Paul'S Preparation For His Great Task
some small measure help us to understand the life and work of that great apostle whose undying zeal laid the foundations of the Church in gentile lands; and may his example be our guiding star in our missionary efforts.
L. BERKHOF.
PAUL'S PREPARATION FOR HIS GREAT
TASK One of the greatest names of Christianity is the name of Paul. On hearing it we think of a man greater than Augustine, of a preacher worthy to be compared with Bernard of Clairvaux, of a reformer with broader views and wider sympathies than Luther, of a thinker more acute than Calvin, and of an earnest lover of souls surpassing
Whitefield. He was a man greatly loved and passionately hated, destined to shape the entire course of Christianity. With the majority of truly great men he shared the misfortune of being very much misunderstood. While thousands upon thousands honored him as the greatest exponent of the teachings of Christ, many others regarded him as the first, as the arch-corruptor of the simple gospel of our Lord.
We certainly need not apologize for choosing Paul as the subject of our lectures—would not feel inclined to do so, even if it had been treated before—, because it is a subject so vast that it canot easily be exhausted, a subject of perennial interest. Paul was a great man in every way and, what is of greater importance for us at present, he
was a missionary; and as we survey that long line of witnesses that testified to the love of God in Christ among the gentiles and that laid down their lives a sacrifice to the cause, we find that one man towers above them all,—Paul, the missionary of the cross.
What a missive intellect was his! Think of the epistles he has written, the most precious heritage he bequeathed to coming generations!
How rich the contents, how broad the sympathies, how deep the thoughts that find expression there,—thoughts that jostle each other, truths too deep for utterance. Did any other missionary ever write such letters?—He was characterized by deep spirituality. Comparing our insight into spiritual truth with his, we realize our insignificance, we become painfully conscious of our shallowness.
Paul lived in close communion with his Lord, breathing the pure air of the mountaintops; he had a clear conception of his unity with Christ. Hence he rejoiced: I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ livith in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the fait of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Gal. 2:20.
Paul's influence in the world has been incalculable. Has any pioneer ever carried the gospel into so many lands and with such telling effect? He brought the message of redeeming grace into various provinces of Asia Minor, into Macedonia and Greece, Italy and Spain; he led many aut of the darkness of sin into that light that brings life and understanding and everlasting bliss; he founded many
Christian churches that were monument to his unceasing toil.
Who can measure the effect of his epistles on thousands and thousands of men and women that read and studied them?—They have been instrumental in leading many erring souls to the cross of Christ, in guiding sinners that seemed hopelessly lost, that were
adrift on the storm-tossed sea of life, into the haven of safety and peace. They have in many cases dispelled the doubts that entered as a disturbing element into the life of God's children, and atuned the souls of the redeemed to songs of thanksgiving and of joy, even at the hour of death.
Many missionaries received their inspiration from Paul. This was the case during the lifetime of the great apostle, and it has been so ever since. Paul the Missionary,—no doubt, the subject has been treated before. But what Scriptural subject has not. It is a part of their beauty that they are always new and are never exhausted.
Today we shall speak to you on:
PAUL'S PREPARATION FOR HIS GREAT TASK
Using the term preparation in a very broad sense, we may say that every task in life, whether it be in the world of commerce and industry or in the sphere of science and art, requires some sort of preparation. We do not mean to assert that a person choosing a certain occupation or profession in life must always designedly follow a certain course to fit himself for his work; all we maintain is that he must in some way be prepared for life's task, if he is going to perform it to good advantage. It is not absolutely necessary that one, in order to become a good tiller of the soil, should for a time labor under the direction of some practical agriculturist or should take a course in an agricultural college. It may be that his previous course of life: the conditions under which he lived, the environment in which he moved, and the labor that he performed has, all unconscious to him, qualified him for his new task. It is even possible that his natural endowments are of such a character that without any preparation on his part, whether conscious or unconscious, he becomes a good agriculturist. Yet even in that case, we must
maintain that he was prepared for his work,—prepared by God, Who says: "Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy." Is. 54:16. One may become quite an artistic painter without having studied the proper mixture of colors, the effect of light and shade, and the transforming power of true perspective. But this is possible only, if he is a born artist, endued by nature with all the qualifications required for artistic work. There have been good practical missionaries who never took a special course in the missionary studies, nor even enjoyed any sort of liberal education. But they all had the necessary natural endowments for the work, and were therefore prepared for it in a special way by the great
Lord of the harvest.
