PAU L OF TARSUS

BY THE AUTHOR OF

R A B B I J E SH U A

LON DON

G E O R G E R E D W A

YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN

1 889

PRE FACE .

NOT to trouble their hearts whose faith is

firmly fi xed in the lessons of the ir ch i ldhood

are these pages penned . Not to anger p ious

souls or ' to seek effect by denying what so

many men and women , good , honest , and

convinced , hold to be true and sacred . To

such,these words of preface are a warn ing to

close the book . But to the many to whom

such thoughts as i t may contain are fami l iar

a lready as the honest results of knowledge

painful ly gathered by generat ions of thinkers

and workers,i t may perhaps be not un

welcome—to those who fearlessly accept

facts even when they bring the downfa l l of

PREFACE.

cherished ideas, who love freedom and real ity

more than the fancies and errors of the past ,

who have broken the bonds of tradition and

dared to th ink. Their number grows yearly,

and their influence becomes slowly but surely

stronger and more widely felt, and to them

this sketch , based upon many years of study

and on scores of famous books, i s dedicated

with d i ffidence.

PAUL O F TARSU S .

CHAPTER I .

IN a low dark room , the walls brown with

smoke, the floor of sh in ing stone, dark and

comfortless save where the sun strikes the

wall , s i ts the th in small form of the j ewish

E lder. He bends over the scrol l of crabbed

Greek characters hurried ly formed. H is

hairs are al ready th inned from the forehead ,

h is black beard is streaked with grey. H is

dress is poor and mean : there is noth ing

to suggest that he i s more than the strug

gl i ng huxter or the small merchant,of

whom so many l ive around , save perhaps

A

PAUL OF TARSUS .

i n the del i cacy of the worn features . No

thing unti l the face i s l ifted,and the dark

eyes gaze from beneath the thick dark eye

brows . Then indeed we see someth ing el se .

The poor gaberdine,the s l ight and withered

form,the th in locks , are but the earth ly

shel l of a burn ing sou l which looks out

at those windows as though about to burst

i ts chains . A stormy restless soul,impatient

of i ts home, unquenched by age , by toi l , by

suffering,by neglect

,and by disappointment .

I t is a low mean chamber in a poor and

narrow lane—a Ghetto where evi l odours

of tanned hides,of entrails sold as food, of

rags and rubbish,poison the air. Here by

the river-s ide the wretched ped lars are

crowded , waiting to buy cheaply the small

wares of sai lors ; some l ivi ng by thei r wits

as fortune- tellers or masters of the black art,

astrologers and impostors . I t is the lurking

place of d angerous men and broken glad ia

PAUL OF TARSUS.

tors . The man before us is h imsel f a

suspect,brought a prisoner from his own

country as the cause of a dangerous riot,

and hidd en away where he can do no

harm to law and order.

Can you bel ieve that i t is in Imperial

Rome that we stand, the cap i tal of the

world,the centre of law and civil ization ?

I n th is mean quarter no freeman of I taly

enters : the temples and palaces are unseen ,

the l ight of ph i losophy never shines in the

squal id lanes , whose denizens are objects of

the satire of J uvenal and of Horace .

" Not

that all is evil and foul, for p ious souls may

be found i n the shabby l ittle synagogues,

and touch i ng l ines, speaking of hope and

peace and love , are scrawled on the walls

of d im catacombs , where the unremembered

dead are laid—words written in their own

Hebrew tongue beneath the rude sketch of

the seven branched lamp , which has not yet

4 PAUL OF TARSUS.

been carved as a spoil on the arch of Titus.

Not that the J ew has no power i n Rome ,

for al ready he has pushed his way into the

imperial palace,and in a few years J ew and

J ewess wi l l sway the fate of the Empire .

But between such success and the misery

of the Ghetto i n the quarter of the Porta

Fortese beyond the Tiber there is a great

gulf fixed . Tiberius A lexander, a J ew with

a Roman name,may have h is statue i n the

Forum,but who will ever raise a statue

to the poor carpet-maker in the Ripa

quarter ?

