators. All
these plans, hopes, memories, shrank like a posy of
beautiful flowers, gathered from the garden of youthful
fancy, as they were held before the awfully bright and
consuming fire of his ever present Vision. They
perished in his hand : he could no longer press them
to his heart : they were colourless, scentless, dead :
And with both hands he threw them behind him
for ever.

So it was that no reference to his parents or guard-
ians is to be culled from his Epistles or from the
record of his travels. He never sought to renew the
early associations of childhood— to lay a wreath upon
the tomb of father or mother, or made enquiries after
the household slaves who ministered to his helpless-
ness. The election of Jehovah is awful. Stamps
out the ordinary traits of our common Nature, and
stamps in a new Image, with a new Superscription,
'' This man is God's, Render unto God that which
is God's."

So it was, as we said at the outset, that St. Paul
stepped into the field of history, like Melchizideck,
without father and mother, and without descent.
But that both parents transmitted traits of character
even as they derived theirs from immemorial times,

8 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

is, of course, undoubted. And that the Almighty
watched and waited by the banks of the river of
Humanity until in its flow through Tarsus the
Guardian of the Race dipped in His cup and poured
out Paul, wherewith to plant His new Tree of Christen-
dom.

To the common eye and understanding, there
was little to differentiate that young Jew from crowds
of others ; but in the eye of the Discerner of Hearts,
and who in a past Eternity— had decreed just that
special type of mind and heart which would best lay
the foundations of the Redeemer's Kingdom, there
was no possibility of mistake.

We are left then to conjecture what sort of a
home the Boy Saul enjoyed, and what the special
influences which moulded his character. It
seems likely that he enjoyed the inestimable benefits
of a home which was not cursed by perpetual sordid
cares. The privilege of Roman citizenship, prob-
ably an heirloom, was either due to purchase, or
was a grateful acknowledgment of services rendered
to the Government. The Boy Saul was free-born.
At the birth, the bedchamber was surely not without
heavenly attendants, for the old Roman adage that
nothing which belongs to humanity is foreign to me,
must be supposed to be regnant in a superior degree,
in the breasts of those Immortals who were com-
missioned, if not created, to minister to the heirs
of Salvation.

What special rites were performed after Jewish
customs we cannot say : those done at Bethlehem
at the Nativity were not elaborate : whatever they
were they could not communicate any additional
reward in happiness to the mother ; who, filled with

INTRODUCTORY 9

joy after her pains and labour, saw by her pillow
the puling Infant, who was to shake down the pillars
of Heathenism and renew the face of antique society.
Did that shadowy figure, Paul's father, then come
to salute mother and child, and breathe his thankful-
ness ? " The child is choking." '' Quick, nurse ! "
The attendant flies. Then, after a moment, con-
fesses she thought the child was gone— he was blue.
No need for alarm. That infant was to spend a
night and a day in the deep, and if Paul was on board,
even chained, he could save the lives of living cargo
and crew under shipwreck.

CHAPTER I.

Life at Tarsus.

No ONE knows how Tarsus began. It was nearly
four and a half centuries before Paul breathed its
air that Xenophon found it a great and prosperous
city. " Great " by standard of ancient Greece :
for all material things there were small : it was only
in the intellectual that Greece Avas great. Babylonian
adventurers doubtless traded with the iVnatolian
tribes, Assyria afterwards, and then Medes and
Persians. Persia perceived the natural advantages
of the spot, and made it a port. Successive waves
of conquest left only permanent things — Injustice,
and " man's inhumanity to man." The name of the
city was traditionally given to it on account of
Pegassus losing a hoof there. Apparently the sacred
Steed had spurned the people too vigorously, as
altogether too barbarous. Of course, the bulk of
the people were slaves, because the plains so rich:
and those who owned them, or trafficked in their
produce, were able to erect temples and afterwards
schools of learning with crowds of students. So
the privileged minority became gallant and cultured.
The essential element in Phrygian worship was that
of Cybele— the Divine Mother. And as the City
had among its Professors one of the Tutors of
Augustus, and the University was permeated by the
philosophy of Athenodorus, Pegassus need not to have
lost his hoof so prematurely.

But Tarsus, to-day, after accomplishing its cycle,

LIFE AT TARSUS 11

giving to Christian annals an imperishable name, has
now reverted to its barbarism, and is trodden under
by the cm'sed hoof of the Saracen. And how much
does Tarsus care to-day for her neighbour city Adana,
bereft of her children ? Will the Chancellories of the
Christian Powers move to comfort her ?

Two thousand years ago a cry of a new-born boy
was heard at Tarsus, and as a consequence 300 years
after, the greatest Empire of Antiquity parted with
its gods.

It was a child of the stock of Israel, of the tribe
of Benjamin, loyal to Judah, the law-giver, at the
Disruption, as became a tribe which furnished the
first King to the Twelve. A Hebrew of the Hebrews —
pure Jews both father and mother— to whom per-
tained the adoption, the glory, the covenant, the
law, the service of God and the promises : whose
were the fathers, and of whom as concerning the
flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for
ever.

Eight days after, the child was circumcised, and
received the two names — Saul (Hebrew) and Paulus
(Latin), the family being proud of the Roman Citizen-
ship. A first-born son required to be redeemed from
Jehovah. Five shekels of Syrian weight— some
five or six shillings— Paul was cheap at the price. The
Presentation and Redemption were ever made easy :
any priest would do— anywhere. Priests are never
slow to take money. And though the Presentation
could not take place before thirty-one days, the rite
might be postponed until mother and child could
appear together, at the next Festival at Jerusalem.

A pretty and godly custom obtained in Jewish
households of teaching children a passage of Scrip-

12 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

ture, commencing with the letter of the beginning
or ending of their names. This was to be a motto for
Life's guidance and .support. Saul would doubtless
be taught his text as soon as he could speak. The
good old Rabbi would come in to pay a call.

" And how is the fine boy ? " The mother would
say, " Oh, he is getting to speak so nicely. I will
just have him brought in to say his text." The slave
girl brings him in, abashed, and as the Rabbi bends
down to greet him, the long beard tickles his fore-
head : but he is taken up kindly and gets courage
to stroke the fine white hair. " Say your text to the
Rabbi, like a good boy." Whereupon little Saul
repeats w^ith reverence and modesty, " Samuel,
Samuel ! Then Samuel answered. Speak ! for thy
servant heareth." " The Lord bless thee, my son,"
says the Rabbi. " And who called Samuel ? "
" Say ! " Saul hung his head and softly replied, " The
Lord." " You will always hear the Lord's voice,
won't you ? " The little being, now standing on the
floor, looks up with open eyes, but mantled cheek,
and answ^ers, " Yes ! "

The mother smiles and bends to kiss the little
forehead, and attends the Rabbi to the door, whisper-
ing many things in the old man's ear e'er he leaves.

Anon the little child is stood upon an Assyrian
chair to look through the window. '' Look ! look ! "
says the slave girl, " at the pretties."

Tarsus w^as twelve miles from the sea and some
five miles from the mountains.

North was the long, complicated and knotted
range of the Taurus— a mighty rampart, guarding the
Uplands and putting its best face by far to the ocean.
From the rich alluvial plains, dotted with orchards

LIFE AT TARSUS 13

and olives, the lower slopes were richly clothed with
oaks, beeches, plane trees, and most European
trees, with the addition of the palm, arbutus, and
cactus.

The soft folds of the woods are richly gilt by the
declining sun, while great creases of deep purple
furrowed their breasts, and were broadening and
deepening, threatening to engulf all in tremendous
gloom. Whether at noon or at evening, these dry
climates give no graduated tones and all shadow is
little infused with colour. It is glory or damnation,
nothing between. Hence the height of the school
of English landscape — born of our moist islands.

" Look ! Look ! little Paul, at the pretties."
Above the range of ruddy pines, an immense army
of white winged Angels seemed to have rested and
watched with pity the city. Or is the mountain range
a serried rank of white-robed priests, confessing
the sins of the city and offering blood on the altar
stairs of Heaven ?

For the abhorrent black rocks, lava and scoriae
—remnants of volcanoes, had in pity been clothed with
a lovely raiment of snow\ Blue shadow carved out
tempting ravines and supported towering golden
pinnacles. The gold changes to old gold, and by-and-
by in one instant the whole range blushes into rose.

" Look ! Look ! little Paul at the pretties." Look
at the river ! See the dark blue waves dashing down
the limestone ledges ; but all its white foam is now
purple in the valley.

" I will tell you a story, little Paul."

" Oh, do tell me," said the boy, and smiled.
" There was a great Queen came up this river.
She was the Queen of Egypt, and she came, dressed

14 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

so lovely, sitting in a golden barge."

" What's a barge ? " says Paul.

'' A boat, you know, and the slaves had silver
oars and the barge had purple sails. Oh ! it was
splendid ! She came to see a great Commander, a
great soldier, you know (don't interrupt) under the
Romans."

" I'm a Roman citizen, says father," said Paul,
parenthetically, "Go on ! "

" Well, the great Queen saw the Commander, and
the great General saw the Queen, and the Queen
made him her slave."

" Made him her slave ? " said Paul, in great aston-
ishment.

" Oh ! said Cibby, I cannot explain. What is
that in the street ? There is a crowd and a man is
being beaten."

" They are beating him so hard," said Paul,
" what has he done ? "

The slave girl pressed nearer the crenelle and started
back with a cry, "It is my father ! " Snatching
up the child she hurried out sobbing, but before
they left the apartment, little Paul had kissed his
slave nurse and said, " I love you, Cibby ! "

As the maid rushed out with her burden, the child
nearly knocked off the Mesusah which was attached
to every door of a clean (Levitically) apartment.
This phylactery of texts, sheathed in its shining
metal case, was invested with the character of a
charm, and its use was regarded somewhat as the
Russians regard their Ikons, which are saluted and
a candle kept burning before them, because their
reverential treatment gives protection to the house
and its inmates. But this was and is infinitely superior

LIFE AT TARSUS 15

to any gilt effigy of an '' orthodox " saint. It con-
tained great words, written on parchment in twenty-
two Unes.

" Hear, O Israel ! The Lord our God is One Lord.
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.
And these words which I command thee this day
shall be in thy heart, and thou shalt teach them
diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them
when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest
by the way, and when thou liest down and when
thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a
sign upon thine hand, and they shalt be as frontlets
between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon
the posts of thy house and on thy gates " (Deut.
vi. 4-9).

Then going on to the 11th chapter, 13th verse :

" And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken
diligently unto my Commandments which I command
you this day, to love the Lord your God and to serve
him with all your hearts and with all your soul.
That I will give you the rain of your land in his due
season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou
mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine
oil." Concluding with the 21st verse : " That your
days may be multiplied, and the days of your chil-
dren, in the land which the Lord swore unto your
Fathers to give them, as the days of Heaven upon
the earth."

This solemn adjuration was doubtless taught to the
children of every household, and deserved to be
reverenced. But every good custom gets corrupted
in the letter rather than the Spirit. Doubtless Paul's
parents reverently touched the Mesusah case and

16 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

pronounced a benediction when entering, and little
Paul darted a finger at it when his nurse carried him
out and rocked it.

Out with his nurse for an airing, a heathen child
offered a plum, but he was instructed by his parents
to have nothing to do with heathen children, they
were accounted accursed ; so, though the infant
Apostle was pleased and wanted to take it, he remem-
bered his father's and mother's injunction and with-
drew his hand. The heathen one pressed the plum
against Paul's teeth, but he turned his head, looking
askance with one eye^ quite in doubt whether he was
right or wTong. His heart said, show friendliness
to the good hearted heathen boy. His mind reminded
him, " Obey your father and your mother." This
case was typical, many instances occurred when
children " made up to him " in the streets, and any
communication with heathen children was strictly
forbidden.

Paul began to argue very early and often put
posers to his parents.

" Father, my Bible fell into the gutter when I
was going to the Synagogue School, and a procession
was coming out from an Idol Temple — a drunken
crowd— singing so nastily, and dancing, and then
falling, as if they were crazed. But one of the boys —
a heathen— who was looking on, darted in among
the crowd, and kept my precious book from being
trodden in the mire, and with a beautiful smile, he
brought it to me and said, " I know you value it,
for I have seen you reading it when going to and
from School." Tell me, father, are they all really
accursed by God ?

" But before replying, " said his father, " let me

LIFE AT TARSUS 17

ask you, * How was it that the Pedagogue did not
take you to School as usual ? ' '*

" Oh! Cibby's brother, you know, is a slave in the
fields and he was beaten so badly that he died
and my pedagogue went to the funeral."

The father did not like the intelligence, but said to
his little son, " Don't you see that they are accursed
because they are not the descendants of Abraham,
and God was pleased to favour him and his race, be-
cause of his faith and obedience."

" But, " said Paul, '' is not God a good father ? "

"When mother gave my sister, Rebecca, the
choicest fruit from the dish and left me scarcely any,
you said, ' Fathers should not make favourites among
children of one family.' Are there two Gods ?— one
God for us and the other one, the father of the slaves
and the Heathen ? only this second God is not able to
save his children, but our God was able to send Moses
and lead our fathers out from the bondage of Egypt.
And why does he not send another Moses to lead out
the slaves here from the Roman Empire ? "
^ " My slaves, indeed " ! said Paul's father-50^^0 voce
" My child, you are far too young to question your
elders. Attend to your lessons. As to your absurd
question, ' Are there two Gods ' ? Do you not know
the first lines of the Mesusah, ' Hear, O Israel, the Lord
our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with
all thy might.' "

'' Yes," interposed Paul. " That is what I want to
do. I could love the strong God, but not the weak
one. If there is only one God, then He is not fair."

*' Now go to bed," was Paul's father's clenching
argument.

18 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

On his way to the roof —that most delightful cham-
ber after the sweltering heat of the day— little Paul
stood transfixed, listening to that complex of sounds —
the breathing of a city— inarticulate. But often as he
had heard it, and he loved to hear it, it ever stirred
within him strange yearnings and great foreshadow-
ings of approaching events, in which he was to
take part.

His sister drew near to salute him for the night.
" We are descendant of Abraham," he said to his sis-
ter, " and we are the favourites of Heaven."

" Yes," said his sister. " Thank God we are. We
can never be common— that's a blessing— and when
Messiah comes shan't we be great and glorious, and
tread the nations under our feet."

" Sister, you forget a portion of God's covenant
with Abraham. ' He shall surely become a great and
mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall
be blessed in him. For I have known him, to the end
that he may command his children and his household
after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to
do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon
Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.' It
depends upon us to do justice and judgment. I don't
want the Messiah to tread down the nations under our
feet. Was not my nurse good to me ? Is not my
pedagogue doing me good service daily ? Have not
Heathen boys frequently done me a good turn ?
There are several Proselytes attend the Synagogue, I
shall live to make Proselytes."

" Oh, you are a strange boy— not a proper boy at
all. I want the Messiah to tread our enemies into the
mire — a whisper in your ear — ' I may become the
mother of the Messiah.' "

LIFE AT TARSUS 19

" Then," said Paul. " I hope he will become a
second Moses. You knoAv my old nurse how she lost
her father ? " and stopped. Brother and sister gazed
at each other. Then the girl took him by the shoul-
ders and gave him a good shake. " What are you
whispering ? Always in dreamland. Oh, yes !
always the same words, ' justice and judgment,' you
must know them by this time, you need not be ever
repeating them."

Then with parted lips, giving a line of whitest ivory
and instantly clashing them again for a buss, Paul's
sister skipped away, trolling a snatch about the horse
and his rider, and blood up to the bridle.

CHAPTER II

Paul's Youth at Tarsus Continued.

Young Paul, after parting with his sister, e'er he
knelt to pray, gazed northwards, where he constantly
longed to penetrate the secret of the Cilician Gates,
whence issued all the caravans, the herds of sheep and
cattle and the merchants from the further East.

The Pass was ramparted by two great mountains.
Ever as he went to school and back, his wistful gaze
was directed to them, yearning to pass between their
rocky shoulders, and to commence those exquisite
explorations into the unknown, which it is the prero-
gative of youth and innocence only once to taste in its
most penetrating flavour. He loved those shining
heights : but that night, the hour, and the heavy
atmosphere had stripped those black peaks of
their surplices and nothing could be seen. And
nothing in the foreground, except dull red lights
dotted sparsely over the City, which became
smoked and lost entirely as the houses retreated
and concealed themselves among the vapours of the
intervening plain.

Suddenly an Apocalypse ! Oh, such a flash ! All
the white Angels had come in streams, rent the veil of
darkness, disclosed the gaunt wall of the Taurus, and
smaller lightnings played with rapiers above the
Cilician Gates. All over ! save a solemn prelude to a
mighty crash of thunder, as the Titans rolled their
chariots over the roughest of roads over the clouds.

PAUL'S YOUTH AT TARSUS 21

The boy was praying for the world beyond the
Cilician Gates, and for the arrival of the fulfilments of
God's promise to bless all nations, through Abraham
and his seed.

And, as he prayed, the steady monotone of the
Cydnus grew into an angrier key. Gurgling and
choking swirls of water had tumbled over rocks, dry
for weeks before, and were now far submerged. The
new roaring of the river was followed by swishing rain,
as if the Heavens had fallen. Retreating rapidly into
his covert, closing doors and drawing curtains, the
youth unsatisfied and looking for relief in forgetfulness,
presently the waters of Lethe came over him. And
as he slept, a dream crept in. He was choking, he was
battling with waves. He was sinking, when arms
were reaching towards him, but he could not grasp
them, his own were glued to his side. With a mighty
effort, he found himself sitting bolt upright, with his
Damascus quilt thrust to the end of his mattress —
panting for breath.

Next morning the Pedagogue did not appear and
Paul was taken to school by his father. The son was
silent, thinking of his dream, and was about to ask his
parent if dreams came true, when his father opened
with the oft-repeated injunction not to have anything
to do with the heathen children.

" I cannot take you back to-day," he said, " but
you can be trusted to go straight home, not speaking to
anyone, old or young, except any whom you know
among the congregation of the Synagogue."

Passing a smaller building where a crowd of small
children, seated upon the ground, were screaming at
their hardest, repeating together portions of the
Law, Paul entered the adjoining Academy where

22 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

elder boys sat at the feet of Rabbis.

It was not long before teacher and pupil were
engaged in a controversy. " If you want to know,"
said the Rabbi, " you must go to Jerusalem."

" Good ! " said Paul, " my father said I should go,
and I mean to."

School was over, and the river, being in flood, a
number of the youths ran together to see the sight.
The banks were not far distant, and though to go
straight home would be impossible, and also to have
a peep at the Cydnus, Paul satisfied his conscience
by reminding himself that he should only speak to
the Synagogue boys. Though I have written he
" satisfied his conscience," that was not positively
so, a dull, uneasy, struggling consciousness was in
conflict with the careless decision of his will, and
a blind was drawn down over his bright spirits.
He would certainly not speak to any but the Syna-
gogue boys. It really was an inspiring sight. The
now turbid water, which would never have reflected
a bracelet of Cleopatra was under a cloudless sky,
and white flakes of foam were made and melted, as
the hurrying snows pressed together in some aimless
endeavour to go somewhere. " A Lamb ! " cried
Paul, " see the Lamb ! " Its head was bobbing on
the surface of sweeping curves, and in its choking
career gave an intermittent bleat now and then.
" Come, boys, come on," said Paul, " we must save
it," and springing on to a rock and in posture to
receive the animal as it appeared destined to come
within his reach. —Lo ! and behold ! a divergent sweep
of the flood seemed to burst from another rock behind,
threatening to bear the lamb away. Paul reached
and reached, and was throwing his strapped rolls

PAUL'S YOUTH AT TARSUS 23

of parchments to loop in the creature's head, when,
being over-weighted, he found himself in a moment
amid the swirling waters.

The Jewish system of school teaching included
swimming, and Paul was not unacquainted with nata-
tion, but the strongest expert could not contend with
such a volume of water racing like frightened steeds.
Paul was thrown violently against a rock, disabling one
arm, and the other could scarcely keep his head free.
Breathless and gasping, he saw a figure running on
the bank, and when he was borne over a weir, his last
view was that of a youth, whom he seemed to recog-
nise, plunging below the fall to rescue him. He knew
no more until he felt arms beneath him, bearing him
up the river bank and laying him down for some
vigorous shampooing. A spasm of sickness, and
water relieved him, and Paul was on his feet again.
He looked on his rescuer. It was the lad who had
rescued his Hebrew Bible from the feet of the Cory-
ban tes. " You have twice blessed me," said the
Hebrew boy, " may the God of Israel reward you."

How to get home and appear before an incensed
father ? He was technically in fault, and if he
had gone " straight home," no disaster would have
befallen him. Paul was therefore ill at ease and
knew not precisely what degree of displeasure he
had incurred from the Heavenly Power. Was he
wrong in attempting to recover the drowning lamb ?
To be sure, it was born to be sacrificed, and a few
days more or less of his animal existence was of
little consequence. But to get into the habit of
excusing oneself from risks and pains by a narrow
scrutiny of the worthiness of an endangered life
would be to cultivate and make permanent elements

24 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

of character in the last degree despicable.

He was rapidly coming to the conclusion that
he had done nothing but right and that the fault
lay with his father, in forbidding him to have nothing
to do with the heathen. Had he been allowed to
call and thank Amyntas for rescuing his Bible, he
would not have gone with the other boys to see the
flood. As it was, it was Amyntas who had found
him out, and under God's providence was the means
of saving his life.

Thought Paul to himself. Is my own life, after all,
any more valuable than that of the sacrificed lamb ?
I don't know that I have ever done, or hope to do
anything of real worth to the world. In this whirlpool
of reflections, the two bo^^s, drenched and deserving,
were to appear before Paul's angry father.

The father was not in at the time, and the mother,
casting a displeased glance at Amyntas, was above
measure startled at the two dripping figures. Paul's
mother was for pushing the deliverer away and closing
the door. But Paul held it open and said, " You
must at least gratefully acknowledge that it was
through this young man that your son has been
restored to you."

" No thanks are due to me," interposed Amyntas.
*' I know that the Jews are despised, but although
I know nothing of the gods, I know a good and high-
bred boy who may be much better than Apollo,
and I could not let him drown."

With very mingled feelings, and somewhat molli-
fied, the mother said, " Paul must tell me about it.
Meantime, would it not be better for you," addressing
Amyntas, '' to go home at once and change your
attire ? " "If you have done my dear son such a

PAUL'S YOUTH AT TARSUS 25

service, Heaven bless you ! May the God of Abraham
and our Fathers' be your portion eventually."

The two youths, parting cordially, and with
mutual esteem, both went their several ways —
Amyntas to make ready for a lecture from Atheno-
dorus, Paul to get a lecture from his sire and the
tearful remonstrances of his mother.

When he appeared again from his chamber, not
without thanking his God for his merciful deliverance,
his father had returned with heavy displeasure upon
his face.

" Well, sir," he began (' Don't say " Sir " to him,'
said the mother). Not heeding, he repeated, '' Well,
sir ! I see that you are bent upon bringing disgrace
upon our name and nation. Can't you leave that
Pagan dog alone ? You lied to me this morning and
promised me to go straight home from School, and
now you are found half -drowned with a heathen dog."

" He is not a dog," said Paul, but all his moral
balance and his prayer-preparedness were over-
thrown. '' He has shown himself a true friend."

" A true friend of a son of mine " ! exclaimed the
father, and starting from his couch with agony and
horror depicted in every feature, he raised his staff,
seized his son by the neck, and was about to bring it
down with passionate severity. But the boy had
disingaged himself— had sprung up with indignation
flashing from his eyes, while his mother had rushed in
to arrest the descending stroke. Then Paul, stung to
the quick, by the unjust suspicions entertained respect-
ing himself and his casual friend, for the moment and
for ever, cast away the reverence which he had up to
then habitually cherished for his parent. It was
gone, like an eye gouged out. He closed with his

26 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

father, wrung from his aged arm his staff and flung it
upon the floor. That humiliation was too great, and
while his mother shrieked, the old man fell prostrate
in a swoon.

Dead silence reigned for a moment. It was the
noiseless opening of a chamber of horrors. Every
remnant of filial affection was being burnt up in a
white heat of passion. And coldly, with a white face,
he said, amid the stifled sobs of his mother (alluding to
Amyntas), " He saved my Bible and he saved me,
and I did not lie to my father." And proudly and
apparently with unconcern, he was making for the
door, when his sister, with blanched face, met him.
He looked and she looked and neither could say any-
thing ; but as she advanced and passed him, he heard
her gush of tears, while the elements of a happy home
were being burnt to tinder.

Oh the tragedies of homes ! It is there that hells
are to be found. What secrets are unavailingly
buried there ? What spectres arise from their graves
to mingle with the mirthful, and show themselves at
incongruous seasons and will not be laid ?

The outside is so fair and seemly. The curtains are
fresh from the laundry, and the maid is burnishing the
brasses on the door step, but the fresh air does not
brush away last nights wild and cruel words, those
mortal stabs into living hearts which are to bleed for
ever.

One chapter of Paul's life was ended. It was no use
turning back, and the brand of it could never be erased.

The white heat was cooling down ; the seared nerves
of feeling were beginning to be alive again. Dim per-
ceptions of a resurrection of the former relationships
were dawning, and with them the advent of Remorse —

PAUL'S YOUTH AT TARSUS 27

a lodger who could not be dismissed— bringing with
him Memory. Maleficent Twins ! Oh ! If they
could be smothered, and a happier reign ensue.

When the outlawed child had retired to his room,
his garment stuck to a large wound in his arm, and
also some movements rendered it impossible for him
to strip off his clothing. This distraction was a great
relief. To have attention forcibly directed from his
wounded heart and blistered brain to a wound of the
flesh was a merciful intervention. He had to descend
to the Courtyard, wake up the porter, get assistance
to help him undress — all was ministering to a partial
restoration to normal conditions. It was found
necessary to send for a leech ; for his bad arm was
partially dislocated ; and remaining in bed was im-
posed by the Anatolian surgeon. The tempest was
over, but the remains of the havoc it had wrought gave
desolation to Paul's heart. He was only 14 years old,
but almost a man in thought and reflection. He
knew that the happiness of his home had been de-
stroyed ; that he had lost his father, alienated his
mother and made his sister to desire her earlier
nuptials at Jerusalem. And another trouble was
looming. It had been talked of that Paul might be
placed in his sister's new home, where he was to ac-
quire all Rabinnical lore. How could he be received
with the love and honour he formerly enjoyed.

And with regard to the critical act which had
revolutionised his relationship to the household. Was
it not due to an act of disobedience ? Vainly and
proudly he pronounced himself guiltless of lying to his
father, for in literal fact he had not essayed to go
straight home, and all the after consequences were due
to his want of scrupulous obedience

28 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

It is the " little more " and the " little less " that
makes them " worlds away." Bootless it was to set
up defences and estimate the small difference there
was between a detour by the Cydnus and the nearest
way home. The first step in the wrong direction was
enough to condemn him. Ten, fifty, or a thousand
paces would not bring him in more guilty.

In the pain of these reflections, that of his wounded
arm was lost, and when his sister appeared to bring
him the morning repast, she came in with sad red
eyes, deposited the tray, and turned to leave in silence
—another stab. But his broken voice arrested her.
She stood without turning, and speaking to her back,
Paul said, " Tell fa-ather (the word choked him) that I
am learning my trade and I shall repay him as soon as
I can for the cost of the Physician." Her shoulders
only quivered. She went as she came in — in dumb
show.

The next day was the Sabbath, or rather it com-
menced with sundown, the evening preceding How
he loved the Sabbath ! In his father's hand and with
his veiled mother holding that of his beloved sister,
they all four had to steer with difficulty through the
crowded and narrow streets, where asses, cattle and
camels strove with pedestrians to find passage. To add
to the turmoil, the Temples would empty their congre-
gations to the Bazaars, where vendors shouted their
wares, and buyers and sellers struggled together in
wordy warfare for an acceptable price. On the top of
the accumulated distractions would come a herd of
goats, or a string of laden camels, holding their heads
scornfully and sniffing eagerly for a whiff from the
deserts. To turn from all this, bj^ passing through the
outer Gate, and then enter the Women's Court, where

PAUL'S YOUTH AT TARSUS 29

mother and sister were left behind, was peace and
blessing indeed. His father, still taking him by the
hand, would advance towards the Bema, and leave his
boy to stand or sit on the ground, while he seated him-
self, facing the congregation: for Paul's father was an
Elder and read not infrequently the law and the
Prophets. ;

In the dim recesses of the farthest portion of the
Synagogue was the Holy of the Holies, where was the
Ark of the Covenant and the Tables of the Law. The
Lamp, never suffered to go out, was the sole illumin-
ation.

The silence and the darkness invested the place with
awe, and, being retired from the streets, the echoes of
the muffled traffic only added, by suggestion, to the
grateful relief from the noise and disturbance outside.

There the Chassan moved with slow^ and reverent
step among the worshippers, directing the order of the
service. And when the Covenant made with Abraham
was recited, Paul's ear would be at once arrested.

'' And the Angel of the Lord called unto Abraham the
second time out of Heaven, and said, ' By myself have
I sworn, saith the Lord, because thou hast done this
thing and hast not withheld thy son— thine only son —
that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I
will multiply thy seed as the stars of Heaven, and as
the sand which is upon the sea shore ; and thy seed
shall possess the gate of his enemies : and in thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because
thou hast obeyed My Voice." And again, " I will be
with thee and will bless thee ; for unto thee and unto
thy seed I will give all the lands, and in thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed, because that
Abraham obeyed My Voice and kept My charge, and

30 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

My commandments and My statutes and My laws."
(Genesis xxii., 15-18 and xxvi., 3-5).

Some stranger would be invited to address the con-
gregation, in the manner in which our Lord Himself so
notably commented upon Isaiah— the proceedings
having a considerable resemblance to an ordinary
meeting of the Plymouth Brethren- only that there
was, of course, no analogue to the Lord's Supper.

The liberty given to strangers is not a little singular,
and bears implicit testimony to the manner in which
Israel studied the Law^ and the Prophets, making them
the Man of their Counsel, and fitting any true Israelite
to take part with propriety, in the accustomed Syna-
gogue worship. That during so many centuries this
liberty was not abridged, bears, I repeat, a noble testi-
mony to the character of the devout use of this form of
public worship.

It may be safely said that had there been no
synagogue, or synagogue "liberty of Prophesying"
the Gospel would never have had such free coiurse
and been glorified. Thus in the home and haunts
of its opponents it found its best aid and further-
ance.

There was no service of praise in the Synagogue,
which seems to us a sad deficiency. But that hymns
were used at the celebration of the great Festivals, we
are not left in doubt. And in the Temple worship at
Jerusalem, it was a prominent feature, on a scale, hav-
ing no counterpart even in our Cathedrals.

The comparatively limited employment of music in
Roman Catholic worship may have arisen from the
close copying, in some respects, of the ritual of the
Jews. It is in any view remarkable and regrettable.
Protestant developments in worship have done more

PAUL'S YOUTH AT TARSUS 31

to enrich and inspire devotion than any introductions
of ritual novelties in which music is absent.

An abuse, however, has lately obtained in Noncon-
formist worship in Wales. Music threatens to monopo-
lise the greater portion of the available time — prayer,
preaching and the scriptures being thrust into the
background. Soloists are advertised, and exercises
of the heart are downgraded to exercises in oratorio
proficiency. This is a part of the general downgrade
in religion, pure, dominant and undefiled. If the
Synagogue worship was bare and must have been
trying to the youngsters of the ordinary type, yet it
undoubtedly held Paul, young as he was. And there
was no unseemly and abhorrent introduction of
humorous, sly, and sarcastic references to professed
believers.

The modern preacher in the chapels, who can cut
jokes of a saline flavour, causing a breeze of titters to
rustle over the crowded pews is counted a valuable
asset in the conduct of the eternal campaign to rob
and undo the National Establishment.

There used to be in Puritan England, conceptions
of Order, Reverence, and a recognition of the solemn
issues of Life and Death. " Life was real, life was
earnest, and the grave was not its goal"

That attitude of mind is now accounted intolerably
old fogey. It is put on the shelf, and Temples are
now dedicated to The Grin,

But we are leaving dear Paul, lying upon his couch,
a prey to the most melancholy reflections. Cut off
from the rest of the house, cut off from the sympathy
of the other members of the family, cut off, in person,
that day, from the congregation of the faithful.

He loved to hear the majestic opening sentence of

32 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

the Shema. For the Jews, the most practical people
on the face of the earth, had the common sense to
make of the Shema sl practicable Creed. And no
chm'ch which cannot, or will not, embody in under-
standable terms the essential articles of its belief, can
ever stand, or work the work given it to do. Paul
knew it, for it was also contained in the Mesusah—
hung or attached to every dwelling-room.

*' Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God is our Lord.
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thine
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day
shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them
diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them,
when thou sittest in thine house and when thou
walkedst by the way, and when thou liest down, and
when thou risest up. . . . Remember and do all
my commandments, and be holy unto your God. I
am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the
land of Egypt, to be your God. I am the Lord your
God."

He recited them in memory and with poignant
sorrow he felt he had afflcted his father by disobedience
and (horrible) by personal assault. In his remorse he
greatly exaggerated the measure of his delinquency ;
would cast no reflection upon his father's action, and
take all the blame to himself. He knew also that he
had offended his God: so turning uneasily upon his
bed, with his back to the light, he poured a flood of
tears upon his pillow. After a while, being relieved
by his gush of emotion, he rose and advanced to the
window, threw open the lattice, and looked over the
populous city where the Emperor Augustus had been
a student at the University. His eyes traversed and

: PAUL'S YOUTH AT TARSUS 33

detected the Temple of Zeus, that of Apollo and that
of Hermes, and he thought, in a quadrangle of the
University, the statue of Athenodorus.

Amyntas (though that name by association had
become painful) had given him in his casual and very
intermittent intercourse, a rescript from a portion of
the philosopher's teaching. He had accepted the roll
from his accjuaintance, but had not opened it. Now,
he would see what it said. The light was failing, but
through his moist eyes he was able slowly to decipher.

" Know that you are free from all passions only
when you have reached the point that you ask God
for nothing except what you can ask openly. So live
with men as if God saw you. So speak to God, as if
men were listening."

He held the roll in his hand, re-read it ; Icoked
towards the University and said to himself, *'He
deserved his statue." Amyntas did well to preserve
such sayings. How can such heathen teacher and
pupil be alike, accursed ? My beloved father mis-
judged, he did it ignorantly in his zeal for Judaism.
May God preserve me from hurting people, even in
thought, who are denied the same amount of light as
we are blessed with.

Day of wretchedness ! Only a slave had come to
bring the second meal— the usual evening repast was
either pur^Dosely omitted or forgotten. He cared not
for the meal, but he wanted his sister, and he wanted
to know how his father was. Was he ill ? Was he
grief stricken ? And what had become of his mother ?

What a Sabbath ! The dear sweet harmony of
the family circle completely broken up. Himself
an outcast. The cheerful but sacred intercourse
with learned Rabbis, who came in on Sabbath

34 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

evenings, to whose occasional disputations gave
to his own intellect such a grateful stimulus and
zest, so that no greater disappointment could be
given to the awakening mind of the boy than the
denial of permission to stay up longer than the
appointed hour —all this was likely to be ended for
good and all. The shadows of evening were descend-
ing, but there was now no darkness oppressing
his Spirit, no sense of separation from the Great
Father above.

His earthly father may have cherished— Heaven
knows what — suspicions of things he had no con-
ception. Perhaps he believed he had gone with
Amyntas into some idol temple. And yet God
knows, the thought never entered his brain and
would be repudiated with horror.

He would like to see the Apollo about which the
Tarsian sculptors rave, and the replica taken at the
Imperial gardens at Antium, but he would never
defile himself by entering a temple.

What strange ideas seemed to possess his father I
And foreign words came upon his lips, of which he
had no comprehension, stirring up animosity against
his dutiful and reverent son. It was now dark. No
one had come to see him since midday. The physician
had been in the morning and was called away before
he had renewed a bandage — leaving instructions,
however, that he must keep his chamber for a week
at least.

Paul felt that he had entered into the cloud above
Sinai and feared not but that God would justify
him in due time.

So in spite of an uproarious crowd hurrying past
the house, drunken music and maniac shoutings

PAUL'S YOUTH AT TARSUS 35

from votaries of some heathen deity, Paul slept the
sleep of Samuel, ready to hearken to God's call and
to respond, '' Lord, thy servant heareth."

Dark days ! He had to count the days until the
end of the week, for Sabbath to come round. He
would be taken by the hand again and with his
revered father repeat the Shenia. The breach would
be healed and love would flow, and a complete under-
standing be established. His father's illusions be
dispelled, and Amyntas, though his rescuer, be
absolutely renounced, unless, indeed, Paul succeeded
in making him a proselyte. The difficulty, however,
was to give him the necessary enlightenment, when
he was pledged to cut his acquaintance altogether.
He must ask guidance from his Heavenly
Father.

Revolving the question in his mind, he fell asleep,
though his sore heart and brain was felt throughout,
a monotone of pain, until the happy day when he
would recover his reconciled father, with the suddenly
opened gulf closed for ever.

In the middle of the night, when his slumber was
as profound as his pain of body and mind would
admit, celestial music, from a full band of Angels,
saluted his charmed ear. The burst of harmonies
was exquisite, but it weakened and faded, as if
the messengers of comfort and consolation had
swept the strings to leave loud echoes as they hasted
to other beds of pain. Paul knew that strain. It
had come to him when his younger brother died.
It made his face brighten up now in thanks and
praise. And the Angels were rewarded, for these
messengers are a sort of celestial night birds, which
can see best in the dark.

36 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

And not one Angel alone came that night to kiss
his troubled brow. A cluster came and gave a holy
impress to charm disquiet and then sped away.

Next morning- first thought, " Only five days
more." He knew that Time was a healer, and a
devourer of things wished to be forgotten. He felt
that, though he desired much to see his parents, yet it
was best that he should be missed for a season.
Though warmly attached to his sister, he had no desire
to see her turn her back to him and make no reply
but closing the door. So he gave no messages to
Kassan the slave, though he looked when he brought
his meals, in a disturbed manner, and left hurriedly
as in fear of being questioned. The physician, too,
came in at a very unseemly hour ; just looked in,
and went away to some more urgent case. The
next morning Paul was awoke by a heavy lumbering
noise ; he listened half asleep and then more clearly
concluded that some cumbersome piece of furniture
was being carried down the stairway. There seemed
to be whispering and shuffling of feet and only half
loud exhortations and directions given to the bearers.
The stifled noises gradually ceased at the ground
floor.

" It was thoughtful and kind of the servants not
to awaken my mother too early. Oh ! I hope she
is not ill. But now only three days more and I shall
make my repentance at my father's knee, and his
tears of joy, and mine of grief will cement our hearts
together."

He sprang from his couch, and when Kassan
appeared with his meal, he sent loving greetings
to his mother and his sister. He was basking in a
sudden ray of joyful anticipation. What is the

PAUL'S YOUTH AT TARSUS 37

matter with you, Kassan ? Wake up 1 you have
tumbled my wine jar over my fish and baptised my
bread. If I were not in a good humour, I would
chastise you." Kassan stared strangely at him, and
rapidly adjusting the table, turned and fled.

There appeared to be an unusual number of
visitors that morning, and much subdued talking.
*' Amyntas, I knoAv, would not dare to show himself,
poor fellow, and yet he saved me. I will turn again
to the glorious predictions of the Prophets, who,
through Abraham's seed, and the Advent of the
Messiah, are to bless all nations. Thank God ! I am
one of Abraham's seed, and thanks to my family
heirloom, Civis Romanus Sumy He took down his
Hebrew Bible and at haphazard unrolled the scrolls,
when his eye fell upon the passage in Jeremiah,
*' Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My
Father, thou art the guide of my youth ? Will He
retain his anger for ever ? Will he keep it unto the
end ? Behold thou hast spoken thus and yet hast
done evil things and hast had thy way " (Jeremiah
iii. 4 — 5, R.V.). He bent his head and tears began
to trickle down his face. Then taking up another
scroll, in the same casual manner, his eye fell upon
the words : " Incline your ear, and come unto me ;
hear, and your soul shall live ; and I will make an
everlasting covenant with you even the sure mercies
of David. Behold ! I have given him for a witness
to the people, a Prince and Commander to the people.
Behold ! thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest
not, and a nation that knew not thee shall run unto
thee, because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy
One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee " (Isaiah
Iv. 3-5).

38 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

He paused and said aloud, " I must make Amyntas
run unto Him. And not him alone. One nation after
another will come under the covenant of Abraham :
and then added, under his breath, " Why can't my
father see it ? "

Another scroll he took up and read : " And David
my servant shall be King over them, and they all
shall have one Shepherd. They shall also walk in
my judgment, and observe my judgments and do
them " (Ezekiel xxxvii. 24).

He smiled wdth a triumphant glance— but was
struck immediately afterwards by the silence of the
house— all the visitors appeared to have left together.
Throwing opening the lattice he was arrested as usual
by the panoramic view.

The snows of Taurus were glistening in the sun
and the sky above it gave the broadest " ribband of
blue," as if God was reminding Himself to keep His
promises to Israel and the other nations ; and kept
robing Himself in the tokens and pledges of His own
creation. Paul felt what Newman expressed two
thousand years subsequently :

"Praise to the Holiest in the height,
And in the depth be praise ;
In all His words most wonderful,
Most sure in all His ways."

His eye ranged over the flat roofs, and he said to
himself, " I can see the pole of the Synagogue, I
declare, and also a number of people entering.
What special service I wonder,, is going on ? No
abominable idol procession, thank Heaven ! " He
amused himself afterwards by patching up some of
his school books, and then began to be impatient for
his midday meal.

PAUL'S YOUTH AT TARSUS 39

When a knock came and he bade Kassan enter.
It was not Kassan, but a strange Mred servant.

" Where is Kassan ? " he enquired.

" He had to go out," was all that Paul could get
out of him. His spirits were rising every hour.
" These past few black days shall never be reckoned
in the happy days of my youth. The blisters of my
heart are healing— there is joy before me and I am
to go to keep the Passover, at Jerusalem^ the capital
of the Messiah's Kingdom. A delicious stream of
anticipations flowed over his soul. He had never
been far from the Taurus and the secret of the
Cilician Gates had never been penetrated.

Jerusalem comes first and last. After that, the
Southern Picnic and the wonders of the Temple. " I
shall go North some day and become a Herald to the
Nations we are to subdue and bless. So Paul strode
about his chamber and speculated what sort of
Chief Rabbi would be his teacher. " I have heard
my father speak of Gamaliel, but not altogether
in his praise. He thought him too " broad '—what-
ever he meant I scarcely knew."

There was now only one day intervening. That
would soon fly in the joyful anticipation of meeting
and getting back to the status quo ante. Paul broke
into snatches of song. But Kassan appeared with
a message from his mother, " not to sing." " Why
not ? I wonder," mused he, disaj)pointed. " Well,
I shall hum at all events." And seeking a vent for
his spirits ; he caught up the scrolls of the Prophets
and began to play ball with them. Isaiah was followed
by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and Daniel fell upon a
shelf. " They are safe with me," said Paul, " I will
never allow their words to fall to the ground."

40 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

But no sooner had he said it than Isaiah escaped his
fingers and fell flop. A shudder passed through him
at the irreverence he had committed. " That will
never do, "he said, and falling upon his knees, he begged
to be forgiven. He then took them up and kissed
them severally and put them in his chosen preserve.

*' Only one night and my father again ! I shall
go to bed early and become unconscious."

But Paul was not to be left entirely in his slumbers.
In the depth of the night he was sweetly awakened
by the same choir of Angels that had comforted him
twice before. And although his soul was ravished
by the vanishing harmonies, yet something ominous
shaded his pleasure. For these visitations had
previously found him immersed in sorrow. Was he
being prepared for some dread experience ? The
thought, however, of his dear father and seeing him
to-morrow morning came with its delightful solace,
as he closed his eyes again. For he had never felt
such tenderness towards him, as now, that he had
inflicted pain and injury upon him. To be the
cause, innocently or guiltily, of bringing upon a
beloved person grievous suffering is the sure initiation
to preparing quite a new relationship - deeper,
intenser ; and a devotion that will bear any strain.
That is the way, the strong links of Eternal Love
are forged and maintained, which bind the Mercy Seat
to the Transgressing World.

But the day had come, the Day of Light, which
would dispel the memory of the dark period behind.
With fervent thanks to his merciful Preserver and
taking special care with his toilet, he opened the door
of his temporary prison, entertaining no fear of his
reception down below.

PAUL'S YOUTH AT TARSUS 41

If angry creases should weave themselves upon
his father's brow, Paul would uncrease them by the
fervent impress of his repenting kiss. And as for
his mother and sister, he would fairly storm them.
He would give them no chance. No more speaking
to his sister's back !

Here is the room. Gay, debonnaire, and confi-
dent, he stepped into the apartment. His mother
and sister rose from the table, and with open arms
he ran— and stopped— stared— and convulsively
gasped, " Where's father ? "

Paul was fatherless.

CHAPTER III.

After the Abyss.

As when the Adventurer upon an unknown river —
lulled into happy dalliance with the wave, and
charmed by the exciting vistas of unknown peaks
before him — stays his oar to try some bordering
fruit, tastes, and falls to drowsy carelessness and
soon to sleep.

And suddenly is waked by thundering voices of
the flood, and sees sheeted Terror lifting white arms
to pull his shallop over the abyss. wSo did Paul
find himself wrecked, but not destroyed. In a
moment transferred from a prosperous voyage in the
uplands, to a black ravine, sunless and flanked by
threatening rocks ; baptised in suffering and panting
from the assault of Pagan Fortune. And foreseeing
that he will never be able to steer his barque to
the same waters again ; for not only was his shallop
gone, but to go against the stream was impossible.

The great catastrophe was an epoch. The fortunes
of the family changed com})letely : by the death of
the Head, and Paul was accounted the wretched
assailant of the happiness and well being of his
circle. It was inevitable that a greater estrange-
ment than ever should ensue between himself and
his mother and sister. The latter, whose betrothal
was delayed, was sadl}^ changed : her former brilliance
had departed, and she was, every now and then,
stricken with impatience and anger at the unwelcome
intrusion of difficulties and sordid apprehensions.

AFTER THE ABYSS 48

His mother, always loving, yet felt a gulf between
herself and her son, for she had not inherited her
own nature implicitly, but it was complicated by
traits from some distant ancestor, and him from
some equally remote progenitor. The same was
true of his father. Hence Paul was left to himself
for the most part, and on some accounts he did not
quarrel with the new attitude that his relatives
had ussumed. His absorption in the future of Israel
and his ardent curiosity to ascertain what the
Prophets had really foreshadowed, so dominated his
soul that all other interests held him comparatively
by a very slight chain. So the boy was ever plaguing
his teacher and worrying the Rabbis, whom he knew,
for interpretations of the dark sayings which he
could not comprehend, and supplying interpretations
of his own which favoured his current predispositions
in reference to his people and their National future.

The females did not allow him to neglect the craft
of weaving, in which he was instructed, and they
were determined that he should become proficient.

The boy, of course, had no proclivities towards
monotonous mechanical industry ; but as compared
with many other occupations, weaving was not
altogether antagonistic to the temper and climate
of his mind.

When the hands demanded little guidance from
the brain, and the brain could keep upon its sepa-
rate path of action and discursive explorations— the
weaving seemed even to stimulate, and give liberty,
to his other excursions. But that was by the ancient
pagan mechanical contrivances.

Under steam machinery in this modern day, the
pressure upon mind, nerve and body to keep pace

44 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

with the tyrant machine demands every strained
moment of watchful attention, and leaves the opera-
tive no margin for large entertainments of thought
outside his exigeant task.

Study and his craft left Paul little vacant time,
but whether engaged or at leisure, two reflections
constantly recurred. One was to vindicate his father's
memory by exalting the Jewish Faith and Destiny.
The other was to be strengthened in the belief —
the thrilling consciousness— that his Eternal Father
in Heaven had predestined him for great accomplish-
ments through his allegiance to the pregnant pre-
dictions treasured up in the Hebrew scriptures in
reference to the approaching Advent of the Messiah.
He was to go to Jerusalem— a bounding thought —
and after a year he was to live with his sister, when
married, in the Metropolis of the Race.

Meantime Paul, although the Synagogue, like
his own bereaved family, frowned upon him, whispered
about him, and regarded him as an object of sus-
picion ; he was not looked upon by the Rabbis with
similar disfavour. The Schoolmaster frequently
praised his diligence and smiled with pleasure at the
earnest and penetrating questions that he put.
But the general consensus of opinion was that he
was an odd child, not an ordinary boy ; taking a
separate path ; frequently abstracted ; and over-
much occupied with the religious questions which
separated Israel from the rest of the nations.

He came and he went— a saddened and changed
youth— with loneliness as his chief companion. But
he was never unacquainted with " Voices." Voices
which urged him to do particular things, to abstain
from other things, or to address himself to other

AFTER THE ABYSS 45

persons ; and when they could not be reached,
bringing their names before his God, in private
prayer.

The chief subject, however, of his '' Voices," never
entirely absent (except when a cold vacuum occupied
his breast, on the rare occasions when he challenged
Heaven's displeasure)— the chief subject was the
ever-recurring assurance that he was destined to do
some great thing for God and the World. What
exactly it was, he knew not, but he felt beforehand,
that his life's task awaited him. It waited for him,
like the Lion which was sent to avenge the dis-
obedience of the Prophet. Was it, indeed, an avenging
ministry of Satan, and he to become an example to his
own and subsequent generations of betraying the
high cause of the Supreme — a name that was to
become a by-word - a name at which the World would
grow pale ?

At certain times the strange contrasted experience
of a sacred Peace, and the awful possibility of Ruin,
would present itself to consciousness.

The youth, one day, transferred himself to the
courtyard, and standing in a black angle of shade,
he seemed to be looking into a Hell, where bubbles
arose from the Pit, bursting and subsiding with
the laughter of mocking fiends. Then anon, came
the dear old Voices, in crowds, to brush away the
delusion. The warm streams of the four rivers of
Paradise bubbled with resonant laughter in his
soul ; and lifting his happy face, with parted lips
and kindling eyes, he screened his hand and
looked into the unfathomable depths of the
azure vault above, which God has sent as the all-
embracing girdle of his love. Ah ! Paul, Paul ! It

46 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

was all to become true. The Lion of Remorse was
awaiting him on the road to Damascus, and another
Vision, which was to change the whole face of the
World.

His mother and sister were looking at him from an
upper lattice. The latter nudged the grief-stricken
woman, " Look at him, as if moonstruck ! He is
mad ! He is mad ! "

When he was younger and was taken to the Syna-
gogue School by the Pedagogue, he would frequently
pull the arm of the domestic slave to catch a better
view of a certain cataract which emphasised itself,
or waned away on the lower slopes of the Taurus.

As his eye was detained, ever with the yearning
desire to get up to it some day, the tantalising spect-
acle would become withdrawn by intervening build-
ings. Then another peep could be gained between
blocks of houses ; when anon (giving a wrench to
the arm of the Pedagogue), the view became open,
and a stretch of Plain allowed the boy's gaze to be
more satisfied.

Unsatisfied yearnings ! The lot of every mortal heart !

Millions every morning, dragged by the arm of
Necessity, debouching from railway stations, trams,
and ferries, are being pushed by the invisible Peda-
gogues into dark offices, behind counters, into great
workshops, or factories, or down mines. But it is
something on the way to have a vision of Liberty—
the waters that know no chain and that swell with
the Voice of Freedom, and race away with joy to
meet the majority !

And not unapt was this mountain cataract to
symbolise the waxing and waning of the measure
of faith felt and possessed by the Christian Believer.

AFTER THE ABYSS 47

At times Paul saw it diminished to a thread, and
anon he would exclaim and cry out, " Look ! Look
at the cataract I It is as broad and white as the
Pillar of Augustus ! but so far away I Oh ! I long
for a holiday. I would join in its joyous song. Rocks
I am sure are being tumbled before it."

Sometimes the vision was entirely obscured when
a steaming vapour would spread itself over the entire
Taurus range. At other times clouds would descend
and sheets of rain absolutely close the view. But
everyone knew that it was always there — seen or
unseen, it was ever doing its beneficent work, a
standing and living monument. It might be the
genius of the place and the Preserver of the City
and the Plain.

At length Paul had his opportunity. He had a
holiday, and was bent upon solving the mystery of
the waterfall. No longer a child but a budding man,
he was beyond leading strings and determined to
shake the beard of the old cataract.

What more delightful than to explore the un-
known I The vision that had attended his steps
from childhood was now being approached, with
larger liberty and with assured confidence. Paul
walked and walked. Somehow it never seemed to
come nearer. Mile after mile. Did it really retreat
before him ? He sat down for a few moments upon
the bank. Plaguey Torrent ! "I am pressing on-
wards to see— What ? The very thing, which as a tame
and sluggish pool is merely sauntering past me. A
mile or two, nearer the mountain, the very drops
that are scarcely stirring the reeds on the margin,
were transfigured into a mighty Archangel, wielding
flashing swords and pouring quicksilver upon black

48 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

lustrous depths, making them mirrors of the Almighty.
All is illusion, Faith a phantasmagoria. For solid
realities we must seek elsewhere than in religion."

Turning round, he was somewhat disconcerted
to see a leopard, full-faced, staring at him.

It had been running among the brushwood after
small game, and gone to the Cydnus for a drink.
The exquisitely supple creature was a breathing
statue, only the arrested tail was slowly declining.
Paul sternly fixed his eyes upon his. The whole
Christian world was suspended upon that instant,
but the calm changeless decrees of the Eternal sup-
ported that chain. The animal could not support
Paul's gaze. It broke up with a howl and became
a river of flashing gold, forcing its way with bounds
and springs among the brushwood, making a lane
towards the oaks and beeches, whence it came.

Paul prayed unheard, but was not unheard above.
And the " voices " were within him. Looking down,
he saw a small pool upon the dust, droppings from
the fangs that for the time were dipped in the river.
*' It might have been my blood instead of that," he
mused. Then a portion of the 84th Psalm came to
his mind : " Blessed is the man whose strength is in
thee, in whose heart are thy ways, who going through
the valley of weeping make it a well ; and the pools
are filled with water. They will go from strength
to strength ; and unto the God of Gods appeareth
every one of them in Zion.

Listening and musing, and gazing— no longer
vehemently desiring to arrive at the mocking -
phantasmagoria before him, he stood looking back
towards Tarsus.

There were voices in the air. What was it ? Miles

AFTER THE ABYSS 49

away, faint but evident, they were echoes of great
cries and cheering.

Billows of sound were being propagated from
some great centre of loud rejoicings, and radiating
in all directions. To be sure, it was the day of the
great Olympian races, and his own Jewish School
holiday happened to coincide with that declared
by the Pagan Authorities. He would walk back
smartly and see what might be seen.

Striding along with vigour in every limb, he knew
the joy of strenuous exercise and spurned the ground,
yard by yard, as he drew nearer to his goal. Yes !
it was doubtless great cheering— cries of joy. But
after all, what is the bother about ? Good fellows
though, many of them, and their long training and
abstinence brought them into fine models for the
sculptor.

And how animating when a great throng lifts
up its voice, announces its fervent faith, its spon-
taneous emotion, its pronounced determination.

Another flight of sounds in the air, the cries and
echoes beating the Empyrean as with innumerable
wings. And the sweet calm bosom of the sky, patient
and sympathetic of all that is thrust upon it— curses
rejected and blessings treasured, muttered memories
of evil suppressed, golden words and wishes permitted
to arise and tint the clouds when the ever smiling sun
looks out from his chamber and greets mankind with
an embrace, sometimes too warm.

Running now, and with the human voices louder in
his ear, succeeded by a heaving silence, the breathing
suspense of multitudes, Paul hastened on. There was
a suppressed wrangling ; beginning of victorious
shouts, then cut off, resumed, rising into certainty,

50 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

anticipated ejaculations of names of favourite com-
petitors. Yes ! No ! Now then, come up— Hur-
rah ! Hurrah again ! Paul was at the margin of the
crowd, a motley of backs before him. When a mighty
shout burst like a fountain up to Heaven. Cries,
applauses, cheers, the whole multitude was energised
by the very spirit of the Demos.

" Two prizes, by Jove ! and a young chap, too,"
said one.

'' What is it ? Who won ? But he had not long
to wait. The name that was uttered all around.
Could it be ? The pupil of Nestor, the successor to the
great Athenodorus. Yes ! it was Amyntas and none
other. Forbidden to associate any longer with his
early friend— that acquaintance having entailed such
tragic consequences — he could not approach him, and
if he saw him in the street, he cast his eyes down.
Ungrateful it was to one who had saved his life at the
risk of his own. And now, dodged by an unhappy
destiny, never to be rightly understood, Paul would
be compelled to see and join in the universal pleasure
of the crowd. They hoisted the victor to a four-horsed
chariot,— wearing the simple wreath of wild Olive,
cut from the sacred Olympian grove. W^ith wild
acclamations the crowd impeded the steeds, and as
Paul pressed forward under an irrepressible impulse,
the victor recognised him, and cried out.

" Ah ! my early friend, what have I done, that you
should drop my acquaintance ? Will you only know
me in the day of triumph ? And yet, upon my
struggles on your behalf, depended greater issues
than these."

The chariot was beginning to move, when Amyntas
turned to give Paul a last word, " Though you will

AFTER THE ABYSS 51

not see me now, I shall see you hereafter, when all
misunderstandings are removed."

Paul covered his face and hasted to extricate himself
from the crowd.

CHAPTER IV

Passover at Home

The Passover drew nigh, Immemorial Festival ! most
notable of all the institutions bequeathed to the chosen
people to observe sacredly, year by year. Done to
the deaf ears and blind eyes of the mocking world !
Knowing not that the despised Hebrew Race held in
pawn all the glad fortune of the multitudinous nations!

At Paul's house there was a sad change. The place
at the head of the house was vacant, and the
son of the house was held chargeable of the
death of his father. Some children that had
been placed under the care of Paul's mother
while the parents had gone to Jerusalem, helped
to fill up the miserable vacancy. The old Rabbi,
who had cast so good a horoscope for the hope
of the house, was dead, and the mother bitterly re-
flected that the grey beards' predictions promised
to be fulfilled with a difference.

It was a weariness of the flesh to go through all the
ceremonies, meant to be in commemoration of Israel's
great emancipation, while the widow's soul was deso-
late, and while directing the slave how to place the
Pascal Lamb, she involuntary dropped a tear into
the dish.

All was now ready, only a remnant of the usual com-
pany. When, there being no Elder present, Paul rose
up to explain to the younger guests what the Festival
meant.

PASSOVER AT HOME 58

" O ! gasped Paul's sister, " Look at him, mother,
Make Paul sit down. The ruin of the family. The
idea ! Why don't you stop him ? I shan't hear a word
he says ; nor touch a morsel he presumes to bless."
Then hastily she rose from her place and banged the
door behind her. Guests went out after her. The
sobbing mother went after her, but the proud, obstin-
ate girl was not to be moved. The Pascal Lamb got
cold, the very devil was in her, and was not to be cast
out. The poor children set up crying and the whole
anticipated feast was blasted. Such was Paul's home.

What young Paul would have said, had circum-
stances permitted, was to dwell with glowing emphasis
upon the marvellous deliverance effected for his
enslaved ancestry in the land of Egypt by God's
chosen servant, Moses. He would have recounted
the lovely stor}?- of the threatened life of the Great
Deliverer as a Babe and how— placed in the ark of
bulruhshes, he was committed to the careless wave.
How the daughter of Pharoah struck by the splendid
child, would adopt it, and have it reared by an Hebrew
nurse, timely identical with the mother of the found-
ling. Ah ! poor foundling World destined to be
rescued from the waters of affliction, not knowing its
real mother ! Paul would have told them that the
descendants of Abraham, heirs of God's special bless-
ing, charged with blessings for all nations, were, mean-
time to know the bitterest bondage, rearing in the land
of Egypt monuments of slavery which the sands of
time can never cover. How the free progeny of Abra-
ham, Isaac and Jacob were entrapped to lose all the
rights of man and made to make bricks without straw,
wherewith to build the Treasure Cities of the King.
How Moses and Aaron, his brother, were given power

54 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL >:

to shake the determinations of Pharoah, and by ten
awful stripes which fell, not upon the backs of Israel,
but upon their oppressors, compelled him to loose his
grip, and set the people free. But not before every
first-born of the Egyptians and their cattle had per-
ished under the sword of the Destroying Angel. The
little guests would have quivered as they heard the
old, old story ; how, when the people were safely
housed, though in their wretched tenements, the blood
of the innocent lamb, sprinkled upon the lintel, averted
the gleaming sword and only flashed in the proud
dwellings of the task masters ; and how, over great
cities, alike as in lonely Egyptian homesteads, there
was one universal cry, for the heirs— the holders
of the birthright were slain— there was not a
house but held its dead. The Palace and the cottage
were one.

How, after 400 years, the long story of treacherous
crime came to an end, and the Egyptians mingled
funeral rites with urgent entreaties, accompanied
by generous largesses, bidding their profitable
servants " Begone ! Haste ! haste ! lest we all be
dead men."

How then there was another Passover— the passing
over the Red Sea, which, when the Egyptians essayed,
they made their grave. And the chosen Race were
taught in the Wilderness by manifold miracles, and
educated to claim victoriously the land promised them
to possess. How by sin and shameful departure from
the Commandments given them to keep they were
deprived— ten tribes of them of their portion —
and only two left. Whereupon, still persisting in
failing their inheritance, they were exiled to Babylon,
and permitted to return, under sufferance. And

' PASSOVER AT HOME 55

ever since the dread and loathing of idolatry— has
sunk into their souls— though deploring and wonder-
ing why the promised Messiah delays his Advent,
bringing them political deliverance and making
Israel the Dominant Kingdom in the world.

But Paul, only a youth, and also yet to be en-
lightened by an Apocalyptic vision, of course, could
not have penetrated all the significance of the Pass-
over rite, and the Gentile Churches which he was
to found, remain after two-thousand years, still
unaware of what it held for a glorious future.

True, indeed, that a spiritual bondage is a greater
evil than a material one, and that to be free from
chains of sin and blindness also, like a Sampson work-
ing for the Philistines, is a greater enfranchisement
than to be lifted from degrading poverty and injurious
industries. Nevertheless, so long as the world's
population, five-eighths of it are forcibly remitted
to half starvation as the reward of facing tasks
which are compensated quite below the standard
regimens for convicts (and cramping of mind coin-
cides with insufficient nutriment for the body), there
is a Messianic Hope, involved in the Advent of a
Restorer of all things Economical, as well as cleansing
and turning of hearts towards spiritual Redemption.

Therefore, the accompaniments of the Messiah will
be as complex as they will be comprehensive. And
all that the Christian Churches celebrate periodically
should be charged with meanings, not mentioned,
when the rite is remembered.

Our Blessed Lord who is destined to lead the
entire family of Manual Labour out from the bondage
of Egypt into the Promised Land, is at present
feeding his Father's flocks in the land of Midian.

56 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

That blessed pasturage has been going on now for
nigh two-thousand years, but from the Burning Bush,
the Hedge that separates undeserving poverty from
undeserving wealth, now aflame with burning shame —
from the very Hedge which is not consumed, there
comes the voice of God, crying to the Son of Man,
to reveal Himself and return to complete the entire
Redemption of the World.

Herein lie the predictions of the Christ— that such
troubles are impending as the earth never saw before.
For the Pharoahs are not minded to let the people
go, nor stay the pitiless grind of human lives between
the stones of a harsh and remorseless competition.
There has come into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth,
the cries from the modern Egyptian Bondage.
From the tenant slaves of the soil the world over,
from the slain sweaters in the wealthiest com-
mercial capitals. From the victims of the tricksters
under Truck, the equally helpless victims of protec-
tive enactments which the hirelings are compelled
to contract themselves out of. From the subjects
of increasing non and under employment, while
inexorable Rent marches on. From trades which are
both useless and pernicious and form an engrossment
in providing material requirements which closes al-
most every avenue of air and light from the spiritual
sphere— these cries have reached the Hedge of the
Privileged, still yet unconcerned, aflame with shame
and condemnation, and the Privileged themselves,
unable to see how the inextricable tangle is to be
straightened out, join with the general cries of the
world, supplicating that God the Father's voice
may be heard, bidding His dear Son— His well-
beloved— complete the work, which His cross began.

PASSOVER AT HOME 57

The New Commandment that ye love one another,
exemplified by the Lord's washing of the Disciples'
feet— readiness to undertake the lowliest service —
this spirit inwrought into laws, social usages, and
superintending every economical undertaking, would
revolutionise the face of Society. But mankind is
held in a vice, by institutions suggested by internecine
strife. Force, for selfish ends uniting with fraud, have
left their serpent trail in the subsequent ages of
human history. Hence as far back as the first known
Empires, slavery was an institution, and the only
exciting diversion was a marauding expedition.

Dynastic wars may have their foreseen termina-
tion, but wars for Commerce are interminable.
They are longer, bitterer, and inspired by real neces-
sity. How to feed the people is the ultima ratio of
every national dispute.

And yet the Messianic prospects are that nations
will beat their swords into ploughshares, and learn
the art of war no more.

The signification of that is the complete remodelling
of the Social Order, for hitherto War and Commerce
went arm-in-arm. Before the prediction is fulfilled,
Commerce must become Community.

So while the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth are
assailed by cries from the fields of modern Egyptian
bondage, all that the Prophets have spoken is speeding
the appearing of the new Moses— antitype of the old,
who is to lead the captive Proletariat into the Prom-
ised Land— Land of a decent and sufficient exist-
ence. " I will not henceforward drink of the fruit
of the vine," said our Lord, " until I drink it new
with you, my disciples, in the Kingdom of my Father."
The bitter herbs will disappear from the table of

58 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Humanity. A new vintage, ripened by the Sun of
Love in exeelsis, will fill every cup with joy, and the
portions of Bread and Drink, found sufficient, will
be partaken of with thankfulness, in equal measures,
in Righteousness and Peace.

CHAPTER V.

Paul Goes to Jerusalem.

It was determined that Paul should go to Jerusalem
without delay. He was lost in his Rabbinical studies
and his relatives grudgingly agreed that it was the best
for him to become a Rabbi of importance, but it
was a poor look-out for a maintenance, still less for
rendering assistance to the widow. '' Oh, let him
go," said his sister, *' the sooner the better. You
remember," addressing her mother, " how he upset
our last Passover, preventing us from keeping the
Law, and making the children scream." He is cap-
able of anything, a good riddance." Then, lifting
her head from her embroidery, and with an evil
gleam in her eye, she resumed, " But he might do
something for us, if he would play into the hands of
the High Priest, in the matter of the Sacrifices. A
mint of money is made out of the peasants, when the
Festivals come round."

" The High Priest can fix his prices for buying and
selling and become as rich as Croesus." "But then,"
with contempt curling her lip and her head bending
again, she said, " Paul could not do that, the thing he
calls a conscience would stand in the way. No,
mother, he is quite content to let us starve. A nice
son you've got ! Thank Heaven ! I shall soon get
out of this house into my own."

Meantime the prospects of beholding the capital of
his favoured race filled Paul with quiet transport.
He could scarcely believe it. His constant pacing to

60 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

and from the school, the tantahsing mterruptions that
prevented his contemplations of the waterfall— the
impatient impulse to force the secret of the Cilician
Gates, were all superseded by the grand Cornucopia
that was about to be tumbled at his feet.

He liked to go down to the Harbour to see the ships
depart for Jaffa, and when he saw friends parting, he
was thrilled within by the wished-for, but lagging
moment that was to number him among the happy
passengers. The great main sail was hoisted, the
breeze flapped it for a moment, but then lent its
shoulders to press against the full blown sheet and the
intended citi2?ens of Jerusalem were borne steadily to
their bourne.

Paul would strain his eyes, following the retreating
craft. And when cloud and sea mist swallowed it up,
he would turn homewards, congratulating himself
because only another fortnight would separate him
from his desire.

The tedious days would not fly, but he had many a
talk with a merchant of the synagogue, who traded
with Jerusalem and who told him that Herod's Temple
eclipsed anj-thing that the Pagan world possessed.
It was immense, costly and magnificent. But it was
the art and the genius of the Greek and not of the Jews,
and hence devout Jews were not enthused, and Herod
was generally hated. " But who gave the Greeks their
genius and arts ? " enquired Paul.

" I suppose they were gifts from the Lord of All,"
said the old merchant.

"' Then," rejoined Paul, " may not the King make
the Gentiles pay tribute and use their gifts to glorify
the Lord of All."

" My son," said the good old man. " When I take,

PAUL GOES TO JERUSALEM 61

with my goods, into my market at Jerusalem, plain
dealing and deny myself covetousness, I believe I shall
bring gifts, which will adorn the Holy City better than
by gilded marbles and precious stones."

" Yes ! yes ! I know," said Paul. " These solid
things, gold and marble, are only shadows of the
invisible substance and the unrevealed beauty we
cannot rival."

" But, my son, you are talking philosophy. Where
did you get it ? "

" Oh ! it was not mine, rephed the youth. " I
used to talk with a forbidden friend who studied in the
schools under Athenodorus." He was silent for a
moment and then enquired, " Aristides— for I will
give you that new name— where do you buy the things
that you sell at Jerusalem ? "

" Sometimes from the slave-owner, sometimes from
the middleman. But why do you ask ? "

" Because I was wondering whether you took those
precious gifts you spoke of into the fields and factories
where the slaves and free peasants worked."

" Oh ! " said the merchant with a gesture and tone
of impatience. " God rewards them. They are God's
peculiar family. They cannot be paid in this world
properly. Their pay-day is when their working days
are over, and God is just."

" All the bond-slaves then," said Paul, " are a
chosen race, and they will have their Passover in
Heaven. I wonder if another Moses is coming to
redeem them, here and now ! "

The merchant shrugged his shoulders. " May be !
But not in my time " — and under his breath—" I have
a family to provide for " More was muttered, but it
could not be heard.

62 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

There was bustle in the family house at length.
Paul's mother was going over his wardrobe and getting
him to put on certain garments which his father wore,
but for the most part they were found too large.
Paul did not seem likely to grow into a tall and bulky
man. Both the feminines were diligently plying the
needle, and looking anxiously, that the wind might
stand in the right quarter.

It did stand. Paul was delighted. He must down
to the harbour without more ado. He pressed earn-
estly the hand of his old Pedagogue, kissed the warm
lips of his tearful mother, and the chill cheek that his
sister turned to him— called out impressively—" You
have not forgotten my books and especially the
parchments ? " The statue of the chill cheek
raised its eyes, and muttered icily, " Did you want
them ? "

" Good gracious," stormed Paul. " Are you going
to bereave me of my children ? "

She ran upstairs and pulled them out from the cup-
board where the sticks were kept and threw them
down to him. One fell !— a child hurt. He rapidly
scrutinized and hugged them, tucked them under his
toga and marched away with the feelings of a man
who had just escaped reprieve.

He wanted to reward the porter who bore his lug-
gage and put it on board and was unable adequately.
But, among the passengers, he espied his friend the
merchant and borrowed from him a small amount.
*' You must remember," said the old man, " what I
told you, that the chosen race— God's heritage— will
have their Passover in Heaven."

" I am so glad you are going with me," said Paul.
" I was to be met at Jaffa and accompanied to Jerusa-

PAUL GOES TO JERUSALEM 63

lem, but on this part of my journey, my first voyage,
I expected to be alone."

He bowed, in playful deference to the junior, and
took kindly to the lad.

" I had a son," but he stopped suddenly and gulped
in the throat. It only made the old man kinder.

The usual crowd on the Quay— a motley, busy, voci-
ferating crowd. Friends cramming idol images and
charms into the hand^ of the passengers. Also
animals and birds to be sacrificed on the voyage. At
length the hardy mariners cleared the gangway, dragged
it on deck, slipped hawsers, loosed the sails, swung the
helm, and Christianity, with its fortunes, was borne
away from Tarsus.

Without being a Thallassion, Paul was fond of the
sea, and had spent occasionally a night with fishermen,
but a voyage of a week perhaps, according to the
weather, presented itself as a novel experience.

The ship cleared from the cloudy waters of the
Estuary and stood out to where the blue waters
seconded the sky. Then the rocky heights of the
mainland extended themselves right and left, and
piercing higher the embracing clouds, Tarsus kept
defiantly its shining helmets of silver.

Passing several small islands, many uninhabited,
Paul fixed his gaze upon the watery horizon, for the
Painter of the skies was mixing wondrous colours upon
his palette as the sun began to dissolve before seeking
his couch.

An ignorant and shalloAV criticism has attributed
to Paul a want of appreciation of the aspects of nature .
This will be referred to later on, but let it suffice at
this juncture to remark that the deepest feeling is
generally incommunicable by vocal utterance, and

64 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

that to search for such comparatively trivial traits of
character as critics desire intruding themselves when
the great Apostle is inditing his Epistles, would be as
imseemly and ridiculous as to look for exclammations
over scenic attractions in Caesars' Commentaries, or in
the despatches of the Duke of Wellington. Paul was
weighted with an enterprise— a mission and a goal
that blotted out almost every vision but the
Highest.

But Paul, the callow youth, it was right and noble
for him to stand rooted upon the deck and watch the
wondrous brush that was blending the colours of the
sunset. And thus and so he was mute and indisposed
to speak. And little did he reek that 1,500 years
later— beyond the western horizon— in the ultima
thule of the Roman Empire, he Avas to give his name
to the noblest Fane, in the noblest city, of the noblest
Empire, and the greatest, that the world had yet
known. And that to him, Paul — a Jewish youth
bordering upon sixteen, leaning over the gunwale,
instrumentally, uniquely and entirely that great
Empire was due.

The Heavens were now bending with burning lips
to kiss the world with a " Good-night." Upon the far
extended horizon gold and precious blood, priceless
and divine, were washing away the murky vapours
of sin. Still motionless upon the deck, Paul saw
shadowy islands loom and retire. Occasionally the
dim uncertain glimmer of a fishing vessel and then
again a fixed light upon an island. He transferred his
gaze from these feeble uncertainties to the glorious
vault above him, the same that Abraham gazed upon,
changeless and sure, the sign and seal of God's cove-
nant with His chosen people.

PAUL GOES TO JERUSALEM 65

Yes ! thought Paul, all the fortunes of the nations
depend upon our fidelity to our part in that covenant.
" All the nations shall be blessed in Him." With the
proud consolation that he was a son of Abraham, he
disposed his wraps, made a pillow and fell to sleep
after vespers, in the high and pleasurable excitements
of turning the first leaf of a momentous chapter of his
young life.

In the midst of his slumbers he was awakened by the
Heavenly choir, which at several previous crisis of his
life had visited his charmed ear. Their voices were
louder and more exquisite than usual, but as he lusted
to hear them stay, the harmonies melted away as
though the angels had hasted to fly upward. His lips
parted with pleasure, he lifted his eyes to the stead-
fast blue, gemmed by the smiling sureties of God's
faithfulness, and soon passed into profound and
dreamless slumber.

Rousing himself when dark shadowed cliffs east-
ward showed themselves leeward, and struggling to
.recall where he was and what had happened, he was
thoroughly awakened by the sailors, who in the early
morning had to discharge a portion of the ship's
freightage, and found that Paul's position was in their
way. It was only a small port some sixty miles south
of Tarsus. But going to the other side of the ship he
gazed wistfully at some high land, far out to sea.
What was it ? He was told it was Cyprus, and he
rapidly reviewed what he had heard of it— copper
• minesv Ethiopian slaves. The island colonised ■. by
^Phcfenieians; : Greeks; and Jews.ri Att Paphos Venus
^oseMfrom the sea and a ; polluted worship^ arose
-^hich made it celebrated >ako> iin.i Daphne aand
elsewhereiii'it:)L o) mid ioiji>i loo hmi rniri SYrjo^'i oi •o;?i

66 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Then, with that gift of premonition often possessed
by those who are destined to figure upon historical
occasions, Paul looked earnestly and felt within him
that this looming island was waiting to welcome him.
His voices told him that he was to play an important
part there. Therefore fixed his gaze, long after the
cargo had been landed for the Syrian port. He saw
its rocky coast narrow to the dimensions of a Roman
galley and then join the multitudinous waves on the
horizon line. He was the only passenger to pace the
deck thus early, and before he had began to busy him-
self with the novel experiences of his journey, he com-
mitted himself, thankfully, to the gracious guidance of
the God of his fathers. Unrolling his psalter he read,
" He that dwelleth in the secret places of the most
High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in Him will I trust." (Psalm xci. 1-2.).
And these comforting words gave the key to the music
of his thought for that new day.

The few incidents of each successive day had an
infinitely soothing effect upon his spirits, and then
every moment was bringing him nearer to the realis-
ation of the desire of his earliest years— J^rw^aZem.'
City of immemorial traditions, whose records wove
together chapters of deepest shame and tragic calam-
ity. And therewith, other chapters of wonderful
deliverance— Israel's peculiar glory. What was that
Pharos ? What that mole ? What that dangerous
roadstead ? Whence the numerous merchantmen
at anchor and fishermen dodging about the pier ? It
was Jaffa, the port of Paul's destination. There he
was disembarked and several of his nation were wait-
ing to receive him and conduct him to Jerusalem.

PAUL GOES TO JERUSALEM 67

He was spotted— not a bulky chap, but well-grown.
The introductions were not so cordial as he had hoped
for— the eyes of the Elders had a cast of scrutinising
suspicion, as though letters from Tarsus had not been
without reservations, qualifying his welcome. He
felt it instantly and it gave to his response a restraint,
which confirmed unfavourable anticipations. But, in
spite of this uncomfortable and disappointing exper-
ience, Paul was busy with curious and interested eyes,
watching inquisitively the crowd upon the landing-
stage. And amid the moving picture there came upon
him again the feeling that had invested distant Cyprus
with such mysterious interest for himself. Jaffa was
also a congener— He was to leave his traces there.

It was said of the soldiers of the Grande Armee,
that every private's knapsack held concealed a Mar-
shal's baton. Paul seemed to know beforehand that
his future career was predestined, and though as yet,
far from having undergone that renovating change
which was to establish quite a new relationship be-
tween himself and his Lord, yet he was already getting
persuaded that it was not for him to construct plans
for achieving desired and private ends, but to commit
himself to the great Arbiter of his destiny, who would
condescend to interest Himself in directing his steps
daily. All that he was to pass through would only
lead to confirm his recommendation to his future con-
verts, to banish care, and to care only to listen to the
silent monitor within. By sure tokens he knew the
Voice of God. By equally sure tokens he knew the
whispers of God's adversary and his.

Now, at this early stage, he could take notice of the
beneficence of the State, though taught to regard the
Roman Power as the great enemy of the Jew.

€f8 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

The terrible civil war that afflicted the Roman
Dominion had opened a new chapter in the history
of the world. Imperialism had gained the victory,
and by the struggle it had fitted itself to make its
sway benenficent. Octavius had given peace, and
with it prosperity (very unlike the issue that ended
the bottling up of Napoleon— when war cut the leather
trunks of the financiers and sent gold flowing among
all the combatant nations, and peace stopped fortune
making, and brought the peasant to his grave). The
master of the Roman world paid assiduous attention
to opening up new roads to commerce— ridding the
Mgesin from pirates, and suppressing Banditi on the
passes and high roads, which had been infested and
threatened every profitable exchange of commodities
between the East and the West.

Commerce revived and sprung up to unheard of
dimensions when security was daily increasing.
Merchants and Guilds hastened to make votive offer-
ings in the Temples raised to Augustus. The Posts
went with regularity, soldiers accompanied convoys
with escorts, Imperial messengers were ever on the
roads on Imperial business, and as Paul was borne
sometimes by horses and sometimes on camels, he
could remark, and did not deprecate the numerous
buildings, which sought to Romanise the Judean
Land, and gave to the monastic seclusion of Palestine
that touch of the Cosmopolitism which made him
proud of his citizenship.

■>x('^ liie <jhild is father of thfe Man.' ■ Pa^V younf <ai6
he was, had thoughts stirring within him^ dndleg^diiig
him to respect the Roman law and order^ He was a
nascent statesman, and . it was the large views that hd
cherished lor his nation which led him to sympathise

PAUL GOES TO JERUSALEM 69

with the Imperial idea. Let the Romans go on to
prepare the highways for the Messiah. The Imperial
power will put down every other Heathen dominion ;
and then the kingdoms of the world subjugated, the
final subjugation will be by the Messiah, whose law
will be that of Moses and the Prophets, interpreted
by His own. The candle of the Lord would envelope
the Governmental Wick. . The title, " The King of
the Jews " would mean the " King of Kings,'* and
universal empire would be seated in the ecclesiastical
and Civil Governments of the world.

Such were the reflections which were quickening
his brain and warming his heart. Having a penchant
for travel ; for acquainting himself with new people,
new lands, new customs, new governments, new
religions and he viewed the Idol Temples with no
passionate intolerance, (his ignorance and innocence
supported the sentiment), because they were per-
mitted on sufferance and the time was drawing near
for the fulfilment of the decrees pertaining to the
Abrahamic Covenant. The nations would bring
their glory and honour to Jerusalem and he would be
instrumental in aiding the great Apocalyptic Con-
summation.

The Roman road was crowded. What various
costumes, merchandises and tongues ! The scene
was animated, he had only two days to get over, and
he would behold the City girded by sacred hills and be
received within its holy walls.

An Inn gave hospitable succour to the Hebrew
company. Night drew nigh and the stars of Abraham
bent over the ardent student, who was to live for
many future months at the feet of Gamaliel. His
heart was full of happiness, thankfulness and peace.

70 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Turning on his bed, the happily weighted lids of the
youth just opened and dosed again.