Thus we are led to distinguish between an undesigned and a conscious preparation for one's task, between a preparation in which one is rather passive and another in which one is active, between a preparation that does not result from one's choice and another in which one's will is the controlling factor. Now it is certain that in every occupation and profession the man who has designedly prepared himself for his task, the thoroughly educated, the trained man will have the advantage, provided all other things are equal. At the same time we may rest assured that one's conscious preparation for a given task will not fit him for it, unless he have the natural qualifications, be equipped for it by a higher hand.
In speaking of Paul's preparation for the great task of his life, we use this word in its most general sense, including his endowment with great natural ability by God, his unconscious preparation for the work he was destined to perform and his deliberate training for it.
We should guard against the mistake, howewer, of identifying Paul's education, strictly so-called, with his conscious preparation for his
missionary career. The former includes more than the latter, f. i. his home training, his early schooling and his introduction into rabbinic lore by Gamaliel. All this forms part of his undesigned preparation for the work he was destined to perform in life. Whatever there was of conscious preparation in the life of the great apostle for his missionary labors must be looked for after his conversion, that momentous fact that changed the whole course of his life. After these preliminary remarks we shall consider some of the most important formative factors in the life of that missionary par excellence, and see what each one contributed to the final result.
* * * It seems best that we take our starting-point in what the apostle says in Galatians 1:15–17, and to follow, at least in par the lines indicated there. We read in those verses: "But when it pleased God, Who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus."
Here we find that Paul, looking back on his life previous to his conversion, says that God separated him from his mother's womb to his great work. There is quite a difference among interpreters as to the real meaning of these words. According to some they express the idea that Paul was regenerated by the Spirit of God and thus in possession of true spiritual life, even before he was born, though before his conversion this life only found expression in his mistaken zeal for the law of God, and in the pangs of conscience that constantly reminded him of his error. But the phrase "from my mother's womb" will not bear that interpretation. The preposition, as
Winer says, "points out the time from which his destination is to be reckoned", and that is the time of his birth. Others take them to mean that God had chosen Paul from eternity to preach the gospel among the gentiles. Now we have no reasons to doubt that Paul was predestined for his work; nor that the act of God here named was the realization of an eternal purpose; but this idea does not find expression in these words of the apostle, What he means to say, is
"that God destined him from birth to his vocation, no matter how wayward and unlikely had been the career of his youth." Eadie,
Comm. in loco.
To the apostle's mind this was evident from the fact that God had historically been setting him aside for the great work of his life. He was not conscious of this before his conversion and his calling to bring the message of peace to the gentiles; but as he in after life looked back on his early career, he clearly saw that from the moment of his birth the hand of God had been shaping his destiny, had guided his course and had prepared him for his vocation. The question naturally arises: Wherein did Paul see the evidences of this divine preparation?
In the first place he saw it in the fact that he was born from Jewish parents. It was a distinct advantage for the apostle to be a Jew. He himself realized this and appreciated it. In Rom. 3:1 he asks: "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?" And in the 2nd verse he answers: "Much every way: chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God."