So j udges the world . Yet a t ime i s to

come when the ideal ized portrait of th is th in

crooked form , robed in the toga,crowned

with the oriole , i s to be painted by the hand

of genius on the wal l s of splendid cathedrals .

On that crabbed scrol l l ibraries are to be

wri tten ; nay, men who say they fear God

wi ll burn each other’

s bodies because of

PAUL or TARSUS. 5

i ts words . A s yet there i s l ittl e outs ide

but disappointment and d isapproval . The

Roman Rabbis look on h im with dis

trust. Some say he i s mad, some cal l h im

renegade . A l ready,however, a smal l seed

is sown . I t will not be many years ere the

Christ ians—hardly known as other than a

secret sect of the " foetid J ews —will be

the scapegoats of popular fury, bearing the

blame for the burn ing of Rome, themselves

torches i n the " evi l tun ic " l ighting the

gardens of Nero’s palace as " foes of human

kind .

" Of al l the writings which have yet

to be written,to be gathered i n one volume

,

to be worsh ipped as truth , to be quest ioned

fiercely and torn i n p ieces by narrow criti cs ,

there wil l be none so genu ine,so general ly

rece ived as bearing the stamp of the mind

and age of the writer, as wil l be those letters

wh ich the carpet-maker has written and is

wri t ing. Letters of argument,of exhortat ion ,

6 PAUL OF TARSUS.

of passionate rhetoric, for the few poor friends

and d isc ip les in Greece,and in rugged

Anatol ia, which are to be cherished , re

read , copied, and imitated , translated into

all tongues of Europe and As ia,sent to the

Negro and the Zulu , and the na t ive of

islands beyond the utmost l imits of surround

ing Ocean,pondered daily by pious souls

for n ineteen centuries and more , i n the very

words of the barbarous Levantine Greek of

the ir au thor.

Wherefore i t is not a small matter to know

the story of Paul of Tarsus from his ch ild

hood to the day when he reached the Roman

Ghet to .

CHAPTER I I .

To the home of h is ch ildhood we must

look first to understand among what scenes

and folk Paul grew,and what memor ies were

first planted i n h is mind . Tarsus, the Cil ician

c ity on the Cydnus river, was one of those

Levantine ports where men of many races

a nd of many creeds gathered under the rocky

range which walls i n the Galatian plateau .

I t was a wooden town , with fia t-roofed houses

and dark cypresses— l ike a modern Turkish

c ity,having as yet none of the great build ings

which grew up al l over th is region a century

later. A place with perhaps 3 0 000 i nhabit

ants and still a port, for the river wa s yet deep

8 PAUL OF TARSUS.

enough for the smal l galleys to come up from

the sea . I t was a town somewhat decayed

since the great c ity of Antioch had taken

away its trade,but with a h istory reach ing

back to the days when the beetle-browed

Phoenicians i n their " sh ips of Tarshish

came up from the South—a thousand years

ago—and traded with the interior, bringing

glass and painted vases and curious bronze

work, and taking back from the yearly fairs

on t he river beach the raw products,s ilver

and iron, t i n and lead , from the Caucasus ,

copper from the Mosch ians,and slaves from

the A rmen ian market. " A fter them came the

Pers ians and A ssyrians from the East , rul ing

the land for nearly a century and stamp

ing their coin s with Phoen ician letters and

figures of the gods . Long as thev res isted ,

i n t ime they were driven away by the

growing power of the Greeks,and in the

Cydnus it i s said A lexander nearly lost his

PAUL OF TARSUS. 9

l ife . Here also the il l-fated Antony fi rst met

the Egyptian witch-queen sail ing up the

stream .

The ba rge sh e sa t in like a burnished throneBurnt on th e wa ter, the poop wa s bea ten gold,Purple the sa ils

,and so perfumed tha t

The winds were lovesick wi th th em , th e oa rs were silver,Wh ich to the tune of flu tes kept s t roke, a nd ma deTh e wa ter wh ich they bea t to fol low fa s ter,As amorous of th eir strokes .