Next day, at evening, he hoped to arrive at the
capital. All was busy preparation. The mules,
horses, and camels were packed for the journey.
Couriers, carts, Roman officials, merchants, soldiers,
transporters, thronged the road. The animated
scene made no moment stale, and Paul, at his early
age, with his sensitive heart and mind, impressionable
to novel experiences, was in a condition to be highly
pleased with everybody and everything.

The caravan stopped to water the beasts after a
long cool spell of steady travelling. The villagers
made a brave show, for a pause at a well was the event
of the day, and in the leisurely Eastern way, convers-
ing, eating, sleeping and marketing went on for the
length of some hours, for the sun in the meridian was
barely supportable. Paul was disappointed to be
told that he should not reach Jerusalem in daylight
after all. And, indeed, after two hours, he saw the
sun begin visibly to wane, enriching the clouds, while
a crescent moon showed itself among the white cirrus
fleece.

The Caravan was progressing when all had to draw
aside, to allow a black multitude to come on ; escorted
by a few mounted soldiers and a few carts. What did
it mean ? As the posse advanced, however, a peculiar
metallic sound, in regular beats, struck the ear. Yes !
without doubt, it was a party of slaves, or captives,
but whether prisoners or free, seemed uncertain. On
it came, of all ages, except that the aged and infirm
were given springless vehicles— carts without seats.
It was not humanity, but the expediency of catching
a favouring wind that caused this degree of mercy to

PAUL GOES TO JERUSALEM 71

be manifested. It was a gang of convicts, which had
participated in an insurrection against the Roman
yoke and were being exported to work in the mines of
Laurium.

This spectacle changed the current of Paul's favour-
able consideration of the Roman state. The imi-
grants who were Romans, loudly expressed their
approval. The Jews who preponderated, bestowed
blessings upon the condemned patriots, and ground
their teeth with muttered curses upon their
oppressors.

Immediately the whole cavalcade became vocifer-
ous : arguments, contention, objurgation poured
forth. Some merchants forgot their gains and dis-
mounted to have duels with their antagonists. One
wealthy man received a stab from a dagger ; he was
drawn aside to the hedge. " Why did he not bleed
gold ? " remarked a cynic, and " he might have
procured a conviction against his enemy for
treason."

A chill wind began to rise. The arrival at Jeru-
salem, which promised to be such a joyous hour,
threatened to become one of deep dejection and pain-
ful remembrance. Every period of exalted happiness
has its Nemesis in a corresponding reaction.

The harmonious character of the start at Jaffa,
and which continued during the first day, was now
entirely changed ; and the former good companion-
ship became a wretched troop of discordant dispu-
tants. It seemed not unlikely that a pitched battle
might be the consequence of that convict transporta-
tion. And, indeed, something of the kind would have
impended, had not the sun kept on its march and
gave the silent warning of blood.

72 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Tti the darkness Paul's spirit fell. Mountain
masses, round shouldered, but seamed by deep ravines,
were grouping themselves together. Suddenly came
a vision of battlements, built of darkly roseate stones,
losing themselves in purple shadows. Towers and
incomplete erections cutting the twilight sky. A
plentiful sprinkling of twinkling lights among crowded
clusters of houses— all placed upon a platform of hill —
a city calix, sm-rounded by sheltering petals. Such
was the flower of the Jewish state.

In the silence and the darkness, the air was pierced
by the shrill blasts of the silver trumpets. The
Priests blew because of the sun's descent ; and among
the lambs to be sacrificed were two regularly provided
by the Csesar. A notable homage and admission on
the part of the head of the Roman power, that among
the Pantheons of the Empire, the King of the Jews
ought to be recognised as a guardian of the State, if
not given a pre-eminent place.

The painful spectacle of the menacled prisoners and
their fate, the probably fatal sequel of the quarrel
with the wounded merchant, the resonant trumpets
jarring upon the tried nerves of a highly strung youth
who had been played upon by thrilling experiences
during ten days, and the now engulfiing darkness of
the night, which forced the companions to separate
and know each other only by their voices, the many
enquiries of their way, the groping along with lan-
terns, all conspired to bring on a fit of sickness. Paul
was wretchedly ill, his friends conducted him, they
climbed a steep ascent, aided by steps, but treacher-
ous by their worn condition.

With warm thanks, though almost inaudible, he
acknowledged the kindness of all, but some insisted

PAUL GOES TO JERUSALEM 73

upon assisting him upstairs, so fainty he appeared.
In truth, when the door was closed upon him, he
fell upon his bed, and an involuntary flood of tears
relieved him.

CHAPTER VI
Paul at Jerusalem.

What is more happy, more stimulating, than the first
exploration of a new city, especially if it is notoriously
famous and has always had the eyes of the world
fixed upon it. Yes ! The eyes of all the officialdom
of the Roman Empire were fixed upon Jerusalem,
and, although Rome was the civil mistress of the
world, all the religions of Pagandom were obliged to
own that Jerusalem was their master.

That insignificant strip of Syrian territory had ever
been regarded by adjoining Empires as something
" canny." They might have swallowed it up many
a time, but they steered their armies round about its
borders and made detours to prevent aggression upon
either of the ancient Hebrew kingdoms, but a kind of
awe seized them, when either expediency or lust of
conquest tempted them. Jerusalem was more than
their oracle of Delphi. And Egypt and Eleusis,
it was recognised, held the key to mysteries
of the Divine Government and the Future Life, in a
degree far less than the city which David founded and
Antiochus, to his cost, had raided. The dread of all
the other kingdoms was always upon this one. Al-
though Samaria and the ten tribes could be safely
forgotten, the remnant tribes and their ancient capital,
by the common consent of conquerors, were to be
dealt with in quite an especial manner, lest the gods
should smite with failure their meditated enterprises.

PAUL AT JERUSALEM 75

Rome, to which the secret of Government was con-
ferred in a superior degree to any other power, had to
use all its art to win the allegiance of the Jews without
resorting to mere brutal force. In all the courts of
civilised nations Jews were to be found, educated
youth was not by any means deemed fully equipped
for philosophical studies, or for the higher branches
of politics, without having first drank, not shall owly,
of the divine wisdom of the Hebrews. The spiritual
power of the books of the Jews it was impossible to
ignore. Although their teaching was a standing
challenge to the other reigning religions, those who
stood in the opposite camp could not gainsay the
uncanny influence that those sacred books instilled.

Paul, when his sickness had relieved him, and he
had had some hours of refreshing sleep, was only
aware in a moment of subconsciousness of impene-
trable darkness ; and being quite unable to compre-
hend where he was, or how he came, he resolved not
to bother, but allow his old train of thought sleepily
to resume its sway. Turning upon his side, he began
to mutter.

" Wherever I am, being as I am, a son of Abraham,
I am, and shall be, a puzzle to the world, the great
puzzle being that for the time we are subject to Rome,
instead of its Master. See all our Prophets, mean-
time whether in an Arab's tent, or in— in '' Here

the puzzle overcame him, and he neither knew nor
cared, for he slept.

Slept deliciously, was awakened by a multitudinous
rattle of hammers and chisels, while bright shafts of
sunlight made patterned lattice work upon the wall.
He was in a small room, with mats, a stool, a chest,
basin and ewer with water. The walls bare, except

76 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

that two strips of Papyrus in Hebrew characters,
saluted him with the words of the Ixiii. Psalm, 5-8.
*' My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips.
When I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate
on Thee in the night watches. For Thou hast been
my helper and in the shadow of Thy wings will I re-
joice. My soul followeth hard after Thee. Thy right
hand upholdeth me."

How dear and familiar the passages ! Now he
sprang up from his mattress, threw back the coverings,
flung open the lattice and gazed down to a courtyard
some fifty feet below him.

Blessed calm and peace ! Bright sunshine and a
blue vault above. Rustling flights of doves, a twink-
ling fountain playing far below, but its gentle and
refreshing dripping much interfered with by the
multitudinous clatter of hammers and chisels. Voices
also, harsh and commanding, some great piece of
business was in hand. Shouts, directions, strainings.
While he was listening a tap came to his door and his
father's friend entered, to enquire how he did.

" You have far exceeded our ordinary time for our
first meal, and I have already been to the Synagogue,
but we did not disturb you, for you badly wanted rest
last night. Dress now, however. Make your ablu-
tions. I have spoken to Rabbi Gamaliel, of blessed
memory, and I have arranged for an interview three
hours hence."

" Gamaliel and Jerusalem " ! thought Paul !
" Splendid " !

" You must make a good breakfast, I know you will
be doing too much before night, unless checked. May
Heaven attend you in work and word."

PAUL AT JERUSALEM 7T

With a happy smile the youth immediately obeyed.

The elder was retiring when Paul called after him.
" Pray let me know what means this incessant masonry
with hammer and chisels ? "

" Oh ! it is the new Temple that King Herod is
erecting. It is already the most magnificent thing in
the world. You will see it presently. We are on
Mount Moriah."

Paul gasped, " Mount Moriah ! the very spot where
the Covenant with Abraham was made."

When his host had left him he fell upon his knees
and poured forth his heart, that God would make him
ever ready to become a living sacrifice, and through
Him be made to advance the realization of the great
promise that in Abraham's seed should all the nations
of the world be blessed

Gamaliel had had letters from the Synagogue at
Tarsus and was prepared to meet the Neophyte. On
the way the source of the noise which awoke him was
disclosed. Great quarrying was going on and likewise
stone dressing of enormous blocks, some of which
demanded the exertions of hundreds of men to
move, and among them were many in manacles.
Convicts and slaves, uniting both characters, not
infrequently under the same lash. The spectacle was
not very pleasing to the young man, for youth has the
prerogative of being able to see essential justice more
clearly than those who are committed to the struggle
for existence with the weight of wife and family tacked
to their backs. He saw the white marble, the towers
dnd piniactes j gleamihg^ftgkinst the^'^^re ^de|)ths^ of a
radiglnt sky. ^ He ^ ^nfiii^e^, ^hd^ promised^ himself
gi?eat pleastire in skirmi^hift^ thiouf h the city, -but
n<m the #pst business Was Gimtflid.' ^ To ?^gch him*

78 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

in the unfinished state of the Temple, it was necessary
to pass under the angles of great crosspieces of timber.
Though placed, of course, without reference to Cruci-
fixion, they yet, on a huge scale, prefigured the Cross ;
and this young Jew, creeping under one angle of the
beams, found it a stumbling block, and to his Greek
guide, foolishness. Passing under this yoke, the door
to Gamaliel was before them, through which he was
to go in and out, finding pasture, Paul trusted, for
many months.

The venerable Rabbi had just dismissed a class of
students and was waiting the appearance of the new
comer. Paul prostrated himself at his feet, who
lifted up the young man with a mien that was not
altogether cordial, and at once he felt that something
in the letters had checked the flow of a warm reception.
What in the name of Heaven could it be ? But grave,
beautiful, venerable and benevolent, the ancient and
sacred master of the law appeared to Paul another
Father and he longed to be received as a worthy
disciple.

In spite of the seed of suspicion that had been
dropped in his mind, the Rabbi, after a shrewd look
seemed pleased with Paul's honest eyes, fired by en-
thusiasm, and bade him be at ease, while he entered
into an intimate and sympathetic conversation.

At first it was only concerned with enquiries after
members of the Synagogue at Tarsus, but soon his
mentor passed to his attendance and studies of the
Law.

" Some of the Rabbis," said Gamaliel, " are wont
to place the Mischna, the Targum and the Talmud in a
rank above even the Scriptures ; with them I can
never agree. The traditions," he went on to say,

PAUL AT JERUSALEM 79

" of the Scribes and Pharisees are to be respected,
but when it comes to comparative values, there is no
question that the historians and prophets, who sup-
plied the contents of the Canonical Books, were in-
spired in an especial manner and degree, placing their
writings in a category unique and incomparable. I
have to defend this position against detractors.'*

The aged Rabbi paused and then enquired of Paul
"' Where you ever in Nazareth ? "

" Nazareth ! What is that ? I never heard of it.
I have never been out of Tarsus before this."

" Leave me a moment," said Gamaliel.

Paul was wondering what impression he had made.
It seemed to him that the great doctor was interested,
and regarded him favourably.

Presently he returned with another Rabbi, both
beaming benevolently upon him. This younger
doctor immediately said, " You have told us that you
have never lived at Nazareth, and have no relations
there. Did any Galilean youth (younger than you by
some three years) come to your city spending hours in
enquiries of your Rabbi at Tarsus, hearing and answer-
ing questions ? "

" No ! I cannot remember. I, myself," said
Paul blushing, " was considered rather over eager
in plaguing my teachers and disputing with them.
I never met my double in that respect."

They rose and retired together to a corner of the
room and conferred in low whispers. Paul could over-
hear something of the colloquy.

" There was a remarkable resemblance in the matter
and manner of his enquiries, but that other youth
was far before this one, though much younger : what
days we had with that one ! their fragrance like the

80 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

incense never left the place ; we were, it seemed, upon
the threshold of the Holy of Holies. Would to God
he would become a pillar in the Temple, and, like the
Temple itself, never be overthrown."

The Rabbis' did not reseat themselves, but gave
Paul, severally, their blessing, appointing for him
days and hours when he was to come for instruction,
and when dismissing him said, " We had a dear youth
who came to us four years ago, you reminded us of
him. I hope you will imitate him."

Paul, now released from the nervous interview, and
in high spirits on account of his favourable reception,
presently found himself in the Market-place, deeply
interested in the motley crowd of vendors and
purchasers. A Publican was chasing a man from the
country, who apparently had not paid the market-toll
duty. While he was being beaten and a crowd was
gathering, Paul muttered to himself, " Our Messiah
will establish righteousness and rebuke defrauders."
As he stood, he felt a hand upon his shoulder and,
turning and looking up, he was surprised to see the
friend of Gamaliel. Had he been watched ? What
had he done ? The Rabbi only kindly said,

" Don't get losing yourself and your friends be
unable to find you. The dear youth we spoke of, gave
unwittingly grief to his parents, but it was doubtless
his Father in Heaven who kept him staying at our
feet. Remember, however, you must not grieve
your father or your mother."

A shadow fell upon^ Paul's -face. ^ Alas I -he had
'ia!#^M5^brt^Ught^-fe^n?dW^ci«gh^^ap5n^^ his^f>ats^ls; but
iiitiwittir^ly, G6d kiixiw^pnii^P'"^^ aii' lo -i^niiBin bn.i
iii ^Bi^pMted^ tio^4^ ' Msfe^cJk© "'^way ■ ir&aa the * crowd
Si^d^^^'ased^^Q fktllGfn tii^ caiis^ • oi ' tte 'disturbance.

PAUL AT JERUSALEM 81

A vision of the dear old Tarsian days presented itself
to his mind, the Cilician Gates, his old, but distant,
friend the Cataract. He was interrupted in his
ruminations by a great crowd which was sweeping up
the court of the Gentiles in the Temple, and he allowed
himself to be carried with it.

" My countrymen are a turbulent lot," thought
Paul, " for another storm, evidently, is brewing."

People were running towards the holy place, and
Paul, who had as yet not entered the Temple, having
reserved it as a bonne bouche, towards the evening, now
got himself entangled with a crush which was making
for the Shallecheth Gate. He could not get at the
cause of the commotion, some said one thing and some
another, but it was found later that a schoolboy, hold-
ing his father's hand, had secreted among his books a
little plaster image of Minerva, which through negli-
gent strapping had fallen out upon the sacred floor.
Another boy had picked it up, and was meaning to
restore it to the owner, when a zealous abhorrer of
idols seized the supposed criminal, caught, as he
imagined, red-handed, and castigated him severely.

The father of the innocent boy was a man of influence,
having a small army of friends and business depen-
dants, for he did a big trade with Sadducean merchants
who throve upon the schemes of Herod.

These came to defend their patron and to avenge
the injury done to his son. Soon the Holy place was
spotted by innocent blood. The noise reached the
ears of the Commander at Antonia. A Cohort ap-
peared, the multitude were awed, the gates were
closed, and among those thrust out was Paul, whose
insatiable thirst could not be allayed that day. He
began to retrace his steps to sacred Moriah. There

82 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

he seated himself upon one of the immense blocks of
dressed stone ; and opening his favourite Prophet
Isaiah, read, " They shall not hurt, nor destroy in all
my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which
shall stand for an ensign of the people, to it shall the
Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious."

Filled with joy at the glorious prediction, he saw
his bedchamber not far off, and made his way to his
kind entertainers.

CHAPTER VII.
Paul With Gamaliel.

The Rabbi and the disciple— the teacher and the
taught, coming daily for intercourse, there sprang
up between them warm sentiments of mutual regard.
The revered instructor was attracted by the uncom-
mon intelligence displayed by the pupil and his atten-
tions were stimulated by the discovery that to the
youths' mental endowments were added strict piety
and high conscientiousness.

The pupil made such rapid progress, and entered
with such zest into the discussions that arose, that
he was permitted a freedom, not accorded to the rest
of his classmates ; and was invited frequently to
accompany the Rabbi when occasion took him out-
side the walls.

Then leaning upon the young man's arm, Gamaliel
took up a softer tone, and astonished the diffident
disciple by the intimate avowals of his inmost con-
victions. The general effect upon Paul's mind was
to abate his enthusiasm for the Law as it stood, but
to increase the love and admiration that he must
entertain for his Preceptor, renowned for his spiritual
interpretations of the Jewish code.

Gamaliel frequently revealed his inward dissatis-
faction at the elaborate prescriptions and the com-
parative unimportance of the subjects concerned,
and the magnification of the shell while the kernel is
being shrivelled up. " Even the Temple services,"
he would say, " though I grant their political and

84 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

national value, I feel are destined to cease and be
discontinued in their present form. The externalism
of Judaism will undergo a resolution into a universal
religion, whose essential spiritual truths will appeal
more directly to the spirit, and not have their symbols
obtruding themselves so as to be mistaken for reali-
ties." Paul was disappointed at the forecast, desiring
that the imposing celebrations at Jerusalem should
increase in splendour and impressiveness, instead of
retreating to the simplicities and silences of the
Synagogue. And yet, he did confess to Gamaliel
that there were times when the still small voice spoke
to him more persuasively at the Synagogue than even
when in the day of atonement, Israel was prostrate
before the Shechinah, and the High Priest having
placed his hands upon the scape-goat, transferring
the sins of the nation upon the animal's head, the choir
of Levites sang antiphonically the 51st Psalm. Then,
pained at the least disparagement, even in thought,
against the religious system of Israel, he looked up
enthusiastically into the face of his spiritual Father
and spoke of the increase of Proselytism. ** Our
Jewish faith," said he, "is eating away more than the
fringe of the Pagan worship and our Proselytes are
the best people in every rank. They are in kings
courts and are found even among slaves. Yes ! the
way is being prepared for the Messiah— a highway—
You know my father, I have dedicated myself to
advance the cause of the Coming One, and the best
preparation for His glorious advent will be the multi-
plication of Proselytes. Give me thy blessing and
let me speed on."

" Willingly ! dear son, but remember it is the
path of suffering— the Passover must be eaten with

PAUL WITH GAMALIEL 85

bitter herbs. Were I not a Rabbi, stricken in years
and unworthy to invoke the holy name of Jehovah,
I would devote myself in like manner, to make Prose-
lytes. Among the Grecian and Roman cities they
are increasingly numerous. The wretched mytholo-
gical fables of the Gods naturally disgust men of
intellect and possessed of some glimmers of inward
light. Besides I am encouraged to believe, and I
rejoice in it exceedingly, that there is really a possi-
bility of the whole Roman Empire becoming sub-
servient to the Jewish faith— the worship of the only
true God and His coming One— the Messiah. King
of Kings and Lord of Lords."

" But," said Paul, " precedent to all this, there
must be a purification of the present Jewish practice,
and we must put down heretics. If we are the sons
of the Abrahamic Covenant and are false to the insti-
tutes given us to observe, or propagate erroneous
notions of the Messiah that is to come, attributing
to Him merely the sword of the Conqueror : or, on
the other hand, if any should preach that the present
Jewish economy is to be overthrown, before Messiah's
rule is made prevalent— that He is coming to destroy
the Law, instead of fulfilling it— let Him be accursed :
for should such notions prevail, we, as Jews, would
be discarded by the Almighty, and ithe Covenant
would drop. If such a root of error were to arise
amongst our brethren here, I would be first and fore-
most to scotch it. I can say, truly, that I rejoice in
mercy and am ready to forgive ; but there are limits
when the future of the whole Rodman Empire and the
known world are at stake. When the enlightenment
and purification of the wise, skilled, and powerful
nations become dependent upon the Covenant-keep-

86 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

ing heirs of the promise, then I could violate my
native disposition and become a bloody persecutor
of such as endanger the worlds' great Hope."

" Tut ! Tut ! Tut ! my dear son, be calm ! and
remember that you are not at all necessary to carry
out the divine decrees. Any lamb in the flock, legally
pure, can redeem the whole of Israel. What do you
imagine yourself to be ? "

Paul reddened and said, " What do I imagine my-
self to be ? A son of Abraham, devoted to the ser-
vice of the Messianic Kingdom, whose establishment
is threatened by perverts, innovators, treacherous
conspirators and faithless misconstruers of the Pro-
phets. And I have seen scores of able, amiable and
gifted sons of the heathen, who would adorn any
kingdom, especially the Messianic Kingdom, if they
were enlightened as we are. I want to see them
brought in and I could wade through blood to do it.

" Could you, indeed ! " said Gamaliel. " Ah, my
son, there are some who have a zeal for God which is
not according to rightousness. You spake to me the
other day about the Essenes, and you were very much
impressed in their favour. And there is another
great preacher who is drawing away thousands."

" Yes ! Yes ! " interposed Paul eagerly. " John
the Baptist is a Prophet and he is preaching that the
Messiah is about to appear. The only strange thing
about him is that he can do no miracle, as Elijah and
Elisha did. But I except John's disciples and the
Essenes from censure ; indeed, I must confess I have
a sneaking regard for both and would gladly stay
longer at Jerusalem and watch the progress of events,
for I believe with you that the times are ominous.
But, as you know, I have arranged to leave for a

PAUL WITH GAMALIEL 87

period of two or three years. I cannot longer be a
burden upoa my married sister and her husband :
and that home was never a sympathetic one. A
merchant in gums and spices has given me a post
in his household in Arabia, to teach his young family.
I shall be leaving in a few days."

The old man pressed the hand of the young
disciple.

" That is what I dreaded," sorrowfully ejaculated
the Rabbi. " You have become my son, and now
you are leaving me. I will see you as frequently as I
can before your departure. Let us walk together
daily, after the mid-day repast. My favourite walk
is down to the Pool of Siloam, and again up the Mount
of Olives, whence we have such a fine view— plenty
of shade and lovely groves all around. I have a
presentiment that one day all these grateful shades
will be cut down."

" Not certainly by Messiah," said Paul, " for they
are its chief adornment."

" Ah ! " ruminated Gamaliel, " we know not what
the Messiah may do for us, or against us, we may be
faithless to Him after all and earn His repudiation."

The young man smiled reproachfully. " You are
a dreadful Cassandra, my beloved father. Don't
utter such things. What has occurred to move you
to such grievous misgivings ? "

The old man's eyes filled with tears and replied/
" The shadow of an impending calamity— our greatest
crime and our saddest loss."

" But," said Paul. " It will not be irretrievable.
It will not be unpardonable. Our God is a God of
long suffering and His tender mercy endureth for

88 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Gamaliel only sighed, but afterwards said, *' My
dear son. Remember during your future career, for
I foresee that you will have an important part to play
in the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom.
Remember, I say, that the principles of that King-
dom are long-suffering, goodness and mercy, as well
as loyalty to Heaven and all the unique revelations
first communicated to our chosen race, in trust for
the world—' Put up your talk of swords, for those
who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.' "

. . . . The day before Paul was to leave for
Arabia he went to take his last wonted walk with
the revered Rabbi. He noticed with sympathetic
concern that the old man's steps were increasingly
feeble. He leant heavily upon his disciple's arm
and stopped twice to draw breath when climbing
the steep ascent towards Olivet.

"" Dear father," said Paul. " With great concern,
I notice that of late, your natural force has much
abated. What is the cause ? Is it mere decay— the
advance of years ; or is that aggravated by mental
depression, such as you communicated, and the cause,
when I respectfully remonstrated the day I an-
nounced my approaching departure ? "

"" Beloved son," he replied, " you have rightly
suspected the chief cause and my consequent weak-
ness. How can I view the state of things among us
without the gravest solicitude. Where corruption
is working in both the Ecclesiastical and civil hier-
archies, the sun of commercial prosperity only aggra-
vates the disease and hastens the fatal and final con-
summation. I see, looming upon a lurid horizon,
the daughter of Jerusalem doomed to accomplish
her own destruction, leaving only a remnant, to drag

PAUL WITH GAMALIEL 89

on a dishonoured existence, under the ban of that
God who begot her to be a precious and favoured
people. What an opportunity discarded ! What
privileges put away ! Warnings despised, entreaties
contemptuously scorned ! It is indeed nothing new
in the history of our nation, but something more
astonishingly criminal is about to be committed."

Here the old man covered his face with his robe ;
caught hold of a branch, doomed to be lopped by a
soldier of Titus and would have sunk to the ground
had not Paul supported him. Profoundly moved,
but unable to speak, the young man clung to the
aged, while a Script from the Prophets escaped from
the hand of the former and descended to the mire,
for the skieS had been weeping. Paul moved to
steady himself and inadvertently trod upon the holy
writing. Gamaliel, fired with sudden energy, caught
sight through his dimmed eyes the fateful predictions
of the Prophets, and reaching down unavailingly.

'' Alas ! Alas ! " he exclaimed. '' The words of
the Prophet shall not fall to the ground. And you,
how could you dare to tread them underfoot ? You,
too, are doomed to mourn their inevitable fulfilments."

Paul took them up, soiled and defaced, and read—

'' Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself, and
the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy
the city and the sanctuary ; and the end thereof shall
be with a flood, and unto the end of the war, desola-
tions are determined ' (Daniel ix. 26). ' Dogs have
compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have
enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my feet'
(Psalm xxii. 16). ' Awake ! O sword ! against my
shepherd, and againi t the man that is my fellow,
saith the Lord of Hos\ ., smite the Shepherd and the

90 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

sheep shall be scattered ; and I will turn mine hand
upon the little ones. And it shall come to pass, that
in all that land, saith the Lord, two parts therein
shall be cut off and die, but the third shall be left
therein. And I will bring the third part through the
fire, and will refine them as silver is refined and I will
try them as gold is tried ; they shall call on my name
and I will hear them. I will say, ' It is my people,'
and they shall say, ' The Lord is my God ' " (Zech.
xiii. 7-9).

" But, revered father, you will persist in reading
these gloomy passages. Let me read on and you
will find something more cheering."

" Behold I will send my Messenger and He shall
prepare the way before Me ; and the Lord, Whom ye
seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the
messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in.
Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts. But
who may abide the day of his coming ? and who shall
stand when he appeareth, for he is like a refiner's fire
and like fullers' soap. And he shall sit as a refiner
and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of
Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they
may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.
Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be
pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as
in former years. And I will come near to you to
judgments and I will be a swift witness against the
adulterers, and against false swearers, and against
those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow
and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger
from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of
Hosts. For I am the Lord, I change not, therefore
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed " (Mai. iii. 1-6).

PAUL WITH GAMALIEL 91

" Now," said Paul, " take comfort ! "

" Comfort ! " exclaimed Gamaliel, " when two
thirds of the people are to perish. 'I change not.'
It is a double edged sword, if a third will be spared,
the two thirds must perish."

" It may please God," said Paul, " yet to temper
his judgments with mercy. I shall ever seek to keep
Israel in the old paths. By so doing I shall hope to
avert or modify the threatenings uttered against the
guilty people."

" No ! No ! rejoined Gamaliel. " They have
corrupted themselves and you want to keep them
as they are. It is change we want. The Messiah
will unfold new Laws, and let the withered husks give
room to the precious seed to grow. Our present
Law is as good as dead."

" Ah, my father, we shall never agree upon that."

Then the two— the aged and the junior — slowly
got through the thicket and came to the summits of
Olivet. At which point, the Rabbi, breathing heavily,
cast himself down and gazed across the city west-
wards, espying a group of harvesters in a corn field.

" See ! " said Gamaliel. " I doubt not there are
Gentile gleaners among them. One of the maxims
that I recommended and which is becoming a general
practice, is to allow the poor of the heathen to have
equal privileges after the crop is gathered, with the
sons of Abraham."

" Yes! " murmured Paul, "I remember it, and also
you enjoined upon us not to omit the customary salu-
tations to wayfarers, whether they be Jew or Gentile.

" Here," exclaimed Paul, " is a figure approaching
us— a young man wearing a Phrygian cap. I must
certainly not neglect customary politeness."

92 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

He came along, shouting at the top of his voice,
with the air and gait and mood of careless abandon,
piping a hymn to Cybele, his face sunburnt, his eyes
dark, but with a subdued fire within them and his
arms and legs bared and tanned to a rich orange
while he was carrying a sycle and a cooking pot.
Evidently a cultivator of a market garden. As the
lowly Gentile approached, he doffed his cap and at
the same moment teacher and disciple uttered the
Jewish salutation.

*' Why should there not be peace, when the Messiah's
universal rule will compel the nations to dwell to-
gether in unity, acknowledging their mutual service.''
Paul saw that Gamaliel was going off into one of his
reveries, and he simply waited to catch what inter-
mittedly might fall from him during his reflections.
He heard him mutter, " Privileges are necessary, and
deprivation of privileges are necessary, poverty,
ignorance, calamity and suffering all necessary. Were
all privileges levelled, where should we find a steep
ascent to give a breathing to our lungs ; and where
should I find a young disciple whose sonship comes
about by his acknowledgment of my superiority and
his desire to profit by me ? "

Then he addressed himself to the disciple,

" You are going to Arabia. Those fiat monotonous
plains of sand, once a sea bottom, will not afford the
same refreshment to the eye as the inequalities given
by the mountains of Judah and Hermon, neither can
a large population be supported by those arid wastes.
Nevertheless the fertility of the mountainous regions
is maintained by the infertile wilderness. The rich
fields of Galilee owe much to Arabia, the sandy wastes
of the world and the precious drops of rain are nearly

PAUL WITH GAMALIEL 93

related. The heathen are necessary to us, both
before and after the Messianic Kingdom. It is not
Jehovah's design to make a superior sort of animal, but
altogether a nobler creature— Sons of God. To the
gradual creation of that climax, many unprivileged
nations must, in their travail contribute. Therefore,
stand not upon your privileges, ye sons of Abraham,
but humbly cherish them, always remembering that
Arabia and the Promised Land were given to the off-
spring of the same great Progenitor."

" Quite true, my father," responded Paul. " The
Arabian sun will never blind me to the heights of
Judah, nor to the Phrygian races in Roman Asia.
They shall become tributary to Jerusalem."

" And," interposed Gamaliel, " we shall have to
acknowledge their tributes in art, in philosophy, in
politics, in science and literature. The Kingdom
of the Messiah will use all these tributes, hence I
willingly salute this other cultivator, or harvester—
this time from Italy— though a native of the land
of our oppressors."

The humble member of the Pagani passed by and
received the salutation given to the former. They
watched him as he went, one foot dragging a bit, as
though he had met with an accident. Then Gamaliel
turned and spoke aloud. " Have you done anything
to sustain the life of the world, Paulus ? This man,
like the other, is a cultivator. Our Doctors despise
the countryman, but if it were not for his labours
they would all drop into Sheol before their time.
Every kingdom, since the birth of time, was created
and supported by the poverty stricken and enslaved
cultivators."

" I have" replied Paul, " done something to sustain

94 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

life, or at least, I have learnt a trade really necessary
to man. My Cilician cloth shields men from the
elements, makes shade from the burning sun and also
shelters from the dissolving cloud. I have learnt
the art of weaving."

" I am glad of it," rejoined Gamaliel. " To prac-
tise it will give you valid grounds for self-respect.
Unfortunately, many Rabbis, who, with a proud
humility, recommend their pupils to acquire trades,
would not for the world attempt to make a livelihood
by their exercise, for they know too well that the
most useful members of society are the least re-
warded. Help me to descend, Paulus."

They threaded the groves again, and when clearing
them, they were soon upon the road to Jericho. But
they were involved in a crowd— all streaming away
towards Jordan. All classes were represented— rich
and poor, priests, Levites, merchants, labouring men,
soldiers, publicans, Greeks, Romans, barbarians—
all moved by the keen prickling of their consciences,
under the preaching of John the Baptist, wending
their way to confess their sins and be immersed by
the Anchorite.

" I must go to-morrow," said Paul, " otherwise
I would certainly stay to see what this new Prophet
is doing and saying. I hear that he is very clear
about the Messiah and announces that his arrival is
very near at hand. Who knows ! during my absence
in Arabia, that the great event shall have occurred !
But how is it that no women are going to be bap-
tized ? Either they have no sins, or they are too
black to be washed away by Jordan."

" No ! No ! " said Gamaliel, shaking his head.
" But women are usually the favoured channel for

PAUL WITH GAMALIEL 95

communications through Angels to mankind. Then
it is for men to publish the messages abroad. I see
several women in the crowd."

" I heard it stated that a remarkable visitation of
Angels had appeared to a Jewish maiden at a village
in Galilee, and it concerned the Messiah. But not to
favour one sex over the other, this wonderful Prophet,
who is baptizing in Jordan, his father had a visitation
as he ministered at the brazen altar of incense, fore-
telling the glad tidings of his first-born in his old age.
It is a gracious ordering of things that when there is
really golden news to communicate, the world is not
kept waiting, but a fleet messenger flies swiftly and
imparts it to a priest, occupied with his appointed
duty."

" Ah ! " cried Paul, " it lifts one off his feet to
imagine what the Messiah will be. How majestic !
glorious and divine. Solomon, in all his glory, cannot
be compared with Him. The Temple, magnificent
as it is, will be made more so by His entrance— the
envy of Rome and of all the world. And there will be
no poor in Jerusalem— no need to go a-begging to
support our own poor. Singular that there should
be such dearth and scarcity, when such huge amounts
of money and costly offerings are brought into the
Temple coffers ! "

" Don't speak of it, my son. There are scandals —
no wonder the Temple officials are among the crowd
for baptism. It will be difficult to cleanse them.
The priests in high office, are some of the worst in the
Sanhedrim."

" Then the Messiah will use His sword," said Paul.
*' I believe in the sword when the Jewish State and
prospects are endangered. The foundations of the

96 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

new Messianic Kingdom will be laid in blood, but not
in innocent blood— that would be a crime unforgive-
able. Our Messiah will discern between the guilty
and the innocent. He is to be our Judge.'*

" But now, my beloved master, I must bid you
farewell. I shall continually look forward to

seeing you, and deplore that our separation must be
so long."

Gamaliel seemed much moved. " When we do
meet," said he, *' it may be under very different
circumstances."

Instructor and pupil found their way through the
crowds that were hastening to the Fords of Jordan,
then at the Pool of Bethesda they parted. They had
passed sites on the way, memorable for all time and
eternity. Calvary and the Garden of Gethsemane.
Only three years were to elapse, and Paul, who was
deprived of the ministry of Jesus, was to see that same
Jesus glorified, and speaking to him from the unap-
proachable Light.

Gamaliel, still oppressed by melancholy forebodings,
was, just at the moment, inspired to say to his favour-
ite pupil, " Beloved youth, although I foresee that our
nation is doomed to become a mark and a gazing stock
for the world's reproach, yet I feel that you will be
conspicuously faithful and successful in establishing
the sway of the Messiah. You will first oppose Him
and then become His slave."

Strange prediction ! that filled Paul with mingled
feelings of horror and joy. What could he mean ?
" Explain, my revered master."

*' It is not given me to explain," he replied, " but
this much I can predict, " you, like my nation, will
tread the dreadful path of Messianic rejection, but

PAUL WITH GAMALIEL 97

afterwards your mourning and your repentance will
be turned into joy."

His profound disquietude unappeased, Paul fell
upon the neck of the Rabbi. They both wept in
secret, and then he slowly paced away to continue his
preparations at the home of his unsympathetic sister—
his little nephew was in his cradle— afterwards to do
for his uncle a notable service. Then, on the morrow,
mounted upon a camel, which snorted with pleasure
and hastened its paces as he withdrew from the city,
he was left to his reflections and the new page of his
experience now turning.

CHAPTER VIII.

Paul in Arabia.

Away north-east of Lebanon and skirting Damascus,
the caravan proceeded. He was going to no centre
of agriculture, neither to any city of artisans. He
was going to an emporium, where nothing was made
but money. The highest skill and the severest toils
never can compare with the results achieved by those
who have never laboriously acquired crafts, or have
unremittingly wooed nature's caprices after they have
done their best upon the soil. The people who get out
of the prison walls of poverty are those who studiously
avoid labour and skill, and being really dispensable,
are therefore highly rewarded ! their substance being
left to their babes. They do, however, study human
nature, and having to traffick in foreign countries and
become acquainted with foreign customs and beliefs,
they acquire a largeness of view and suggestions of
statemanship, which lead the merchant class to
become associates with the World Rulers, to whom
finance is not dispensable, and not unfrequently, the
Merchant has become a Monarch. That the road to
fortune is trodden never by the indispensable people,
but by the dispensable, comes about by the established
worship of the god Business, whose votaries have
completely eclipsed in devotion and sacrifices the
other divinities who were not sprung from the earth
as business was.

Paul's employer was a worshipper of business, and
did not care to study anything but his own interest,

PAUL IN ARABIA 99

but he wanted for his children an education which,
being useless, would separate them from the really
useful people, who are perennially doomed to poverty.
The Jews had a genius for entering the useless walks
of life, and were, therefore, generally prosperous.
They enjoyed learning the easy alphabet, which in-
volved no severe apprenticeship, consisting of two
signs, Cheap and Dear. They studied to make things
cheap and then they studied to make the same things
dear. This course of study resulted in spelling
wealth. But it did not make a blade of grass or a
blade of a knife.

Paul's camel is happy, it is treading the yellow
sands of Arabia. Golden sands, for wealth is to be
got in Emporiums where nothing is made but money.
Palmyra was an Emporium exchanging the products
of the East and the West. It was a Venice, not in the
Adriatic, but in the deserts of Arabia. But the Em-
pire of Zenobia was far forward from Paul's days, and
still further off was the rich Republic with its business
and its Doges.

Paul, after sitting at the feet of Gamaliel, wanted a
period of detachment from the endless subtleties of
the Law, a season of retirement from the claims of
both studentship and accommodation to his sister's
aUen household. He could, he hoped, listen with
less distraction to what his mind and conscience was
whispering. And he was fortunate in finding it. His
pedagogy did not engross his entire days, far from
that. He had two dear little children, boy and girl,
of his patron, who brought to their teacher's knees,
amiable manners, bright intelligence and honest eyes.
Could these last be preserved throughout a long
career ?

100 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Yes ! because both of them were born with silver
spoons. When the morning lessons were over, he had
the rest of the day, practically, free, until the pupils
were older. Hence he could chew the cud at leisure
of all he was taught to acquire in the school of the
Rabbis,— not without some misgivings as to either
its value or authority. Many an hour did he spend
revolving in his own mind what it was expedient for
him to do, if he should be an efficient agent of the
Messiah. His interior sense assured him that he had
an important part to play and that a crisis in his
personal history was arriving. From the parapets of
the roofs of his patron's dwelling he surveyed the
sheltering hills, whence silver rills descended, now no
more, and then Eastward the boundless plain. Often
at the daily pause of the Siesta, when the brooding
calm of the sultry silence was at its highest, it seemed
to him the whole world was in a state of hushed ex-
pectancy, waiting for His arrival. He that was to
turn rivers into every desert. He that would make
it blossom like the rose. And the mirage was on the
horizon. Cities, palms and waters. Jerusalem that
is above. But above the mirage mighty configurations
of thunder cloud. Is it the Messiah ? Was that
lightning His sword ? Does He come as Conqueror,
or as Shepherd, leading beside the still waters ?
Perhaps as both.

Another noon after the siesta and after his midday
prayers, he saw from his favourite perch a cloud,
no larger than a man's hand, and it was making to-
wards the little emporium city— from the illimitable
Eastern horizon. It was a moving cloud and a human
one, accompanied by roaring, but not of thunder.
Presently could be discerned horses and camels and

MtjL IN Arabia idi

an Arabian escort conducting a bevy of caged and
ferocious creatures which had been gathered to
adorn a Roman triumph and to minister to the
excitement and wonder of the circus. When the
cavalcade stopped, the slumbers of the citizens were
broken by the confused bowlings and barks of
carnivora, tormented by the last stages of maddening
thirst. From the Bazaars and into the empty lanes,
unworthy to be called streets, the scared citizens
gathered to inquire into the cause— and when they
gazed into the flaming eyes and threatening jaws
of the monsters, they vented their spleen by prods
and strokes from their staves, between the bars.
Paul, instead, hastened to the nearest well, and drew
the waters of Life even for the common enemies of
mankind. The first bowl that reached the cages was
Paul's, and when a noble lion lapped this present
life, his eyes became human and he switched his
tail delightedly. Ere the second bowl had arrived,
the beast's tormentors were at their old game— but
Paul drove them away and the irritated animal
resumed its human look and extended a muffled paw
as if to shake hands.

Everything comes to an end— the shouts, the
commands, the laughter, the scuffles, the disputes
and the consoling denarii chinking into the merchant's
pockets— everything came to an end, though the
road to be traversed seemed to dispute the postulate.
At all events. Silence descended again upon the
extended scene, and her sceptre passed voiceless
over the Emporium. Equally voiceless the black
shadows crept up and swallowed the lizards, which
did not stir. Paul, instead of resuming his couch,
went, as on tiptoe, the solitary pedestrian, to recline

102 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

under a favourite palm tree, and was kept awake by
pondering upon the fate of Jerusalem.

How or why he knew not, but dreadful apprehen-
sions seized him. Jerusalem, he dreaded, was about
to commit an unpardonable sin. Had he done right
in forsaking her ? Did not the people need guidance
lest they should become the prey of an impostor ?
And it will be two years before he can return. Then
to comfort himself he turned to the cv. Psalm :
" Seek the Lord and His strength ; seek His face ever-
more. Remember His marvellous works that He
hath done ; His wonders, and the judgments of his
mouth : O ye seed of Abraham His servant, ye
children of Jacob His chosen. He is the Lord our
God ; His judgments are in all the earth. He hath
remembered His covenant for ever, the word which
He commanded to a thousand generations, which
covenant He made with Abraham, and His oath unto
Isaac : And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a
law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant ;
saying— Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan,
the lot of your inheritance : when they were but a
few men in number ; yea, very few, and strangers in
it. When they went from one nation to another,
from one Kingdom to another people : He suffered
no man to do them wrong ; yea. He reproved Kings
for their sakes ; saying, Touch not mine anointed, and
do my prophets no harm " (v. 4-15). Then the Psalm-
ist recounts the fortunes of the people under Joseph
the Preserver and Moses the Deliverer, concluding
with words which gave balm and purpose to his
troubled breast : " For He remembered His holy
promise, and Abraham His servant ; And He brought
forth his people with joy, and His chosen with glad-

PAUL IN ARABIA 103

ness. And gave them the lands of the heathen, and
they inherited the labour of the people : That they
might observe His statutes, and keep His laws.
Praise ye the Lord" (verses 42 — 45). Then passing
on to the Psalm cvi., his fervent prayer was voiced
in the 4th and 5th verses : " Remember me, O Lord,
with the favour that thou bearest unto Thy people :
O visit me with Thy salvation : That I may see the
good of Thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness
of Thy nation, that I may glory with Thine inherit-
ance." Then Paul confessed his own sin, and con-
fessed with the Psalmist the sins of his nation in the
6th verse : " We have sinned with our fathers, we
have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly " ;
until, in verse 40, " Therefore was the wrath of the
Lord kindled against His people, insomuch that He
abhorred His own inheritance." "Nevertheless (verse
44) He regarded their affliction, when He heard their
cry : And He remembered for them his covenant,
and repented according to the multitude of his
mercies. He made them also to be pitied of all
those that carried them captives. Save us, O Lord
our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to
give thanks unto Thy holy name, and to triumph
in Thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from
everlasting to everlasting': and let all the people
say, Amen, Praise ye the Lord " (verses 45—48).

His heart now much relieved, he allowed himself
to yield to the influences of the hour and sunk to
slumber. So long and so well did he sleep that when
one of his young pupils aroused him, his lazy lids
could not immediately comprehend his situation.
Sitting up, the Heavens had darkened, and long
and broad lay the crimson sign of the departing

104 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

sun. It lay above the land he had left. " Let the
blood of Thy people, O Lord, be precious in Thy sight,
though they be not innocent.'* Such was the ejacula-
tion of the perturbed neophyte, and with the child's
hand in his, the young man and the boy paced home-
wards.

" You slept very soundly," archly observed the
young lad, lifting up his bright face.

" Sorrow was the cause and consequence," mut-
tered the Preceptor.

" What are you sorry f or ? " said the lad smiling.

There was no answer, only the warm, soft hand
was pressed within that of the Tutor's. The boy
felt that he must be silent, too. But, though hesitat-
ingly, he began again :

" The lion will not forget you. He wanted to
have you," and began a queer grimace, and then
withdrew it and stopped.

Then the Tutor extended his arm and enclosed
the young frame and pressed him to his thigh, and
the child heard him mutter, " Unto the third and
fourth generation," and then, " All the ends of the
world shall remember and turn unto the Lord :
and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before
thee. For the Kingdom is the Lord's, and he is
the governor among the nations " (Psalm xxii. 27 —
28). Paul went on to Isaiah : " For the mountains
shall depart, and the hills removed ; but my kindness
shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant
of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath
mercy on thee."

" No weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper ; and every tongue that shall rise against
thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the

PAUL IN ARABIA 105

heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their right-
eousness is of me, said the Lord '* (Isaiah liv. 10 and
17).

Then, suddenly, when the puzzled young face
was again Hfted towards his, Paul removed his arm,
and grasping the lad by the body he lifted him up
and kissed him. Dropping him instantly after, he
said, *' Now let's run races. Who will get first to the
Temple ? " It was a small Roman Temple outside
the walls, in whose columns Rome paid homage
to Grecian beauty, of the matchless Corinthian
order. He gave little Mercury long odds and they
started the great race— but the little demon, after a
while, stopped to laugh, to fit to burst. Then, rushing
against his Tutor, catching his breath, he roared,
" You're only pretending.'" For in truth, the very
statues and the three vultures that had mounted
guard were forced to laugh also. Paul entered into
the fun of it— showed himself lame and played such
antics like a cripple, determined to win the race, and
also to give to his pupil the prize, that all the gods in
Olympus were ready to die.

The little demon ventured to give a playful slap
against his Preceptor's thigh, and impressively
exhorted him to be real. " Give me only fifty stadia,"
he said, " and I'll beat you." So the great race was
resumed and the goal was Home. But Paul proved
to be quite impenitent, and the result, which ought
to have been telegraphed, and by wireless, to all the
inhabitants of the Globe, was after all left undeter-
mined. They laughed so at the final that neither of
the competitors could stand upright and none of the
four feet reached the door, but were spread in a
fall. The noise at the door also was so great that the

106 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

startled slave, followed by the Patron, eDquired, not
in Latin or Greek or Hebrew— but in slang Palmyrene,
the equivalent being, " What's the row ? '*

CHAPTER IX.
Paug in Arabia, Continued.

The months rolled peacefully away. Paul was more
and more deeply interested in the prophetical imports
of the various passages which spoke of the great
mission given to Israel to perform for the world.

The dear children whom he taught were the progeny
of honourable parents, who despised the worship of
the neighbouring Temple and felt that in securing a
Hebrew tutor for them they were preserving them
from much ignorance and folly, not to say also,
degradation.

Moreover, as the wife frequently reminded her
husband, from the day that Paul had crossed their
threshold they had uninterrupted peace and pros-
perity. The children respected and loved their
teacher, and were satisfactorily progressing in their
education.

The parents readily acquiesced in Paul's suggestion,
that the children should make themselves acquainted
with the sacred Books of the Hebrews ; so he trans-
lated for them selected portions into Aramaean, which
being records of Israel's marvellous and heroic story,
enthralled their infant understandings. He gave
them passages to learn, on the days when he must
visit the small local Synagogue, and one by one. idol
images and significations were removed from the walls
and passages, voluntarily, by the father and mother.

Observing this, Paul did not think to open any
acrimonious controversy upon religious matters, but

108 THE NEW LIFE OP ST. PAUL

trusted to silent light, which, if the souls of observers
were transparent, would certainly penetrate and begin
to dispel their darkness. He trusted also to his suppli-
cations on behalf of the whole family. He believed
in tribal responsibilities and in federal headships,
which were capable of earning corporate blessings or
judgments, without infringing individual liabilities.
He consequently felt increasingly that his time was not
wasted, that God had given him work to do, and that
there was a prospect of the whole family becoming
proselytes. With that family Paul felt himself
more and more identified, but never forgot that
this period was necessarily intercalary and that
the termination of his withdrawal from active
participation in the great movements in Judea
must be impatiently anticipated. As far as
possible he kept himself au courant with what
was going on : by enquiries from the travelling mer-
chants and from his patron, who frequently visited
Jerusalem. Thus, as the news of this pregnant and
wonderful period was brought to his ears, his impa-
tience grew, while he also rebuked it to himself, being
reminded that the march of the divine determinations
can neither be accelerated nor retarded, and that men
are but flies upon the chariot wheels of Destiny.

It was some time in the last months of the third
year that Paul began to be oppressed by the liveliest
apprehensions concerning the famous metropolis.
He began to be agitated by some signal tragedy, which
he surmised was being enacted then, and whose
shadow pressed upon his consciousness. After his
tutorial duties, during which he had been much
preoccupied, he sought relief in vain, by opening the
pages of the Prophets ; for alas 1 their predictions only

PAUL IN ARABIA 109

aggravated his depression. From them he went to
his couch, and after many turnings dropped into an
uneasy somnolescence. Presently he was awakened
in darkness and in terror. *'0h! Jerusalem! Jeru-
salem!" he exclaimed. ''Would that I could die for
thee. What are they doing there ? Something
awful, unheard of, has happened.'* He started up
from his pallet on the roof and strove to penetrate the
impenetrable darkness. " Where, where,'* he ex-
claimed, '* are Abraham's stars ? " A rent in the
black cloud just then opened, but it only disclosed an
evil meteor that flashed downward across it. Yea !
another follows it, more ominous than the first, sword
like and serpent like. The rent closed and an army
of lions growled in the distance.

My nation is in an awful crisis, bethought the young
man, and not mine alone— the whole world is involved.
He lay wretched, trembling and grief-stricken. Then
he had recourse to his unfailing sustainer, but con-
science craved for a Mediator, a Sacrifice the blood of
bulls and goats could not appease. It was then that
a hint arose within his heart, that mayhap the Messiah
was to minister grace and peace to the troubled con-
sciences of Israel and by the offering of Himself.
Pagan story had supplied many such examples, but
while they failed. His may be the decisive success.

At the morning meal he spoke of his miserable
experiences, and was surprised to learn that the wife
of his patron had been similarly affected. She had
felt that the world had just committed its crowning
sin. Their meditations and anticipations were sombre
and afflictive, nor could the customary routine banish
their gloom ; and to pass another such night filled
them with disquietude. Paul's prayers were unavail-

110 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

ing ; he went to his couch unrefreshed and not anoin-
ted. He lay wakeful and uneasy, and counted the
hours. When suddenly a sweet sense of Peace and
assurance stole unto his soul. The hand of the eternal
Father seemed resting on his shoulder ; and into his
alert ear were whispered the blessed words, " Thou
art My son, I have begotten thee to re-establish my
chosen."

He arose from his couch and went out before the
break of the day. The stars had just begun to put
on a white veil and retire from the bridegroom's
chamber. As he gazed eastward a pearly grey began
to diffuse itself as from a hidden centre. And pre-
sently Seraph's wings, touched with rose, began to
blush more and more, and then to don golden plumage
with their crimson. The courtiers of the sun now
began to doff their suits of dun and to apparel them-
selves in gorgeous suits of scarlet and gold. The
bridegroom was beginning to show his golden crown,
and anon his golden sceptre, and his flaming sword lay
at his feet. A flight of vultures rose into the air,
points of light touching their black wings. The whole
desert began to wake into life, and a peculiar peace and
joy kept this new dawn within his recently dark and
haunted spirit. All the dread and apprehension had
departed, the fate of his nation and the fortunes of
the world seemed to be sealed for blessing.

Wondering how it was, he could never explain to
others, and not completely to himself, but the emotion
assured him that its origin was divine. His eyes
glistened. Was his God drawing near, with a sheathed
sword and an extended sceptre ?

He appeared at the morning meal, touched by the
sunrise. He looked at the lady, and she, too, had

PAUL IN ARABIA ill

gathered gladness since the previous evening. But
neither of them were disposed to blab, but to list
to a quiet tune, as running waters— waters of life.
And yet she was only a Greek, previously unacquainted
with the true God. She spoke at length.

" This shall be a festal day, my children; the lessons
are to be foregone for once and we shall make an ex-
cursion to that old ruined Temple to the Gods, on
whose architecture we deciphered with difficulty the
legend."

They set out, a happy company, but their guide was
sadly puzzled to find it. Those columns used to stand
boldly out against the horizon and beside them a
grove of palm trees.

" What had become of them ? The Grove, how-
ever is discernible, we must make for it."

As they approached they could see that something
had happened, and a shepherd, who overheard their
perplexed speculations, volunteered the information
that, at the first rays of the sun, the columns fell
prone upon the sand.

" They saw many a sacrifice," said the shepherd,
looking at them. " They seemed to stand like the
mountains, while living men passed away. Now
their time came and, like the generations, they are no
more— and the bloody rites with them."

Paul and his companions roamed over the ruins,
and, looking for inscriptions, they deciphered, " Life
for evermore."

Paul was much struck by the shepherd's narration
and wondered at the meaning and connection between
the two exalted states of feeling partaken of by his
hostess and himself. " This," he said, " is a sign that
Pagandom is doomed and that Proselytism to Judaism

112 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

is about to enter upon a new era, under the Coming
One."

The family made a happy pic-nic among the ruins :
and upon the top of tumbled stones, they beheld,
facing the West, a glorious sunset.

The time that Paul was to spend in Arabia was now
rapidly expiring. Often and often he had asked him-
self, " What is to be my life's work ? God has not
made me in vain. He has designed me for a great
enterprise. I feel the assurance within that I can,
and desire to be, a restorer of the old paths, when
Israel was great, and quailifying itself to become the
Ruler and teacher of the nations. However unworthy
and inadequate, let me be a humble instrument for
gathering the nations into the same Covenant with
Abraham."

" An Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to
Bochim, and said, " I made you to go up out of Egypt,
and have brought you unto the land which I
sware unto your fathers : and I said, I will never
break my Covenant with you. And ye shall make
no league with the inhabitants of this land : ye shall
throw down their altars ; but ye have not obeyed
my voice. Why have ye done this ? " (Judges ii.,
1, 2.)

Paul was ready to extirpate the heretics- any and
all that were propagating mischief against the most
rigid adherence to the prescriptions of the Levitical
economy, lest the Divine Author should dissolve
His Covenant. But Paul read on.

" Wherefore, I also said, I will not drive them out
from before you, but they shall be as thorns in your
sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. '* What
a penalty for disobedience !

PAUL IN ARABIA 113

*'And it came to pass when the Angel of the Lord
spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that
the people lifted up their voice and wept." (Judges ii.
3-4.)

Paul now wanted a place for repentance. Had he
allowed no false gods to be saluted within his breast ?
Was the integrity of his worship never unbroken, to
the sole and only God who could redeem him ?
He prayed that he might be assisted to cast out every
false god that had been permitted to receive occas-
ional homage within his soul, which was intended to be
a holy land, and God's alone. Paul wanted a sacrifice,
an adequate one. Until then he must remain in
Bochim, the place of weeping. "And they sacrificed
there unto the Lord." (Judges ii. 5.) Paul wanted
a better sacrifice, for the thorns remained.

Meantime, pending the solution of the great ques-
tion for himself and his nation, he rejoiced to believe
that the times predicted for the Messiah were immin-
ent and that the glorious advent drew near. He had
enquired of some of the travelling merchants what was
going on from time to time, and he heard with exceed-
ing interest that John had gained great influence,
that multitudes flocked to his preaching, confessed
their malpractices, and were enrolled in the new
Guild of the Forerunners of the Messiah, for John had
always taught his followers that when Messiah ap-
peared they were to leave himself and follow the
Greater One. " I must decrease and He must in-
crease."

But other reports reached Paul's ears. A false
Messiah was bewitching the people, because of mar-
vellous signs and wonders wrought by his hands.
John did no miracle, but this false one, by the help of

114 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Beelzebub had done wonderful things that none could
explain or dispute. Miracles, that is to say, which
conferred blessings, not upon isolated cases, of blind-
ness, deafness, dumbness, paralysis, but, astonishing
to say, even thousands of people— five thousand of
men— not to say women and children, were fed by
multiplying a few loaves and fishes, and the fragments
filled twelve baskets. "The man who can feed the
people when they are hungry, when by no fault of
their own, either by bad harvests, or want of employ-
ment, or by plunderings of Banditi, or the ravages
of an invading host, that is the man for us," said the
crowds, and they followed him.

*' And he can talk, I can tell you," said his infor-
mant. * ' Beautiful stories came from his lips, as though
grace and truth anointed his tongue."

** What is His teaching ? " enquired Paul. "Is it
to magnify the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees ?
Does he exalt the Law and is He predicting that the
Temple will never be overthrown, and the Romans
and every other nation who wag their heads against
Israel shall be made the footstool of the Messiah ? "

** Oh ! no ! " replied the merchant. '' There you
are wrong. He is for ever denouncing the Scribes and
Pharisees, exposing their traditions to ridicule, and
condemning the immorality of their maxims. In
fact he has predicted that the Temple will be utterly
overthrown."

** Oh ! I have no patience with such idle tales.
I must be excused from listening to such rubbish.
Pray, don't offend ears by repeating this nonsense.
But what was His origin ? Can you tell me ? "

It is given out that he is of the lineage of
David, but his father was naught but a carpenter, and

PAUL IN ARABIA 115

himself helped his father. They lived for years at
Nazareth— an undistinguished village of Galilee."

" What ! " incredulously exclaimed Paul. " A car-
penter ! from Galilee— putting up to be the Messiah I
I could almost laugh, if the subject were not too
grave. You say that enormous crowds attend the
steps of this ridiculous Impostor."

The merchant interrupted him, laying his arm on
Paul's. "No Impostor! " he cried. "He may be mad —
many say He is mad, but he is no Impostor. I will
tell you a secret. Do you see this arm ? This arm
(and here he gave Paul a wrench). Look at it ! It
was once withered.'^ He became excited and shouted.
" / could do nothing with it, but the Impostor you talk
of made it completely whole, I was looking into a
Synagogue and the Nazarene bid me stretch it out.
I had faith to do it, and He made me whole. So it is
all very well to decry that wonderful Son of the carpen-
ter ! He has done great things for the poor people,
I am a poor man myself and I have been half starving
when my arm was withered, but now ! " Here the
pedlar released Paul's arm and turned his attention
to a heavy bundle of stuff, which he strapped tightly
and then swung from the ground to place upon his
head. " I could not do that before," he continued,
" It was the Nazarene who enabled me."

" I don't dispute the facts," persisted Paul. " Satan
is ever ready to deceive the people by miracles, if
nothing but miracles will suffice, Beelzebub ! Beel-
zebub ! That is just the sort of man, most dangerous
to the State, beguiling the people by the arts and
specious promises of the Demagogue. While decrying
the ruling powers, civil and ecclesiastical, at the same
time with a profusion of pious saws, making himself to

116 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

be a veritable Prophet. When I return to Jerusalem it
shall be to put an end to the folly. Messiah is coming,
and this is the time, but not this one, save the mark ! "

A few days after came another caravan, and more
news. Paul eagerly questioned the new-comers.

" Oh, yes ! " they replied. " His career is ended !
The Impostor has done for Himself. He came riding
into Jerusalem, if you please, upon a donkey, the foal
of an ass, and the children attended him in swarms,
crying ' Hosannah ! Blessed be he who cometh in the
name of the Lord.' A regular royal entry, the streets
strewn with leaves and flowers, and the people car-
peted the way with their own garments. The Rulers
desired to stop it, but they feared the people."

" Feared the people ! " echoed Paul with disgust.
" Well, go on ! "

" Oh ! he was betrayed by one of His disciples and
crucified."

" Crucified ! " again echoed Paul, but with a different
tone.

" It was a dark day in Jerusalem," continued the
narrator. " We could not see for three hours and
there was at the same time an earthquake, showing
the anger of Jehovah. But He has risen from the
dead ! "

"■ What ! Risen from the dead ? "

" Yes ! so at least the women say."

" Oh ! the women, silly creatures ! they will believe
anything."

CHAPTER X.

Jerusalem at the Epoch.

Meantime Jerusalem was enjoying a wonderful
season of blessing. Nature composed itself into a
charming mood. It had determined for the nonce to
favour the land, the sea, and every bird, beast and fish,
not neglectinof the lords of creation.

Every morning the sun rose in a cloudless heaven,
and conjured up some tender veils of silver thread,
through which Sol smiled upon every worker and
did not smite them with injurious ardour. People rose
from their couches, inhaled sweet air, and felt the sun,
with the hospitable warmth of the touch of the hand
of a friend. " It is a joy," they said, " to live," and
those who had gardens, and lambs, and orchards,
spoke to each other of the happy prospects before
them.

Winged things tucked away their stings, and only
spread their small banners and their heraldic devices,
proclaiming the wonderful pedigrees they possessed,
for Eve chased one of their ancestors over the roses,
and Adam let another rest upon his hand, as he gazed
admiringly. And a beautiful hand it was, not three
fingers cut off by barbarous labour, under a steam
circular saw.

The pools of Jerusalem were in a condition of sweet
content, for the Heavens showed forth God's praise,
and the waters answered without a fault. There was
the murmuring of pleasure, not of vexation, gentle
chinklings as of silver money, small circles of tiny

118 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

waves intersecting one another, and, if a winged
thing descended, the surface of the pool gave it an
unctuous support, that it should not drown.

Men and maidens who went to the pools, looking
down, found another happy face greeting it from
beneath. " Peace to thee ! All the families of the
earth shall be blessed." That was the interpretation
of the smile of each. In the markets, in the bazaars,
in the working places, in the courts, the Synagogues,
and in the Temple, there was prevalent an unwonted
spirit of courtesy, urbanity and disinterestedness.
The bonds of a human fellowship were strengthened,
selfishness began to starve, and pride moped for want
of attention. In business transactions an element of
incongruity began to reveal itself.

" We are not ourselves this morning," they apolo-
gised, " we are wandering back to childhood, before
the stern battle for existence begins. We want the
guile of the serpent, we have families to support."

" But the Nazarenes have solved the problem."

" What Nazarenes ? "

" The disciples of that Carpenter."

" Oh ! friend, good-day ! I am not wedded to
folly."

The disturbing ripple subsided and on the whole
surface of Jerusalem society there was a holy calm.
Morning after morning, the sun came up with its
toned salutation, sweet white and sweet black, and
crowds in bright array lifting up their voices to speak
well of the Nazarenes, for " day by day, attending
constantly in the Temple with one accord, and break-
ing bread in private houses, they took their meals
with great happiness and single-heartedness, praising
God and being regarded with favour by all the people.

JERUSALEM AT IHE EPOCH 119

Also day by day the Lord added to their number of
those whom He was saving." (Acts ii. 46—47.
Weymouth.) It was the same with the farmers and
merchants that came to buy and sell. They were not
quite themselves. Honesty was getting to its ewn»
although godliness, in the short run, was not so profit-
able.

Something had happened, something in the air.
A new energy concentrated in one spot and radiating
from it, like the wireless, spreading in wider circles
from a point in Jerusalem. Was it to spread to the
furthest confines of the Globe ?

Meantime these halcyon days went on. Strange
freight began to be brought in through all the Jeru-
salem gates.

*' Slowly ! slowly ! Easy now ! This way ! "

In all the villages in the surrounding country, little
groups were to be seen carrying something, or assisting
feeble and halting people. What the deceitful face
of dumb dwellings concealed, of human trouble and
pain, began to make confession. Those houses might
have tressilled vines, as if the soul of each grape
was glad. But in this rejoicing period that we
speak of, an open confession to the contrary was being
made. Confession of utter weariness, hopelessness,
suffering, behind the festooned walls.

The doors were being opened, the blind, the lame,
the halt, the fevered, the palsied, the demonized, were
being brought to the Apostles of the Nazarene. They
came in. Yes ! they came in— crowds attending
them— watchful and expectant of miracle. Those
Nazarenes came to the Temple ; they did not neglect
the customs in which they were reared. They did
not tesiT off an old skin, before a new and better one

120 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

had not time to grow beneath ; they kept up the old
Jewish practices, and prayed thrice a day— not for-
saking the gathering ground of the nation. So the
crowd was looking to the healers to pass up to the
Temple.

All those happy days, the keepers at home, after
they had seen the invalids lovingly tended and borne
away in the morning, went singing about the house,
where formerly were moans, because they knew that
in the evening there would be Light. And that those
who were carried in the morning would be ready to
carry others next day, because the Apostles of the
Nazarene were within hail.

Such crowds ! There was no room for the wor-
shippers to get up to the doors. A lot of children,
afflicted from their birth, and others injured by acci-
dents, and again ignorantly treated by the tenderest
of mothers, who put drops into eyes of infants by the
recommendation of quacks, and blinded them. All
were ranged, step above step. There was no hurry or
impatience, for the thing had been going on for weeks,
and the healers had never failed.

The invalids were placed as comfortably as props
and cushions would allow, and the fathers and mothers
and other relatives were standing at the heads of the
beds. In the case of the children, they were given
the first place, near the foot of the flight of steps
where the Apostles always entered. And the mothers
and other women had them in charge.

There was a taut expectancy as when a royal pro-
gress was to pass — a blessed silence before the glad
event. When came Bumbledom ! Bumbledom came
out with tipstaves. The Temple police had their
duties to perform—'' What's all this ? " The mothers

JERUSALEM AT THE EPOCH 121

calmly confident that the police were not brutes,
smilingly answered that the Nazarenes are coming
at the hour of prayer. A bandaged arm was uplifted
from a bed, a contorted infant's brow was taking on
new puckers, yellow suppurations oozing through the
bandages.

" You must take them all away," said Bumbledom.
" Be quick ! " The glad mothers could not believe
it. "It is the hour of prayer, I tell you, you must
pack up and go." Then Bumbledom, discomfited
by weeping women, retreated within to consult the
priests, and get fresh orders. In the dark recesses
the robe of a Chief Priest just flashed in the distance.
Bumbledom came back triumphant. " Oh, yes !
you'll have to pack up and go, I have got imperative
orders from the priests." The priests took care not
to go out and see for themselves, the claims of human-
ity might be infringing the privileges of an ecclesias-
tical system. So the feebly, wailing children had all
to be picked up again, and swallowing bitter male-
dictions against Bumbledom and its superiors, the
mothers had to undo all their careful preparations.
It gave them great soul-trouble and all were gathered
in a heap— the children crying and the women sob-
bing, when, as often comes, at the moment of bitterest
disappointment, their mourning was turned into joy.
For the expectant crowd of women and children were
driven right into the approaching band of the Nazar-
enes. To see the smitten cherubs, suffering, many of
them for the sins of their ancestors, was to put forth
their miraculous powers at once.

Instantly the blind babe caught Peter's kind smile,
it began to crow. A spotted infant became a lamb
without scar or blemish. Limbs were straightened,

122 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

internal organs were bidden to do their duty, and the
feeble-minded began to grow in intelligence and
capacity. While the Apostles were mounting the steps
the fevered threw off delirium and looked and spake
their thanks to the Lord's Deliverers. The paralytic
rolled up their beds and others were to be seen walking,
and leaping and praising God. And this grand
largess from disease was accompanied by largess to the
captives of Satan's slavery. The Apostles, possessed
in rich measures of the Holy Spirit's life-giving
energies, manifested openly to all the people the great
privileges that were now placed within their reach.
Their words were winged with the Spirit's power ;
became mixed with faith in those who heard them,
and then began the putting forth of the new powers
and experiences proper to the gift of the Eternal Life,
causing many to be added to the Church of those who
were being saved. Those Apostolic assemblies were
the destined germs which were to be developed into
the vital organs of the Body of Christendom, which
in turn was to be exalted by the Lord's Advent into
the manifested Kingdom of God, administered by the
election of the first Resurrection.

The humble company met in upper rooms and pri-
vate houses, and their meals were most joyful. They
ate them with great happiness and single-heartedness,
praising God and being regarded with favour by all
the people.

In the morning they were employed in errands of
mercy, and the latest discoveries of the twentieth
century for the alleviation of human suffering were
superseded by the powers possessed by a few fisher-
men. They were walking sanatoriums, having en-
dowments which dispensed them from seeking gold

JERUSALEM AT THE EPOCH 123

or silver. And after freeing the diseased from the
yoke of Satan, they freed them from the bondage of
superstition and the yokes of sinful indulgences, by
implanting within them the sanctifying energies of
the Holy Spirit.

The Nazarenes, after the morning labours, came to
veritable Love Feasts, all partaking of sufficiency—
no luxuries— but healthy condiments, temperately
enjoyed ; and for an appetising wine— a wine drawn
from the inmost arcana of spiritual fervours, the joy,
to wit, of the Lord's presence, who was pleased to dwell
in each of their hearts and make His presence felt.

It can be easily understood that the meals were
blessed. The new world's opening new chapters,
though simple, were enthralling. It all depended
upon the Church being kept pure. Every day some-
body was bringing helpful gifts to the common stock.
Bar-Nabas, Son of Consolation, or Encouragement,
sold his farm in Cyprus and brought the money to the
Apostles— the parent of a long series of benefactions
and specious rivalries in ostentatious gifts, which has
not ceased to poison Church finance ever since. Gifts
of gold and silver are immeasurably lower than gifts
of the spirit, chief of which is Truth. All looked so
serene and fair, yet from the blue, two bolts descended,
and terror, wholesome warning terror, came into every
soul.

Ananias and Sapphira were stimulated to gain
equal credit and estimation, and having voluntarily
lied separately, were forced to lie together in one dis-
honoured grave.

It is, I suppose, on account of these two judicial acts
that supremacy became attributed to the foremost
fisherman among the Apostolate ; but St, Paul ad-

124 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

ministered judgment quite as frequently, and St.
Peter's influence rapidly waned before the progress
made in the Gentile world by the former.

Money, the root of all evil, and private property,—
the Church at a later period, sought to deprive of its
worst peculiarities, by reviving in the Monastic Orders
Pentecostal example. It is characteristic of the his-
tory of reforms that the initiations often end by sinning
against the very ideals that originally possessed them.
And so, in our day, Spain is goaded to attack the
wealthy corporations of Monks and Nuns, who use
their exemptions from civil burdens to oppress their
serfs and industrials. The same met in France with
merited rebuke and banishment. In England, alone,
the sweet tradition lingers with scarce a fault in its
tone and constitution. The Brotherhoods and Sister-
hoods in the Anglican Church bring their fortunes,
inherited or acquired, and devote them to the common
stock ; living in Community, and ready to serve for
body and soul, without hire and with continual sacri-
fices, which are richly rewarded by the love of God's
poor, and the love of God Himself, Who was once rich,
but became poor for our sakes.

Was the Pentecostal economy, then, nothing but a
falling star ? By no means. It still is a polar point
by which labour legislation is steered. The masses
enjoy in community parks, libraries, infirmaries,
schools, refuges, parish churches and clergy, factory
and food inspectors, breakfasts for destitute infants,
and pensions for the aged, bands, museums and picture
galleries. Almost everything is done for them and for
body and soul, except protection from nmrderous
competition and equally murderous quest and manu-
facture of the demanded developments of a blood-

JERUSALEM AT THE EPOCH 125

stained civilization. An important demand from the
industrial pundits of our exalted civilization comes
from an Apostolic band of Christmas card caterers,
who imperatively require copper bronze to bring out
the manger, and with brazen faces they are willing
to provide two draughts of milk per diem for their
young people to check the progress of the poisoning
to which they are subjected. But with the wonder-
ful progress of co-operative production and trading,
the municipal ownership and running of trams, of
water, gas and by and by dairies, it is not to be
despaired of that the British Empire may become a
gigantic trading Trust. All private business bought
up, and a wholesale massacre undertaken of wholly
unnecessary and pernicious trades, methods and pro-
cesses—a massacre, not of innocents, alas, but of hein-
ously guilty persons who would cater for anything that
brought money, whether the producers were slain,
body and soul, or not. The British Empire, keeping
the Pentecostal Star in view, will steer for a simpler
life, and by consequence a vastly longer one. Feverish
competition and the vain race for social distinction
will bring sanity to aims and hankerings, and she will
endeavour to uphold a " British standard " of truth
and equity, which will never be made to founder.
After the example of Venice and Spain, and Holland
and Peru, she will have great possessions and go into
the markets of the world with special products which
no nation can equally well supply, and her trade mark,
" Made in the British Empire," will be a guarantee for
unchallengeable excellence. As the Quakers got rich
by superior integrity, so the " British Empire t^n-
limited " will become stronger and richer by simple
hoQesty. No Tariffs directed against her will tempt

126 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

her to adulterate her wares. Her cloth will never be
weighted with clay, nor her silk, or wool or leather be
otherwise than it is truly denominated. As the
British gold sovereign is never questioned, neither
will the products need tricks to make them pass
muster. It will be enough to prove against an envious
but scheming rival that the article was " made in the
British Empire.'*

But it will be thought that to guard the rights
and interests of the subject people is already in our
enormous Empire a matter embarrassingly compli-
cated ; and to introduce further the monstrous
addition of directing the whole production and
distribution and exchange. Home and Foreign,
would completely clog the wheels of the National
Administration. Now, as against that view, I
bring forward the example of the East India Co.—
our Indian Empire once administered by a Private
Company. The converse transformation of the
British Government into a single Trading Company
is valid for the possibility. The private Company
kept fleets and armies and negotiated with Princes.
Have we lost the commercial power we then possessed ?
Would our successful merchants be crippled by
acting for the Empire and with the unlimited capital
of the Empire at its back ? It will be said that it
would multiply infinitely occasions of friction in
our international relationship. That could not well
be if the international trading was mutually advan-
tageous and always honest. And remember the
innumerable cases which come before the Home Office
and the Courts in connection with the competitive
commerce of to-day— all that would fall to the
ground— the resources, the machinery, the abilities

JERUSALEM AT THE EPOCH 127

would be available for application to the larger matters
of Imperial trading abroad. Our Colonies would not
be slow to follow the Motherland. They have long
been ripening in Canada and Australasia for more
communistic experiments. They have not an Ancient
Nobility to compensate like we, but no more than
life interest need be preserved. The noble scions
of the great houses may grandly decay in their
splendid mansions, having left imperishable examples
of chivalry, patriotism and abounding beneficence,
but posterity did nothing for us and we need not
consider it. A proud ancestry, if it was illustrated by
noble deeds, would be a private possession that
could never be alienated, and the British Empire
can confer many titles to respect and admiration,
according to merit, and found a new aristocracy
with indefeasible rights to regard written upon the
history of their times. The paths of true honour and
distinction it is for every citizen to open for himself.
But if much would be submerged, the submerged
tenth would arise no more. No British citizen would
be poor, and no injurious trade or process would be
permitted. To doom a child to a lingering death
for the sake of a colour or a fad, to expose precious
lives to destruction because of the economic straits
induced by competitive production, would not be
possible in our Christian commonwealth. The wealth,
the science, the strenuous labours, formerly devoted
to the acquisition of wealth and the congenial destruc-
tion of trade rivals would be transferred to the
redemption of operatives, while at necessary work,
from every possible risk or disadvantage. And with
good reason; for everyone, without exception, will
have to do their stint, according to capacity, in the

128 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

National Service. Why should that be excepted to ?
When the bloody trade of war is accounted honour-
able, and toll would be taken from every one
capable of bearing arms.

When the Co-operative Trading Company of the
British Empire is established under new manage-
ment, the huge offence and waste involved in private
advertising would be saved. I am aware that there
can be no absolute " waste " while money is circulat-
ing (and those who talk of the " waste " of the Crimean
and South African Wars talk nonsense : it is a
question of comparative utilities what object it is
proposed to serve by putting money into circulation,
which is the prosperity of any existing generation).
But the advertising of to-day is a gross affront and a
shameless robbery of time and attention and an
impudent invasion of pre-occupied moments wanted
to be really worthily employed. The consolidation
of all industries, trades and professions under single
direction will effect a wonderful deliverance and
change the face of commerce from the grimaces of a
baboon to that of a benefactor and statesman.

What else ? Insurances will end. The agents
who sneak out of the toils and perils of indispensable
labour by inducing hard-working folk to take out
policies for life, fire, burglary, burial and marine
risks will be gently conducted to a seat, and then,
after a rest, bid to get up and do something useful.

The citizens of the British Empire Corporation
will not require to repose faith in any insurance
company for the providing of some aid to their
families when the bread-winner is removed. The
British Empire will undertake all risks whatsoever —
no destitute orphans or widows can be scheduled. The

JERUSALEM AT THE EPOCH 129

premiums they will pay will be in service, from
whieh there will be no escape. Similarly, if a fire
occurs, all losses will fall upon the Empire, and anyone
guilty of arson, through carelessness or malice, will
become a public enemy and made to suffer. The
immense shipping of the British Empire Avill not be
insured at all, just as the largest fleets of the Private
Steamship Companies of to-day find it economical
to dispense with any insurance. No murder of
infant lives when the British Empire is the only
insurance office. No murder on the high seas when no
contrived shipwrecks of over insured new vessels
could offer an inducement. Crimes and follies in-
numerable would die, and have no resurrection, so
long as the British Empire led its victorious life in
community.

True ! there would be a certain abridgment, to
certain persons, of personal liberty. But what
about the abridgment of liberty, through poverty
(not to " certain persons," and, indeed, to hosts of
idle women, but) to millions ? The great majority of
all communities are imprisoned by circumstances,
whose daily round is bed and work, with poor meals
between. They may sing maniacal songs about
Britons never being slaves, but their aprons are
scarcely ever off, or their pens on their ear. The
British Empire will endow its free workers with
reasonable leisure, and exact only what is due. No
non-employment could exist.

And what leverage would be given to the British
Empire, when organised into an industrial and com-
mercial State, when negotiating with other States and
Dominions, bargaining for their adherence to treaties
on behalf of subject races— the Congo natives,

130 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

for example. Our Empire State, without threat of
war, could refuse to treat for the export that the
other State wanted, unless the provisions of the
treaty to which we were parties were carried out.
The rest of the world might jibe and scorn us, but
we might surely for once in a way wage war without
any interested selfish motive inspiring us. Wage war
to avenge iniquity to shackle the power that dared
to raid and massacre the adherents of a religion
differing from its own, instead of through infidel
policy dreading to offend the persecuting Power.
It is sickening to remember how seldom our
land and sea forces are employed for any dis-
interested object. We could have both avenged and
prevented the massacres that the " Unspeakable
Turk " was permitted to perpetrate, against Armenia
and at Adana, on the plea of religious fealty. The
innocent blood cries out against us, as it also cries
from the Congo State. Have we lost altogether
Faith in God ? " Power belongs to God." He
delegates it to nations for the execution of His will.
Is it His will that the Christians of Armenia and
Adana should be massacred every now and again at
the caprices of a monstrous Fanaticism, and we become
particeps criminis by not only being supine in the
matter, but even strengthen the armaments of our
ally ? All this comes of want of faith in God. Heaven
fated. Be sure our sin will find us out. We shall
live to rue it, and we shall deserve it. Think you
the Moslems can respect us when they show such
base fear, and stroke the Beast whose chops are
still dropping from the blood of Armenia and Adana.
The maxims for national conduct are precisely the
same as for private individuals. Every citizen

JERUSALEM AT THE EPOCH 131

should do the right and ^hame the devil and fear
no consequences. What need is there for the British
Empire to court foreign alliances ? It is only weak-
ened by making any ally. Let it stand and abide
in impregnable strength, so long as it intends always
to do its national duty, in succouring the oppressed,
crippling tyrants, and being ready always any time
to punish by war any flagrant outrage upon helpless
victims of Mohammedan rapine. If Britain will
not do this, then let her be deposed. God will find
another instrument. To think of a great Power like
Britain shaking her knees and looking for a prop in
an upstart mushroom state like Japan is enough to
cover us with the deepest shame. Oh ! for another
Cromwell ! Cannot this faithless generation be
taught that by God Kings rule and Princes execute
judgment. We have by our recent deeds shouted out
that the above is a pack of nonsense— as well listen
to old men's fables as regard the statements and
warnings of the Holy Scriptures. But I ask again :
Is the Turk to be bolstered up ? and the bleached
bones of God's saints in Asia Minor remain un-
avenged ?

Among the many changes we may look to see
effected by the Democracy, two institutions are
likely to remain. The Throne and the Church.
The former is Divine, the shadow of the first Article
in any Christian creed. The ultimate appeal in
every well constituted Government, and safeguarded
from violent and periodic changes by the hereditary
principle. The second, the latter, is yet more un-
challengeably Divine— the authorised Guardian of the
deposit of Revealed Truth, and the organised organ
for the continual propagation of the Gospel, heralded

132 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

by angels and entrusted to Apostles and their spiritual
succession, for permanent fructification throughout
the world by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and
His alter ego, the Spirit.

So long as these remain and they must remain, the
world's lasting welfare is secured and increased.
Apocalyptic prophecies are not taken up here— they
are fulfilling themselves under our very eyes. For
the present we hark back joyfully to the condition
of things in Jerusalem immediately subsequent to
the Great Bestowal.