Hear him sing the praises of his kinsmen in Rom. 9:4, 5, "Who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as according to the flesh Christ came, Who is over all, God blessed for ever." What
advantage was it to Paul that he was a Jew?—That he as a child of the covenant, a child of the promise, became thoroughly acquainted with the oracles of God. Among the Jews it was one of the first requirements that they should teach their children religiously, and they certainly were diligent in meeting this demand of the law. The author of Proverbs says: "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." 22:6. We find an echo of this in the language of the Talmud: "If we do not keep our children to religion, when they are young, we shall certainly not be able to do so in later years." The program of Jewish education, as we find it in the Pirke Aboth also testifies to the fact that the Jews were very solicitous for the religious instruction of their children. It runs thus:
"At five years old, Scripture; at ten, Mishnah; at thirteen, the Commandments; at fifteen, Talmud; at eighteen, the Bridal
(marriage) ect. The synagogues of the Jews were at the same time their schools forp rimary instruction. The boys would attend these schools especially form their sixth or seventh until their thirteenth year. Their text-book was the Old Testament with special emphasis on the Pentateuch, and the oral traditions that were laid down in the Mishnah. Considerable knowledge of Scripture was acquired in these years, many of the most important passages being learnt by heart.
The instruction was not purely theoretical, but decidedly practical, the strict observance of the law being its most obvious aim. The great majority of Jewish boys received no further education; only the brighter scholars and those destined for the special study of the law visited a so-called "house of study", a college of the scribes. These were found in several cities, but were most numerous at Jerusalem, the great seat of Jewish learning. Each of the great masters, so it seems, had his own "house of study". In these institutions the education was professional rather than general. The law and the Talmud were made the objects of minute and painstaking study. By means of concrete cases the students were taught the proper
application of the law; and by prolonged disputations on difficult questions they became skilful dialecticians.
Saul, the bright Jewish lad of Tarsus, after receiving the usual primary education, was also priviliged to attend one of these schools for higher instruction at Jerusalem. His teacher was the greatest rabbi of his age, the celebrated Gamaliel I, the grandson of Hillel, a man honored by all the people. He was a strict Jew, yet not a fanatic, but liberal and open-minded. This is evident from his studies in Greek literature und from several humane enactments that were fathered by him. Thus he laid it down that the poor heathen should have the same rights as the poor Jews in gathering gleanings after the harvest, and that the Jews on meeting the heathen should extend to them the customary greeting. "Peace be with you, even on their feast days, when they were mostly engaged in worshipping their idols." Paul was a worthy disciple of a great master, How valuable this education had been for him he realized, when some twenty years later he wrote his epistle to the Galatians. To be sure, it had no more the same significance for him that he once ascribed to it. There was a time, when it opened up for him the way to greatness among his people, when it seemed to insure him a place of honor among the worthies of Israel,—a beautiful vista for the youthful Pharisee, burning with zeal for the law of God. But this bright, this lustrous future was one of the things that Paul counted loss for the sake of Christ. Yet he realized that his education at the feet of Gamaliel did not lose its value. He saw it in another light, a light that enhanced its significance. It was invaluable for Paul the missionary. First of all it gave him an intimate acquaintance with the Old Testament, that revelation of God on which all further revelation would be founded.
Secondly it introduced him to rabbinic lore and made him familiar with the rabbinic methods of interpretation. For polemical purposes this was a great asset. Thirdly it made him a skilled dialectician, well
qualified to present the truth of God in a clear-cut way and to support it by various kinds of arguments. And fourthly it gave him a certain broad-mindedness, it made him more or less charitable to those who were not of faith and who even worshipped idols. It is true that his persecutions seemingly contradict this; but let us not forget that they were the result of youthful ardor, and that there was something in Paul that testified against his violent course.
In the second place Paul saw that God had been setting him aside from the time of his birth, in the fact that he had been born and bred at Tarsus,—and was moreover by birth a Roman citizen. Tarsus was one of the most important cities of Asia Minor, the capital of Cilicia, according to tradition built by one of the great Assyrian kings.
Twelve miles to the south of the city the restless waves of the Mediterranian beat the rocky shores; while twelve miles to the north the snow-capped peaks of the Taurus moutains were seen. The swift and clear river Cydnus, flowing through the city, connected it with the sea; and the famous "Cilician Gates", the best pass trough the mountains, offered it the most direct road to the northern provinces of Asia Minor. Thus it soon became the terminal of the trade route from the provinces of Cappadocia and Lycaonia. Vessels coming up the river carried the merchandise brought from these provinces to distant lands. Thus Tarsus became a great commercial center. It was also a center of Greek learning, since one of the three great universities of that time was located there. According to Strabo this university was in some respects more important than those of Athens and Alexandria. There was a time, when philosophers ruled Tarsus.