"

Time passed and Antony failed,and Tarsus

received Augustus and became a " free c ity,

and flourished in trade and in letters al ike .

Learned men were here almost as many as at

A thens or A lexandria the schools of rhetoric

were famous : i n the bazaars you met the

Syrian , the Greek , the J ew , and the sturdy

peasant from the mountains, with hi s heavy

Turkish face, coming down with hi s flocks

for sale, from the wild wolds Where cave

vil lages, burrowed i n the ground , were the

homes of the old race , which had held the

1 0 PAUL OF TARSUS.

land long before Greek , Jew, or Phoenician

were there .

The J ew was the newest comer. The race

had made a place i n h istory a century or

so before, when they drove ba ck the Syrian

Greeks and fought for the ir own rites , customs,

and freedom . The courage of the Maccabees ,

the policy of the I dumeans,the al l iance with

Rome, had brought ri ches and prosperity to

J udea . The people overflowed the narrow

bounds of Syria . They had their quarter in

A lexandria and in Antioch ; they were dis

persed a l l over A sia from Babylon to the

Hellespont. Their trading co lon ies were

found in Greece , in Macedon , i n Cyprus, and

the I sles , i n the commercial c ities of Asia

M inor,even to the Black Sea shores ; i n

I taly also,and in Imperial Rome . Caesar

favoured them,but T iberius and Claudius

found them too strong for the less push ing

Roman traders,and drove them out. The

PAUL OF TARSUS. I I

Jew i s a lways being driven out , and comes

back again always . H is energy cannot be

repressed . Whether as the rich merchant

bringing silks from the Chinese j unks at

Aden,or as the poor pedlar in broken glass

and matches, the thin shabby gaberd ine , the

long s ide- locks,the lean face and piercing

eyes,were found in every c ity of the Medi

terranean : the cheap wares and humble,

courteous carriage of the trader commended

him to the thrifty housewife, and for the

spendthrift he had always money ready , with

the remote possibi l ity of usurious recom

pense .

I t was a fierce and barbarous people among

whom the J ews were trad ing round Tarsus .

The Greek ph ilosophers and pedants were

few ; the statues of Ph id ias were not found in

Cil ic ia . To understand aright the cond ition

of As ia we must not regard the Olympian

gods or the art-work of Athens only . I n

1 2 PAUL OF TARSUS.

Phrygia,not far off

,i t was A tys who was

the greatest of gods . The wild legends of

h is b irth from the tree,of the gloomy cave

in which he dwelt, of h is suicide, are to be

recalled What more barbarian than the

annual orgies of D ionysus, the furious and

drunken bacchantes racing naked in the

woods,the fawns and dogs torn in p ieces

whi le al ive,i n honour of the god who was

h imself so torn . A t Methana the east wind

withered the vines, and the remedy recal l s

the savage rites of Thugs i n I ndia . Two

men were sent to the sacred grove hold ing a

cock between them by the legs . They ra n i n

oppos ite d irections tearing the bird asunder,

and buried the halves on the other s ide of

the wood—and then the west wind came

back . I n the autumn, when the grapes were

r ipe,the yearly orgy began . The boys were

fl ogged before the altars, the women were

scourged in honour of Bacchus . Processions

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1 4 PAUL OF TARSUS.

from the tombs ; they drank bulls’ blood i n

savage ordeals .

Al l over As ia M inor, too , wandered the

begging priests of Cybele,l iving on alms ,

and as enchanters exorcis ing disease . They

d ivined by flour and by barley , they be

witched with spel ls the tufts of wool and

lumps of sal t, the sticks and stones and

su lphur and garl ic, which the pious received

in return for their gifts of food‘ and coin .

I nnocent ch ildren especial ly were used by

these d iviners , to foretel l events seen in

mirrors of ink or of magic water,i n bowls

inscribed with crabbed spells . D reams were

i nterpreted , and oracles were not yet dumb .