Those were great days after Pentecost. The greatest
chapter in the world's history. No such days ever
preceded or succeeded them up to now. As in a
great orchestral piece of music, the trumpets in
massive unison give out the theme— with thrilling
force and awe-struck depth— a theme which is after-
wards caught up by inferior instruments, and a
great strife commences with drum and cymbals to
vex and alter it, new airs overlaying it, though they
are impregnated by flitting echoes of the old, until
the foundation theme gathers new strength to free
itself and arises above all clamour to announce its
Resurrection with irrepressible power.— Then shall
the trumpets peal all over the world that theme
which Pentecost began. The Alpha and the Omega.
The end of the stormy past and the ushering in of
the Shepherd's eternal strain.

CHAPTER XL

The Church before Tribulation.

The sweet calm of the Pentecostal season was to be
rudely broken up by a storm of persecution. The
success of the Apostolic preaching, which the Sanhe-
drim could not put down for fear of the people, was
altering trade practices in a remarkable manner.
Some of the fire which descended upon Apostolic
heads appeared to have gone beyond to the dealers,
and entered to their consciences— if a conscience could
be found— and there, fragmentary, worm-like, pointed
flames gnawed within. Inducing certain of them
to rise up from their beds in the middle of the night
and rummage out their weights and scales and reform
them. The common people felt the difference, in
both getting a proper price for their produce and the
true returns of the weighing machines. Likewise
they were excused all doctor's bills, and the maladies,
which were confessedly incurable, became amenable
to creative power, exerted on behalf of the formerly
despairing. Moreover they became new men and
women morally, better than they ever had been in
all their lives.

So as the Nazarenes went to and fro in the streets
of the Holy City, it began to answer more truly to its
current cognomen, and men and women turned to
look after them as they passed and lifted up their
voices to bless them.

Little children, all blushes and tremors, would run
up to the Apostles, to pull at their robes and remind

184 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

them of what they had done for them. And when a
gracious Apostle would stoop down to catch the
whispers of a trembling girl holding a skipping rope,
he could make out her happy reminder, '' I was a
cripple and could not walk, and you cured me."

'' My dear little damsel," the Apostle would
reply, '' you are mistaken ; it was Jesus Christ who
cured you, not I." She would stop for a moment,
puzzled, and then skip away, looking back, with
the sacred name on her lips.

At this period the Temple and Synagogue worship
underwent a singular change. The great Courts were
filled ; and instead of formal and weary rites, that
did not penetrate deeper than the clothes of those
present, there were spontaneous chantings of the
Psalms— groups dropping on their knees and identify-
ing themselves with David's repentance and David's
consecration. When the Prophets were read, they
listened as if they had never heard it before. A great
company of the priests became obedient to the
faith. After the fruitful labours of the morning,
the loving and rejoicing company of the faithful
would come together for the Love Feast. This was
the common midday meal, shared to all in proportion
to their several needs. There does not seem to have
been any attempt to solve the gigantic problem
of securing that all should labour in due degree and
be benefited in due proportion and according to
desert. Rewards in the present Industrial Regime
are given in inverse proportion to desert ; and this
contradiction which began with civilisation con-
tinues until now.

The infant Church was not called to begin where
Reformation was least possible, or least urgent, but

THE CHURCH BEFORE TRIBULATION 135

it began to lay the new foundations of faith in the
spiritual nature of man and his relations to God.
That was its finest work. Its after consequences
would lead on inevitably to the second and inferior
issues of the spiritual Genesis. Meantime, and before
the foredoomed failure of a communistic fellowship
(at this immature period of the World's history), the
theme of a true Christian socialism was given out by
twelve trumpeters and their consorts with a power
whose echoes have never died in all subsequent gener-
ations. The Church caught it up and echoed it in the
Monastic Orders, but, as we have already indicated
(in the simile elaborated in regard to the history of the
Christian Church), the theme, failing to preserve its
integrity, became lost in fearful strifes and confusions.
Now it is recovering its truth and genuineness and is
given an assured victory in the latter day.

At this juncture, the common meal was getting
increasingly well attended, and almost daily a new
face appeared from among the priests. The President
of the feast would see with pleasure the face of one,
high up in the Sacerdotal Order, and receiving him
into the community, would ask him to make a con-
fession of his altered attitude. Then would the
Neophyte, as yet unendowed by the gifts of the Spirit,
and not baptized into the Name, would simply avow
that the blood of bulls and goats had never given his
conscience peace, and he had perceived that the
disciples of the Nazarene had undoubtedly secured
that prize— that the crucified Nazarene was the Lamb,
slain before the foundation of the world— the fulfiller
of the Law— the great antitype of the Levitical
Economy. And hence the Messiah, who has already
begun to renovate the world. That, though He him-

136 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

self had not seen Him, twelve accredited witnesses
of His Resurrection from the dead were appointed by
the Lord Himself to proclaim the fact that they had
seen Him ; ate and drank with Him after He rose
from the dead, and he believed their testimony, not
alone on account of their characters and their con-
sistent narrations, but from an inner conviction, born
of heavenly and spiritual impulses that can neither be
gainsaid, nor to the unbelieving explained. Hence
he is ready for Baptism and humbly prays that the
gifts and graces of the Spirit may be conferred upon
him by Apostolic hands. That while it would not
be possible to convince an unbeliever of the truth of
the spiritual impulses that seal decision ; yet any one,
the most hostile and incredulous, could not withstand
the evidences afforded by the miracles, bruited
abroad by hundreds. But further, he had an aged
father who had lost his sight entirely : and one of the
Nazarenes, simply by his touch, had given to this hap-
less student of the Law perfect sight for the smallest
script. Who was he that he could withstand proofs
like these ? "I pray you receive me into your number,
and as soon as may be, let the waters of Baptism
confirm my faith."

At the same holy table, after the meal had been
partaken of, came the offerings of first fruits. These
came in gold and silver— thanksgivings for the healing
of bodily and spiritual maladies, and restitutions for
fraud, or non-fulfilment of vows.

Where the persons could not be found, the restitu-
tion was brought to the common treasury. Those
who could not pay, although they had been very
guilty, the Church frankly forgave, because the Lord
had already forgiven. But such were afflicted by

THE CHURCH BEFORE TRIBULATION 187

remorse and begged to be put upon serviceable,
though forbidding tasks for the benefit of the Common-
weal. In this manner the economic difficulty was
daily surmounted, for with the extension of disciple-
ship, restitutions for laches in fair dealing, and volun-
tary benefactions, there was provided an adequate
revenue for the time being.

And when one considers the thousands of years
during which force and fraud have existed, it is clear
that there are to-day economic reserves, capable
under repentance of satisfying the requirements of an
experiment in communal life on a commanding scale.
For the Rockfellers, Carnegies, Vanderbilts, Morgans,
Mackays, Beits and Rhodes, if they simultaneously
had begun to unite in giving a great example to their
own times in constituting a New Harmony, and infusing
into it the Pentecostal Spirit, the venture would not
fail on its economic side. They would receive divi-
dends cashed in a higher sphere, and would have recom-
mended to their associates in earlier periods of their
careers the abjuring of commercial methods never
forged in Paradise, and atonement by restitutions
would keep the Lord's Table a continual Feast.

For with the extension of the preaching of the King-
dom and the flocking in of disciples, such vast sums
would pour into the Treasury that time would be
given to make the complex provisions requisite to
reconstitute society on a fraternal basis, enabling
nations to fraternise also, and thus commence to lay
up warships for ever, retaining only the cruisers for
pleasure tours over the World.

After the laying down of defrauded acquisitions, the
next stage of the Commonweal would be followed by
the memorial feast of the Founder— the Lord's Supper

188 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

It was always hoped that He might appear visibly at
each commemoration and inaugurate His Messianic
rule, but in any case, He came to the hearts and con-
sciences that loved and believed in Him. They fed
upon Him by faith and love : And the consecrated ele-
ments, distributed in equal proportions to each, pro-
claimed the equal rights and privileges of the Brother-
hood. In solemn silence and with heart-rending
recollections of sins— transferred by faith upon the
sin bearer, they ate and drank His remission of sins
and the tokens of His eternal life — the indefeasible
proofs of God's good-will to man. The Eternal One,
having made bare His heart, and disclosed that it was
an everlasting fire, which consumes every selfish con-
sideration and glowing with unending force for the
disposal of cold aversions and the dispensing of warm
uniting cohesions, cementing humanity to God by the
Incarnation and the Sacrifice of the Son of God.

Thus was the coming Messianic Kingdom being
prepared ; and Jerusalem, like a charmed bird,
escaped from the Isles of the Blessed, was daily preen-
ing its wings as for a further flight, when a man from
Arabia appeared and dashed the lovely prospect to
the ground.

CHAPTER XII.

The Church plunged in Tribulation.

Among the happy company of the believers in the
Christ were seven men selected to relieve the Apostles
of the routine business of making the daily ministra-
tion—a worrying, anxious and invidious task. One
of them, however, acquitted himself so well, and with
such acceptance, that a sunny complaisance shone in
every feature of his countenance and people agreed
that it did them good to look at him. The main
reason of this was of course that he was full of grace
and power, in addition to which he performed great
marvels and signs among the people. Ever busy in
good deeds, being both practical and theological, he
was equally deft in dispatching quickly the business
in hand, and also in meeting scorning and malicious
antagonists, who sought to convict him of being a law
breaker, and guilty of treason and blasphemy. Of
those who distinguished themselves in this manner
were certain members of a so-called Synagogue of
Freedmen, together with some Cyrenians, Alexan-
drians, Cilicians and Asians. They roused themselves
to encounter the deacon in debate, but were quite
unable, however, to resist the wisdom and the Spirit
with which he spoke. Deprived of the power to
achieve a conquest, the discomfited disputants deter-
mined to vent their spleen upon the unassailable
Nazarene. Four different races at least united to
conspire against him, and envy and mortification
worked so zealously that his previous popularity was

140 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

at length overthrown : and led by the Elders and the
Scribes, the people seized him with violence and took
him before the Sanhedrim. Up to that hour the
accused deacon was running a career which was ac-
companied by encouragements and cheers from both
the Church and the World when Stephen (for that
was his name) appeared at the door of the Upper
Room to partake of the Love Feast, and the couches
being crowded, there was a general movement to
give him honour. All greeted him with the utmost
cordiality, for they were hearing continually how
successfully he was defending their cause. Just before
his seizure, however— his last appearance at a true
Agapemone— his radiant face showed expressively an
unusual perturbation ; and when all looked enquir-
ingly at him, he professed openly that one of the
debaters— a young man from Arabia— displayed un-
common power, and pushed his arguments with a
force and vehemence that, were his hidden wisdom
equal to his natural gifts and attainments, he would
have gained a victory. " But of course," said Stephen,
" I was able to show that his ground was untenable,
and that his absence from the scene of the Messiah's
triumphs, during his sojourn in Arabia, was a fatal
disqualification."

This was the last supper of our Lord that Stephen
commemorated, and the memory of it abode with the
disciples as a treasured recall. None could fail to note
that he was lifted up to unwonted levels of intimate
converse with his Master. He presided after the
Love Feast was over and the Supper began. His
hands, presently to be so broken, then brake the bread
and outpoured the wine with such fervoured thanks-
giving that in Him they saw an intimate of His Lord.

THE CHURCH IN TRIBULATION 141

Distributing the sacred emblems to each and all,
the gathering, under the solemn stress, was silent—
remembering Jesus. Only here and there inward
emotion relieved itself by a deep drawn breath, or
stricture in the throat— a release of tense muscular
repression. " I foresee, dear brethren and sisters,"
said he, " that our new and dear fellowship is decreed
to pass under the chastening hand of our God. His
love is always wise and good. Let us adore, if He
comes to purify and purge, blessing the hand whose
dreadful strokes mean our needed rescue and our
better healing. The season of discipline makes us an
example of suffering patience and better fitted to carry
the cross that our Master ever exhorted us to do. He
has set us an example which none of His true followers
can decline to imitate. To die like Ananias and Sapp-
hira (and at this reference a shudder passed through
the assembly) was an admonition given for all after
ages. May our uncomplaining endurance be likewise
a heritage to subsequent generations, showing forth
the completeness of our surrender, body, soul and
spirit, all that we are and have, without pretence and
without reservation of any part, to our Redeemer,
Whose blessed life was the purchase of our own."

" My beloved brethren and sisters, who I foresee are
about to be exposed to the bitterest persecutions at
the hands of the Authorities, determining to stamp
out the Divine fire, which from Heaven descended at
Pentecost ; and is ever after to visit souls and renew
them for the Kingdom— In order that you may be
fortified to bear and endure what the World powers
in these last days will impose to wear out the saints
of the most High— I should count it a privilege if, by
my own example, your hearts should be stayed and

142 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

strengthened under the fires of persecution. Be pre-
pared for loss of property (much you have already
surrendered). Be prepared for loss of health in
wretched dungeons. Be prepared for loss of life,
while the innocent children must be left to the charit-
able care of such members as are not yet accused and
convicted. I have been a disciple for but a few
months, and I should love to do more for the Master
than I have attempted. It matters not. There is
another Jerusalem on High. I doubt not I shall there
be given to serve my Lord better and longer."

The assembled company were filled with painful
apprehensions, and after a hymn had been sung,
Stephen was surrounded by his beloved kin. His
beautiful and benign countenance was irradiated by a
light that was never seen on sea or land. It was re-
membered then, and it shone yet more transcendent-
ally for the last time— amid a howling storm, when
high waves raged to engulf the Church and drove it
upon the Rock of Ages.

When the time arrived for this Household of faith
to separate, young and old accompanied Stephen to
the portal for a fervent farewell, and one and another
signed and whispered to each other, '' Look at him."
He had been known as a child for health and beauty,
but now, to those physical attractions were given that
Heavenly varnish which none can compound or com-
municate, but He only Who regenerates and sanctifies.
Not unlikely his emphatic reference to Moses as an
infant, which he was to make on the morrow, " a
wonderfully beautiful child " (Weymouth) was sug-
gested by the talk of the neighbours when he, as a
child, was playing in the streets. Be that as it may,
Stephen's face was Angelic then, and the family of the

THE CHURCH IN TRIBULATION 143

saints hung upon his shoulders and some gave a " holy
kiss." Then hasting away ; for he was always a busy
man— minding his motto, " Time treads on the heels
of Eternity "--he tore himself away, giving a last
word. " Remember, we must meet again."

Ere he had reached the street, amid the confused
noises that died in the upper air he paused to distin-
guish unaccustomed echoes. There was weeping and
wailing and gnashing of teeth. By one of those sud-
den transitions of feeling, common to Democracies,
the people were assisting the Authorities to hail men
and women to prison, of that sect they were erewhile
lauding. Looking from Mount Moriah and to the
great Tyropoean Valley, spanned by a bridge, there
might be seen men, women and youths, being dragged
to appear before the Sanhedrim, which was in perman-
ent session, essaying to put down heresy and the
threatened permanence of Jewish institutions.

The leading spirit in the futile enterprise was the
young Rabbi from Arabia. He was here, there and
everywhere, advising, commanding and originating
the most efficacious methods to extinguish the upstart
heresy.

Blinded to the evident innocence of his victims and
refusing to listen to the testimonies to the wonderful
signs and wonders, and not less wonderful teachings
of the crucified, he precipitated himself against the
treacherous insinuation that a crucified malefactor
could be the fulfiller of all the Abrahamic promises.
Stephen, as we have seen, had several encounters with
Paul in debate, and the latter was determined to stop
his dangerous influence. So adding terrors to per-
suasions he so wrought upon the Sanhedrim that full
powers were granted to him to bring suspects before

144 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

it, and especially his antagonist who was so well primed
in the past history of the Jewish people, that he
seemed sometimes worsted before a crowd of eager
listeners and sympathisers on both sides. Stephen
could not stop to enquire that night what the wailings
meant ; could not imagine that already a virulent
persecution had started. He was wanted at his dis-
tant abode, and after making his last dispositions for
meeting the unexpected emergency, he took no opium
drops, no mixtures of chloral, no Jewish or Pagan
specifics to drop him into the arms of Morpheus, but
after his vesper supplication and thanksgiving fell
into the strong and tender arms of Him ''Who giveth
His beloved sleep."

That night Stephen was visited by the Angelic
choir, the same choir which was not unknown to Paul,
but which Paul had missed ever since he undertook
to crush the new movement. Stephen knew what it
portended, but on the occasion the ministration was on
a much greater scale, and his heavy eyes, like his
heart : oppressed by foreseen calamities for the
Church, were opened by a shaft of light of excessive
brilliance, accompanied by the sweetest harmonies
that ever ravished mortal ears.

The vision and the voices flew upwards, whence
they came. He knew the ominous, the questionable,
the vanishing comfort. Like the impressive kiss of
trembling relatives, given to a greatly beloved patient
who is going to pass under the surgeon's knife in a
critical operation. But sweet refreshing sleep super-
vened, and Stephen, fed and refitted by slumber, rose
at his usual hour to commence his last day upon earth.

There were some widows of the Hellenistic Jews
who thought that they were being neglected in the

THE CHURCH IN TRIBULATION 145

daily ministration, and his first care that morning was
to find them out and guarantee them due provision.
He was out early. The radiant sun and the gay riot
of the flowers twitched at his heart, while the old
Pagan Pan was whispering " Be gay ! and put away
your Psalms." He paused upon the threshold and felt
its charm - for the sun was evidently determined not
to blink whatever scene of sin and cruelty should be
enacted that day. It was prepared to do the same
in the gardens of Nero, in the streets of Paris, at Black
Bartholomew, and again a whole brilliant summer
during the Reign of Terror. As Stephen took in the
scene, he was possessed by the strange feeling, often
experienced before, that what he was then beholding
was for the last time. He never, however, indulged
in introspective speculations when duty demanded
his active attention. So hastening his steps, he found
he was marching to the sweet refrain that he had
heard during the night, with which old chanting of
the Psalms, words and music, made his breast like a
nest of singing birds.

That fateful day began in the usual way, nature
treading its accustomed round, but ere it had closed
there were cries, moans, shrieks of women, loud crying
of children, solemn protestations, firm avowal of
discipleship, marchings and countermarchings, stalls
in the markets overthrown, carpenters and masons
suspending their clatter, officials in and out of Antonia,
schoolmasters dragged from their pupils and various
priests, actually priests, forsaking the altars, and
secretly joining themselves to the company at Solo-
mon's porch, where the Nazarenes held their rendez-
vous. But these occurrences were slight, in compari-
son with the two great birthdays which neither earth

146 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

nor Heaven shall ever forget. One was to be celebrated
in Heaven, the other began its incipient stages within
the disquieted breast of the Apostle of Christian
Europe.

Stephen was down one narrow lane and up another.
Active, strong, purposeful and feeling that God was
with him. The widows were delighted with his visits,
and wished him a long life.

" Since you came into ofhce things have been quite
different," they said. " May you flourish like a cedar
of Lebanon.'*

He had scarcely emerged from a narrow alley when
he stepped into the head of a disorderly crowd, mar-
shalled by factious fanatics, who were inspired by the
twin Incompatibles— God and Mammon. A number
of malcontents, and they were increasing, beheld with
undisguised apprehension that the spread of the sect
of the Nazarenes meant a serious blow to the flourish-
ing business that was done at Jerusalem, in connection
with the sacrifices enjoined by Moses. The festivals,
the sacrifices, the swarms of Pilgrims, made the centre
of Judaism one of the most busy and profitable mar-
kets in the world. Traders listened with all their ears
and were aghast at the rumours that, according to the
new teachers. One Lamb only was required and that
that One had already been offered up for the sins of
the whole world.

" And what about turtle doves ? " said another.
" My living depends upon selling them.'*

One could not refuse a sympathetic attention to
homely appeals like those. For every changed cus-
tom, like every new invention, bears with cruel insis-
tence upon every father of a family.

" And,*' said the physicians, " we shall have nothing

THE CHURCH IN TRIBULATION 14T

to do ! The Apostles do cures for the asking and
want no pay. Moreover their cures are splendid and
we cannot deny it."

" If we were not, all of us, depending upon buying
and selling'*— began the traders again, and left the
listeners to supply the remainder.

" And if the wise public were not accustomed to
pin their faith upon our learned medical practice,"
broke in the physicians— and left the listeners also to
supply the remainder.

" And," said a recanting Demagogue, " they are
going to give the labourer— the slave— who produces
all the wealth, an equal portion with the masters, who,
of course, are entitled to take all the profits and hand
them down to an idle progeny."

" That," said one, who was an agent of the High
Priest, and was as skilful in rigging the market for
sacrifices, as Cardinal Antonelli when Rome's corn
grew in the States of the Church. " That," said he,
" is what I call turning the world upside down."

All were agreed. " Let us go in a body to the
Sanhedrim and have the plague stopped, once for all."
They became cheerful again. To put an end to
Business, which makes millionaires, and to put an end
to the woes and maladies of mankind, whose attempted
alleviations create the professional expert— In short
to say " Evil thou shalt be my Good," was, in the idea
of the disaffected, to prevent the World righting itself.

As they were consulting together, one of the malcon-
tents in the crowd caught sight of Stephen, bringing
his radiant face to the scowling crowd.

" Look ! here is one of them— a noted one— most
popular man. Not only contends successfully with
the priest party, but does wonderful cures as well.

us THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUOi.

Down with him ! Let us at once bring him before the
Sanhedrim "

So they delayed not. With cruel violence they
dragged him along, and those behind reached their
crooked sticks to have a dab at his face. They t ated
his " smiling mug." Nevertheless, when they dragged
their victim before the court, and he faced the magis-
trates, despite their assaults, that countenance,
serene and triumphant, constrained his enemies to
unwilling admiration. " They saw his face looking
just like the face of an Angel." Then they brought
forward false witnesses, who declared that " This
fellow is incessantly speaking against the Holy Place
and the Law. For we have heard him say that Jesus,
the Nazarene, will pull this place down to the ground
and will change the customs which Moses handed
down to us." (Weymouth.)

At once the eyes of all who were sitting in the
Sanhedrim were fastened upon him, and they saw his
face, as we have said, looking like that of an Angel.

Then the High Priest asked him, " Are these state-
ments true ? "

Then began Stephen his masterly defence. He
required no advocate to plead for him. There was
an Advocate on High, who fed his spirit, fortified his
mind, and kept it agile, informed and substantially
accurate. Stephen seems to have been an Hellenist
and preferred reading the Septuagint, hence un-
important variations from the Hebrew. The Alex-
andrian translation gave five more descendants of
Jacob than the Septuagint recorded to have gone
down to Egypt at Joseph's invitation. What in the
world does it matter so long as they did go more or
less ? The superior young student might benignly

THE CHURCH IN TRIBULATION 149

point out that such variations render the Scriptures
non-authoritative— that the Jews may never have been
in Egypt at all and consequently never came out of
it. Stephen's speech quite unhistorical and the whole
of the Acts not more trustworthy. But if there were
only five living Jews who annually kept the Passover,
the callous critic would find it difficult to explain the
celebration.

Stephen's grand sketch of his national history was
done in Michael Angelo fashion. Not with finical
anatomical pencil, but with a burnt stick and sweeping
lines as the figure of Moses dawned upon his imagin-
ation. Similarly Stephen dealt with blocks of marble
—massive divisions of time-enduring Covenants,
immovable foundations. The solidarity of mankind,
the national destinies, irreversible judgments, to be
resolved subsequently in God's eternal decrees of
mercy and universal salvation. Meantime God is
never in a hurry ; though the event that marks the
epoch is delayed by centuries, it looms with cometary
certainty, while generations die, like the Hebrews
did, " in faith, not having received the promises, but
having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them
and embraced them, and confessed that they were
strangers and Pilgrims on the earth, declaring that
plainly they seek and desire a better country, that is
Heavenly : wherefore God is not ashamed to be
called their God, for He hath prepared for them a
city."

Stephen, with his masterly strokes, outlined the
head of the Hebrew race, listening to God's voice,
which is music, and the overture commenced. " Leave
your country, and your relatives, and come into what-
ever land I point out to you." The entrancing strains

150 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

of the overture caught the attention even of the mob ;
for the story was the marrow of the bones of the chosen
people.

Another great strophe. " He gave him no inherit-
ance in it. No ! not a single square yard of ground ;
and yet He promised to bestow the land as a per-
manent possession on him and his posterity after
him, and promised this at a time when Abraham was
childless.

Then Stephen, with Michael Angelo's pencil, went
on with his great downward stroke. " And God
declared (Calvin's God, who makes the Duck and
the Duke, and gives to the one the village pool
and to the other a great estate). God declared
that Abraham's posterity should for four hundred
years make their home in a country not their
own, and be reduced to slavery and be oppressed."
Now a strong upward stroke. " And the nation,
which ever it is, that enslaves them, I will judge,
said God, and afterwards they shall come out,
and they shall worship ISIe in this place."

Within these great outlines, Stephen then began
to fill in details. The patriarchs, Joseph, Pharaoh,
and he who knew not Joseph, Moses— a wonderfully
beautiful child, devoted to dcbtiuction, but adopted
by Pharaoh's daughter, living in luxury for forty
years, and then beginning to look into the conditions
of his enslaved kindred, while the seemingly dull
ears of Jehovah could not be pleased by their groans
or their cries for justice. How another block of time
intervenes to delay the redemption of God's chosen,
while Moses loses forty years in Midi an. Slow and
majestic being the steps of the Deliverer, though
He is always on the way towards the assured end.

THE CHURCH IN TRIBULATION 151

Stephen then made the people see the burning bush
and heard God's Angel say, " I am the God of your fore-
fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob."

Quaking with fear, Moses did not dare gaze :

" Take off your shoes," said the Lord, '' for the
spot on which you are standing is holy ground.
I have seen, yes ! I have seen the oppression of My
people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groans,
and I have come down to deliver them. And now
I will send you to Egypt."

It was an old man, 80 years of age, whose possi-
bilities for a great career in Egypt were foregone,
whom God summoned to a career— the greatest but
one that was ever accomplished in the history of
mankind.

The proud land of his infancy, which witnessed
his youthful supremacy, he shook to its social foun-
dations, merely by a wand, and he brought out his
enslaved kindred to the land promised to their great
Ancestor. But the Overruling Power, with sovereign
contempt for rushing predictions into speedy fulfil-
ments, made the chosen people dwell and wander in
the desert for 40 years — a fine interval for separation
from the world, and opportunity for the giving of
the law, and the worship of Jehovah, and the practical
proofs of God's shepherding, when the manna daily
fed His flock. It was to Moses that the angel spoke
on Mount Sinai, giving to Stephen's forefathers those
ever living utterances to hand on to them.

This is the Moses who said to the descendants of
Israel :

" God will raise up a Prophet for you, from among
your brethren, juntas He raised me up,'' (Deuteronomy
xviii. 15 — 18.).

152 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Stephen's argument was that just as when faithful
Moses, beholding an Egyptian wrongfully dealing
with an Israelite, and inflicting a divinely authorised
stroke of judgment upon the oppressor, could not
get the people to recognise that he was appointed
to become their Deliverer ; and also refused, a second
time, to allow Moses to interfere — So the very people
who most wanted his aid, despised and rejected
his overtures. And what they had begun to do in
Egypt they had been doing ever since.

When delivered from Egypt they would not submit
to Moses, but spurned his authority, and in their
hearts turned back to Egypt. They made a golden
calf and offered a sacrifice to it, and kept rejoicing in
the gods which their own hands had made. So God
turned from them and gave them up to the worship
of the Host of Heaven, and bade Amos tell them,
*' I will remove you beyond Babylon " (Amos v.
25-27).

The people who sucked in the flattering tale of
Jehovah's adoption, covenant and promises ; and
the romantic episodes of Israel's captivity and
deliverance through Moses, were patient and pleased.
But a darkening cloud fell upon the eager listeners
when faithful Stephen was required to go on with his
narrative, and expose the deplorable departures that
Israel had made, and which entailed their exile to
Babylon.

They began to be restive and the Sanhedrim itself
began to be disturbed.

But still more to aggravate them, Stephen turned
to the other gravamen of the charge against him.
He had been preaching that Moses had been rejected,
and exhorting them not to commit the same error in

THE CHURCH IN TRIBULATION 153

rejecting the Lord Jesus, who is the prophet whom
Moses declared should follow him and whom they
should acclaim and joyfully receive.

But the Lord Jesus had made it clear that devotion
to the Temple and the Temple services were obscuring
the popular apprehensions of that God Who is a
Spirit, and requires that men should worship Him
in spirit and in truth. Moreover He had predicted
that the splendid edifice would be overthrown.

So there was truth in the allegations made. ** We
have heard him say that Jesus, the Nazarene, will
pull this place down to the ground and will change
the customs which Moses handed down to us."
Hence Stephen proceeded to justify himself, and
said in effect, " Don't you know that this great
Temple was not exactly the same as the Tabernacle
in the desert, which was originally framed after an
exact model given to Moses to copy." That Tent
of the testimony in the desert was built as He Who
spoke to Moses had instructed him. It was bequeathed
to the next generation. Under Joshua they brought
it with them, when they were taking possession of
the land of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before
them. So it continued till David's time.

Now David did not receive any command to build
a Temple. The sacred and venerable Tent, where
God manifested Himself habitually, assuredly an-
swered all the purposes required. It was only a
human scheme— innocent, if not laudable, but not
obligatory.

" David asked leave," said Stephen, " to provide
a dwelling-place for the God of Jacob," but he was
not allowed. It was Solomon who built a house —
not in obedience to a Divine command, but by per-

154 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

mission, as a favour to David. '* For the Most High
does not dwell in buildings erected by men's hands ;
but as the Prophet declares.

" The sky is my throne,

" And earth is the footstool for My feet.

" What kind of house will you build for Me, says
the Lord.

*' Or, what resting-place shall I have ?

" Did not My hand form this Universe ?

(Isaiah Ixvi. 1, 2, R.V.)

It was at this point, evidently, that Stephen's
address was broken into. The gathering frowns
deepened into rage and hatred. Stephen would have
gone on to draw the inevitable conclusion that the
Temple was really unnecessary for religious purposes ;
although serving excellently by its festivals to give
national cohesion to the tribes.

" No temple ! the idea ! the monstrous innovation !
No market gains " ! " Now the thief is showing him-
self in his true colours." The vendor of lambs looked
at the vendor of turtle doves and they ground their
teeth in sympathy. The doctor and the apothecary
naturally enough, dreading the loss of their practice,
would like to pound him in a pestle and mortar. No
doubt, the man from Arabia was also among them,
raising not trade or professional objections, but the
danger to the whole family of nations, were the heirs
of Abraham, through disobedience, to forfeit the
Covenanted blessing entrusted to them for the world.

Cries and muttered curses arose among the assem-
blage, presaging his own immediate doom. And
Stephen cried out. " O, stiff-necked men, uncircum-
cised in heart and ears, you also are continually at
strife with the Holy Spirit, just as your forefathers

THE CHURCH IN TRIBULATION 155

were. Which of the Prophets did not your fore-
fathers persecute ? Yes ! they killed those who an-
nounced beforehand the advent of the Righteous One,
Whose betrayers and murderers you have now become,
you who received the Law given through Angels and
yet have not obeyed it."

As they listened to these words, they became in-
furiated and gnashed their teeth at him. But full
of the Holy Spirit and looking up to Heaven, Stephen
saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at God*s
right hand, and said, " Behold, I see the Heavens
opened, and the Son of man standing on the right
hand of God." Then they cried out with a loud voice,
and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one
accord and dragged him out of the city.

The whole proceedings, from the moment when
Stephen undertook to challenge the essential pre-
eminence of the Temple, became a riot of mob law.
The murder which Plebs was meditating had, however,
the consent of Paul, who was ready to aid and abet
the criminals in spite of Roman Law, which reserved
the right of capital punishment to itself.

No doubt the future Apostle stimulated the passions
already aroused, and many would come to him for
direction and encouragement.

It was the privilege of the first witness to a convic-
tion for blasphemy to be given the honour of hurling
the first stone : or, in a more deliberate execution of
the sentence, a tall platform was erected, upon the top
of which the malefactor was placed, and the first
witness was to throw him headlong upon the rocks
below. If the injuries were seen not to be fatal, the
second witness was provided with a heavy stone to
dash down upon the chest of the criminal.

156 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

If life still remained (for Rabbinical law was gener-
ally inspired by mercy) the encircling crowd was per-
mitted, any or every one, to finish the miserable work
by a shower of stones from all directions.

Amid the irregular tumult, we can suppose that
many picked up heavy stones as they dragged their
victim along, and numbers of zealous youths would
gather round Paul, competing with each other to give
the premier coup. " I was close by him, I am a first
witness, and heard him speak the words." Another
would impatiently shove this one aside, and swear
that he himself was much nearer than anyone. A
third would come forward to claim to be second wit-
ness anyhow.

The beautiful countenance of Stephen, irradiated
by Heaven's light, and flushed with youthful vigour,
and from childhood practiced in temperance and
virtue, doubtless would draw from Paul the remark,
or the reflection, " You will all have a chance ; for
it will take some time to batter life out of a man like
that." It was easy to find a quarry at hand. Herod
was a great builder and the cities of the Empire were
increasing. *' Let us drag him up to this ledge and
cast him down " ! No sooner said than done, but
the youth, nursing his heavy stone, in his eagerness,
missed his footing, just at the top, and fell the full
height to the bottom, his blood and brains bespattering
the rocks.

*' He's done for," is the ejaculation of the crowd.
" Did any one know him ? " No one !— only a man.

" Well, now to our duty. The Most High has
summoned us." The amateur executioners threw off
their outer garments, to wield their arms with freedom,
and they cast them at the feet of their leader, Paul.

THE CHURCH IN TRIBULATION 157

They raised Stephen in their arms and flung him
over, a great shout of triumph rising up from the
pious multitude.

It was a lovely day, and, mingled with the songs of
robins, blackbirds and thrushes, there arose execra-
tions, maledictions and gratulations. Such clouds
as were in the Heavens sat swan-like upon a sea of
blue : motionless, and with such smooth preened
pinions that they were images of peace and repose.

But the executioners were clambering down as
fast as they could to the prostrate figure whose
Umbs stirred. And the second witness was struggling
through to cast his stone. The crowd, however, could
not restrain its bloodthirstiness, and a shower of
stones fell, so badly aimed that more spectators
were injured than the victim. Those that bent over
him heard him say continually, '' Lord Jesus, receive
my Spirit.*' The second witness, seeing Stephen
struggling to his knees and beholding that beautiful
countenance gashed by wounds and soil, threw his
stone away and rapidly retired behind. While the
Martyr, summoning strength for a final effort and
erectly kneeling, cried with a loud voice :

" Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." And
when he had said this, he fell asleep. '' And Paul
fully approved of his murder."

CHAPTER XIII.

Paul's Conversion.

Paul's conscience was in no wise shocked by the
murder of the Protomartyr.

As when the sun bursts forth in strength and ob-
hterates the dehcate diversities of colour which a
cloud reveals, even so the natural susceptibility
of Paul's conscience was at this time dulled, blunted
and blinded by a consuming fire of zeal which he
mistook for the love of God and the highest interests
of humanity.

To calm his uneasiness he kept repeating to himself
his creed. The Jews were the people to redeem the
world. Every corruption of the Faith, any departure
from the customs laid down by Moses, was imperilling
the future fortunes of mankind. One martyr, or a
hundred, nay, a thousand, was not to be counted as
compared with the magnitude of the interests at
stake ; hence, not a touch of remorse disturbed his
perception of duty, although he was fain to deplore
the complete absence of his sweet voices, which ever
and anon caressed his peaceful slumbers.

After unrefreshing nights, haunted by Stephen's
reproachful looks, he would earnestly pray, but his
prayers got no higher than the ceiling. And the
olden warmth that used to lie about his heart, like
a nestling dove sent from Heaven to be cherished —
that, too, had left him, leaving him cold, irresolute
and un befriended.

PAUL'S CONVERSION 159

Ah, Paul ! Paul ! What seed sowing for after
remorse you are busily intent upon. Why did you,
when you caught a glimpse of Gamaliel, turn down
a blind alley to escape him, muttering to himself,
" He's too mild." How is it you were not smitten
by shame and abhorrence when the loud lamentation
made by devout men carrying Stephen to the burial
struck your ear ? and that you only perceived with
anger and vexation that the number of the followers
of the heretical sect did not diminish but seemed
to increase. The more need for more zeal. Therefore
he hastened to the Temple, flung himself down for
stronger consolations, and fortifying succours. All
was unavailing. The snows of Lebanon, not the
warmth of Hermon, gathered in his vacant breast.
His resolution to continue to persecute was unshaken.
He was cool and hard as the Temple pavement.
But again disquietude. He never had such question-
able assurance of duty in all his life before. " Am
I on the wrong tack after all ? " he questioned.
It was only for a moment. The Sanhedrin, his vener-
able Fathers, Gamaliel among them, had consented
to give him letters even to the Synagogues of Da-
mascus. They have all consented. I am fortified
by these learned Doctors. I am justified by the
success by which my persecution has been attended.
The pestiferous sect are being scattered abroad
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. " I
verily thought with myself that I ought to do many
things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth "
(Acts xxvi. 9), but he reflected, " Unhappily the
Apostles remain."

Pacing the pavement in his soliloquy, he muttered
his reflections. *' Somehow the Sanhedrim cannot be

160 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

prevailed upon to touch them, at all events for the
present.

" I never met any of them and never saw any
of their wonderful cures, nor those of the Malefactor,
on account of my absence in Arabia. It is just as
well. I might have been seduced. If the Pretender
now had worked a miracle in my own person, it
would have been rather confounding, but happily
he is gone off the scene. He and I shall never meet.
Now to duty. I shall do what I can and the best I
can." So Paul made havoc of the Church, entering
into every house and haling men and women, com-
mitted them to prison— with a consequence that Paul
neither desired nor anticipated. " They that were
scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the
Word." : i

Philip, at all events, one of the Deacons, was
able to convince the Samaritans by the miracles he
worked. In the proclamation of the Gospel and
the acceptance of it, there was from the com-
mencement the strictest alliance between miracle
working and the making of disciples. "' With a
loud cry foul spirits came out of many possessed
by them, and many paralytics and lame persons
were restored to health. And there was great joy
in that city." It was inevitable that the arch enemy
of Christ should empower his slaves to become
magicians and thaumaturgists. One Simon was such
and made a great sensation. Philip's preaching and
signs and wonders eclipsed Simon's altogether ;
hence he feigned faith and was baptised, being full
of amazement at such signs and such great miracles
performed.

Some of these tidings must have reached his

PAUL'S CONVERSION 161

ears ; nevertheless, Paul pursued his fatuous course,
imagining to scatter the disciples of *' The Way " that
might be found at Damascus.

An uneasy conscience made him restless and the
dying face of Stephen would haunt him. And the
comparative failure in Palestine induced him to seek
better success in Syria. So " Paul, yet breathing
out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples
of the Lord, went unto the High Priest and desired
of him letters to Damascus to the Synagogues, that
if he found any of that way, whether they were
men or women, he might bring them bound unto
Jerusalem *' (Acts ix. 1, 2).

He had already " beaten in every synagogue
them that believed on the Lord *' (Acts xxii. 19),
and " Many of the saints did he shut up in prison,
having received authority from the Chief Priests,
and when they were put to death, gave his voice
against them " (Acts xxvi. 10). *' And punished
them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to
blaspheme ; and being exceedingly mad against them,
persecuted them even unto strange cities " (Acts
xxvi. 11).

What an outset for a career ! His first important
self-appointment was to seek powers to become a
public informer, and to imbrue his hands in innocent
blood, the best men and women whose faith was
boldly avowed and saints who sought to add to their
own number.

How could a man, sincerely pious, so mistake his
voices as to imagine that such work in which he
plunged up to the elbows could be pleasing to the God
of Israel. The God who put up with the vain imagin-
ations of the Heathen for hundreds of generations.

162 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

and who suffered the provocations of His chosen, who
had been given light, direction and leadership, in the
wilderness and afterwards, and yet did not forswear
His gracious purposes, and was so slow to punish,
so long-suffering towards all, though they so deeply
offended His purity. His justice and His mercy.
Here was Paul, worse than the heathen ; for they had
the grace to imitate their gods, flying in the face of
Israel's God, who declared Himself as '' The Lord, the
Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and
abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for
thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression and
sin, but that will by no means clear the guilty.

Paul was to know the severity as well as the mercy
of that God, when he was stoned as Stephen was, and
it was by that mercy that his apparently lifeless body
at Lystra arose miraculously and marched unaided
back to the city which imagined him dead.

The God of Israel and the Father of Jesus, the same
in all ages, never authorized or exampled the religious
persecutor. He was ever as impartial as an Imperial
Caesar— in the matter of Cults. It is when the Cults
become cruel, as in Baal worship, when the natural
light imparted to every human creature is darkened
and denied, then does the Father in Heaven act as the
Avenger of manifest transgression, and vindicates
justice, love and innocent joy.

It has ever been a cheap charge against the religion
of Jesus that the world has been deluged by innocent
blood in the cause of religion, when, as a matter of the
clearest historical fact and content of Divine revela-
tion, that all the religious wars that were ever unjustly
waged were occasioned, not by the aggressors possess-
ing a certain religious faith, but because they possessed

PAUL'S CONVERSION 168

no religious faith at all. The God of Israel drove the
Canaanites out of their land, not because of their idol
Cult, but on account of their abominations. And
when Papal Rome invented the Spanish Inquisition,
and used Alva to incarnadine the levels of Holland and
the heights of Savoy and Lombardy and quenched
Bohemian Protestantism in blood, it was not because
the aggressors were filled with the spirit of the Christ-
ian faith, but because the Roman Catholic faith in
these instances had no religion in it. Those so-called
*' religious " wars were simply heathen abominations,
on the side of the aggressors, while the aggrieved,
acting on the defensive, were Christian martyrs.
Cromwell was a Christian Martyr in Ireland, acting
for the aggrieved, in legitimate defence against wanton
murder.

Islamism, having the sword in its creed and using
it for conversion, is not properly a religion at all, for
religion, in its elemental foundations, is love to God
and love to man. None of the religious wars of Islam
have any apology in plea of faith, and as they have
never been defensive, but all aggressive (for the expul-
sion of the Moors from Spain was simply repelling
invaders) Islam, with its conquering sword, will law-
fully and speedily have to meet the Christian sword
in pure defence.

So it is idle to take up the Atheist's brief, and argue
from his false premises. The magistrate is invested
with a sword, and woe be to him if he does not use it.
Let it be admitted that legislative enactments for the
abridgment of religious freedom in favour of a national
religion is equivalent to wielding the sword ; all the
Christian powers are slowly endeavouring to solve the
difficult problem— how to give perfect religious free-

164 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

dom, without compromising the safety and welfare
of their respective kingdoms. To tolerate Roman
Catholicism, whose essence is intolerance. To tolerate
Islam, e.g., in India and Egypt, whose essential prin-
ciple is conversion by the sword. These are questions
demanding the highest statesmanship. It may be
soon necessary for religion, incapable of possessing a
sword, to borrow that of the magistrate : for in truth
man ecclesiastically, and man civilly has to be de-
fended in both positions.

But while we are discussing, Paul is marshalling his
entourage. An Inquisitor General ! bound upon the
sorriest errand that a young man with, what
ought to be the generous sympathies of youth, the
least congenial task he could have undertaken. He is
bound to inflict suffering and death, and the extent
of that misery will be the measure of his gratification in
the result. Days, weeks and months have brought
mourning, lamentation and woe to the sect in Jeru-
salem since he returned from Arabia. And now as he
mounts a horse, or a camel, or walks, the same scow-
ling brow marks his facial signature. He leaves the
city, and the cries that tremble in the air are due to the
fulfilment of his agents. His attention is now given
to the sumpter mule.

" " How many thrumb-screws ? How many
scourges ? " he enquires.

" The Rabbis, sir, have given the manufacturers the
merciful prescriptions."

" Humph " ! says Paul, " Gamaliel again."

The distance is some hundred-and-forty miles and
the slow ascent to the spurs of Lebanon makes Paul
impatient to commence his bloody work, but he is
relieved next day to see the white houses and Govern-

PAUL'S CONVERSION 165

ment buildings gleaming through dark, embossoming
groves of trees which came from climates varying
from the tropics to Arctic snows.

The noon-day sun was brilliant enough and hot
enough. The cavalcade paced along and the atten-
dants and officials could not start a roundelay for the
life of them. No one had any real joy in the job.
The muleteer got engaged to go to Damascus, to see his
sister, who was one of the " Way," and he means to
protect her. He is the only man with a smile on his
face. Even the five Roman soldiers, who were his
escort, had no stomach for the business. To bind and
scourge and imprison, tender and pious women and hear
them invoking the aid of their Lord while they sink
under the lash, or meekly offer their necks to the
sword. What sort of man is at the head of this ex-
pedition ? Yes ! the sentiment in their breasts gave
vocal utterance in the enquiry. " What sort is this
Governor ? " they whispered it to each other. Oh I
glancing furtively at him, while Paul was busily
hunting up his warrants, they answered to them-
selves, '' He is not a man at all, he has no bowels."

Meantime, solid Damascus began to quaver in the
heat. Tinkling rills dance daintily among ambrosial
banks and gaudy flies flit and pause upon the open
roses. The lovely old city was getting young again,
under the abounding sunshine.

You do right, Damascus! to put on your bridal
attire, for your name is about to be wedded to all
but the greatest of the sons of men. The cities of
Greece contended for the birthplace of a Poet, but
in thee was to take place the new birth of the greatest
Apostle of the Lord. In thee the greatest epoch, after
Bethlehem, in the old world's history was destined

166 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

to take place. All things were ready. The Roman
Empire was settled and bounding on in prosperity.
Grecian thought and Grecian phrase had supplied
the world with a language which could express the
mysteries of the Gospel. Roman Law had given
protection to the mysterious predictions of the
Hebrew prophets, and was ready to shield any
victim of malicious persecution, who commended
and ever rendered obedience to Caesar. Roman roads
went on marching to the furthest Imperial confines.
Banditti and piracy were being suppressed. The
posts were carried with unwonted safety and masters
and slaves alike were free to adopt any Cult which did
not prejudice the strength and harmony of the existing
order.

Nothing was wanting but the Apostle to the Gen-
tiles.

The cavalcade was approaching nearer to that
city which bordered the desert and made it blossom
like the rose. Damascus joined East to West ; it
was the golden clasp which kept the girdle of two
ancient civilisations. It was fitting that the birth-
place of Gentile Christianity should take place
there.

What was that ? The cavalcade was tumbled
upon the ground and Paul's horse was careering
over the plain. He was violently thrown and rolled
upon his back ; his warrants scattered in the dust.
A door of Heaven had been opened, and while his
natural vision perished, under excess of light, Spirit-
ual eyes were given him which for the first time
penetrated into the Eternal World and there he
beheld the Messiah in His glory. The anticipation
of that glory which made Peter babble under the

PAUL'S CONVERSION 167

intoxication of that dream, now fully blgized in its
perfection upon the fallen Paul. That sight— that
wondrous compelling sight— was the future theme
of all his preaching ; and the single fact and fulcrum
by which mighty Christendom arose and rested im-
movably for ever.

From the excellent glory came a voice, speaking
in the Hebrew tongue. " Saul ! Saul ! why persecutest
thou Me : it is hard for thee to kick against the
goad." The awe-struck persecutor replied : " Who
art Thou, Lord ? " And He said : " I am Jesus,
Whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand upon
thy feet ; for I have appeared unto thee for this
purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness,
both of the things which thou hast seen, and of
those things in the which I will appear unto thee.
Delivering thee from the people, and from the
Gentiles, unto whom I send thee. To open their
eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and
from the power of Satan unto God, that they may
receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among
them which are sanctified by faith that is in me "
(Acts xxvi. 13—18).

Oh, what wondrous Love ! instead of Judgment.
And the complete identification of the Lord Jesus
with His people. *' Why persecutest thou Me ? "

** And when I could not see for the glory of that
Light, being led by the hand of them that were with
me, I came unto Damascus " (Acts xxii. 11). Thus
St. Paul to King Agrippa in one of his frequent
narrations of his Conversion.

We return to further details.

As Daniel, on the banks of the Tigris, heard alone
the voice and the vision (Daniel x. 7), but a great

168 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

quaking fell upon the men with him— so was it with
Paul's escort : they were dumb with amazement,
hearing a sound, but seeing no one. Then he rose
from the ground ; but when with opened eyes, he
strove to see, he could not. So they led him by the
arm, and brought him to Damascus.

There was something on his other arm, which his
guides and attendants could not see. In the arcana
of Heaven's workshops a basket had been framed to
equip the Imperial Seed Sower, carrying precious
seed. The Heavenly Host, ere the door was shut,
dropped this basket upon his arm, and admiringly
beheld " A sower going forth to sow."

Many years afterwards, Paul was pawing the waves,
spending a day and a night in the deep. He had
planted many churches and written several Epistles,
and earnestly desired to visit Rome and also Spain.
" Is he to drown ? " No ! It was the Heavenly Seed
Basket that supported him. It was his Life Belt.
" I charge ye winds and waves that ye hurt not my
Beloved Messenger ! " The winds and waves heard.
Presently, in the offing, appeared a Cypriote fishing
smack, and the beloved one was pulled in by his best
arm— the strong arm— that bare the basket. To return.

They brought him to Damascus. "And for three
days he remained without sight, and did not eat or
drink anything " (Acts ix. 9).

Leaving Paul to his meditations, we may profitably
consider the example he has given us of fasting as
a preparation for seed sowing.

The modern Protestant Christian has completely
ignored the example of the early Church, and the
implied sanction of Our Lord in the matter of abstin-
ence. The earliest disciples, when seeking direction

PAUL'S CONVERSION 169

from above, prepared themselves by fasting in con-
junction with prayer. The modern Christian may be
a gross feeder, who plants his banknote at a charity
dinner, and finds a difficulty in discovering the menu^
which he saw a moment ago, because of the orbital
prominence of his abdomen. Though a Baptist he
takes no heed of that John who dieted himself on
locusts and wild honey. Now there is, notwith-
standing, an intimate connection between the
successful sowing of Gospel Seed and the visions,
revelations and spiritual guidance vouchsafed to
the f asters rather than to the feeders.

It was when the Prophets and Teachers of the
Infant Church at Antioch, " ministered to the Lord,
and fasted, the Holy Ghost said. Separate me
Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have
called them. And when they had fasted and prayed,
and laid their hands on them, they sent them away "
(Acts xiii. 1—3).

Fasting and prayer are commonly united in the
Scriptures and commended for individual or assembled
worship. Our Lord fasted for 40 days, as a prepara-
tion for His public ministry. He said that certain
Demonic possession necessitated fasting with prayer,
before the demon could be exorcised. Anna the
prophetess served God with fasting and prayers,
and our Lord said that those who fasted secretly
would be rewarded openly.

Common-sense and medical science alike approve
of fasting in due degree, since the error of intemper-
ance in eating is scarcely less injurious than the
same in drinking. That the soul is made more
attent, perceptive, and receptive during fasting
than in feeding will scarcely be doubted (although

170 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

moderate feeding also stimulates the faculties ;
hence our Lord introduced His parables at meal
times).

St. Paul recommended the Church at Corinth to
give itself to fasting and prayer, and the reason why
the disciples of our Lord were absolved from the
salutary practice was explained by the Lord Himself.
The Bridegroom was with them, and constant attend-
ance upon Him, and hearing Him, brought them
nearer than fasting and prayer.

If the modern Protestant Christian mourns the
lukewarmness of the Church and the low flame of
love and loyalty within his own breast, let him fast
hard and pray hard. Then, not only will his health
be promoted, but he will also have clearer views of
his duty to God and man and perchance be given
visions and vocies which the gross walls of flesh
cannot penetrate.

Wisely did St. Paul abstain from eating and
drinking during those days : waiting what the Lord
would further say to him in darkness and solitude.
What an awful period after his debauch of madness
and cruelty against "the salt of the earth." Running
in remembrance over his recent career— one which
could never be undone or repaired— with what keen
remorse must his soul have been afflicted. All the
tragic scenes— wives, mothers, bread-winners dragged
from their homes, the judges hearing his inflamed
harangues against them, brow-beating the witnesses,
who would seek to extenuate the guilt of discipleship,
to God manifest in the flesh. Denouncing those
witnesses as nearly as guilty as themselves, and
then the witnesses openly confessing that they
are equally guilty and equally ready to suffer. Paul,

PAUL'S CONVERSION 171

seized with passion, getting them roped in for con-
demnation, and giving his vote against them. This,
then, forsooth, was the issue of the heavenly choir—
that Hke the lark would sing at Heaven's gate, and
in his ears at night, but anon would spread its wings
and hie away. These dumb premonitions of a great
career by which the whole world would be affected.

And he had begun it by imbruing his hands in
innocent blood and making for himself a name at
which the world of Jerusalem grew pale.

But amidst his wretched contemplations, he was
sustained by the wondrous and gracious interven-
tion, not in the way of just retribution, but in the
way of mercy, acceptance and adoption— not merely
adoption, but signal favour and appointment to
Apostleship. What deeps of unfathomable love,
manifested by Him Whom he had been persecuting,
for Jesus identifies Himself with all His followers.
In one flash a new Paul had been created. Old things
passed away and all things had become new. He
had seen and believed. He had seen the Lord, with
his blinded eye-balls, but his new spiritual eyes
were nevermore to be dimmed. His qualification for
the Apostleship was henceforth indefeasible. Not
only had he seen, but heard, though, according to
the economy of miracle and special revelations,
further abnormal communications of the Divine will
were to be confined to human agency.

To the great honour of men, to men the transforma-
tion of the world is committed. As a human father
stands aside and refuses to lend a hand, when his
son is struggling with his task, because left to himself,
he will discover his shortcomings, and by his efforts
then be rewarded— so does the Chief Ruler of all the

172 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Apostles. " What shall I do ? " cried Paul, and
wanted a full reply from the Lord Himself, but the
reply was, " Rise and go to the City, and you will be
told what you are to do " (Acts ix. 6, 7).

" Stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you,
for this very purpose to appoint you My servant,
and My witness, both as to the things you have
already seen and as to those in which I will appear
to you, delivering you from the Jewish people and
from the Gentiles, to whom I send you to open their
eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light
and from the obedience to Satan to God, in order to
receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among
those who are sanctified through faith in Me "
(Acts xxvi. 16-18).

" He bid me stand upon my feet," Paul would
reflect, "not to be bound hand and foot and cast into
the outer darkness," but to be sent to recant all
his avowals and to place himself helpless into the
hands of those whom he had so shamefully wronged.
He is to turn the Gentiles from darkness into Light.
Is his own darkness to be removed ? How can he
study the Law and the Prophets without eyes ?

Now at Damascus there was a disciple of the name
of Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision,
saying, " Ananias I" He answered, '' I am here. Lord."
" Rise," said the Lord, " and go to Straight Street
and inquire at the house of Judas for a man called
Saul, from Tarsus, for he is actually praying. He
has seen a man called Ananias come and lay his
hands upon him so that he may recover his sight."
Ananias answered, " Lord, I have heard about that
man from many and I have heard of the great mis-
chief he has done to Thy people in Jerusalem, and

PAUL'S CONVERSION 178

here he is authorised by the High Priest to arrest all
who call upon Thy name." The Lord replied, " Go,
he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name
to the Gentiles and to Kings and to the descendants
of Israel. For I will let him know the great sufferings
which he must pass through for My sake."

So Ananias went and entered the house, and laying
his two hands upon Saul, said, "Brother Saul, the
Lord, even Jesus, who appeared to you on your
journey, has sent me that you may recover your
sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Instantly
there dropped from his eyes what seemed to be
scales, and he could see once more. Upon this, he
rose and received Baptism ; after which he took food
and regained his strength (Acts ix. 10 — 19,
Weymouth).

Paul's appointment to the Apostleship was thus
then and there ratified by a hitherto unknown dis-
ciple, who was made the instrument of opening the
blind eyes. Three miracles— vision, blindness, re-
covery. Now it is important to remember that the
whole establishment of Christianity was effected
through miracle. Neither Jesus Christ nor His teach-
ing would have been heeded apart from His own mir-
aculous personality and His mighty works.

" John Baptist did no miracle," and that the fact
that he did no miracle was the convincing proof that
Jesus did. There were in Palestine precisely the
same conditions that prevailed when our Lord worked
miracles, the same desire to witness siefns and wonders,
the same challenges thrown out to give evidence that
He was a Prophet sent from God, and yet the Lord's
precursor could give no satisfaction, and never pre-
tended to essay it. There were disciples who wanted

174 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

their faith confirmed and, if any miracle were effected
by John Baptist's hands, the number of behevers
would have been greatly increased and the renown of
their master would be immensely augmented. What
more striking and incontrovertible fact in support of
Christ's miracles than the testimony of John's own
disciples that their master could do none.

The same eager and credulous crowd roamed after
John and roamed after Jesus, but the results in each
case were accurately different. John's disciples in-
genuously declared that their master had no such
power, while those who followed Jesus were astonished
above measure at the frequency and power of the
miracles worked by the Master and by His disciples
in His name.

There are three outstanding miracles which have
come down to our own times. Three which can be
tested every day, and which can be witnessed every
hour, (a) The miracle of creation, (b) The miracle
of the living Christ and (c) the miracle of the Holy
Spirit and the Human Temples which He inhabits.

The first is made the ground of all other. Yet no
one can explain it, otherwise than by miracle. Reason
can offer no solution— it has to be accepted, and if the
Author of Creation has created this stupendous uni-
verse, Is He not capable of expressing His will in more
ways than one ? We shall recur to this anon.

The second : The miracle of the Living Christ is as
demonstrable as the first. Weights and scales and
measurements are not indeed applicable to the tests
of spiritual realities, but proof is found by the
witnesses who concur in alleging the same things,
without collusion, all over the world where the Gospel
is received. New experiences, a new power and a new

PAUL'S CONVERSION 175

aim are created, and this identity of witness-bearing
to positive truths, estabHsh the facts as evidently as
any material things with which all men are acquainted.
The Living Christ is known and felt within.

The third. The Holy Spirit and His indwelling is
provable in the same manner as the preceding.

The office of the Son of God is above. His inter-
cession, His Rule and governance at the right hand
of His Father, pleading the merits of His Incarnation.
His Cross and Passion, and ceaselessly shepherding
His people, as His Divine Kingdom extends. The
Holy Spirit is Christ's continued presence in the
human temples, whom the Lord redeemed to be His
purchased possession. The reality of that is no less
evident than the objects with which men are assured
but by their senses.

" Show us the Father," was the constant prayer of
the disciples. They were ultimately convinced that
Christ was God, and with regard to the promised Para-
clete, the gifts, new and unheard of, came with such
power and were distributed through the Apostles so
universally, that the continuous miracle made the
miraculous normal in the membership of the Church.
The progressive sanctification made apparent to all
with whom they have to do, is the incontestable proof
of the reality of the miraculous inhabitation of mortal
and sinful man by the gracious Spirit of God, Christ
and the Father's bestowal.

Where then is the validity of the testimony of the
natural man's five senses, opposed to the millions and
millions of newly created men who with one voice are
prepared to testify that we have known the Revelation
of Jesus Christ, in the same way that St. Paul learnt
it, i.e.y by a miraculous preparation of the soul, a

176 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

miraculous new vision, and new-born spiritual per-
ceptions ?

St. Paul's conversion is the standard type of all true
conversions. Human will has no part in the matter.
Salvation originates in the sovereign free will of God.
Hence that will, being Divine and God is Love, salva-
tion must extend as boundlessly as love itself. The
Father of Jesus could never reprobate, or ultimately
allow one of the Human Family— His brethren by His
Incarnation— to be plucked from His hand. His out-
stretched arms embraced the world and pointed both
to the believing and the unbelieving thief— bore one
of them assuredly to Paradise, the other to where His
" other sheep " are to be more fully instructed —
trophies of His redemption, triumphant from the
Cross.

The insufficiency of the five senses argument is so
evidently wanting that what is miraculous is that men
with intellects should ever adduce it in opposition to
scripture testimony. For, as we have just been aver-
ring, and proving by Paul's conversion is, that to the
Christian-believing man there is given a sixth sense.
The men of the world, the sheep who as yet have
not heard the Shepherd's voice, have only five senses,
but the men who believe in, love and follow Jesus,
have one sense more. The sixth may be called the
God sense— ruling and reigning within them. By
that sixth sense, they know God, feel the working of
the Spirit, and have communications from the spirit-
world to them, manifesting its operation in individ-
uals, and in assemblies.

Nothing is so irrational and impious as for poor
mortal man, with his poor five senses, in regard to the
quality and powers of which he is much surpassed by

PAUL'S CONVERSION 177

several inferior brutes, putting himself up as the
standard by which the miraculous can be judged,
and refusing belief for aught that his five senses
cannot certify.

It has not been by his five senses that man has
extended the boundaries of his knowledge. It was
by his reasoning powers, in conjunction with such
instruments as his reason suggested. It is obvious
to remark that if our present senses were improved
and exalted they would bring to our knowledge
myriads of new facts, e.g., the invisible electric cur-
rents, the invisible currents of the air, the invisible
rays of light with their new appropriate colours, the
X-rays and radium activity, new notes of music,
above and below our scales. Nerve and skin sensi-
bility augmented and the brain likewise, the spiritual
home within the perishable body. An improved and
exalted man would be soon made ashamed of his
incredulity as to miracle. " But it would be all under
law," it is said. What is meant by law ? Simply
God's will in operation. Cannot the Law-Giver cancel
one and introduce another ? Must He who created
matter be deprived of a mind and a will ? Is
God a prisoner in His own Universe ? These
queries, which are justified, suggest the folly of ques-
tioning miracles.

What was necessary to give Divine warrant Ikj
the monstrous claims calmly asserted by the new
prophet was unprecedented deeds, such as the world
never saw before. Whether the unprecedented works
were brought about by abrogating certain laws and
endowing others with greater efficiency for a tempor-
ary purpose, it would be sufficient to show forth
that Go ' was Master in His own House. But apart

178 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

from that, we assert that God's will is the fount of law,
that all natural laws are His obedient servants,
and that the imposition of new laws, or the creation
of new matter, must be permanently the normal action
of the Divine Will. His intelligence is ever active,
and what to be wondered at is, that miracle is not more
frequent. The only adequate definition of miracle is
a sample of creative power. Now, as regards spirit, the
miraculous is going on daily and hourly. The new
births by the Holy Spirit, each a separate instance of
creative power, take place all over the world, of course,
on a greater scale in Christian lands. Now, does not
God reign equally in matter as in spirit ? If He is
creating daily in the one, can He and will He not also
reign in the other, for an adequate reason. I am quite
assured, not only that He can, but that He does mani-
fest His good pleasure in giving samples of creative
power, when his dependent children require it.

What the children of the Kingdom are to expect is
not the normal, but the unexpected, and the unpre-
cedent Saviour. We are not only entitled but ex-
horted to look for another glorious manifestation, in
that same Jesus, returning in glory. Then will arise
from their graves the supermen, clad in Resurrection
glory. The new race— Nitches philosphy— wearing
the new habiliments becoming the Kinordom of our
Lord and Saviour, when He shall make all things new,
correcting the faulty, eliminating the injurious, and
adding new beneficent potencies to the
existing framework of the Universe. He who
made one Universe on one plan, is certainly able to
make another universe on another plan — Ce^^ le
premier pas qui coute.

How profound must have been the dejection, the

PAUL'S CONVERSION 179

repentance and the unavailing remorse which must
have seized St. Paul and held him, after Ananias had
opened his eyes. While his eyeballs were yet sightless,
the salutation, " Saul, my brother," began to fill them
with cutting tenderness. This new face immediately
after looked up so kindly at him, that it brought up
harrowing recollections of another equally holy and
Heavenly countenance, which he would, but could not,
banish. That previously unknown Saint had evident-
ly lived very close to God, and to be spoken to, in
vision, occasioned no discomposure. On the contrary
he was permitted to make an expostulation, and the
Lord condescends to give reasons. What an amazing
transference of conditions ! from that of consciously
guilty unforgiven sinner to the same, when fully for-
given and allowed to enter upon a colloquy with the
Creator and Judge ! It is singular that St. Paul never
mentions Ananias in any of his Epistles. The ines-
timable service that he rendered in opening his eyes
and baptizing him, when the Holy Spirit fell upon him,
would, one would imagine, prevent ever Ananias
falling away from his regards. He is, however, im-
mortalized in every Christian breast, and when we
shall be summoned to go to the City where all the
streets are straight, one of our rewards will be to find
him out, and say " Ananias, my brother. I have been
sent to you by the Lord."

The new Apostle, with his equipment complete, lost
no time in using his seed basket to scatter the seed
of Immortal Life. He began " at once " to proclaim
in the Synagogues Jesus as the Son of God. All who
heard him were naturally amazed

" Is not this," they asked, " the man who worked
havoc in Jerusalem among those that invoke this

180 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Name ? Who had also come here for the express pur-
pose of having such persons put in chains and taken
before the Chief Priests ? "

Saul's influence, however, kept steadily increasing,
and he confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus
by the proofs that he gave that Jesus was the Christ.
(20th Cent.-N.T.)

It is important to remember that the personal
testimony was the sole foundation of the new Faith,
which was destined to continue to grow and become
universal. None of the other Apostles accompanied
St. Paul in his first steps in his missionary labours.
He had, indeed, the Jewish Scriptures, but nothing of
our Lord's life, death and resurrection had been re-
corded. The foundation stones of the new religion
were laid in the memories of souls of twelve compar-
atively unlettered men, to whose ranks was added one,
born out of due time, the only Rabbi, trained to defend
the Jewish system which Christianity threatened,
simply by fulfilling it.

If St. Paul were questioned as to his acquaintance
with the Lord, and his teaching and miracles in Pales-
tine, he should have to confess that he had no exper-
ience of it all. He never saw Him but in Heavenly
Vision, and never heard Him save when He spake to
him from Heaven. There were several who attended
the Commissioner doubtless and remained at Damascus
and could be sought out to testify that there was a
great light and all were struck to the ground, but no
words reached their ears. So far, that much was
valuable in corroborative testimony, of an inexplicable
occurrence, but its significance was lost for want of the
risen and glorified Christ and the words announcing
His Kingdom. All depended upon the credibility of

PAUL'S CONVERSION 181

the witness, who was alone, and alone saw and alone
heard the substance of the message which he was to
testify. Was it to be wondered at that this singular
young man, who seemed to be half crazed, with his
three-legged story, should not readily gain credence ?
The Rationalists in the Synagogues soon found rea-
sons for disbelief. They would account for the fall
to the ground by a sunstroke, and for the vision, by the
excessive brightness which conjured up a fantastic
imagination in the moment when the orbs of the eye
were being destroyed. If Ananias was brought to
testify to the miracle of healing, his account was pre-
judiced by his having to relate another Heavenly
visitation. Both in the eyes of square-headed men
appeared a couple of fools or impostors to whom to
listen to was a waste of time. They were only made
formidable by the unaccountable fact that converts
were at length being made. Yes ! the word began to
be mixed with faith in those who heard it. Im-
mediately the absurd Cult began to be traduced and
its followers persecuted.

" Then was Saul certain days with the disciples
which were at Damascus, and straightway he preached
Christ in the Synagogues, that He is the Son of God.
But all that heard him were amazed, and said, ' Is not
this he that destroyed them which called on this name
in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he
might bring them bound unto the Chief Priests ? '
But Saul increased the more in strength and con-
founded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving
that this is the very Christ." (Acts ix. 19—22). Even
the Rationalists had finally to admit that in arguing
from the Prophets, Paul was no fool ; his studies in
the Scriptures were his invaluable support when up-

182 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

holding his incredible story, and then amiable indiffer-
ence gave place to ravenous hatred. During his stay
the infant Church was increasing, and had he not been
thus faithful, he would not have been successfully
introduced to the fellowship of the Church at Jeru-
salem. Barnabas was able to say of him *' He had seen
the Lord in the way, and that He had spoken to him,
and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the
name of Jesus." (Actsix. 27.)

It was this bold preaching that '' after many days
led the Jews to take counsel to kill him. But their
laying await was known of Saul, and they watched the
gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples
took him by night and let him down by the wall in a
basket." (Acts ix. 23 — 25.)

Ere we follow him back to Arabia, whither, I be-
lieve, he proceeded, and then returned to Damascus,
before he sought acquaintanceship with the Apostles
at Jerusalem. (Gal. i. 17, 18.) Let us look again
at the miraculous element in the starting of the world-
wide Evangel.

The stupendous fabric of the Christian Church,
which is spreading over the entire world, and is in-
separably conjoined to the highest civilization that
has as yet appeared, was due, at the first, simply to
the narration of an individual experience of quite a
supernatural character.

The Church at Jerusalem, of course, had the means
of summoning a very large number of witnesses to the
fact of the risen Christ, but the planting of the
Churches in Asia Minor before Barnabas accompanied
him in their first missionary journey, was the work of
Paul alone and in that work he was engaged for many
years, supposed^to be itinerating, sowing the seed

PAUL'S CONVERSION 188

in Cilicia, Galatia and Phrygia. Without any other
confirmatory evidence, he would repeat and repeat
the wondrous manner in which the Lord had dealt
with him. He had seen the Lord, and therefore
he could preach him as the risen Christ, the slayer of
death and the opener of the gate to Eternal Life.
Would the incredible story remain as an immortal
seed, revolutionising the whole thought of subsequent
generations if it had not been true ? If the contents
of the Gospel, preached by Paul, was wholly miracu-
lous, the preacher himself was not less so. He had no
New Testament to carry about with him, not even a
leaflet. The whole Evangel was bound up in his
heart. The very want of documentary evidence is the
crowning proof of that other Divine witness— the Holy
Spirit— without which the testimony of the entire
Apostolate would have wholly failed. The great
Messenger had been dealt with miraculously. The
facts he was to proclaim were entirely miraculous.
The reception given to his marvellous story was equally
miraculous, and more important than all, the effects
of faith in the Gospel he preached, begot within his
disciples holiness, peace, joy and love, and a lively
hope that they would never die.

To what then was the marvellous success to be at-
tributed ? To nothing but the supernatural, the un-
conquerable spirit of God. The believers were success-
fully overcome and enslaved, and rejoiced in their
magnificent emancipation.

Just as the Churches of Asia Minor were planted
in miracle, so were the Gentiles in Palestine made
proselytes to the New Evangel. St. Peter and Corne-
lius were given objective visions, each fifty miles apart,
and had audible communications, in Cornelius' case

184 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

from an Angel in shining garments. It may be said,
" All that belonged to the age of miracle, and we, wiser,
have no historical verities to compare with them.**
We reply the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the As-
cension and the Descent of the Holy Spirit, needed
not and could not be repeated. Those events took
place in the age of miracle, but as John's disciples
could not rake up a single miracle to put against the
multitude performed by the Lord Jesus, in that same
age of miracles, so must we distinguish between the
legendary and the true. It was the scheme of the
Evil One to deceive the multitude and to discredit the
authentic and the Divine, and place everything super-
natural, whatever its origin, in the same category.
But miracles are to be known by their fruits and the
blessed results that ensued upon Peter's preaching to
the company in the House of Cornelius, the falling
upon all of the Holy Spirit, triumphantly places all
the chain of miracles preceding that second Pentecost
in a category by itself, or rather it places them in a
unique class of stupendous miracles which had to be
recorded for all time and are at the very base of the
only Revealed Truth.

Both the great Apostles had visions, revelations
and Angelic visitations. Let the results prove
whether they were genuine and Divine. St. Peter's at
Rome, ar.d St. Paul's in London, are the monumental
vindications of their sublime origin. It is only the
Divine that triumphs and endures.

CHAPTER XIV.
St. Paul at Damascus, just after his Conversion.

The haunting memory of a single case of injury to an
unoffending man, woman, or child, would be enough
to poison the springs of memory during a life-time.
But this doomed Persecutor, quite unable to compen-
sate any of his victims, had to sustain the awful pun-
ishments, not of one or two injured or murdered per-
sons only, but scores, and through relationship, hun-
dreds, if not thousands. The bread winner was torn
from his avocation and his family plunged into poverty.
The mother was dragged, with or without her babe,
to the pestiferous dungeon. Youths and maidens
just presuming to grasp the Pilgrim's staff, found it
transformed into a Cross. And either embraced it
or escaped it by a Peter denial, without a Peter's
saving repentance. What preliminaries to a life's
career ! What a chorus of accusing furies to follow
behind him, whom he could never dismiss, who would
mount up the stairs and sit circling at the foot of his
bed, showing themselves behind his eyelids and send-
ing their reproaches and their wailings into his heart.
Paul would then turn from side to side, while bitter
tears bedewed his pillow, and no relief could he obtain
—none at all— except from a vision of Stephen, more
glorious and more radiant even than when with his
last breath he exclaimed, " Lord, lay not this sin to
their charge." Stephen would whisper in his ear,
" Brother Saul, my prayers for you and all have been
heard. My glorious crucified Intercessor has pre-

186 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

vailed. Be comforted ! Look to Him ! '* Then
Paul would see the Damascus vision again, and,
like Stephen, fall asleep. Yes ! sound sweet sleep.
Much sinning, he had been much forgiven. No reser-
vations, no penances, no partial remissions to make
up what was wanting (as if anything could be wanting
in the Redeemer's perfect work). No deficiences in
the sacrificial substitution. No breath of aspersion,
dulling the mirror-like polish of the perfect righteous-
ness. Nothing could the sinning mortal bring to Him
who is the sum of all perfections Nothing wanted but
a broken heart, praises and thanksgiving and undying
love and service.

That is the new man. Sealed and sanctified and
made meet for his new career. He had plunged into
crimes of the deepest dye. Hoping and aspiring
to be a real power in his nation, and through it, to
make it an Apostolic people ; gathering all the
families of the world unto the same privileges and
blessings guaranteed to Abraham's seed ; and he
had begun by cursing it irredeemably. He could not
undo one of the scourgings, nor remit one day's
imprisonment. Still less bring back from the grave
one of the victims whom he had devoted to suffering
and death. And yet these terrible beginnings, so
strangely contrasting with his desires and intentions,
were exactly suited to make him the Apostle he
became. Urging him to new enterprises, to face new
perils, to endure more trials (the daily trial of a
hard and unremunerative handicraft was chronic
and unescapable), to be ever constant in afflictions
and never to be diverted from the one thing given him
to do. To be quickened in sympathy for those who
are in ignorance, and to be ready to excuse and forgive

ST. PAUL AT DAMASCUS* 187

those who in mistaken zeal for the law, would destroy
the Herald of God's free and unmerited favour,
obtained for ever for the world by the sacrifice of
Christ— that was the fittest preparation that Paul
could have undergone. No longer accusing Furies,
but an army of the spirits of the blessed dead,
crying to him from their thrones of martyrdom,
and offering to him their palms, and with sweet,
cheering voices telling him : '' You are one of us.
It is due to you that we are and Whose we are. Bear
yourself well. Run well and obtain the prize— the
prize we are enjoying, and the prize which our Lord
Jesus desires to confer upon you, of nearest fellow-
ship with Himself." Yes ! Paul was finely prepared.
It is thus and wherefore that sin and suffering enters
the world, in order that the world may know and
increase its saints.

It was but a few of saints, so far, in the early history
of the Church, whose happy spirits cheered the hearts
of the Pioneers. But just ponder the countless army
of the Redeemed since Paul's days. This man had
within him all the precious Epistles which he ad-
dressed to the Churches and were written casually,
just as flint and steel come together for occasion,
and then there is coruscation and the sparks never
die, but are set, like stars. Think of the innumer-
able Church which now gives voice to the doctrines
of Paul, in the words of Paul. Ought we not to be
strenuous and unwearied : when those who are
behind the veil are such an exceeding great army,
and all of them knowing Paul's epistles by heart ?

Meantime Paul's sojourn in Damascus was so
successful in adding to the Church that he became
the object, in turn, of the bitterest suspicion and

188 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

enmity. His power and effectiveness was such, that
when the Jews could not confute his reasonings, he
plotted to silence his voice for ever. They watched
the gates day and night. It is clear that he had with
him a devoted company of converts and that at the
gates, where so many congregate, the object of the
conspirators might fail of accomplishment. There-
fore, feeling within himself that he was a man of
Destiny, having to play a great part in the fortunes
of the world, he fell back upon his dear old voices^
who confirmed him, or dissuaded him from any self
purpose that might arise in his mind, and which,
yielding to their whispers, gave him the assurance
that his decisions were approved by his unerring
Guide.

Paul then could tell his friends and the Church that
his work at Damascus was done for the present and
he must leave them and be no longer a source of
anxiety to them. He told them that he was being
led to return to the honourable family where he had
spent a few happy years, as a pedagogue ; and the
children he had taught, being attached to him, he
trusted to win over as converts also. That, in the
comparative solitude and peace of the Arabian desert,
he believed he would be recruited body and spirit
and given greater successes after study and medita-
tion. The idea of Jerusalem was repellent ; his
career there as persecutor had completely changed
his feeling towards it. Once the idol of his imagina-
tion, it was henceforward nothing but duty could
induce him to voluntarily return to it. There were
the scenes of his cruelty and shame, and the quarry,
spotted by Stephen's blood, made the stones cry
out against him.

ST. PAUL AT DAMASCUS 189

Very different were his reminiscences of Arabia.
The wide spaces ; the sparse trees which seemed to
beckon him and wished him to recHne under their
scanty foUage ; there he had perused and re-perused
the Prophets, and he longed to find more correspond-
ences between prediction and fulfilment to convince
his brethren in the flesh, and also the Gentile world.
He was happy in knowing that not self-will, but
obedience decided his action. So he now hesitated
no longer. But every gate was watched, day and
night, and it was clear that Paul must take with
him only what he could carry. A friendly convert
had a house on the wall, with a window, through
which the former High Commissioner might be passed,
like a bundle down to the ground. Paul was ready
for any humiliation (though his gorge rose when he
remembered the swinging basket, and suddenly
stopped when he was about to allude to Apostolic
adventures and sufferings in defence of his high claim,
against his traducers at Corinth).

There was nothing for it but to choose a dark
night, a stealthy meeting in the house upon the
wall, prayers, affectionate farewells. Then, gripping
his precious parchments and promising to return, he
committed himself to the osiers and the rope which
faithfully played their part, and at the bottom a
voice came from the impenetrable darkness. It
was that of a young disciple who was to accompany
him, and both took the disguise of artizans bearing
baskets of tools, and a bit of a moon tipped a wink
to the surrounding stars that Paul was safe.

CHAPTER XV

Paul in Arabia, the second time.

How soothing and grateful the monotony of
customary duties, and with young people who re-
garded him with affection. The merchant and his
family perceived a great change had passed over
him, and something prevented them from pressing
curious inquiries. His lively volubility was almost
exchanged for reticence.

He had aged considerably, but there was a deeper
tenderness in his eye and voice, and his thoughtfulness
and consideration for others was greater.

" I wonder," said his wife to her husband, " if he
had become a Nazarene— that new sect, you know,
who are being rooted out at Jerusalem. I met a small
party of them, they look and speak like that. Some-
thing has happened to his eyes, but not to disfigure
them. They are brighter and more beautiful than
ever.'*

No specific duties were exacted from Paul, and he
was freely allowed, while advancing the education of
the children to bring them by degrees to acquaintance
with the foretellings of the Messiah and their fulfil-
ments in Jesus.

They loved to go with him on little excursions, when
his meditations and his reading and writings were
over. Such a one they arranged, and they renewed
again the well remembered happy day when they
went to the Pagan temple and found it fallen. It had
fallen on the night when our Lord broke the bands

PAUL IN ARABIA, SECOND TIME 191

of death and left the sepulchre empty. Paul seized
the opportunity, and after an interesting survey of the
ruins he told the wondrous story of the Nazarene, his
crucifixion and Resurrection, on the day that he an-
nounced that He would arise. He told them that
He had died for the sins of the world and that he, him-
self, did not know it, until, amid his ignorance and sin-
fulness, Jesus appeared to him in a blaze of Heavenly
glory, a light surpassing noonday, and spake to him
and called him to be a " chosen vessel " to carry the
" Good news."

'* You like good news, don't you ? " he said.

" Oh, yes ! " they both said, and their eyes sparkled.
*' But," said the girl, " dear Paul, you look so grave
when you talk of the ' Good news,' " and she looked
up to him appealingly.

Paul turned his face quickly away, and when he
could see them again, the children were still, and
looked earnestly into his grave, yet shining counten-
ance.

Solitudes are the places where God's voice whispers
under the great Dome of His Heaven. It can be
heard more clearly far from the " madding crowd."
It is the place for command of one's own time, one's
own body, one's own mind, one's own reflections, and
one's own soul. The most congenial friend may babble
foolishly, or hitch off a train of reflection, which
promised to take us to a fruitful field : or if we had
internally been brought into a mood befitting our con-
templations, the interjections of a chattering com-
panion may jar injuriously because his then mood was
not ours. It is only One Friend's Voice Whom we
never tire of hearing. One Friend Whom we never de-
sire to dismiss, Whose speaking never comes inoppor-

192 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

tunely, except when we, in heart, depart. Whose con*
tinned absence would make the wilderness unbearable.

All God's great servants are sent occasionally into
the solitudes, to fit them for service by sitting long at
the feet of God. From His footstool we look up and
learn the awful distance.

Moses fed the flocks of Jethro, his father-in-law, in
the land of Midian. David fed the flocks of his father
Jesse, John Baptist gathered all his experiences of
contemparary life in Jerusalem, examined them,
searched them by the light of the desert sun, and then
lifted up his voice in condemnation.