The air was pregnant with philosophical ideas. It was an intellectual atmosphere indeed in which Paul was born and bred. But intellectual superiority does not alway guarantee purity of morals. In many an ancient city great learning and religiosity went hand in hand with the most shocking immorality and unchastity. This condition also
prevailed in Tarsus, the city of Paul. Its population was of a mixed character, especially since the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, when a large colony of Jews was planted there. In the Roman period the civil constitution of this city was of the timocratic type: only they who possessed a certain fortune could obtain the privilege of citizenship.
Seeing that Paul was one of its citizens, Acts 21:39, we may infer from this that his parents did not belong to the lower strate of society, but were at least in comfortable circumstances.
Such was the city of Paul, such the atmosphere in which he was reared,—a son of the Western Diaspora. We do not know, whether the apostel in his early years visited any of the Greek schools in Tarsus, but we may rest assured that, since he passed the most impressionable time of his life in that intellectual, that immoral, that rather cosmopolitan city, it had great influence in moulding his character. When a certain class of people migrate to a foreign country, they may like the Jews maintain their own schools, but they will never succeed in making the influence of their daily environment of non-effect. Moreover we know from history that the character of the Jews in the Western Diaspora was different from that of the Palastinian Jews, and also from that of the Jews that belonged to the Eastern Diaspora. There is a certain truth in the saying that a Jew is a Jew, wherever he goes; yet history teaches us that where the Jews were not socially isolated, but commingled with the gentiles, their life took on a different hue and lost a great deal of its stringency. In foreign lands many Mosaic and rabbinic institutions and requirements lost their meaning, obedience to some of the legal precepts was simply an impossibility, the Greek language replaced the sacred Hebrew, Jews and gentiles together listened to the law and the prophets in the synagogues, a spirit of tolerance prevailed,— the Pharisees abroad were not like the Pharisees at home.
Does it seem likely that Paul would escape these influences? Most assuredly not. It is not improbable that he and his parents preferred the more liberal school of Gamaliel, because they conceived an aversion to the narrow exclusivism of the other schools. Undoubtedly the environment of his youth influenced his life in many ways. It gave him a rather intimate acquantance with the gentile world. He saw the life of those that were strangers to the revelation of God in its external glitter, but also in the depth of its abasement. It introduced him to the views of the Greek philosophers in a very effective way, for in Tarsus their philosophy was not merely taught in a rather abstract way, but was lived; it found embodiment in the life of the people. It made him familiar with the Greek language. This was, of course the language of the native population of Tarsus, but it was also universally used by the Jews of the Western Diaspora. This knowledge served Paul in good stead; it enabled him to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the Roman empire, and to write those precious epistles that are a monument to his fame and a source of inspiration to the Church of all ages. It served in the case of Paul to take away a great deal of the barrier between the Jew and the gentile.
The distance that separated them was reduced to a minimum by his acquaintance with the language, the ideas and the customs of the Greek world, and by the greater tolerance that distinguished him from his brethren in Palestine. This made it easier for Paul to be a missionary to the gentiles than it would have been for Peter or James. Very likely he also learnt to understand in his home-city that there was no necessary causal connection between knowledge and virtue, between the wisdom of the world and true religion.
Besides being a citizen of Tarsus Paul was a Roman citizen. To the chief captain that delivered him out of the hands of the furious Jews he says that he was free born. We are not told in Scripture, nor can we say with any degree of certainty just how his ancestors received
this privilege. Their Tarsian citizenship did not imply it, for Tarsus was an urbs libera, and not a municipium or KOLONIA. They may have bougth it like the chief captain at Jerusalem, or may have received it by manumission or in compensation for some public voluntary service. For our purpose it matters little how they acquired this privilege. Wo know that Paul had it, and that it was a matter of great significance for him. It gave him a certain well-defined, generally recognized and greatly valued legal status, "and placed him", as Ramsay says, "amid the arictocracy of any provincial town."