Everywhere also there was huma’

n sacri

fice i n t imes of trouble . A t Thargel ia two

human scapegoats were fl ogged to the shore

with figs tied to their necks, bearing the sins

of the people,and ‘burned al ive . The bar

barous r ites . went on down to Hadrian’

s

PAUL OF TARSUS. 1 5

days in honour of " Zeus the Glutton . A t

Rhodes, Salam is , Heliopol i s, Chios , Tenedos,

i n Lacedaemon , in A thens , to a much later

age the slave , the strange r, or the priso ner

was off ered yearly. He re and there men had

become more merciful : they substituted a

bu l l , or they whipped the boys once offered

to the rude wooden A rtemis of Sparta. The

women cut off their hair and fl ung it i nto the

River Ceph issus, where once they fl ung them i

selves ; but th e I on ians went on yearly

sacrificing a youth and a maiden to the crue l

Artemis , i n whose honour also beasts and

b irds were driven al ive into the bonfires .

Let us not d ream , therefore , that the

paganism of the age was e ither noble or

beautiful Ph ilosophy had no power to

touch the masses ; the calm gods of Epi

curus were not the savage monsters whom

the peasants feared and bribed with blood in

As ia and in I taly al ike .

6 PAUL OF TARSUS.

Amid such scenes the service of the syna

gogue presented something higher-

and better

than the savage superstit ion of the age .

Wherever he went the Jew heard sti l l ring

ing i n his ears the voice of old prophets

raised against the fol ly and cruelty of man.

" They burn their sons and their daughters

in the fire wh ich I commanded them not,

neither came it into my heart, said J ehovah .

The J ew saw before h im the heathen en

flaming themselves with idols under every

green tree,s laying the ch ildren in the val leys

under the c lefts of the rocks . Shal l I give

my firs t-born for my transgression , the fruit

of my body for the s in of my soul ? He hath

shewed thee, O man , what is good ; and what

doth J ehovah require of thee , but to do justly

and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with

thy God

Hear,O I srael , the Lord thy God is one

God .

"

So every Sabbath the synagogue

PAUL OF TARSUS. 1 7

prayers began,and after these came the

lessons , one from the Law,the other from

the prophets, with the sermon or homily to

follow. Wherever he went the J ew estab

l ished a l ittle build ing where such service

m ight be held , a l i ttle ark i n which to store

h is sheep-sk in sacred scrol ls . Everywhere he

ate the Passover supper, and made booths at

the autumn feast,and mourned on the great

day of A tonement, and blew his lugubrious

cowhorns until h is neighbours prevented h im .

Not that the J ews were . very far i n

advance of the age,and not that superst it ion

and stup id fear of demons was unknown

among them . The old A fri can rite of c i r

cumcision ,which , i n common with Egyptians,

Arabs, I dumeans, and Phoenicians, they stil l

maintained , provoked the i nextingu ishable

laughter of the Greeks . You might see the

respectable J ew on the Sabbath walking to

the synagogue i n h is best furred robe,

B

1 8 PAUL OF TARSUS.

smel l i ng his bunch of herbs i n honour of

the dav ; but you might also see him at the

ful l moon on h is housetop,hopping and

singing,and pra is ing the Maker of the s i l

very l ight. At the new year you might find

h im by the Cydnus or other r iver,cast

ing his sins on the running waters . He

pared h is nai ls on ly on certain d ays,and

buried the pari ngs lest demons or witches

should use them . He was careful not to step

over sp il t water. He smel t of garl ic, for

garl i c was a preventive from jealousy , from

which he was not unl ikely to suffer . As he

went to the synagogue he knew that a good

angel and a devi l went with him . A s he

passed the graveyard he feared to see the

soul s si tt ing on the ir tombstones,and waiting

,

with trembl ing ghostly forms the Angel of

J udgment .

