But when Saul spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians, they went about to slay him. Still he addressed himself more especially to these Hellenists or Jews of the Dispersion. He was a Hellenist himself, and the only one of the Apostles who was well versed in Greek literature, and it was natural for him to select this field for his vineyard. It was the Feast of the Passover, and Jerusalem was filled with strangers from the remotest regions, "Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judæa, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes." All the while, however, it was still his practice to conform to the observance of the Jewish law, and to pray daily in the temple. While he was thus engaged, it came to pass, that even while he prayed in the temple, he saw his Master saying unto him, "Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee: and when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles." When afterwards detailing his sufferings for the Gospel of Christ to the Corinthians (2 Cor. xi. xii.), having mentioned how he escaped the hands of the governor of Damascus, by being let down through the window by the wall in a basket, he adds, "It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the

H

body, I cannot tell: God knoweth ;) how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." Thus it would Thus it would appear that God made upon this, the most important turning point of St. Paul's ministry, the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of that wrath he restrained, and he also made these sublime visions, as detailed by the Apostle, subservient to the same great purpose in hand, namely, that of driving his new servant forth from Jerusalem to propagate the Gospel among isles afar off. We shall now see the conduct of this faithful servant of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in a new and different character from that in which he has hitherto been exhibited. Before adopting his new name of St. Paul, and following out his footsteps in his missions for Christianity, let us advise the reader to look back on Saul of Tarsus and on all that he did of cruelty and crime with sympathy, humility, and charity. Saul did it all as a blasphemer and a persecutor, and injurious, ignorantly, and in unbelief; therefore he ob ained mercy, and therefore he should obtain our respect even in error. Here honest zeal, blinded and without knowledge as it was, shone forth as pure and persevering in his perversity, as it afterwards did in the service of our Saviour.

Attempts to fix the chronology of the events stated in this chapter have hitherto failed. Messrs. Conybeare and Houson fix the period not far from the year Tiberius died, and Caligula succeeded. Usher, Pearson, and Hug fix A. D. 35; Haelein, 36-38; Michaelis and Greswell, 37; Anger, 38. The martyrdom of St. Stephen is dated by Usher and Pearson, A.D. 34; by Haelein, 36; by Greswell and Anger, 37.

CHAPTER IV.

ST. PAUL'S FIRST EFFORTS AS AN APOSTLE OF OUR LORD AT ANTIOCH.

No events in the history of our Church nearly so important have happened since the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Messiah, as those of the conversion and commission of St. Paul to be the Apostle of the Gentiles. From the womb he was a chosen vessel. His birth and early education at Tarsus, the first seat of learning and philosophy probably at that time in the world; his removal to Jerusalem to be brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, apparently one of the first men of the age; the interest he had in the trial of St. Stephen, and the consent he gave to his death; the persecutions he perpetrated at Jerusalem, and the commission he received to go to Damascus,-were events all tending to qualify him exactly for the great work in which he was ever after to be engaged, that of peril, preaching, planting churches, and writing epistles, among the Gentiles afar off. None other of the apostles possessed the same temperament, or talent, or tuition. Peter, with all his confidence and boldness, had not courage to encounter all that Paul did; and John was too amiable in his natural disposition to fight with the wild beasts at Ephesus, and to rough it everywhere else. But St. Paul, ever ardent in proclaiming the glory of his Master, was always lowly while speaking of himself. He travelled, in the execution of his purpose, from country to country, endured every hardship, encountered every danger, was assaulted by the populace, punished by the magistrates, scourged, beaten, stoned, and

left for dead Yet, when driven from one city, he preached in the next, in spite of the same treatment. In defiance of danger, he persisted in the work to old age-unaltered by the experience of perverseness, ingratitude, prejudice, desertion-unsubdued by anxiety, want, labour, persecution-unwearied by long confinement, and undismayed by the terrors of death,-till at last, in the prospect of his martyrdom, this blessed saint could use the triumphant exclamation, “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." (2 Tim. iv. 6-8.)

St. Paul, finding that he failed in his endeavour to preach the doctrine of salvation at Jerusalem-that the Jews sought to put him to death, and that he was warned by his Lord in a vision to get quickly out of the Holy City, for they would not receive his testimony concerning Jesus of Nazareth-resolved to go to the heathen, while Peter remained as the Apostle of the Circumcision. These two distinguished men of God began their respective work at one and the same time, and this was probably arranged at their memorable conference in the Holy City of David. To St. Paul it had been said three several times, that he was to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles: once at his first conversion, when it was said that he was "to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive the forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith." Again, in the words of Ananias, "For he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel." And in his last vision the command was, Depart for I will send thee far hence." (Acts ix. 15; xxii. 21; xxvi. 17.)

St. Paul went to Tarsus, through Syria and Cilicia, planting churches. Making Tarsus his head-quarters for some years, he widened the sphere of his operations by preaching the Gospel in all the countries round. Meanwhile the churches of Judæa, Galilee, and Samaria grew, and were multiplied.

At Cæsarea, the seat of the Roman authority, "there was a certain man called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: he lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. And when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually; and when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa. On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour: and he became very hungry, and would have eaten but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, and saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice: and the