It guaranteed him the protection of the emperor wherever he went in the great Roman empire. From the Acts of the Apostles we know that Paul made good use of this prerogative, though he did it only in cases of extreme necessity, possibly to avoid as much as could be the mention of anything that might offend the Jews.
Methinks as Paul looked back on his previous career, he clearly saw that God turned even his career as a persecutor to advantage in preparing him for his great task. Let us never think that it had no formative value for him. In his early days Paul was a persecutor of the Church of God. We first meet him in connection with Stephen's death. Perhaps he had been instrumental in taking him captive; he heard his eloquent plea, a stinging rebuke for the Jews; he saw his face radiant with glory; and his ear too caught the dying martyr's prayer: "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." Acts 7:60. And I am inclined to think that his heart condemned the wicked act, that the sensitive Paul, the disciple of the tolerant Gamaliel, involuntarily sympathized with the meek and faithful martyr, and that the still small voice within bid him desist. But the youthful ardent Pharisee got the better of him in that moment, and he felt himself called to defend the honor of his nation and of his religion. The more the voice of conscience condemned him, the fiercer he persecuted the innocent confessors of Jesus. It was an attempt to drown that voice, to
suppress the better element of his nature. Many a christian fell victim tothis misplaced zeal. Jerusalem did not offer a field large enough for his operations; on Damascus he fastened his eye. On the way thither, however, he learnt to understand how hard it was to kick against the pricks.—Can we suppose that he ever forgot these persecutions?—No, they left a scar that could not be effaced,—a sad memory of past transgressions. And this influenced him in a two-fold way. In the first place it created within him the undying desire to atone for his past as far as could be. Action worked reaction also in his case. The fierce and in a way conscientious persecutor became a zealous and faithful apostle of Jesus Christ. The gratitude to God that filled his heart for delivering him from the abysmal depths of sin filled him with an eager desire to advance the cause that he had once sought to retard and to crush. He knew no higher aim in life than to work for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ to the glory of God; than to suffer with and for the sake of Him Who gave His life a ransom for many,—a ransom too for the erring Paul; than, if need be, to lay down his life a consecrated sacrifice on the altar of obedience to his heavenly Lord.—And in the second place it was instrumental in qualifying him, as nothing else would do, to become a most effective preacher of the gospel of redemption. Did he not, being redeemed from such a past, become one of the greatest living examples of God's pardoning grace?—From miry depths he had been raised to the mountaintops; he, "the greatest of sinners", had been saved by the grace of God. What a consolation for others! Paul certainly realized the formative value that his early persecutions had for him. We find many evidences of this in his missionary career. Listen especially to what he says in 1 Tim. 1:12–16: "And I thank Jesus Christ our Lord.
Who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into tho ministry; who was before a blashphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with
faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting."
All the elements in Paul's preparation for his great missionary task to wich we have now called attention formed integral parts of his separation by God from his mother's womb to his work among the gentiles. Now the apostle does not merely say in Galatians that God separated him from his mother's womb, but also, "and called me by His grace." A call came to Paul, a call of God, a call that did not result from his own works, however deserving they may have been in his own estimation at that time, but that was mediated by the grace of God. It was the call out of darknes to light, out of the slavery of sin to the blessed service of Jesus Christ, the efficacious call of the Spirit of God to the heart of a wayward sinner. Paul refers to his conversion in these words, the most important event in all his life. That great crisis was not only of momentous significance for the erring zealot himself, but was of stupendous importance for the Church of Jesus Christ. It certainly cannot be accidental that there is no other event, except the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to which so much space is devoted in the New Testament. We are in possession of three complete records of Paul's conversion, viz. in the chapters 9, 22 and 26 of the Acts of the Apostles.