The fear of demons oppressed the lower

classes of the J ews as much as i t d id any of

PAUL OF TARSUS. I 9

the heathen . You could never be safe from

them They crowded even into the syna

gogue ; they made your clothes wear out

too soon . There were an hundred species

of male demon , but no one knew what the

female was l ike . However, i t was certain

that they al l had wings and birds’ feet, and

that they l istened behind the veil of the

Temple to the secrets which the angels told

each other . I t was known that th ey l ived in

ru ins and tombs, and on the north s ide of the

house . The Rabbis were able to manage

them : they knew the language of beasts,

birds,angel s, and devils . They had words

of power,spe l l s written i n earthen bowls or

d issolved i n magic water,whereby to drive

them out of the s ick . However great the

errors of the heathen , J ew and pagan were at

least i n agreement as to the un iversal power

of these demons, and as to the value of spel ls

written in Hebrew.

20 PAUL OF TARSUS.

And besides demons,there were witches

and the evi l eye and ghosts . There -were

Agra th and Asia to be feared , and L i l ith ,

who stole the l i tt le babies when they were

born . A Rabbi of great power changed one

witch into an ass and rode on her to market ;

but for the ordinary man great caution was

necessary. You must not pass between two

palm-trees,nor between two women sitting at

a cross - road , for they would most l ikely be

witches . A s to the evil eye , ninety-n ine

deaths out of every hundred were due to

th is only .

Then there was another cause of fear in

the somewhat capric ious temper of E l ij ah ,

who usual ly sat under the tree of l ife count

ing up your sins . When the dogs capered

you knew El ijah was near. I f he caught

you behind the synagogue he was l ike ly

though unseen—to give you a very severe

beating . A t wedding feasts you must

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22 PAUL OF TARSUS.

l ikely that he would be sent to J erusalem as

a disciple of Gamal iel . That he should p ick

Up in h is ch ildhood the barbarous Greek

jargon used in trade,as a second language,

was inevitable in a foreign country ; nor

could h is eyes be shut to the manners of

the heathen but no contact with the h igher

society of the town was poss ible, or indeed

desired . The rhetoricians and the phi lo

sophers never influenced the J ewi sh youth .

Thelearned squabbles of the pedants over

the words of Homer and Hesiod went on

as they have done ever s ince , but Paul

never learned to weigh the l ines of Greek

hexameter, never perhaps heard even of

Plato and Ari stotle . The Jew held h imsel f

superior to the idolater and the philosopher

a l ike ; the Tarsus Rabbis to ld their d isciple

that only as bondsmen to I srael could the

Genti les trust to be allowed in the future to

share in the glorious kingdom of Mess iah ,

PA‘

UL OF TARSUS. 23

before whom Greek and Roman al ike must

fl y when the t ime should come and that

not long for the final catastrophe, whence

I srael was to come forth as master of the

world .

CHA PTER III.

THE scene changes to J erusa lem,whither the

young student was sent by his father to learn

at the feet of Gamaliel . He was to be

a llowed the privilege of worsh ipping in that

Temple where the presence of J ehovah ever

abode with i n the veil , i n the darkness, never

seen by any save theH igh Priest h imself.

He was to see the reeking sacrifices on the

tables by the great altar with its undying fire

he was to be purified by the ashes of the red

he ifer burned on Ol ivet, to witness the strange

torchl ight dance and the water pourings

not un l ike the feasts of D ionysus witnessed

at Tarsus . He was to sit in the cool stone

PAUL OF TARSUS. 2 5

chamber under the p il lars of the eterna l house,

and to l isten there,or on the sunny steps

of the Court of I srael,to the wisdom of the

greatest scholar of the age among his people .

J erusalem was then a Roman town . I n

the summer the procurator l ived there, going

down to Caesarea in the flowery plai n by the

sea in the winter. I n its narrow streets you

might see the leather cu irasses and sh in ing

helmets of the legionaries from the fortress

wh ich threatened on its rock the Temple

courts . Here also you jostled against the

fierce, swarthy A rabs of I dumea, and found

Greeks walking in the clo isters outs ide the

rampart, where Greek inscriptions warned

them not to profane the inner court. The

Canaan ite peasant,the J ew trader, the fanatic

who hated Caesar, the prosperous Sadducean

magnate whose servants beat the"

crowd

as ide before h im , the venerabl e but poor

Rabbi from the squal id lower town , mingled

26 PAUL OF TARSUS.

i n i ts markets,while here and there th e

white robe of the E ssene hermit s ingled out

the recluse,on h is rare visits to the town , as

a figure of respected hol i ness .