Jesus' baptism was not sufficient to completely
equip Him for His ministry. Before He commenced
it He was driven into the Wilderness, where articu-
lations are clear, whether from Heaven or Hell.
There, while the Heavenly Dove nestled safely within
His heart, Satan perceiving Him alone tripped across
the wastes, but found nothing in Him. Paul felt that
he had been driven from Damascus to his recent home,
and that all had been wisely and mercifully ordered
for the best preparation for his great career. No rest-
less yearnings vexed him, he was entirely at peace
with himself and God. Planning nothing, waiting
simply to be moved and sent, or stopped, or kept in
patience, or denied some self-willed purpose. Asking
counsel of no human friend, reputed to be wiser, so his
friends might think, than he was, but asking of God
only, seeking to be preserved with a sanctified will,
obedient and ready to go or stay in a settled confi-
dence in God as his Guide and Counsellor. With the
same boldness, courage and fidelity that he ever mani-
fested in preaching the glad tidings, he had at Damas-
cus without a moment's hesitation began to proclaim

PAUL IN ARABIA, SECOISD TIME 193

Jesus in the Synagogues of Damascus— a most for-
bidding task— considering his antecedents. Having
borne his witness at the risk of his hfe, God now bade
him rest quietly, to be taught, with the ministry of
nature, to arrive at the right interpretations to be
given to the dark sayings of the men of old. Jesus
was to him the Way, the Truth and the Life. He had
much to unlearn and glorious things to learn as he sat
at the footstool of God. Sometimes his affectionate
hand would press the heads of his young charges and
they would pause under it, as some new light came
flooding on some cryptic utterances of a prophet, and
forgetting the benediction he meant to pronounce,
he would hurry away to his books and parchments, to
search or verify his discovery. And the young people,
boy or girl, would follow after him, and say with arch
reproachfulness and sunny humour in their eyes and
voices, "Dear Paul, you forgot to bless us after all."
Whereupon he would pour out a blessing with added
interest — mount them upon his shoulders, shepherd-
wise, while they buried their fingers in his curly hair.
It was long before he had his head polled at
Cenchrea.

Sweet days in Arabia ! perhaps the happiest in
his life. He was commonly desirous of penetrating
the indefinable shapes upon the distant horizons —
groups of palms or terebinths. He would take long
tramps to find the number and character of the
groves. Then reaching them, a light wind would
spring up and all the leaves would clap their hands,
flattered by a visit from one of the Lords of Creation.
The trees would pelt him with fruit and with his
open scrolls, patterned by light and shade, blessings
and dooms. Paul, stretched under the groves,

194 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

would tuck into his brain those expHcations of the
prophets which he was to find so valuable in his
controversies in the School of Tyrannus at Ephesus —
at the two Antiochs, or at Jerusalem, in disputing
with the unconvertable Pharisaic section of the
Naziarenes, each wanting to adulterate and water the
Wine of the Gospel.

It is not unlikely that it was during this sojourn in
Arabia that the main argument of the Epistle to
the Hebrews suggested itself. He deemed it a valu-
able exercise to put down, as he went on with his
reading, to construct an exposition of the Revelation
which he had received from Heaven and show how
gloriously types and shadows of the Law had in
Christ received their fulfilment.

What is to follow is based, indeed, upon supposi-
tion, but there are reasons for giving it a high prob-
ability. Hence I would invite the reader's attention
to it.

Paul, I conceive, had come at this juncture to the
crisis of his spiritual development. Before his
extended career, before his trance in the Temple,
when Jesus bade him " Go far hence to the Gentiles,"
the preparation providentially provided for was in
Arabia. He felt within himself the necessity of
reviewing his previous theological positions. He
had to recast the entire body of his beliefs, in regard
to the Messiah and also of the kind of Kingdom that
He was about (in the next parenthesis of human
history) to found.

Before he could preach and expound what God
had now given him to assimilate, he would avail
himself of this period of desert solitude : and taking
down the fabric of his former creed, pull it down to

PAUL IN ARABIA, SECOND TIME 195

the ground and reconstruct it under the hght of his
Damascus Revelations.

All his Rabbinical lore came up for examination.
Stone after stone was tested, re-shaped or rejected.
Judaism stood like a building unfinished— one end
awaiting completion, as the Lady Chapel of the
Liverpool Cathedral, an adjunct only of the principal
structure ; capable, indeed, of daily use, but showing
in its thrusts, unmated springs of arches, and project-
ing ends of beams, that the Judaism which rejected
Jesus urgently required to be completed— that the
Scribes and Pharisees were unable rightly to divine
what the architect had intended, and that the plan
was lost or wilfully departed from. But to himself,
favoured by special Revelations, the plan was clear.
It was for him to remove obscurities and miscon-
ceptions ; to show how difficulties may be resolved,
and to furnish a handy treatise which might prove
valuable to sincere searchers after the Truth. He
meditated a disquisition, not a polemic. He was
not in controversy with shameless opponents as
with Galatians, or put upon his defence against
abjuring Corinthians, nor had the " mystery " of
the admission of the Gentile world into the privileges
of the Abrahamic covenant been miraculously demon-
strated. At this time, his thought was concentrated
upon his own people, and believing them to be the
destined agents for enlightening the world, he de-
signed a demonstration of the accurate and glorious
fulfilments to be discovered in the Lord Jesus as the
true and only Messiah. He would keep his notes for
present and future use : the conclusions of a deeply
studied meditation of the comparative excellencies
of the former and the present dispensations.

196 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

This, I conceive, was the manner and the occa-
sion of the Epistle to the Hebrews, St. Paul kept his
excursus by him, for private use for the present at
the outset of his Apostolic career. At first he owned
his commission to preach to his own people, and
later on, his field was extended and he was especially
sent to the Gentiles ; hence for long his absorbing
interest was in the Greek Churches. At the close of
his great career he took up, in his imprisonment at
Rome, the MS. that he had carried with him about
in all his journeys— thought it might serve a useful
purpose. Instead of addressing it to a single Church
of Jewish Christians, he made it a circular epistle to
the Hebrews scattered abroad. Himself a prisoner, he
asked prayer on his behalf, and told of Timothy's
release. Thus it may be fairly presumed that this
Epistle was launched upon the world— written in a
style, comparatively young and rhetorical, but full
of glowing fervour. Yet Paul did not care to put his
name to it— content that it would serve to confirm
his compatriots' Christian faith, as it had his own.
And now it has become one of those problems which
certain minds delight to batten upon, and I am
perhaps guilty for having increased the volume of
insoluble enigmata.

As to the objection raised on the score of difference
of literary style, I would draw attention to the small
force there is in such a consideration. Authors are
not compelled to be always the same in the manner
of addressing an audience. The novel of " The
Caxtons " and that of " Rienzi " are so dissimilar
that both would never be attributed to Sir Edward
Bulwer Lytton. Southey's " Doctor," on the same
ground, would not be assigned to the author of the

PAUL IN ARABIA, SECOND TIME 197

"Life of Nelson." The same consideration applies
to the work of a man who, at the outset of his career,
publishes anonymously, and then at the end of his
career would like to re-write or cancel what he had
put out long previous. The early works of Carlyle are
not full of Carlylism's, and Ruskin found fault and
expunged the finest portions of his first volume
of " Modern Painters." So, on the score of style,
no final objection can be raised.

A more serious objection has been alleged.* It
has been said that while the great theme of Paul's
preaching and writing was the " Mystery " of the
impartation of Abrahamic blessings to the Gentiles,
in this Epistle to the Hebrews that grand distinctive
theme is absent. But certainly the thing itself is
implied throughout, and if not mentioned in the
terms usually employed in his other Epistles, it is
suggested that the reason is, probably, that it was
in the period of his Arabian retirement. Before those
visions and revelations which were vouchsafed to
Paul, as also to Peter— fitting them both to become
Openers of the Kingdom of Heaven to the Jews and
Gentiles alike.

The chief direction of his thought at this period was
given to the setting forth of the development of
Christian doctrine from the nascent Evangel, latent
in the Levitical Economy. To make the Jews, the
agents for changing the face of the world. He perhaps
believed that God designed to send him first of all
to his own nation ; before in vision he was bidden to
leave the Temple and to go far hence to the Gentiles.

He felt that after this preparation he would be free
to go to Jerusalem, to make the acquaintance of the

♦ By the late Professor Frederick Purser, e.t.c.d., to the Author.

198 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

rest of the Apostles. He anticipated that further
visions and grand disclosures were yet reserved for
him, bearing upon his Gentile Apostleship, but those
disclosures, at this early period, would be premature.
It was, after the Arabian sojourn, that by revelation
he was made to know the mystery of God's holy will,
to gather all things together into one— the entire
created Universe destined to become the radiant gar-
ment of the Invisible Spirit— all wills purged from
defilement, and all absolutely moving in subjection
and harmony with the uncreated will. But the great
emancipation must proceed in due order. First the
Jews, then the Gentiles. First, original mankind ; and
second, redeemed mankind, under the millennium.

But if the absence from the Epistle to the Hebrews
of the word ixva-Wjptov is to weigh against the Pauline
authorship, another word, nea-irr]^ (Mediator), in its
Pauline use is confined to this contested Epistle. St.
Paul it was who gave to ixea-lnjs its theological signifi-
cation, and made Christ the only Mediator between
God and man. This word, in this use of it, is
confined to St. Paul, and to the Epistle to the
Hebrews, vide Hebrews viii.— 6, ix. — 15, xii.— 24,
and a derivative (' enca-iTeva-ev) vi. 17. Moreover,
the Epistle to the Hebrews was concerned, as its
main topic with Mediator shi'p. Paul employing the
term with the same signification in Galatians iii.
19—20, and 1 Timothy, ii. 3 — 5. Alford translates
/teo-iVr^? '^ Mediator," Weymouth " Negotiator,"
The Twentieth Century, N.T., '' Intermediary "
(passim).

Now if this use of this word is practically confined
to St. Paul in his Epistles to Galatians and 1 Timothy,
and is found elsewhere only in Hebrews, is there not a

PAUL IN ARABIA, SECOND TIME 199

strong probability that the writer of both is the same ?
Philos' use of the term only confirms the probability
of the Pauline authorship, for Philos* works could not
be unknown to the doctors at Jerusalem.

Now another confirmation.

Melchizedek, Psalm ex. 4, " The Lord hath sworn
and will not repent. Thou art a priest for ever after
the order of Melchizedek. "

Hebrews v. 6 — 10, chapter vi. verse 20; Genesis xiv,
18; Hebrews vii. 1 — 21.

Now, as I have intimated, in dealing with Paul's
early life, the subject that occupied the youth's atten-
tion from the first was the Abrahamic Covenant,
which disclosed blessings for all the other nations, and
the history of the great patriarch was ever in his
thoughts. Necessarily the passage in it which brought
Abraham into contact with the mysterious High
Priest led him to ponder what was the significance of
the old and new Covenants. When in Arabia he was
day after day searching and revolving a means of con-
necting his Jewish positions with the new revelations
made to himself, and hence Melchizedek was constantly
before him. No other of the Apostles had such a
grounding in the law. The relationship of Melchizedek
to the Aaronic priesthood, and that to the great High
Priest, who had just passed into the Heavens, was
present to his daily meditations, hence, when he came
to write down his conclusions, one chapter of the
Epistle to the Hebrews is nearly occupied by it.
Paul was just the man to construct the argument
which ho so powerfully developed in Hebrews vii.

Apollos, who was indebted to the teaching of
Aquila and Priscilla, had not the same special revela-
tion that were granted to Paul, and the controversial

200 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

tone is absent in Hebrews. Apollos was in an
especial manner a controversialist, not an expositor.
Paul was also pre-eminently a controversialist, but it
was in his subsequent Apostolic career, not at the time,
as I deem it, that he was excogitating his original
thought concerning the Mediator.

What St. Paul, it may be presumed, did, was to put
down his carefully arrived at conclusions for, first of
all, clarifying his own conceptions, then as his medita-
tions were continued and subsequently new revelations
were made, it seemed to him the private treatise might
be useful to Hebrew Christians generally. And being
himself withdrawn from active labour, probably im-
prisoned at Rome, he took up his old faithful excur-
sus, and believed it capable of useful adaptation,
sending it as an Encyclical to converts of both Jews
and Gentiles, in the first place to the Church at Rome,
and bidding the Churches to pass it on.

Why it was not sanctioned by Paul is not an argu-
ment against the authorship, but for it —in default of
express mention to the contrary. Several reasons
might make it expedient to let the treatise tell its tale,
without any prejudice being imported to its author-
ship. In the divided condition of the Corinthian
Church, where there were parties for Paul, for Cephas
and for Apollos, a candid judgment might be pre-
vented.

We conclude then that there is no valid objection
to be raised against the authorship of Hebrews by St.
Paul on the grounds of,

(a) The style of the Epistle. It was not originally

a letter, but a treatise afterwards adapted.

(b) The language. It is marked by Paul's peculiarity,

The Mediator.

PAUL IN ARABIA, SECOND TIME 201

it was addressed to Hebrews. (2) The ex-
tension of the Covenant of Grace to the Gen-
tiles had not then been promulgated.

(d) Apollos is unfitted to fill the place by want of a

special revelation and also being essentially a
Controversialist, his method would appear
in his writing, which does not betray itself in
the Epistle in question.
On the other hand much can be brought in, in
favour of the Pauline authorship.

(1) St. Paul was deeply pondering the extension of

the Kingdom of Grace to the Gentile world,
and had pledged himself to preach the Gospel
to all nations. The doctrines of Free Grace,
Redemption through the blood of the Lamb
and the High Priestly Intercessor in the
Heavens could not better be proclaimed than
by St. Paul.

(2) The illustration of the stadium would naturally

arise from his experience at Tarsus, and

(3) His eloquent setting forth of the heroes of faith

(seventh chapter) was just such an argument
as would be quoted by a student of the sacred
records.

(4) Paul's original use of his Mfo-tr^s (Mediator).

(5) There was a chief school of Alexandrian theology

at Tarsus, where Paul was reared.

(6) The agreement, both by the Reformed and the

Catholic Church, to attribute the authorship
to St. Paul.

(7) If this Epistle was not written by St. Paul, the

question arises : How could a production
of such distinguished excellence be wrongly

202 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

accredited ? He was known to PauFs friends
and to many Churches, especially at Rome.
How could he be hid in this inconceivable
manner— a man so cultured and powerful,
it would seem impossible to have his name
buried.
Finally, to recur once more to the question of
style. Our surmise is that in the calm retirement of
Arabia, the peace he was enjoying reflected itself
in his style, calm, regular, balanced, but infused
throughout with Divine fervour. The essay char-
acteristic was due to Paul having been an apt scholar,
who profited by the Pedagogues of Alexandria,
Tarsus, and the Rabinnical School of Jerusalem.
It was easy to adapt the treatise and give it an
epistolary form. Wordsworth composed The Prelude,
and did not give it to the world until after his collected
works were deemed complete. He kept touching
it and re-touching it and the publication was pos-
thumous. Haydn kept *' Creation " in a drawer,
adding and improving it. PauPs Excursus, or
rather his great Hermeneutic, was made perfect
before he launched it upon the Church at Rome,
from which it was to circulate and become a priceless
possession of the Universal Church.

CHAPTER XVI.
Paul Goes to Damascus and then to Jerusalem.

The season of Peace is now over. Arabia was to
become a mere memory, but among Paul's personal
baggage he meant to preserve carefully those notes
which would be incorporated in the Epistle to the
Hebrews. What the exact length of his sojourn
in the desert was we know not, it could not well be
less than a year and a half ; and then he returned to
Damascus. He had quitted it clandestinely under
stress of threatened assassination ; but since then
the Nazarenes had so multiplied that he went about
among the rejoicing believers confirming their faith
with great comfort of spirit. Damascus, as his
spiritual birthplace, must needs have great attrac-
tions for him ; but thence he must go to Jerusalem —
a city now cursed by horrifying associations. As a
boy, Jerusalem was a golden dream ; as a man and a
bloody persecutor, it had become a cursed and felon
city. It must have been, it ought to have become,
a place which he, by his own misdeeds, had befouled,
and made the nest of every hateful crime of cruelty
against the most beloved children of the Most High.
How could he pace its streets without a tingling
cheek, a downcast glance and deep fetched sighs,
fearful lest, as he glanced askance at the portal, he
might see traces of blood at the lintels, where stone
and plaster were clutched, when the myrmidons of
the Sanhedrim haled men and women to prison and
budged not to direct and witness their execution.

204 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

It is thus we build our mansions of memory.
There are rooms, which, by retrospective glances, we
desire to pass, but cannot. The doors open of them-
selves and jailors issue to seize us and hale us to the
prison house, where we are held for execution, unless
God reprieve us. It was difficult to get fellowship at
Jerusalem after the fatal chapters of his life. This
was not the first unhappy instance of very many,
by which Paul was to be subsequently beset all
through his missionary career. Naturally the Church
suspected him, but the intimate acquaintanceship of
Peter during fifteen days did the work of a complete
restoration to confidence. When this ravening wolf
which had scattered the lambs, and had sent them
far and wide, carrying with them the lambs' flag
of victory all around Samaria and Galilee, it was no
wonder that the disciples were afraid, and " believed
not that he was a disciple." But good " Barnabas
took him" — a large man with a large heart — and
brought him to the Apostles, and declared unto them
" How he had seen the Lord in the way and that He
had spoken to him (his credentials to the Apostolate,
in place of the mistaken Matthias), and how he had
preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.
And he was with them coming in and going out at
Jerusalem. And he spake boldly in the name of
the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians,
but they went about to slay him. Which, when the
Brethren knew, they brought him down to Ciesarea,
and sent him forth to Tarsus. Then had the Churches
rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria,
and were edified ; and walking in the fear of the
Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were
multiplied " (Acts ix. 26—31).

PAUL GOES TO JERUSALEM 205

Halcyon Days ! But it was only after Paul was
shipped off at Ca*sarea to Tarsus. He was ever a
disturbing force. Storms sunk to rest when he left
the place. Yet it was as a Lamb, newly born, that he
arrived at Jerusalem, and towards the " Grecians "
(Hellenist Jews) that his heart chiefly turned. If he
had betrayed his Lord, by withholding the Glad
Tidings which he was thrust forth to proclaim, he
would have spared himself such a persecution as he had
formerly directed against the Nazarenes. The newly
born Lamb could in no wise do that. To bear the
cross and to be stretched upon it was his " only way."
So by his bold preaching he gave mortal offence to
the Hellenists and they plotted to slay him. For
ever a trouble to the Church, as he had been at
Damascus, so now his deadly peril occasioned daily
anxiety. He was a storm centre, with his tender
and sensitive nature he was creating enemies all
round. Oh ! Truth ! what crimes and sufferings
attend thy promulgation !

The members of the Church were vastly relieved
when they deposited the Storm Centre within a
ship bound for Tarsus, dear old Tarsus ! The Storm
Centre gazed with curious interest at the city which
he felt he had a mission to disturb. But it was after
a long span of years, when he had created an explo-
sion at Jerusalem and was bottled up for two years
in prison and plagued two Roman Governors, Felix
and Festus, likewise Herod iVgrippa and his wife.
Could he not hold his tongue ? No ! not for worlds.
When the Storm Centre was finally despatched to
Rome, the ship, of course, must get into a storm and
be shipwrecked. But though being a Storm Centre
himself and always creating storms, both Heaven and

206 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Earth conspire to protect him amid all. Not a hair
shall be touched until he is bidden to lay his hoary
head upon Nero's block. Since then there was
peace— the busy tongue laid under an interdict.
Peace in Heaven, but not on Earth, Paul had gone
forth to sow unending storms.

Every man has his destiny. Our wills are not our
own, and with every new-born child his or her
horoscope is drawn— a birth-mark which to escape
is to leave one's skin. At the birth of Time Paul
had his. But don't imagine. Foolish Reader ! that
you can hocus pocus the Almighty and escape your
individual moral responsibility. Justice and Pre-
destination and Free Rebellion, Judgment and Grace
are all reconciled by that same Cross by which God
has reconciled the world unto Himself. Judas' part
was as necessary to the world's salvation as the
Sin Bearer's. The glorious predestined issue of it all
is the solution of God's own problem.

With the arrival at Tarsus, commenced a long hiatus
in Paul's recorded doings. Some nine or ten years,
by his own testimony, elapsed, which he did not
care to preserve for posterity. The *' fourteen
years " of Galatians, ii.-l., are to be computed from
Paul's conversion to his third visit to Jerusalem.
This sovereign indifference to means and methods
towards fulfilments and decrees, comports with God's
providential rule. Men are naught, none can stay,
nor speed His cause. But we can be sure that Paul
remained Paul— always a storm centre— inevitably
doomed to loose his tongue and make enemies when-
ever and wherever he opened his mouth. And, as a
consequence of his faithfulness, the truth spread
—invincible truth ! It spread like a weed. But

PAUL GOES TO JERUSALEM 207

how interesting it would have been for us to
have but a scrap of veritable news respecting his
daily associations and in what way he had been ful-
filling his Lord's commission to evangelise the Gentiles.

Meantime it is not unlikely that St. Peter had al-
ready unlocked the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven
to the Gentile world. The pious Cornelius, a Prose-
lyte, was to be favoured with the glad tidings, but not
without human instrumentality— angels are always in
commission. They visited Cornelius and gave hungry
Peter at Joppa food for reflection. Cornelius,
proud to grovel at the feet of the fisherman,
and humbly accepting to be lifted to his feet, took his
place among the reverent company of friends. Pagan
yet pious and with expectant hearts and ear attent,
they waited upon the Galilean accents in which the
world's Saviour was to be proclaimed.

Peter began to avow— what was a wonderful reve-
lation to him — " that of a truth he perceived that God
was no respecter of persons, but in every nation he
that feareth him and worketh righteousness is ac-
cepted with him." And went on to proclaim the
Galilean peasant to be the Lord of all, 'erst hanged
upon a tree, but raised up the third day and showed
Himself to chosen witnesses, even to those who did
eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead.

That He commanded them to preach unto the
people and to testify, that it is He which was ordained
of God to be the judge of quick and dead. That to
Him gave all the Prophets witness, that through His
name, whosoever believeth in Him shall receive re-
mission of sins.

Amazing miracle ! While Peter yet spake these
words, " the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard

208 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

the word. And they of the circumcision, which be-
lieved, were astonished, as many as came with Peter,
because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the
gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak
with tongues and magnify God. Then answered
Peter, " Can any man forbid water that these should
not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost
as well as we ? And he commanded them to be bap-
tized in the name of the Lord, and the new disciples
prayed him to tarry with them certain days."

Notwithstanding, then, that to St. Paul it was given
to open wide the gate to the Gentiles, yet it is not im-
probable that St. Peter had the supremacy even in
point of time, and that the Apostle who was outrun
by the younger John at the Sepulchre, reversed the
issue and outran the younger Paul when both were
running to peer into the Sepulchre of Paganism, and
found that Paganism had already left its grave !

A tremendous uproar was, of course, made at Jeru-
salem, when these strange tidings reached the Jewish
Christians. Instead of being full of praise and thanks-
giving, the invasion of their birthrights wrought
poison in their bones. St. Peter was **sent to Coven-
try " (a pardonable anachronism), but he had a plain
unvarnished tale to relate, which quelled the storm,
even as when by a word mounting Tiberias sank in
adoration.

" As I began to speak the Holy Ghost fell on them,
as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the
word of the Lord, how that He said, John, indeed,
baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with
the Holy Ghost. Forasmuch then as God gave them
the like gift as He did unto us who believed on the
Lord Jesus Christ. What was I, that I could with-

PAUL GOES TO JERUSALEM 209

stand God ? When they heard these things they held
their peace, and glorified God, saying, ' Then hath
God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life."
(Actsxi. 15-18.)

CHAPTER XVII.

The Lost Apostle Discovered.

While these glorious things were happening, Paul
was lost to us as we have said in Tarsus for a
lengthy period, some nine or ten years.

When we direct a telescope to dark spaces among
the stars, we discover how little we know. That blank
period in Paul's record may be confidently filled up by
transactions and experiences analogous to those of
which we have documentary evidence. If we could
only recover those Sybilline pages ! He himself will
rehearse them to us in another sphere.

In 2 Corinthians xi. : in self defence of his challenged
Apostleship, he was constrained to allude to some of
his various sufferings in the discharge of his great com-
mission. They were of a piece with what Luke has
detailed and what Paul has casually referred to in his
other Epistles.

" Are they ministers of Christ ? I speak as a fool,
I am more : in labours 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
I have been in the deep. In journey ings often, in
perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine
own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils
in the seas, in perils among false brethren. In weari-
ness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger
and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

THE LAST APOSTLE DISCOVERED 211

Beside these things that are without, that which
Cometh upon me daily, the care of all the Churches."
(2 Corinthians xi. 23—28.)

By the help of such reminiscences as these we are
at no loss to fill up the vacancies left by the accounts
that have come down to us. During those nine
or ten years stars and even constellations studded
that dark sky similar to those which we perceive with
awe and admiration when we track PauPs luminous
career in the Scriptures. But how much he must have
grown during that formative period ! and what
sheaves of converts he must have made ! What his
relations with his kindred and the Synagogue, and
what were the means by which he lived and worked
we know nothing : but that the tent-maker had the
nomadic instinct is pretty certain. The Cilician Gates
and the waterfall which tantalised his boyish imagin-
ation had long since been found out and become com-
monplace. He was ever on the move and burning
with zeal to communicate the glad tidings to Barbar-
ian, Scythian, bond and free.

That Paul had few, if any, to sympathise with him
in his espousal of the new and despised sect is to be
surmised, also that he had no relatives who were pre-
pared to give him a home and aid his propaganda.
Even in Tarsus, it is probable, he was outlawed ; and,
perhaps when a prominent citizen had deliberately
*' cut *' him, he caught sight of a friend whom he had
not seen for years. Could it really be ? Yes ! It was
—no less than Barnabas ! and, tapping his broad
shoulders, the two Apostles ran into one another's arms.
After the joyful greeting, what was Barnabas* busi-
ness ? The King's business, of course, and to minister
to the new citizens was the difficulty. For wonderful

212 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAULM »

conquests were going on at Antioch— across the gull
yonder. " Come, Saul, and I will tell you all ! but
you must help me."

So in the governance of the world, evil is found to
be an essential product of good. Shallow people are
ever lifting up their hands in astonishment and formu-
lating charges against the Divine administration,
when the true explication of these " mysteries '* is
that no holiness and no joy can be discovered apart
from the dark lenses of suffering and sin. No rewards
are offered to mankind as prize cattle. As I have
written in another book, '* the fabric of human nature
must be first steeped in the mordant of sin and suffer-
ing before it can receive and perpetuate the brightest
hues that Heaven can confer."

It is questionable whether what we call " evil " will
be entirely eliminated from the abodes of the blessed.
Moral evil, of course, must be, but suffering need not
be. The greatest sufferer is God Himself —His suffer-
ings are acute and constant, because He knows every-
thing ; and every writhe and every sigh echoes in His
sympathetic soul ; and because of that He is God,
blessed for ever.

If, however, any of us poor creatures desire to relieve
this greatest Sufferer, they can do it instantly. No
mountain of money is required, merely the turning
away from moral evil and turning towards the Beatific
Father, through His adorable Son. Then, if the heart
of the Eternal is rent by the afflictions of His off-
spring, it may instantly be relieved and thrilled with
joy by the drop of a truly penitential tear and a longing
glance for reconciliation and love.

This is the joy that was being scattered plentifully
for God and for man in the regions of Phoenicia,

THE LAST APOSTLE DISCOVERED 213

Cilicia, Cyprus and Cyrene, through the persecution
that arose about Stephen and the scattering abroad
of the Christian flock which Paul had vainly attempted
to destroy. Without the slightest tamper with the
integrity of his free will, or his due responsibility,
Saul was called to the murderous work, by which he
started the conquering chariot of Christianity.

Paul then is not to be credited with the spread of
Christianity among the Gentiles, as sole or principal
pioneer. He was especially designated to the work,
and from his youth he earnestly desired that through
his nation the Gentiles should share in the blessings
of the Covenant, but it was Peter who was called to
be first preacher, both to Jew and Gentile, and Barna-
bas was sent from Jerusalem to go to Antioch before
probably Paul had made any Gentile converts there
previously. (Acts xi. 19.)

It must have been a joyful meeting, and without
any restraining bonds, except the narrow financial
straits into which he was plunged by quitting the
Synagogue and his Jewish friends. Paul was ready
to go instantly to promote the work at the third city
of the Empire. *' Barnabas needed the presence of one
whose wisdom was higher than his own (query) whose
zeal was an example to all, and whose peculiar mission
had been miraculously declared. Paul recognised the
Voice of God in the words of Barnabas, and the two
friends travelled in all haste to the Syrian Metropolis."

CHAPTER XVIII.
Antioch.

Antioch, the city which gave to the Eternal Rehgion
its Christian name, was a strange birthplace for con-
verts to a faith which involved renunciation of the
World, the Flesh and the Devil, for these three gods
were the proper divinities of the place. But it is just
where commerce, the parent of wealth and all corrup-
tions, have most flourished, that by a re -action against
the prevailing godlessness, that the Voice from Heaven
finds ears craving for what the heart can alone satisfy.
The Seleucid Founder, with sound judgment perceived
that the site might become a convenient entrepot for
the exchange of the products of the East and the West.
The fertile plain, twixt Taurus and Lebanon shared
with Tarsus the two ports of the gulf of Scandaroon.
Seleucus, the city, must have thriven at the expense
of the former, for caravans came from Mesopotamia
and Arabia, and at the Orontes the whole trade of the
Mediterranean was available. Little did the Con-
queror reek that his Capital city was to be a foundation
stone in a building that was never to be overthrown.
The present burning plains remain and also the sweep-
ing winter rains, but the torrents plough fissures in
which bright medallions glisten, the remnants of dead
and buried dominations —the coins of Rome, Syria and
Phoenicia. Contrasting with these, it was the flock
that was scattered when Saul put his hand to perse-
cution that became the founders of the Everlasting
Empire.

ANTIOCH 215

Without a scrap of New Testament, but not wanting
in the writings of the Prophets, and— indispensable —
not wanting in the Pentecostal gift— the nameless
original Apostles, to whom no statues have ever been
reared, commenced at the key of the arch of Eastern
and Western civilization, the building of an Empire,
which will leave the World behind. Let Paul now be
astonished at his handiwork. He went like another
Balaam to curse, and was constrained to bless. Bar-
nabas hurries to find him, the converts are becoming
so embarrassing. So they appear in the great street —
four miles long— colonaded mostly, in all its length,
where masquers and mummers mingle with merchants.
Exorcists and the enfranchised Jews— first colonists
of Seleucus— who, as they pass along the promenade,
which was plentifully lined with the latest busts of
Caligula, seldom neglected to direct a jet of sputum
upon the Imperial face.

It is a larger Monaco, a place where a luxurious
climate disposed the wealthy and the dissolute to ask
stimuli from the vain and empty " entertainments '*
of the theatre and the circus. A considerable and
growing trade furnished the commercial classes with
means, and the city, being made the capital of a Pro-
vince, it became also the residence of an official class.
In addition, philosophers, wizards, astrologers, came
to prey upon the curious and the credulous, while the
grove of Daphne — an enchanting spot, where the per-
fection of architecture and sculpture made no apologies
for being enlisted in the service of vice, drew ciowds
who wanted life and succeeded only in courting death.

The spuriously gay crowd, interspersed with the
only really respectable people— the slaves and f reed-
men engaged in labour— poured along the main

216 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

thoroughfares. There where inky shade and flashing
marble outUning marts, palaces and triumphal arches,
ever and anon in the distance the Orontes glinted and
turned up its shield of silver. The river had high
banks and oleander and jasmine lined the marge
with roseate flowers and flagrant scents. The spurs
of Mount Syliphus made the ancient walls to climb
and descend again. Walls of great height and very
thick. Yet, beneath the frivolity and guilty riot of
the pleasure-seekers, there were subterranean forces,
which gave to Antioch impressive lessons of instability.

Its legends of earthquakes culminated in one
memorable catastrophe, when 250,000 inhabitants
were estimated to have perished. The Christians of
Antioch, if the epistle to the Hebrews circulated
there had frequent verifications of the Writer's
allusions to the removing of those things that are
made, that those things which cannot be shaken
may remain. Antioch, however, though frequently
shaken, remained, and became the Queen of the
East. New walls arose, enclosing new suburbs,
and 300 years after Barnabas and Saul had entered it,
it contained a population of half a million. During
that period the Empire of Rome was shaken and
declining, but at the same time the Empire of Christ
was growing.

The irony of fate ! Christianity did little to alter
the character of Antioch. She still sate a Queen and
from a golden cup drank sorceries. The kingdom of
Heaven was already corrupted and declining in the
hearts of men, when an imperial Apostate came to
tread the pavements which were consecrated by the
feet of Apostles. To dissolute Antioch came the
Emperor Julian to winter, prior to his fatal Persian

ANTIOCH 217

Expedition. And there the enthusiastic student of
ancient philosophy and antiquarian paganism, dis-
gusted to behold what Christianity, degenerated, had
to offer ; set a shining example of austere chastity and
also made his soldiers abandon wine. Lampooned,
of course he was, as every reformer must be, but before
he had left the city, he gave to the citizens the example
of a new St. Anthony, and did not, either, allow his
unsophisticated understanding to part with ccmmon
sense, humanity and justice, when attacking the
problem of a scarcity. He did not accuse his mea-
sures of inadequacy or irrationality, but charged the
unfortunate issue upon the forestallers and regraters ;
and those business wizards, who, out of the empty
guts of the starving poor, made fortunes for them-
selves and their families.

The noble Emperor Julian, miscalled Apostate,
digging deep for Grecian statues of Socrates and Plato
—was always missing the Diamond of great price, and
his spade, mistakenly, scraped the face of Jesus Christ
—a most pathetic figure of those days.

It is now time to get some idea of the personality of
Paul, who with Barnabas had come to shepherd the
nucleus of the future Christian Church, and which in
the time of the Emperor Theodosius numbered
100,000.

The following chapter wdll be devoted to that sub-
ject.

CHAPTER XIX.

Paul's Personality.

In the Acts of the Apostles, after Peter's significant
introductions, one personality engrosses the stage.
Barnabas we should all like to hear more of, and
especially of the second missionary tour to Cyprus,
when, as I believe, Mark was able to furnish authentic
records of Jesus Christ to Sergius Paulus at Paphos,
but Paul, without desiring it, inevitably comes
forward to the front and makes colleagues and friends
retire. The writer of the Acts— a cultured man of
immense merit— is kept out of the record altogether,
either by an exaggeration of modesty, or, most likely,
by his reverent determination to give to the chief
actors their relative importance.

Paul's personality had much, undoubtedly, com-
bined with his intellectual pre-eminence, to account
for his controlling influence. And yet the records
that have come down to us are strangely at variance
with what would appear adequate and reasonable to
impart impressiveness to his physical aspect and
qualities. Friends have been so conquered by the
Apostle and the Revealer of Divine secrets, that they
lost sight of him almost altogether as a manf while foes,
piqued and unpersuaded by him, invented reasons for
disparaging his authority.

A contemporary pagan Cynic jibes at Paul's en-
trance to the third Heaven and adds that his nose was
aspiring to go in the same direction— a feat which no
Hebrew nose could easily accomplish. But the

PAUL'S PERSONALITY 219

friendly Biographer in Hasting's Dictionary and Dean
Farrar appear also biassed^ strange to say, towards
the misconception, that the personal aspects of the
great Apostle must have been not only insignificant,
but repellent.

The present writer is persuaded that these con-
clusions have been rashly and unwarrantably arrived
at, and asks for the candid considerations of the fol-
lowing : —

PauVs stature. Paulus was not a description of his
stature, for all infants are small. Among the genealo-
gies of the *' Little " families in England, there must
have been a few giants, and several in the Life Guards.
Moreover, Luke has recorded three occasions when
Paul's person was the object of injury and capture by
excited crowds, (a) The stoning at Iconium, (b)
The riot in the Temple, (c) Before the Sanhedrim.

Now it will be in strict accordance with the principle
of the economy of miracles, under human probation
and the providential administration of the world, to
recognise that Paul's escape from these three perils
was due to the fact that he was no dwarf, with a lame
leg, but one able to stand his ground ; and from being
of average height, able to use his arms, instead of being
pinioned by the thighs of others. And after being
stoned at Iconium, he got up and walked into the
city and the next morning undertook a considerable
journey. This was the man whose " bodily presence
was weak."

It was supposed also that Paul was afflicted by some
malady— running eyes or running ears— and an affluv-
ium requiring Cardinal Wolseley's scent bottle. This
suggested by a " Thorn in the flesh." Now, how can
all this be reconciled with the undoubted fact that of

220 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

all the actors in Luke's history none gave such evi-
dence of being a Persona grata, when for the first time
confronted by strangers ? Centurions, Captains, Prae-
tors, Proconsuls, all are struck at once by Paul's per-
sonality and favourably. Felix came to interview
him again and again. Festus felt sure it would give
pleasure to both King Agrippa and his wife. There
was a harmony between the man and his message,
both were constraining, never repellent.

Paul's Hearing was acute. When before the
Sanhedrin, amid no hushed assembly, he caught the
whispered contentions between Pharisee and Sadducee
which enabled him confidently to throw the apple of
discord and to call out with his commanding tones,
" It is because of my hope of a resurrection of the dead
that I am on my trial." This voice of his, implied no
important vacancies among his teeth (notwithstand-
ing the brutal blow ordered to be administered against
his mouth), else he would never be distinctly heard,
but that voice rang among the hurtling storm, when,
also in another storm, he rebuked the officers for
discarding his advice against leaving Crete, and yet
more impressively when all hope was gone, he exhor-
ted all to take a decent meal, before they committed
themselves to the waves. Although his ears were full
of sea water when the kind natives appeared, he could
discover they were not speaking Greek and were,
therefore, " Barbarians." But his eyes, his wonderful
eyes were, after his mouth, the most speaking feature
in his face. It has been imagined that his meeting
eyebrows gave him the sinister appearance of a
Corsican Brigand ! If his brows met, it was to shake
hands and swear friendship to Life's end. This brow-
beating of Paul has been overdone. The idolaters

PAUL'S PERSONAXITY 221

of Lystra believed Paul was Mercury, that pleasing
diplomatist from Olympus.

No ! The wonderful effect that Paul produced by
" fixing his eyes," was because there was a soul behind
those windows, aflame with truth and holy zeal, before
which pretensions fled and evil sank trembling upon
extinction.

Farrar, in his elaborate accusation of Paul's good
eyes, builds with strange materials. The blinding vision
which produced the conversion, is supposed to have
left a lamentable entail, seriously handicapping the
Apostle in his Epistolary labours. Now our Lord
never did His wonderful miracles in a bungling manner.
His cures were perfect. Ananias was sent as the
Lord's viceregent, and " scales fell from his eyes," Was
the work only half done ? The idea is blasphemous.
But it is imagined that Paul " wot not that it was the
High Priest." It was not uncommon for the Court to
sit under a Proxy, Paul might readily believe that
such a brutal order could not proceed from the High
Priest. When Eutychus made a noise at the window,
and afterwards the shuddering assembly heard the
thud of his body, Paul did not call for a light, but ran
down stairs in a strange house, lame leg and all, and
after the embrace of his vigorous vitality, restoring
the youth, this " weak, bodily presence " ran up the
stairs again to comfort the brethren, and did not break
his shins, for want of either candles or spectacles.
But yet again, when all were shivering upon the
Strand of Melita and Luke highly commended making
a fire, Paul was seen carrying an armful of sticks.
Now it betokened uncommon good eyesight to distin-
guish the dry sticks from the wet, when Melita had
been, drenched by pitiless rain for weeks. Paul had

222 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

been preaching the same sermon, but there is nothing
Uke preaching and practising in one and the same
moment.

It has been imagined that Paul's bad eyesight com-
pelled him to employ an amanuensis, and that he was
clumsy in forming the Greek letters. This does not
comport with his own handwriting in several final ex-
hortations and directions as to discipline. And more
important, his compendious summaries of the essential
truths he was advocating, he reserved to write by
himself. Did he mean to make the most important
portions of his messages unintelligible and undecipher-
able by bad writing through bad eyesight ?

The idea is preposterous, rather we may believe
that his anxiety was lest the amanuensis was not
writing so well and so clearly as he himself could.
Therefore he would make sure of the vital portions.

A far more natural supposition is this. Paul, like
most great men, was an economist of time. And dis-
cerning that the monotonous labour of the loom did not
hinder the compositions of his Epistles, he asked a
friend, or hired a Synagogue schoolmaster, to take
down what he dictated. Indeed, the concentration
upon the manual business, aided his concentration
upon his deep theological disquisitions ; although for
want of having his previous sentences always before
his eyes, the closeness and coherency of the reasoning
was impaired, and led to beclouding digressions.
This manner of killing two birds by one stone— earning
money at the loom and taking up the threads of his
arguments against his adversaries, may account for
much of Paul's characteristic style. Supposing him
dictating his Epistle to the Galatians. He has made
preparations for a good piece of tent-making, but look-

PAUL'S PERSONALITY 223

ing at last night's work, he finds it is all going wrong,
and a lot of it really wants undoing. Yet the begin-
ning was so good. It all reinforces his keen regret and
disgust as he calls up the tidings he has received from
Galatia. The glorious liberty to which he had intro-
duced those Churches had been fatally tampered with.
The true foundations of the new Christian Life had
been subtilely undermined. The Jewish fetters of
legality were being worn by the Free Woman— as orna-
ments recommending the Bride, the Church, to the
Bridegroom 1 Under the stress of his bitter disap-
pointment, he sets himself at the loom, the amanuensis
awaiting his words. The loom goes wrong, like the
Churches. Irritated by the obstruction— he is detained
and starts again. Before long there is another break-
down, but the Epistle is persevered with, though male-
dictions arise to his lips against the treacherous
machine and yet more emphatically against the false
teachers who had undone his splendid work.

The work had been going on smoothly for some time
and the luminous and energetic arguments duly deve-
loped. With calmness and complacency he draws to
a conclusion with both his " stint " and his Epistle,
but he shouts out, " Be not deceived, God is not
mocked "—and the treadles tremble under his feet—
" for whatsoever a man sows that shall he likewise
reap. He that sows to the flesh, shall of the same,
reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of
the Spirit reap Life Everlasting. Let us not abate
our courage in doing what is right, for in due
time we shall reap a reward, if we do not faint. So
then, as we have opportunity, let us labour for the
good of all, and especially for those who belong to the
household of the faith." But here the Apostle calls to

224 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

his amanuensis to " Stop! " as he himself will conclude
the Epistle. Leaving his loom and taking up the
calamus, he desires to emphasise his deepest convic-
tions. This he will do, as editors, now-a-days, by un-
derlining for bold type the most essential portions of
a speech, so will Paul write in ** large letters '*

(UrfXiKT) ypaKficuri) Gal. vi., ii.

" But God forbid that I should glory, save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is
crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor un-
circumcision, but a renewed nature.'* And all who
shall regulate their lives by that principle may peace
and mercy be given to them, and to the true Israel of
God. " From this time onward let no one trouble me,
for as for me, I bear, branded on my body, the scars
of Jesus as my Master."

Having disposed, as I think, of Dean Farrar's
" thorn," I offer the suggestion that Paul was afflicted
by stammerings not habitually, far from it, but when
subject to weakness, through hardships or attacks of
influenza. When called upon to exercise his Apostolic
office and especially when bearing testimony to Jesus
Christ crucified and risen again, Paul knew neither
weakness nor fear and his powerful pleadings made
Felix tremble and Agrippa almost persuaded. The
promise given by his Lord was, on these indicated oc-
casions, amply fulfilled. But there were other occa-
sions when he was designedly left to experience the
weakness of bodily infirmity, so that God might be
magnified and His human instrument made ever de-
pendent. Paul felt it keenly, when reaching the
Churches of Galatia, he found himself really unable
to expound the glad tidings in an effective manner,

PAUL'S PERSONALITY 225

half prostrated by influenza, and his infirmity of stam-
mering quite uncontrollable. But it becomes not the
messengers of salvation to Avithhold the message be-
cause they are not at ease or full of power. It is for
them to subdue reluctance and awaken resolution to
suffer and endure, and to brave the scorn and con-
tempt of opposers, if by any means some may be
saved. And though Paul's bodily presence was nec-
essarily weak, and his stammering speech invoked
contempt, he was not to be debarred from availing his
opportunity. His stumbling attempts even excited
his auditors to greater attention. His y— y— y became

afa

X^pis, his TT — TT — IT became Trums, his \iva — \va — ■'
became 'avda-rao-is. So that the joyful tidings so
worked finally upon the deriders that they were
ready to give their eyes to become possessors of the
like faith that the Apostle enjoyed.

But when the good seed had fallen upon the good
ground, Paul was upon his knees before his Maker.
Why was he not aided as aforetime before the tribun-
als ? The sheep were hungry and athirst and the great
opportunity was lost through human infirmity.
So the complaining Apostle pursued the throne of
grace with importunities, that this grievous thorn of
the flesh might depart from him. The answer was,
" My grace is sufficient for thee." Yes ! God's grace,
availing for both physical infirmity and moral. While
Paul was still under the tent of his mortal tabernacle
he was not allowed to forget the passions which grace
overcame and the temptations which fell away before
the glory of the Cross. The Roman Catholic ex-
positions appear to have been engrossed by carnal
conceptions of the thorn. But while that would be an

226 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

unworthy aspersion, it would be well not to dismiss
entirely their misconceptions.

To provide water for the city of Liverpool, the
Corporation acquired a lake in North Wales. The
adjacent shores were bordered by several parish
church-yards. To dam the streams and enlarge the
area of the submerged tract, the bodies were reverently
removed and the churchyards cemented. Now, a
great enlargement of Heavenly influences. Less of
earth and more of Heaven is reflected where formerly
was corruption. Liverpool knows that the water is
pure. Heaven's plentiful rains of Compassion love
to fall on that reservoir. But who knows, when look-
ing down those crystal depths, if that tiny staggering
bubble which finally reaches the surface and bursts
may not have issued from a crack in the cement ?

Angels, nevertheless are ready to drink it, for Paul
had died to sin, and by the sufficient grace of God,
his thorns of the flesh of all kinds are hindrances no
more.

CHAPTER XX.

Antioch (continued).

So we now can see more clearly what sort of man the
Apostle Paul was. Though Barnabas took him in
hand at Antioch, the positions were reversed after
and during the first Cyprian journey.

No weakling depending upon the benevolent bulk
of Barnabas, but one who had had already great ex-
perience in making converts, having been nigh four-
teen years at it— an old hand— before ever they had
promenaded together the long Spanish paseo and made
knots of motley passers by stop and list awhile,
and some would come secretly in the evening
to know what the glad news meant. A whole year
of happy fellowship ! More than once the earth
trembled and looked as if it wanted to swallow up the
guilty masquers, or belike spur them into the Orontes.
It rumbled and made its protest— a fevered world
tossing from side to side. And astonished Pagans,
who got no evangel from their votive offerings, stopped
to hear of a coming King, Whose rule would transform
the nations and usher in the Golden Age. Death
buried without resurrection and Life risen and guaran-
teed for ever. This astonishing message compelled
the Antiochese to list. And the approach of the
Judgment Day was so sure as death itself. Yes !
While they spake, the walls would begin to rock,
statues begin to tumble from their pedestals and the
affrighted populace gather uix the heights. The
Apostles— ever under Angel guardianship— would

228 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

follow the people, Paul raising his voice and using
words he had written in Arabia. " See that ye refuse
not Him that speaketh, for if they escaped not who
refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not
we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh
from Heaven, Whose voice then shook the earth, but
now He hath promised, saying, ' Yet once more I shake
not the earth only, but also Heaven. And this word.
Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things
that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those
things which cannot be shaken may remain. Where-
fore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved,
let us have grace, whereby we may serve God accept-
ably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a
consuming fire." (Hebrews xii. 25—29.)

If fourteen years of ceaseless, but unrecorded
Evangelism must be credited to St. Paul in
Damascus, Arabia, and the provinces adjacent to
Tarsus, the much shorter period of the sojourn
in Antioch, of the Apostles Barnabas and Paul,
must nevertheless have appeared to both of them
a long and deeply fruitful preparation. They
were in a new city, under new circumstances, and
engaged in the entirely novel enterprise of founding
and organizing a new religion, absolutely foreign, and
in its nature acutely differing from all the reigning
superstitions of the world. Under such circumstances
moments become years, and to, perhaps, Paul the
two years at Csesarea and those at Rome may have
been shorter than those vivid months of Antiochian
stone laying.

Antioch, too, was just the representative of what
Paganism could and could not do for humanity, apart
from a Divine revelation.

ANTIOCH ' ' 229

Its social base was the gross crime of slavery and
upon it leisure and largess became the rights of the
freed citizens. Even Julian acknowledged that the
sustenance of his people was the special province of a
sovereign, but he could not see his way out of the
problem, otherwise than by the denial to all natural
rights and privileges to the majority.

Christianity came to enfranchise the whole human
family. Millions might lift their hands in chains, but
their hearts realized an unassailable freedom, and the
bitterest yoke that men could impose was snapped by
the simple acceptance of the Lordship of Christ. To
give actuality to things future, as well as spiritual
exaltation, Christianity preached the positive and un-
challengeable truth of a physical resurrection and the
Eternal Life, in which master and slave should join in
crowning the Liberator of the Race.

A resurrection to judgment was not less explicitly
proclaimed ; and the certainty of crimes against God
and humanity incurring a due recompense of reward,
vindicated the Divine justice, while it urged accep-
tance of mercy through the Ransomer and Absolver.

The civilizations of the East and the West united
in this capital city to expose the worthlessness of both.
In their heart of hearts the Antiochians were weary
and disgusted with life. The most fortunate of them
were only refined animals, whom Daphne pronounced
fools : and who paced the long promenade, porticoed
and statue lined, knowing that, however shade might
be chequered occasionally by sun, at the end of life's
journey there remained the everlasting darkness of
the grave, whose only flash was the gleam of an aveng-
ing sword 1 Pause 1 Pause ! poor Antiochians. Two
strangers are speaking, and a knot is gathering. Even

280 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

a heavily laden slave has stopped without depositing
his burden. He hears. " Come unto Me, all ye that
labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am
meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto
your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is
light."

The Jew usurer and the Gentile slave owner are
alike arrested. They pause, and the clown, the
charioteer and the gladiator augment the crowd, until
the Lictors also are added to the group ; and before
it is dispersed, seeds have been deposited, as birds
plant woods, and the Church at Antioch grew- for the
soil was hungry.

Now let us revert to the authentic records of how
the Christian Church began. After the Triune God,
fully manifested at Pentecost, it would seem that
neither Peter nor Paul, but Stephen should be credited
as the actual founder and chief propagator of the
blessed Evangel. It was the power of Stephen's
preaching that so stirred up the hierarchy that it
readily listened to Paul's urgent entreaties to give him
power to persecute to death the hateful sect which
threatened the fulfilments of the Abrahamic promise.
Then when Paul became chief inquisitor, his raging
zeal scattered the infant Church, which was driven in
various directions to Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch,
delivering the message in the first instance to none
but Jews. But some of them were Cypriotes and
Cyrenians, who, on coming to Antioch spoke to the
Hellenistic Jews and to the Greeks also and told them
the good news concerning the Lord Jesus. The power
of the Lord was with them, and there were a vast
number who believed and turned to the Lord. Then,

ANTIOCH 231

when tidings of this reached the ears of the Church at
Jerusalem, they sent Barnabas as far as Antioch.
" On getting there he was delighted to see the grace
which God had bestowed, and he encouraged them
all to remain, with fixed resolve, faithful to the Lord.
For he was a good man and was full of the Holy Spirit
and of faith, and the number of believers in the Lord
greatly increased." It is clear that if we desired to
commemorate the first founders of Christianity, the
principal names have not fully come down to us. We
have enshrined the Apostles on the West front of
many Cathedrals, in porches and in Parish pulpits,
and Barnabas has not been omitted, but of the earliest,
and probably the most suffering, we have no records.
It is fitting for the nobility of heroes that oblivion
should roll over their names.

In the immeasurably inferior department of the
world's progress — modern civilization— a crowd of
inventors and improvers will ever remain unrecog-
nised. The clever engine fitter or apprentice suggests
a new device. It is brought to the notice of the
chief constructor, its value perceived, and a few
shillings may reward the artizan, while the firm patent
the discovery. The patent, perhaps, jogs the stock
exchange and creates fortunes for brokers ; but the
firm, for want of Tariff Reform, gets into bankruptcy,
and the wife of the inventor appears before the Board
of Guardians.

It is the Innominata who bless the world, but here
and there we pick up a wreath that has been thrown
away and should rightly be brought back to adorn the
brows of a real benefactor. If I mistake not it was
the late Isaac Holden, M.P., an honourable employer
of labour, who in early days discovered that matches,

232 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

dipped in phosphorus, might with great advantage
supersede flint and steel. He did not consider that
his highest duty in life was to make money, but passed
on the notion to a struggling chemist, who, I believe,
made something out of it, while the original inventor
made no claim. This incomparable invention, which
has rescued from the clutches of Time myriads of
moments, formerly lost in the vain effort to get light,
and has ministered more comfort, more convenience
and more material wealth than all the mines of Gol-
conda (for Time is money), was made a present to the
world without compensation.

The invention had its tragic sequel in the injuries
inflicted upon the " hands " employed, who when kept
awake at night by acute phossy jaw could wish the
inventor had never been born. Nor can the wretched
match-box makers be more grateful, whose 2jd. per
gross cannot keep them from slipping into the grave.
That though is the fault of "" business " and the want
of Tariff Reform— not of the inventor— who ought to
be placed in a Pantheon. His merit might move the
hearts of flint and steel, and evoked at least a spark of
gratitude.

But Avaunt ! horrible modern " civilization ! **
The bright streets of Antioch are before us, with its
slaves, who were never required to earn phossy jaw,
and walk erect, noble in gait, unmaimed, uncrippled,
unwounded and not stunted and disfigured, or suffer-
ing from trade diseases as Great Britain's industrial
workers do. We are considering the Light of the World
the light that never shone on land or sea and the illum-
ination of the Pagan nations in regard to the unknown
future. And as we think of the light which bridged
the gulf between time and eternity we wonder if the

ANTIOCH 233

circumstances of the people this side of Eternity have
been improved by the new Evangel, if the few happy
death beds are an adequate recompense for the seas of
blood, which carrying the Cross as a battle cry, has
occasioned ? There could be no question about the
answer, if material progress had not insisted upon
marching pari passu with Christianity. Material
progress is always inimical to spiritual progress,
what feeds the former starves the latter. Our
precious modern civilisation is doomed.

Lithe, straight and stalwart, the Antiochians paced
the ways of their bright metropolis. "If we are
only insects of a larger growth," they may have
thought, " let us disport ourselves upon the wing,
while the sun shines ; our companions in swarms
encourage us." But sprinkled among the careless
crowd are a few of the Nazarenes— the fruit of Paul's
persecution. A voice is heard speaking, and the idle
and leisured class and the unemployed stop to
hearken. " Man is not a creature," crushed like a
moth, he is higher than your gods, he is the Son and
Heir of the Highest, if you will only receive it ;
and the Highest is hungering to number you among
His Holy Family. The Highest has sent His Son
to show how you can be lifted up to fellowship with
Himself and become co-heirs of all things. But
you have been defacing every trace of your high
origin. Your sins make you loathsome to the Supreme,
and you have been busy with tearing up your Title
Deeds. Hearken now ! The Most High God has
come down in the person of His own dear Son. He
is the Messiah, predicted by all the Prophets of the
Jews, and He came to do His Father's will and finally
to offer Himself a Sacrifice for the sins of the world.

234 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Accept Him ! and your sins are washed away by His
blood. Accept Him ! and your forfeited title deeds
are restored to you. Let His love for you upon the
Cross quicken yours, and you will gradually grow into
the mind and heart and will of the Holy Son of God,
our Saviour. We are able, from our acquaintance with
Him and from having seen and felt Him, after He
had risen from the dead, to give you proof that He
is the Redeemer of the World. Moreover, after His
sin offering was accomplished, and after He had
risen from the dead, He and His Father shed forth
His Holy Spirit, of which we have also been witnesses,
and have been endowed with gifts to withstand our
Adversary, the Devil, and claim our title to mansions
in the skies. The Holy Spirit which testifies to
Jesus Christ, remains in the world to move men's
hearts towards allegiance and love. Admit Him !
as He now is knocking at your hearts and you will
become sick of sin and turn from all lying vanities
to the living God. Repent and Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, and you Antiochians
may become sharers of His Eternal Life.

Sick from the circus— cursing the groves of Daphne.
The Antiochians stand, pause, consider, and an
emotion siezes them that never possessed them before.
They heed, credit and espouse the faith of the story
told in simplicity by the mouths of no self-seeking
preachers.

To become Sons of God ! They hang their heads
in shame. A warm hand is slipped into theirs, and
the attentive listener is invited to come to their
meeting place. " We shall meet for worship this
evening and you will be further instructed." Thus
a great number who had learnt to believe came over

ANTIOCH 235

to the Lord's side. Before the tidings reached the
Church at Jerusalem ; before Barnabas was sent
thither, and before the great Tarsian was discovered
and before he with Barnabas stood together in the
streets of the Queen of the East, Antioch began to
hold the cup of her sorceries with a shaking hand.

At this time, when Caligala was continuing his
fooleries, and Matthew was busy writing his Gospel,
certain Prophets came down from Jerusalem to
Antioch, one of whom, named Agabus, being in-
structed by the Spirit, publicly predicted the speedy
coming of a great famine throughout the world.
It came in the reign of Claudius, for the reign of his
predecessor was cut short by assassination after four
years. Then the disciples decided to send relief,
every one in proportion to his means, to the brethren
living in Judaea. This they did, forwarding their
contributions to the Elders by Barnabas and Saul.
How do our Sceptics account for this prediction and
its literal and exact fulfilment ?

Why Judea should be the general beggar and carry
round the bag to the infant communities in Asia
is hard to understand. No greater stigma could
justly attach to the Jewish ecclesiastical system of
that day than the fact that the wealthiest religious
corporation in the world allowed its own members to
starve and require the alms of distant proselytes.
I doubt that the proscription was made on religious
grounds. It was on account of the general disregard
to the claims of the poor, on the part of the highly
placed and plundering Priesthood during this especi-
ally corrupt period. Jerusalem was simply rolling
in riches, by reason of the sacrificial system, and
the capital during the Festivals was crammed by

236 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

visitors and worshippers ; all of them, by Levitical
obligation, compelled to send the river Pactolus
sweeping through the corridors and surrounding the
Altars of the ever grasping Priesthood.

When the scarcity arrived, one Avould have thought
they would have sent messages, in decency, to say
that no contributions from proselytes, home or
foreign, were looked for. But it was the case of our
Lord's parable. The poor of Jerusalem, assaulted
and wounded by the predicted famine, the Priest
and the Levite passed on the other side, and the Good
Samaritans of Asia, who never had the great oppor-
tunities that Jerusalem regularly enjoyed, were left
to come to the rescue.

Paul's hands were the sorer for it, but he had had
so many strokes on his back already that it never
occurred to him to complain. On the contrary, he
urged everybody to work the harder ; to send a good
offering to the neglected poor of Jerusalem, where the
Chief Priests were surfeited with riches.

But we return to ask, how do the Rationalists
explain this appearance of Agabus— only one of a
number of prophets, commissioned and enabled to
predict with historical certainty the great scarcity
in the reign of Claudius ? This would have been a
fine opportunity to wreck the fortunes of the new
religion, by exposing how the new Prophets egre-
giously failed in regard to everything they had fore-
told. But unfortunately for their expectant enemies
the issue hoped for was accurately the opposite.
Every detail came to pass and in the predicted time
announced.

The Apostles had no misgivings all through, and
the groups of believers began forthwith to lay up

ANTIOCH 237

week by week to be ready to meet the expected
occasion. A few, perhaps, might wish that their
savings might be spared them, even at the cost of
the non-verification, but the verification did come
with unerring certainty. God is not slack concerning
either His promises or His threatenings.

Now this is important, because it occurred in the
Christian age of miracles. Deny miracles and say it
was the simplicity of the unscientific spectators that
made them credible, and you are confronted by the
miracle of prophecy.

The history of St. Luke is generally accepted as
faithful and true. Agabus did publicly proclaim
everywhere that the famine was coming and the
miracle of its fulfilment was vindicated by con-
temporaries, and subsequently confirmed by scholars
and historians. But nothing is so absurd but the
Rationalists can swallow it. The gift of prophecy
exists to-day, possessed, not by the Baxterites or the
Cummingites, but by obscure men such as founded
the Christian Church at Antioch, who handed down
to posterity no other name but Christ.

Another historical miracle comes to pass aptly at
this juncture. The historian transfers us from
Antioch to Jerusalem. King Herod (grandson of
Herod the Great) arrested certain members of the
Church to curry favour with the heirarchy, and he
beheaded James, John's brother. The glorious
Apostle so specially favoured to witness, with Peter
and John, supreme manifestations of Our Lord's
miraculous power, drops out of history— silently
withdraws, even as the High Priest passes to the
Holy of Holies and we see him no more. Finding
that this gratified the Jews, he proceeded to seize

238 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Peter also : these being the days of unleavened
bread. Herod Agrippa was determined to preserve
his popularity. Innocence or guilt was not the
question, but what was politic. The heirarchy was
perpetually assailing the ear of the King who from
Claudius had acquired the reconstituted Kingdom
of his grandfather and urging that the Nazarenes
menaced that eminently profitable Dominion, handed
down from Moses.

Yes ! Policy was to be listened to. Was it not
the god of Fortune which assisted his steps to the
throne ? So, having beheaded James and reaping
one sheaf of popularity, he proceeded to acquire
another by procuring Peter's execution. Then he
would be doubly sure and his Dominion would outlast
his predecessor's. What a pity that another Agabus
was not at hand to warn him. He was away at
Antioch. But take every care, Oh, you immacu-
late High Priest, to remove every leaven of malice
and wickedness. Don't let a particle of ferment enter
your gullet, especially when you enter the King's
chamber to whisper in his ear.

The King will haplessly hear and give order to
lodge Peter in jail, handing him over to the care of
sixteen soldiers ! and intending after the Passover
to bring him out again to the people. No doubt to
execute him. So " man proposes and God disposes."
Peter was kept in prison, but long and fervent prayer
was offered to God by the Church on his behalf.
That marplot was the prayer meeting. The great
State Measure was maturing and Herod expected
the same brilliant results as from his stroke against
James. One could almost pity him ! Who, thinks
he, are those canting Nazarenes to stand in the way

ANTIOCH 239

of his divine will ! Oh ! if he could have heard their
Ohs and Ahs and Amens at their absurd prayer
meeting, it might have lent zest to his supper. " But,
Attendant ! Is this unleavened ? " " No, Sire ! "
" Then bring me the other, if you want to keep your
head upon your shoulders."

Agrippa sleeps pleasantly— all goes so prosperously.
Peter is to be brought out to-morrow for public
execution. The Devil administered to him nice
opium pills. But Peter slept still better, although he
was bound with two chains, between two soldiers,
and guards were on duty outside the door !

Suddenly an Angel of the Lord stood by him and
a light shone in the cell. The Angel struck Peter on
the side and roused him with the words, " Get up,
quickly." The chains dropped from his wrists and
then the Angel said, " Put on your girdle and sandals."
When Peter had done so, the Angel added, " Throw
your cloak round you and follow me." Peter followed
him out, not knowing that what was happening under
the Angel's guidance was real, but thinking that
he was seeing a vision. Passing the first guard, and
then the second, they came to the iron gate leading
into the city, which opened to them of itself ; and
when they had passed through that, and had walked
along one street, all at once the angel left him.
Then Peter came to himself and said : Now I know
beyond all doubt that the Lord has sent his Angel
and has rescued me from Herod's hands, and from
all that the Jewish people have been expecting.

As soon as he realised what had happened, he went
to the house of Mary, the mother of John, who was
also known as Mark, where a number of people
were gathered together, praying. On his knocking

240 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

at the door in the gate, a maidservant, named Rhoda,
came to answer it. She recognised Peter's voice,
but in her joy left the gate unopened, and ran in
and told them that Peter was standing outside.
" You are mad ! " they exclaimed. But when she
persisted that it was so, they said, " It must be his
spirit." Meanwhile Peter went on knocking, and
when they opened the gate and saw him, they were
amazed. Peter signed to them with his hand to be
silent, and then told them how the Lord had brought
him out of the prison, adding : " Tell James and
the Brethren all this." Then he left them and went
to another place (Acts xii. 7 — 17, Twentieth Century
N.T., and Weymouth).

When morning came, there was no little commotion
among the soldiers as to Avhat could have possibly
become of Peter. And when Herod had had him
searched for and could not find him ; after sharply
questioning the guards, he ordered them away to
execution. He then went down from Judaea to
Caesarea and remained there.

Soon the worms had their work to do, being com-
missioned and obedient to God, and Herod's spirit
was conveyed to its appointed place. I wonder how
many was the guard composed of whom Herod
ordered to be executed for failing to withstand the
Delivering Angel's power. Did their spirits— four
or sixteen— look into Herod's face, worms and all,
as he was conducted to the shades below ? He had
attendants and unleavened Justice there !

At this juncture the writer of this book fell asleep
and dreamed. He saw the world as it was in the
ages before man had appeared. Africa and Australia
were submerged : in greater part, Arabia, Russia

ANTIOCH 241

and Central Asia were scarcely above the waves.
Points of Cumberland and the Malvern Hills were
lonely rocks and the Highlands of Scotland were
Lowlands. The troubles of Erin had not arisen
to dismay and confound Liberal Legislators and
before Lloyd George was born there were spitfires
at Criccieth and Snowdon.

The Plesiosauris, the Iguanodon and other mis-
shapen monsters roared and lashed in the brine, and
the white foam upon rocky shores was dashed with
the blood of brutal contests.

Those beasts reared their horrid forms and at
night seemed to carry away a portion of the stars
when they swung their necks and legs. There also
the Pterodactyl spread its wing, and when rising,
shut off constellations in the East and by the other
wing shut off other constellations in the West. It
was an age of monsters, and the horror of it slowly
passed away.

By-and-bye came on a softer scene, and a race of
apes believed itself at the pinnacle of perfected
animal creation. Those apes believed themselves
to be the aim of evolution, and no higher organisms
were to dominate the planet. After them nothing
could possibly supervene.

I heard their chatter in the Amazonian forest.
It was a glorious evening. The sun had put on a
tiara of rubies and shot his crimson arrows through
the close green copses —shooting them high and
higher as he sank, until the last sprays of twig and
leaf looked black at a smiling moon.
h Then arose the voice of the baboons. " So listen
to the accents of wisdom. Guard your tails and
never allow them to grow less."

242 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

He was swinging from a lofty bough and had his
appendage firmly twisted ; from which coin of
advantage he, in a meditative manner, swung back-
wards and forwards. It assisted him in his reflections,
as it now does some Cabinet Ministers when they
are in the wood.

" Observe," continued the baboon, '' the animal
races have attained to the summit of perfection.
We are now the dominant race. The drama of crea-
tion closes with the apes in the ascendant. Our
pride and our ornament are our tails. By them we
can climb the diz*^iest heights, make them straight
or crooked, and never fear falling upon our feet or
our heads. Our heads, you will observe, are not so
remarkable ; we cannot stand upon our heads,
neither can we understand. But our tailsy which
have come down from our ancestors, are true tails,
and any member of our genus bringing with him a
different, a new, or (pretending to be) a superior
tail should be promptly put to death.

" Furthermore, as I am getting old, I want to
speak to you in the warning tones of a sage. We
had amongst us a young monkey who asserted that
it would be well if our tails were cut off, and what was
the consequence ? He had a great fall. And not
being able to rise so high in the world as the others,
he took to star gazing. Now that habit is fatal. The
proper object of contemplation is the ground. Let
yourselves drop and study the ground. Set your
affections upon the things below, not above. Rise
as high as you can, but never believe that nuts fall
down from Heaven. If a nut is presented to you as
from above— a new fact— called, I believe, a * miracle.'
If you cannot crack it, then throw it away. You

ANTIOCH 248

can be sure there is nothing in it. We know what
we know. There are no nuts anywhere except those
that are grown in our forest. And as for those young
monkeys who pretend that they can crack those
nuts which fall from Heaven, and that they are
sweet and nourishing and give strength and vision—
don't believe them for a moment. You will know
them by their tails, which are non est^

The sage then closed his eyes and a group of
admiring parrakeets, as green as green, who were
taking in everything, echoed in chorus, " You will
know them by their tails.'*

Here I awoke, and began to wonder whether man
had really come to be the dominant race, and that
the ape dynasty had come to an end.

CHAPTER XXI.

Paul's First Missionary Journey.

'' The Word of God grew and multiplied. And
Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, when
they had fulfilled their ministry, and took with them
John, whose surname was Mark. Now there were in
the Church that was at Antioch certain prophets and
teachers ; as Barnabas and Simeon that was called
Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene and Manaen, which
had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and
Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the
Holy Ghost said : Separate me Barnabas and Saul for
the work whereunto I have called them. And when
they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands
on them, they sent them away " (Acts xii. 24 — 25 ;
xiii. 1—3).

Happy was that Church at Antioch which pos-
sessed Prophets and Teachers, and also praying and
fasting men, who prevailed to wrest a blessing upon
its Messengers.

The three great nations who were called to plant
the Christian Church were represented in Barnabas,
the Jew, Lucius a Hellenistic Proselyte, and Manaen,
doubtless a Roman, educated with the two Herods,
Antipas and Archelaus. " Greek cultivation and
Roman polity prepared man for Christianity." And
now this favoured Church has been silenced by
Moslem power for 1,300 years. And the Christian
Powers have confederated to uphold that desolating
and cruel tyranny, which still blights the most

PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY 245

favoured regions of Europe and Asia. Assuredly
Christendom will be made to bear the penalty.

Let us turn from the painful reflection and now
consider the mission party, designated, anointed,
and sent to undertake the Holy Spirit's bidding.

Paul, we know, an old hand at preaching, though
no records have come to us, Barnabas, who impover-
ished himself, in surrendering land to the community,
and John Mark, the young disciple whose invaluable
Gospel is deemed to be prior to the other three, and
for facts was the foundation of the Synoptists.

Barnabas ranked as a '' Prophet," Saul as a
" Teacher," but that secondary place was combined
with the first place of all— his Apostleship. Without
doubt the Holy Spirit conveyed to the Missionaries
the route that they were to take. Barnabas, a
native of the Island, may have been the first to
suggest Cyprus, and Paul, who, in his frequent sea
passages to and from Jerusalem ever preserved his
premonitory persuasions regarding his destined ac-
tion upon it, perceived the fulfilment of his pre-
determined career. It is not for man to direct his
steps.

How happy and confident that mission band,
sent out by the Holy Spirit ! Unlike those worldlings
who go by their own lights, or trimmed by reputed
wise counsellors, " shrewd men." Christian enter-
prise has no place for the " shrewd " man. He is
usually a born scamp and yet that kind readily get
into certain Diaconites.

They were told to go to Cyprus. Curious how
islands are favoured. The monks of old could not
resist islands. Almost every island within reach of
the mainland was an object of desire. And archaeolo-

246 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

gists (an unhappy family) revel in disputes over the
use and meaning of ruins, respecting which the rabbits
often know as much as the Savants.

But going behind the Druids, lately the most
wonderful discoveries have been made in Crete,
which, like Cyprus, was linked to and faced Europe,
Asia and Africa. The missing link between the
crude Art and Architecture of Egypt and the per-
fection reached in Greece formed a problem which
recently received partial solution. Cretan civilisa-
tion presents the middle stages of the progressive
arts in antiquity. The island imported what Egypt
had originated and brought towards Grecian perfec-
tion what the Dynasty of Cretan Kings was pleased
to adopt and mature. The sanitation of the Palace
at the Capital anticipated the English methods
which Berlin and the rest of Europe is slowly copying.
It would be strange if Cyprus should not have taken
a course similar to Crete. Cyprus had a dynasty of
Kings, and Ethiopians which supplied the slave
class, for without slavery no civilisation ever arises
or remains. The day when the manumission of
slaves, white and black, is consummated, will be
one where the " simple life " will rule, and the pride
and pomp of circumstance of wealth and power
will neither create nor reward the adepts of the Fine
arts. Luxury will be regarded as a barbarism, and
exquisite nourishments to the senses, a very inferior
diet for immortal man.

No spade has been driven far beneath the surface
of Cyprus as yet ; but we must be glad that our
Beaconsfield rescued a small portion of the Moslem
Empire and made it British, which should invite
Archgeologist Evans to go to Cyprus and do there

PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY 247

what he has done so splendidly in Crete. Doubtless
he would find that Cyprus also supplied a halfway
house on the way to Athenian glories.

But we are concerned now with greater glories
than those. The Artificers of man's soul are on
board. Chrysostom, Athanasius, and Leighton have
yet to be heard. Christendom is bobbing up and
down in the harbour of Seleucia, and John Mark is
wondering whether he is Stoic enough to stand the
sea voyage. I don't suppose though that he ever
heard that Zeno the Stoic was born in a humble
village in Cyprus, and after teaching 58 years in
Athens, and living to the age of 98, and having hurt
his big toe on a stone, his stoicism gave way, and he
killed himself in despair after delivering his last
lecture.

Conybeare and Howson say that "It is not
necessary, though quite allowable, to suppose that
this particular course (making for the island of
Cyprus) was divinely indicated in the original revela-
tion at Antioch." We beg pardon of the reverend
authors and deem it marvellous that they should
question it. They might as well imagine that the
landing of Julius Caesar at Pevensey, thus founding the
greatest Empire that the world has yet seen, occurred
through a " wise discretion " on the part of the
Roman General simply. Let us believe, if we have
Christian sanity, that nothing " happens, " every thing
is ordained.

It is therefore that when as often Paul saw the
summits of Cyprus, and he felt that he was to know
those mountains again (though the ship was not
carrying the cross for the first time*), he was not at

♦ Acts XI. 19, 20.

248 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

all surprised that the Spirit entered the minds of the
Missionaries and gave them the '' wise discretion "
to go to Cyprus and nowhere else, on peril of their
immortal souls.

It is scarcely likely that the Apostles went by
water to Seleucia. The windings of the Orontes are
so tortuous that over 40 miles would have to be
traversed instead of 16 miles by land. If, however,
the former mode of transit was selected, the irritating
windings of the muddy stream would present a scene
of rocky picturesqueness— the bluffs of the Wye on
a larger scale. Arrived at Salamis, the trading ship
would be moored to piers of Roman construction.
Massive stones, some of them 20ft. long, by 5 or 6
wide, fastened by iron cramps, attest the magnitude
of engineering operations, usual in antiquity, before
steam was known, but slavery not unknown.

The eyes of Barnabas and of Mark would be
familiar with the enormous water works connected
with clearing the Harbour, also with the handsome
Gate of Antioch and the immense fortress, where was
the tomb of the founder of his Dynasty. And the
vessel clearing itself from the merchantmen, and the
coasting vessels, laden with the rich produce of
Cyprus, whose packings, shreds, peelings, and garbage
dotted the surface of the now clearing waters, would
stand at length right out to sea, enabling the voyagers
to scan the whole bay on the left, the lowlands sopping
into the marge, the wild and woody country rising
behind it, and finally Mount Casius, lifting itself from
the edge of the sea to a height of above 5,000 feet.

Barnabas and Mark would nudge and shake him,
but Paul's back was to the panorama, though Aureas
might have strewed gold upon it. His face was to

PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY 249

his work, to the places and the persons whom he
was predestined to meet— predestined before the
foundations of the world. Besides, when St. Paul
was deeply moved, could not speak, He gazed and
whispered only to God— his thanks and joy.

Here at length— Salamis, quite a great city, a
spacious harbour, numerous synagogues, an active
and prosperous population, broad and fruitful fields
behind, and finally hills, borrowing azure from the
Heavens.

So he was at last, with souls waiting at Heaven's
gate, which he was to unlock and none but he. We
are told nothing about it. But that the Messengers of
Antioch did not delay to deliver their embassage is
certain. The pious Jews would welcome the strangers.
They would be given opportunity to speak, would
make the Staggering Evangel, would divide the
assemblies into hostile camps, certain among them
would receive the truth into their souls, and be born
again, as was decreed before the foundations of the
world.

The Apostles, led by the spirit, made for the seat of
government. It was the natural procedure, and
throughout the Old Testament people were reached
through their Rulers.

A young Saul and David, a young Solomon and
Josiah, an old Hezekiah brought to their Kingdoms
Reformation, security and peace, while Jeroboam,
Ahab and Manasseh made them sin.

When Heaven is meaning to bless the earth with
showers, the highest pinnacles must receive the
first drops ; then the slopes hasten to carry the
benison to the vales. The State is a Divine thing
and Kingly authority— reflecting, however travestied,

250 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

the Rule of the Universe, is to be revered as the
instrument most capable of exerting influence on the
largest scale.

As a regimen for communities, Autocracy, given
a model ruler, is to be preferred above any devices of
Representative Parliaments, It is only because
Kings are mortal, while the people are always with
us, that we have to put up with the " second best '*
form of Government.

The Spirit taught the missionaries that to estab-
lish the Church it was right and expedient to catch
the ear of the earthly ruler as the readiest and most
successful means of influencing the people.

Paul, who was called especially to stand before
Kings, took the lead doubtless in this determination.
He inspired his colleagues to go to Paphos, where the
Proconsul held his Court and administered the
Civil Province. It was like Paul, always burning to
attack the strongholds.

There was a sanctuary and a worship to which men
resorted to become Unholy. The pure foam of the
sea, caressing the shore near Paphos, gave birth to
Venus, who has ruled Pagan minds ever since.
On, then, to Paphos ! Paul would fly a hawk and
bring down a Roman eagle. A hundred miles they
had to go, much of it on Roman Government, and
thanks to that divine thing— a State— they were
not robbed and murdered on the way.

And they had no '' Bibles," or Tracts to carry ;
possibly St. Matthew's Gospel was becoming current,
possibly not. But they had Moses and the Prophets —
other testimony was wrapt up in themselves.

The Kingdom of Heaven on earth was badly
wanted. Claudius was a respectable Emperor at

PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY 251

this time, but the shameless vice of his wife made his
Court a bye-word. He had to kill her— ought to
have done it long before. Then he married a widow,
who poisoned him to get her son Nero promoted !
On to Paphos, then, dropping a tear for Claudius,
who before he allowed himself to be ruled by a woman,
visited our shores and at Rome spared Caractacus.

It was a bad time for the Western Powers— for
the Roman Empire. For, at the same era when the
King of the Jews and of the Universe was ascending
to His throne on High, the East which sent us the
Star of Hope and Deliverance was busy also flooding
every seat of Government with Eastern professors
of magic, astrology, necromancy, fortune telling,
and the black art.

Every UnChristian Governor had his Eastern
Fraud, sitting at tables of luxury, and whispering
counsels and interpreting auguries. The most wise,
the most skilful, the most experienced Rulers sub-
mitted their cultivated intellects to be poisoned and
misdirected by the preposterous Mountebanks who
knew nothing except the way to do the devil's work.
What real unquestionable gifts did the East ever
bring to the West, with the Almighty exceptions,
Judaism and Christianity ? From the same source
came the Moslem hordes, created by the greatest
Imposter of all.

When Octavius had given highways to and from
the East comparatively free from brigandage and
piracy, and that as a consequence commerce and
intercourse sprang up, it was as if another Moses had
flung dust in the air and a strong wind from the
East blew incessantly upon every throne, carrying
on its wings soothsayers, magicians, etc., etc. The

252 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

vacancy in the heart of pagan men was acutely felt,
and when those Pretenders had no other credential
than that they came from the East, the land of
magic and mystery, jaut mieux, let them come in.
They brought with them the worship of Astarte,
Cybele, Isis, and nameless abominations. In fact,
it would seem that the Gates of Heaven and Hell
were opened simultaneously, and angels and demons
raced each other to be first to get the ear of every
authority. That was when the Temple of Janus
was closed. But, Oh, Heaven ! what another war
was opened everywhere ! Good and Evil were in
deadly grips in the Augustan Age and after.

On, then, to Paphos ! to purify the sea foam of
those parts, where men may be shown Him Who
walked upon the waves on an ocean of love and
forgiveness.

Paul marches steadily on. Mark is thinking about
writing his Gospel, but will not do it until some
twenty years later. Meantime, on to Paphos— to
banish the Eastern Frauds who are to be found
in most Governors' Palaces. To bring light, guid-
ance and spiritual power so that the Civil Ruler
may possess the elementary qualifications of ruling
well, in the fear of God and the love of man.

Sergius Paulus, the Governor, the missionaries
found, had already got his black cat at his ear.
One, Ely mas, the Sorcerer, an Arabian Jew. And
although the man of mystery had planted lies and
frauds already, the Proconsul had an open mind
and was ready to hear about the new religion. What
credential, however, could the missionaries bring
so exceptionally convincing as a miracle ? It was a
case where miracle was necessary and Paul felt

PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY 253

he had within him the power to speak his fiat and
that the miraculous fact would appear. It is, indeed,
pathetic to think of great populations and a wonderful
Empire, like others that preceded it, being left
without any authoritative and Divine Light, apart
from the flickering conscience which the Devil's
breath seeks to extinguish.

In the want of one unchallengeable voice, attested
by miracle, Sergius Paulus sat daily in the seat of
judgment and looked around and within, wondering
if the gods would be propitious and aid him to rule
in the fear of Heaven and execute true justice and
judgment. He would seek aid from any promising
source. There was amid his counsellors one who
seemed possessed of mysterious powers, and he has
been admitted to his confidence, but he is increasingly
doubtful and suspicious, haunted by the apprehen-
sion that this sorcerer was not a voice from the High-
est. His mind, however, was an open and candid
one and he would give audience to any who announced
that they were the bearers of new and precious Truth,
which should the better enable him to discharge
his duties for the happiness of his Province.

