The circumstances under which St. Paul | Demosthenes and Pericles had spoken, Pinmakes his first appearance on the stage of history indicates the decided and important part he is destined to act in its drama. The Prince of Peace had announced, before the crucifixion, that his kingdom was not of this world, and that those whom he had selected to establish it should indeed drink the bitter cup that the world had pressed to his reluctant lips. The powers of earth and hell resisted, at the threshhold the establishment of his spiritual kingdom. Stephen was awarded the honor of wearing the first Christian martyr's crown. At his execution St. Paul, although a young man, was more than a disinterested spectator. He was not only a witness, but a party to the transaction. His presence on this occasion, the interest he took in it, his age, considered, and the consequences likely to result from it, evince, at once, a decided character, as well as an inclination to impress that character | upon the history of his race by identifying himself prominently with its most important events. Nature was prodigal in the bestowment of her favors upon him. He possessed a mind of surpassing comprehension, clearness and power. His moral attributes were all in profusion. His aspirations were elevated, his prejudices high, his impulses strong, his affections ardent, and his will invincible. He was, by lineage, a Jew, and by profession a Pharisee. He was born and reared amid the culminating splendors of the Augustan age, the most intellectual, perhaps, of the world, the present excepted. At Athens, Hissiod and Thucydides had written. dar and Homer had sung. The marble was breathing under the polishing touches of of Phidias and Praxitiles. Apelles had mingled the light of immortality with the colors of his pencil, and the canvass blushed in the trophies of his genius. At Rome great names illustrated the annals of painting and statuary, poetry and eloquence. Rome was the proud mistress of the world-there was none to dispute her empire or measure arms with her prowess. The wisdom of Gamaliel was the exponent of Rabbinical learning at Jerusalem. Mythology had enrolled her multitudinous divinities in the Pantheon until every interest, secular and sacred, was under the protection of its peculiar deity. The greater portion of the intellect of this highly intellectual age was devoted to religion and the arts and sciences. The claims of rival systems of philosophy was the subject of constant disputation among the schoolmen. Vice and virtue, good and evil, the character and attributes of the human soul all claimed their full share of consideration. In all these systems of philosophy cultivated intellect was struggling with its own weakness, and the human soul was attesting its own immortality, and gasping for that light which Divine revelation alone sheds upon its hope and destiny. The Gentiles were idolaters— were heathens. The Jews were the custodians of the Sacred Oracles of the true God, but had subordinated the mightier matters of the law-judgment and mercy-to the tithing of anise and mint, and had substituted (1) for the doctrines of Revelation the commandments of men. St. Paul, equal to any, and surpassed by none, in his natural endowments, and these developed and embellished by every contribution that could be levied upon Roman, Grecian, Chaldean, and Hebrew literature, burned with restless ambition to win a name and the honors and emoluments which merit confers on position. Brought up at the feet of her mightiest master, he was profoundly learned and deeply skilled in the abstinsities of the Mosaic Law, both as it was truly written and as it was perverted by the traditions of the scribes and elders. Entering into the schemes and identifying himself with the fortunes of the Pharisees, he sought to distinguish himself in the effort to crush and strangle the infant Church. Hence, soon after the martyrdom of Stephen, he is found on his way to Damascus, breathing threatenings and slaughter, with a warrant from the High Priest authorizing him to arrest and carry bound to Jerusalem any disciples of either sex that might be found in that city. On his way to accomplish this mission of persecution and blood, he was converted by a miracle. With characteristic promptitude he inquires, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Notified that he was called to turn the Gentiles from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to the power of God-receiving the Royal investiture, he rose, mailed from Heaven's armory, and bounded into the arena of moral gladiatorship with the world, a true knight of the Cross, floating a flag and bearing a shield emblazoned with Jesus and the Resurrection. The wealth and power, passion and prejudice of the world were in hostile array against the religion whose championship he assumed. Its founder, humanly speaking, was an obscure Gallilean, who had been crucified for alledged sedition against the great and powerful government of Rome. Some of his few and scattered disciples had fallen victims to the malice of the Jews, while the remainder were fugitives from their cruelty. His was a spirit that panted for glorious strife, and rejoiced in foemen worthy of his steel. His moral nature changed; his learning and great powers of logic and eloquence, sanctified by the power of the Holy Ghost; his whole conduct, brought under the disciplinary control of the Gospel; his heart burning and melting with sympathy for his ruined race, and burdened with the value of immortal souls, and a commission bearing the signet of the King of Kings, he enters upon a glorious career of trial and triumph, that presents him as the grandest character of all time and history. The idolatry of the Gentiles, taught in the schools, practiced in the temples, patronized by the multitudes, and protected by the State, was to be assailed on the one hand; on the other, degenerate Judaism, with its exclusive claims to Divine favor, its boasted heraldry, its hereditary prejudices, its formulary of types and shadows, priests and blood, altar and victim, the fossil remains of an antiquated and exploded system, consecrated, however, by the hopes and faith of generation after generation, and hoary with the seal of ages, but perverted by apostates to the purposes of pride and partyism. The religion of Christianity was opposed to both of these, and proposed to recruit its army from them; hence its movements were aggressive and its object conquest. Vicissitude, temptation, trial, persecution, and suffering in all its forms were to be met and endured by those who embraced its faith, raised its standard and supported its cause. Paul was advised of all this. To use a favorite figure of his own, he knew that he was to enter upon a "fight." But he was undismayed at the prospect before him. He was prepared for any and for every emergency. As might have been expected, from his first entrance upon his high embassy he was assailed from every quarter, from Jewish synagogue and heathen temple, from fierce rabble and cruel power. Persecutions dogged his footsteps from city to city, from kingdom to kingdom, from In addition to the opposition before him, country to country, like a personified ubiquiand the difficulties around him, he must en-ty, it met him at every step. It had gorged counter the odium that attaches to treason to party. But Paul's was not the spirit to flinch at difficulties or quail at opposition. its hellish appetite with the blood of the in carnate Master, yet it panted with peculiar thirst for that of his greatest Apostle. Bonds, |