Things were going very wel l for a t ime .

The government was appa rentlv strong , the

placeman Pilate,sent from Rome to rule

J udea—a creature of Sejanus , rewarded by

a colonia l appointment— had not yet found

h imsel f i n presence of any great cri s is, and

had at h is command the prestige of the

Roman name . The Sadducean high priest

Caiaphas was on excel lent terms with the

governor . Thus Church and S tate were

leagued together, and the new coinage

wa s careful ly stamped with due regard to

local prej udice . The name of Caesar was

on it,but there was no J upiter

,no image

or form of l iving thing, only a few leaves

and letters— a coin wh ich no sensib le Jew

might hes itate to use.

P AUL OF TARSUS. 2 7

There was of course a good deal of po l i

t ical intrigue simmering, but hardly danger

ous . There was the Herodian party, which

thought the Emperor should restore Agrippa

to the position of h is ancestors as governor

or ki ng : there were the Boethusian Sad

d ucees, who supported th is party ; there were

also the Zealots,who held that ne ither

I dumeans nor Romans should be there ,

and that no king but J ehovah shou ld rule

over I srael . But respectable funct ionaries

could not of course countenance these fana

t ical views . There had no doubt been an

unfortunate incident about the standards ,

from wh ich shrewd observers might have

j udged that P ilate was not the man for a

cris is . He had h is orders from Rome to

set up Caesar’

s ensigns in the c ity,a nd he

had also the warn ing from h is al ly, Caiaphas,

as to the certain resul t. S o he tried a

compromise—the sure expedient of the re

2 8 PAUL OF TARSUS.

spectable o ffic ia l—and it fa iled, and he had

to withdraw. He brought in the ens igns by

night, and smuggled them into Anton ia . A

fierce riot ensued . The J ews who pro

tested against th is i nnovation were not

frightened even when the legion was called

out . They la id their necks bare to the

sword rather than al low the Law to be

broken . So P ilate took h is ensigns back to

Caesarea , and was but the weaker for h is

frustrated show of authority .

Then there was that other difficulty about

the aqueduct. Certainly he meant wel l .

What could be more popular than to supply

the city with water ? Surely no prejud ices

could be hurt . Local labour was employed .

I t was very expens ive,and , i ndeed, the chan

nel altogether wa s nearly forty miles long.

But even th is went wrong. They said he

used the Temple money for the work , and the

crowds mobbed the palace and abused him

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3 0 PAUL OF TARSUS.

everyth ing to lose,and the men whose creed

was broad and moderate—th is wasclearly the

party with which a Roman dip lomat ist might

most easi ly deal . S o Caiaphas was set up ,

and the Pharisees were out of favour . The

Sadducees were fatal i sts, and accepted Roman

rule as such . Besides, they were much occu

p ied with important questions apart from

pol it i cs . Thus the Pharisees had said that

to touch a scrol l of the Law made the hands

unclean , but that the books of Homer did

not . They also had said that a stream of

water from a clean vessel poured i nto one

unclean was unclean even when passing

from one to the other. Again , the Pharisees

had said that an owner was not to’

pay

damages for any harm done by h is slave— the

s lave must pay . This was very misch ievous,

because the Sadducees would certainly lose

money by such a V iew.

Of course the Sadducees had their answers

PAUL OF TARSUS . 3 1

ready in these controversies . They said tha t

the bones of an a ss are clean , the bones of

a h igh priest unclean ; from the first you

may make spoons,but not from the bones of

your father and mother ; and they said that

s laves might set even their masters’

cornsta cks

al ight . The Pharisees further attacked the

Sadducees for writ ing a royal name on the

same page with that of J ehovah but th is was

easi ly proved permissible,s i nce Pharaoh ’s

name occurs with that of J ehovah imme

d iately following in the Pentateuch .