One glance of the spirit-possessed man and Elymas
quailed. He foresaw his reign of evil influence was
already over. Paul was fitted by nature to stand
before Kings, was a persona grata in all circles and
in the highest. Agrippa's wife was bent upon seeing
the mysterious Jew, and brought a number of court
ladies to watch the flashing of his wonderful eyes,
for Ananias at Damascus did nothing by halves.
And what a voice ! Paul had caught its accents
from the third Heaven, to which he was not seldom
wafted. He could coo like a dove and anon make

254 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

the hinds to calve. Among the keen and curious
Athenians, he at once attracted attention. Instead
of turning away from the street talker, they took
hold of him. " You must give us all you know ; we
want to hear more. Come unto our hall. Now from
the Forum address us as long as you like."

The daft historians have been engaged upon
carving a Punchinello, with a lame leg, simply because
when entering Galatia he persisted in preaching
under influenza.

Paul preached and Sergius Paulus heard. But as
often as the herald spake, Elymas interposed, poison-
ing the ear of his patron with whispered contradictions.
So finding that his adversary was robbing him of a
great opportunity, a Divine direction within him bade
him wield the sword of judgment. Fixing his magical
eyes upon the sorcerer, he said, " Oh, full of all subtlety
and all mischief, Thou child of the Devil, Thou enemy
of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert
the straight paths of the Lord ? And now, behold,
the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be
blind, not seeing the sun for a season."

Instantly there fell upon him a mist and a darkness,
and he went feeling about for some one to guide him.
Then the Governor, seeing what had happened, be-
lieved, being struck with amazement at the teaching
of the Lord. (Acts xiii. 10—12).

That one act, that one miracle, did more to
purify the Courts of Justice and bless the peasants
of Cyprus than a successful rebellion against the
diversion of the straight paths of the Lord.
Oh, for more Pauls, seated at the ear of govern-
ors ! But what a large mingling of mercy with
judgment ! *' for a season " only, when the colliers,

PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY 255

without being sorcerers, are deprived of the sun
for half the year.

But the impression made upon John Mark was that
" we are wanting in a compendious story of Jesus.
Paul cannot be everywhere with his persuasive oratory
and his power of miracle. We need a Gospel tract to
circulate among the Western nations, and feel that the
work I had meditated should be pursued constantly
and brought to the earliest completion possible.
Peter was my chief informant. From him I have put
down the most accurate narratives of what Jesus said
and did, other and various eye and ear witnesses it is
possible to get, but chiefly at Jerusalem and Palestine
generally. For my part I must return home. I hope
I have been useful to Paul and Barnabas as a helper
at Salamis, and I have cheerfully carried Paul's books
and parchments, and perchance his cloak, but I have
more important work to do than that. I feel that I
must write a book about Jesus Christ, God's Son, and
until that be accomplished I cannot rest. Then, dear
seniors, give me your blessing. You have been given
your work and God has given me mine. You are now
going to Pamphylia. Well and good ! may God go
with you ! but as for me, I must return to Jerusalem.
Peter ! he was nearly executed by Herod, how much
longer shall I have his aid in finishing my compilation ?
It cannot be done here in Asia. I need much to make
perfect what I have begun. Then do not let us
quarrel about it. God is my judge, I feel I am doing
the right thing."

But Paul had his own impetuous verdict already
pronounced and it slumbered in his breast for many
a month, and broke out vehemently afterwards, when
Mark, having got more material by his return to

256 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Jerusalem, was ready to join again. He was refused,
and painful scenes ensued. Then comes the problem
when two conscientious persons believe that their
decisions are inspired and yet vary. That problem
is by no means insoluble. Both can be absolutely
right, and yet both opposed. It is by the imperfec-
tions of the human agency that the Controller is
glorified. The decreed results are never imperilled
by Human co-operation. Finis coronal opus. The
exercise of conscientious conviction was the matter
of importance, and that was accomplished in both.

For my part, I believe that Mark was quite right,
and that St. Paul also was quite right. Before the
Universe was born, it was ordained that Mark should
write his Gospel— if man must work out his destiny.
Mark's Gospel was the foundation stone of the litera-
ture of the Evangel, and without it the edifice rocks.

So blessings upon you, good Mark ! and don't be
ruffled by Paul's demeanour. He is not always in
the third Heaven. He is an Antceus, who must touch
earth sometimes.

Mark turns to hear Paul shouting, " Come back,
young man, and don't dare to leave the work to which
God has called you." Paul is really reddenning, and
the two older men, after consultation, are making
a last appeal, but Mark is not to be moved.

It is not the frowning heights of the Taurus that
deter him. A young man — an adventure would at-
tract him— but from a child he apprehended that he
was born to write a book which the world wanted and
would never lose ; therefore, retracing only a few
steps, he calls out in turn, " God's work is various,
and He has given me another work than yours. You
have seen how insecurely our new convert is placed.

PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY 257

Elymas will recover his sight, for you have inflicted
only temporary blindness, and he will do his best to
obliterate the impressions that your teaching made.
What is wanted is to fix in a portable and enduring
form a manual for preachers and teachers ; for persons
especially in all authority, to guide them in the righ-
teous discharge of their several duties and for all
classes to the lowest. A compendious record of the
life, the sacrificial death and Resurrection of the Lord.
His redeeming works and more wonderful sayings.
Towards this I have already done something, but
memories of even contemporaries are liable to fade,
and my best source of information is Peter, who may
any day be clapped in prison again. My work will
not wait, though yours may. My hope and my pur-
pose is to have my compendium numbered with the
law books of every Roman Governor in the Western
World. It ought to be their Directory, inspirer and
guide, coupled, of course, with the ancient Scriptures.
Sergius Paulas shall have one at the earliest oppor-
tunity. I haste to realise my hope." Then he lifted
his burden and prepared to depart. Paul turned to
his colleague and muttered, " It's no use," while
Barnabas looked after the young man— through a
mist. So began the Gospel according to St. Mark,
the foundation stone of all Christian literature.
Paul half feared and half desired that his warnings
might be justified, but Mark was neither drowned,
nor captured by pirates, nor despoiled by robbers.
No power in the Universe, short of disobedience, could
hinder his destiny until his work was done.

Mark saw more than the fishes, when long and ab-
stractedly he gazed over the gunwale into the deep
sea. He saw Great Empires, whose rulers from the

258 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

greatest to the least, had made his compendium be-
come the soul of every legal enactment, and the polity
of every nation. He ventured to believe that the
administrators of Christian law would not render it
void by a corrupt exercise of their power. He ven-
tured to hope— for the man was young— that law
would dwindle almost into nothingness, since every
man would in due time become law-giver and admin-
istrator within his own breast. That the body politic,
and with it the body proper, would have coursing
through it in every artery, vein and capillary, such a
life-giving stream of Heavenly energy, that no decay,
no disease could give token of arrested growth, much
less impending dissolution— preparing the world—
throne for the coming King, whose reign would be for
Ages. The ecclesiastical and the Civil powers united
in the same person according to the Hebrew Norm,
to be completely realised in the Messianic Kingdom.

What was that dark form, which Mark strove to
determine, moving among the fishes ? A living cloud,
scaly and monstrous ?

The finny brood scudded away in all directions.

A millennium and a half have passed since St. Mark
wrote his compendium, and the mocking shadow of the
united powers, secular and religious, have their seat
at Rome. One, Andrea Luccalmaglio, Archbishop
of Krain, is the Ambassador of the Emperor Frederick
III. in 1479. He was shocked by what he saw at
Rome and spoke his mind plainly to the Pope. After
a short imprisonment in St. Angelo, he bruited his
wrongs and went to Basel to revise the traditions of
the last reforming council, denounced Sixtus IV., and
solemnly proclaimed a Council. The *' Council "

PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY 259

became merely himself and to that tribunal he sum-
moned the Pope, in terms not dissimilar to those
which Paul addressed to Elymas the sorcerer.

" Francesco, of Savona,son of the Devil, you entered
your office, not through the door, but through the
window of Simony. You are of your father, the
Devil, and labour to do your father's will." And
subsequently, he asserted that " he was justified in
his attempt to hold a Council for the reformation of
the Church, and declared that he had not calumniated
the Pope, as he had said nothing but what was notor-
iously true."

The Papal Legate demanded his body. The magis-
trates of Basil kept him in prison and refused to give
him up.

Finally, Andrea hanged himself in his cell and the
corpse of the unhappy man was thrown into the Rhine.

After him, Savonorola failed to establish the King-
dom of Heaven, because Alexander VI. was not a
forerunner of the coming Messiah. Nor did the
Caliph Hammid, in our days, feed his flock at Adana,
but rather fed upon them. And it was not because
his lips were red that he was deposed. Yet the prin-
ciple of uniting the secular and religious regimens in
one authority, interfused by the same Holy Spirit,
was and is wholly right. The wrongness is only in the
rulers. The world cries and sighs for a Divine Ruler,
who can do no wrong. He is on the way. Come,
Lord Jesus, Come quickly !

I cannot believe that Mark's Gospel was not current
before 63. The chief authority in the question is
Eusebius, who quotes from Irenceus. But Irenoeus,
although a diligent searcher for Christian traditions,
cannot be relied upon for chronology ! for he an-

260 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

nounced his belief that Christ was at least 50 years
old at the time of His crucifixion. His credulity and
His bias have undoubtedly misled him. The promul-
gation of the foundation treatise of the synoptists was
certainly much earlier than Eusebius supposed.

The narratives that Mark supply are distinquished
by such vivid touches of detailed observation that the
writer was either an eye witness, or gath'ered his in-
formation from others equally near and close to the
events themselves— undimmed by the lapse of years
and the fading memories of those who would, on the
supposition, have to go back to recall what was not
recent testimony.

Mark, it is my faith, hastened to complete as much
as he could compile, in order to aid the hopeful Gentile
propaganda. Let us use our common sense and re-
fuse to be the slaves of scholars, where absolute cer-
tainty is not to be found. What would any man, with
ordinary sense, essay to do, anxious to be obedient to
fulfil the solemn commission imposed by the Lord
upon His Apostles. Would not the first care be the
compilation of the Testimonies, oral and written, of
the wondrous story, before the generations which
witnessed and heard had passed away ? It is true
that the promise was given that the Spirit would bring
all things to their remembrance, but as in all cases
where the supernatural intervenes, it is in conjunction
with human efforts to use the normal methods of
accomplishing the Divine Will.

Paul, himself, not being one of the chosen to itiner-
ate with His Master, ought to have given Mark God
speed ! for he must have been much indebted, subse-
quently, to such facts of the sacred life as Mark had
already got together. Mark was the best Boswell of

PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY 261

any of them. His was the best Hfe to be put into the
hands of strangers— the briefest and, at the same time,
the fullest— the most brightly written and the most
catching.

As such it is rightly selected as the best introduction
to be offered for the perusal of heathen peoples, and
for the informing of our heathen at home. Mark's
coin, fresh from the mint, was put into circulation as
soon as possible after he had returned to Jerusalem,
and he did not feel himself free to offer for the second
missionary journey until he had got his tract together.

Years passed, and Paul had grown wiser, so we find
him writing to Timothy.

" Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is
profitable to me for the ministry." With equal truth
he might have written, '' Take the Gospel of Mark and
let him bring some copies with him, for he and them
are profitable to me for the ministry. Bring the
books, but especially the parchments, including
Mark." And as he looked round the walls of his prison
doubtless the aged Apostle bitterly reflected how
mistakenly he had acted towards that " young man,"
who has since been the means of redeeming thousands
of millions, because he obeyed God rather than man.
To young men, and to every man, I say, " Take no
counsel from any mortal creature, even an Apostle.
Consult God only. If the Divine Voice within con-
notes with the voice ab extra, well and good ; but if
not, make the breach, and forfeit friendship with the
nearest and dearest."

liCaving Mark to go to Jerusalem, the two elder
men pursued their way. The distance from the coast
would be some 100 miles, a continuous ascent, and
attended by dangers from freebooters, who in these

262 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

fastnesses carried on their desired pillage, on the few
mercantile routes, with comparative immunity. Great
call was there of faith and patience and casting them-
selves upon the mercies of an overruling providence.
They would, in their ascent from oaks and planes to
pines and then to cedar and juniper trees, which made
black patches on the upper bleak heights. The mis-
sionaries getting to the ridge, would go over it, and
then perceive another creation of Seleucus— the
Pisidian Antioch— an important town, but possessing
but one Synagogue.

A week would likely have been occupied in the
upward climb, and with thankful hearts for journeying
mercies, the two Apostles would be glad to find a place
where prayer was wont to be made, and to join with
the worshippers on the Sabbath day.

One must be proud of that constant nation, which,
despite the temptation to get necessary gain, presented
through so many ages the spectacle of foregoing the
opportunity of money getting, week by week— and
amid heathen peoples who had no scruples to deter
them themselves. One must pause also to admire
profoundly the Synagogue system and likewise the
religious liberty, conferred by the Imperial power of
Rome. Rome, so long as the Csesar was worshipped,
gave perfect freedom, except where some immigrant
Oriental cults offended even Pagans of the West.
Any new religious propaganda in A.D. 48 was prose-
cuted with much less difficulty than in 1848, when the
Christian powers jealously drew a fence round the
national state Churches, and when even now (though
the leaven of liberty is working) Russia, Austria and
Spain continue suspicious and averse to any diver-
gence from the State conscience— more so than was

PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY 263

the case when Paul and Barnabas disturbed the
equanimity of the Pisidian Synagogue.

Thanks to the Roman power, for strength can
always be tolerant, the peculiar people who were
harmlessly permitted to assert that the rest of the
world was unclean and obnoxious to the Divine favour
had been given freedom to insult every other citizen.
And what was more remarkable, those arrogant denun-
ciations made proselytes, attracted by the passion
for exclusiveness and the fancied superiority that is
fondly believed to attach to something not shared by
the vulgar. But the Synagogue w^orship would also
attract on much higher grounds. Men of large
capacity, men of great hearts, highly trained and
cultivated minds, wandering into the plain building,
perceiving no vain emblem of the inscrutable and in-
visible Deities, were constrained to wonder and admire
the contrast, and still more, the peaceful and reverent
company. They heard the Prophets read, or trans-
lated into the vernacular. Prayers also said in the
local language, only was the Law read in the unknown
Hebrew, but the proselyte was not left to be unen-
lightened ; an interpretation would be given.

Grave, rational, devout was this worship. The
magnificent teaching of the sacred books soaring
incomparably above the ethics of the philosopher, or
the demands of the practical statesman was the boast
of the Jew, who everywhere was a witness and a sign.
The garish day, outside the Synagogue, shrank in
shame, and entering the precincts, it would seem that
the lofty teachings of the Scriptures must crystallise
into starry forms and stud the roofs with points of
light, as a shred of the midnight sky.

Wherever the Sabbath dawned, there was the same

264 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

suspension of labour and the same unadorned ritual.
And, moreover, there was a most admirable provision.

Any stranger showing evidence of being a son of
Abraham was spontaneously given a seat and, more-
over, was invited to expound or exhort from the law
and the Prophets.

There must be a high level of culture in Divine
truth to allow of such a rule becoming generally ob-
served. The Plymouth Brethren give the opportunity
except the stricter sort, but there are many cases where
the strangers do not speak to profit. It is and it was,
to the immense credit of the Jews of the time we speak
of, that the two Apostles, being seated, after the
sections of prayer. Law and Prophets had been gone
through, that Paul was allowed to rise, beckon with
his hand and use the opportunity to introduce new
matter, amongst an assembly, deeply prejudiced
against any innovations.

The speech that Paul began was wonderfully like
to what Stephen gave us, the old, old story of Abra-
ham's calling, separation from the other nations, the
extension of his seed, their subjection and deliverance
and the prophetic intimation that one of the kingly
line of David would undoubtedly appear in God's
time to become not only the Saviour of the Jews, but
also of the Gentiles, too. It must have been a " hard "
saying to be told that the Messiah suffered upon the
Cross. If that portion of the Gospel story was the
beginning and end of it, the Evangel must inevitably
be doomed, but there was a glorious sequel. The man
who fulfilled the Prophets by subjecting himself to
suffer upon the Cross, rose again, according to His
own prediction. No foolish rumour, no idle tale, no
dreams, but competent living witnesses ready in all

PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY 265

their worship and in all their preachings to bear the
testimony that the Nazarene is the Christ ; and, more-
over, the speaker Paul went on to aver that Christ
showed Himself to me^ speaking to me from the Hea-
vens, not once, but subequently, confirming the truth
which the twelve are ceaselessly proclaiming that the
Desire of nations has appeared, has opened to Heaven
a free, unbought entrance, and has rewards to confer
upon His faithful followers.

The amazing and incredible story, so glorious, and
yet so disappointing— for the Jews would be ready to
give up any guarantees for eternal felicity in exchange
for immediate dominion and vengeance upon their
foes— that amazing and disappointing story could not
fail to excite an extraordinary commotion. It was
Stephen over again. Now surely does a Nemesis
overtake our errors. Is it at all likely that such a
world-wide event, pregnant with such enormous
issues, should be committed to a few insignificant
itinerant preachers to communicate ? Both humble
men, one shows upon his hands the marks of his trade.
The other, an impressive figure enough, but not capti-
vating in speech.

Is it thus in this clandestine manner that the con-
queror of the world, who is to turn the world upside
down, without sword or shield, essays to deliver
Israel ?

The secular views of the bulk of the congregation,
made the spiritual interpretations of Gospel freedom,
Gospel conquests and Gospel rewards an offence to
them. We can readily make excuses for them. Sup-
pose at service time on Sunday, at the Christchurch
Congregational Church, London, two Russians came
with permission to speak after the '' preliminaries "

266 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

are over, and announced that the Millennium had
come, that the Lord Himself had descended upon
Constantinople, and that His palace and Court are
there, invisible.

In confirmation of the amazing announcement,
these two Russians are able to testify that we have
seen the Lord with spiritual eyes, and that to as many
as believe the testimony, it shall be given them to see
likewise. How many converts would you expect to
such a cock-and-bull story ?

It was an interesting contrast to the modern fashion
in our day, to find in the Synagogue a considerable
number of ** honourable women " among the wor-
shippers, but they did not predominate. It is certain
that their habitual presence betokened a true and
intelligent preference for the Jewish over the Pagan
rites. In these latter, '* honourable " women could
not without shame take part. There was nothing in
the Synagogue worship to appeal to trifling minds,
no music, no gorgeous and striking ceremonies as at
the Temple. Hence those women who joined them-
selves to the Jews by proselytism must have been
religiously minded and predisposed to hear what the
new Apostles had to say. We can be sure that in the
women's gallery at Iconium there were many earnest
listeners. And if it was screened by lattice work
there would be eyes and ears enough, pressed against
the openings. Talk of Epochs ! This first mission-
ary journey of St. Paul abounded in them. Iconium
made an epoch, and that full and accurately reported
speech of St. Paul was a principal pier in the Christian
Temple he was rearing. Politic, wise but fervent,
the opening of the address by its matter and manner
arrested and interested everyone. Paul was in his

PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY 267

usual good form ; not under influenza, as afterwards
in Galatia he was fated to be, and both Jew and
Gentile, men and women, wanted to hear him again,
for " his bodily presence " was by no means '' weak,"
nor '' his speech contemptible." Remember that
Paul, from his earliest years, so soon as he could com-
prehend anything, was led to ponder the destinies of
mankind, and in learning of God's Covenant with
Abraham, he rejoiced exceedingly to discover that
God's promise to Israel entailed world-wide salvation.
Hence, even the Gentile hope was by the young boy
connected with the Abrahamic Covenant. His per-
secution of the Christians was inspired by the dread
that the Eternal purpose would be jeopardised by
the chosen people departing from the strict letter
of the Law. The Messiah was to come only to a pre-
pared and obedient people, and then the rest of the
world would share in the Messianci privileges in the
Kingdom which would be as Universal as it would be
Eternal.

The young student of prophecy could not imagine
that the body of pious and able Rabbis could be
entirely wrong in expecting the Messiah to come in a
glorious manner, with worldly pomp and armed
strength to punish His adversaries and to enthrone
Israel upon the subjected Roman. He stumbled at
that stone— the despised, sentenced and crucified
Nazarene. All his prejudices, in favour of a pre-
mature triumph, inclined him to misinterpret the
prophecies, and to be utterly disgusted at the pre-
tensions put forward by the contemptible Nazarenes,
whose Messiah sneaked into the world in a humble
village, worked at a Carpenter's bench, and richly
deserved the penalty of the imposition he had ven-

268 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

tiired upon. He had seen none of the Lord's miracles
while in Arabia, but he was fated to know one. One
was quite enough, it was an eye-opener and in one
flash the true interpretation of the Prophets was made
known to him. Hence the argument was to show to
the Jews at Iconium that Jesus of Nazareth was the
fulfilment of prophecy, that John, whom so many
followed, was indeed His Forerunner and expressly
warned his disciples that he was nothing more than
that. That in condemning Jesus, their rulers had ful-
filled the Scriptures. And the glad tidings are that
through His death upon the Cross there is forgiveness
of sins, and, moreover, that there is a Resurrection
from the dead— not merely a sanguine conjecture,
but a positive assurance of a new life, a powerful life,
an everlasting life, to come. A new world, a new
society, introduction to the Highest, infinite possibil-
ities, and infinite progress towards the perfect and the
Divine. That was glad tidings, indeed. Pledged to
the world by the sacrifice and the Resurrection.
Antioch received it only in part ; the news was too
good to be true. And again, there was the everlasting
offence of the Cross, which required the bended knee
and the contrite heart. That did not come by nature,
but by grace.

So though the Gentiles were glad to see a barrier
thrown down, there was not unmingled satisfaction.
A shred of potassium thrown upon the waters, and
instantly what seething and commotion. Such was
mention of Calvary.

The elements of the auditory were divided— some
cleaving to the Cross and Heaven, and others joining
with the Sadducees to hold aloof from the insulting
novelty. Only last Sabbath all was peace. The

PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY 269

Chazzan received from the Reader the duly inter-
preted Law and the Prophets. The Sybilline Pro-
phets were duly and carefully wrapped up and stowed
away in the Ark. The reader had made the audience
know the sense. Perhaps he spoke in Latin (for
Antioch was a Colonia), perhaps he spoke in Greek.
Finally he used the vernacular of Pisidia. But there
was no Cross. No offence was given to anybody.
The harmony was unbroken. The congregation
yawned and did as they always did, and went away.
But Antioch was henceforth to know no peace. Not
peace, but a sword. Groups on that fateful Sabbath
were formed and reformed. One knot earnestly dis-
cussing, another cheering a loud denunciator. And
between this Sabbath and the next, the city was in
constant controversy. The Gentile population was
eager to have ratified their enfranchisement to the
promised blessings that Israel boasted of. And the
born Hebrews, although Proselytizers, felt, to open the
door to the whole world, was to push them back
and to let them down by a step. So, as it was
doomed then and is doomed now, the offence
to the natural man, abiding and irremovable, is
the cross of Christ.

" What a pity," might say the officers of the Syna-
gogue. " What a pity— these men had not been for-
bidden. We were all living together in harmony—
only we would not eat with the Gentiles and we must
glance down upon them from our pedestals. Why
should we be disturbed by the abuse of freedom of
speech in our Synagogue ? "

The Jews were good tax-payers and the Imperial
power smiled at their harmless superstition. The
elders were seriously anxious. In every workshop,

270 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

in every mart, at every family or public gathering, the
new doctrine was the distasteful topic.

Sabbath came round, streams of people were seen
wending their way to the Synagogue— there was no
room for a quarter of the people. There was great
difficulty in closing the doors and the space within was
occupied by a standing and perspiring crowd. A little
piece of finesse. The door-keepers sought to exclude
Paul and Barnabas, on the plea that there was no
room, but there was a party, to whom the Cross was
already dear, and the Resurrection a glorious hope.
So the little finesse fell away like a cobweb and the
two disturbers of the public peace were given seats
in the centre, and there was a drawn breath and a
general rustle.

Whispers arose. " Who's who ? ** " Oh I that is
the big man." '' No ! it is the other. Look at his
head, and he has a tongue I can tell you." Breathless
silence in A.D. 48.

But it was only the precursor of a storm. Paul had
not gone far in his address before the mixed audience
were interrupting and others encouraging him, and
answering and challenging each other, " contradicting
and blaspheming." The solemn order of the service
was quite destroyed. It was a wretched Sabbath for
those who were accustomed to have the ruffled fea-
thers of their souls sabbatically smoothed down and
their spirits exalted by holding communion with the
Father of their spirits.

Theyy the preachers, were not the cause. It was the
peculiar nature of the truth that they had to declare.
It was doomed and ever will be doomed to the end of
this dispensation, to be a sower of discord, a divider
of families, a separator of chief friends, a segregator

PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY 271

of political parties, a rock of offence, to be broken
upon, or break to pieces.

Barnabas sought hard to allay the commotion, but
it was speedily seen that he was not so agile in contro-
versy as Paul, and perceiving it himself, he sat down,
when Paul sprang up, with his bubbling enthusiasm
unquelled. Giving his accustomed sign, a silence was
made. " It was needful that the word of God should
first be spoken unto you, but inasmuch as ye put it
from you and deem yourselves unworthy of Eternal
Life, lo ! we turn to the Gentiles."

A suppressed roar from the Gentiles and a howl of
rage from the Jews, but his hand was still raised, so
feeling was restrained again. And he quoted, for the
benefit of the howlers, from Isaiah xlix. 6, slightly
varied from the Septuagint, " For so hath the Lord
commanded us, saying ' I have sent thee for a light
to the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for Salvation
to the ends of the earth.* " And when the Gentiles
heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of
the Lord, and as many as were ordained to Eternal
Life believed.

And the word of the Lord was published throughout
all the region. But the Jews stirred up the gentle-
women of rank who worshipped with them, and the
leading men of the city, and raised up persecution
against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from
their neighbourhood. But they shook off the dust
from their feet as a protest against them and came to
Iconium. And as for the disciples, they were more
and more filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Now a question arises. Did not the establishment
and spread of the Christian faith depend principally
upon the expert application of the Prophecies, to

272 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

that Jesus in whom they were fulfilled ? Was it not
to prepare the Apostles for the work they were com-
manded to undertake that the Unknown Stranger
drew near, on the way to Emmaus, unfolding the
Scriptures from Moses and all the Prophets, concern-
ing the things foretold of Himself ? Was it not be-
cause that Paul was early trained in a knowledge of
the Prophets that he was qualified after conversion
to become the most successful of all the Apostles ?
Was not Apollos also, through being mighty in the
Scriptures, able to confound and confute the Jews ?
Unquestionably, if the attitude at present taken up
by the Christian Churches had been adopted by the
primitive believers, they would never have made the
progress they did. Indeed, it is a question whether the
planting of churches anywhere would succeed, if the
Evangelists studiously neglected Prophecy.

But though everything depended upon the proved
correspondence between prediction and fulfilments,
to-day, strange to say. Christian believers pay no
attention, in the mass, to prophecy at all. Those who
venture to whisper any interpretations are accounted
only wild fanatics, who can be tolerated, if they do
not become a nuisance. It is apologetically conceded
that the circumstances connected with the first Advent
were verifications of ancient Prophets, but as to the
second Advent and the circumstances foretold respect-
ing that— the least said the better ! Someone has said,
" The study of prophecy either finds men mad, or
makes them so.'* Well ! we are among the believers
who would rank themselves with Paul, Peter, and
Apollos, and would deny that their knowledge of
prophecy had deprived them of reason. On the con-
trary, we believe that they were made wise unto salva-

PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY 273

tion through that very knowledge which they depre-
ciate.

Do the generahty of Church and Chapel worshippers
ever attend a course of lectures or sermons on the
** last days," or upon the second Advent and its
sequel ? Fifty years ago it was by no means un-
common, but for thirty years and more the entire
subject is studiously put on the shelf as unworthy of
practical men ! And this, too, when the most clear
and express fulfilments are going on before our eyes
day by day. Judicial blindness has really seized the
Church, that blindness is itself one of the signs.

The signs given us by the Lord Himself are indeed
numerous enough. A few may be referred to.

(1) A general weakening of faith in the Revelation
of Jesus Christ. Every one of the distinctive marks
by which a supernatural Saviour was predicted are
to-day being refused and explained away. The
blessed Lord is dragged down to the common level of
humanity and man is placed upon a pedestal. What
the misbelievers refuse to worship, they arrogate and
claim for themselves. Human idolatry is the heathen-
ism of to-day.

(2) The atonement is removed from foundation
truth and the implication that sin requires it is prac-
tically denied. A vicarious sacrifice in the person of
the sinless Lamb of God is regarded as a relic of bar-
barism and cruel rites, having no true bearing either
upon sin or salvation.

(3) The Divine in the Immortal Saviour is credited
to us poor mortals, and men are supposed to enter
upon an upward path towards the Divine Nature —
without requiring or accepting grace nor needing the
supernatural aid of the third person of the Trinity.

274 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

To save oneself is within human competence. Man
can " save face " and dispense with repentance and
faith.

(4) The Christian revelation, as embodied in book
form, is accounted a mass of myths, legends and in-
credibilities. The Gospels being more than half full
of miracles, if deprived of these, the shreds remain-
ing are scarce worth preserving.

(5) That there is a second Advent, a Resurrection,
or a Judgment to come is denied.

(6) That the predicted signs of the second Advent
have, therefore, no significance.

Now, of course, to those who negative all essential
revealed truth, it is useless to argue. There is no
standard to appeal to. But to those belated souls
who still linger in the dawnings of Revealed Truth, we
would just draw their attention to one sign which
augurs that the end of the Age is near and the glorious
appearing of our Lord is at hand.

That sign is the unexpectedness of the event to the
unprepared world.

By several parables and by several plain statements
our Lord has warned those who are living in the last
days of the age, that His coming will be like a snare
upon the face of the earth, that it will surprise men
as the flood did, that it would come like a thief, none
expecting its arrival.

We also are now in the days of Noe. There is open
scoffing at any Apocalyptic vision, any, the slightest
variance from the ordinary course of nature. All
things will remain as they were from the beginning
of creation, the beginning of creation not accounted
for— no miracle, at all events, in that.

And yet, in our own experience, the unexpected is

PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY 275

a peculiar mark of the period. Carthagena, Martin-
ique, San Francisco, Galveston, Jamacia, Messina.
Here are only six great earthquake catastrophes —
ruthlessly interfering with the ordinary course of
nature— stealing upon the victims like a thief in the
night. If that is the course of nature, then the second
Advent is to be expected.

But another prominent feature of this Pre-Second
Advent period is the prevailing lawlessness, evidencing
itself in a hastening corruption in all the departments
of commerce, manufactures and the public service.

Commerce tends increasingly to become gambling—
in commodities. The Law does not license open
gaming tables, but the same thing, on a large scale, is
permitted under the guise of business. Men who
have never made anything useful and could not, bend
all their powers to make markets, reaping in conse-
quence great fortunes, leaving them to their heirs, who
claim or expect respect, on the ground simply that a
larger stake than ordinary was attended by success
when the dice turned up.

Gambling in insurances, imperilling life, gambling
in commodities.

Our Lord's indications of unpreparedness were
appropriate to His times ; marriage and giving in
marriage, eating and drinking. But how much
greater the impressiveness when the dice are being
rattled in Wall-street and Mincing-lane and the
Bourses of Paris, Berlin and Vienna— over the manoeu-
vring of making corners in corn, or cotton, or oil, or
rubber. The intensity of excitement, the feverish
haste, the fighting and struggling, the moistened
shirt sleeves and perspiring brows, the shouting and
the " wiring." One would think all this hub-bub was

276 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

concerned with an absolute vital issue — a fear lest an
eclipse of the sun would be permanent. But the real
issues before these exchanges are, not the destruction
or the increases of the commodities, but merely to
push up their prices a few points higher. The solid
utilities of the commodities being unchanged — corn
and cotton being sublimely indifferent whether they
are put up or down. While all the Bourses are tremb-
ling and thrilling, while several of the gamblers have
provided themselves with loaded revolvers and phials
of poison— in case— while such gigantic corners as
were never heard of in the history of commerce were
being engineered— Suddenly, *' prices " go down for
ever ! For the Lord has come !

Everything was so beautifully arranged for a deal
that certain operators could make some millions in a
fortnight. But what a misfortune ! The Lord has
come, and the operators are scudding away to hide
themselves in dens and caves, unavailing shelters
from the Wrath of the Lamb !

CHAPTER XXII.

ICONIUM.

A LETTER was found on the floor of the Synagogue
at Antioch in Pisidia, some Sabbaths later. It had
been apparently jerked out of the hand of the bearer
and trodden underfoot, and the papyrus had suffered
by a rent, but closing the edges, all could be deciphered,

"To Marcus Flavins.

" When I was returning from the cemetery, where
I deposited my darling child, after my costly, but
unavailing offerings to Esculapius, and unable to dis-
pel the gloom and grief by which I was possessed, I
saw an unusual crowd outside the Jews' synagogue.
I thought it might serve as a distraction to attempt
to enter. Also I had long desired to make myself
acquainted with the tenets of that strange people, who
live and dwell apart and seem to have little in common
with the rest of the world.

"While pressing in, I learnt that there were two
strangers who had last Sabbath brought some extra-
ordinary intelligence and it was so incredible that they
were besought to give it again and explain its import.
I was almost the last to enter before the doors were
shut, and I had succeeded in pulling my Freedman
after me. Oh ! my friend Marcus, I was indeed for-
tunate, for if I can credit it, of which I am hopeful, it
will dispel the darkness and dread that surrounds our
daily path, and give me a consolation and joy un-
dreamt of.

278 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

**The two strangers were deeply acquainted with
the Jews' ancient writings, and they came to tell in all
the Synagogues that the Great One, Whom all their
nation had been looking for, had actually come. But
he had come in such a strange guise and for such a
purpose that the generality of those that heard them
were moved to the utmost scorn and indignation. It
appears that he came into the world as the son of a
carpenter, and instead of coming to break the yoke
of Rome, all he pretended to do in the first instance,
was to break off the yoke of the people's sins. You
can imagine the profound disappointment ! But it
appeared to me, Marcus, that this news concerned not
alone Jesus, but every man born into the world. For
the gods are to be feared, and they do punish unto
death, those who offend them, and to be enfranchised
from giving them offence would be conferring upon
us an inestimable benefit. The best, the strangest
and the most extraordinary news of all was to come.
These strangers positively averred that their great
Messiah, after allowing Himself to be put to death upon
the Cross, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, had
actually risen from the dead, as He had predicted ;
and to chosen disciples, had ate and drank with him,
and giving them a charge to preach the glad news
everywhere that the reign of sin and death is under
sentence, and Heaven's doors, with Eternal Life,
are open to all believers. Is this madness, dear
Marcus, or is it true ? I venerated your father and
you dutifully mourned him. My treasured son has
been torn from me. Is this Great Prophet going to
replace him in my empty arms ? Oh ! Marcus ! if
this news were only true !

" My Freedman was much interested and the good

ICONIUM 279

fellow seemed filled with joy, but I had reason to sus-
pect that he was not quite as honest as he should be —
for I had missed a favourite ring from its accustomed
place. Do you know, the good fellow brought it to me
yesterday morning and begged my forgiveness ? He
said it was listening to the strangers in the Synagogue
that compelled him to do it, and he asked to be
scourged. He was a passable slave before, but now
he is a different man, devoted and faithful. Dear
Marcus, my faith in the gods has been rudely shaken,
and I had no certain hope of a life to come. I have
allowed my freedman to join the new Brotherhood,
and wish I could be possessed of the joy that he
evidently has. Let me know what you think about
it ? We are coming to the end of the world." (The
conclusion and the signature were torn off. )

The letter had reached its bourne, and the receiver
had troubled to see for himself, but the Apostles had
gone ; nevertheless, it was in such manner that the
Evangel got to be propagated.

The Apostles had founded the first Catholic Church,
a community composed of both converted Jews and
proselytes from the Gentiles. The influence of ladies
among the Jews and Proselytes had much to do with
the enmity aroused against the new teaching. Women
are naturally averse to change— reverers of antiquity,
the established order, wanting in initiation and origin-
ality. But when that Divine truth comes upon their
souls, native predisposition avails nothing, and the
women converts to Christianity have furnished the
brightest beads upon the roll of martyrs.

Knowing that they had planted an imperishable
seed, Paul and Barnabas shook off the dust of this
city and departed for new enterprises. There was

280 I HE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

much traffic on the route, a large lake was on their
right, and remained in sight during the first day and
the second. At length the mountain range on the left
bore away Eastward, and the travellers came upon a
great level plain— another Arabia, though not so
burning. Ere long the walls and towns and gates
of a city were descried. The browsing plots were
seamed by sand and the scenery resembled much of
the interior of Australia. But there was also a rich
alluvial soil, which the blight of Islam was subsequent-
ly to neglect. Evidently, Asia Minor had in former
times a minor Caspian Sea, which washed the bases
of the northern ridge of the Taurus and sent its wave
to the western spurs of the Karagh Dagh, and reflect-
ing the snowy summit of Mount Argaus, ran into the
ravines of the Cappadocian and Galatian Highlands.
By evaporation, this inland sea bared its floor : and in
our day it is dotted by ponds, meres and lakes, where
storks and swans congregate. It was where these
memorials of ancient Lacustrinoe were strewn, south
and east, that Iconium stood up and looked all around
in lonely isolation.

From its walls, south, east and west, there would
appear every now and then silver glimmerings of those
mountains, which once bordered the inland sea, but
which now start abruptly from the level plain and
rise to where the sun has no power. Konieh must
present, from its ramparts, a view, not dissimilar to
that attainable from the Boulevard des Pyrenees at
Pau.

Nothing is more irritating than the constant scan-
ning of the terminal object of a tedious journey, which
seems to evade every attempt to enlarge its bulk or to
disclose the details which distance veils. Yard by

ICONIUM 281

yard, mile by mile, is swallowed up and nothing seems
done. Iconium was not to be conquered. Better for
Paul and Barnabas to withdraw their gaze. And, in-
deed, Paul need not be so anxious to get stoned as he
was going to be, in the next town beyond it, and thus
apparently reach the end of his Apostleship just when
it was beginning.

Iconium at last ! They had traversed some hun-
dred miles. The dust of Antioch had been shaken off ;
plenty of new dust had been acquired. Was this also
to be rejected ?

The missionaries followed the order of their going,
given by the Captain of their salvation. First were
the elect, ancient people to hear the glad tidings, and
only after they had rejected it, were the Gentiles to be
privileged. The splendid opportunity afforded by the
Synagogue was, of course, to be availed of. It is clear
that this Synagogue order, with its open ministry,
was a prime factor in the spread of the Evangel. Why
should it not be available to-day ?

The Apostles, we judge, took the opportunity of
preaching Christ to the Jews of Iconium and in a short
time the inevitable results ensued. The whole town
was divided into two hostile parties, and in this remote,
but capital city, no doubt the strength of party feeling
would be particularly strong. The commonalty
would incline to the new tidings. The Jews and the
upper classes would be against any innovations.
But the Apostles were not left without witness, many
disciples were made, inducing the Apostles to remain
to foster the growth of the infant Church.

Their success, of course, was the signal for danger.
Upon the highway between the city of Antioch news
would travel speedily, and the chiefs of the Synagogue,

282 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

alarmed at the spreading heresy, redoubled their
efforts to tear up the seedlings that were being rooted
at the neighbouring town.

The lady agency— the Primrose League of that
day— put forth its wiles, and delegates were sent to
stop the anarchic movement. It was time to use the
power committed to the Apostles to use upon extra-
ordinary occasions and exert that miraculous potency
which was one of the special gifts of the Holy Spirit.

" The Lord gave testimony to the word of His
grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by
their hands.'''' (Acts xiv. 3.)

Ah ! those miraculous hands ! It was by their
hands they banished fevers, commimicated grace,
lifted up cripples, opened eyes and taught dumb
tongues to praise the risen Saviour. If these wonder
working hands were deprived of life, the unanswerable
arguments of the miracles would no longer be forth-
coming. So murderous counsels were entered upon,
stoning was the fitting cure. Paul heard of it !
Stephen weighted his heart. Nemesis was searching
for him Already rude assaults were being made
openly upon the Apostles and their following. So
having considered the matter (Stephen's voice not
silenced) and gratefully remembering that they had
already been the means of planting a second Catholic
Church, and moreover, of healing a multitude of
persons, the missionaries arrived at the conclusion
that it would be expedient for them to depart hence.
One cannot but suspect that it was the Nemesis of
Stephen's stoning that led to the clandestine retreat.

It is no use attempting to evade the punishment
of sin. Paul, perhaps, thought that he had escaped
when the two, with the help of disciples, had got free

ICONIUM 288

from the city, but Nemesis had gone before them.
She was waiting with her sword, cutting the air,
mounted upon the gates of Zeus, which stood at the
entrance of Lystra.

" Once was I stoned," he said ( 2 Corinthians ii.
25). Yes ! He had to be, but vengeance being taken,
Nemesis was satisfied. One offering at Calvary
needed to propitiate remorseless justice, and being
paid, no further repetition is required.

Iconium remains, it is the modern Konieh. It was
made the capital of Seljukian Sultans, who did much
to enlarge the Ottoman Empire— lamentable and
accursed issue of the glorious triumphs of the Cross,
through St. Paul. W * are told that the walls made
a circuit of two miles and the materials were mainly
the remains of Grecian, Roman and Byzantine carved
stones, capitals and bases, and engraved entablatures
appearing here and there. A miserable varnish is put
upon the decadent civilization of the Turk, a railway
connects Smyrna with it now.

On to Lystra ! This city cannot now be identified
with any certainty, among the mounds of overthrown
churches and Temples. It is supposed to lie some
fifty miles south-east towards Derbe, which is simi-
larly left to the archaeologists to fight over. A far-off
Divine event was awaiting Paul at Lystra. He had
to see — to convert and to consecrate, one who was
to be fellow-labourer in the Gospel, and to be given
the oversight of another Catholic Church. Nemesis
and Timothy —the wound and the consolation wrapped
in each others arms.

Hurry on ! not from dogs behind, but run to ac-
complish your destinies in front.

In the streets of Lystea was a man, from his birth—

284 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

had never walked, had to be carried— an object of
compassion. But much compensation is given to
such unfortunates. They were, in those days, ex-
empted from working for a Uving, though some handi-
craft certainly might be found for them. An idle life
that thousands might envy, watching the stream of
humanity, scant though, perhaps, for Lystra was not a
big place, yet sufficient to give one cripple a living —
offering a silent beggar's plea and plaint, as he showed
to the passers-by his incapable members.

Paul had a keen intelligent vision and perceived
that the cripple had faith to be healed. Now, reader !
can you believe for a moment that Paul was going to
speculate, or venture upon a chance, where, if failure
should ensue, the cause of Christ would be damned in
all that region. Paul's faith was equal to the cripple's.
He knew ; first, that he was bidden to do what he was
going to do, and next that what he was about to do
would succeed absolutely. Hence, with a loud voice
he cried out, " Stand upright on thy feet. And he
leaped and walked." (Acts xiv. 10.) Striking, in-
deed ! no long practice required to balance himself,
on the first essay. He was able to walk and leap, like
the cripple at the gate of the Temple. The people
were delighted : they, like all worshippers, wanted a
proof of the Divinities they worshipped, and here a
confirmation of their faith was given. Their city was
being honoured by a visit from the celestial regions ;
two tutelary Divinities, come down in the likeness of
men.

Send word to the priest of Zeus and let us sacrifice
to them. They called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul
Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker.

Meantime, perhaps, the healers were busy

ICONIUM 285

with the restored cripple, going with him to his
abode and preaching to his relatives the power of God
to make men who cannot walk uprightly, to do so.
And, returning to the place where a crowd has as-
sembled, lo, a strange procession was seen approaching.
The priest of Jupiter was leading oxen and garlands to
the Temple at the gates and would offer sacrifice to
them— to those two wayfarers— the off scouring of the
world. The Roman Emperor was diligently propaga-
ting the religion of Caesar worship, which meant no
more than may Heaven preserve the Roman Empire
and prevent any enemies playing knavish tricks
against it, or in brief Salus Populi, Suprema Lex. But
the idea of receiving Divine honours, to the devout
Jews, enlightened to comprehend the adorable Trinity,
was a blasphemous thing, to be abhorred. Hence,
regardless of economy, the two Apostles hastened to
run in and out of the crowd, tearing their clothes and
crying, '* Sirs ! why do ye these things ? We also are
men of like passions with you, and preach unto you,
that you should turn from these vanities unto the
living God, whichmade Heaven and earth, and the sea
and all things that are therein. Who, in times past,
suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Never-
theless He left not Himself without witness, in that
He did good and gave rain from Heaven and fruitful
seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.
And with these sayings, scarce restrained they the
people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them."
(Acts xiv. 14—18.)

It was quite to be expected that the
townspeople would be deeply affronted by
being, as it were, made fools of. Pol? tic Jesuit
missionaries would have adroitly used the oppor-

286 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

tunity and turned it to the best accounts for
Roman Propaganda.

Not so, could the genuine and sincere emissaries,
sent forth to witness against idolatry, be implicated
in the last and worst form of it— the idolatry of man.
The insult offered against the vain citizens, who
imagined themselves special favourites of Heaven,
could not be condoned. A revulsion of feeling took
place. The leaping cripple was a hard nut to crack,
but the multitude were now prepared to believe any-
thing. The two tramps were impostors, and the
cripple had been deceiving the city for years. Cun-
ning bandages had made his limbs appear helpless,
but the false Mercury whispered how he could be
rewarded, and straightway he leaped to his feet. So
the lately applauding people were enraged and took
up stones. Stimulated also by the emissaries from
Iconium. Here was Nemesis. Paul was battered,
and note, Barnabas was not touched. His appar-
ently lifeless body was dragged out of the gates.
The scornful populace jeered at his Godship. '' Let
him arise ! "

But there was an awestruck circle, standing round
the prostrate form of the Apostle, and among them
was a boy, who had imbibed the teaching of his
mother and his grandmother, and who especially
treasured up every word that fell from the lips of Paul.
He was deeply affected, and as he lent over his Father
in Christ, hot tears fell upon his face. Timothy saw
a movement, he straightened himself and declared,
" He is breathing ! " "He is alive!" Timothy was right.
The circle is delighted. Paul gets up miraculously,
without assistance, and, apparently not in pain,iwalks
back boldly right into the persecuting city, feeling

ICONIUM 287

that the Divine protection is over him. The next day
he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.

A few hours would suffice to bring the assaulted
Apostles to a comparative haven of rest. Nothing is
recorded of sufferings, or perils at Derbe. It was a
frontier town at this extremity of the Roman domin-
ion, and, having reached it, they thought to retrace
their steps, confirming the disciples and appointing
elders, but before setting out for the return
journey, they had the happiness of making many
believers.

Derbe, which the Apostle re-visited twice subse-
quently, has given no striking annals to history ; but
in the fourth century it had a Bishop who was present
at the Council of Constantinople. Happy is the
country or city that has no annals. The missionaries
doubtless found it a place of refreshment and peace,
after the agitating and cruel persecution which had
driven them forth from the three other cities. The
determination of the Apostles to return over the same
enemies' territory, testifies to their solemn consecra-
tion to the work they had undertaken. It was not
favourable opportunities, per se, that they sought out.
If such presented themselves, they would be embraced,
but it was not ease, facility, or a speedy triumph that
they looked for. It was simply the prosperity and the
permanence of the work begun. Apostolic objects
and methods of extending Christ's Kingdom contrast
painfully with some modern instances. The main
activity of whole Churches absorbed in raising funds
to discharge debts that ought never to have been in-
curred : and a riotous bazaar romping through a week,
after six months preparation, under the idea that in
some way, no unconsidered Christian can divine how

288 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

the Kingdom of our Lord is being extended. Yes I
the contrast is indeed great.

Paul and Barnabas, when exhorting the converts to
steadfastness, under the searching trial of loss of em-
ployment and trade, the women-kind assailing the
husbands to feed the children at the price of Apostacy,
and the Jewish ladies using all their arts to suppress
the movement, or make the non-believers suffer for it —
Ready to face the same threatening dangers, another
stoning ? Yet Paul presses on, upon the same scene of
rapid success and then ruin, determining to build just
where the enemy is most active. It is both beautiful
and sublime, this return upon the routed field, and
the exhortation to the converts. *' We can only enter
the Kingdom of God by passing through much
tribulation." As these two pioneers were solemnly
consecrated to become Evangelists by the simple cere-
mony of laying on hands, after prayers and fasting ; so
in like manner, Paul and Barnabas ordained elders
among the infant Ecclesia. We can imagine how ten-
derly solicitous the Apostles were in giving counsel and
encouragement. No fine exemptions from difficulty,
pains and sacrifices. No ! nothing in the shape of
bribery. Modern exhortations largely deal with the
worldly success in buying and selling, that is
supposed to be involved in repenting and believ-
ing, and gaining the two worlds. The first Gentile
Churches were made of different material than
that. They quietly accepted the conditions— loss of
consideration, separation from chief friends, the loss
of income, the ruin of their social future. And yet
these plants, exposed to every bitter wind, lightning,
storm and the uprooting of a sleepless enemy, they
persisted. How did it happen ? It was the ** expulsive

ICONIUM 289

power of a new affection," the new Friend, whose
overpowering attractions took captive the souls
which were throbbing with a new Hfe— that of God
Himself.

Oh, the marvel and the glory of it ! No Apostle
left to succour them and to educate them, raw from
Paganism and with no Christian literature, which
Mark was so concerned to provide— little acquaintance
with the Jewish Scriptures. I am speaking now of the
main constituents of those Churches, for I conceive
them to be not only composed of Jews and Proselytes,
but also of Gentiles unattached hitherto and absolutely
ignorant. It is marvellous to think of them left as
sheep in the desert without a pastor, but they sur-
vived and they grew. What is the explanation ? It
is that they were not cut off from the ministry of the
Good Shepherd and His blessed Spirit. He whose
delight were ever in the sons of men, did not desert
His own for whom He bled. No ! It was under that
apparent orphanhood that infant Churches of Antioch,
Iconium, Lystra and Derbe struck root and many
were turned unto the Lord. Talk of miracles ! How
irrefutable the simple facts that with everything to
deter men from embracing the Gospel, yet it became
rooted in defiance of every obstacle and without any
specially provided Bishop, Angel or Overseer.

The Apostles descended from the mountains and
came again to Perga ; the city which the painful
departure of Mark would make memorable. While
Paul and Barnabas were busy preaching, Mark would
be busy collecting, transcribing and diligently gather-
ing all authentic oral traditions, a work of inexpressible
value, to which the Church is everlastingly indebted.
The Apostles preached at Perga, but with what

290 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

measure of success we are not told. The place was
even then decaying, and now the site is a mass of ruins.
Attaleia was nearer the sea than Perga, and hence
it grew at the expense of the latter. Ere they sailed
thence for the Syrian Antioch it must be supposed
that they preached the word there also. And when
they had come, '' whence they had been recommended
by the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled,"
they gathered the Church together, they rehearsed
all that God had done with them, and how he had
opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. And there
they abode long time with the disciples. Acts xiv.,
27, 28.

CHAPTER XXIII.

The Church's Measles.

Now when the infant Church, breathing the air of
Truth, Hke a young Hercules, destined to strangle
every Python, even in its cradle, and was crowing
and crying, " Look ! look ! at the sweet flowers, and
look ! look ! at the bright sun— the splendid child— a
new creation was threatened by premature dissolution
by the crafty green-eyed jealousy of certain of the
Jewish Christians, whose song was perpetually
" Circumcision, Tradition, the Law and Christ."

Notwithstanding that Peter had silenced them at
Jerusalem by the plain unvarnished tale of the won-
drous circumstances attending the conversion of Cor-
nelius and his household, and its marvellous sequel —
the Pentecostal shower upon a congregation of Gen-
tiles—the Spirit bestowing His gifts in equal measure
and equal diversity upon those who heard the Evangel,
there was, deep down in the breasts of those who con-
formed to the decision of the Apostolic Council, a
section who were leavened by underground dissatis-
faction. They could not brook the surrender of those
cherished privileges which they presumed to believe
were reserved for a mere fraction of the race. If we
are to be no longer a privileged nation and must receive
into our Ecclesia barbarians from outside, they should,
at all events, be made to conform to the burdens and
the barely tolerable yoke which our Law entails.
This section, therefore, determined secretly to undo
all the work done already by the Apostles, and at its

292 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

inception prevent the great enfranchisement of souls
going further.

Our superiority, this section felt, was recognised
in being a minority. To open the Kingdom of Heaven
to Demos ! Monstrous thought ! Where should we
be then ? So while the infant Church was crowing
and growing, after a wild night, when some craft had
perished in Scandaroon— masts sticking up— some
trading Jews thought that the Gentile Christians were
getting salvation too cheap, and that the value of
Christian faith would be lowered if a quantity of it
were thrown upon the market. To clog the onward
progress of the new cult, it was expedient to insist
upon a rite, exceedingly repugnant to mankind gen-
erally, but indispensable to the Jew. The monopolist
section rightly conceived that if Circumcision were in-
sisted upon, the invasion of the Barbarians would be
checked and the pride of selection and election tc the
ancient people would be gratified and conserved.
While pondering this theology, they remarked to each
other casually that " last night's hurricane would
benefit our wares."

Hence these black emissaries presented themselves
at the hospitable door of the Antiochean Church, and
their thesis was, "without Circumcision and obedience
to the Law, none can be saved. ' ' That initial rite com-
prised in itself the whole Jewish system. All the
bundle of needless appendages, banded together, pre-
sented one neck. If the Apostles were to use the
sword of truth the whole system would fall, like scaf-
folding, when the top stone had been placed.

Paul, with his eagle glance, perceived at once where
the battle of freedom and truth must be waged. This
was the citadel. The whole system must totter and

THE CHURCH'S MEASLES 298

fall if Circumcision be ignored. And conversely, no
enthronement of the Lord over all can conscientiously
take place, unless Christ Himself be known as ful-
filling all the Law and being able to make a present
of all that He is and all that He has and is able yet to
perform for the humblest believer.

It was a crisis in the history of Christianity, com-
parable only to that which occurred some 280 years
later, when Arius expressly sought to deprive the
sinner of obtaining pardon, and tried to erase
BASIAEYS from the Lord's diadem.

It took 100 years for the Christian Church to strangle
that Python— that old serpent, Redivivus, and al-
though Constantius, by his armies, endeavoured to
strike leprosy among the hosts of the true Israel, the
crisis was ultimately overcome and Theodosius — God
given instrumentality of secular power— replaced the
hopes and fortunes of mankind upon the only path
where they could be safely carried, in the faith and
acknowledgment of the proper Deity of Christ.

It was inevitable that prolonged disputations should
ensue.

Are you accredited by the Church at Jerusalem ?
No ! Did you consult with Peter, John or James ?
No ! Then you are not commissioned by the Church
to reverse the judgment which was orally proclaimed
at the last conference and tacitly accepted by the
brethren who were not present ? No ! they were
not ! But permit us to say that it is not alone our
private opinion. We have a strong backing at Jeru-
salem, which since that question was mooted is be-
coming an increasing party and we have felt it right
to acquaint you with the state of conviction at
present at Jerusalem.

294 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Paul, no less than Peter, had his Divine revelation.
It is useless to argue with men who have had revela-
tions. Every individual member of Christ's Body
in the Church has his own special revelation. To be
faithful to that, is the whole duty of a Christian. It is
a voice that speaks with no uncertain sound. To hear
it, is to fear, and to turn to the Lord and to await His
commands. Days and nights were consumed in the
vain wrangle. If these Jewish Christians thought
they had a good backing at Jerusalem, Paul knew that
the whole family of man was behind his back, and
he was not going to surrender one inch. Christ had
unbarred the gate of the Kingdom and called Peter
and Paul to press it open. Each had done so and
nations and tribes were beckoned to follow. And
now, some wretched specimens of Christian disciples
who had no inkling of the Universal religion, which
the King of the Jews came to establish, wanted to trip
up the Gentiles as they pressed in.

" You must be Circumcised and keep the Law if you
would be saved." Paul and Barnabas denied it in
ioiOy and the neophytes trembled and were disquieted
while the debates went on. The new born child of
Redemption was crowing loudly in joy and zeal when
these trading Jews came in with a wet blanket. It is
interminable and unbearable, we will go to Jerusalem
and get ample confirmation and authority which will
settle the matter for ever. Then did the pious Jews
lift up holy hands in thanks, for they were convinced
they would prevail — so rapidly the prejudice was
augmenting. They put their spectacles upon their
noses and took out pins to add to their phylacteries.
They had not forgotten to bring with them tiny
weights and scales to tithe mint, anise and cummin,

THE CHURCH'S MEASLES 295

while neglecting the weightier matters of the Law —
Justice, Mercy and Faith. Then withdrawing them-
seves from the meal offered them, they munched
alone what the Law allowed them to eat, and
pulled out their tablets to calculate what they had
made in the market, while despoiling the Egyptians,

The hybrid idea of joining Judaism and Christianity
leashed like hounds, or rather attempting to yoke
Pegassus caught straying from the Elysian fields with
the broken winded, broken kneed and half-starved
old horse of Judaism and harnessing them to the
conquering chariot of Christ was, indeed, incongruous
and fatal.

Pegassus must inevitably kick his neighbour to
death, but before that the chariot would be overturned.
However, all altercation was for the present suspended.
These small retailers, including apothecaries, awaited
with confidence the issue. The attempt to push the
Gentile cable through the eye of the Jewish needle
was foredoomed to fail. Private information had
reached them that the Cave of Adullam was crammed
full. They were hopeful, even assured. They had
killed two birds with one stone, had had a good " deal "
at Antioch, and had also dealt a blow at that most
serious spirit of liberty which was invalidating the
privileged heirs of Abraham and which threatened
to engulf the whole world, not even excepting their
trade. Then they shook their heads so long that
it became dangerous.

The Apostles went by the Roman road, along the
coast, and when they passed through Samaria, how
good it was to convey the salutations from the groups
of believers at Tyre and Sidon and Joppa. Perse-
cution had made the plants stronger. Under the

296 IHE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

high wind the roots struck deeper, and when the sun
of God's favour shone upon them, then leafy bud and
blossom unfolded spontaneously. Their greenness was
not born of jealousy. Paul was wearied to have to
fight over again a battle that he had imagined was
won and done with. There were Peter, John and
James. The audience was doubtless cold, irrespon-
sive and deeply prejudiced. Their zeal for proselytes
was largely adulterated by a political enthusiasm, keep-
ing in view additional power and influence, from an
accession of numbers and wealth, causing the author-
ities to extend further privileges. But the address
of the simple fisherman, who had no trading axe to
grind, was spoken in simple sincerity, and as he re-
minded the Church that the same gifts had been
imparted to themselves as to these Gentiles, hence
we must infer that they may be saved even as we.
John was led to make his avowal on the same side—
the contemplative John — but finally it came to the
turn of James— the Lord's brother— to clinch the
argument. He avowed that his eyes were opened and
he could never shut them again. He would advise
putting no hindrances in the Christian converts' path,
but simply enjoin upon them not to eat what had
been offered to idols ; for to be going to buy from the
Temple stalls would bring them into contact with
idolatry, and expose them to temptation. They
ought also be forbidden to eat things strangled and
food compounds of blood, because the blood is the life
and all our meals should be sacrificial life poured out.
Lastly let them have nothing to do with fornication —
that such abstinence was obligatory upon all who
aspired to be a Christian. To this the Church agreed,
and drew up the brief ordinance. The infant Churches

THE CHURCH'S MEASLES 297

were told that the men who had troubled them had
no commission, no authority. They might now re-
joice in their freedom from Jewish bondage. Nothing
was done or said in the way of articles of a creed.
That the Christ was a Divine Messiah was taken for
granted and need not be urged on rational grounds.
Intellectual belief is one thing and is powerless to
transform. A spiritual renovation is quite another
thing, and is due to an apprehension and a conviction
of things induced by the workings of the Holy Spirit.
This could not be put into a document.

Thus then the infant Church among the Gentiles
was launched upon its career through the ages without
any Creeds and without any Law. An Apostolic letter,
desired to impose upon Gentile converts, gave to the
mixed Churches the comforting remission of the ini-
tiatory rite of circumcision and repealed absolutely
the whole category of the burdensome Levitical re-
quirements, together with the Rabbinical traditions.
The Apostolic letter (encyclical) simply gave three
injunctions against promiscuous buying in the market,
because to do that would involve frequent intercourse
with those who were ministering to Pagan worship
and thus might entrap them into idolatrous worship
again. On the other hand, since Jews abounded in
all the principal cities, the Gentile Christians would
be led, by the Apostolic interdicts against things
strangled and blood, to make their marketing with
Jews and proselytes, for whom Jewish legal food was
provided.

These statesmanlike provisions were admirably
adapted to the circumstances of the hour, but to sup-
pose that they were of eternal obligation would be a
mistake. Good Christians may eat black puddings

298 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

and hares and rabbits and game without hurting their
consciences, not forgetting the Great Sacrifice. There
was, however, one injunction in this ApostoHc letter
which was neither provisional nor conventional.
Fornication was and is and for ever a deadly sin.
Here we touch essential morality and mark the boun-
dary where man ends and the beast begins. All the
false religions minister to the beastial tendencies of
man — although in varying degrees, and in some
systems involuntary homage is paid to a superior code
than that which is allowed to the commonalty. The
inseparable union of vice with heathen worship made
idolatry the hated thing which Israel, by Divine com-
mand, was trained to abhor.

This superiority of the Jew's religion over the other
nations was the magnet which drew the proselytes,
for the brilliant intellectual gifts, granted to other
peoples, were not entirely prostituted to what is base.
There were always yearnings after something higher
and better, vindicating lineage from a holy source,
from them veiled.

The infant Churches at this stage were not furnished
with either Creed or Catechism. It must be remem-
bered they came unto the priceless privilege of the
sacred oracles. There were the two tables of the Law,
the histories of Judah and Israel and the immortal
inspirations of the Psalmists and the Prophets. The
regular readings from these and exhortations based
upon them provided them with a body of Divinity.
As to Creeds, definitions of the Divine essence were
entirely superseded by the invincible conviction,
possessed by the believers that the Christ, Jesus of
Nazareth, the risen Lord, Son of God, was living and
breathing within their souls. Metaphysical definitions

THE CHURCH'S MEASLES 299

could not be completely satisfactory in any case, but
the knowledge of the Divine life could not be denied,
any more than the physical. To teach children that
they were not dead would be a work of supererogation.
Neither could the converts be persuaded that they had
not been born again. But, moreover, the Holy Spirit
confirmed the Word by signs following. To the happy
recipients of the great revelation of God's love to man-
kind there were added diversity of gifts, bestowed as
Divine sovereignty dictated. Miracles of healing,
miracles of prophecy, miracles of discernment of spirits,
miracles of Divine administration, miracles of casting
out devils, and miracles of power to affirm with cer-
tainty the record given of His Son by the Father of
All in the power of the Spirit, in short, miracles of
preaching the Gospel in such wise that men should
hear and fear and turn to the Lord.

The whole thing was Divine at the outset, and that
victorious aid, granted at the start, was purposely
withdrawn after the Apostolic age. Children must
learn to walk by leaving the nurse's hand. It was
intended that the human should supervene, with the
inevitable consequence that failure came and shame
and defeat. Heresies sprung up, theological defin-
itions became necessary, directions for worship,
directions for family life, directions for every com-
pliance, or non-compliance required by a Church,
which w as to be ever militant and opposed to the rule
of the Prince of the World.

Now as to the fourth commandment. This as it
does not stand on the same ground as the moralities,
except in so far that a merciful rest for man and beast
is involved, the Christian Church could easily transfer
the obligation of a weekly rest day from the seventh

300 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

to the first. Certainly these primitive arrangements
were made under the direct inspiration of the Spirit,
and we may say that the first day could be regarded
more sacredly than the old : for the rest from creation
could not compare in its significance and implications
with the day when Death was doomed, and a reprieve
purchased for all mankind by the Immortal Ransomer.
Moreover, a written command to observe a rest day
was rendered unnecessary by the splendid obedience
of the Jews to the Sinaitic institution in all the
cities. And what is most binding there was the
perpetual command given by the Lord Himself to
keep the memorial Feast of his Sacrifice and His return.
Not alone once in seven days, but " as often " as the
Eclesia might ordain it. But since a rest day was
given a sabbatic obligation, naturally the celebration
of the Memorial Feast would be specially guarded
from omission. Hence the infant communities were
not so deprived of prescriptive usages as might at
first sight be supposed, and most certainly some script
containing the proper observance and meaning of the
Lord's Supper nmst have been current, and religiously
preserved as one by one churches were planted after
the footsteps of the missionary Apostles.

With all this it must have been with the keenest
interest that St. Paul surmised the course which was
being taken by the Gentile Churches. Everything
against them on the human side, everything required
from the Divine, for a propitious putting on of the
Lord Jesus.

It must have occurred to Paul and Barnabas over
and over again that it was their paramount duty to
visit the scenes of their glorious battlefield. Mark
was impatient to join and to confer copies of His Lord's

THE CHURCH'S MEASLES 301

biography and acts. But Paul, though so tender in
nurturing faith, could not forgive an instance of
rebellion in one so young and guilty (though this
writer does not share the view) of excusing himself
from the labours and perils involved. He had much of
the Pope in him, and, indeed, it was fortunate that such
was his characteristic. When discipline was called
for, his threats were not idle. He warned the Corin-
thians that he would not spare the recalcitrant. '' My
Apostolic authority," he told them, " is not a thing
of words, but of power. Which shall it be ? Shall
I come to you with a rod, or in a loving and tender
spirit ? " (I. Corinthians iv. 20—21) Weymouth. He
would even hand over the guilty to Satan for the de-
struction of the flesh, that the Spirit might be saved
in the day of the Lord Jesus. A man like St. Paul,
feeling the full weight of the solemn and sacred behests
given him to discharge, could not condone the appar-
ent lightness of his behaviour. If Mark was mis-
judged and in the Divine eyes vindicated, Paul's sense
of responsibility is a lesson to all of us. Who touches
the Sacred Ark, let him beware !

So they parted. A grander quarrel never occurred.
But we are left without any record of how uncle and
nephew sped when they sailed again to Cyprus and,
doubtless, to Paphos. What libraries we shall have
to read in Heaven ! concerning the acts of Barnabas
and Mark and, without a doubt, Sergius Paulus would
much wonder and greatly deplore the absence of Paul.
The miracles and the saving words would delight us.
Had Mark bethought him to write them down. But
Mark rightly felt quite indisposed for such a task,
after recording the glorious words and works of His
Lord. Were there no Sergius Paulus' among the

302 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

semi-civilized nations who disappeared before Ineas
or Aztecs were discovered in South America ? Were
there no Ethiopian eunuchs among the ancient
dynasties that ruled in Africa before it lapsed into
barbarism ? And prior to Confucius and Buddha,
and prior to Druid, in Europe— Were there not
thousands among rulers, warriors and slaves who
kept looking into the same old star map of the
Heavens, watching and watching through the cen-
turies for a star of Bethlehem ? Without question
there were. The light they were not favoured with
on earth has since dawned upon them in the other
world. The Lamb slain before the foundations of
the world has been saving all along, through every
generation of God— conscious Humanity.

CHAPTER XXIV.
Paul's Second Missionary Journey.

Silas was going on his first missionary journey,
taken by Paul. They departed with the commen-
dation and blessing of the Church at Antioch. They
would go lovingly together, perhaps all the more so
because Silas was chiefly the listener, and the initia-
tive was always taken by the former persecutor. Paul
was full of appreciations for the good young man,
Mark, apart from his single grievous fault. He was
also cheered by having succeeded in resetting Peter
upon his proper fomidations. He was obliged to deal
sharplj^ with him. Peter appears to have left
Jerusalem shortly after the promulgation of the
Decree, to spy out how the thing was working, and
when he had reached Antioch, to his grievous
amazement, he found Peter consorting with the
Circumcising party and withdrawing himself from
the Gentile tables. '' A splendid Apostle ! " he
said to Silas, " especially dear to the Lord, and
because of his singular instability given the name of
Cephas, as an admonition and an aspiration. May
God preserve me from ever partaking of his
frailty."

But alas ! for human constancy. The rebuker of
Peter was on his way to commit a glaring inconsistency
when he reaches Lystra and sees Timothy. But we
are anticipating ! At present the two Evangelists
are steadily mounting onwards over Mount Amanus
until they reach 3,000 feet above the sea level. Before

804 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

they descend to see Tarsus again they begin to con-
sider their appearance and the length of their
purses.

'' How good those Christians at Antioch have been !
I hope, Silas, they have been equally bountiful to you,
but I returned more than half they pressed upon me,
lest I should be burdensome. I rejoice to exercise
my craft, though so poorly paid, but thank God, it is a
healthy trade, and I have had frequently fellow-
labourers, in Aquila and Priscilla, who wrought with
me in the Gospel. Those saints are good employers,
and, in their God-given calling, they and I rejoiced
to make the Glad Tidings wholly free. But prepare
for hardships, hunger and thirst and persecutions.
We are not two chapmen who have the possibility of
magical capital to rig markets of commodities
without soiling their little fingers by producing them.
Labour, even skilled labour, is always at the bottom
margin of subsistence, for want of regular employ-
ment."

St. Francis, leaving Assissi, was given four gold
pieces. He did not refuse them, but at the bottom of
the hill he made haste to relieve himself by presenting
them to a beggar. Bad political economy, doubtless,
but good for the saint, to lean heavily upon the Unseen
Arm. As a matter of fact neither St. Paul, or Silas, nor
St. Francis were disappointed, and the same good
Providence never abandons the Evangelist. One of
them in these modern days, going to serve some
Anglican churches, place and time advertised, took up
his portmanteau to catch his train, and had no coin
in his purse. He was stopped by a friend and enquired
if he was not going by train and wanted cash ? He
was obliged to say it was so.

PAUL'S SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 805

'' Well," replied the friend, " I had a vision last
night in my sleep. I saw you distinctly, and I saw
myself giving you gold. Here is some and I hope it
is sufficient."*

Paul sank into a reverie as he approached his native
city, and when he entered it, he was not long in being
** cut " by his acquaintances. His mother had long
mourned her " lost " son, and his indefatigable zeal
in making disciples only widened the breach between
her, his sister and all old friends of his father. He was
rewarded, however, by the love and reverence he re-
ceived from the new family he had created. He was
not long before faces lit up by joy and thankfulness,
pulled him in this direction and in that, making it
difficult to get along. From under the shade of a
tent, that he himself had fashioned, emerged a woman,
selling water melons and was radiantly happy to en-
counter him unexpectedly. She was emptying her
basket into the wallets of both, but they steadfastly
refused, except for such quantum as would gratify her.
When she looked after them with wonderful affection,
Paul whispered, " Quite a poor woman, but rich in
faith."

Another relative passed him with a gesture of scorn.
His own father had been in a good position, and his
wayward son, having thrown away all his hopeful
future, was now reduced to the despised caste of
hand operatives ; ready to bear the penalty, since
labour began, of being useful and, consequently,
despised and unrewarded. Added to this he had
quitted the ancestral faith (though Paul would
say he was fulfilling it) and, therefore, he was
doubly worthy of being " cut " off from his father's
friends. But the slight of the world did not hurt
• •♦ Christian World, 28th April, 1810."

806 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

him. What would really hurt him would be to see
man-worship and respectability stifling the genuine
cross bearing to which the new converts were called.

In reaching Tarsus they had passed through the
pass where Alexander and Cicero had been before
them. Now the conquests of the cross was their
objective, and the administration of an Empire, such
as Cicero could never make permanent. They were
travelling now to confirm the Churches, to leave the
decree with all its consolation, and, as they walked
or rode, or led sumpter mules, the two Apostles be-
came increasingly attached to each other. The strong
and healthy vitality of Paul's spirit quickened all of
God that dwelt in the soul of Silas.

The way that the Apostles now took was through the
Cilician Gates towards Derbe, Lystra and Iconium and
Pisidian Antioch, a way that Caractacuswas conducted
to Rome — a captive. That prisoner could never know
that the subjugation of his island kingdom was but one
step towards making England the Great Missionary
Country, by whom the entire world was to be sub-
jugated by the Christian Faith. For amid the legion-
aries which planted the Roman eagles, there were
possibly several soldiers, who learnt to wield the sword
of the spirit and to sow the first seeds of Divine truth.

The Evangelists arrived at length at Derbe, in their
Archdiaconal or Episcopal visitation, and the first
question would be, " Where is Barnabas ? " Paul
would have to introduce Silas and to explain that he
had gone to Cyprus. The absence of beloved Barna-
bas cast a shade upon the greeting company, and Silas
was unknown to them. But the modest Silas soon in-
gratiated himself into their esteem and no rude prying
questions were put to St. Paul as to the cause of the

PAUL'S SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 807

separation that had taken place. It was a deUghtful
season, the Church had prospered, thrived, in spite of
secret disfavour and open persecution. The wonder
grew, as they visited one Fellowship after another,
how they remained constant and increased. They had
no New Testament Scriptures, no Liturgies, no Creeds,
no definitions of doctrines, no dogmas, and yet all
uniting in speaking the same language of Christian
faith and pursuing the same aim, to extend disciple-
ship and engaged upon the same sacred task of becom-
ing conformed to the mind and will of the Master.
But we shall suggest, later on, how exceptional and
provisional it all was. Meantime the two Evangelists
proceed to Lystra— the scene of the stoning. There
was no avoiding of painful experiences. There are
people who would skirt a town, where their experiences
were painful and would vow not to re-enter it. St.
Paul, on the contrary, was eager to be there again.
He had not forgotten the tearful face which lent over
him when consciousness was returning. To see
Timothy, and Eunice and Lois, St. Paul hastened to
Lystra.

The greeting was warm, despite the cold shade of
the absence of Barnabas. " What is he doing ?
Preaching the glad news in Cyprus. Alone ? No !
he has got his nephew, Mark, with him. We don't
know Mark. Oh ! he is a fine young fellow. But tell
me about Timothy." There was much to tell about
Timothy— in his praise.

Timothy, fore-ordained to be a founder and
bishop of the early Church, was universally beloved,
and it did not enter his mind to aim at earthly dis-
tinctions, or the acquisition of wealth, nor was he con-
tent to live simply as a private Christian-— a flower

808 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

bedded in a garden. No ! he possessed the ardent
soul which constantly urged him to declare the glad
tidings of great joy and to bring illuminations to those
who hitherto dwelt in darkness. When St. Paul
proposed to take him on his journeys, no young man
could be gladder. He was undoubtedly forewarned,
by a revelation of the risks and sufferings which would
deter any except those who were ready to yield up
their all to the Lord. But these plain statements were
not likely to cause him to hang back ; neither did his
mother, or grandmother, or his father, pagan though
he was, dissuade him from his projected career. They
all gave him their blessing and Paul received him as a
precious gift. Nothing, therefore, was wanting to
fit him for the Apostleship, absolutely nothing. But
an extraordinary obstacle presented itself to the
mind of Paul— the last man in the world to have enter-
tained it.

********

Silas went about in his quiet modest way to look
after the members of the Fellowship. He was in-
creasingly liked and they compared him in many
respects to Barnabas, whose memory was fragrant,
after a long round of visits and attending a meeting
where a few were accustomed to gather for prayer, and
Silas exhorted them with much acceptance, he sought
his lodgings and found Paul still away. He had
scarcely adjusted himself on a couch when Paul
returned, and met Silas with the words.

" I have just circumcised him."

" Who ? " exclaimed Silas.

" Timothy ! "

Silas had jumped up and stood facing Paul
in speechless astonishment. " You circumcised

PAUL'S SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 309

him ! " said Silas slowly, and then sank upon the
couch.

Paul also threw himself upon a couch and remained
silent, as though not quite easy in his mind. He
closed his eyes.

After a while Silas resumed, " I thought that your
contention at Jerusalem and at Antioch was that
Circumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the
Commandments of God."

" Right, Silas; but you see his father is a Greek."
" But," said Silas, *' his mother was not, she was a
staunch daughter of Abraham, and her mother
before her, both of them cherishing Israel's hope,
which we know has come to us in Jesus Christ."

" Right again, Silas, quite right."

" Why, then, did you circumcise him ? "

" Because — because— I w^ant him to help me in the
ministry and to be acceptable in the Synagogues."

" Acceptable ! " With scorn in his voice, Silas sat
upright and stared with extended and flashing eyes.
'^Acceptable,'*'' he repeated with a double dose of scorn,
" You will never make the Cross acceptable but to
broken-hearted sinners, and the elders in the Syna-
gogues are not such. The Cross stains all human
pride, pricks the bubble of self-approval, strips the
shivering soul of its last garment and places it under
the burning eyes of the Searcher of Hearts. How can
you make it acceptable to the self-righteous Jew ? "

Paul was silent and stirred uneasily.

Silas resumed. " I did so admire you, Paul, when
Peter— the ' rock ' began to melt again, in presence
of the false brethren who came from Jerusalem to spy
out our liberty, and was then eating and drinking with
the Gentiles, and, lo ! and behold, was found with-

310 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

drawing himself to get reinstated in their good graces.
You perceived the crisis, its momentous character,
for even the noble and excellent Barnabas was being
carried away. You then rose at once, before the
assembled Church, and publicly rebuked our dear
Peter, saying, ' If you, a born Jew, feel it now right to
eat and drink wdth the Gentiles, why do you oblige the
Gentiles to conform the Jewish practices ? Nullifying
the decision that you yourself recommended the Church
to adopt.' Oh, brother Paul, be consistent ! You
said to me only yesterday, ' The grace of God alone
could make Peter a success, but under my rebuke the
melting rock became crystalline again.' To-day
you have abandoned all the positions you were defend-
ing. Who are these spies ? What have you to fear
from them ? You remind me, Timothy's father was
a Greek. That was the very reason w^hy you should
not have circumcised him. His beautiful character
was known, you should have jealously preserved
him untouched, and boasted of him in all the
Synagogues, as proof that circumcision was nothing
and uncircumcision was nothing but keeping the
Commandments of God, which alone Jesus Christ
can absolve us from breaking and give us grace to
attempt more successfully." Paul was still silent,
and then in a low voice said, " I did it as a matter
of policy."

" Policy ! " shouted Silas. '' I stand for principle.
Principle is rock, policy is untempered mortar."

It does not become us, however, to indulge in criti-
cisms of that kind. The glorious Apostle lived in such
an exalted plane of Divine permeation that to talk of
error and censure should die upon our lips. We are

PAUL'S SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 311

utterly unworthy of entertaining presumptions against
any portion of his conduct, when the main track of his
life transcends so hopelessly our wretched imitations.
Even in dismissing the subject, we feel we need to cry
mercy from Heaven for venturing to say that Paul's
brilliant inspiration may have suffered a temporary
eclipse in circumcising Timothy.

Lystra detained the Apostles for a few days for a
very good reason. But when Silas went again among
the people, several enquired solicitously, " What is the
matter with Paul ? He has lost his bold confident
tone, and frequently hangs his head. He had ' words *
with Barnabas. Had he words with you ? "

" No " ! would Silas reply with a smile. " No ! I
fear it was the other way, but I was only zealous for
principle." But all the neighbours remarked how
Paul and his son in the faith became more and more
inseparable. Who does not know how a wrong, in-
flicted unworthily, or only ignorantly or accidently,
invests the sufferer with unequalled magnetic power.
The desire, the effort, the hope to repair it induces
tenderness on both sides. We sinners wrong God,
the degree of our sense of this creates a corresponding
tenderness and reproachfulness, which moves God
instantly towards us and we to Him, and revelations
ultimately bind Heaven to Earth. It is from an ocean
of lovelessness that love itself is born. Evil creates
Good and discords are resolved in harmony. It is this
lost, erring world that perpetuates the uaconsumhig
fire of God's love. God so loved it that He offered His
own Son in exchange for it - and when the exchange
takes place He brings many sons to glory.

Meantime, Paul and Timothy are knit into one soul
Paul gets out of his dolours. His old bold confident

312 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

tone returns, limothy and he have been clearing up
some very intimate affairs and there is also the best
understanding with Silas. All the Church turns out
to bid farewell. Silas has become a great favourite,
while Paul is more revered than ever. The chapter
of Lystra is closed, it had blots and it had tears, and
now all is white and bright. On to Iconium again
those three. The cripple running after them and
cheering.

CHAPTER XXV.

Parenthetical Period of the Spirit's Direct
Action, within the Infant Churches.

It would be a great mistake, I conceive, to imagine
that the position of the newly planted Churches at
this period was meant to be perpetuated, throughout
the long interval before the Lord's return, and that we
should regard their order and their organism of work
and worship, as models, not to be departed from, nor
admitting of improvement, or adaptation to changed
circumstances.

At this juncture, Divine action of an abnormal
character, we would reverently suggest, was demanded,
for without it the new religion could not grow. But
subsequently human probation, was to proceed under
conditions demonstrating human insufficiency and
yet, after confessed failure, to issue victoriously. We
may again say, reverently, that the Divine wisdom
contemplated to prepare the Church for its glorious
manifestation in the Millennial period. And that as
regards the World, its confessed failure to accomplish
Divine ends by political methods was designed, and
the world's contemptuous indifference and hostility
to the Church was to be an essential element in its
perfecting. Hence we repeat the condition of the
Ecclesia at this juncture was entirely unparalleled
and never meant to be final.