Behold, the persecutor is on his way to Damascus! He has completed a laudible task in the Holy City. "He made havoc of the Church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison." He scattered the little flock that served its Lord in simplicity of heart, in spirit and truth. True, there had been some
pangs of conscience, but it was, as he thought, the voice of the tempter that would make him unfaithful. He did not doubt that he was doing the will of God; his heart burned with holy zeal, It was a source of great satisfaction that his superiors were pleased with his work; bright prospects were opening up before him. Intoxicated with his splendid success at Jerusalem he, 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 this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem." "For Jehovah and His temple against the Nazarene" was his slogan, as he sped on and on.
There was still a small voice that spoke words of warning and of reproval, that sought his attention, but in the heat of persecution he did not heed, but suppressed it. His course could not be wrong. He has now come within sight of Damascus, the beautiful. It is noon; the sun sends her brilliant scorching rays straight to earth; the atmosphere is charged with heat. How welcome to the weary dustladen travelers is the foliage of fig and apricot and pomegranate; how refreshing the very sight of the silvery Abana that winds along the side of the way! They rejoice to know that they are now near the end of their journey, with prospects ot glory before them, when lo—— suddenly there shines upon them a light from above, a light surpassing that of the noon-day-sun; a voice is heard, understood only by the leader of that little band: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" and the persecuter falls blinded to the ground. In a faltering tone he asks: "Who art thou, Lord?" and is terrified to hear:
"I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." In that moment, when Paul lost his natural sight, his spiritual eyes were opened, and many things did he see. He saw that Jesus was not dead but living, and immediately the thought stood out clearly before his mind that he had risen from the dead.
The consciousness of this great fact was the starting-point of his
spiritual development, a point of departure quite different from that of the other apostles. They began with the knowledge of Jesus, the Son of Man; he with a vision of Christ, proved to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead. It was an overpowering revelation for the Jewish zealot. In the light of it he learnt to understand the real character of the warfare in which he was engaged. It was a war against that God Whom he thought he was serving, against God's
Anointed, Who instead of being in the grave, as he imagined, was enthroned on high, clothed with glory divine. A stunning blow it was indeed for the fiery Pharisee to find the God Who he thought was smiling on his undertaking as his adversary! In that light Paul discovered the abyss that yawned at his feet. He must have come to a sudden realization of the terrible fate that would have been his, if God had permitted him to continue in his way, and must have shuddered at the very thought of it. In that light he understood that his religion had been vain, that it did not bear the stamp of God's approval, and was but a self-righteous and self-satisfied striving after honor with God and man. He felt that what he considered the path of sacred duty did not lead him in the way of salvation, and that the occasional promtings of his conscience were but the voice of God, speaking deep down in his beart. In that light Paul found himself undone, and the question rose to his lips: "Lord, what wilt Thou have me do?" He is now ready to renounce himself and to take upon him the cross of Christ, to follow no more the inclination of his own sinful heart, but the guidance of his heavenly Lord,—to lay down himself a living consecrated sacrifice on the altar of Jesus Christ. He was ready to speak, as his Saviour once spoke in bitter agony, "Thy will be done."
We cannot overrate the importance of Paul's conversion in the preparation for his work. Without it he would never have been a true missionary. His gifts and talents, his education, and the favorable
circumstances in which he moved from his earliest years, would never have qualified him to be a preacher of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, if he had not experienced this inward change of heart. His light would have been darkness, his wisdom folly, his talents instruments of satan, his guidance deception. What he needed was a transformation of all his powers and talents, for who is not himself filled with the love of Christ cannot inspire others; who is not himself illuminated by the Spirit of God cannot enlighten others; who is not embued with power from on high cannot stand in the unequal struggle with the powers of darkness. In connection with his conversion Paul received the Holy Ghost, and was called to be the apostle of the gentiles, a call that was repeated at Jerusalem, and that was finally ratified at Antioch in Syria.