These were the controvers ies ; nor were

they much more important i n P ilate’s eyes

than those of the grammarians over a

Homeri c part icle . They kept the J ews

quiet and d iverted thei r minds from affai rs

of S tate,and as such they had their value .

But though the Sadducees held the office

of high priest and fi l led the Temple w i th

h is friends and rela t ives, the Pharisees owned

3 3 PAUL OF TARSUS.

the most d istinguished scholar in the town .

H is name, i ndeed , was known far beyond

J erusalem his opin ion was carr ied by letter

to the J ews of Gal i lee and of Da roma, nay,

even to the dispersed i n Baby lon , i n Media ,

and in Greece, i n the matter of the ti the on

first-fruits of ol ives and corn . He was not

one of the narrow and now rather ant iquated

party of Shammai— of those who made the

Law heavy—but a grandson of the loved

and venerated H il lel , the man who made the

yoke of Moses l ight . He held very l iberal

v iews as to the heathen . He condescended

to return the i r salutations he even said that

a Jew . m ight help them in troub le,the i r

women in childbirth , their s ick when dying .

Nay,more

,he could read Greek

,and was

even suspected to have stud ied in h is

younger days the works of Plato. The

more straight-laced , who cursed the tra nsla

t ion of the L aw, bewail ing i t as a national

PAUL OF TARSUS. 3 3

backsl id ing looked rather coldly on Gama

l iel,but P i late thought that, i f there were to

be any Pharisees at all , i t was wel l to have

Gamal iel as thei r leader .

This was the new world to which Paul

came from the provincia l synagogue to learn

to be a Rabbi . There was a great deal

new and strange to be learned after he had

become accustomed to the c i ty itsel f, to the

servi ces of the Temp le, to the mighty ram

parts raised by Solomon and Nehemiah , to

the gigant ic p i llars of Herod’

s cloisters , to

the wicked statues and fountains i n Herod'

s

palace . Gamal ie l h imsel f and his teach ing

were very d ifferent from what h is Ci l ic ian

tutor had supposed. There was a width of

V iew, a tolerance of things Greek , a philo

soph ic explain ing away of th ings held by the

more conservative to have a purely l iteral

mean ing. There was less about that gloriou s

pol i tica l earthquake which wa s to overthrow

34 PAUL OF TARSUS.

the kings of the nations,and more about the

" powers " and the "aeons " and the demi

urge," words and ideas concern ing wh ich the

youthful l ight of the Tarsus synagogue fel t

h imself wofully ignorant .

I t was under Gamal iel that he learned the

strange ph i lOSOph ic idea that the holy narra n

t ives of the h istory of his forefathers had an

i nner and secret sense . We shal l see later .

that th is k ind of philosophy remained with

h im as a conviction long after his views on

other matters were changed . Abraham and

Sarah and H agar were, he learned , no doubt

real people,but the i r adventures had also

a mean ing and an al legor ical sense. He

learned also that heathen philosophy was

not real ly wicked , but only a bl ind groping

after truth ; that Plato had had some idea

of J ehovah , and that h is doctrines as to the

future—the sc ientific tenets of the majori ty

of c ivi l ized men—could be shown to square

PAUL OF TARSUS. 3 5

with the Law of Moses . Thus Plato

bel ieved in one God , father and creator of

man,and i n h is Word sent forth to create

the world . The Phoen ician philosophers had

said the same . Evidently they got their views

from the first words of Genes is, and , so far

as t hey agreed with this sacred cosmogony,

their views were right. Then, too, Plato held

that the soul was immortal , and so wa s nearer

the truth than the Sadducees . A l together,

said Gamal iel, there was so much that was

true in Plato that he wondered he had never

become c ircumcised . Nothing could be

better than h is views as to p iety, the recom

pense of evi l l ife , the need of enl ightenment

from God . Even h is ideas of transmigration

were true,such as the convers ion of gluttons

into apes and of bees and ants i nto philo

sophers,for had not the soul of I shmael

migrated into the ass of Balaam and Adam’s

soul into David ? A l together it was only to

3 6 PAUL OF TARSUS.

be regretted that P lato l ived four centuries

too early,and was thus unab le to s it at

Gamal iel ’s feet .