Its Government was, for the time, to supersede, in
a great measure much that could be effected by (inspired
intellect, inspired literature, inspired utterance on

314 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

the part of converted men, selected from the Pagan
and Jewish adherents. The Holy Spirit qualified
various members to teach, prophecy, heal, administer
and judge, and maintain the liveliest exercises of faith,
hope and charity. All was done for them, because at
the outset, a more direct, immediate action of the Holy
Spirit was required.

The providential design was certainly not to keep
the Church in leading strings, either as to the objects
of its faith, or the organism it needed to evolve.

The Church was to grow in capacity, to be trained,
disciplined and fed, so as to become an instrument,
mediately of permeating all authority and become an
executant of the Divine will in judging and saving men.
She was to become gradually self-furnished with the
Apparati suitable for its success in winning its way
among the ignorant and perishing multitude. Her
instruments being her symbolic sacraments, but
mainly, disciples, sanctified and endued by the Holy
Spirit and, undertaking to discharge those functions
which the Holy Spirit directly and abnormally exer-
cised, for a temporary purpose at the outset.

Out of the nurses' arms, the Church began to walk
and then to run, but only for a season. The world was
thickly planted by the Devil's gardening, and when
the Church began to hew a path, the Anti-christ used
the Pagan Governments' to stop the way. Alas I in
time she began to borrow the Devil's axe, and ultim-
ately began to plant a thorn hedge, higher than his,
so that the thirsting nations were kept back, and the
wells of salvation were sold, which were meant to be
offered freely to the world.

Since then she has washed her robes ; and, if not
standing in quite white penitence, she has been en-

THE SPIRIT'S DIRECT ACTION 315

trusted again to hold the candle of the Lord, and from
her, the only illumination, mediately can proceed.

When the cycle of her probation has been accom-
plished we may look forward to a time when the more
direct and immediate action of the Spirit may super-
vene- when the Church will again be granted super-
natural aids, as in her infant period. Christendom is
relapsing to Paganism. The miraculous must re-
appear, both for the Church and the world's sake.
The Church has to confess her utter helplessness apart
from her Lord, and the World shows the utter fatuity
of building new Jerusalem without Divine founda-
tions. Poor, beggared, bankrupt, defrauded World !
Putting all its money upon social reconstruction, and
losing absolutely ! For utmost scientific achievements
in material successes leave it starving, on account of
the remnants of a Diviner appetite, which craves for
another food, for man cannot live by bread alone.

There are many reasons why the miraculous may
be expected :

(a) The judicial withdrawal of the Holy Spirit's
former triumphs on account of the Church's faithless-
ness.

(b) The occurrence of the predicted decline of
faith in regard to the foundations of the Christian
faith.

(c) The fidelity of the Remnant Church, which,
during the antecedent period, will be tried and re-
warded by a supernatural display of the Spirit's
diversified gifts, confounding the Church's adversaries
and causing the persecuted witnesses to rejoice with
trembling, for the precious deliverances granted in
their extremity.

Then it will be seen how vain, after all, the triumphs

316 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

of science are to achieve the moral elevation of man,
or to relieve the labouring classes from the injuries and
perils which the advance of scientific civilization en-
tails. For human agency in connection with the
employment of the Mighty Genii, which the inventors
create, is indispensable, while to control them is not
always possible, and contingent failure is commen-
suratel}^ disastrous. It will ever be questioned
whether man's control over nature has brought him
nearer to a happier, freer and securer position, as a
toiler, amid dread material forces. If life is safe-
guarded in one direction, it is imperilled in another.
Machine production is a Moloch, and as for the devel-
opments of " business," they have added immensely
to the ranks of the dispensables and their incomes,
while poisoning with care and despair the ranks of the
absolutely indispensable.

Happiness ! It is never on sale, no earthly ore con-
tains it. It is to be discovered where none could
anticipate it. It is to be found with strange com-
panionship and amid circumstances accounted most
distressful. Religion alone holds the secret, and the
Church alone can verify the recipe.

Paul and Silas with their feet cramped in the stocks,
in the core of a filthy Roman prison, sang so blithe a
song that all the other prisoners were kept awake.
Animal socialism could never strike that key. The
Apostles of animal socialism consecrate their energies
to a cause that never pays. For when Love is slain
at the door step, the Angel of happiness will never
enter. A destroying Angel will come instead. Sui-
cides are startlingly frequent among them, but the
Divine Socialists lean upon the heart of the Eternal
Love, with whom is the Eternal life.

CHAPTER XXVI.
The Second Missionary Journey (Continued).

While the cheering of the cripple of Lystra was
still in their ears the Evangelists determined to break
into new ground. They always had acted under in-
spirations as to the way they should take. So they
entered upon a previously untrodden path ; blithely,
cheerfully, rejoicing to be commissioned to carry good
tidings to every creature.

They were traversing Galatia and Phrygia, when
the Spirit made His will known that they were not to
enter Bythinia. The Bythinians were to learn the
Gospel in the other world, not now ; so ever obedient
to the Divine impression, they spent days and nights
and weeks without planting any Churches. But with-
out doubt they had many a conversation with way-
farers—Jews and Gentiles, and years afterwards
what Paul and Silas and Timothy had sown would
spring up and bear fruit.

It was an enormous itinerary. They must have
been zig-zagging for 400 miles before they came to
Mysia. How much we have lost ! Then the Spirit
dictated a halt. They were not to go further north
into Bythinia, but to diverge westward, and still west-
ward, until they reached the regions of Ancyra.

They had proposed nothing of the kind, but they
were led to a seaport Troas. How blessed is it to be
required to make no plans, to have no uncertainties
as to duty, not to be plagued about the relative im-
portance of things to be done : which to take first

818 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

and what it is allowable to postpone. Why do Christ-
ians bother themselves in that way ? All they have
to do is to obey the Divine impressions granted to
those who humbly ask for guidance and are prepared
to implicitly obey. This plain dealing is not intended
to be confined to the preaching of the Gospel, it is
meant to be the privilege of every Christian in every
walk of life ; nothing is common, all is high and
Divine. The Holy Spirit concerns Himself or would,
if solicited, concern Himself with any, the pettiest
detail of private or public manifestation.

The Apostles had the sea before them, but they had
no idea in what direction they were to sail. Their
voices said nothing. So, retiring for the night, they
had no squabbles as to what was best to do. They
were not men of the world, running about for tips as
to the best thing to do, and unable to decide for them-
selves. All they had to do was to pray and wait.
This is the blessed privilege of Christian faith. No
care, no anxious considerations as to consequences
(only for others), the only care to trust and obey.

The voices came, or rather a vision, in the night-
time. It is perfectly idle for sceptics to question
either the reality or the supernatural character of what
St. Paul was given to see.

Hundreds and -thousands of individual Christians,
in modern days, could testify to similar things. Of
course disbelievers have no visions. It is Christian
faith that reveals— unlocks all the treasure house of
God's particular Providences.

We should also remind Christian readers that night
is the special time for the most sacred and important
revelations to be made. In the night when stars be-
come visible, it is then, when the way seems dark, that

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 819

stars of guidance declare themselves. And, after a
sweet night's rest, and tired nature is refreshed, the
Christian feels and knows that Angels have been
whispering in his ear the duties that await him to
undertake on the first hours of the new day. The
mind is more active, more peaceful, more happy, in the
early morning than at any other portion of the 24
hours. Up Christian ! and let not the thundering
urgencies that demand immediate attention find your
soul undressed and unprepared by exercises of prayer,
reading and meditation prior to presuming to deal
with them, uncounselled and unguided. That is to
say, that when such counsel of perfection is con-
stantly aimed at, then when the sudden and
unexpected invades the regular order, the soul finds
itself prepared beforehand for any exigency.*

Paul was recognised as the leader, and to him was
the vision vouchsafed. " In the night there stood a
man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, ' Come
over into Macedonia and help us.' " And after he
had seen the vision, immediately (how precious was
that instantaneous obedience without cavilling))
" Immediately we " (Silas and Timothy had no vision
but recognised Paul's guidance implicitly) " en-
deavoured to go into Macedonia, confidently inferring
that God had called us to proclaim the good news to
the people there. Therefore, loosing from Troas, they
came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the
next day to Neapolis, and from thence to Philippi,
which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and
a Colony." Here, then, their first work lay. Bythinia

*The late Hercules Dickenson, Dean of the Chapel Royal, Dublin, rose
at 3.30 a.m., and breakfasted at 4. Only by such saving method could he
prepare his Lectures on Pastoral Theology and meet his other multiplied
claims ere the first knocks of his parishioners assailed his door, and con-
tinued with disturbing frequency.

320 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

and Mysia must wait. There were others to be served
first. Hungering and thirsting souls at Phihppi, which
the Lord meant to satisfy. Most Hkely it was the first
voyage that Silas and Timothy had taken, and great
must have been the impression made. Paul signified
to them that Samothraeia and Neapolis were to be
neglected, but no sooner had they arrived at Philippi,
that they felt, or I mean Paul, the leader, felt, that
they had reached their proper bourne.

They had been led to go to Europe — ever westward
—but they were to stay whither they had now come
" certain days." The Sabbath was drawing near.
Paul held to the rule of first of all carrying the good
news to the Jews and afterwards to the Gentiles.
Hence they commenced by waiting an opportunity to
find an assembly of Jews, although the men of Mace-
donia were meant to be visited in due order.

Paul had ascertained that it was the custom to have
morning prayer by a river-side on the Sabbath, at a
place where prayer was wont to be made and they sat
down, and spake unto the women which resorted
thither. It is to be observed that by the use of the
pronoun ^' we," we are made aware of the presence
with the Apostles of the writer of the Acts.

St. Luke, the undoubted author, was accompanying
them, a circumstance that gives the highest testimony
to the trustworthiness of the record. Precisely at
what time and place he joined the party he has not
told us, it would seem that he had been engaged in
verifying the circumstances of our blessed Lord's life
in Palestine, and that, providentially led, he encoun-
tered the Missionaries upon this eventful journey and
determined to join, while also making for his Gentile
home. The historian and the physician, no less than

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 321

the Evangelist, became an ally of the highest value,
though his modesty led him to retire behind the asso-
ciates whose doings he was meaning to perpetuate.

We must then associate Luke with the Apostles on
their first proclamation of the Gospel in Europe.
Nothing is so natural and beautiful as the story of the
first convert to the Christian Church in Macedonia.
The Jews of the Dispersion were evidently animated
by a genuine and enlightened piety, for it would
appear that in the want of a synagogue they regularly
assembled, women more than men, outside the gate
on the banks of the Gaggitas.

No striking ceremonies, no gorgeous vestments, no
music, save such as the vocal chords provided. Never-
theless, the spirit of the descendants of Abraham
demanded and was gratified by a form of worship of
Presbyterian plainness.

And the freedom that was allowed to the gathering
was no less remarkable. Luke, Paul and Silas and
Timothy began to talk with the women who had come
together, and found no difficulty in engaging their
attention. They were not the idle and worthless
slaves of fashion, and although one of them was a
dealer in purple goods, it was no subject of feminine
apparel that caused Lydia to open her mouth.

On the contrary, her ears and her heart were open
and attent to hear what the chief speaker, Paul, was
holding forth upon. Lydia stood in that hour for the
millions upon millions of the heathen and the unchris-
tianized denizens of Christendom, who are waiting to
have their dumb call answered. The hour had struck
for Lydia. '' The Lord opened her heart, so that she
gave attention to what Paul was saying." When she
and her household had been baptized, she urged us,

322 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

saying, " If in your judgment I am a believer in the
Lord, come and stay at my house," and she made
them go."

The Baptist position in the controversy as to the
proper subjects for Baptism manifestly fails to satis-
factorily account for the baptism of the entire house-
hold of Lydia and subsequently for the same in regard
to the Philippian jailer.

The solemn, nay awful consequences which depend
upon every separate act of a single individual needs to
be enforced. No human being can think, speak, feel,
or act without really, vitally, and eternally affecting
the whole human family. All our actions are done
vicariously. The federal relationship, the corporate
oneness of the race destroys every doctrinal position
based upon isolated individualism.

Lydia opened her heart, and by consequence all her
babes had their hearts disposed to do as their mother
did in due time. What did St. Paul declare as to the
marriage relationship ? If one was a believer and was
joined to an unbeliever, the children were holy. The
principle comes to the surface in every page of Holy
Scripture. For bane and for blessing we are one.
We cannot avoid sharing in the judgment pronounced
against sin, although individually we may be guiltless.
But we are more than compensated by the Acts of our
Lord, in which we had no share at all. If we are
doomed to suffer on account of a national sin, notwith-
standing that we individually protested against it,
though unavailingly, we, with equal certainty, reap
the happy results of a Nation's Act of righteousness.
We are one loaf and it is idle to talk about crumbs.

Every moral conquest achieved by a single citizen
helps to guard our shores, and would give victory over

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 323

a wanton assault by our foes. Every faithless re-
liance simply, upon gigantic material engines of
destruction, and an unholy use of them without just
cause, would render them utterly useless. It is the
Heavens that rule and Hell is perpetually defeated in
the end.

How clearly was the providential leading of God
displayed in Lydia opening her house, as well as her
heart. What a delighful time she had with those four.
Better than certain dry pages of Holy writ was the
conversation of Paul and Luke and Silas, while Tim-
othy, as became a young man, kept his ears open, when
his mouth was modestly closed. We are not told
whether Lydia had a husband alive. It is enough
to know that an infinite blessing came upon that house,
and that single act of Lydia has blessed all of us. We
are all more ready to receive Jesus, because Jier heart
was opened. Countless thousands have copied liter-
ally her example and begged Evangelists to accept
hospitalities. So every single good deed echoes
through the ages, and every member of the human
family, who wilfully will break away from God's
Covenant of mercy in Christ delays the triumphant
issue of the Great Vicarious Sufferer's Sacrifice. It is
the general interest of the inhabitants of the globe to
suppress sin and to exalt righteousness. There is no
such criminal as the lawless. Godless man. He is the
common enemy. Capital punishment must never be
abolished. What is wanted to-day is to add to the
offences of which it is at present the penalty. Maudlin
Mercy would harbour the worst germs of disease, and
refuse to break the bottles of poison. The diseased
members must be cut off for the sake of the body.
When the Divine rule is inaugurated, as it shortly will

324 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

be, it will be preceded by a wholesale destruction of
the enemies of God.

The happy band of Christians had no idea of giving
up the Jewish practices which are indispensable to all
true religion. They were on their way— Paul, Luke,
Silas and Timothy— to the place where prayer was wont
to be made, when a slave girl, possessed of a spirit
of Divination, followed close behind Paul and the rest
of them, crying aloud, " These men are the bond ser-
vants of the most high God, and are proclaiming to
all the way of salvation." This she persisted in for a
considerable time, until Paul, wearied out, turned
round and said to the Spirit, " I command you, in the
name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her." And it
came out immediately.

Now it appears that this Demoniac was accus-
tomed to bring her owners large profits by telling
fortunes, and that her poAver entirely ceased when the
evil spirit was cast out. Causing her owners to be
madly enraged against Paul, and siezing him and Silas
they dragged them off to the magistrates in the public
Square.

We pause for a moment to mark how incontestably
supernatural power is here in evidence. First of all
there is Demoniacal possession; secondly, power to
tell fortunes in such a manner as that people were
ready to pay highly for the useful information gained
from the unhallowed source ; thirdly, the demon,
though evil, was constrained to testify to the truth of
Paul's mission and message ; fourthly, Paul was able to
command the evil spirit to depart from the slave girl.

Now what has the sceptic to say to the bona fides of
the writer of this artless account ? He was an eye
and ear witness to the facts, and yet every portion

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 325

of this piece of history was charged with abnormal
elements. Is there no such thing as demoniacal
possession ? Missionaries knew well that in Heathen
lands it is normal. Can no evil spirit be cast out ?
Missionaries can report that at the name of Jesus,
demons depart and the victims abide in a blessed free-
dom from their plague. Missionaries can testify that
the possessed either are excited to frenzy by the pre-
sence of a holy servant of God, or are abased and
crouch in fear. The great mystery is that this demon-
iac should be constrained to preach truly the fact that
Paul and his company were bondservants of the most
High God, and were proclaiming the way of salvation.

It is not amaz^ing, however, but a blessed fact, if the
reader will arise to the recognition of the Immortal
truth that evil and good are alike the servants of God,
and, while the latter is ministered to by the former, evil
is fated itself to be destroyed when its ministry has
accomplished its end. Meantime, glorify the power
that Paul was able to exert in so happy a manner.
Unlike some scientific demonstrations in halls of
learning, the experiments sometimes fail, the oper-
ators not being expert. Paul never failed, nor Peter.
Whatever they attempted was -brilliantly successful I

But while the Evangelists were doing such good
work, they were now to become the victims of a cruel
maltreatment. In the enduring of which, however,
they had a great reward— a reward adequate, and
sufficing to soul winners. For, at the end of the long
chain of supernatural events, there was a whole family
enriched by the avowed discipleship of the Philippian
jailor, whose faith and the fruits of it brought to his
household baptism in the jail itself, in the name of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. This was what

326 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

the man of Macedonia stood by Paul's couch to be-
seech. Either Luke or Timothy went to another part
of the city, or Paul and Silas were more prominent in
the work, or again, the angry exploiters of the slave
demoniac were afraid to drag the whole four Evange-
lists upon a charge of creating a great disturbance in
the city. They were Jews and were " teaching cus-
toms which they, as Romans, were not permitted to
adopt or practice. The crowd, too, joined in the out-
cry against them, till at length the Proetors ordered
them to be stripped and beaten with rods : breaking
the skin and causing blood to run in streams, and well-
nigh breaking their bones." The executioners were
accustomed to fly upon the victims at the word of
command and tear off their garments, making them
taterdemonials. Then the magistrates bade the
jailor to keep them safely, who, having received an
order like that, lodged them in the inner prison and
secured their feet in the stocks. The " inner prison "
was the core and centre of the whole building : de-
signed not only for security, but also as an aggravation
of their punishment. A vile place is here, no sanitary
convenience was regarded, and, moreover, the "stocks "
were expressly framed to make already wounded and
bleeding bodies tortured by agonising attitudes.
Thus, thrust and locked in, the two Christian confes-
sors were in a situation to raise their voices in hymns
of praise ! after the endurance of many hours of hor-
rible anguish. The Spirit triumphed over it all. The
brave and constant souls, charged with love and
fidelity, could smile at the wailing flesh. Triumphant
songs ! be sure ! and with such fervour and such
power and such music, too, that the prisoners could
not choose but hear. The sounds penetrated several

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 327

walls, and all the prisoners stopped their oaths and
their obscene tales, all trying to make out the words,
perhaps Psalm Ixii. 1—8.

" My soul truly waiteth still upon God, for of Him
Cometh my salvation. He verily is my strength and
my salvation. He is my defence, so that I shall not
greatly fall. How long will ye imagine mischief
against every man. Ye shall be slain, all the sort of
you. Yea, as a tottering wall shall ye be, and like a
broken hedge." Or Psalm Ix. 4 — 5. " Thou hast
given a token for such as fear thee : that they may
triumph because of the truth. Therefore were thy
beloved delivered, help me with Thy right hand and
hear me."

Then came the earthquake ! a double bass rolled
into the harmony. The bowels of the earth were
moved. The walls of the prison began to totter. The
hedge was broken through, all the doors flew open,
and the chains fell off every prisoner. What a rough
Angel was that earthquake, which shook the shoulder
of the jailor and bade him arise to newness of life.
That was his birthday. Yesterday he shackled his
prisoners and thrust their feet in the stocks. That
same midnight all his OAvn chains fell from him and his
own wayward feet were set upon the paths of Zion.
''A hght! a light! " Yes, the great light was coming,
the light that lighteth every man. Paul was pro-
claiming it.

The jailor had drawn his sword and was on the point
of killing himself when Paul shouted loudly to him,
" Do thyself no harm ! We are all here." Then, with
his flickering lamp the jailor sprang in and fell tremb-
ling at the feet of Paul and Silas. And bringing them
out of the inner prison, he exclaimed, '' O, Sirs, what

328 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

must I do to be saved ? " They replied : " Believe
on the Lord Jesus, and both thou and thy household
will be saved." And they told the Lord's message
to him as well as to all who were in his house. Then
he took them, even at that time of night, washed the
blood and dirt from their wounds, and he and all his
household immediately received baptism, and bringing
the Apostles up into his house, he spread a meal
for them, and was filled with gladness, with his whole
household, his faith resting on God.

What strange and momentous scenes taking place
in Philippi ! the place where the Roman Empire had
its genesis, and where an Empire vaster and mightier
far also had its early beginnings !

It commenced with an earthquake within the soul
of a humble Roman official, and in one night an
entire household, the second already, was baptised
into the Triune God.

All through the night, questions, answers, explana-
tions went on, from the head of the household and
all its members. Under the Spirit's inspiration and
guidance, according to the amount of culture and the
age of each, children and servants became so rapidly
qualified for incorporation with the Church and the
living God that having gone to sleep as pagans ere
morning they were humble Christian believers.
And being so, instead of seeking to return to their
couches, they sought to be baptised forthwith.
There were the simple requisites for the ordinance.
Water, necessarily within the walls of a prison.
And Apostles commissioned to welcome the Neophytes
into the spacious bosom of the new-born Ecclesia,
for further teaching and training.

The converts would be taught that the ordinance

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 829

of baptism was only a sign of a great reality, the wash-
ing away of sin by the exercise of faith in Him who
subjected Himself to sins' penalty and made possible
a reconciliation between the transgressor, immutably
doomed unless, and God's immutable hatred of sin,
and by the sinner so acquiring the vision of God's love,
that he learns to hate sin as God hates it. Further,
the Neophyte would be shown that the waters of
death were to yield up again the buried believer, unto
the glorious resurrection unto life. This faith oper-
ating within to purify, the Holy Spirit would pursue
its regenerating influence towards progressive sancti-
fication, in the proportion of faith.

It is difficult for us to understand how there can
be a vicarious faith and a vicarious justification,
apart from a special call, — a special and individual
repentance and faith, but there is no escape from
the cases of Lydia and the Philippian jailor. There
is a giving and a receiving all the world over, and the
fact of Household Faith and Household Salvation
gives an awful sanction to marriage and against
divorce. At the same time it alleviates the mystery
of the age-long tenure of slavery— chattel slavery —
gave chances to the master of being able to devolve
upon the slave the blessings of salvation, when the
master became a bond slave to Christ. The faith
of Abraham went on enfranchising all his descendants.
The death of Christ goes on for ever working redemp-
tion for those who never vicariously suffered. What
we are perpetually encountering is that Truth is to
be found in the acceptance of two contradictories.
Personal salvation due to an individual call, and
also salvation conferred on grounds of federal rela-
tionship. But how can men be justified by proxy,

330 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

repent by proxy, and believe to the saving of their
souls by proxy ? How can sanctification and peace
and love ensue on proxy processes and thus dead
souls awake to life ? It seems to be impossible,
but we may be permitted to suggest that myriads
of facts go to show that Salvation is granted iii different
degrees. There is a lower and a higher. Not in the
way of works of supererogation, so called, but that
Salvation is progressive^ and while the Federal Saviour
rejoices in a full Salvation, those whom his Headship
may cover receive a Salvation inferior in degree, and
far from the fulness to which every man is summoned.

Also there is no such thing as spiritual insolation.
Soul action occurs in a medium— a spiritual ether—
which connects and bonds every member of the
human family. Scientists tell us that the physical
ether behaves like lead, but faintly resembles that
density, while also it resembles steel, but faintly
in that hardness. How shall the human race escape
from being saved ? In the centre of that medium
Christ manifested the Godhead, died, rose, and pleads.
And in that medium, which is the path of light, the
home of electric energy, and of infinite potentialities ;
restless waves, dense as lead or hard as steel, are for
ever asking to be employed in propagating the saving
words and acts of the Redeemer of mankind.

If churches become petrified under the absence of
the holy emotions which the preaching of the Cross
engenders, other churches hundreds of miles away
cannot entirely escape the contagion. Where faith
faints and holiness halts and love loiters, sister or
daughter churches imbibe the same sleeping draught.
Where scepticism is not expelled, and negatives
supplant positive convictions, the frost that sets

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 831

in strikes with icy fingers the former warm impulses,
and such churches become ashamed of what was
their earUer glory ; the chill propagates itself and
unchecked atrophy stops the beating heart. The
same is true of commercial morality. If in the North
Exchanges become dens of thieves : In the South
also rascality lifts up its head. Western villainies
leap oceans and the East forgets its rules and means
to break through commendable restraints.

If Congo villainies and Angola oppressions are
not to be ended, similar iniquities will be started in
similar regions. The converse of course equally holds.
Let a nation revere its Christian conscience and
other nations will be moved to abandon an evil
intention. Blessed Loaf of Humanity ! There is a
horrible competition in armaments. The way to
alter that is to partially disband our armies and
dismantle our fleets— that would not be the weak-
ening of our defence. It would mean heroic faith
and implicit reliance upon a faithful Creator. The
nation that furnished the first example will be the
first in all national supremacies.

A particular case of soul influence may be referred
to. There was an evangelist in South Wales who
gave birth to a remarkable revival movement.
He broke down from unguarded extravagances,
and there ensued an arrest of the movement he had
started. Disregarding the injunction of St. Paul,
" Let every man abide in the calling in which he was
called," the young collier left the pits for good and
all, and left also his sacrificial efforts to plead in
tears for the salvation of his brothers. A suspension
cf his labours for a reasonable recuperation was, of
oourse, justified, and resumed activity on a plane

332 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

of equal lofty devotion was to be anticipated ; but
contemporaneously with the abatement of his own
fervour and consecration, the temperature of evange-
istic zeal was lowered in the regions where his fire was
most conspicuous. And with the abandonment of his
path of sacrifice, his revival movement was also stayed,
and his determination to quit it openly announced.

It is not too late for him to return to the pits —
to share the forbidding and perilous labours in
which the Holy Spirit of God shared His power with
him— in the place where scant rewards rule just as
they did in Asia Minor when Paul worked at tent-
making. It is not to be expected that great spiritual
power should be manifested when the pit was ex-
changed for culture, leisure and entrance into middle
class privileges, where labour is jealously banned.
Since he has been lured from the paths of renunciation,
his career as a Revivalist is ended. Like as a meteor
he flashed, and as a meteor he disappears. But his
eclipse broods over his early planting and perishes
under his poor example.

Oh ! you Reader, know you not that your individual
failure and misconduct weakens the whole host of
God, while every triumph quickens the hearts of
the armies of Israel.

*******

Now we are compelled to inquire why Paul did
not use his right of Roman citizenship to exempt
him from the brutal assault made upon his person
and the inner incarceration ?

I think it was because Silas was not a Roman citizen.
Had Paul been alone, as he did on the steps of Antonia,
he would have claimed his privilege in bar of scourging
at Philippi, and doubtless saved his own skin. But

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 333

what about Silas ? Was he to be scourged and Paul
to be the witness of his colleague's sufferings ? No !
He would certainly share with him, go to prison, or
to death, if necessary— his patent of citizenship
would not cover his friend. But next morning,
after both had a taste of what Apostleship involved,
without complaining, but rejoicing to suffer for
such a Lord as they both served — Paul remembering
the Divine institution the State, and the important
services to pure religion and undefiled it was designed
(and itself only competent) to subserve— immediately
undertook to teach the Magistrates their duty.

" What " ! exclaimed Paul, when the lictors came
with orders from the Praetors to let these men go and
bid them go in peace. " No, indeed, we don't mean
to go without an apology. After cruelly beating us
in public, without trial, Roman citizens though we are,
they have thrown us into prison and are they now
going to send us away privately ? Never ! Let them
come in prison and fetch us out."

It was a bold, if not an impudent remonstrance,
but only another instance which we are frequently
reminded of in ancient history that there is greater
individual freedom (apart from the slave class) under
a despotism than under our precious representative
institutions. Civis Romanus Sum made the magis-
trates shake in their shoes. And the shame-faced
Praetors actually came and apologised to them : bring-

NoTK. — The magistrates had, by their conduct in this matter, violated
three important laws — the infraction of which was in general treated with
BO much severity by the Roman Government that those colonial magis-
trates had ample cause for the alarm with which they received the
Apostles' message (1) In punishing them without trial they had violated
the law, which strictly forbade any citizen to be punished unheard ; (2)
They had also infringed the Valerian law, which forbade that any Roman
citizen should be bound ; and (3; they had acted against the Sempronian
or Porcian law, which exempted a citizen from being punished with rods.
— {Kilto's Bible in loco.).

334 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

ing them out, and begging them to leave the city.
This was what the State was good for, in the estabhsh-
ing of the Lord's Kingdom, sheltering and protecting
all but the slave class.

But let not the reader suppose that Labour's day
is never to dawn, the red rim of the brightening horizon
is right round the world.

Then Paul and Silas, having come out of prison,
went to Lydia's house, and after seeing the brethren
and encouraging them they left Philippi.

We recur to the vision of the man of Macedonia.
For what special purpose was the neglect of Neapolis ?
Why must the Apostolic band stop at Philippi ? Are
we not warranted in suggesting that the object was the
conversion of the Philippian jailor and his household.
Observe the course of the Divine providence in the
selection of individuals, from all classes, kings. Gover-
nors, lictors, soldiers, sailors and jailors, merchants,
professionals, lawyers, fishermen, beggars, lepers,
demoniacs— pretty comprehensive, but sparsely from
slaves. Observe now the reason of the delays, then
the favourable winds, and then the protraction of the
slave girls' wearying proclamations, until the patience
of the Apostle was exhausted and the hour was to
strike when the earthquake was to synchronise with
the first night in prison, when the hymns were to be
mingled with the hoarse roar of rocks beneath the
prison foundations. " Doth God care for oxen ? "
Yes ! a command was given on behalf of them when
treading out the corn. But does not God care for
Apostles as well as for oxen ? Yes ! undoubtedly,
in a superior degree. But does not God care for
jailors ? Yes ! undoubtedly, and to bring them and
%heir households to the faith. God was ready to sub-

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 335

mit the Apostle to grievous persecution as the indis-
pensable means of having the Gospel preached within
prison walls. The earthquake was as indispensable
as the Holy Spirit, And, without doubt, the im-
prisoned Titans, who slumber in waiting for the over-
turning of great cities, are chained for the time being.
Until the day of the Lord dawns and the unshackled
giant forces underground are bid arise, and in their
turning will overturn, overturn and overturn, while
hymns of praise will arise from the Remnant Church,
for He whose right to reign, shall then confound His
deriding adversaries, and establish the Kingdom which
shall never be overthrown.

Paul and Silas, on leaving Philippi, were not accom-
panied by Luke and Timothy. Luke, the beloved
physician, who tradition says was a native of Antioch,
appears to have been frequently a voyager between
Macedonia and Asia— perhaps was a ship doctor. At
all events, by the change of the pronoun we perceive
that he does not reappear until he comes into the
company at Philippi, sailing in his accustomed waters.

Timotheus was early given in charge of the small
company of believers gathered at Philippi. Paul's
foresight deciding that the young man's vocation was
genuine, and that his fitness for the pastoral office must
be given the opportunity of increased efficiency
through exercise.

So the maltreated Apostles pressed on. Amphi-
polis, an important and historical port, lay in their
path, but they were not " free " (as the old Quakers
aptly styled their spirit's impulses), they were not
" free " to stop there after traversing thirty miles upon
the Egnatian way, they, probably, merely slept one
night and pressed on to Appolonia— a town somewhat

336 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

out of the direct way— and after another long day's
travel, they merely rested their tired frames. The way
was beautiful enough, the soil was rich, the plains,
irrigated by streams and added to by skilfully con-
structed sluices. The peasants— the glorious peasants,
slave or free, for ever fleeced and for ever unrewarded
-made the earth smile up into the Apostles' faces.
But they never stayed to admire natural beauty, or
to calculate what a return might be expected from a
proper cultivation of the soil. The cultivation of the
sour soil of the human heart was their objective, and
to sow these imperishable seeds of truth which had in
the heart of them Eternal Life. This was the one con-
suming aim of the messengers of the Cross, and the
souls about to be saved at Thessalonica urged them
forward.

Yes ! Thessalonica was awaiting them, and glorious
issues were impending. It is heart-rending to think
of Salonica at present— the second city of the Turkish
Empire— so unlike to Antique Rome, which cherished
no deep seated resolve to withstand the advance of the
Nazarene, but spread its shield of citizen privilege,
irrespective of all diversity, from the ancestral worship.

Obedience to Law was the great gift of Rome to the
presanctified age. And now, vmder Islam, after
1,300 years, Thessalonica saw the Lawless one appear,
and in our day England aiding and abetting the Lawless
one, the great curse of the world, the corruption of the
best, being the worst. England, by her policy, has
been guilty of the unnameable atrocities, murderings
and plunderings of our pet ally, the Turk. We have
placed the blister over and over again upon the shrink-
ing virgin regions of possible peace and plenty, but
England, vaunting of peace and purity and liberty,

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 337

has persisted in fastening the atrocious yoke upon the
nascent populations, reverent of the Greek Church,
determining that it shall not be removed. Armenia
cries to Heaven for judgment against England. Bul-
garia likewise. The Kurds, who are instigated by
our x\lly to illustrate lawlessness, and are permitted
to descend from their hills to ravish, rob and kill the
Christian cultivator, can defy censure from England
because she has 60,000,000 Mohammedan subjects in
her Empire. Is that our Christian Faith ?

'' Do we believe in God or not ? " is the simple ques-
tion to be asked of all us politicians. If they had but
an inkling of what Christianity requires them to do,
the Crescent would have long since disappeared from
the political sky. It is no question of injuring the
Moslem devotee, but of disarming him completely
from supporting a Moslem Government in any spot
of the habitable globe. Our complicity in the uphold-
ing of Turkey, when she was committing her Bulgarian
atrocities, brought a hand writing upon the wall of her
Empire — Mene. Again, when the Armenians cried
to us in vain, the hand of avenging unrighteousness
wrote on a second Mene. Then, when the treaty of
San Stefano was not permitted to be carried out and
Roumelia was divided in two— the Russian support
to the budding Christian nationalities stayed, and
huge portions of the Turkish dominions rescued by the
Treaty from the Destroyer— it was England that threw
them back into the pot, where Moslem fanaticism per-
sisted in keeping the Christians stewing. Hers was
the blood-red hand, trembling now for her Indian
Empire, Tekel. Finally, when a revolution took place
in Constantinople and the aim of the young Turks
was to regenerate the Moslem Dominion and to rivet

888 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Moslem chains upon the aspiring Cretans, thirsting
to be united with Greece— England interfered (for she
was the leading influence with the joint Christian
powers) and compelled the Cretans to lower their new
flag. Then came again the hand of the Avenger,
pronouncing England's destiny— C7p/iamn. She has
been weighed in the balances and persistently showed
herself wanting. Her shameful and time-serving
policy has been due to the lack of a real and not a sham
Christianity. " Power belongs unto God." The
Power delegated to England to use— her fleets and
armies have been employed to uphold, instead of
destroying the great curse of the world. She was made
strong, in order that she might be the instrument of
destroying the Turkish Empire. Instead of that, she
has gone directly upon the path of faithless disobe-
dience-her Statesmen have been demented, they
have been busy, both Liberal and Tory, in weakening
every defence of the Empire. Gladstone, though,
indeed, an eloquent advocate for the deliverance of
Christian nationalities from the Turkish yoke, yet was
so infatuated as to gratuitously hand over the Ionian
Islands to helpless Greece, when the natives were
strongly averse to the transfer. This Statesman so
utterly lacked sagacity as to surrender a most vital
coin d^avantage, for the coming dissolution of the
Moslem Empire. Here again was the madness of
ignoring Biblical intimations and refusing to give any
weight to Prophetic declarations. And yet the Bible
ought to be the Statesman's Year Book— never out of
his mind— the one reliable and triumphant Counsellor
competent authoritatively to solve every knotty
question, both home and foreign, Lord Salisbury was
no less guilty of compromising England's future.

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 889

When the path was open for Africa to become the
providential guardian of the destinies of all the black
races, and England might have had almost the entire
Continent, Lord Salisbury took upon himself, like a
fairy godmother, to throw about immense Dominions,
as if they were pieces of dead horse, to be snapped
up by the growling powers who were supposed to
become vegetarians and to smile back upon the Simple-
ton. Nothing more fatuous could have been enter-
tained, still worse, accomplished. Lord Salisbury
took the pains and trouble to create new frontiers to be
defended against hostile powers. If we had the com-
mon sense and the Christian faith to recognise that
the responsibilities conferred upon us by a Higher
Power were intended to be thankfully accepted and
courageously discharged, we should have had only
the sea coasts to defend, and our sea power would be
ample. But we actually made artificially, difficulties
by carving out territories as bonnes bouches for France,
Portugal and Germany, and last folly of all, made a
present to the last named of Heligoland. The Kaiser
must have chuckled, as indeed he did. Then, having
placed the knife at her own throat, England, looking
out for a friendly ally, absolutely ran to the farthest
East for comfort and consolation— as far as Japan !
Was there ever such a combination of senility and
national humiliation ! What in the name of High
Heaven did we require to go to Japan for ? A pagan
power— an upstart mushroom among the nations.
That was the measure of our Fall, we could not go
lower.

Paul, according to his custom, went to the Syna-
gogues first of all and in three Sabbath days reasoned

840 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

from the Scriptures with the Jews, *' opening and
alleging that Christ must needs have suffered, and
risen again from the dead ; and that this Jesus whom
I preach unto you is Christ." The liberty given to
one who was uttering unpalatable truths is very re-
markable. Two things seem necessarily to be inferred,
namely, that the liberty of prophesying to any visitor
of Jewish extraction was not to be denied. The other
is that a considerable number of the congregation were
favourable to the new doctrine, that it was making
way : or how was it that for three successive Sabbaths
his prejudiced hearers had to put up with it ? Is it
not time that a leaf should be taken from the Syna-
gogue practice and permitted to be introduced into
the established order of the Churches, free and
national ?

It cannot be supposed that Paul was idle between
the Sabbath days. He was always in the happy posi-
tion of never questioning himself what he ought to do.
He was given a high commission which covered every
available moment in which his powers of body and
mind could usefully operate. To kill time would
be the act of a renegade and an Apostate.

Thessalonica was one of those busy centres of com-
merce where men of differing blood and rearing were
drawn into bonds of intimacy by self-interest : a
lower path and preparatory, for the close and enduring
bonds of brotherhood which love and faith to a com-
mon Saviour were competent to forge. A few vivid
glances and Paul saw that he was in the right place.

The intense pressure that exists to-day was never
present in ancient Salonika. Steam and electricity
have both given Time and poisoned it. There was in
the Apostles' days vastly more uninvaded, unbaulked

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 341

and unfrustrated time than xve can secure. So the
Apostles could enter into conversations with mer-
chants, and with barterers in the Bazaars, and even
with operators in the workroom. His enquiries for
work would open to him most favourable opportunities.
He was not out to remove his own poverty, merely, nor
to abolish poverty generally among manual workers.
Free labour was evidently not sweated in the degree
in which we find it to-day, for the Apostle, in his first
Epistle to the Thessalonians, iv. 11, exhorts his flock
to " work with their own hands, as He had comman-
ded," that they might " have lack of nothing " (v. 12).
Manual labour as leading to " lacking nothing " sug-
gests irony to-day, and evidently avenues of employ-
ment were more numerous. But these economical
questions were not, in the Apostles' view, the nearest
and the supremest interest for all men.

He was not called of God to preach an everlasting
Gospel to intellectually gifted Animals, but to Sons
of God and heirs of Christ's inheritance, if they would
receive it. And, moreover, the Lord of Life and
glory was at hand, attended by his saints and the
ministers of his wrath and execution. The Apocalypse
might be in their own day. The sleeping saints
would hearken and awake to the trump of God,
and together with those who were living and looking
for it, would ascend to meet and greet the glorified
Lord and His ransomed Hosts.

In view of prospects of such transcending import,
sealed to them by their personal faith and hope, the
material needs of the hour sank to the proper level
and were adjusted to the real and the eternally
supreme interests of immortal souls.

So Paul went happily about his great business.

342 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

He needed not to be pained and distracted by the
question whether the groups he addressed were
some of them starving and meditating suicide for
want of employment.

The slaves he spoke to were at all events fed ; as
beasts of burden, they had that charter. And when
he preached to Masters, the lot of the slaves was
ameliorated. To all classes Paul's preaching gave
manumission at a stroke, for the master equally with
his bondman was an abject slave to sin.

And what joy amid sufferings ! Thessalonica and
Philippi were tasting the cup of life in a degree infinitely
surpassing those wretched and debasing allurements —
which are dangled before the disinherited dupes —
who to-day are prepared to exchange their birth-
right, nay even fling it away, for the lying promises
of greater wages. All political improvement and
economic advancement must go along with religious
enlightenment. The true progress of any people
is to be measured by the degrees of their advancing
morality. The preachers of the Cross— to them it is
given to lay the corner stone of every prosperous and
hopeful commonwealth.

Happy Paul ! he was not going to encumber himself
with a large " business " (in the Kingdom of God
" Business " will disappear), nor would he require
to satisfy the necessities of a dependent family. He
purposely abstained from marriage, that he might,
with least distraction, give himself to his high calling.
Yet when his entire family was under his turban, and
he was scarcely able to maintain himself by his
manual labour, " Ye remember, brethren, our labour
and travail, for labouring night and day because
we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 343

preached unto you the gospel of God." (1 Thess.
ii. 9).

Those were the revenues of a Bishop in those days,
and he had an immense diocese and under him
devoted Suffragans and fellow labourers looking to
him for direction. But all the way he was richly
rewarded. It is believed that the church at Thessa-
lonica was the fruit of only three weeks ! And yet,
by his surprising success, the Apostle was provoked
to exclaim : " What is our hope, or joy, or crown of
rejoicing ! Are not even ye in the presence of our
Lord Jesus Christ at His coming ? For ye are our
glory and joy " (1 Thess. ii. 19—20).

And to his suffering disciples he cheerily exhorted
them '' Rejoice evermore " (1 Thess. v. 16). Never-
theless, he begged their prayers— verse 25— not alone,
because he could never feel self-sufficient, but because
he wanted to have himself brought before their
remembrance. No true Christians pray for them*
selves alone, and when all the several members of the
church are continually praying for one another, then
indeed will the common life be shared and no part
of the entire body lack its blessing.

Other reasons for happiness did the joyful Apostle
possess. He had blessed glad tidings to communicate
to all men, but further he had miraculous powers
vested in his own person, so much so that aprons
and cloths laid against the Apostle's body became
magical healers, when brought to the sick and applied
to the suffering members. He was in a position to
heal bodies and souls. Likewise he could confidently
point to the believers— that the great and Blessed
Hope of the Church, the return of the Lord, was
certain, though not dateable. The event, its cir-

344 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

cumstances and its issues, were, in corroboration
of the Lord's own declarations, communicated to the
Apostle by special Revelation. No second-hand
rumour— but first-hand information. Inspired by
immediate successes, and having glorious prospects in
the future— Paul, plying his monotonous tasks,
lost sense of its drudgery, and would not escape from
it, even if he could, so that he might add to the
force of his exhortation, his own blessed and memor-
able example.

Fata Morgana ! I can imagine some contemptuous
reader exclaiming, 2,000 years have elapsed, and
there has been no Second Advent. History has
stripped the Founder of Christianity of his credentials.

In reply I rejoin, '' Understand thou what thou
readest ? " Let us again " Search the Scriptures."
" What was meant by the Kingdom of God, or of
Heaven ? " What was the office of the *' Son of
Man," and what the finishing of the work given Him to
do ? Answers to these enquiries will throw light
upon the fulfilment of Second Advent predictions
and expectations. What did Jesus mean by the
Kingdom of God which He announced as nigh ?
We reply it was entirely a Kingdom of the Holy Spirit.
No reference whatever to an earthly policy, secured
by force and recommended by its solid utility, apart
from ideal justice. By the " Kingdom of God,"
Jesus never contemplated Socialism in Excelsis.
What He aimed to establish and extend was carnal
man's subjection to the spiritual laws of the Eternal
Life. The Kingdom of God he explicitly declared is
within us. So he said to the Scribe who professed
his desire to be loyal to his God and to his neighbour,
" Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God."

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 345

And of the young rich Ruler whose possessions dis-
incUned him to fulfil the conditions the teacher
imposed. " How hardly can they who have riches
enter into the Kingdom of God." The love of riches
or trust in riches, even apart from the suspicion
that must attach to their acquisition, indisposes the
soul to the pure joys of feeding from the hand of the
Good Shepherd.

When, then, was the Kingdom of God to be ex-
pected ? and had not that spiritual Kingdom been in
existence ever since God whispered to man's soul ?

To the latter enquiry we reply, undoubtedly ! but
it was too weak to conquer. It needed to come with
power. The Jews were given to know more of it than
the Gentile nations. All the Saints of the Old Testa-
ment and Simeon and Anna and Zacharias were moved
to do and to speak as the Holy Ghost inspired. But
more signal manifestations were yet required, because
the great Act of Redemption waited for the crisis of
its development. Pentecost was the foundation of the
Kingdom of God, and Pentecost came just as Jesus
predicted, during the generation to which He was
speaking, and before the heralds of the Gospel had
finished going over all the cities of Judea and Samaria.
That w^as the Second Coming— nothing to do with the
transfiguration, no prophecy or prefigurement of it at
all. For there are several " comings."

The first was at Bethlehem, the second by the empty
Sepulchre— and many during the forty days. But
the " Second Coming " was the coming of the Holy
Spirit with power and gifts of converting grace and
power to raise the dead to life, spiritually and bodily —
together with prophesy ings and in " tongues."

From that period the Kingdom of God on earth was

346 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

established. It is still extending and will never be
overthrown, for " the gifts of God are without repen-
tance.'* The evidences of it are to be seen in the
living temples which are strewn over the face of the
world, and every Church or Chapel, school, hospital,
or reformatory or prison is a materialised fragment of
the Spiritual City of God. In them are propagated
and manifested the subjection of carnal man to the
spiritual laws of the Eternal Life.

The '* Second Coming " Pentecost is easily identified
with a return of the Lord, for the Holy Spirit came
expressly to witness of Him, and to bring to recollec-
tion all that He did and said.

Quite another *' Coming" is future, and then it will
be in fulfilment of all the predictions concerning the
" Son of Manr

The " Son of Man " is the Victim offered up for the
transgressions of the guilty world, and whose accep-
tance or rejection of the saving work undertaken for it
is the ground of the coming judgments and subsequent
manifestation of a universal Earthly Kingdom.

John's " only begotten Son of God " is the same
" Son of man," who is specially designated to the
offices which He fulfilled, as sacrifice for sin. Confessor
of the world's sin, vicariously, the Maker of the neces-
sary atonement and the Mediator and Intercessor
between God and man.

And most appropriately. He who was tempted as we
are, was appointed to judge mankind. To judge the
Church when it arises in the " first resurrection," and
subsequently, after the Millennial reign, when the rest
of the dead shall arise to be given their deserts.

Again the contemptuous reader derides allusion to
Apocalyptic glories and terrors. But he may, per-

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 347

haps, concede that the destruction of Jerusalem and
the houleversement of the Jewish poUty is history, and
that it minutely fulfilled Christ's predictions forty
years before. From the same mouth proceeded the
foretellings of a period of distress among nations un-
paralleled and not to be repeated. Earth and sky
conspiring to warn and admonish the careless and god-
less that their worship of their God of forces will desert
them. And that supernatural forces, which they
would never acknowledge, will find them out and
judge them.

We have had quite enough of earthquakes, pesti-
lences and famines, and a new plague is plaguing our
own coasts. Wars and rumours of wars are common
portents and the storings of thunder go on apace day
by day. Labour dreams, and when it turns, it shakes
thrones. The earth itself is restless to behold its
Righteous Judge.

But we must resume. It is a principle of propheti-
cal interpretation that there is generally more than one
fulfilment. Our Lord's prediction concerning Jeru-
salem was meant to foreshadow the judgments that
await the world at the close of the age. And that age
is here and now. It is big with events, shortly to dis-
close its momentous dissolution and catastrophic ter-
mination. But for the elects' sake, the agonies of
dissolution will be shortened. In the centre of the
great storm cloud there are with the angels of the
thunderbolt the angels of mercy. The faithful wit-
nesses of the cursed Nazarene and His followers will
survive the Cataclysm. Let the true Church be of
good cheer ! Every dread token of the Master's true
word will testify to it of its speedy and glorious deliver-
ance.

348 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

But the despisers would, even in their trepidation,
dispute that anything could happen but what natural
law made inevitable. The foolish believer in St.
Luke's history would see in the shaking of the rushing
wind and the lambent tongues, anticipations of
Apocalyptic occurrences to be manifested on a stupen-
dous scale, when the Lord will shake both earth and
Heaven and gloriously manifest Himself to every eye.
The eye of St. Paul perished under the blaze of His
glory, but they who look for the return of the Son of
Man will be exceedingly comforted. All the bad, dark
afflictive past will have been gotten over. The
'' Judgment Day " for the saints will go on during
slow pacing years, while their rewards, their chasten-
ings and their perfecting, will form part of the Millen-
nial glories.

Now to recur to our suggestion that the " Second
Coming," so-called is Pentecost— it is obvious that
under that view the nearness and certainty of the
coming of the Son of Man to judgment is the more
convincingly impressed upon us. Because we have
two analogies and two fulfilments to refer to. The
precise fulfilment of the first Advent prophecy alone
is indeed abundantly sufflcient to warrant expectation
of the second Advent. But now, assuming the correct-
ness of the hypothesis, the second Advent in Pentecost,
repeating a literal fulfilment and adducable in the liv-
ing present, necessarily greatly reinforces the reason-
able expectation of a third literal fulfilment. The
Lord's prayer has been long since answered, but falls
short of its destined completion up to now. Never-
theless the Kingdom of God has come already and by
the Holy Spirit is ever increasing its area. A totally
new world and a new force entered the life of humanity

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 849

through the advent of the Holy Spirit in its Pentecostal
diversity. Two strictly fulfilled prophecies have been
vindicated. A third, in no ambiguous terms, knocks
at the door of the present generation. These con-
templations became familiar to the Apostle Paul, and
his forecast of the ultimate fortunes of the Churches
that he was planting, filled him with joyful anticipa-
tions. Well for him that the intermediate stages of
the Churches trial were not disclosed. Asia Minor,
blasted by Islam, holds only the ruins of St. Paul's
cities.

Meantime we return to Thessalonica. Paul is happy,
he has met unexpectedly Ephaphroditus, who was the
bearer of a token of the love of the Church atPhilippi —
a truly poor and persecuted people, who, nevertheless,
out of their necessities and their sufferings, made up
a purse which gratefully met the personal necessities
of their Father in Christ. This was the beginning of
those frequent benevolences which years after St.
Paul acknowledged in his Epistle from Rome. The
same sentiments would undoubtedly animate him,
upon the reception of the first grateful offering, and if
Epaphroditus was indeed the bearer, to him he would
pour out his yearning love for them, and exhort them.
" Brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and
crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.
I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to
be content. Notwithstanding that ye have well done
that ye did communicate with my affliction. Now,
ye Philippians, know also, that in the beginning of the
Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no Church
communicated with me as concerning giving and re-
ceiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye
sent once and again unto my necessity. . . . But

850 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

I have all, and abound : I am full, having received of
Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you,
an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice, acceptable, well
pleasing to God." (Philippians iv. 1, 11, 14, 15, 16
and 18.) We are told that the work in Thessalonica,
in the comparatively short time of three weeks, bore
abundant fruit. " And some of them believed, and
consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout
Greeks, a great multitude, and of the chief women,
not a few." (Acts xvii. 4.) Nothing but the in-
dwelling power of the Spirit could produce such mar-
vels. A poor tentmaker, a man quite hitherto un-
known, and obliged to exercise a manual craft for his
subsistence. Divine manifested power was the only
explanation. It was that which " turned " the Thessa-
lonians " to God frorh idols to serve the living and true
God. And to wait for His Son from Heaven, Whom
He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered
us from the wrath to come." (1 Thessalonians i.
9-10.)

But now what the mob of rioters said about " turn-
ing the world upside down," was being verified.
Thessalonica was all in uproar. It was a manufac-
tured riot. The idle, worthless, lewd and baser
elements of the population were ready to believe any-
thing, and to make disturbances against the preachers
at so much per head. And they began to shout words
that were put into hired mouths by fanatical pay-
masters. Jason was a converted proselyte, and hav-
ing opened his house to the missionaries, the mob began
to demonstrate before it, demanding that they should
be given up to them. It was quite true that the world
was, religiously speaking, needing to be turned
upside down, but those brawlers had no real convic-

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 851

tions, they were the bought tools of the Jewish Tories,
who resisted all innovations. Great forbearance and
toleration is rightly to be accorded to those who, hav-
ing been given an incalculable treasure, are suddenly
challenged to part with it. Paul, of course, would
reiterate that there was nothing 7iew which was not
implicitly imbedded in the old, and that the Prophets
had predicted the development. All that would have
been readily accepted if it came at the hands of a
mighty and glorious conqueror, but to connect the
Messiah with a crucified carpenter was too absurd I
Sin and a sin Bearer ! What had these to do with
redemption from the Roman yoke ? Evidently there
were Jews and Jews, and the persecutors were of the
baser sort. " Another King— one Jesus." It was a
taking accusation. The mob were taught it. Away
with the absurd revolutionaries to the Roman Rulers I
But the tolerate Roman Dominion, expressed by its
magistrates, being skilled in weighing the Jewish
characteristics were not to be driven into overt acts of
punishment. No doubt the tidings from Philippi had
given the rulers a hint. So after bawling themselves
hoarse, all that the mob could get from the magistrates
was to bind Jason over and " the other " (who was
that other ?) and then the accused were allowed to go.
Thanks to the State ! which furthered the onward
progress of the Gospel.

The " brethren "—new converts— showed the ten-
derest regard towards their teachers and consulted
to despatch them safely under the escort of the night
to Beraa.

What labours the Apostles underwent ! constantly.
They were in the hands of the mob, and defending
themselves before the magistrates for hours, and then,

352 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

after the anxious conclusion of the accusation, they
had httle or no rest, for their friends compelled them
to undertake a journey of over forty miles the same
night.

Darkness ! and they threaded the lanes, through
long expanses of corn fields. Darkness still ! but
then the distant splashing of tributaries of the Axius.
Still darkness, while the wide flowing but shifty and
uncertain river made its threatening noise distinctly.
Where is the ford ? Where is it safe ? These are
matters we are not told of. But to cross the Axius in
the dark must have been only one of the many perils of
water with which Paul was already acquainted. When
safely across, there remained the Haliacmon to tra-
verse before reaching the city. The long plain be-
tween the two rivers w^as doubtless beginning to up-
bear the high shoulders of the Olympian range. Blush-
ing to be suddenly discovered, red-eyed from keeping
sleepless guard over the city, Beraa began to smile
back to her mountain guardian.

Twinkling and tinkling streams ran together,
then coyly separated at islands, and ran again into
each other's arms, and shouted together at the rapids
It was a city of streams, upon which the sun showered
gold and silver, but better than that was the " thous-
ands of gold and silver " that the sacred books of
the Jews contained— books which the Boereans
blessed and carried with them to their gardens ; and
as they reclined beneath the ample shade of their
plane trees— opened the pages, and searched diligently,
if what the driven out preachers proclaimed was
true or not.

On such a bright morning, doubtless many a
pious Jew, gazing across the distant plain, where the

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 353

sea glistened on the far horizon— deemed it possible
that, beyond what waters he saw, there might be
measureless oceans of truth yet to explore— and find
new Hesperides ! The good Jew had been feeding
upon the word— his blessed Psalms— and in the
distance he saw a little caravan, the specks getting
larger and larger, while the shadows were getting
less. The company were toiling up the ascent, and
passing through the gate, the pious Jew reader
noticed two. The next day he recognised them at
the Synagogue, and one of them was telling strange
things.

The Jews of Beraa were of a nobler disposition than
those of Thessalonica, for they readily received the
message and day after day searched the Scriptures
to see whether things were as Paul stated. As the
result many of them became believers and so did
not a few of the Greeks— gentlewomen of good position
and character, and men.

But the happy position of things in Beraa was
to be interrupted. The inveterate malice of the
persecutors of Thessalonica would not allow them to
rest. Neither private gain, nor the satisfaction of
ridding their city of those disturbers would permit
them to remain inactive. They heard that the
insidious enemy had caught the ear of not a few at
Beraa. Hence they at once started in pursuit, and
now having become practised hands at a town tumult,
they incited a mob again to riot. The " mob," of
course, deserving no more reproach, in limine, than
that of being poor, and therefore ready to be hired
to shout, merely, for the sake of a meal.

Thus was the Gospel spread by the efforts of its
enemies to destroy it. The happy Bible readings

854 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

in the Synagogue were abruptly terminated. The
" brethren " promptly sent Paul down to the sea
coast, while Silas and Timothy remained behind.
Those who were caring for Paul's safety went with
him as far as Athens, and then left him, taking a
message from him to Silas and Timothy, asking
them to join him as speedily as possible. How
strong and tender are the ties that are established
between the bestower of soul-light and the yearning
disciple who has had his darkness dissipated ! The
indebtedness on the part of the latter is life-long.
An immediate opportunity having been given of
making a grateful return, the new disciples persisted
in going with Paul as far as Athens at all events.
So in a few days another Church was planted. Doubt-
less Silas and Timothy engaged themselves in drawing
up a simple table of requisites in doctrines, and equally
simple directions for public worship. Ample liberty
could be conferred, because the Holy Spirit super-
vised all.

But those dear " Brethren " ignotiy innomaia^
How much are we indebted to the Apostles' aid in
their experimental evangelisation ! Under every
exigency " Brethren " spring up as from the ground
autochnothes, asking to be of assistance. Gordon made
a circuit of broken glass around Khartum. Sir Fowell
Buxton strew grain for his partridges, with sinister
designs for his gun. But for the strewers of Light.
" Light is sown and joy for the upright in heart."
The children of Light draw near. '' Brethren,"
unknown before, persist in aiding, leaving business
and family, and no historian preserves their names.

But when the writer of these lines, who has known
something of succour in foreign parts, and under

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY 855

untoward circumstances— when he has crossed the
bar, he will look for a crowded pier— dear " Brethren "
in the long succession of those who conducted St.
Paul so often. Leaning upon their arms again, I
shall know their names and as we ascend the bells
will be pealing.

CHAPTER XXVII.
St. Paui. at Athens.

St. Paul stood on terra firrna at the end of two long
walls, at the port of classic Athens — Gentile city of
the Gentiles.

He was immediately assailed by numerous vendors,
whose booths were scarcely more numerous than the
statues of the gods.

The Greek fishermen and salesmen were as equally
witty and wily as those in the days of Xenarchus,
or a costermonger of Cork. If the coster knew his
fish to be stale, he w^as equal to the occasion. A
fellow vendor, in the trick, would fall as by a sun-
stroke on the pier. Then the coster would fill a pail
from the sea, dash it upon the feigning fainter, and
spill part of it designedly over his stale finnies.
Then, while the stricken man is reviving, the fish
vendor draws the attention of the crowd to see how
fresh and blooming is the stock in his basket. " See,"
he says to St Paul, '' Alive ! Alive oh ! "

Ah ! but St. Paul knew that Paganism was stale -
was really dead. He cast a sorrowful but yearning
heart over those figured walls. It was no comedy
in which Paul was to be merely a spectator. He had
the water of Life, which could make dead souls bound
with life and disport themselves in the ocean of God's
love. How glad was he to be the bearer of such an
embassage ! Greece captive and aliens from the
Commonwealth of Israel ; he wanted to strike off
her chains. And he knew by experience that it

ST. PAUL AT ATHENS . 357

could be done, and alone by the conquering Cross-
Bearer.

Paul was dead to the marvellous achievements
of the Pagan sculptors— their accurate anatomy —
their deft translation of waving curls into immobile
marble, their casual muscular contortions, and their
heaving chests. The charm and wonder of it fell dead
upon his eye, because there was another eye, within
him, which reflected another image— the Man of
Sorrows, Whose sorrows were for a sinning and
despairing world. A hopeless world which saw only a
sepulchre and derided a Resurrection. Therefore
all things died within him, save the life purpose,
which he resolved should rule him henceforth abso-
lutely. '' One thing I do. This will I adhere to, and
let all else go."

His eye fell upon an altar — " To the Unknown
God.^^ To make Him known resolved was he. Then,
turning to the dear '' Brethreii," in bidding them
Farewell, he bade them to urge Silas and Timothy to
hasten their departure to join him, for he hoped that
the field was white unto harvest.

He might be seen stopping, pausing, reading
inscriptions while his heart was burning at the abound-
ing idolatry. Yet he, I am assured, did not enter
into a true conception of the ancient idolatry. It
was the misconception of a born Jew who was unable
to judge it fairly. His erroneous and exaggerated
estimate of it was due to the abominations insepar-
able hitherto from a scandalous worship. If that
could be purified, idolatry, in the want of Incarnate
Deity, could do much to satisfy yearning but ignorant
hearts. It was a highly useful convention in the
want of the real thing. God manifest in a human

358 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

form. It supplied a basis for common fealty, avowed
a sense of dependence, and the multitude honestly
felt that there were superior beings, whose powers it
was irreligious to deny and whose determinations,
when running against their inclinations, recommended
resignation, instead of useless raging. It encouraged
patriotism and the mythologies gave fine scope to the
poets, artists and entertainers, who together gave
a bright border to the dull grey stuff which made up the
daily round. It would be ridiculous to suppose
that the cultivated Athenians were such children as
to imagine that their beautiful statues were indwelt
by divine potentialities. They did not. They wor-
shipped the Spirit unknown to them, to which they
had ventured to give embodiment, and since it was
God's ordination, that they should know no better
until the fulness of time came, there was no cause
for raging and tragic condemnation, except as the
natural light within was grossly contradicted. Hap-
pily, Paul when he began to speak gave utterance to
the calm, charitable and philosophic view which
marks his address in the Areopagus. The police of
Athens, doubtless, some in disguise, were listening
to the disputant, who was every now and then having
a little crowd about him.

Amongst the illiterate there were others— Sophists,
Philosophers, Rhetoricians, Barristers, Jurists and
Demagogues. The earnestness of the speaker and
his mental adroitness, also his incomprehensible but
wonderful message, caused a crowd larger than usual.
So the vain Athenian populace, getting all the hard
work of the world done by slaves, were at liberty to
devote, at first, an incurious attention ; but later,
an absorbing interest to what the gesticulating Jew

ST. PAUL AT ATHENS 359

was propounding. He seemed to be a setter forth
of strange gods. Let us hear more about it. By
this novel diversion they would be able to get through
half a day.

See the crowd moving up to the Hill and the Par-
thenon on the left. The exquisite Temple of the
Winds adjacent. Paul felt somewhat of a barbarian
amid such architecture and culture. But there he
was —to challenge it all, and denounce it as infantile,
vacuous, and beneath the dignity of man. More-
over he had precious glad tidings to convey, and woe
be to him if he ceased to discharge his trust, for a
dispensation of the Gospel was committed to him.
So he hailed the opportunity of addressing a goodly
crowd of really curious and enquiring men. Fine
leisurely days. No interruptions by the telephone, no
rubbish committed for transmission to the wide
world, acquainting it with the momentous facts,
the names of the Cambridge boat that bumped, and
the horse that lost within an inch of victory. No !
we in the twentieth century are the children. Two
thousand years ago we were men, and a crowd climbed
a hill to hear something worth hearing.

But Paul's method was that of Socrates. He
invited discussions. Upon every available oppor-
tunity he collared some intelligent listener, opened
up questions of universal and perennial interest.
And so pregnant were his words that the listeners
readily became enchained. A few of the Epicureans
and Stoics encountered him, and with hauteur
the Rhetorician and Sophist scanned with contempt
the mean garb which had been torn and mended after
the scourging. So the scornful philosophers asked,
" What has this beggarly babbler to say ? " Others

360 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

said, " His business seems to be to cry up some
foreign gods, because he had been telhng the good
news of Jesus and the Resurrection."

Then they took him and brought him to the
Areopagus, asking him, " May we be told what this
new teaching of yours is ? " *' For the things you are
saying sound strange to us ; we should like to be
told exactly what they mean." For all the Athenians
and their foreign visitors used to devote their whole
leisure to telling or hearing something new. So
Paul, taking his stand in the centre of the Areopagus,
spoke as follows : —

" Men of Athens ! I perceive that you are in every
respect remarkably religious. For as I passed along
and observed the things you worship, I found also
an altar bearing the inscription, ' To an unknown
God.' The Being, therefore, whom you, without
knowing Him, revere, Him I now proclaim to you,
God Who made the universe and everything in it.
He, being the Lord of Heaven and Earth, does not
dwell in sanctuaries built by men ; nor is He minis-
tered to by human hands, as though He needed
anything, but He, Himself, gave to all men life
and breath and all things. He caused to spring from
one forefather people of every race, for them to live
in the whole surface of the earth, and marked out
for them an appointed span of life and the boundaries
of their homes : that they should seek the Lord, if
haply they might grope after Him and find Him,
though He be not far from every one of us. For in
Him we live and move, and have our being ; as
certain also of your own poets have said, ' For we are
also his offspring." Forasmuch then we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the

ST. PAUL AT ATHENS 361

Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven
by art and man's device. These times of ignorance
God viewed with indulgence ; but now He commands
all men everywhere to repent, seeing that He has
appointed a day on which, before long, He will judge
the world in righteousness, through a Man Whom He
has predestined to this work, and has given assurance
to everyone by raising Him from the dead." (Wey-
mouth and A.V. Acts xvii. 22 — 31)

*' When they heard Paul speak of a resurrection of
dead men, some began to scoff ; but others said,
" We will hear you again on that subject." So Paul
went away from them. A few, however, attached
themselves to him and believed ; among them being
Dionysius (a member of the Council), a gentlewoman
named Damaris, and some others."

It is at first sight astonishing and incomprehens-
ible that a message so magnificent in its substance
should be treated with such negligent repudiation.
There were minds of great capacity, subtle, highly
trained, and stored with the profound speculations
achieved in physics and metaphysics. They were the
instructors of the world and were originators and
exemplars of statecraft as well as reached unsurpassed
excellence in all the arts of antiquity. The debt of the
Romans to them and through them to the modern
world is quite incalculable. And yet this wonderful
people, second only to the Jews, were ready to
regard this life simply as a cup of wine, to be spilt
upon the ground.

They believed in the Immortal Gods, but aspired
not to claim fellowship with those whose flame
could not be blown out by a passing wind. They
preferred, too, to mourn departed friends, believing

862 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

it to be certain that they would never see them again.
What is the solution of the enigma ? Proselytes
and slaves were not slow to rejoice in continued
existence, even Grecian proselytes elsewhere. But
at Athens, the University of the world, where the
highest culture was to be found, a future life seemed
to be accounted of no real value — ** not a thing to
be grasped at," but to be let fall, as a careless
hand lets fall a stone !

The explanation I conceive to be is that the messgae
was coupled with something which more than counter-
balanced its attractiveness. The Man who gave
assurance of a Life to come gave also of a Judgment to
come. Judgment after this life, damnified all the
grand boons that accompanied the rest. Hapless
Athenians ! In their secret hearts life was precious,
but every life was morally evil— and Judgment upon
that evil ! **Let us hear no more about it. We will
hear from you again "—not now, and then, sotto
voce, " He has given us an uneasy hour." Yet Paul
had much more to tell them. He was only at the
beginning. He had yet to speak of how sin could be
put away, and the avenging sword sheathed in the
riven side of God's redeeming Son. If allowed to go
on, instead of hearing but half the story, he might
have had a swarm of the Areopagites exclaiming
with one voice, " Go on ! Go on ! Thou messenger
from the gods, Thy wine is good, it is slaking our
thirst. It is strengthening and consoling our souls.
It is giving us glimpses of what we often dreamt of
and hoped still might be true."

,So sin spoiled all the opportunity— man's per-
sistent enemy. No Church was made at Athens, at
all events nothing is recorded.

ST. PAUL AT CORINTH 868

Restless so long as he was reaping no harvest, and
not having the consolation of Silas and Timothy,
the small company— bright eyed, spiritually exalted —
new born, would bid an affectionate *' God-speed I "
to Paul as he sped to Corinth. To Corinth the finger
of God distinctly pointed.

Corinth was in the providential scheme— one of
those great commercial cities, having two Ports, one
West and another East, between which small craft
sometimes were transported on land. Here was a
fine gathering of cosmopolitans— a fine posse of
active, eager, alert merchants. Men of open mind,
liberal views, and statesmanlike capacity. Commerce
on the largest scale is the best road to political
sagacity, and the best administration, maugre the
commerce not being unusually corrupt.

But Corinth had become corrupt by its wealth,
and self-indulgence, covered up or stimulated by
the pretences of pagan piety, led to Corinth being
pointed to as an example of all that was not reput-
able. Nevertheless what the Athenians refused on
account of its hint of a judgment to come— the
Corinthians, though, at first doubting concerning
a Resurrection, and for the same reason as the
Athenians, they afterwards more readily received.

First of all, however, consistently with his in-
variable practice, Paul went to the Synagogues.
" Here he found a Jew, a native of Pontus, of the
name of Aquila. He and his wife Priscilla had
recently come from Italy because of Claudius' edict,'
expelling all the Jews from Rome, so Paul paid them
a visit," and because he was of the same trade— that of
tent-maker— he lodged with them, and worked
with them. But Sabbath after Sabbath he preached

364 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

in the Synagogue and tried to win over both Jews
and Gentiles (Weymouth).

It does not appear that Aquila and Priscilla had
heard before of the Evangel. It was the identity
with Paul's handicraft that led to the lodging with
the banished Roman Jews. But we may reckon
with certainty that the first thing that Paul did was
to open up a discussion on the Messianic predictions
and their fulfilment.

We can imagine how the work sped in the common
workshop. In the weaving processes, after a fair
start, with no complexity in the pattern, the mind
is not hindered, it is rather assisted by a manual
process which can go on almost by itself. The manual
occupation helps to fix attention without fatiguing
it. It may even stimulate. All this, however, is in
complete contrast with modern weaving in the
factory under the drive of the steam engine, where
a weaver, minding four looms, is spent and exhausted
by the tense nervous strain, and the tireless speed
of the machinery. The improvements in production
are invariably hostile to labour. The former days
were better than these. They permitted an Apostle
to suspend his occupation without damage and to
engage in a discussion with fellow workmen, or resume
it without quitting the topic, not to mention that
there was no danger of the operator having his arm
wrenched off as Michael Davitt had his when a child.

It was good for Paul properly to enter the same
school wherein our Lord Jesus was reared, the School
to which all the Societies that ever existed are in-
debted and without which neither Governments nor
homes can be maintained— the School of Labour —
slave labour, wage labour, the latter often severer than

ST. PAUL AT CORINTH ' 365

the former. It was eminently fitting, nay, necessary,
that Paul should join those honourable ranks and
share in its tragedy and its glory. So Paul found
himself in high-born society, fellow heirs with him
of the Abrahamic covenant, and with them meaning
to realise the extension of the Abrahamic covenant
to the Gentiles. The clacking of the loom, if such
there were, was suspended for a season, and then
raising his head, Paul would enter upon discussions,
from his abundant stores of the Prophets and Rabbin-
ical traditions, throwing light upon what was obscure,
and applying it forcibly to his associates, inducing
them to fall in with his conclusion, and pursuing the
profitable themes until the midday repast and the
siesta.

That midday repast could not be strictly identified
with either a love feast or the Sacramental Supper.
This last, and the common meal were alike, essentially
Church ordinances, but any and every ordinary meal
is sanctified by the remembrance of the broken Body
and the shed Blood, and ought to be so profitably used.
In no long time Aquila and Priscilla became first
members of the Church at Corinth and the " Last Sup-
per '* was instituted as a minister of grace and the
bond of the saved family. When spiritually observed,
there was ever with them the adorable Head and Lord,
the remembrance of Whom could never fade and
Whose return was the Church's Hope. But no senti-
mental dreamer was Paul, wasting time in the indul-
gence of unnecessary sleep and religious musings.
Soon, refreshed by his short siesta, he would jump up
to think of other weaving, the tabernacling of Pilgrims
through time and eternity, with the stars of hope
gleaming through. Yes ! it was the day and the time.

866 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

A young proselyte, who was being befogged by Philo
and wanted an explanation. Paul threads the now
crowded streets and, hasting to the rendezvous, the
statue of Hercules with his club, he finds the punctual
youth, with a brightened countenance, eagerly enter-
ing upon his enquiries. Another thread was shot into
the wedding garment. The new Hercules was slaying
the world's hydra. Oh ! great tent-maker ! thy
weaving has gone ever since.

Happy day ! but there was more happiness in store.
For as they two wended their way onwards, sudden-
ly Paul stopped and he actually laughed. The grave
and earnest Apostle seldom went further than to smile,
as when he saw children at play. But on this occasion
he laughed aloud, for now he ran right against Silas
and Timothy, whose absence he had desiderated so
much. They had come suddenly and brought hap-
pier news of Thessalonica and the other seed plots, so
that Paul's cup of joy was full. The convert was
introduced at once, and all were chatting together.
Paul hurrying them all to his home with Aquila and
Priscilla ; when that night there was such a meeting
that the Recording Angel blotted out his pages by his
tears.

" Now at this time when Silas and Timothy came
down from Macedonia, Paul was preaching fervently,
and was solemnly telling the Jews that Jesus is the
Christ. But upon their opposing him with abusive
language, he shook his raiment by way of protest and
said to them. 'Your blood be upon your own heads, I
am clean, from henceforth I will go among the Gentiles.'
So he left the place and entered into a certain man's
house, named Titius Justus, who was a worshipper of
the true God. His house was next door to the Syna-

ST. PAUL AT CORINTH 867

gogue. And Crispus, the warden of the Synagogue,
believed in the Lord and so did all his household : and
from time to time many of the Corinthians who heard
Paul believed and received baptism. Then spake the
Lord to Paul in the night by a vision. ' Be not afraid,
but speak, and hold not thy peace, for I am with
thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee : for I
have much people in this city.* And he continued
there a year and six months, teaching among them
the message of God." (Weymouth and A.V. Acts
xviii. 5—11.)

How much is contained in the few lines which tell
us of the prolonged stay at Corinth ! To have a just
appreciation of the life that Paul led, we must correct
notions that may hastily have been formed in a cur-
sory reading of the Acts. It was no agitated zig-zag—
the flights of a wayward and inscrutable bird. It had
long suspensions of Itineracy, long periods likewise
of quiet but laborious occupation, during which
gestation went on, the bringing to the birth of those
sublime revelations, which upon occasions were put
forth for hope and consolation ; as also with the
sanctions of Divine authority for the regulation of
disorders and the suppression of heresy. Eighteen
months ! a long, sweet nourishing, monotonous rest.
Sabbath after Sabbath in the Synagogue, if he was
allowed to speak he ever tried to win over both Jews
and Greeks. After the first day that the table of the
Lord was spread and partaken of, tables had to be
added to, or larger rooms hired, or several meetings in
various places. That Corinthian Church, by reason
of its many attacks of spiritual disease, furnished the
Apostle with almost every example, either to imitate
or avoid. Hence those most fruitful eighteen months,

368 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

for a founder and overseer of other churches. It was
at Corinth that the two Epistles to the Thessalonians
were indited.

The circumstances of the Corinthian Church, then
and after, brought into existence those precious, de-
tailed and comprehensive tables of regulations for
church life, which are found enduringly applicable
to all gatherings of the Lord's people. The celebra-
tion of the Lord's Supper. The regulations for public
worship and the control of the spirit -filled speakers.
The Apostles' verdict upon the comparative impor-
tance of the varied powers conferred by Apostolic
hands upon the baptized, from that fount of power,
the Pentecostal Spirit. The magnificent prophecy
and argument of the Resurrection of the Dead and the
future life of the whole universe, over which the Angel
of the Resurrection is to-day applying his lips for the
last trump. The exquisite interlude, the Hymn to
Charity, and the spurning indignation to which he was
stirred in his second Epistle, when his Apostleship
was challenged, and he entered upon vindications
which he began with particularity and then dropped
in disgust, as totally unbecoming and against his
nature. These are but a few of the notable features
of the letters to the Corinthians and place them among
the most precious portions of Holy Writ.

It has been supposed that more than one Epistle
has been lost— some contend for three as missing.
If that should be true, it is most certain that nothing
has perished, which the Church really required. The
particular and general providence over all events for-
bid the supposition that the Christian Church lies
under any disadvantage. Indeed a valuable argu-
ment against basing doctrine solely upon the letter

ST. PAUL AT CORINTH 369

of scripture might be advanced in favour of the
superior testimony of the Holy Spirit, whose abiding
life can never be lost to the Church. There are
doctrinal controversialists who put single texts against
a whole array of other texts to the contrary. Very
dangerous ground when one or two lost Epistles
should turn up and (if witnesses to the letter were to
decide it) speak against the point hitherto tenaciously
held.

The Christian Faith never depended upon the
letter of the Scriptures alone. It depends upon
the Spirit of all Truth, which is the Spirit of Christ.
When the testimony of the Word appears to be in
conflict with the testimony of the Spirit ; the witness
of the Spirit is undoubtedly superior and the letter
is to be disregarded.

The Truth of the Great Salvation never depends
upon the number or authority of ancient documents,
their exemption from risk or mistake or want of
scholarship. All such surmises are really ridiculous
when the destinies of mankind are in question. We
do not depend upon the findings of spectacled Pro-
fessors to establish or deny the Immortal Foundations
of the Christian Faith which are laid by the Spirit
of God within the soul and are immovable as the
decrees of God Himself to save the world, through
the revelation of His Son. Albeit, we have both the
impugnable letter, and the testifying Spirit, in
such abundance, that no vital article of the Christian
Creeds can ever be overthrown for Truth Thirsters.

A year and six months at Corinth. Paul had an
opportunity of acquainting himself with Grecian
life. Some aspects of it must have kept up his
broadening bias towards Gentile civilisation. At

370 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

all events, apart from the peculiar joy which is
perennial to the possessors of the Christian Faith,
there was at Corinth more glad free life than in
London, or in England in A.D. 52 than in 1910 here.
Everything, indeed, was on a smaller scale. When
one looks into the days of antiquity, it is like watching
the doings of a hive of bees, or exploring the mounds
of a colony of ants. The Greek City, and the Greek
State, and the Greek Colony was so ridiculously
small, and yet upon that minute scale eternal prin-
ciples of the government of men in society were
established, and play was given to the intellectual
faculties in discovering, or attempting, the reconcilia-
tion of law Avith liberty, with the ironical accompani-
ment of enslaving the nurses and fathers of the entire
commonwealth. What large minds were there in that
small State— essaying to make the circuit of all
possible knowledge, and fearlessly plunging into
the dark recesses behind the white and matchless
marble, which pleased the multitude, but left the
deepest thinkers perplexed and unsatisfied as to the
invisible gods.

Apart from these gigantic efforts, the only things
in ancient days of any magnitude were the crimes.
Sometimes these were really on a grand scale. The
virtues were on a petty scale and the highest did
not appear at all.

But " Christian " civilisation could rival the
crimes, perhaps exceed them. Those who in 1910
go down to the mines and who go down to the sea
in over-insured ships have an odd chance of life.
And the magnificent progress of the mechanical
arts is attended by starving men and wailing women
whose triumphs in invention mean the perpetual

ST. PAUL AT CORINTH 371

defeat of employment. Similnrly the protean march
of chemistry appHed to fabrics and condiments
lowers the longevity of the industrials, and lengthens
the list of the trades with which the Life's Insurance
Companies will have nothing to do.

Paul, when he went and came from his work, was
not stunned by the bawling of the advertisements from
the insistent hoardings, with their pestilent impudence,
and their tyrannical intrusion upon the senses of
the spectator and his chosen themes of contempla-
tion. The brutal trader, worse than a footpad,
would rob the passer by of every moment of his time,
and if, lifting his eyes from the streets for relief,
wanting to breathe for an instant among the stars,
these pigmies of humanity returning to apehood,
clamber upon the roofs and above the chimneys,
blotting out the still silent constellations, with their
flares of puffled cocoas, smokes and sweets, every-
thing to minister to the merely bodily sensations in
the most trifling manner. How the world has
advanced since Socrates talked up to now, when the
Penny Dreadful absorbs the mind of the loitering
schoolboy !

In ancient Greece Paul was among men. He
entered his workshop, dignified by the scene of duty
and utility, adding to his yards of tent cloth, and
by his active intellect, weaving those immortal dis-
quisitions, which the manual occupation even helped,
with little to distract him from the successful prosecu-
tion of his great Apostolic mission.

It was not before that he had resolved to devote
himself principally to the Gentiles that Paul had made
notable progress among the Jews. Crispus, " the
Warden," or (A.V.) Chief Ruler of the Synagogue,

372 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

believed in the Lord, and so did all his household.
This and the continued progress made among the
Corinthians stirred up the Jews to jealousy and
bitterest animosity. '' And when Gallio became
Pro-Consul of Greece, the Jews with one accord made
a dead set at Paul, and brought him before the Court.
This man, they said, is inducing people to offer
unlawful worship to God. But when Paul was about
to begin his defence, Gallio said to the Jews : * If it
had been some wrongful act or piece of cunning
knavery, I might reasonably have listened to you
Jews, but since these are questions about words and
names and your law, you, yourselves, must see to
them : I refuse to be a judge in such matters'" (Wey-
mouth, Acts xvii. 12 — 16). So he drove them from
the judgment seat. Then the Greeks all set upon Sos-
thenes, the Warden of the Synagogue, and kept beating
him severely in front of the Court, but Gallio did not
concern himself in the least about this. The populace,
eager to ascertain the sentiments of the new Deputy,
took instantly the cue given them by the pronounced
indifference of Gallio, and gladly availed themelvess
of the license, tacitly permitted them to indulge their
feelings against the hated race— mostly money
lenders — so they were snubbed. Another case of
the State furthering the extension of the Church.
And Paul after this, tarried there yet a good while,
and then took his leave of the Brethren, and sailed
thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila,
having shorn his head in Cenchrea, for he had a vow.
Strange subservience on Paul's part to either a vow
or its quittance— a bit of egg shell !