We should beware of thinking, however, that Paul was now immediately prepared to go out, in order to preach Christ among the gentiles. Since he now understood what was to be the great task of his life, it was necessary that he should prepare himself for it more designedly. And this is just what he did. In this connection there are two facts that we must take in consideration, viz. in the first place his visit to Arabia, and in the second place his preliminary labors at Tarsus and Antioch of Syria. A veil of uncertainty covers that period of Paul's life that was spent in Arabia. Luke does not even make mention of it in the Acts of the Apostles. Moreover interpreters are not at one as to just what district the apostle means, when he speaks of Arabia. According to the Arabic translator he refers to that part of Perea that bordered on the Dead Sea. Others maintain that the name was applied, not only to Arabia proper, but also to the whole transJordanic region as far north as Damascus. In that case the apostle in Gal. 1:17 does not refer to any distant journey. But the difficulty is that it is uncertain, whether the name Arabia will really bear those interpretations. Moreover on either one of them we would have to
assume that Paul employed the name in two different senses in the same Epistle, referring to some district east of Jordan in the first, and to Arabia proper in the fourth chapter. We prefer to think that in both cases he has reference to Arabia Felix, that land of hallowed associations, where rugged Sinai stood forth in silent majesty.
Now the question involuntarily arises: For what purpose did Paul repair to Arabia?—Is it true what some of the fathers say: "He rushed to Arabia to preach"? Taking all things in consideration this seems rather unlikely. Let us not forget that a stupendous change took place in Paul's life, when he was converted. He was at once introduced to a world of thought that was altogether new to him. He saw God and Christ and the way of salvation and himself and the world in a light in which he had never before seen them. His intellectual life was thrown into confusion. And now the first thing that Paul had need of, was to find his bearings, to acquire more knowledge of the way that up this time had been abhorrent to him, and to study the relation in which this new way stood to the old. He was called to preach Christ to the gentiles, but he realized that he was not yet prepared for it. He needed more knowledge of the way in Christ, a more intimate acquaintance with the doctrine of salvation by grace. And to receive it he did not confer with flesh and blood, nor did he go to Jerusalem to the apostles, but into Arabia, there to receive instruction at first hand. Certainly Arabia offered him a place fit for meditation and for silent communion with God. It was of all localities the best in which he might adjust himself to the new worldand live-view to which he was introduced. How suitable the place for further instruction regarding the relation of the old to the new dispensation. Paul in Arabia, a disciple of God in Christ. It was, therefore, in the birthplace of the old covenant that he pondered on its transient character. It was in the place, where Moses spoke to God as a man with his friend, where Elijah heard the voice of God, as he stood in the cave, that
Paul now sought a new revelation of the Most High. And God did reveal himself to His chosen vessel. Hence he says in Gal. 1:12: "For I neither received it (the gospel that he preached) of man, neither was
I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." In Arabia Paul learnt to understand that the dispensation of the law was not the earliest, since that of the promise preceded it. The law was but temporary, on account of transgression, while the promise found its fulfilment in Christ. Thit was one great stride forward in the knowledge of the truth. Since circumcision was already connected with the promise, it is rather unlikely that he immediately realized that it too was abrogated in Christ. We have no evidence that Paul disclaimed circumcision in the earliest years of his apostleship. Nor did the other apostles understand that it was done away in Christ.
The question was not debated and settled until about fifteen years after His conversion.
By the time that he went out on his first missionary journey, however, the great apostle of the gentiles had learnt that circumcision also belonged to the passing shadows of the Old
Testament. He learnt this, so it seems, through his preliminary labors at Tarsus and especially at Antioch. In that gentile city on the banks of the Orontes, that "crown of the east", Barnabas and Paul found a great number of Greeks who, through the preaching of the scattered disciples, had accepted Christ by faith. The grace of the Lord worked mightily among them. What the ambassadors of Christ there beheld, was clearly the work of God's Spirit. Yet they who believed were not of the circumcision. They had not received that Jewish rite. Evidently then the way through Jewry was not the only way to Christ. During his labors at Antioch Paul saw ever clearer that the old barriers had been broken down, that the shadows, that all the shadows had fled, and that in Christ Jesus there was neither Jew nor gentile, but a new creature;—and now he was prepared to proclaim to