" And he came to Ephesus and left them there.'*
But always his true self, when the Apostolic mission

ST. PAUL AT EPHESUS AND JERUSALEM 878

was before him. He at once entered the Synagogue
and reasoned with the Jews. And when they desired
him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not,
but bade them farewell, saying, " I must by all means
keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem : but I will
return again unto you, if God will." And he sailed
from Ephesus. He could the more readily feel as-
sured that he was right in not staying now, because he
felt, with his usual prescience, that he had important
witness to bear at a future time in the great heathen
city. So landing at Caisarea he went up to Jerusalem
and inquired after the welfare of the Church, and then
went down to Antioch.

Paul seemed never at home in Jerusalem since the
great severance from his former associates and his
older faith. The part, too, he played in persecuting
the Church had effectually poisoned all his reminis-
cences of the Jewish metropolis. Even to the Christ-
tian and to the Apostolic band who presumed to dic-
tate all the measures relating to the new constitution
of the faithful converts — Paul felt that he was in some
sort an interloper, setting up an authority which they
at Jerusalem would like to disavow if they might :
and the greater the success among the Gentiles, the
less he was favoured. That impetuous man disturbed
every cushioned seat. He was come again to lecture
us, even Peter and James.

Yes 1 Paul was better away. He had done with
keeping feasts, excepting the Supper of the Lord.
Dear old Antioch I It is years since he saw it. How
intensely he had longed to know how that mother
Church was doing ! Clearly there was no cause for
discouragements at Jerusalem. No lamentable divis-
ions or heresies had sprung up to poison the peace of

374 IHE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

the fellowship. Nero had slipped into the throne,
through his mother's crime, but the foul politics of
Rome were not then affecting the Jews. Paul began
to feel the yearnings of a foster father ; and the
Churches he had planted had become so much a part
of himself that he could no longer postpone a further
visitation. He was resolved upon an Archdiaconal
progress through the whole of Galatia and Phrygia in
order, and strengthening all the disciples.

He rapidly returned to Antioch, but made no long
stay. The writer of the Acts signifies merely *' some
time.** Evidently, the Church there was in a satis-
factory condition. On to new conquests ! He toured
quickly through the upper coasts and came to the
important centre of Ephesus again, as he had prom-
ised. Here he was destined to stay for two years —
a longer period than at Corinth, and from thence he
wrote his two Epistles to the Corinthians. No doubt
Paul was again domiciled with Aquila and Priscilla ;
for when they accompanied him from Corinth on his
previous visit, he left them there, with other of his
companions. He wrought again at his old trade, with
those beloved artizans, his " helpers in Christ Jesus " ;
" Who have for my life laid down their own necks ;
unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the
Churches of the Gentiles." (Romans xvi. 8 — 4.)
And who, when they left a warm circle of fr'ends at
Corinth, sent hearty Christian love to them, in Paul's
first epistle to the Corinthians. Aquila and Priscilla
also accommodated " the Church which meets at their
house." All the brethren sent greeting to Corinth.
" Greet one another with a holy kiss."

" A Jew, named Apollos, came to join the Christians.
He was a native of Alexandria, a man of great learn-

ST. PAUL AT EPHESUS 875

ing and well versed in the Scriptures. He had been
instructed by word of mouth in the way of the Lord,
and being full of burning zeal he used to speak and
teach accurately the facts about Jesus, though he
knew of no baptism but John's.

"He began to speak boldly in the Synagogue, and
Priscilla and Aquila, after hearing him, took him home
and explained God's way to him yet more accurately.
Then, as he had made up his mind to cross over into
Greece, the brethren wrote to the disciples at Corinth,
begging them to give him a kindly welcome, Upon
his arrival he rendered valuable help to those who
through grace had believed, for he had powerfully,
and in public, overcome the Jews in arguments, prov-
ing to them from the Scriptures that Jesus is the
Christ." (Weymouth xviii. 24 — 28.)

Apollos had gone to Corinth, having been more fully
informed, and Ephesus was again to be the place where
only partially enlightened disciples were to have their
Christian endowments completed. Paul had been
touring through the inland districts and came again
to Ephesus, where he found a few disciples.

"Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you first be-
lieved ?" he asked them. They answered, "No ! we
did not even hear that there is a Holy Spirit.''

" Into what, then, were you baptized ? " he asked.

*' Into John's baptism," they replied.

" John," he said, " administered a baptism of
repentance, bidding the people believe in One who
was to come after him, namely, on Jesus."

" On hearing this they received baptism into the
Name of the Lord Jesus : and when Paul laid his
hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and
they began to speak in tongues and to prophesy.

376 IHE NLW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

They numbered in all about twelve men." Now this
is a passage which the Evangelists of modern days
must find it hard to tally with his preconceptions.
Here were twelve men on the road to salvation, al-
though they had not even heard of Jesus Christ, but
only of John's preaching as the Forerunner, and they
were baptized by John into the hope that was set before
Him. It would appear that shortly after John had
baptized them, that they were obliged to leave Pales-
tine and to go into Asia Minor, maintaining their pious
faith that the Messiah was about to come, and in spirit
preserving their true repentance.

The Holy Spirit, which in a different and subordin-
ate manner, shorn of His proper attributes, had
been in the world of men from the beginning, was
now to burst forth like the sun, up to that moment
enveloped in clouds, then at Pentecost showed Him-
self, not only an enlightener as to Spiritual truth
and a Sanctifier, but also chose to confer additional
gifts, not before known to the world, strictly in
connection with the acceptance of the doctrine of
Christ as preached by the Apostles, and imparted
through the laying upon the head of the baptised
converts, the hands of the Apostles.

All this is now, special and peculiar to the primitive
Church during the lifetime of the Apostles. These
twelve men were providentially debarred from coming
to an earlier knowledge of the Truth as it is in Jesus.
And equally true is it that their ultimate and com-
plete enlightenment was not accomplished without
the agency of Apostolic baptism and Apostolic hands.
'* They received baptism into the name of the Lord
Jesus : and when Paul laid his hands upon them, the
Holy Spirit came on them, and they began to speak

ST. PAUL AT EPHESUS 877

on tongues and to prophesy " (Acts xix. 5—7, Wey-
mouth).

Several questions come to be asked. These twelve
men were providentially interdicted from fuller
knowledge pro. tern, and then fully privileged later.
These twelve were obviously in exactly the same
position that nations of millions of men which had
never been allowed to know anything of Jesus Christ
during the ante-Christian period and subsequently.
They were reserved for fuller knowledge later, and
if that knowledge could not reach them during
their mortal lives, it must be concluded that it will
reach them in another life, in the world to come.

Again. What about those precious gifts unbought,
not to be purchased either by costly sacrifice, pen-
ances or prayers, but simply conferred by grace
and electing favour. Why was not the privilege of
conferring them retained after the period of the
living Apostles ? Why has the Christian Church
not had conferred upon it successors of the Apostles,
endowed with similar supernatural powers, causing
great joy and able to communicate such real blessings ?
The answers may be various.

It may at once be asserted that the grace and power
has not ceased, but has been handed down to the
legitimate successors of the Apostles. An answer
that History has not verified, although cases are
recorded of miracles analogous to such as Paul
wrought, and some deem that they cannot be denied.
Another question : If for a period, during which
great corruptions entered into the Church, and that
these precious boons in consequence were withdrawn
—Why may we not hope for their introduction ? When
the Church, having repented, may look for a gracious

378 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

visitation of the Divine favour, enriching it by the
former powers ?

Leaving these enquiries unsolved, we can discern
a reason for the abnormal use of miracle through
St. Paul when at Ephesus. We are told that " God
brought about extraordinary miracles through Paul's
instrumentality. Towels or aprons, for example,
which Paul had handled, used to be carried to the
sick, and they recovered from their ailments, or
the evil spirits left them" (Acts xix. 11 — 12, Wey-
mouth).

Now Ephesus was a seat of all manner of devilish
magic and enchantment. Those who deny the
reality of evil agents and their permitted powers to
afflict humanity, have to explain to what they would
refer the general predisposition of the average man
to his own subjection to evil thoughts and tendencies.
Are they to be referred to God ? Then, if not to God,
to whom ? And if to an evil personality, are his
powers limited to suggesting evil thoughts ? Can
he not do more than that ? Can he and does he not
impose upon the spectators, and appear able to
demonstrate equal powers to those miracles which
the Apostles were enabled to perform ?

Ephesus contained many students of the Black Art
and Exorcists, e.g. : " Seven sons of one Sceva, a
Jew of high priestly family were exercising their
powers and undertook to invoke the name of Jesus
over those who had the evil spirit, saying, ' I com-
mand you by that Jesus whom Paul preaches,'
when the evil spirit answered them, ' Jesus I know,
and Paul I know, but who are ye ? ' And the man
in whom the evil spirit was, sprang on two of them,
overmastered them both, and treated them with

ST. PAUL AT EPHESUS 379

such violence that they fled from the house, stripped
of their clothes, and wounded. All the people of
Ephesus, Jews as well as Greeks, came to know of
this. There was widespread terror and they began
to hold the name of the Lord Jesus in high honour"
(Acts xix. 14 — 17, Weymouth).

" Many also of those who believed came confessing
without reserve what their conduct had heen,
and not a few of those who had practised magical
arts brought their books together and burnt them
in the presence of all. The total value was reckoned
up and found to be 50,000 silver coins. Thus mightily
did the Lord's message spread and triumph " (Acts
xix. 18 — 20, Weymouth).

Now as we have said, there was a special reason
why extraordinary miracles were granted to be
performed by Paul. The " economy of miracle "
is a principle regulating the ordinary operations of
the Holy Spirit, but when the seat of Satan is with-
standing the preaching of the Christ— then is the
occasion for abnormal manifestations of superior
beneficent miracle. Nowhere but at Ephesus,
probably, were such miracles being done. Satan's
seat needed to be attacked and overthrown. Those
who throve by the aid of the Devil, using the Devil's
arts, came confessing without reserve what their
conduct had been. Their repentance was sincere,
as evidenced by the enormous sacrifices that they
voluntarily made, and Paul, Paul alone, wrought the
marvellous change. He was mighty in word and deed.

Now I doubt not that most of my readers will
have long since discarded the old-fashioned faith
in evil personalities and their permitted dominion
over men and women. Sin is being rubbed out, as

880 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

only a mistake, not a crime, and the hateful deed
is not to be attributed to subjection to an evil person-
ality, but to psychological concurrences which,
void of moral blame, have scientifically worked out
issues and have been mistakenly thought of as
transgressions against God's Holy Law.

The practisers of the Black Art, then, might have
kept their 50,000 pieces of silver, and also their
peace of mind and the honour and esteem of their
fellow citizens. Strange to say, however, there were
persons reputed to be possessed by evil spirits, who
avowed their faith in Jesus and Paul. *' But who
are ye ? ** and one possessed sprang upon two of them
and overmastered them and left them naked and
wounded. That was rather a striking confutation of
such vain philosophers. The striking abjuration,
and the no less striking testimonies, by Terror,
and by Laud and Honour to the name of the Lord
Jesus.

We must now go back to refer especially to the great
missionary centre that Ephesus began to become.
Paul had paid his due to his fellow countrymen, as
usual, but his fearless preaching became so convincing
that a party was formed to oppose him bitterly. The
malignants cultivated their powers of speech and the
reverent worship of God was being disturbed by
acrimonious debates. For three months these miser-
able dissensions went on, when Paul wisely and volun-
tarily withdrew himself, taking with him several
disciples : and there in Tyrannus' Lecture Hall the
congregation of the new faith assembled daily for
discussions, and on the first day, doubtless, for the
Lord's Supper.

Now there was quiet in the Synagogue, and quiet

ST. PAUL AT EPHESUS 881

in the Secular Hall. A fruitful period, during which
for two years " all the inhabitants of the Province of
Asia, Jews as well as Greeks, heard the Lord's Mes-
sage." (Weymouth, Acts xix. 10.)

The leaven was leavening. Silver shrines for Diana
were getting cheaper, and forced sales meant loss.

" Why are you not employed ? "

" No work," replied the craftsman.

" Sacrifice to Diana ! " said the other.

" No, indeed ! Diana is getting stale. She at-
tracts no longer, and we shall all be ruined ! "

" Explain yourself ! "

" It is all along of the Tyrannus' Hall, I believe, and
the discussions led by that fellow Paul. He is at it
almost daily, whenever he can leave his loom. And
he is also touring about for days together. Some-
times he gets beaten soundly, by Jews, Gentiles and
robbers, but he bears a charmed life, and he is right
again, strong and vigorous.

" But what is the matter with your arm ? "

" Oh ! I was cutting sacrifices for Diana and the
edge of my cleaver must have got poisoned, for a
scratch it gave me has festered and ran up my arm."

" Stop you ! I can cure you," and he shouted to a
girl, who was weaving garlands for the Olympiad.
" Have you any of Paul's cloths ? "

" Yes," she replied. " One has cured my grand-
mother, you can try it if you like." She presently
brought it. " Here you are," said the first, " wrap
this round and pray to Jesus, Avhom Paul preaches,
and your arm will be well to-morrow morning."

" There is no gainsaying what Paul preaches," said
the other, *' but meantime I shall be starving, the
Guild is getting poorer."

382 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Next day the idol butcher came rejoicing that his
arm was quite well. But there was a tremendous
uproar. The morning broke quietly and the pretty
tinkling of the hammering upon the silver shrines
pleasantly joined with the happy droning of the bees
that were always diving into Diana's flowers. But
Demetrius had been turning over his books. Last
year his returns were less, and this year, if things do
not alter, he will have to face his creditors. It really
grieved him, too, to dismiss a large number of his
hands ; for he was a real good sort, who had pur-
chased his freedom by unremitting shrine making,
and then worked himself to become a comparatively
large employer of labour. And when the grain ships
from Alexandria were wrecked and the knavish corn
merchants drove up prices to a famine level, Deme-
trius got up a public demonstration and so frightened
the corn corner-men that prices were dropped to a
more reasonable figure.

His demonstration had succeeded and now he was
ready for another. So he called together the work-
men of like occupation, and said, " Sirs, ye know that
by this craft we have our wealth, and you see and hear
that not at Ephesus only, but throughout almost the
whole province of Asia, this fellow Paul has led away
a vast number of people by inducing them to believe
that they are not gods at all that are made of man's
hands. There is danger, therefore, not only that this
our trade will become of no account, but also that the
temple of the great goddess, Diana, will fall into utter
disrepute and, that before long she will be actually
deposed from her majestic rank— she who is now wor-
shipped by the whole province of Asia, nay by the
whole world." (Acts xix, 25—27. Weymouth.)

ST. PAUL AT EPHESUS 388

And when they heard these sayings they were full
of wrath and cried out, saying, " Great is Diana of
the Ephesians." The shouts went up into the Empy-
rean. What did it mean ? INIen and women rushed
into the square, booths were left and sly cats and dogs
were having a fine meal. Another volley of cheers.
Demetrius was still upon his legs. They wanted to
hoist him.

" But no ! " said he. " This is no child's play.
The matter is serious. The prosperity of this great
city, its festivals, its worshippers, its pilgrimages,
depends upon Diana. Let Diana be decried and we
sink among the cities of Asia. Our ships, our colonies
and our commerce are all implicated, we must make
the authorities close these discussions in Tyrannus'
Lecture Hall— that is the seat of mischief, my friends.
These infidel discussions are angering the gods and our
prosperity is waning day by day. It is that fellow
Paul."

" No ! " interjected the cleaver. " Paul is all
right. It is them Jew fellows," and he raised up his
healed arm, and muttered '' Sixty per centy

And a granny shrieked out with a cracked voice,
" Paul is all right, it is they Jew fellows."

" Three cheers for Paul," said one. And here and
there a few timid friends of the Apostle showed them-
selves.

Demetrius dexterously stopped dissensions, and
moved that " we go to the theatre and draw up our
grievances to present to the authorities."

General cheering, " Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
And the whole city was filled with confusion : and,
having caught Gains and Aristarchus— men of Mace-
donia, Paul's companions in travel— they rushed with

384 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

one accord into the theatre. And when Paul would
have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered
him not. And certain of the chiefs of Asia, which
were his friends, sent unto him, desiring him that he
would not venture himself into the theatre.'* (Acts
xix. 29-31, A.V.)

The theatre was jammed up, and through the circu-
lar hole in the ceiling, and through the windows, the
shouting ascended like a steam and spread among all
the noises of the running crowds.

" Can't get in," most said. '* Let's go to the Lec-
ture Hall, which Demetrius said was the seat of mis-
chief. Come along ! "

To Tyrannus' Hall they sped. It was barred and
bolted. And they were beating in the door when one
said, " You are slim, get up and try a window." The
slim youth got up to the ledge, forced the lattice, and
the crowd heard him drop upon the floor.

" What have you seen ? " cried the crowd.

" Nothing but a few rugs and hassocks," said the
youth.

" Did you not see the Black one ? "

" No ! No image— nothing."

" You are mistaken, young man. Everybody knows
that Paul worships the Black One. Look again ! "

" Here's something," cried the voice from within,
and he shied a scroll through the lattice. A hundred
hands were reaching for it, but it fell to a slave, who
could not read it.

" What is it ? "

'* Oh ! It is not Greek or Latin. It's that cursed
Jews lingo."

A score of heads were bent over it, while the crowd
cried, " Read it ! Read it ! "

ST. PAUL AT EPHESUS 385

The reader unrolled it and read : " Unto Thee,
O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Oh ! my God, I trust
in Thee. Let me not be ashamed, let not mine
enemies triumph over me. Show me Thy ways,
O Lord ! teach me Thy paths. Lead me in Thy truth
and teach me : for Thou art the God of my salvation.
On Thee do I wait all the day " (Psalms xxv. 1—2,
4-5).

" Skip and go on," said the crowd.

The reader pulled at the roll and read again :
" The Lord is my strength and song, and is become
my salvatioij : The voice of rejoicing and salvation
is in the Ti aernacles of the Righteous ; the right
hand of the Lord doeth valiantly " (Psalms cxviii.
14-15).

" That's what I say," said one of the mob. "" There's
nothing about Biana in it. It's clear they're against
Diana, and therefore against Ephesus. Let us go
back to the Theatre."

The echoes were up in the sky, like flocks of rooks.
^ " Great is Diana of the Ephesians." The crowd now
had got their cry into a measured beat like the
Kentish fire. " Great, Great, Great Diana of
the Ephesians." It went on like a great bellows.
The echoes flew up. \ " Great, Great, Great
Diana of the Ephesians." The schoolboys and girls —
there were not many — caught up the cry and were
mightily pleased and their shrill voices joined in
the chorus.

The Synagogue School was also out at the same
hour. And hearing everybody shouting out the
same thing, the little Jews caught up the cry, " Great,
Great, Great Diana of the Ephesians." The
Rabbi who showed them to the door was horrified,

386 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

and running out without his turban, caught hold
of one of his most promising pupils, to whom he
administered a sharp crack upon his knuckles with
a ferrule.

" Do you know what you are saying," said the
Pedagogue.

" No ! '* said the boy, glowering fiercely, " how
should I know ; you should have told me."

" Don't you know what Diana is ? " said the
Pedagogue.

" No ! I don't know her from Adam ! "

" Then don't do it again, or it will be the worse
for you."

" Whatever everybody says must be true," said
the urchin.

" No argument, please, or you'll get it again."

The lad moistened his knuckles and rubbed them
hard. Then, having climbed a tree in the School
garden, when the Rabbi went in for his turban, a
voice came from the branches, " Great, Great,
Great Diana of the Ephesians— ^/i^r^."

" Oh ! " said the Pedagogue, " the evil of this
generation ! " Then he mumbled resignedly (for
his dentistry was not modern) ; he whispered to
himself, " There is a spirit of insurrection abroad, I
fear, but the Jews have always been an obstinate
people."

The steaming heat of the Theatre forced people
to push through to the air again, and so some from
Tyrannus' Hall wedged themselves in. The great
bellows were still working and the noise was deafening.
They drew Alexander out of the multitude, the
Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoning
>ith his hand, would have made his defence unto

ST. PAUL AT EPHESUS 887

the people. But when they knew that he was a
Jew, all with one voice, about the space of two
hours, cried out, " Great, Great, Great Diana of
the Ephesians."

Three or four had been carried out fainting and
throats were getting worn and dry. The roaring was
getting more subdued.

The wise old Roman Administration were waiting
for the Pscychological moment.

Those " chiefs " of Asia, who were accustomed
to managing crowds, and had sent urgent remon-
strance against Paul entering the arena, followed them
afterwards by assuring messages that all would soon
be over. Paul, who was always indebted to the
Roman State and in season and out of season preached
obedience to the constituted authorities, curbed his
desire to make a defence, and for once, gave up his
accustomed self-opinionated form— he remained in
camera.

The Recorder at this juncture had directed a
general watering of the Flowers of Diana, and acci-
dentally on purpose the clumsy gardeners cast jets
of cold water upon the heated brows of the brawlers.
That was the moment. When the well-known
Recorder mounted a dais and motioned with his
arm. A blessed silence fell upon the multitude :

" Men of Ephesus," he said, with grave irony,
" who is there of all mankind that needs to be told
that the City of Ephesus is the Guardian of the
Temple of the great Diana, and of the Image which
fell down from Zeus ? These facts, then, being
unquestioned, it becomes you to maintain your self-
control, and not act recklessly. For you have brought
these men here, who are neither robbers of Temples

8S8 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

nor blasphemers of our Goddess. If, however,
Demetrius and the mechanics who support his
contention have a grievance against anyone, there
are Assize days and there are Pro-consuls : Let
the persons interested accuse one another. But
if you desire anything further, it will have to be
settled in the regular assembly. For in connection
with to-day's proceedings, there is danger of our
being charged with attempted insurrection, there
having been no real reason for the riot, nor shall we
be able to justify the behaviour of this disorderly
mob. With these words he dismissed the assembly "
(Acts xix. 35 — 41, Weymouth).

The whole of the uproar was really due to the
injury being done to the artizans through the under-
mining of the Ephesian superstition. Back of all
social and national disturbances is the economical.
And permanent peace in the world will never be
secured until the laws of the Kingdom of Heaven,
which are slowly impregnating the conventions of
society, achieve real identity with them, and become
universally dominant. The first call made upon the
head of a family is to feed it, and that of a Sovereign
to shepherd his people. Progress which implies
suffering and loss to certain individuals whose inter-
ests are involved by change is inimical to any
lengthened contentment. It is only in the Co-opera-
tive Commonwealth that progress can be universally
welcomed. When the progress is in spiritual en-
lightenment, and no arts and crafts are inseparably
united with the cult, there is an open field and no
formidable opposition is to be dreaded. But where
idolatrous systems are in existence, and arts and
crafts are inter-dependent with a priesthood, the

ST. PAUL AT EPHESUS 389

bitterest opposition might be expected. Strange
to say, however, that in the case of Islam, whose
rehgious system calls for neither idols nor priesthoods,
and no extensive requisites of a material character —
neither ecclesiastical ornaments nor vestments— we
find it more difficult to make converts to Christianity,
doubtless because the Christian form of it in Eastern
Christendom is lamentably leavened by Un- Apostolic
traditions, and seeks to strengthen itself by appeals
to racial and national animosities. Paul was doubt-
less sincerely sorry that his mission must bring
anxiety and loss to certain artizans. People brought
up to a trade cannot turn their hand to anything
in a moment, and the possible alternative industries
may be also overstocked. Some kind-hearted artizans
and women who met at Tyrannus' Hall told Paul
privately that they knew really decent shrinemakers
who were next to starving, owing to the success
of their propaganda. Paul needed not to be told it,
but he reminded them that a dispensation to preach
the Glad Tidings was committed to him, and woe
be to him if he should not fulfil it.

Before the outbreak, Paul was being moved by the
Spirit to (metaphorically speaking) strike his tent
and leave Ephesus. He had been three years in
all, and the roots of the Christian faith had struck
deeply. Witness to his Epistle to the Ephesians. He
had done and suffered much. The Theatre which
was the scene of Demetrius' demonstration had
witnessed, years before, his struggle with wild beasts.
His witness had been faithfully borne and now ether
lands and churches required his presence. Greece
was upon his mind. So calling the disciples together,
and speaking words of encouragement to them, he
took his leave and started for Macedonia, Luke and he.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

An Episode

A Martyr at Ephesus.

" / have fought with beasts at Ephesus.''

-(1 Cor. XV. 32).

All historical cities have their memorable days,
though their throbbing life and their proud stones
may yield nothing more enduring than mephitic
vapours, when sculptured gods are dissolved in the
Conqueror's limekilns. Ephesus or its desolate
site would whisper and recount some of its tragedies.
Marsh and maundering \vaters whisper to each other
amid tangled weed and imperious brushwood of the day
when Ephesus was shaken, and the trust of Asia in
Cybele was rudely loosened.

That was one of her memorabilia, when a Christian
Martyr suffered in her Theatre.

That day began as ordinary days do. The old
faithful luminary, which has attended this dark
old world for so long, did not by chance omit its
duty, nor grow weary, nor guiltily betray its charge.
It rose— yet, ere it had set it had written a legend
on Eternity.

Azure blue, cirrus fleeces, high overhead, low above
the horizon, a herd of sleeping lion-clouds, whose
craggy manes, outlined in light, did not stir against
fiat purple vapour. Sol was overdoing it, but the
city was en fete, and the garlanded head-dress of the
worshippers of Artemis was moistened by per-
spiring brows. Pipe, tabret, harp and cymbal gave

A MARTYR AT KPHKSUS 391

an unsteady step to the i>roccssioncrs who wciidcd I heir
way to the Temple— one of the wonders of the
world — where all the priests and virgins of Diana
were propitiating the Great Mother and meant to
avenge her dishonour by devoting to the beasts
two challengers of her Supreme Divinity. The great
item of the Gala Day was two human sacrifices in the
Theatre, a fight by the treasonable heretics with
wild beasts, kept starving for some days previous,
and mad with hunger. Devotions in the idol Temple
would authorise and exalt to a religious duty the
bloody rites which the populace were eagerly antici-
pating. Religion and economic self-interest made a
twisted rope, which the blunt edge of a rocky Truth
could not easily dissever. A Jew who had become
an assailant alike of Moses and of Jews was under-
mining the faith of the Patroness of Asia, and with
him another was to suffer, who formerly used to
laud the local Divinities, but now, like the other,
had become one of the despised Nazarenes. The
threatened doom which had hung over the prosperous
trades which begot and sustained the local cult was
to be removed that day. The twin serpents were
not to be scotched but killed. Ephesus was going
to breathe again. But now for the Siesta, after
which the Theatre.

The Temple was outside the City walls, on a marsh.
The Theatre was upon the rocky slopes of Coressus.
All through the world's history the Temple and the
Theatre have been opposed, and the Temple in the
Pagan Ages but faintly opposed the reigning senti-
ment of the latter.

The Temple of Diana had its sacred figure, but
the many breasts of the Bountiful Mother, terminated

892 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

in a modest shaft, emblem of the Sustainer of all
Life, without any sensuous suggestions. But in the
Theatre the sculptor ran riot, decorating everything
with Fauns, Satyrs, Cupids and Bacchi. In the one,
priests vowed to be celibates presided over the devo-
tions, and virgins were designed to be the chaste
attendants upon the Goddess. Within the other,
Antony broke through the precincts with a drunken
mob, with Goats' legs and Bacchantes, showing that
there was no need anxiously to disguise the Man in the
Beast. Alas ! for Pagandom, with its Great Light
that lighteth every man, with its blinds drawn down,
yet bringing some faded light to herald the sun that
was coming to shine in its strength.

The universal heart of Asia and the Pagan world
went out to the Ephesian Temple to make its protest
against its own vices, and would stand outside the
city with its sins and would partake of the doom of
the Temple rather than that of the Theatre if both
were to disappear.

Sleep on, Ephesus ! the banquet of blood is not far
off. Some of the reclining citizens were disturbed
by a long, low rumbling— thought, perchance, that
the beasts were growling and impatiently awaiting
a repast, and they turned again to their slumbers
with a pleasurable anticipation. They slept longer
also than they intended, for a strange darkness
seemed to have overspread the Heavens : it was
followed by an unearthly light and more moaning
from the beasts. The streets were now vocal enough.
The tread of nmltitudinous citizens rang upon the
pavements, all pacing in one direction- -towards the
Theatre, where the auto da fe was to be enacted.

There was a great muster of the Guilds who were

A MARTYR AT EPHESUS 393

banded together, and mutually pledged to stand
shoulder to shoulder in protecting their interests, and
promoting the expenditure which the fashion enjoined
upon the worshippers. The Goddess was not supposed
to be dead to the foibles of female vanity, notwith-
standing the strain of asceticism which she inwardly
approved. Hence there was a prodigal manufacture
of small jewelled articles of attire. These were brought
and deposited upon the altar, and beneath that
central place, not alone costly offerings in gold,
silver, ivory and pearl, but also bullion and current
coin. Bankers' deposits and State Treasuries were
placed under the protection of Artemis. Gold and
the Gospel. The alliance has survived to the present
day.

So Demetrius was at the head of a large and
w^ealthy guild. Hundreds and thousands of men
occupied in fashioning shrines for Diana, and making
pins, brooches, combs and necklaces, together Avith
the more important and more popular shrines,
derived their wages and sustained their households by
lauding and favouring the prevalent enthusiasm.
Prosperous Crasus, who had built the preceding
Temple, meant that the cult of Artemis should know
no sorrow from poverty.

The authorities were now marching, attended by
lictors, city guards and legionaries. The populace
greeted them with acclamations. The theatre, with
its wide extended floor— competent for chariot races
on a small scale— was being commanded by thousands
of the burghers and the numerous Demos, seating
themselves upon the rising tiers of benches, not a seat
or standing place unoccupied, while a crowd surged
against the gates. Inside there was gathering tumult.

394 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

The amphitheatres of Nismes and Verona give us an
idea of the crowds that could be accommodated, and
now Ephesus, come together as one man, could not be
fitly satisfied. There was much struggling, quarrelling
and not infrequently violent scuffles with the janitors.
Complaint was always being made of the large re-
served space. Demos not being satisfied to learn
that Demetrius* men had not as yet arrived and that
the renowned guild, which was raking up every mem-
ber, was determined to appear in imposing strength.
The authorities, the archers and all the attendants,
not omitting a contingent from the priestly body, had
seated themselves, before a roar of voices shouted their
welcome to the Guild makers of Diana's shrines. The
shouting was redoubled and re-echoed, without and
within, when the gates were opened, and the legion-
aries guarding the entrance required all their iron
steadfastness to withstand the pressure of the crowd.
Demetrius was mounted upon a white horse, and
proudly surveyed the sea of humanity which his
agitation had stirred and raised into a storm of pro-
test. With great difficulty the gates were thrust
back and closed. There were shrieks and groans and
curses, but they were speedily drowned by a tempest
of cheers from the massed bands, as rank after rank
the pampered Guild which had extracted many a
privilege from the city took their places and filled up
the stone seats reserved for them.

Now for the proclamation. Diana was present in
a representative statue. Libations were poured forth
before her, and her priests genuflected and sang hymns
exalting her power and benevolence.

A gleam filled the arena, and countless jewels
flashed and faded in almost the same space of time.

A MARTYR AT EPHESUS 395

Immediately the artillery of Heaven rolled out its
magnificent anthem. Some said it was the hungry
lions, but the rounding climax shook the building
and left none in doubt, for even the ground moved.

When Heaven was pleased to be quiet and obey the
orders of the inferior rulers, the chief magistrate
rose and unrolled his scroll, making proclamation of
the cause of this assembly.

He stated it was lawfully convened, at the suit of the
citizens, to vindicate the honour and guard the pros-
perity of the worshippers of the Mother of Asia, who
was pleased to patronise their native country, and
especially this city. That much dishonour against
her was being done by the propagation of a new sect,
lately sprung up in Judea, whose tenets were opposed
to all received opinions and were calculated to over-
throw every other religion. That much injurious
success had attended the efforts of one, bearing a name
once honoured at Tarsus, but now known as a rene-
gade son. This man has acquired such influence over
his infatuated disciples that he has been accused and
convicted of treason against the best interest of the
State, and sentence has been pronounced against hmi
as a public enemy, worthy of being torn to pieces by
wild beasts, as a lasting warning and example to all
who may be in danger of being led astray by the false
teaching which the guilty man has hitherto devoted
himself to propagate.

With him another has been appointed to die. Once
a student of philosophv and not undistinguished m the
games. How he became infected by the virulent
poison is not known. He has fought for the Empire
and yet he came to discard his arms and has declared
that his allegiance is now due only to the Founder of

396 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

the despised and aecursed Nazarenes. Let the youth
of our country beware ! Long live Diana ! Lictors,
do your duty !

Thousands upon thousands of necks craned forward
to catch a gUmpse of the first victim : and Paul was
set forth. There he stood, with all his Epistles unborn
within his breast, and all the Churches he was to plant
—unnamed and unknown— at the end of life's short
journey, and within a few yards of the lion which was
to devour him. He lifted his head and made that
survey which thrills and moves beyond any spectacle
that can be offered to human eyes, the spectacle of an
enormous aggregate of human beings, assembled for
one purpose, actuated by one passion, expecting the
solution of a great national crisis, or expecting to meet
some great arbiter of a country's fortunes for weal or
woe — a Redeemer or a Judge. Each unit of the crowd
doomed to life's tragedy— all its infinite perils, uncer-
tainties, unavoidable ignorances and sufferings, and
its inevitable mortality. Oh ! Love, Peace, Joy,
Righteousness, must these spirits carol only upon a
branch for a moment, and in the next ply their wings
as to escape from a place Avhere they can never
Hve?

Paul was ready and glad to die for them, if dying
would do them any good.

Then the next victim was set forth. Paul heaved
his chest. Could it be possible ? Amyntas ! Oh,
joy ! We shall die together. The two young men
were locked in each others arms. " 1 remember your
last words when you Avon the race, that you would see
me again. But how— how did you become a Nazar-
ene ? "

" By winning the true race," he replied.

A MARTYR AT EPHESUS 897

But his words were shortened by a tremendous
thunderbolt which fell upon the scats of the mighty —
displaced huge blocks of sculptured marble and sent
them hurling down upon the heads of several magis-
trates, who were crushed to death.

The crowd was shocked for a moment and necessar-
ily had its attention diverted, while the lictors ran to
the succour of the stricken officials.

Paul and Amyntas, absorbed in each other, and
having Heavenly joy within themselves, had each to
tell the other— the Jew and the Gentile— how both
had come to be one in Christ Jesus.

Amyntas eagerly drank in the Damascus vision,
and a Divine light shone in his countenance.

" Now, Amyntas, be quick and tell me, for the lion
is awaiting me."

" It was," said Amyntas, " when prompted by
the spirit of adventure that I joined the legionaries
in an expedition against the hereditary enemy of
Rome — the Parthians. I was stretched upon the
plain by which seemed a fatal arrow, and while
life was ebbing away, a comrade, who had been
fatally speared, turned to me and said, ' Dost thou
know Jesus ? ' ' Who was He ? ' I replied, and he
answered : ' The Divine Messiah of the Jews who
died for our sins and laid the foundation stone of His
Eternal Kingdom.' He went on to tell me that he
was there in command, when He was put to death,
according to the Scriptures. That a mysterious dark-
ness draped the skies, but amid the gloom he cheered
the heart of a poor thief who sought an entrance into
His Kingdom. ' This day thou shalt be with Me in
Paradise.' ' I was,' said he,' watching while the
Lamb of God gave up His life for the world and the

398 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Temple veil was rent in twain, and the sheeted dead
appeared unto many.' I remember," said Amyntas,
" what you, Paul, had told me of the great Jewish
expectation, and I spoke to the Centurion about it.
The old soldier with struggling breath gasped out his
triumphant faith and bade me lay hold of the Eternal
Life. ' For,' said he, ' Jesus truly was the Son of
God.' Then, when he could speak no more, but fixed
his gaze upon the steadfast stars, I kissed his eyelids
down, and at the moment that the old warrior
gave up his soul to God, mine was yielded up to my
King."

Here the impatient Demos, soon recovered from its
shock, was with angry vociferations demanding
that the beasts be unchained. In classic Greek the
people shouted, " May the magistrates be blessed !
Two or three of them may well be spared. Let the
dead bury their dead, we want to see the bloody fight
promised us. So the lictors opened a cage and a
leopard sprang towards Paul, but instantly agile
Amyntas pushed Paul behind him and the paws of
the beast fell upon the broad breast of his early
friend. The creature was stayed in the progress of
his carnage by a hurly-burly in the Heavens and a
tremor in the earth. Dragging the flesh with its
claws, the leopard's head, undrenched as yet in blood,
was upraised to question what Nature was about to
do. Amyntas, smiling, said : '' It is the third time
that I have tried to save you. I die happily."

But now an unprecedented spectacle was presented.
A lion unchained, after three days' fast, did not
bound upon his prey, but crouched and fawned
upon St. Paul.

Astonished himself beyond measure, he recognised

A MARTYR AT EPHESUS 899

after a moment the lion that he had watered in the
Arabian desert. The faithful creature did not forget
his benefactor and absolutely refused to be stirred
up by the lictors' rods.

The people shouted and cursed and pelted the
beast with jars, but seeing the leopard beginning to
tear Amyntas, he left St. Paul with an angry roar
and sprang upon the furious animal. Then was a
sight for gods and men. For the lion and the leopard,
struggling in deadly grips, mounted and surmounted
the barricades, and Demos affrighted, was struggling
and heading down his neighbours and his friends.
There were cries, imprecations, screams, yells, and
fiendish cheers, as the royal combat was proceeding.
Bets upon the lion and bets upon the leopard, while
the contending beasts made deep lanes among the
crowded benches. How many were trodden down
to death, no one has recorded ; not a small total,
I wot ; but that was but a trifle compared to what
was to follow. Two tall columns which stood
by the seats of the mighty, already broken
down, as just related, now fell prone into the arena.
They were 40ft. in height, and upwards of 4ft. in
diameter. And beneath them were masses of living
humanity. The walls of the Theatre next gaped
and closed again, upon falling masses of humanity.
Upon this the climax was reached. All the voices
of the damned roared together. The betting upon
the lion and the leopard was abandoned and the lictors
who were to carry out the execution had for once
forfeited their credit for Roman obedience.

Amyntas and Paul were left together. The Gentile
world was dying and a converted Jew was kneeling
over it, shedding salt tears upon its expiring frame,

400 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

and meaning to bid it arise unto newness of life,
" I am going," said Amyntas, " to my joyful King
and to His rescued malefactor." He pressed the
hand of his dear friend, and the fingers stiffened in
death.

Silence ! Emptiness ! save now and then waning
moans. A quivering moon peeped through a crevice
and saw St. Paul with his face to the earth and a lion
fawning upon him.

CHAPTER XXIX.
Third Missionary Journey.

What route Paul and Luke took after leaving
Ephesus and what districts were the scenes of the
Apostles' frequent addresses, we are not told. Nor
are we informed to what part of Greece Paul came,
but only that he spent three months there. Athens
and Corinth must surely have been visited, and
Paul's intention was probably to pass from Corinth
to Syria by sea. But the machinations of the Jews
were overruled for the greater good of the Evangel.
The Apostle, in consequence of schemes to waylay
him, decided to go back to Macedonia. " He was
accompanied as far as the province of Asia by Sopater,
the Berean, the son of Pyrrhus ; by the Thessalon-
ians Aristarchus and Secundus ; by Gains of Derbe,
and Timothy ; and by the Asians, Tychicus and
Trophimus. These brethren had gone on and were
waiting for Luke, and he in the Troad* : but they
sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened
Bread, and five days later joined them in the Troad,
where they remained for a week " (paraphrased from
Weymouth, Acts xx. 1—6).

From the foregoing we are led to infer that St. Luke
resumed his companionship with St. Paul in the place
where he formerly met and subsequently parted with
him. The plural pronoun indicates it. St. Luke
enters into the narrative, as though he lifted a curtain

♦ The district of ancient Troy, north-west point, nearest to Europe.

A 1

402 T^E NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

and silently joined the company. It has been sur-
mised that he ran backwards and forwards between
Troas and Philippi, in the capacity of a ship doctor.
However, that may be, Paul and he were joined
together when they started from Philippi and were
expecting to meet that posse of mostly Asians, who
were waiting their arrival.

" On the first day of the week, when we had met to
break bread, Paul, who w^as going away the next morn-
ing, was preaching to them, and prolonged his dis-
course till midnight. Now there were a good many
lamps in the room upstairs where we all were, and a
youth of the name of Eutychus was sitting at the
window. This lad, gradually sinking into deep sleep
while Paul preached at unusual length, overcome at
last by sleep, fell from the third storey and was taken
up dead. Paul, however, went down, threw himself
upon him, and folding him in his arms, said, ' Do not be
alarmed ! his life is still in him ' ! Then he went
upstairs again, broke bread and took some food : and
after a long conversation, which was continued till
daybreak, at last departed from them. They had
taken the lad home alive, and were greatly comforted."
(Acts XX. 7 — 12. Weymouth.)

The untoward incident of Eutychus should suffice
to assure minds hesitating to accept the Scriptural
intimations of an adversary always aiming to hinder
or frustrate the work of God in human hearts. How
often have we been reminded of events, which seem
the most mal a propos, occurring at a time and place
where everything appeared most propitious for success-
ful progress in the interest of Christ's Kingdom. The
somnolent youth could scarcely be blamed for not
keeping awake at midnight, and yet we must recog-

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 403

nise that the adversary is ever on the Avatch to sj)oil,
if possible, the most favourable circumstances. Un-
usual hours, unconventional methods, unexpected
urgencies (as Paul's sailing away in the morning) would
be favourable to win closer and more urgent attention.
And Paul's recent experiences, his remarkable work
at Ephesus and his projected plans to go to Rome and
Spain, and his wonderful penetration into the glorious
mysteries of Divine grace, all combined to make a
solemn and lasting impression, when suddenly, while
the Holy Spirit was brooding with power over the
assembly, graciously moving souls, there is made a
commotion. The w^rapt hearers turn with startled
horror to list to something falling, then a thud on the
ground outside. It was the young man, who over-
powered by the length of the address and the heat of
the room, had succumbed to drowsiness, lost his
balance, and fell into the street. He was evidently
known to many, and not unbeloved. Paul's thrilling
narrative was abruptly broken into, the influences
flowing upon the audience were rudely diverted and
the painful impression seemed likely to spread that
God, who seemed engaged to bless, was inscrutably
tempting His children to disbelieve in His Fatherhood,
when and where faith was most justified. The
*' patience of faith " was again, however, soon to be
vindicated. Paul's embrace, communicating physical
power and restoration to the body, and his quickening
words to the lad's spirit, issued in restoring Eutychus
with a double blessing. If, before his fall, he was at
the parting of the ways, after the crisis he chose the
right one. God made the machinations of the adver-
sary to praise Him. We need not hesitate, notwith-
standing, to draw the lesson that slumber, under

404 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Gospel appeals, except under very special circum-
stances, are inexcusable.

Luke was evidently not constrained to be always
going, like a pendulum, between Troas and Philippi.
*' The rest of us (note the ' us ') had already gone on
board a ship, and now we set sail for Assos, intending
to take Paul on board there, for so he had arranged,
he himself intending to go by land." (Acts xx. 13 — 14
Weymouth. )

The unwearied Apostle, after talking all night,
begins his journey by land. And if he was mounted
upon a beast, he certainly ran great risk of tumbling
off in a sound sleep. He arrived, however. '' He met
us at Assos, we took him on board and came to Mity-
line. Sailing from there, we arrived the next day off
Chios : on the next, we touched at Samos : and on the
day following, reached Miletus. For Paul's plan
was to sail past Ephesus, so as not to spend much
time in the Province of Asia, since he was very desirous
of being at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of the
Harvest Festival." (Acts xx. 15 — 16. Weymouth.)
" From Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the elders of
the Church to come to him." (Acts xx. 17. Wey-
mouth.)

Probably the soreness in Ephesus against Paul
especially recommended that it was not expedient
that he should so soon revisit the city. As it happened,
nothing could be more moving and impressive than
the sea shore farewell that was taken at Miletus.
Another reason. Paul knew that this was the last time
that they should meet, and he would, naturally, desire
to give a solemn charge to the elders without having
his attention distracted and his sympathies engaged
in spasmodic directions. The tempered urgency and

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 405

the enlarged leisure possessed by responsible persons
in the antique days was indeed remarkable.

The elders seemed able to leave affairs to go on by
themselves and they could easily respond to PauFs
desire to meet them. And now, after the usual salu-
tations, all were assembled ; among them Luke,
rooted to the spot and, doubtless, using his tablets.
Paul said unto them, " Ye know from the first day
that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been
with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all
humility of mind, and with many tears and tempta-
tions which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews.
And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto
you, but have showed you, and have taught you pub-
licly, and from house to house, testifying both to the
Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God,
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now,
behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not
knowing the things that will befall me there : save
that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying
that bonds and afflictions abide me. And 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. And
now, behold, I know that ye all among whom I have
gone preaching the Kingdom of God, shall see my face
no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that
I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not
shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the
flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers, to feed the Church of God which he hath
purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that

406 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in
among you^ not sparing the flock. Also, of your own
selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to
draw away disciples after them. Therefore, watch !
and remember, that by the space of three years I
ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the
word of His grace, which is able to build you up and
to give you an inheritance among all them that are
sanctified. I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or
apparel. Yea ! ye yourselves know that these hands
have ministered to my necessities and to them that
were with me. I have showed you all things, how
that so labouring ye ought to support the weak and to
remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said
*' it is more blessed to give than to receive.*' And when
He had thus spoken. He kneeled down and prayed with
them all. And they all wept sore and fell upon Paul's
neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the
words which he spake, that they should see his face no
more. And they accompanied him to the ship."
(Acts XX. 18-38. A.V.)

In presence of the picture that Luke has just limned
for us, as also in presence of the Caena Domini by Da
Vinci, it becomes us to say nothing, but stand and
adore.

" When at last we had torn ourselves away and had
set sail, we ran in a straight course to Cos : the next
day to Rhodes and from there to Patara. Finding a
ship bound for Phoenicia, we went on board and put to
sea. After sighting Cyprus and leaving that island on
our left, we continued our voyage to Syria and put in
at Tyre ; for there the ship was to unload her cargo.
Having searched for the disciples and found them, we

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 407

stayed at Tyre for seven days and, taught by the
Spirit, they repeatedly warned Paul not to proceed
to Jerusalem. When, however, our time was up, we
left and went on our way, all the disciples and their
wives and children coming to see us off. Then, after
kneeling down on the beach and praying, we took
leave of one another, and we went on board, while
they returned home." (Acts xxi. 1 — 6. Weymouth.)

The coasts of Tyre and Sidon and the Syro Phoeni-
cian woman, who was ready to account herself no
better than a dog in comparison with the heirs of
Abraham's promises— the inhabitants of that region
were now getting more than crumbs from the Master's
table. They were invited to sit with the children.
And see how the principle of federal headship is illus-
trated, when the Gentile Church at Tyre came down
with their wives and children to see St. Luke and St.
Paul and their companions off. Those wives and
children were accounted children of the Kingdom —
true Abraham's seed. It is a lovely picture which
Luke draw s for us, over and over again, of households
being blessed through the faith of their head. See
them trooping, merrily running by the side of their
fathers and mothers and climbing up to get to Paul
and giving him a hug. Yes ! the fathers and mothers
gave every facility for these embraces Come, Z — ,
F— , M — , say good-bye to Paul. And, turning away,
they said to each other with suppressed sobs, " for we
shall never see his face again." And the little babes
nestled in the Apostle's arms and kept running their
little soft fingers over a pit in his face, near his mouth.

" Did you fall down ? " said the mite. But it was
only one stone of many that struck his face at Iconium.

''Oh! here's another," continues the mite. "This is

408 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

worser. 1*11 kiss the place. Now it's better." And
Paul sets the chatterer down, with his wonderful smile.

Tyre and Sidon ; they were not " dogs " there.
Men, women and children were kneeling down on the
beach and praying, and taking leave of one another.
The Master had not stinted them and given
them an empty platter, with only a few crumbs.

" As for us, our voyage was over, when having sailed
from Tyre we reached Ptolemais. Here we enquired
after the welfare of the brethren, and remained a day
with them. On the morrow we left Ptolemais and
went on to Csesarea, where we came to the house of
Philip, the Evangelist, who was one of the seven
deacons, and stayed with him. Now Philip had four
unmarried daughters who were Prophetesses, and dur-
ing our somewhat lengthy stay, a prophet, of the name
of Agabus, came down from Judea, coming to us and
taking off Paul's waist-scarf, he bound his own feet
and arms with it, and said, ' Thus says the Holy Spirit,
so will the Jews at Jerusalem bind the owner of this
waist-scarf, and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'!
(Acts xxi. 7—11. Weymouth.) " As soon as we
heard these things, both we, and they of that place,
besought him not to go up to Jerusalem."

" Then Paul answered, * What mean ye to weep
and to break mine heart ? for I am ready, not to be
liound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name
of the Lord Jesus. 'And when he would not be
persuaded, we ceased, saying, ' The will of the Lord
be done'" (Acts xxi. 12-14, A.V.) "A few days
afterwards we loaded our baggage-cattle, and con-
tinued our journey to Jerusalem. Some of the
disciples from Caisarea also joined our party and
brought with them Mnason, a Cyprian, one of the

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 409

early disciples, at whose house we were to lodge.
At length we reached Jerusalem, and there the
brethren gave us a hearty welcome.

'^ On the following day we went with Paul to
call on James, and all the elders of the Church came
also. After exchanging friendly greetings, Paul
told in detail all that God had done among the Gentiles
through his ministry. And they, when they had heard
his statement, gave glory to God. Then they said,
* You see, brother, how many tens of thousands of
Jews there are among those who have accepted the
faith, and they are all zealous upholders of the Law.
Now, what they have been repeatedly told about
you is that you teach all the Jews among the Gentiles
to abandon Moses and that you forbid them to
circumcise their children, or observe old-established
customs. What then ought you to do ? They are
sure to hear that you have come to Jerusalem : so
do this which we now tell you. We have four men
here who have a vow resting upon them. Associate
with these men and purify yourself with them and
pay their expenses so that they can shave their
heads : then everybody will know that there is
no truth in these stories about you, but that in your
own actions you yourself scrupulously obey the
law. But as for the Gentiles who have accepted the
faith, we have communicated to them our decision,
that they are to carefully abstain from anything
sacrificed to an idol, from blood from what is strangled,
and from fornication." St. Paul associated with the
men, and the next day, having purified himself
with them, he went into the Temple, giving everyone
to understand that the days of their purification
were finished, and there he remained until the sacri-

410 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

fice for each of them was offered. But when the
seven days were nearly over, the Jews from the
province of Asia, having seen Paul in the Temple,
set about rousing the fury of all the people against
him, they laid hands upon him, crying out, * Men
of Israel, Help ! Help ! This is the man who goes
everywhere preaching to everybody against the
Jewish people and the law and this place. And,
besides, he has even brought Gentiles into the Temple,
and has desecrated this ' holy place.' " (For they
had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with
him in the city, and imagined that Paul had brought
him into the Temple) (Acts xxi. 12 — 29, Wey-
mouth).

And all the City was moved, and the people ran
together, and they took Paul, and drew him out of
the Temple, and forthwith the doors were shut.
And as they went about to kill him, tidings came
unto the Tribune in command of the battalion, that
all Jerusalem was in an uproar. Who immediately
took soldiers and Centurions, and ran down unto
them : And when they saw the Tribune and the
soldiers, they ceased beating Paul. Then the Tribune,
making his way to him, arrested him, and having
ordered him to be secured with two chains, proceeded
to ask who he was, and what he had been doing.
And some cried one thing, some another, among the
multitude, and when he could not know the certainty
of the tumult, he commanded him to be carried
into the castle. And when he came upon the stairs,
so it was that he was borne of the soldiers for the
violence of the people, for the whole mass of the
people pressed on in the rear, shouting, " Away
with him." When he was about to be taken into

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 411

the barracks, Paul said to the Tribune, " May I speak
to you ? "

" Do you know Greek ? " the Tribune repHed.

*' Are you not the Egyptian who some years ago
excited the riot of the 4,000 cut-throats and led them
out into the desert ?

Paul replied : "" I am a Jew, belonging to Tarsus
in Cilicia, and am a citizen of no mean city,'* so
with his permission, Paul stood on the steps and
beckoned with the hand to the people. And when
there was made a great silence, he spake to them in
the Hebrew tongue."

And now, while the great crowd is hanging upon
Paul's first word, we take leave to ask my readers
to consider the baleful influence that Jerusalem and
the Jerusalem Church had always exercised upon the
Apostle. Prophets at every step of his journey hither
had warned him of what awaited him at that fateful
City, where the greatest crime of the ages had been
consummated, and it is fated to bring about the
greatest crisis of the world— yet future. And yet,
like the singed moth, Paul was perseveringly deter-
mining to return to that false lamp. None of the
Apostolic Band, known to us, were without incon-
sistency. Peter, of course, is the patent example,
but neither was John exempt. The Apostle of Love
wanted to burn out the Samaritans, James coinciding.
And the other Apostles, who kept themselves to
themselves, and escaped from Roman and Jewish
molestation — it was by recanting in their practice,
all the principles which their Great Founder had
emmciated. Nothing more startling, more deplor-
able than the quiet laying aside of the revolutionary

412 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

reforms which Jesus had recommended. He gave
to the Twelve His commission to baptise in His
name, and said not a word about circumcision.
The omission is tantamount to affirming that hence-
forth it was valueless. And yet the Apostles at
Jerusalem, even after Pentecost, were so slow to
learn that they clung invincibly to make a wall of
separation between Jew and Gentile.
; Jesus, when with His disciples, ate and drank
with hundreds of Gentiles, without keeping Himself
apart. When He fed the multitudes by Tiberias, of
course, there were hundreds who were not born
Jews, and by making His disciples to serve them, He
taught them they were henceforth to eat and drink
with the Gentiles. Jesus taught His disciples that
days and feasts were made holy, simply by His
presence, and the holy aims which any company,
on any day, might be prosecuting.

The Sabbath Day was Divinely constituted, mainly
for the sake of labour, among men and beast ; and
to afford opportunities of common worship and
leisure to commemorate the Liberator of body and
soul. To do good was ever an indispensable qualifi-
cation to really religious exercises. The Twelve,
even after Pentecost, understood little of these
things. Pitiably they continued to hug their chains,
after the risen Jesus and the Holy Spirit bate against
the closed gates of their Jewish prejudices.

The very first thing they ought to have done was
to give up the Temple worship altogether. The
Sheckinah had departed. The veil was torn. The
whole hierarchical system was hopelessly corrupt.
It was a doomed spot and a doomed people. Our
Lord pronounced His unsparing condemnation. The

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 418

Temple had become a " den of thieves," and He over-
turned the tables of the money changers, and drove
out the sheep and oxen. All the humbug of business,
the rigging of the market, bulling and bearing to
make margins between buying and selling. The
easy prank by which millions were won or lost —
all that was doomed. And although now, after
2,000 years, the doom has not fallen. It is coming —
rather surer than Halley's Comet. The business of
the Infant Church was to make its emphatic protest
by discontinuing any Levitical attendance. The
Synagogues were available and unimpeachable, with
the Christian interpretations. Why not confine
themselves to the Prophets, the Psalms and Prayer ?
They might make an exception of the Passover.
Our Lord attended that. It was the Feast of Liberty,
the commemoration of breaking every chain, and the
self-investiture of the lamb's silken cords. It was
the memorial of the great Deliverer from bondage
and imparting to it the meanings of the Paschal
Lamb— the Lamb of God— the Csena Domini.

Instead of this, the Jerusalem Church completely
failed either to become a Light unto the Gentiles,
or an active propagandist among other nations.
The Lord expressly enjoined upon them to go into
all the world, and they did nothing of the kind.
They kept herding together at Jerusalem. Fatal
Jerusalem I Rejected and condemned Jerusalem.

It came upon the Jerusalem Church as an un-
welcome surprise that the Gentiles were getting
favoured equally with the seed of Abraham There
must have been, some mistake on High. Proselytes
might expect some share in Heaven's favours, but
Gentiles— not being Proselytes— for them to give

414 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

proof that the gifts of the Holy vSpirit were really
possessed was an obnoxious and puzzling circum-
stance. The Church did not like to say it, but felt
it, that High Heaven was really {^oing too far. " We
must draw the line somewhere." Such was the
infantile and anomalous condition of the Christian
Church at Jerusalem.

It was never a power, except to obstruct the exten-
sion of the Kingdom. Against these recreants,
who had received the Lord's commands, and had
not fulfilled them, there was one brilliant exception.
The Apostle Paul. That Apostle, born out of due
time. He was worth the round dozen of the rest.
His eyes were opened. He had seen and He had
heard the Lord— not by searching, not by prayers
or vows, or vain propitiations, outside of the Lamb
and the Cross, but simply by election— the electing
love of God— in one stroke, implanting repentance,
faith and obedience, understanding of the Scriptures,
Eternal Life, in one complete and final act, con-
stituting the old Paul a new man.

But this new man— this Addendum to the original
Twelve -He was not to be exempted from human
fallibility. Paul was on several occasions grossly
inconsistent with himself and his principles. He
committed the unforgiveable crime of circumcising
Timothy, that marvellous moral obscuration must
remain for ever inscrutable. Then again, he took
upon himself a " vow,'' and had his head shaved
at Cenchrea. Such things belong to the stage of
babyhood in things essentially religious. Then
he must needs go to ask permission for his Gentile
converts to be deemed the children of God, *' without
being circumcised and keeping the whole Law,'»

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 415

notwithstanding that the Holy S])irit was pouring
from a Cornucopia, the most lovely fruits and flowers,
fallino down upon Philippi, P^phesus, Thessalonica,
Corinth, Beraa and Antioeh. Notwithstanding all
this, Paul demeans himself by consulting these
Pundits in Jerusalem and wants to know if they are
Christians, being uncircumcised. And the Pmidits
twdrl their thumbs, and the great debate — about a
rite — a repugnant and horrible rite, was going abso-
lutely to stop the salvation of the world, if the Jews
could help it. Paul and Peter together pulled the
rock of offence out of the obstructed channel, and
these two, each enlightened by special revelations,
believed that the question was settled. But the
question was not settled. This weak and compara-
tively worthless Church of Jerusalem seemed bent on
forgetting all the Master had taught it. After Paul's
eloquence had faded in their ears, the Church was
almost ready to send messengers after the Apostle
and recant everything. And what was that miser-
able document— the first Apostolic decree ? It
did indeed free the new churches from circumcision,
for which God be thanked. But what was the non-
sense of forbidding things " strangled and blood."
The ban against going to Pagan Temples to buy
meats was undoubtedly politic. Fornication, of
course, was an essential prohibition, but " things
strangled and blood ! " — as if such material things
could affect adversely spiritual vitality ! It is a
document containing provisions which were really
insulting, and others even laughable. And yet these
poor converts gave profound thanks for the " conso-
lation " !

But now this Jerusalem Church consummated

416 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

its follies and its crimes by recommending Paul
to do something flagrantly inconsistent with every-
thing he believed and professed.

One who reads the Epistles to the Galatians, Romans
and Corinthians is utterly at a loss to comprehend how
Paul could have been so hypnotised by the Jerusalem-
ites as to accede to the scheme matured and put forth
for Paul's adoption. A course which virtually obliged
him to recant his most cherished and Heaven given
revelations. A course, too, most disingenuous,
which should torture his conscience and compel him
to act as a dishonourable, a disloyal and perjured man.
The plan was to do something which would hoodwink
the Jews generally, and especially the hybrid Jew-
Christian Church. Paul had become thoroughly con-
vinced that circumcision was nothing, but to fulfil
God's Commandments. And this specious plan was
to do something which would remove the suspicion
entertained by many at Jerusalem, that Paul forbad
the Gentile converts to have their children circum-
cised, or to observe old established customs. He was
to appear as if he believed in what he expressly de-
nounced in his Epistle to the Galatians, written the
year before— and the rest of the Church was to be led
to believe that he would for ever and a day scrupu-
lously obey the law and teach others the same. It was
a plan, fathered before its time by Jesuistical and
Apostate confessors, confusing and frustrating the
essentials of the glad Evangel, and preventing a trans-
parent vision of the Nazarene. And, amazing to say,
Paul was pushed into the trap ! But what could be
expected of a base compromise except complete failure
and disaster to the erring and, in this instance, weak
Apostle ! Compromising with convictions is the

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 417

strangling of the new born Infant of Truth. The
Nemesis was awaiting him. All seemed going well.
He was going day by day to falsify his convictions,
throwing dust in the eyes of the jealous Pharisaic
Nazarenes. The false brethren were pluming them-
selves upon their cleverness. But they did not count
upon the blushing and outraged Genius of Integrity,
which, in this case was the same as the God of Truth
and Righteousness. Paul was acting a lie, and all his
subsequent misfortunes are justly to be attributed to
his fault at the Temple. Cardinal Newman may be
ready to advocate " lying like a trooper." He had the
support of the Church of Jerusalem— no greater
condemnation could be pronounced.

But Paul was never himself at Jerusalem. The
very air poisoned him— and there was good reason
for it. His crimes against the Church of God were
there committed. Places do affect persons. Past
deeds, too, cling to places. The popular dread and
desire to avoid passing a place where a great crime
was committed, as though the foul fiend who enabled
it was condemned to be chained to the spot— that
popular notion has something to say for it. Paul lost
his courage, his consistency and his fidelity whenever
the baleful attraction of Jerusalem drew his steps
thither.

At Antioch he could expose Peter and make him
ashamed of himeslf. Away, whither Paul was des-
patched by revelation, when in a trance he was bidden
to go jar hence to the Gentiles, Paul touched earth
and the Anteas was himself again. And, although at
Jerusalem, where he was called upon to bear the con-
sequences of his fault, his Lord came to his aid, giving
him an opportunity to confess his Master, and inspired

418 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

him to take up his old role of suffering for Christ's
sake ; when all his true nature resumed and all Divine
resources were at his command— recollections of his
Roman citizenship came to him. He says the right
thing at the right time. He speaks with such force that
the angry mob becomes mute as mice. In spirit he
was at Antioch again— the dear old Gentile land— the
scene of his former triumphs, " Evil communications
corrupt good manners." When he came to Jerusalem,
he ever felt it was not to receive an uplift from brothers
who, like himself, were emulous to run the race with
eyes upon the prize. He felt rather that the Church
was spying out the liberty that the Gentile converts
were enjoying. His success was the measure of their
distrust. Zeal for the inclusion of the Gentiles was a
languid, if not a dead passion. They held that the
truth was to be universally proclaimed, in theory ; but
as for the practice, Paul's zeal for the enterprise was
hot enough to serve for the rests of the coterie. Yes !
it was only a coterie. There was no street preaching
of the Cross at Jerusalem. There was no disputing
in the market places, no regular meetings at a Lecture
Hall as at Ephesus, no pier-head proclamations as at
Corinth, no imprisonments, no scourgings, no martyr-
doms at the time that the bland and feigningly cour-
teous elders wxre receiving Paul from foreign parts.
No ! They were studious to give no offence to any,
especially to the Hierarchies. Instead of relaxing in
their minute observance of the Law, they would make
it clear that the Nazarenes were especially zealous
for its maintenance. They were bent upon making it
manifest to all, that the best followers of the crucified
were also the most rigid sticklers for the vain traditions
of the elders. It was an attitude the very opposite to

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 410

that which their Lord and Master had excmphfied.
He was in every hour of the day protesting against the
stupid and injurious regulations which had hung with
chains the simplest household, civic and personal
duties. And standing upon those rites and cere-
monies as a superior eminence, from which the rest
of mankind could be superciliously surveyed, and
their own righteousness vaunted. Zeal, forsooth for
enfranchising the Gentiles ! We have dismissed Paul
and Barnabas to quiet our consciences, and charitably,
we wish them well. We hope they will really go far
away, and only trouble us when they bring in the
collection. We must be courteous to the bearers of the
bag, and impress upon them how poor we arc, though
how rich in the real blue-blood pedigree circumcised
inheritors of Abraham's covenanted blessings !

Therefore the extraordinary spectacle was pre-
sented of a religious Ecclesea, professing to be at one
and the same time in permanent opposition to its
mother principle, and in professed allegiance to the
same. Let the Church at Jerusalem be one thing
or the other : it could not be both. But the Elders,
and, strange to say, the Twelve, were determined to
be both.

That strange Church presented the curious spectacle
of being apparently unable and unwilling to burst
its chrysalis confinements, and yet aspiring to
spread its wings in the broad sunshine of God's
favour.

Here was one wing beating the air, on the other
side a leg, useless for locomotion. And although
the shell of the chrysalis was cracked all over, the
body could not free itself and soar into the Empyrean.
The Gentile Churches were free. They were roaming

420 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

among flowers and sipping honey from every distilla-
tion of the Spirit's and the Apostles' prelections.
While the Jerusalem Christians were still washing
cups and platters and bedsteads, and other such
unimaginable rubbish, if they were honest they should
have proclaimed that there was no freedom from
the requirements of the law. The followers of Christ
must be both Jews and Christians. They would
say, Keep all the Law, and also at the same time
do not rely upon it. You must worship the Messiah,
and at the same time wear the yoke from which the
Messiah has freed you. How could such an Evangel
progress ? But now the crowd is waiting to hear
Paul.

" Brethren and Fathers. Listen to my defence,
which I now make before you." And hearing him
address them in Hebrew, they kept all the more
quiet. '' I am a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, but
brought up in this city. I was carefully trained at
the feet of Gamaliel in the Law of our forefathers,
and, like all of you to-day, was zealous for God. I
persecuted this new sect even unto blood, binding
both men and women and throwing them into prison,
as the High Priest also and all the Elders can bear
me witness. It was, too, from them that I received
letters to the Brethren at Damascus, and I was already
on my way to Damascus, intending to bring those
also who had fled there in chains to Jerusalem to be
punished. But on my way, when I was not far
from Damascus, about noon a sudden blaze of light
from heaven shone around me. I fell to the ground
and heard a voice say to me, ' Saul ! Saul ! Why are
you persecuting me ? ' ' Who art Thou, Lord ? '
I asked. ' I am Jesus, the Nazarene, whom you

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 421

are persecuting,* replied He. Now the men were
with me, though they saw the Ught, did not hear the
words of Him Who spoke to me. I asked, ' What am
I to do, Lord ? * And the Lord said to me, ' Rise
and go into Damascus. There you shall be told of
all that has been appointed for you to do. And as I
could not see because the light had been so dazzling,
those who were with me had to lead me by the arm,
and so I came to Damascus. And a certain Ananias,
a pious man, who obeyed the Law and bore a good
character with all the Jews of the City, came to me,
and standing at my side, said, ' Brorther Saul, receive
your sight.' I instantly regained my sight and looked
up at him. Then he said, ' The God of our forefathers
has appointed you to know his will, and to see the
Righteous One and hear him speak. For you shall
be a witness for Him, to all men, of what you have
seen and heard. And now why delay ? Rise, get
yourself baptised, and wash off your sins, calling
upon His name. After my return to Jerusalem and
while praying in the Temple, I fell into a trance.
I saw Jesus, and He said to me, ' Make haste and
leave Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept
your testimony about Me.' ' Lord,' I replied, ' they
themselves well know how active I was in imprisoning,
and in flogging in Synagogue after Synagogue those
who believe in Thee, and when they were shedding
the blood of Stephen, Thy witness, I was standing by
fully approving of it, and I held the clothes of those
who were killing him.' ' Go,' He replied, ' I will send
you to nations far away.' "

Until the last statement the people listened to
Paul, but now with a roar of disapproval, they cried
out, *' Away with such a fellow^ from the earth I

422 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

He ought not to be allowed to live." And when they
continued their furious shouts, throwing their clothes
into the air and flinging dust about, the Tribune
ordered him to be brought into the barracks and be
examined by flogging in order to ascertain why they
thus cried out against him. But, when they had tied
him up with the straps, Paul said to the Captain who
stood by, " Does the Law permit you to flog a Roman
citizen, and one, too, who is uncondemned ? '*

On hearing this question, the Ca])tain went to
report the matter to the Tribune. '' What are you
intending to do ? " he said, '' this man is a Roman
citizen."

So the Tribune came to Paul and asked him.
" Tell me ! Are you a Roman citizen ? " •'*

" Yes ! " he said.

" I paid a large sum for this," said the Tribune.

Paul's reply was, " But I was free born."

So the men who had been on the point of putting
him under torture immediately left him. And the
Tribune, too, was frightened, when he learnt that Paul
was a Roman citizen, for he had had him bound.

The next day, wishing to know exactly what charge
was being brought against him by the Jews, the Tri-
bune ordered his chains to be removed : and having
sent word to the High Priests, and all the Sanhedrim
to assemble, he brought Paul down and made him
stand before them. (Acts xxii. Weymouth.)

Paul was himself again. All his trouble arose from
taking advice from that wretched Church at Jeru-
salem. Why did he ever take advice, when he had an
ever present Director within his own heart ? There
was the Church of the Gentiles— in the person of Paul
—and there was the Christian Church of Jerusalem,

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 423

and the former was tempted by the latter. It is the
case of the lying Prophet, who conii)assed the destruc-
tion of him who had the pristine commission, and
failed to keep it.

" I am a Prophet, like as j^ou are, said the Church
of Jerusalem, and an Angel of God has bid me to turn
you aside and partake of the beggarly elements of the
Law — and he lied unto him." Thousands of the true
servants of God have been beguiled in a similar
manner, yielding to an assumed authority which
was not genuine, or allowed purposely, as a final test
of inward convictions— the direct production of
Divine revelations. To any young reader and to all
readers, I say, listen to no human voice whatever
that conflicts with the voice which gave you the con-
ditions under which any false altar is to be scattered.
"Men of God," churches— none are to be listened
to. There is One Counsellor, the Head of every
man. Live under solemn obligations to Him ! As
I write, Tolstoy is fleeing from the temptations per-
sistently urged by his nearest and dearest. Tolstoy
is right, God will be with him.

Revenons a nos moutons. Yes ! veritably our
" muttons." The Church at Jerusalem, blue-blood,
pedigree, hybrid, pseudo Christian Jewish Church of
Jerusalem spoiled everything. It was not that Church
which extended the Christian faith throughout the
world. A crawling chrysalis, half out of its grave,
feebly flapping with one wing, falling and sprawling,
what could it do, compared with what it might ?

But if the Church of Jerusalem was so lacking in
vital consistency. What could be said of the Jews,
inspired by their own ecclesiastical chiefs. The
ecclesiastical authorities were so corrupt, so void of

424 IHE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

regard to even primal instincts of justice and honour
that they felt no shame in giving sanction and succour
to a scheme for assassinating Paul in his transit from
prison to the court. Remember these were the re-
ligious teachers of faith and morals. They had con-
federated with Judas to have Jesus betrayed, and they
had the satisfaction of crucifying Him. One mouth-
ful of innocent blood was not enough for them. They
panted for another to crown the banquet. When
forty assassins had bound themselves by a curse to
murder Paul — absolutely, there was not one even of
the Sanhedrim to stand forth to vindicate elementary
fairness and Governmental duty. They wanted him
condemned and executed without trial, while the
Pagan Roman Government, which had had no light,
either from Moses, Sinai or the roll of the Prophets,
thought that the Roman Custom of having an accused
person given the opportunity of facing his accusers
and affording him the privilege of defence was more
agreeable to natural justice. In fact the Roman
Government insisted upon the Roman privileges being
observed, although in favour of a born Jew. As be-
tween the two tribunals— the Roman and the Jewish
—the principles ruling in this special case, were as
contrasted as Heaven and Hell.

And this was the ecclesiastical authority which the
Christian Church of Jerusalem was so anxious to
f>ropitiate !

It is like taking a draught from a pure Highland
spring, in place of a chalice of poisoned wine, such as
Borgia gave and was given, to turn from the tribunal
of Hebrew doctors and Rabbis, to the inflexible guar-
dians of the rights of a Roman citizen, A.D., 58. Here
we find the natural conscience asserting itself. Dig-

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 425

nity, restraint and common sense weii^hting with real
gold the Roman sceptre. We will anticipate to illus-
trate the loyalty to Roman traditions ; its impartiality
and reverence for law. Claudius Lysias, the comman-
dant of the garrison of Antonia,was not going to allow
even one Roman citiy.en to be deprived of his right.
Aye ! though it meant 400 infantry and seventy
cavalry marching through the night to guard the
sacred person of his prisoner. Felix, too, the Governor
of Judea, was determined to do nothing in a hurry.
He would grant indulgence and give access to Paul's
friends. He spent hours conferring with the prisoner,
so anxious to probe to the bottom, the charges brought
against him. Festus, too, was equally Roman-
minded— the soul of honour, as respects guarding
citizen privileges. Everything Paul had asked for he
got. When Festus was visited by King Agrippa and
his wife Bernice, he was not simply bent upon enter-
taining his royal guests, but he availed himself of the
opportunity to get some help to deal justly with Paul,
for Agrippa was known to be fully acquainted with
the Jewish Law. That crafty monarch, when invested
with Roman authority, it seemed to inspire him with
sentiments of honour and justice, foreign to his tribe.
He immediately gave attention to Festus* implied
desire that Agrippa would interest himself in Paul's
case.

'' I should like to hear the man myself," said he.
'* To-morrow," replied Festus, " you shall."
Both rulers agreed, after the conference, " That
this man is doing nothing for which he deserves
death or imprisonment," and Agrippa said to Festus,
" He might have been set at liberty, if he had not
appealed to Caesar."

426 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Military chiefs, tribunes, pro-consuls, governors,
kings, all alike, the Roman officials seem animated by
a desire to discharge their duties with conspicuous
fairness. Julius, captain over the soldiers who had to
convey Paul, with other prisoners, to Rome, paid the
greatest deference to Paul's opinion, and was deter-
mined to screen him from the soldiers' suggestions to
kill all the prisoners lest they should escape during
the shipwreck. Roman hospitality manifested itself
when, from the Governor of Melita down to the natives,
all vied in affording much more than justice.

In this anticipatory notice, we must refer to the
ready credence given by Roman officials to the bare
statement of St. Paul. It could not be entirely due
to the Apostle's magnetic personality. Although
examination by scourging was a part of criminal in-
vestigation, yet it reflects the greatest honour upon
the officials, that the bare word of a suspected prisoner
was accepted without hesitation. Paul's own ac-
count of his Roman citizenship given by himself, with-
out oaths or asseverations, and wanting in any
documentary evidence, or the support of witnesses,
sufficed to deliver him from the horrible trial of scourg-
ing. In a country, and among a population, whose
common speech abounds in impressive asseverations,
we know what kind of legal procedure is generally
required to get at the bottom of the truth. But under
Rome, the limbs of the Law, Pagan, were so accus-
tomed to go straight themselves that they credited
even suspected prisoners of speaking straight-for-
wardly.

" Tell me. Are you a Roman citizen ? "
^-" Yes," said Paul.

" I paid a large sum for this," said the Tribune.

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 427

" But I was free-born," said Paul.

These simple statements, quietly offered, ended the
matter, and the danger to be apprehended was trans-
ferred from the prisoner to his examiners. " The men
who had been on the point of putting him under
torture immediately left him. And the Tribune, too,
was frightened when he learnt that Paul was a Roman
citizen, for he had had him bound." (Acts xxii. 27 —
29. Weymouth.)

Rome, Christian and ecclesiastical, has never been
conspicuous for straightforwardness. History has
recorded the decline and fall of Pagan honesty and
truthfulness.

From this excursion, in illustration of the fairness
of the Roman administration, we now come back to
the instance just referred to, and the point at which
Paul's career has reached.

" The next day, wishing to know exactly what
charge was being brought against him by the Jews,
the Tribune ordered his chains to be removed, and
having sent word to the High Priests and all the
Sanhedrim to assemble, he brought Paul down and
made him stand before them."

At the stone chamber the solemn conclave was
assembled. The High Priest, Ananias, a name very
dear to him at Damascus, but worn also by a very
different personage here, took his central seat at the
semi-circle, where, on either side, were his seventy
elders. The chamber was familiar, for Paul was himself
a councillor in the days of his blindness, and beheld
many of his former fellow students, who had concerted
with him measures against Stephen and the Damas-
cenes. How had the wheel of fortune turned ! His
highest hope now was that he might witness a con-

428 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

fession equally good as by which Stephen had closed
his short, but glorious career. Paul, himself again,
not yielding to the weakness J of the sin of
compromise, into which the guilty church of
Jerusalem had betrayed him, and fixing a
steady gaze on the Sanhedrim, began his artless
defence. " Brethren, it is with a perfectly
clear conscience that I have discharged my
duties before God up to this day." (Acts xxiii. 1.
Weymouth. )

Yes ! Paul well knew that his worst deeds against
his Lord had been done under an infirmity of decreed
ignorance, and not from an evil will. But the High
Priest Ananias' action had no such warranty, as Paul
could truly avouch. And stirred to envy and hatred
by the manifest integrity of the man standing before
him. Ananias commanded that some of the by-
standers should strike him on the mouth. Then said
Paul unto him, " Before long, God shall smite thee,
thou whited wall : for sittest thou to judge me after
the law, and commandest me to be smitten, contrary
to the law.'*

And they that stood by said, '' Re vilest thou God's
High Priest ? "

Then said Paul, " I wist not, brethren, that he was
the High Priest, for it is written, ' Thou shalt not
speak evil of the ruler of thy people.' "

It should be evident to any ordinary reader thdt a
voice had reached Paul from the benches over which
Ananias presided, directing the brutal assault upon
the prisoner before he had scarce uttered a word. But
that the voice came from the President with certainty,
that the President was the High Priest, was not known
to Paul. To that voice, whosesoever it was, Paul

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 429

spake with indignation and was moved by the spirit
to prophesy his untimely judgment. Ananias was
murdered by the Sicarii during the Jewish war.
Farrar, as I have elsewhere concluded, misconceived
Paul's powers of vision, which were undoubtedly
exercised without disability when he strove to catch
the views and temper of the judges arrayed before
him. He perceived that the one part were Sadducees,
and the other Pharisees," and, prompted by the
Divine Wisdom, he cried out in the Council, " Men
and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee ;
of the hope and resurrection of the dead, I am called
in question." And when he had so said, there arose
a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees ;
and the multitude was divided. For the Sadducees
say that there is no resurrection, neither Angel, nor
Spirit, but the Pharisees confess both. And there
arose a great cry, and the Scribes that were of the
Pharisees' part, arose and strove, saying : " We
find no evil in this man ; but if a Spirit
or an Angel hath spoken to him, let us not
fight against God." And when there arose a
great dissension, the chief captain, fearing lest
Paul should have been pulled in pieces by them,
commanded the soldiers to go down and to take
him by force from among them, and to bring him into
the castle.

And the night following the Lord stood by him, and
said, " Be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified
of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at
Rome."

It was always when the faithful witness had reason
for disquietude, that his heart was cheered. Paul was
doubly cheered by the intimation that he was to see

430 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Rome— his life-long desire and, also, his sephulchre.

*' And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded
together and bound themselves under a curse, saying
that they would neither eat nor drink till they had
killed Paul. And they were more than forty which
had made this conspiracy. And they came to the
chief priests and elders, and said, ' We have bound
ourselves under a great curse, that we will eat nothing
until we have slain Paul. Now, therefore, ye with
the Council signify to the chief captain that he bring
him down unto you to-morrow, as though ye would
enquire something more perfectly concerning him, and
we, or ever he come near, are ready to kill him. And
when Paul's sister's son heard of their lying in wait,
he went and entered into the castle and told Paul.
Then Paul called one of the centurions unto him, and
said, ' Bring this young man unto the chief captain :
for he hath a certain thing to tell him. So he took him
and brought him to the chief captain, and said, ' Paul,
the prisoner, called me unto him, and prayed me to
bring this young man unto thee, who hath something
to say unto thee.' Then the chief captain took him
by the hand, and went with him aside privately, and
asked him, ' What is that thou hast to tell me ? *
And he said, ' The Jews have agreed to desire thee
that thou wouldst bring down Paul to-morrow into
the Council, as though they would enquire somewhat
of him more perfectly. But do not thou yield unto
them, for there lie in wait for him, of them, more than
forty men which have bound themselves with an oath,
that they will neither eat nor drink till they have
killed him, and now are they ready, looking for a
promise from thee.' So the chief captain then let the
young man depart, and charged him, ' See thou tell

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 431

no man that thou hast shewed these things to me.'
x\nd he called unto him two centurions, saying, make
ready two hundred legionary soldiers, and seventy
horsemen, also two hundred light armed spearmen,
at the third hour of the night : and provide them
beasts, that they may set Paul on, and bring him safe
unto Felix the Governor.' And he wrote a letter after
this manner :

Claudius Lysias unto the most excellent governor
Felix sendeth greeting,

'* This man was taken of the Jews, and should have
been killed of them : then came I with an army and
rescued him, having understood that he was a Roman.
And when I would have known the cause wherefore
they accused him, I brought him forth into their
council. Whom I perceived to be accused of questions
of their Jaw, but to have nothing laid to his charge
worthy of death or of bonds. And when it was told me
how that the Jews laid wait for the man, I sent
straightway for thee, and gave commandment to his
accusers also to say before thee what they had against
him. Farewell !

" Then the soldiers, as it was commanded them,
took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris.
Forty men went to bed supperless that same night,
looking forward to a good breakfast after they had
accomplished their murder, but were disappointed.
When it was seen that their plot must fail,these un-
fortunates had to go to the money lenders to get loans
to buy release from their oaths from the corrupt
priesthood.

" On the morrow they left the horsemen to go with
Paul, and the four hundred infantry marched back
again. The seventy cavalry, meantime, reached

432 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Caesarea and delivered the Epistle to the Governor,
and presented Paul before him. And when he under-
stood that he was of Cilicia, ' I will hear thee,' said he,
' when thine accusers are also come.' And he com-
manded him to be kept in Herod's Judgment Hall."
(Acts xxiii. A.V.)

In the foregoing narrative the action of two indi-
viduals calls for comment. Paul's sister's son and
Claudius Lysias. The former was called under Provi-
dence to intervene most effectively in the crisis of his
uncle's fate. But it is somewhat strange that we hear
nothing more of his mother. That there was an es-
trangement towards Paul on the part of the other
members of the Apostle's family is highly probable,
and that neither the sister nor the nephew were num-
bered with the Nazarenes is practically certain. To
this ostracism there was one exception— the ingenuous
youth who took the keenest interest in his uncle's
fortunes. Moved by the generous impulses of youth
and, doubtless, a future disciple in the making, he had
mingled with the various knots of people who were
discussing the question of the day and overheard what
his apparently careless youth permitted him to hear
and, pursuing a clue, discovered sufficient to warrant
his seeking an interview with the commandant forth-
with—but first of all to Paul. How grateful and
refreshing must the interview have been, especially
when his sister manifested no interest in him at all.
That was one of the bitter elements in the cup he was
given to drink. Relatives more than dead to himself,
but he, alive unto God. The ingenuous youth, with
his intelligent and amiable countenance, appealed to
everyone and, at Paul's instance, one of the captains
took him to the commandant. Claudius Lysias,

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 433

equally favourably impressed, drew him aside kindly
by the arm, and bade the youth to tell him everything.
Again, we are struck by the readiness with which
every statement is received. The Roman influence,
even over subject races, was against lying. The Com-
mandant made up his mind at once, and did not lose
time to get confirmation of the rumour. He sum-
moned a veritable army and took care that Paul was
well horsed for his long night journey. Villages and
towns were twinkling in new lights, when the tramp
of horse and foot woke up the tired labourers, or mid-
night carousers lisped enquiries what it was all about ?
It was only a Jew on a horse who was turning the world
upside down, and the Imperial Power was determined
that he should not be baulked !

The world would, indeed, be turned upside down
if a Roman citizen should have not his rights.
Claudius Lysias was determined that Paul should
have a fair trial and his accusers should
face him. At Antipatris, twenty miles from Caesarea
and forty from Jerusalem, the 400 foot soldiers
marched back again— it is to be hoped, after taking
a rest — although the record states that " the next
day the infantry returned to the barracks." Great
tramping in this region 2,000 years ago. To-day
there is not a living creature, sea-sand blows upon
the cactus and the lizard. Antipatris and Caesarea
are nameless wastes. Meantime we see the 70
cavalry holding Paul in safety and the letter to the
Governor will not miss delivery.

Caesarea hoves in sight, Herod the Great's great
dream realised. Great in crimes and great in building
feats, palaces, temples, and theatres flash in the
sun, but the most gigantic feat was the semi-circular

c 1

484 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

mole, 200ft. broad, whose huge blocks of stone were
let down twenty fathoms deep and could shelter a
fleet.

Not alone the letter, Paul himself was brought
before the Governor. " Where do you come from ? "

*' From Cilicia."

"I will hear all you have to say, when your accusers
also have come." Felix doubtless spoke to his wife
same day, about Paul's striking appearance in
spite of a sleepless night. She was a Jewess, though
in name only, and made him promise to let her see
and hear him.

What a stir this man Paul was making. Ananias
the High Priest must needs come down in five days
with a number of elders and a pleader, Tertullus.
Now this Felix has been given a very bad name.
Tacitus, Josephus and Luke agree in condemning
him. He was a slave favourite of Claudius, was
given his freedom, promoted in the army, and in
Judaea curried favour with the Jews, who besought
of the Emperor to appoint him to the vacant Governor-
ship. No sooner had he been seated than he dis-
covered quite another character, and by his violence,
injustice and rapacity made himself more hated than
any previous Governor. His wife was no less ab-
noxious. She had been mated to the King of Emesa,
who submitted to the rite of circumcision to win her.
Yet, leaving her husband, she renounced Judaism
to win Felix, who was a heathen ! These two, fit
subjects for the penetrating admonitions of the
Apostle, were drawn by the strange attraction exer-
cised upon the guilty by the holy, to seek interviews
with Paul, as though his mere propinquity might do
them good. There they sat, before the humble

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 435

weaver, and he cried out against them and spared
not. Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance and
judgment to come, and Felix trembled, but Drusilla
was past that. Felix had procured the assassination
of Jonathan, the High Priest, because he had rebuked
his administration. So he had good cause to tremble.
He rose up in agitation and ended the interview :
"Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient
season, I will call for thee."

" He hoped also that money should have been
given him of Paul, that he might loose him, wherefore
he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him.'*

I have antedated the foregoing interview to
exhibit the character of the Governor, before whom
TertuUus is to plead. You will notice the glozing
flatteries of his prologue— in contrast with Paul's
plain dealing— and the entire unsuitability of it to
the individual addressed. The High Priest and the
Elders must have winced under the satire. Tertullus
now begins his accusation :

*' Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness,
and that very worthy deeds are done unto this
nation by thy providence, we accept it always,
and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankful-
ness. Notwithstanding, that I be not further tedious
unto thee, I pray thee that thou wouldst hear us of
thy clemency a few words. For we have found this
man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among
all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of
the sect of the Nazarenes. Who also hath gone about
to profane the temple : whom we took and would
have judged according to our law. But the Chief
Captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence
took him away out of our hands.

486 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

" Commanding his accusers to come unto thee :
by examining of whom thou mayest take knowledge
of all those things whereof we accuse him."

And the Jews also assented, saying that those things
were so.

Then Paul, after that the Governor had beckoned
unto him to speak, answered : " Forasmuch as I
know that thou hast been a judge unto this nation,
I do the more cheerfully answer for myself. Because
that thou mayest understand, that there are yet
but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem to
worship. And they neither found me in the Temple
disputing with any man, neither raising up the
people, nor in the Synagogue, nor in the city. Neither
can they prove the things whereof they now accuse
me. But I confess unto thee, that after the way
which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my
Fathers, believing all things which were written in
the Laws and the Prophets. And have hope toward
God which they themselves also allow, that there
shall be a Resurrection of the dead, both of the just
and the unjust. And herein do I exercise myself,
to have always a conscience void of offence toward
God, and toward men. And after many years I
came to bring alms to my nation and offerings.
Whereupon certain Jews from Asia found me purified
in the Temple, neither with multitude, nor tumult.
Who ought to have been before thee, and object,
if they had ought against me. Or else let these same
say, if they have found any evil doing in me, while
I stood before the Council. Except it be for this one
voice, that I cried, standing among them. Touching
the resurrection of the dead, I am called in question by
you this day."

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 437

And when Felix heard these things, having more
perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them
and said, '* When Lysias the chief captain shall come
down, I will know the uttermost of your matter.*'
And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and
to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid
none of his acquaintance to minister, or come unto
him. And after certain days, when Felix came with
his wife, Drusilla, who was a Jewess, he sent for Paul,
and heard him concerning the faith in Christ— as
formerly recounted. But after two years Porcius Festus
came into Felix's room, and Felix, willing to show the
Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound (Acts xxiv., A.V.).

That Felix was not utterly bad is shown by the
frequent interviews he sought with his prisoner, Paul.
I cannot think that cupidity was his sole incentive.
He was constrained to respect him and perhaps his
very presence in custody in the palace suggested to
his uneasy mind that he might act as a preservative
against the vengeance of Heaven. The maladminis-
tration of the Province nevertheless went on, without
reform, and the Jews again sent a deputation urging
his deposition. It would have gone hard with him
before Nero had not his brother Pallas, himself
deposed from the Treasury, had yet sufficient influence
to screen him. Exit Felix— Drusilla likewise— a
good riddance. No ! we did not entirely get rid of
her. For she had a double, for her sister, the sister
of Agrippa, who was presently to submit to the
attraction of Paul, played a role, not dissimilar to
that of Drusilla. Bernice, another splendid basilisk,
had captivated another King, and for her sake, too,
had been circumcised. Oh ! this external rite was
regarded the hall door to Heaven ! Nevertheless,

438 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

like her sister, she could not be virtuous, and not
long after was found living with her brother Agrippa.
Both of them, some twelve years later, went in the
train of the Conqueror Titus, who was so ensnared
that she would have been an Empress had she not
been a Jewess.

What moral curiosities came to gaze upon Paul,
whose sole title was '' The chief of sinners." Porcius
Festus was neither famous, nor infamous, and found
his province such a scene of disorders that his whole
time and energy was consumed in attempting their
suppression. Kitto says there were three currents
of bloodshed and plunder in active operation. The
superior and inferior priests were in arms against
each other over the tithes, for those who had been
High Priests continued to claim the dues of that
office, and there were so many of them that the
inferior priests could not live. It was a case of
aldermen who had passed the chair wanting to
enjoy mayor's salaries in perpetuity. It was time
for Paul to turn the world upside down. They
did such things in Judaea, Temp. 60 A.D.

The next Red Sea was due to the continued insur-
rections against the Roman Rule— the rebels turning
their hands not alone against the authorities, but
also against the Loyalists. The last sea of blood
was set flowing by the numerous and powerful
bands of robbers whom the Government could not
extirpate, and who made the lives of the producers
and also the merchants unbearable.

These things were the signs of the well-deserved
end, the period of the Jewish State. A similar
state of things is looming over Europe to-day. The
end of the Christian Age is drawing to its close, and

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 439

will expire in blood and flame, inaugurating the
universal liberty to do wrong.

But it is now time to have a look at Festus. In
two years he will be off the stage, and he seems to
know that his time is short. Landing at Caesarea,
he stays only two days, and hastes on to Jerusalem.
And what was the first subject brought before him
by the High Priest and the leading men, as of prime
and urgent importance ? Shepherds and sheep were
slaughtered on the hill sides and the inferior priests
were reduced to begging for rinds of bacon. Yet
the great subject to occupy their great and holy
minds was to get Paul murdered on his way from
Cassarea to Jerusalem. This single menace to the
sacerdotal privilege made all other questions recede
into insignificance. That was the national question.
Just like the question of Disestablishment in Wales,
or in England, equally removed from the questions
that press upon the interests of the British Com-
monalty. Festus, however, calmly replied that Paul
was in custody at Caesarea, and that he was himself
going there very soon. " Therefore let those of you,"
he said, " who can come, go down with me, and
impeach the man, if there is anything amiss in him."
*' After a stay of eight or ten days at Jerusalem— not
more— he went down to Csesarea, and the next day,
taking his seat on the tribunal, he ordered Paul to
be brought in. Upon Paul's arrival, the Jews who
had come down from Jerusalem, stood round him,
and brought many grave charges against him,
which they were unable to substantiate ; while Paul,
in reply, maintained, ' Neither against the Jewish
Law, nor against the Temple, nor against Caesar,
have I committed any offence whatever.' "

440 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Then Festus, being anxious to gratify the Jews,
asked Paul, " Are you wilUng to go up to Jerusalem,
and there stand your trial before me on these charges."

Paul's answer was : ''I am standing before Caesar's
tribunal, where alone I ought to be tried. The
Jews have no real ground of complaint against me,
as, in fact, you yourself are beginning to see more
clearly. If, however, I have done wrong and have
committed any offence for which I deserve to die,
I do not ask to be excused that penalty ; but if
there is no truth in what these men allege against
me, no one has the right to give me up to them as a
favour. I appeal to Csesar."

Then, after conferring with the Council, Festus
replied, " To Caesar you have appealed, to Csesar
you shall go."

A short time after this, Agrippa the King and
Bernice came to Ca^sarea to pay a complimentary
visit to Festus, and during their rather long stay,
Festus laid Paul's case before the King. Agrippa,
son of Herod Agrippa, justified heredity by turning
out a capable Governor, and seems to have had
less of the craft that distinguished his parent in his
romantic career, but that he was a favourite at the
Imperial Court, might not recommend him to popular
favour when Nero and he appeared " birds of a
feather." Roman duty, however, rose up and
inspired the tenants of the throne to act more worthily
than their native instincts would prompt. The office
often makes the man. The traditions of the throne
imparted its sanctities to inferior and less worthy
passions. That is the value of conservative pro-
gress and the danger and loss of capricious changes
in Government. The best comes out of a man when

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 441

great responsibilities are devolved. It was highly
honourable to both Festus and Agrippa that they
were alike anxious to deal scrupulous justice to any
unconsidered Roman citizen, and hence " Festus
laid Paul's case before the King." '' There is a man
here," he said, " whom Felix left a prisoner, about
whom, when I went to Jerusalem, the High Priests
and the elders of the Jews made representations to mc,
begging that sentence might be pronounced against
him. My reply was that it is not the custom among
the Romans to give up anyone for punishment
before the accused has his accusers face to face,
and has had an opportunity of defending himself
against the charge which has been brought against
him. When, therefore, a number of them came
here, the next day I took my seat on the tribunal,
without any loss of time, and ordered the man to
be brought in. But when his accusers stood up, they
did not charge him with the misdemeanours of which
I had been suspecting him ; but they quarrelled
with him about certain matters connected with their
own religion, and about one Jesus who had died,
but— so Paul persistently maintained— is now alive.
I was at a loss how^ to investigate such questions,
and asked Paul whether he would care to go to
Jerusalem and there stand his trial on these matters.
But when Paul appealed to have his case kept for
the Emperor's decision, I ordered him to be kept
in prison until I could send him up to Caesar."

" I should like to hear the man myself," said
Agrippa.

" To-morrow," replied Festus, " you shall."
Accordingly, the next day, Agrippa and Bernice
came in state and took their seats in the Judgment

442 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Hall, attended by the tribunes and the men of high
rank in the city ; and at the command of Festus,
Paul was brought in. What an opportunity for a
preacher of righteousness ! A rather undersized
Jewish artizan, like a speck of grit, was staying the
whole machinery of Government, and required the
hand of Caesar himself to remove it. The basilisk
eyes of Bernice rayed down upon him ; history does
not say what she thought of his nose, but she would
be struck by his flashing eyes.

Then Festus said— (" He has not many speeches to
deliver before his ' tongue lies silent in the grave.'
Happy for him, though Nero's executor, he is
employing his short lease of life to afford every
legal protection to a victim of national hatred and
attempted destruction")— We listen to Festus as to
his last words ; " King Agrippa and all who are
present with us. You see here the man about whom
the whole nation of the Jews made suit to me, both
at Jerusalem and here, crying out that he ought not
to live any longer. I could not discover that he
had done anything for which he deserved to die,
but as he has himself appealed to the Emperor,
I have decided to send him to Rome. I have noth-
ing very definite, however, to tell our Sovereign
about him, so I have brought the man before you
all, and especially before you. King Agrippa, so
that after he has been examined I may find some-
thing which I can put into writing. For, when
sending a prisoner to Rome, it seems to me to be
absurd not to state the charges against him."

Then Agrippa said to Paul, " You have per-
mission to speak about yourself." So Paul, with
outstretched arm, proceeded to make his defence.

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 448

" As regards all the accusations l)rought against
me by the Jews," said he, " I think myself fortunate,
King Agrippa, in being about to defend myself
to-day before you, who are so familiar with all the
customs and speculations that prevail among the
Jews, and for this reason, I pray you, give me a
patient hearing.

"The kind of life I have lived from my youth upwards,
as exemplified in my early days among my nation and
at Jerusalem, is known to all the Jews. For they
all know me of old— if they would but testify to the
fact— how, being an adherent of the strictest sect
of our religion, my life was that of a Pharisee.

** And now I stand here impeached because of my
hope in the fulfilment of the promise made by God to
our forefathers, the promise which our twelve tribes,
worshipping day and night with intense devotedness,
hope to have made good to them. It is on the subject
of this hope. Sire ! that I am accused by the Jews
(Acts xxvi. 7, Weymouth). Why should it be
thought a thing incredible with you, that God should
raise the dead ? (Acts xxvi. 8, A.V.). I myself,
however, thought it a duty to do many things in
hostility to the name of Jesus, the Nazarenc. And
that was how I acted in Jerusalem. Armed with
authority received from the High Priest, I shut up
many of God's people in various prisons, and when
they were about to be put to death I gave my vote
against them. In all the synagogues also I punished
them many a time, and tried to make them blas-
pheme, and in my wild fury I chased them even to
strange cities. While thus engaged I was travelling
one day to Damascus armed with authority and a
commission from the High Priest, and on the journey

4*4 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

(Weymouth). At midday, O King, I saw in the way
a hght from Heaven, above the brightness of the
sun, shining round about me and them which jour-
neyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the
earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying
in the Hebrew tongue, ' Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me ? it is hard for thee to kick against the ox-
goad.' ' Who art Thou, Lord ? ' I asked. And He
said, * I am Jesus, whom Thou persecutest. But
rise, and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared
to thee for this very purpose to appoint you My
servant and my witness, both as to the things you
have already seen and as to those in which I will
appear to thee, delivering thee from the Jewish
people and from the Gentiles, to whom I send thee
to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness
to light and from the obedience to Satan to God,
in order to receive forgiveness of sins and an inherit-
ance among those who are sanctified through faith
in Me. 'Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not
disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but proceeded
to preach first to the people of Damascus, and then
to those at Jerusalem and in all Judaea and to the
Gentiles, that they must repent and turn to God,
and live lives consistent with such repentance. For
these causes the Jews caught me in the temple,
and went about to kill me. Having, however,
obtained the help Avhich is from God, I continue unto
this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying
none other things than those which the prophets and
Moses did say soon should come. That Christ
should suffer, and that He should be the first that
should rise from the dead, and should show light unto
the people and to the Gentiles.*'

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 445

As Paul was thus making his defence, Festus ex-
claimed in a loud voice, '' Paul, thou art beside thy-
self ! much learning doth make thee mad."

But he said, " I am not mad, most noble Festus,
but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. For
the King knoweth of these things, before Whom I
speak freely, for I am persuaded that none of these
things are hidden from Him ; for they have not been
done in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou the
Prophets ? I know that thou believest."

Then Agrippa said unto Paul, '' By these few words,
thou wouldest persuade me to become a Christian."

Paul replied, " I would to God that by my words,
whether briefly or at length, not only thou, but also all
that hear me this day, were altogether such as I am,
except these bonds."

So the king rose, and the governor, and Bernice,
and those who were sitting with them and, having
withdrawn, they talked to one another and said :
*' This man is doing nothing for which he deserves
death or imprisonment."

And Agrippa said to Festus, "He might have been
set at liberty, if he had not appealed to Caesar."

The august assembly was convened and now de-
parts and all in reference to the arraignment of a
perfectly insignificant Subject of the mighty Imperial
Power. Because the majesty of the law had sheltered
him. Out goes Agrippa II. from the Judgment Hall,
with twenty times the years that lay before Festus ;
saw the glory of the Temple just completed before it
was overthrown, looks round for Bernice, who pur-
posely delayed her steps, for the glory of her " pomp"
was rivetting every eye. That splendid woman was
not altogether bad. The ore of human nature is

446 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

seldom void of something golden, or resists for ever
Heaven's alchemy. When the Jewish State was in its
death throes, Bernice risked her life to succour her
compatriots. When the Temple was no more, she
went with her brother to Rome, and he died an aged
Praetor. Festus, instead of despising his birthright,
should have eagerly listened to a Resurrection as from
an Angel, and counted it not the tale of a raving
maniac. Poor, harassed mortal, he was committed
for two years to a desperate struggle with the Hydra
of disaffection, corruption and rebellion in every
department of Church and State, and was presently
to lie " where the wicked cease from troubling, and
the weary are at rest." Exit Festus, with no partic-
ular blots upon his career.

And now it is time for Paul to depart, in custody of
his guardians, whom he continues to magnetise and
gets favours and concessions, simply because he dis-
cards *' policy " upon the critical moments of his life
and means to utter the truth, however unpalatable
and ridiculous it may appear.

CHAPTER XXX.

The Voyage Romewards.

Paul is handed over to Julius^ a captain of the
Augustan battalion. This Julius is supposed, with
high probability, to be the Julius Priscus, who was
afterwards prefect of the Praetorian Guards under the
Emperor Vitellius, the briber— the flash Emperor of
ten months. Whoever he was, he acted like a gentle-
man, becoming influenced by his gentlemanly prisoner,
the Apostle ; for Christianity it is which confers un-
disputed titles to nobility in all degrees. Julius got
hold of a coasting vessel of Adramyttium, which
traded with the ports south and west of Asia Minor,
and was doubtless going back to her own port, not
much below the Hellespont. He truly surmised that
from Myra or Cnidus, he would find larger galleons,
laden with Egyptian corn, for Rome, and could take
advantage of the westerly current. The coaster of
Adramyttium was too cramped for them— over two
hundred and fifty of them, soldiers and prisoners —
probably two hundred were soldiers. Luke was Paul's
friend, a passenger. Aristarchus, a fellow-prisoner—
under bonds for the Gospel— and other prisoners,
whose names and crimes are undivulged. With them
would be several other passengers. Merchants, with
their several parcels of goods, landing and taking in
cargo and stores, as she wore in and wore out of the
ports on her accustomed beat. They were all glad to
land at Sidon first, and stretch their legs. Sidon —
very ancient port —which was the Bristol of those

448 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

days— manufacturers and merchant adventurers —
while its rival, Tyre, was the Liverpool of this period.
Sidon had its little Christian Church. The Sidonians
were also great builders, but Paul's friends there were
Temple builders of " living stones." '' Here Julius
treated Paul with thoughtful kindness and allowed
him to visit his friends and profit by their generous
care." (Acts xxvii. 3. Weymouth).

Now the coasting vessel had evidently cargo for
Myra and passengers, and to make the shortest voy-
age, would take a straight course to the south of
Cyprus, but the north-west wind was dead against
her, so she had to beat up to the north of the island
and then take advantage of the westerly current in
the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia, and finally arrive at
Myra. It was a long wide angular trip. Familiar
Cyprus almost constantly in view. One would like
to know what were the results of Barnabas and Mark's
missionary enterprise there. What is England doing
now to Evangelize it ? But Myra is our present busi-
ness. She has disappeared. Her Theatre was 360
feet long. The arena of it is a cornfield— no loss.
But when the old trader of Adramyttium was
spied by the old gangs, who were waiting for her,
and wondered at her slow voyage, the heavy cargo of
human freightage were glad, indeed, to leave her decks
and wished Julius success, as he went scouring the
port to find roomier quarters. He succeeded as he
expected. A big corn ship, bound for Rome, could
take them all in and give them much ampler accom-
modation. Her complement, soldiers, passengers and
crew was now 276. No time to hunt out disciples at
Myra, the season was advancing and the contrary
wind was blowing unpleasantly. They marched

THE VOYAGE ROMEWARDS 449

almost from one ship to another. Faster a deal than
the ship could sail, for the wind was contrary, in lact,
dead against her, and she was also well down into the
water. Paul who always knew what was going to
take place, had his misgivings, though he knew that he
must finally reach Rome. Many days elapsed and
yet the old summits would plaguily remain before
them, and not behind.

At length, with a blinding rain in their faces, Cnidus
loomed on the plain and also on the cliffs — fresh
water and salt running the same road on the deck.
They had rounded Rhodes at the north and, a few
days peace and rest would have been welcome, the
mate, too, representing that they needed to add to
their cordage. But delay was not to be thought of,
and, since they could not take the straight course
through the uEgean to Rhegium, the captain took the
wind that offered, by which he could hope to go south
to Cape Salmone and creep along under the shelter of
Crete, and then, under the protection of Cape Matala,
on the west of Fair Havens, they might think them-
selves secure for a season. The record says " near the
town of Lasea." No such town can be found, it may
have been one of the hundred cities ancient historio-
graphers credited the island with.

Whether the Fair Havens was deemed the port of
Lasea, or not, it was not good enough to suit the
mariners of the Alexandrian corn ship. They knew
every inch of Crete, north and south, in their frequent
voyages to Rome, and they knew that Fair Havens
was not much of it, and that Phenice was better.
Phenice, the modern Lutro, was made of a bold pro-
montory, running south, and then making a crook to
the east. In addition the harbour had two moles,

D 1

450 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

hence a better wintering place could not be found,
sheltering both the north-west wind and the south-
west.

" Let us make for that ! "

" No ! " said Paul. " Give me leave to speak,"
while the commander of the ship and the owner of the
cargo were in earnest consultation '' I perceive, sirs,
that before long the voyage will be attended with
danger and heavy loss, not only to the cargo and the
ship, but to our own lives also."

Julius listened with all respect to one whom all
respected, but allowed himself at length to be per-
suaded by the pilot and the owner, rather than by
Paul's arguments, and as the harbour was undoubtedly
inconvenient and inferior to Phenice, the majority
were in favour of putting out to sea, and making the
attempt, meaning to stay the winter there. Every
indecision was dissipated when a light breeze sprang
up from the south. The mariners burst into a cheer
and a song. Even the soldiers caught up the agreeable
anticipation, and the prisoners were not behind, with
the exception of one, whose settled conviction was
that peril and loss was before them all.

However, up came the anchor and, afterwards, the
sail, monstrous, lumbering thing, attached to the
single mast, straining and levering the whole ship.
Splendid ! we are running, flying along the coast and
shall be soon in our winter house.

What's that ? By Jove, the wind has twisted round.
It came with the chine force that drowned the Euri-
dyce off the Isle of Wight. Yes ! the spirit of murder
was in it. Down crashed the top hamper, round
about Aristarchus' feet, but did not touch him. A
new old wave with a hoary head looked over the side

THE VOYAGE HOMEWARDS 451

and said, " How are you getting on ? " They did not
look very well. The sailors' song was over, the soldiers
were glum and the shouts of the commanders could not
be heard in the storm. Where was Paul ? — with God.
After that interview he was ready to bear a hand any-
where, if his chains would allow him. He suggested
the prisoners should be unchained and assist the sailors.
Soon he and Luke and Aristarchus were with the
mariners clearing the deck, and stirring up the fellow
passengers to throw overboard their vain images and
look upward. The Christians did all they could to
spread a spirit of calm confidence, but the owner of
the cargo was going on with extravagant incantations
and vows — he seemed to have the weight of the cargo
upon his mind. All now took a new attitude towards
Paul. Every word he uttered was regarded, and the
sailors came to him for nautical directions.

" Look to the boat ! " he said, and a number of
them ran astern and saw she was foundering and would
break away. The ship was by now quite driven out
of her course and making for the island of Claudia.
They could do nothing with it, but hoped when the
island was reached, to run under a lee shore and make
a better attempt. Happily they succeeded at last,
and the boat was hoisted on board. Paul by that time
had gone below, when a thundering crash came upon
deck. It was the yard, and fell among the crowd of
workers, yet none were either wounded or killed. Had
it been otherwise, the same power that raised up
Eutychus would have been exercised on behalf of the
fallen.

Day succeeded day, the same hurricane wind, the
same black heavens above, the same boiling sea.

Where are we ? was the keen inquisition addressed

452 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

to every one of the crew. None could produce a single
piece of valid information. The ship was, however,
being blown westward, so far so good, Paul was con-
vinced it would continue to blow in that direction.
But foundering was the imminent danger. The timbers
were leaking. Food stores were already spoiled. It
was time to undergird the ship. Trapping-cables and
ropes were commonly used for storm emergencies, and
these equipments were disposed within and without
the bulwarks. Promptly all hands were engaged upon
the difficult and hazardous enterprise. The unloosing,
the conveying, the disposing and clinching the grip of
the cables round the hull of the large vessel must have
been a labour of no common difficulty, under the cir-
cumstances of perpetual blinding storm and discon-
certing wind. But partly water-logged as she was,
the ship would not ride easily, and they dreaded also
that the dreaded Syrtes would not give her draught
enough. The sands of the Sahara were carpeting the
floor of the South Mediterranean, for many miles of
northern Africa, and the capricious eminences they
raised and lowered could not be charted or known by
Pilots.

If exhausted and despairing men, and almost food-
less, too, were summoned to lighten the ship, the
nature of the cargo was some encouragement to perse-
vere, yet the chewed salt grain, taken with the bitter
reflection that the danger of famine was being added
to that of the sea, could not do much to hearten
them. There was no thought just then of sacrificing
the passengers' luggage, it was not considerable enough
to offer any bait. At all events Paul would weight
himself with his precious books and parchments,
spotted here and there by prison oil at Csesarea, and

THE VOYAGE HOMEWARDS 458

with olive oil of the house of Aquila, at Corinth, and
the Lecture Hall of Ephesus. In his oirdle was his
youthful essay, written in Arabia, when he compared
and studied the developments of the Levitical econ-
omy and perceived how exquisitely congruous it was
with the flower, the bud and the stem. Christ, Moses
and Abraham. This, he felt, the waves would spare,
and, at Rome, he should issue it as a last legacy to
his dear brethren of the Covenant.

The leaks are increasing. All hands again to cast
overboard the last of the ship's spare gear. '' Where
were they ? " none could say. And when Paul was
asked for an opinion, he was murnmring, "Melchiie-
dek ! " But raising himself, with his wonted courtesy,
he acquainted his interlocuter that he had some com-
forting news to impart. " Gather upon deck, I am
going to make known a message from Heaven."

Day after day had come with its tale of misery and
disheartenment, but Roman stoicism and Roman
obedience preserved among all ranks a dignified sub-
mission to the Powers above. They all looked upon
St. Paul, that to have him among them was the one
hopeful chance they possessed. So when on this
eventful day, when for several days neither sun nor
stars were seen and the terrific gale still harassed them
and the last ray of hope was vanishing, the news was
spread. " Paul has a message from Heaven, and will
tell it to all, when they have first partaken of some
food."

The morn was scarcely lighter than the night. The
long persisting beclouded sky had never broke for
weeks together, except to cheat half dead expectation.
It was the sky of the casual labourer, under perpetual
unemployment. But now, behold the altered faces !

454 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

" Paul has a message from Heaven to tell us." The
owner of the cargo was dragged, only half alive, to
hear it. They were gathered below, and above, every
now and again, the wash and swirl of breaking waves
pounded overhead.

" Sirs, you ought to have listened to me and not have
sailed from Crete, you would then have escaped this
suffering and loss. But now take courage, for there
will be no loss of life among you, but of the ship only.
For there stood by my side, last night, an Angel of
God, to whom I belong, and Whom I serve, and he
said, ' Fear, not, Paul, thou must be brought before
Ca'sar ; and God has granted you the lives of all who
are sailing with you.' Wherefore, Sirs, be of good
cheer, for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was
told me. Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain
island." Acts xxvii., 21-26.

The vessel had been hove to an angle with the
direction of the wind, her starboard side exposed to
the gale and the two great eyes, painted on the prow,
looking to the north. Thus she was slowly drifting,
certainly not away from Rome, but so slowly that her
speed was not greater than 36 miles in every 24 hours.
Leaving the first day of the fortnight's hurricane for
the work of being blown to Clauda and then laying to
and heaving up the boat, the thirteen following days,
exactly, brought the ship into Paul's Bay at Malta, in
the Mediterranean, under a north-easter, and not to
any Melida in the Adriatic before a south-wester— as
was vainly argued by Falconer and unwisely espoused
by Coleridge. The distance between Clauda and
Malta is less than 480 miles. The distance accom-
plished by the ship, under the unabated pressure of the
wind, would be 468 miles, a striking confirmation

THE VOYAGE HOMEWARDS 455

indeed ! " Adria," it must be remembered, was given
a designation far wider and further south than the
Gulf.

This was the fourteenth day of darkiiess and impend-
ing death. The " Fast," the great Fast of Expiation,
had been celebrated at the close of September. October
had come with a handful of gales and now cold rains
were persisting even unto November. No relief — but
the seamen on the look-out could discern an alteration
in the voices of the waves. They said to one another,
" Land is ahead." After such a long spell of wretched-
ness and hope deferred, most of the souls on board
were now indifferent as to their fate. Peace and rest
could at all events be found at the bottom. With
languid attention they heard that something was
ahead of them, but in the black darkness could not
tell what. Louder came the peculiar wash of the
waves breaking on a rocky shore.

"Heave the' lead "

Right 1 It is twenty fathoms.

" Heave again."

" Fifteen fathoms."

" We are lost."

" No ! You know what the Jewish prisoner said,
that not a hair of our heads would be lost. Notwith-
standing we should be stranded on a certain island."

Then plucking up a little heart, for fear of possibly
running on rocks, they threw four anchors from the
stern and waited for the day. The new-day was show-
ing its old face — a sickening repetition of blue, black,
scudding clouds, mixed on the under side with a streak
of sulphur— and the sickening of eternally bellowing
wind. Life was not worth living, and yet some foolish
and traitorous sailors were wanting to preserve it,

456 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

unbeknown to the rest. They were going ostensibly
to lay out two more anchors at the bow, and Paul was
apprised of it. He went up to Julius, and told him
the seamen must not leave. Julius acted at once.
Paul was the commander, and the soldiers were bidden
to cut the ropes and the boat was let fall off.

Now— this new danger avoided— Paul began to
animate the sunken souls under his pastoral care.
This is the fourteenth day, he urged, anxiously waiting
for the storm to cease and you have been fasting from
food and sleep, taking little per force of neither.
Naturally, you look ill and weak. You must take a
good hearty meal, for this is essential for your safety.
Remember, I have told you, not a hair will perish from
the head of any one of you. Having said this, he took
some bread and, after giving thanks to God for it, be-
before them all, he broke it in pieces and began to eat.
This raised the spirits of all. There were 276 of them,
crew and passengers all told, and, after a hearty meal,
they lightened the ship by throwing the remainder of
the wheat overboard.

*' The yellow sickly dawn now began to spread and
all tried in vain to recognise the coast, but an inlet
with a sandy beach attracted their attention, and now
their object was, if possible, to run the ship aground
there. So they cut away the anchors and left them
in the sea, unloosing at the same time the bands which
secured the paddle-rudders. Then hoisting the fore-
sail to the wind, they made for the beach. But com-
ing to a place where two seas met, they stranded the
ship, and her bow sticking fast, remained immovable,
while the stern began to go to pieces under the heavy
hammering of the sea." (Acts xxvii. 41. Wey-
mouth. )

THE VOYAGE HOMEWARDS 457

And the soldiers, being responsible for the prisoners,
a life for a life, gave counsel to kill the prisoners, lest
any of them should swim out and escape. But the
Centurion, desirous to save Paul, kept them from their
purpose, and commanded that they which could swim
should cast themselves first into the sea and get to
land, and the rest should follow as best they could by
help of such ship furniture and wreckage as was within
reach— and the beach was soon crowded to help, not
alone by the drenched saved ones, but also by many
of the natives, shouting out directions in a tongue
no one knew, and hence dubbed Barbarians, but
they discovered genuine humanity and in later years
put to shame those reputed Christian and civilized.

Behold then the sea dotted by human heads, now
\inder, now above, while each within sight of the
strand ; and yet life itself held at the seeming blind
capricious action of the toiling sea. Paul and Aristar-
chus and Luke likewise, all struggling within five min-
utes of eternity, and each and all predestined to be
saved. Aristarchus, Paul's convert and fellow-pri-
soner, silent and faithful man, does nothing of himself
to mark the page of history, only marks his cross.
During the voyage he was not singled out for favour,
as Paul invariably was, but nevertheless, the Lord is
grasping now the arms of Aristarchus, on the sore
place where the chains grated, and He is lifting up the
iead of his servant. The same Divine Rescuer is
supporting Luke— who will not say a word about him-
self, but holds out help to another prisoner. As for
Paul, the waves know him of old. Three shipwrecks
and a day and a night passed upon the deep, made him
no stranger. You must know that the sea is one and
yet divisible. The Eternal spoke to the sea before his

458 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

former shipwrecks and it kept His commandments.
So now the individual waves of the Great One and All
came racing one upon another to greet their old com-
panion. Rather exceeded in effusiveness, like romp-
ing grandchildren overpowering their relative in the
Christmas Hall. The waves kept dancing about Paul.
" We are to serve you," they said, " not to destroy.
But you have new scars since we saw you. You have
been wearing chains, how is that ? We are given in
charge to help you, wherever you may be. Don't
mind that black fellow behind. He is a Judas among
the disciples." Paul looks round and sees the reeling,
staggering, drunken wave laden with a false salutation,
drenching him high overhead, but the other waves
tripped Judas up and he rose no more, while the
Apostle felt his feet upon the rock, and he was reaching
out and helping up others to his own safe standing
place. There was a head in the offing, left alone..
Although the head seemed able to take care of itself,
Paul was anxious about this laggard. Luke was offer-
ing, when a pagan youth of the island, jabbering what
none could understand, anticipated any one else and
plunged into the serf. The head was now getting
nearer, and soon all recognised with a smile, Julius,
the gentleman, the last to leave the ship, who had
been searching for something that Paul valued and
had missed. He bore it triumphantly to his prisoner.
It was the Epistle to the Hebrews.

The sea of Adria had so well baptized the ship-
wrecked, that it was indeed a difficult thing to gather
dry stieks. It was practical piety that led idolaters
to keep perpetually burning a sacred fire. The fire
that was now being started under very discouraging
circumstances, was borrowed, perhaps, from some

THE VOYAGE HOMEWARDS 459

idol fire. It was worth the shipwreck to meet with
such genuine kindness at the hands of the Httle spot
which had its Roman Governor and was canopied by
the Empire. It was common for isolated islands,
even calling themselves Christian, to indulge in
making spoil from unfortunate seafarers who had
been wrecked. The Maltese, though strangers to the
Prophets or Apostles, had not been left without the
principles of natural religion, and they registered them-
selves as candidates for the Kingdom. *' The bar-
barous people showed us no little kindness : for they
kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of
the present rain and because of the cold." And when
Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on
the fire, there came a viper out of the heat and fastened
on his hand. The natives saw the creature hang-
ing to his hand, and said among themselves, ' No
doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he
hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to
live.' And he shook off the beast into the fire, and
felt no harm. Howbeit they looked when he should
have swollen : but after they had looked a great while,
and saw no harm come to him, they changed their
minds, and said he was a god." (Acts xxviii. 2 — 6,
A.V.)

Significant instances of the universal conscience
within the genus homo, and it is the pen of a physician
who records it. Observing and noting, though in
drenching garments, and the smoke is driven in gusts
into his face, the ship doctor is watching Paul and
the natives who are being much exercised in their
mind.

What a gulf is revealed by the untutored man be-
tween him who is so driven to speak of " unerring

460 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

justice " and the nearest beast whose bodily envelope
IS most comparable to his ! the supple ape and the
immature child of God, anchored to stable moral law.
What an appeal for missionary effort the world round !
The inquisitive natives were not wrong in their con-
<ilusion. Paul was endowed with gifts enabling him
to be a delegate of the Divine.

*' Now, in the same part of the island there were
^estates belonging to the governor, whose name was
Publius. He welcomed us to his house, and for three
days generously made us his guests. It happened,
Iiowever, that his father was lying ill of dysentery,
aggravated by attacks of fever. So Paul went to see
him, and after praying, laid his hands on him and
<;ured him. " By suggestion " (a member of the last
Church Congress opined), and " the Lord's miracles
were done in like manner.'* But what follows ?
'*' After this, all the other sick people in the island
ccame and were cured." (Acts xxviii. 7 — 9. Wey-
mouth.) Were all the patients equally susceptible to
suggestion, and were not the diseases diverse ? It
was because the natives recognised they had a Divine
man amongst them that " they honoured us with many
honours : and when we departed, they laded us with
rsuch things as were necessary." (Acts xxviii. 10.
A.V.) 276 persons. Gratitude indeed !

What long spells of intervals between clamorous
.calls for incessant activities the Apostle was favoured
with in the fine leisurely days of old ! The lengthy
rstays at Antioch, the eighteen months at Corinth, the
two or three years at Ephesus, best of all the two years
imprisonment in Csesarea and another similar privilege
•ahead, in Rome. These were the grand opportunities
of the Epistles. Prison walls were not a cage to the

THE VOYAGE ROMEWARDS 461

Apostle. They gave a '' liberty " such as in our
strenuous days we sigh for in vain.

Look at this pampered Paul, rolling in the lap of
luxury, by having to wait for no less than three months
before he can get on. He can actually see the sea, and
harken to the mute voices of nature. Busy enough,
indeed, with the delightful tasks of healing the sick,
giving Luke a complete furlough, and pouring into the
ears of the sufferers the wine and oil of the Gospel,
but bye and bye there was not a patient left !

To pour into the ears of the sufferers, the
wine and oil of the Gospel could not be administered
but inadequately, for the strange speech of the com-
mon people was unknown to the Christians. But one
lingo they had in full possession —the language of love^
and their hands coming to the rescue of their tongues,
and by significant signs pointing to " the blue Heavens
above them bent," the unconsidered natives began
their education in the Creed that " God is Love."
Full, then, of bodily health, but sadly wanting in a
complete knowledge of Divine truth, the natives were
left under God's tutelage.

The miraculous gift of tongues and dialects recog-
nised by the foreign visitors at Pentecost, began and
ended there and then. *' Tongues," imparted with
other gifts, through Apostolic hands, were not the
same, and needed to be interpreted. They were
" signs " for the Church, not media for the world.
Clearly, the ordained diversity of languages and races
were established for the training and perfecting of the
Ecclesia, and accomplishments in linguistic faculty
are by no means indispensable in missionary oper-
ations. The salvation of the world is not the true
objective, but the obedience of the Church. God has

462 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

long since put His hand to the work of universal
salvation, and His decrees cannnot fail. But the
judgment of the Church, that is what has to be appre-
hended. But here comes Aristarchus, silent, faithful
man, chained to the soldier that keeps him. And
with him Lucas.

" What are you doing, dear Paul, sitting on that
rock, and gazing into the sea ? "

With his divinely happy smile, Paul turns and
replies, " I was listening to the waves."

" And what did they say ? "

" They were repeating what I wrote to the Romans
from Corinth, ' Now to him that is of power to estab-
lish you according to my Gospel, and the preaching
of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the
mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.
But now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of
the Prophets, according to the Commandment of the
everlasting God, made known to all nations for the
obedience of faith : To God only wise, be glory
through Jesus Christ for ever, amen.' (Romans xvi.
25-27. A.V.)

" The sea caught the ascription and its waves go
rolling round the world, chanting it upon every coast.
Hark ! "

Paul had risen and Aristarchus and the soldier and
Luke were staring at him. " I have spoken to the
Sea," continued Paul, " and the Sea is faithful. I have
also given a message to the Air and it will not fail."

" Tell us ! " they said.

Then, raising his voice, and with uplifted arms, the
breezes kneeling down to hear it again, he quoted from
his letter to the Galatians, his motto for the Churches,
which is also his cheer to the world, " Finally, brethren

THE VOYAGE ROMEWARDS 463

farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one
mind, live in peace and the God of love and peace
shall be with you." (Gal. xiii. 11. A.V.)

" Waft ! waft ! ye winds the story,
" And you ye waters roll."

Then, after a silence, they heard a bugle call. Luke
began to speak : " What stories are wrapt up in the
breasts of those 200 soldiers ! One of them gave me
some snatches of his private history. It was quite a
romance. If we could only get a score of them and
interrogate them one by one, there would be enough to
occupy you, Paul, to last your life, in the way of apply-
ing truth, and illustrating it."

" Preach to them, Luke ! and you, Aristarchus,"
said Paul, and, if you are in a difficulty with gainsay ers,
ask me, and I am ready. But you know I have all the
care of the Churches and the interests of my children
are always engrossing my thoughts. I need much
prayers for them and for myself. I have been to the
crev/ of ' Castor and Pollux.' I shall take the sailors,
and do you keep to the soldiers."

Three long months, quite a holiday, in those old
days of leisure. Paul went marching about, with the
song of the sea and of the winds humming in his ears —
and meditating great things for Rome. Only one
circumstance troubled him— the veneration paid him
by the natives. Mindful of the wonderful miracles of
healing he had performed, the poor slaves and freed-
men persisted in dipping their foreheads in the dust
whenever he passed. He would take them courteously
by the hand, and point upwards to the sky. He had
neither women nor children to bother about, nor
telegram, telephones nor wireless demanding instant
attention, and Publius had frequent invitations.

464 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Three months and no newspapers ! Could life be
really supported ?— without wires ? What was Rome
doing ? What new High Priest was dipping his hand
into the treasury at Jerusalem ? These questions had
to wait, and Rhegium would furnish gossip or rumour.
Rumours quite as reliable as wires, for newspapers
must live, and to-day's news begets to-morrow's con-
tradictions. But now Malta had to bestir itself, for
Paul and his convoy were compelled to move on. The
supercargo of the " Castor and Pollux " was anxious
to get into the top price of the market. A winsome
south-easter began to blow. It was like the kiss of
the prince in the fairy tale. Malta awoke and all was
alive. The Chant du Depart was flung upon the breeze
and now everything was animation.

The soldiers, over the barrier of language, got quite
friendly with the natives, and both disclosed as many
endowments, peculiarities and deficiences, as the tints
and forms of the pebbles on the strand. The little
cultivators despoiled their little patches to make
offerings to their benefactors, of whom Paul was
facile princeps. He was the marvellous healer, and
much he deplored that he could not impart to them
the glorious Gospel as well. They brought small sweet
oranges and bags of wine, and those who had been
lame brought their crutches, as mementoes of their
cure. In an unguarded moment Paul, being a gentle-
man, accepted the crutches, and then, by an embar-
rassing impulse, other cured cripples ran back to their
hovels and brought theirs out to add to his treasures.
Pathetic was it to see little boys and girls running for
their crutches, for which they had now no further use.
Paul piled them in a corner, and wondered what he
should do with them. The art of navigation at that

THE VOYAGE HOMEWARDS 465

age did not require steam. He was compelled to
regard them as negligible quantities.

Barbarous people, indeed ! Castor and Pollux was
under weigh. She was standing out to sea, and all
the passengers crowding together to one side gave her
quite a list. One young woman was running down
the beach and getting into a shallop, and was paddling
furiously. She was assisted to the side and handed up
a little image— for Paul. She opened her arms, re-
jected by a gesture and pointed upwards.

That was the last. The black bulky crowd, com-
posed of souls, grew thinner and fainter, and became
a mere smear upon the glistening beach. Another
chapter of human history was closed, and, amid the
rattling of the shrouds, Paul heard the hymns of the
Waves and the Wind.

Everything in connection with the weather now
became as favourable as formerly it was contrary.
Syracuse was reached in half-a-day and the discharge
of cargo was hurried, but it occupied three days.
After Malta it seemed ungrateful to take much interest
in this once famous city, where Nicias played so tragic
a part, and Athenian ambition was so fatally rebuked.

We are not told that Julius permitted Paul to land.
Syracuse stood for calamity, Paul was in command
of an expedition, which meant the conquest of the
world. The wind obliged tacking at first and then
continued to blow the Apostle forward. Rhegium
came next. Busy place, opposite Messana, our Mes-
sina, and where mariners were frequently in jeopardy
between Scylla and Charybdis. And the twin gods.
Castor and Pollux, approximately patronised the
larger port. The ship was now going splendidly, the
cargo was put out with the greatest expedition, there

466 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

was money in the wind. The south wind was behind
the great sail and an immense portion of the journey
was aceompHshed in a single day. The smiling super-
cargo smilingly smacked Paul on the back, " How
goes it ? "

Paul's thoughts were far away from earthly gain.
His eyes seemed rivetted upon the long lovely length
of blue Salerno, but his mind was with his Church at
Ephesus, and he was meditating to write to it. So
when the supercargo's rough but kindly salutation
shook him, he simply replied, not altering his attitude,
*' Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is
this grace given that I should preach among the
Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ. (Ephesians
iii. 8. A.V.)

" Riches ! Riches ! Yes I you're right. We have
done near 200 miles, and we shall be the first of the
fleet of the grain ships."

Paul was not interested, but replied, " I, the
prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk
worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called."

" Who is he ? " said the supercargo to Julius, and
they talked long together under their breath. At the
end of which the merchant turned and looked at Paul
with new eyes and, moreover they became shaded, and
as he paced now slowly on the deck, he murmured to
himself, " Ah ! if my invalid daughter were here, the
prisoner of the Lord, laying his hands upon her, would
set her free."

Look, Paul, at gem-like Caprea ! Look also at the
vine clad slopes of Vesuvius, the Mount of Judgment,
that slumbered not and will bury Drusilla. The ship
winds towards Puteoli. At once a great hot hydro-
path, with aristocratic Baia looking down upon its

THE VOYAGE HOMEWARDS 467

commercial neighbour. They were the Bristol and
the Bath of ancient times.

Ere they landed, the scene must have been one of
the greatest animation. Fishermen, trading ships
and numerous yachts of the luxurious aristocrats
dotted the expanse of the then tranquil waters.
Looking down the bases of the seventeen piers of the
mole, where the lighthouse stood, one could see the
fish playing with the sea weed and catching the scum
that was overthrown from the merchantmen there
moored. But it was the components of the crowd
upon the mole that arrested Paul ; Jews, by their
dress and faces ; and many of them unexpectedly he
discovered to be Christians. How cheered was the
Apostle's heart ! He was very susceptible of attrac-
tions and repulsions. Before they spoke ; from the
tender brightness of their eyes, he made up to them
and found that he was right.

" How long can you stay ? We earnestly desired
to see the author of the Epistle to the Romans. But
to come in chains ! "

Paul repeated what he had written. " Who shall
separate us from the Love of Christ ? Shall tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or .nakedness, or
peril, or sword ? Nay, in all these things we are more
than conquerors through him that loved us." (Rom.
viii. 35—37. A.V.) " Is Phoebe here ? Are Aquila
and Priscilla at Rome ? " a multitude of other ques-
tions.

" You must get permission to stay and we will tell
you all we know."

Julius had his marching orders, but true to his cour-
teous spirit, he considered how he could comply with
the demands of imperial duty and, at the same time,

468 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

gratify Paul and his friends. He succumbed, and
awarded a seven days' stay. And while the Recording
Angel was beginning to write his name in the Book of
Life, they were all together with great joy, knotted
upon the mole, concerting plans for a meeting for
worship and a breaking of bread.

The Imperial Post took messages to Rome that day,
and it was suggested that delegates from each Church
should meet at Appii Forum In the midst of the
group, heads bent together, the supercargo broke into
the circle to address Paul. He asked prayer on behalf
of his sick daughter at Alexandria, same time thrusting
some handsome coins— a funny mixture. Coins of
Syracuse and Rhegium, cum midti allis, into Paul's
hands.

" For your daughter, yes 1 but for me, no," said
the Apostle.

Then the merchant pressed him, and Paul said,
" I will take it for the poor at Jerusalem."

The supercargo replied in Greek, the translation of
which in English meant, " Right you are ! " and
vanished, not into space, but to a very crowded
market.

It was a blessed season— hearts were refreshed,
and understandings were informed and opened,
and the gathering was augmented by several recruits.
Ere the march commenced upon the Campanian
Way leading to Capua and the Appian Way, Paul
gave his farewell in almost the words of his Epistle.
" I am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also
are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able
also to admonish one another. Nevertheless, brethren,
I have written the more boldly unto you in some

THE VOYAGE ROMEWARDS 4B0

sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace
that is given to me of God " (Romans xv. 14-15,
A.V.).

Busy roads ! Senators, invalids, gay youths,
palanquins and family coaches thronged the way,
sumpter mules and oxen heavily laden. By-and-bye
the traffic became thinner and on the left the heavy
pine woods, often infested by banditti, disclosed blue
openings, framed in blackest shade. Tombs, with
grateful mention of slaves by masters (domestic
slavery, not prsedial, had many redeeming features,
Epictetus to wit). Tombs that were to be subsequently
rifled, while beneath the soil were stores of Etruscan
vases ; evidently Capua was a Stoke-upon-Trent,
with a difference— when unearthed ; they made
Wedgwood and Flaxman busy in England. Bright,
broad and rapid, Volturno sweeps round the ancient
walls of Capua, once a rival to Rome in size and
splendour. Tramp ! Tramp ! Where is Aristarchus
and where is the Doctor ? As usual we cannot find
them. They are so modest. Julius and Paul are
walking together. " Oh ! there they are ! " Luke
is ministering to a soldier who is lame, while Aris-
tarchus seems— in Heaven. Look, Aristarchus!
over the parapets of the bridge. There is Heaven
below as well as above. Tramp ! Tramp ! The
willows are beginning to smile in green, but snows
linger in the higher hills.

At length the concourse came upon a region
which was the despair of engineers, ancient and
modern, the Pomptine Marshes. Once a sea gulf,
then clogged with allivium, making lagoons between
low parallel downs. Successive schemes were at-
tempted to drain it, and as often ultimately abandoned.

470 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

and when Rome was no more the mistress of the
world, the road of Appius Claudius became sub-
merged, and only when Popes succeeded Caesars did
modern engineers resume the task. Perhaps some
Kensitite might cherish the faith that Popes never
did any good in the world, nevertheless it is historical
that it was a Pius who in 1777 saw the piers, arches
and bridges of Appius Claudius begin to peep above the
miasmatic sea. For nearly sixteen years he prosecuted
that most laudable undertaking, rescuing thousands
of acres of the most fertile soil in the world, '' peopled "
with cattle and crops, but unpeopled of men. And
accomplished it with such economy that the seven to
eight thousand men employed could not have been
paid more than 6d. per day— cheaper, perhaps, than
Roman slavery. It only cost the Papal Treasury
£360,000, but what cost in human lives through early
graves by malaria ! Let us pay our tribute to the
labourers who did it, rather than to the Pope who
simply ordered it. But here is Appii Forum and the
southern end of the canal which gave Horace some
amusement. Julius had the option of barging his
convoy for 14 miles. We cannot say what he did ;
no doubt he gave facilities before the next start was
made for the Christians from Rome to exchange
greetings with those of Puteoli, and to rejoice to-
gether for having the celebrated author of the Epistle
to the Romans among them. It was an engrossing
subject, the wondrous, the marvellous, the unheard of
thing, the extension of God's free favour and rich
bounty o'erleaping the boundaries of descent from
Abraham, and recognising the uncircumcised as heirs !
It was turning the world upside down. And the
miracle of Love and Renunciation was done bv a

THE VOYAGE HOMEWARDS 471

Jew Himself ! He did not think it was a thing to
be grasped at to be a Son of Abraham, but to be the
Son of Man ! The stupendous Revelation seduced
and drowned the newly enlightened in glorious
contemplations, and interspersed with the objects of
faith were solicitous enquiries about the dear Christ-
ians whom Paul was hoping to meet. Where was
Mary ? Could she not come ? Epenetus, is he still
holding on ? What about Amplius, Urbane and
Stachys ? I need not ask about Andronicus and
Junia. I heard that their fidelity has brought them
to be imprisoned again. Ah 1 here is beloved Persis,
" which laboured much in the Lord." '' Come along,
brother." Persis and Paul are locked together. It
made the way so light. Then there were enquiries
from the Church at Rome, after beloved Timotheus
and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater. Tell us
about Tertius, and Gains and Erastus. And who is
Quartus. We don't know him. Paul said he is
" a brother." But now the roads that all lead to
Rome became so crowded that at the Three Taverns
intimate conversation had to be suspended. It
afforded, however, opportunity for Aristarchus to
be drawn out of his shell. Paul brought Persis to him,
and left them together.

Everybody was searching for Luke, but the mystery
was cleared up when it became known that several
soldiers had to fall out of the ranks, and in a waggon
Luke was busy with his medicine chest. None of the
walkers, although talkers, felt any weariness. And,
to add to the happiness of the hour, another contin-
gent had come from Rome to greet the Asiatic
Church. Then was Paul overjoyed. '' When he saw
the Brethren, he thanked God and took courage."

472 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Volscian Hills on the right, behind them northwards
the Sabine Mountains. But immediately before them
the southern spur of the Alban Hills. The cavalcade
began to climb as the Appian Way ascended. Then
it descended until Aricia stood upon the second slope.
The beggars of Rome had made Aricia a chief colony,
for Pagans recognised that tolls to the needy were
commendable. But strange ! no altar, no temple, no
statue to charity ! Did each individual " idolater "
know that he carried all three in his own breast ?
Another small climb and from the summit Rome
sprawled upon the Campagna, and Paul arrested
his steps. Many stopped with him. The great
centre of the Empire was extending its tentacles
until they almost embraced the villas of the wealthy
on the slopes. But it was no Tarrantula, no Octopus,
entirely. Although its representatives were given to
legal plunder of the provincials, they established a
reverence for Law, and the roads that met at the
Forum and radiated thence to the known world,
were not merely an immense iron web, in whic h to
catch and bleed strange tribes : it was a complex
girder which bonded together families of nations,
where everywhere ostensibly, if not really, the Roman
official sprinkled incense upon the Altar of Justice.

Marked and significant was the absence of lofty
erections breaking the general flat level of the many
storied lodging houses. The Pantheon with its
cupola was not considerable, and its one blue eye,
open to the sky and set in the centre of its head,
was not surmounted by any campanilla.

It was Christianity that taught architecture to
aspire. To tower above inferior things. To soar
towards the illimitable spaces and above the mists

THE VOYAGE HOMEWARDS 473

and vapours to which impurity imparted odours.
Above all the Gothic spire, springing from the basal
■cross, gave its unmistakable proclamation that the
•spirit of the cross had beautified man's present dwelling
places and pointed him to the '' building not made
with hands."

The road was getting more crowded, posts and prae-
tors, legionaries on the march, processions to and from
the temples. Funerals to the vaults of noted families,
which tombs had no hopeful hieroglyphic, like the fish*
-figured upon those of the Christians in the Catacombs.
Horsemen, tradesmen, carriers, palanquins, coaches,
labourers, slaves and scented Exquisities. Droves
of oxen and sheep, and the varieties of costume
indicated the many nations to which Rome was
-subject, and with which she traded. Now, come at
length to Rome, the company had to pass under the
Porta Capina, over which was an Aqueduct, and its
constant dripping baptized the passengers indiscrimin-
ately, or rightly had need to weep over most of
them.

On they went between the mounds styled " hills,"
•of the Aventine on the left and the Palatine on the
right, winding round the latter and ultimately desc end-
ing to the sacred Forum. Overlooking it on the Capito-
hne was Caesar's house, the palace, attached to which
was the barrack of the Pratorian guard, of whom
Burrus was Prefect. To this official, whose duty it
was to keep in custody all accused persons who were
to be tried before the Emperor, Julius handed over
Paul. Rome thus and then receiving its greatest con-
queror—the conqueror of the modern world. The
<;apital becoming the greatest Jewel Case, containing

* IxOv'S (fish) 'lrjcrov<i XptcrTos Oeov Ytd? I^curvyp.
Jesus Christ God's Son, Saviour.

474 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

a gem which was to sparkle and ghtter for two years
in captivity.

Paul, although chained to a soldier that kept him,
was permitted by special favour to receive his friends
at his own hired house. A domicile large enough to
accommodate gatherings of the Christians and to hold
discussions with the unconverted Jews. This was a
service to the great cause of immense value— not alone
to the enquirers, but also to Paul himself. It is sup-
posed that when he was liberated after his trial before
Nero (and the tyrant had at that time shown no dis-
position to shirk the responsibility of his position ; for
he had insisted that each charge should be dealt with
separately and not merged into one general accu-
sation). Nero, we say, was not speeding down the
path which ultimately made for himself a name at
which the world grew pale. He had acquitted the
Apostle and without any recording companion, Paul
resumed his missionary enterprises. The personal
subjection to a soldier was, indeed, a bitter feature in
his bondage, but are we to suppose that all his military
hostages were of a coarse and brutal type ? It is not
to be imagined that to be linked to the greatest of the
Apostles had no refinhig and exalting influence. It
may be deemed certain that several of the troopers
became Christians and, that in the praetorian barrack
Christian hymns w^ere frequently raised and Christ
Himself chained Himself to the soldiers who upheld
the standard of the Cross and were ready to war and
die for their Lord's Kingdom.

It w^as thus nurtured by constant disputations with
the factious Jews and being given long periods for
meditation, prayer and study, the Apostle rose to the
highest flights of inspired exposition of the Gospel

THE VOYAGE ROMEWARDS 475

that had been committed to him. In the course of
the first year of his imprisonment at Rome, he wrote
two Epistles, alUed in treatment, which stand at the
summit of his Christian revelations, that to the
Ephesians and that to the Colossians. At the close
of the year he wrote to the Philippians, likewise the
precious letter to Philemon.

The first year of his freedom he hies away again to
his beloved Macedonia and Asia Minor. Then he is lost
to us, so far as Epistles can trace him, for some three
years. Did he carry out his project to visit Spain ?

It seems to me he most likely did. No man to
>vhom has been given a Divine commission can lightly
disregard intimations and impulses towards future
activities in definite places without keeping in view
and arranging for their realization. I don't think
Paul's intention was baulked. It is pleasing to ima-
gine that the seed that was sown by Paul's labours in
Spain are predestined to attain to a harvest, larger
and better than under Papal supremacy has yet been
achieved. Pauline theology is being revived in the
Peninsula. It is supposed that the Apostle spent
no less than two years there.

A thrilling second volume of the Acts awaits dis-
covery. It is not impossible that in the dispossessing
of the vast number of monastic libraries in Spain and
Portugal some manuscript may turn up which may
repay our sacred curiosity and add a weapon to the
armoury for Christian defence. Paul would return
from Spain feebler in body, and meantime the master
of the Roman world was getting worse. The pending
shadow of his approaching martyrdom was upon him.
From Macedonia he writes to Timothy and from
Ephesus to Titus. Then winter at Nicopolis.

476 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

These previous five years are largely suppositions.
And how and why Paul was sent again to Rome no
valid document asserts. It is generally agreed that
in the spring of 68, A.D., Paul was, for the stcond
time, in prison at Rome, and from thence he wrote his
second Epistle to Timothy. In the same year, mid-
summer, the aged Apostle bent his head in adoration
for all the grace and favour the Lord of Life had given
him and Nero's axe silenced the Apostle's voice for
ever. The tyrant himself was to be hurried to the
shades below, while the martyr was basking in the
Light of his Lord's joy.

Let none suppose that the unrecorded years that
elapsed after Luke's pen was stayed are not even now
operative in inspiring the Christian Church. We
know now how to reproduce casual speech and song,
and how the most incidental action can be recorded
for all time. Are not the arial envelopes of the world
endowed with qualities enabling them to register
all words and all scenes ? Cannot the ^Ether and the
Atmosphere together act as great films which hold
the Registers of all lives and their acting situations ?
And not influence alone either eye or ear, or both ;
but enter the brain and soul and unconsciously give
us repetitions of Paul's revelations and cause to be
reproduced in other climes and times and by other
agents, the successes, the fervours, the Divine un-
foldings of the Great Evangel, of which no Luke has
given us the record. It is my faith that the last five
years of St. Paul, of which we have no published
accounts, are not lost in the invisible Library of the
world's gaseous girdle. A highland minister in the
lonely manse of a lonely island in Northern Seas,
unconsciously receives spiritual enlightenment and

THE VOYAGE ROMEWx\RDS 477

impulse from some glorious proclamation of the
Gospel uttered in A.D. 65 under the sunny skies of
Spain. Paul's body— we know not where it lies,
but his soul lives on for ever and for ever, and all he
said and did, and all his prayers and all that the Holy
Spirit moved him to declare, is an imperishable
treasure to the world and to the Church, though not
preserved by any parchments or by books. The same
is true of all individual lives, bad and good. The
planet's raiment is clean or soiled, is sweetened or
made melodious by every generation, according to
its moral manifestation. The old world swings round
upon its orbit, with baleful or blessed pulsations
beating within its inconspicuous vibrations. To-
day the heathen nations are owning to its sway. The
Christian Ages have been storing energy and without
Pioneer Missionary. Natives in Korea, China, India
and Africa are moved to listen to the strange whisper-
ings to their souls coming as from the viewless air,
disposing them to listen to, and to accord a welcome
to, the messages of God's love in Christ.

In very truth the Judgment Books of the World
are bound around its body. It is as easy to open the
Judgment Books as to flash a living scene upon the
sheet of a cinematograph theatre. All indictments,
and all acquittals, are within them. And all the
destinies of all men are already prepared to be pro-
nounced and unerringly fulfilled. " No man liveth
to himself and no man dieth to himself." Our passing
Day of Life is charged with influence upon all future
generations. God be thanked that the House of
Humanity can be upheld by the weakest of His
children, God be prayed that within its atmosphere no
hurtful utterance of ours may lower its healthfulness.

478 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Amid the great Auditorium of the World, where
the voices of men re-echo for ever ; and Angels and
Archangels contend with the Devil for the mastery of
the fainting Body of Humanity : Let him who
sides with God speak for Paul with bated breath
and ardent admiration. Rally his own waning spirit
and those of the true Paulicians of to-day : until
He shall come in the air, with all His saints, before
WTiom the hosts of Hell will flee and Humanity will
stand erect again, radiant and glad, to breathe the
iresh air of God's new Kingdom, at the Dawn of the
Ages to come.

FINIS.

THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

Appendix (A).

ON MIRACLES.

Miracles are not antecedently improbal)le. The common objection
against them is that natural laws are the expression of God's Will
and that Will is fixed and unalterable dui'ing the term of the existence
of the Universe.

Here are two grand assumptions, having no foundation : (a) That
God's Will, once declared, is unchangeable ; (b) That any alteration
of God's Will in regard to matter or spirit, in any portion of the whole
creation, would endanger, if not destroy the Cosmos.

Is that capable of proof ? And ie» it irrational to suppose that God's
Will is so impressed upon matter and spirit that in the action of
normal law there is a degree of elasticity, admitting of suspensions of
normal action and admitting even of coiitradicfcioiis, without entailing
evil consequences to the integrity and the phenomenal continuity
of the general order ?

\\'hy are these two grand aspumptions to go unchallenged ? Omnis-
cience alone could aver that it is irrational to question them.

And for this reason principally, that the Will of the Creator must
be related to man's will. Man's will is free, and Man is a creator, sub-
ordinately. And although in regard to matter, his creations are only
effected by ascertaining the laws of matter and using that knowledge
to bring into being what phenominally never previously occurred, yet
he is a creator and can achieve ends by more than one means.

Is it rational to suppose that the Great Original is less capable of
manifesting an altered will or choice than mortal man — his puny
imitator ?

Again, if man's will ia confined by the laws imposed by the Creator
at the beginning, man is not only free to ask Him to work in opposition
to them, but even irivites his creatures to do so.

If we are enjoined to pray, and for things which demand an inter-
ference with natural law, then the whole question is won for miracles.
Does God tell us to expect answers to prayer ; as Jesus did, before He
bade Lazarus arise from the dead ? Was His prayer answered or
not ?* Are we not enjoined to imitate Jesus in the matter of our
prayers and to expect the same answers ? Did not the Apostles
imitate Jesus as in the parallel Ccise of Lazarus ? And did not Peter and
Paul receive the Jesus' answer ?

The whole reply to the foregoing is that no historical testimony
is to be relied upon which relates miracles. If that be so, then the
whole foundations of our Lord's words and deeds, the things by

• Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And
Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me.
And I knew that Thou hearest me always : but because of the people which stand
by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast nent me. And when He thus
had spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, Come forth. And he Uiat was
dead came forth.— (John ii., 41-44).

480 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL.

which His nature and character can be discovered and all His declara-
tions perish along with the recorded miracles. We are left without
even warrant for His actual appearance, as a part of authentic history.
The whole thing is a gigantic fraud upon human credulity. The sub-
lime creation and career of Christendom was due to the Father of
Lies !

*' John did no miracle, but all things that John spake of this man
were true" (John x. 41).

There was the greatest possible incentive to attribute to John
Baptist, miracles, on the part of his faithful disciples, if they
could trulv affirm them. But Truth forbad it. No one of John
Baptist's disciples did venture to declare that his Master was equally
divine with Jesus. And it is this St. John who was made a \\atnes3
of the miraculous descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus at His baptism.
The want of miracles in John Baptist's case is the best support of
Jesus' claim to have done them.

The crowTiing miracle of our Blessed Lord is, of course. His Resur-
rection, according to His own predictions. But all that is now relegated
to the realm of mendacious fiction. And yet the same writers who
record the sermon on the Mount and the parables are credited with
having transmitted faithfully all the Divine morality, separable from
the " signs and wonders," and the Church agrees that the " .-layings "
have the sanction of Divine Authority. It is only when the Evangel-
ists testify that they ate and drank with their Lord, and walked and
talked with Him after He had risen from the dead, that certain
Anglican Canons now toll the Church that they denied Truth and
consequently denied Christ. Of what trustworthiness are the ethical
contents of the Gospels, and of what authority, when the writers of
them are to be critically pronounced either fools or false-swearers?
But from this School of foolhardy criticism a recent utterance
betrays disquietude. Dumb stones have risen from their graves to
rebuke the madness of the Professors. I-lorcnt Archaeologia Sacra !

Consider the Will of God as compared with man's. The one finite*
.ae other infinite. What is to be expected from the exercise of God's
freedom 7 If a man is free, is God bound ami limited ? Ask yourselves
as rational creatures. Is He less capable of working His Will than His
creatures ? In respect of both matter, and mind, and spirit, does
He not sway the mind and enlighten the s|)irit, and impart to it
spiritual power and grace, and cannot the same God act upon matter,
without contradicting Himself ?

The Will of God to save man cannot be withstood. That good Will
cannot be frustrated. What human examples have we in history,
making history by the strength of it ! But the human will opposing
the Divine makes tragedy, created human wills arrayed against God
is God's sport. The Divine determinations will operate, without
nullifying human responsil>ility in the lea.st. Only enough freedom
being left to bring in man guilty and to convince him that grace must
reign.

Lastlv — Man is not the final product of created life upon this planet.
It is quite irrational to conclude that no further asrent is yet to be
made bv the gentis Homo up to a new species. The common attack
upon miracles is founded upon the testimony of five senses, but
Christians po sess a sixth sense — a supernatural gift, which absolutely
prevenrs them from disbelieving in the Christian Revelation and the
ministry of the Spirit. The sixth sense that certain men possess is
a spiritvial, invisible eye, seated in their souls and by that eye they
see truth and know God. It is perfectly useless to argue with the men
who have only five senses. All true Christians have six.

the

THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL 481

Glimpses of the furlh t asnmt of iijan were given in Apostolic days,
just as riiclimentary organs anioiig the inferior creation give proj)hecies
of the perf<Htii>n they were to attain in liu inanity. The crities talk
about our " present knowledge," they t)ught to use the phrase " our
present ignorance." The Apostolic days had a much higher science.
Let them look back and not forward. But that man as man is at
present at the top of the scale and may not hope to make an interval
not less than now separates man from the monkey is most unreason-
able. Why shoidd he not hope to become possessed of Angelic powers —
under the (iospel Hope of the Resurrection ? A superman upon the
old home of })robation, but then purified and regenerated. Not a
new man after the Nitchse pattern, but a Heavenly one. The superman
will not alone have six senses, but a seventh, an eighth, and a ninth
iUuing his further evolution, and all of them enjoyed in vastly greater
perfection than ever were displayed in our present mortal existence.
Where, then, would be the validity of the testimony of men possessing
only five senses to contradict the possibility of the miracles, recorded
))y the Evangelists and Apostles, as parts of the revealed testimony
to Jesus and Hi» Resm*rection?

Appendix (B).
towards a new philosophy.

It is strange that the Church should have thought at all of philosophy,
after the sole true, sufficient and satisfying philosophy had beea
given to the world in the Christian Revelation. Yet St. Thomas
Aquinas spent his life in reconciling Aristotle with Christ and sancti-
fied that barrenest of all intellectual exercises, the philosophy of the
schoolmen.

It was, however, inevitable after the splendid achievements of the
Greeks that metaphysical speculation should continue to survive,.
n(jtwithstanding that the riddle of the Unvierse had been answered
in the only way in which it can be answered.

For the human mind having been pushed to great exploits, without
the help and guidance of the Christian Revelation, the memory and
tendency of it could not be eradicated. For mind in the human race
is one — flows over to subsequent generations and to all lands ; and
from the general stock, new philosophers are bound to appear and
re-appear, with such modifications as the new knowledge and the new
experiences of mankind suggest.

Not, however, without the aid of the Christian Revelation can
anything of real value be evolved. It must be granted, once for all,
that the creation of the Universe had a moral end. That the exhibition
of power and wisdom was not its chief end, nor benevolence, apart
from the sanction and promotion of moral ends. It is blind groping
after unattainal)le truth without the philosophy of the Christian
Revelation.

That there is a living and active personality at the back of phenom-
ena must l)e recognised as axiomatic ; and any apparent contradic-
tions to it must l)e left for resolution from a more perfect imder-
standing of l)oth the Revelations — the C'hristian and the Natural, with
the addition of the human consciousness, conformal)le to both»
which bears its independent moral witness.

482 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

What is wanting is a better understanding of the method of God's
^manner of revealing His character to His human children. They are
only children, and require to be taught the Truth by an exhibition of
its opposite. That is as old as Pedagogues. To know holiness, sin
must rule. To know health, it is required to know sickness. The
blessedness of obedience is best taught by the bitterness of its
opposite, as well as by its legitimate and formal punishment. Th\is
did God frame the world and made its laws to harmonise with the
consequences of moral obedience and disobedience. Creation had
no other purpose but to show the glory of God in the advancing glory
■of man, and all other and higher intelligences. Now power and wisdom
3n the author of creation, need no ratiocination to affirm them in the
highest degree under the present scheme, but the attributes of holiness
-and benevolence are grievously wanting in convincing evidences.
So much so that although the light given to every man, being darkened,
led the Pagan nations to refer to the examples in Nature as authorising
their vices. Much may V)e tendered on behalf in mitigation of their
■error. Why is the voice of Nature so discordant with a priori expecta-
tions, and in conflict with the moral Antness in consciousness, and
especially so in contrast with the character of God as disclosed in the
Christian Revelation ?

I venture to suggest that the key to the problem is to be discovered
by recognising that God's method of revealing Himself was by giving
impressive examples of the contrary qualities and conduct which he
requires from His human children, and that His own character is
paradoxically completely veiled in creation, and He is found con-
gruously and certainly only, outside of nature and within only the
Christian Revelation and man's own soul.

It is surely needless to offer evidences of this. If we were confined
"to what Nature gave us to copy, we should worship the Devil and
become devils. It is in denying almost every natural voice that we
become Saints.

Let us, then, begin with becoming joy and thankfulness to learn how
to interpret the not inscrutable scheme of the Universe. The law of
its interpretation is to understand every positive by its negative, and
•every negative by its positive in God.

Take the Fatherhood of God, which is the priceless Revelation of
Jesus Christ. Natural science reveals that the progenitors of the
race were thrown upon the world without the smallest consideration
for their protection and exposed to inevitable suffering and untimely
ends for no other reason that they were not brutal enough. " Kill
or be killed " was the password among the trembling garrison that
occupied the outposts of the great Army that was to follow. They
were driven to the monkeys on the tree -tops or built among the
meres higher than the reeds. And from their escalades they beheld
their sustenance covered, or seeking mountain caves, beasts were
before them, while if haply first to arrive, the carniverous monsters
usbsequently and easily disposed of their pretensions to afford
vthem food and shelter.

That was God's Fatherhood in the introduction of the race upon the
>«arth and the means by which its physique slowly improved and its
mind was quickened.

By contrast, let us step into one of our splendid elementary schools
— the infant department. A real municipal father is there. For the
poor, free meals are provided with inspected milk, kindergarten
delights, toys, musical drill and infant gymnastic exercises, giving
■'to every child of the working classes, together with free education, a
;period of such happiness for the child and such advantage for the

THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL 483^

charing mother, that nothing in the world can compare with it in
beneficence, if only the teaching of the Christian revelation, which,
inspired the whole, be not banished.

What can we make of the sort of education provided for the childrea
of men by the author of creation ? They were driven to become
experts in mutual destruction, and what was at first necessary became
a master passion. War, universal war, exemplified in every species
of animal, and by a banquet of blood and lust the balance of animated
nature must be preserved.

That being so, the author of creation being also the Author of the-
Christian Revelation, the irreconcilable has to be reconciled. God.
has undertaken to manifest what -God is, by what He is not. There
is no am})iguity when once the method is understood.

And the lessons are not confined to the inhabitants of this planet.
Even the angels have much to learn, from us : but still more from,
reversing the apparent teaching of the natural order.

The Lacedoemonians, made their helots drunk in order to warn their
children against insobriety. This world, in common with all the
habitable worlds in sj^ace, furnishes innumerable impressive examples
of contrasts and contradictions to the real character and designs of
the Supreme. Leading the Hosts of Heaven, He might invite them
to study moral beauty in its opposite, and behold in the universal
banquet of blood and lust the assured fulfilment of those prophecies
in the Old and New Testaments, which foretell the entire overthrow
of the present order, and the introduction of a new Heaven and a new
Earth, in which the old shall have no place and shall no longer come
into mind.

The present constitution of the Cosmos is provisional, not eternaL
All is in a state of flux, change and progress towards a greater perfec-
tion. It is not fixed, unchangeable and final. The infinite whole
palpitates in every portion of it with kinetic energy, with attractiona
and repulsions, but obeying a never ceasing law of greater glory
towards an ever receding finality. There is only one thing fixed,,
unchangeable and unalterable, because it is perfect, and that is the
holy and goodwill of the Author of the Cosmos. The ceaseless energies
of the interpenetrable and mutually assisting spheres of matter and
spirit are driven by that : not by a non-moral first cause, not an.
impersonal force, but by St. Paul of Tarsus' own dear Redeemer.

It is for want of recognising this everlasting progress, spirally,,
that theologians and moralists have erred, seeking to find Divine
authoritatives in Nature and Revelation, when the Divine Author of
Nature only subtends it because it is provisional, and as to Revelation
has developed it from patriarchal to Hebrew, and from Hebrew to the
Christian dispensation — each a contrast to the former. What con-
trast can be greater than the Levitical Economy and the glorious
freedom of the Gospel. To enjoy the latter and to understand its
implications, none could fully know, but one who had sat at the feet of
Gamaliel. But yet the Jewish fribble foreshadowed the better things,
to come, though only whose spiritual perceptions were kept alive
by desire perceived that it must be preparatory merely.

For want of recognising that God teaches by contrasts in Nature,,
and in Revelations by slowly broadening light, making earlier develop-
ments dark by comparison — for want of that, reverent students of
Scripture have found sanction for modern practice in the action of
servants of God during the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel, and would
build up creeds from isolated texts, applicable and appropriate only
to people under circumstances and in times that are long past for
ever — so we find the gold of the eternal Gospel present in quantitiea

484 THE NEW LIFE OF ST. PAUL

of unrefined ore in the old dispensation, and need to essay it by the
test of the modern reign of the Holy Spirit in the spiritual consciouse
ness, and not by the earlier Revelation of ancient date.

And as for unregenerate Nature, which so far, has remained un-
changed, we require to interpret it in terms of God's opposite. Science
is the new God of modern civilisation. This is the new Saviour which
is alone worth trusting to. And yet the worshippers of this god never
knew a moment of careless happiness and are weighted with appre-
hensions lest their scientire defences may be imperfect. If they knew
nothing except that they knew themselves to be the children of God
they would slip their chains of fear in a moment. But that means the
Christian, not the natural Revelation. The world is now wiser, and
agrees to pooh ! pooh ! the Revelation of Jesus Christ, ^ye have
harnessed the elements and can do anything almost, except to rejoice
in hope of Eternal Life. The great aim now in our educational systems
is to torture Nature and compel her to yield up her secrets, and c(uite
naturally the world is told that it has found no God, only processes
and powers. Hence we give, without debate, science teaching, and
"to children Nature study, whereby by help of microscopes biology
will testify that the author of Nature was possessed of an unclean
mind and no conscience at all. Let the children be left in ignorance
of everything beneath the surface. Let them see the little gold in the
mass of ugly rock — the parental solicitude and the sacrifices made
for the young in the animal world — but when that short piece of gold
■thread has been displayed, and to pursue it is to be drawn into caves
where God's opposite like owls sit inscrutable and hateful, let the
lesson be closed, and organic Nature be investigated no further, except
for contrasts with the Holy and Loving Creator. Inorganic Nature
may be explored to any extent, although even that is not incapable of
rewarding its worshippers by treachery and assassination.

We need, then, a new Philosophy, recognising that the Cosmos is
by inherent constitution tending to change, and that in making deduc-
tions from its present order, as though it were final, conclusions as to
its Eternal and Unchangeable Author must be erroneous.

The complete irreconciliability of the Revelations of the material
Universe with the moral witness borne by the Christian Revelation,
and with the spiritual consciencenoss of the human soul, await a key
"to the understanding of God in phenomena and God in history.

AVe have suggested that God teaches by contrasts. That there
is a soul of Good in all Evil, and that it bears within it the potency and
prophecy of future Good.

Under these suggestions much obscuration of the Divine glory of
the Providential Ruler of human lives is taken away. Calamitous
•events become charged with compensations and the victims of them
are seen so placed as to be given assurances of resolution to an
opposite fate.

If the greater portion of the human family are doomed to simply
bear with what fortitude they can summon, inescapable evils, want
of food, and denied the knowledge of truth — all that is provisional.
It is the preparatory experience which will render its destined con-
trast more cherished and more lasting. But the grounds of such a
Philosophy would have no basis apart from faith in the Christian
Revelation. It is there and there alone that every Night is seen to
■Jjear the Morning in its arms.*;

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1 1012 01249 5018

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PRINTED

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