Such were the new influences brought to

bear on the young ma n of twenty , whose edu

cation went on in the schoo ls,the synagogues,

and on the Temple steps at J erusalem . Year

by year the sacrifices were offered , the Pass

over feast crowded the c ity, the Romans

maintained the shadow of authority . U nder

Gamal iel , Paul fel t that he wa s not only pious

and orthodox,but learned and scientific a s

well . The consciousness of something better

than th is cloudy speculation and narrow con

trovers ia l rhetoric had not touched h is heart .

P i late had been able for more than five years

to report to the Emperor that al l was wel l .

J erusalem appeared to be at peace ; the Holy

House was deemed to be eternal .

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3 8 PAUL OF TARSUS.

scholars, and the peasantry were ne i ther by

race nor by rel ig ion tru ly Jews . The old

Canaanite stocks, mingled with the colonists

whom the A ssyrians had brought from other

lands, were the tillers of the soil . Among

them the Baal im were sti l l adored—the holy

stones and trees ; and old savage festivals, nay,

even the sacrifice of children and the orgies

of Ashtoreth,were yet practised . Such a

peasantry was not d istinguished from the

heathen they were as the beasts that perish .

I t i s impossible,

" said Gamal iel,

" for a boor

to fear s in , nor can a peasant be a saint ."

But while Phari see and Sadducee al ike

held aloof from the poor and oppressed,while

the Law was never taught to the ignorant nor

the synagogue open to the ploughman,there

was another sect of J ews— J ews by birth , and

Jews in a measure by faith and practice

who held very different v iews as to their duty .

The Essenes were not often seen in cities,for

PAUL OF TARSUS. 39

they fled from the busy and evil l i fe of towns

men to the sol itude of the desert and the

qu ietness of the open field ; but among the

peasa ntry they were known as holy men ,

whose know ledge of heal ing herbs and roots

and stones, and whose kind and s i lent chari ty ,

made them al ike the tr

riend s and physic ians

of the poor. By al l classes they were vener

ated : al l men held that the ir presages came

true ; al l men respected the white garment,

the girdle , the worn Cl oth ing, the peaceful

and kindly l ife of these hermits and monks

of the J ewish world .

The Essenes were found in all parts of

S yria . They seem to have l ived even at

Ephesus, and in the grim desert of Enged i

their lonely cave hermitages were found .

They were cel ibates as a rule , receiving into

their order children who grew up to observe

the ir precepts . Such property as they had

they owned in common , and s tewards held

40 P AUL OF TARSUS.

the common purse . They had no ab iding c ity .

and they wandered from place to place re

ce ived by those of thei r own people whose

homes or monaster ies they visited, and often

depending on the alms of the pious . Their

clothes were worn to shreds be fore they were

renewed,and among themselves they neither

bought nor sold,but gave of their superflu ity ,

and so rece ived . Before the sun rose they

prayed , and bathed their bodies i n cold water .

Before each frugal mea l their priest said grace,

a nd the stranger was free to share their food .

Their l ife was spent in deeds of helpfulness

and mercy , i n the s tudy of ho ly books and

ancient prophecies . They swore not at all ,

save when they took the oath of the order

a fter due probation . J ust ice , fidel i ty,the fear

of God , and obed ience to th e rulers of the

land , to keep the hands clean from theft and

the mouth s ilent as to their own be l iefs

these were the th ings they vowed . They were

PAUL OF TARSUS. 41

more strict than other J ews in observing the

Sabbath, and more constant under the perse

outions wh ich at times fe l l upon them . They

bel ieved that the soul,held in bondage by the

flesh , would rise up immortal at death to a

happy land where there. was no more sorrow .

Men said that their knowledge of the

prophets, their puri ty and favour with God ,

were such that they became able to forete l l

things to come . They said that one of the

Essenes had hailed Herod as king when he

was yet a boy on his way to school . The

Essenes offered no sacrifices, but baptized

their converts ; they were excluded from the

A l tar Court,but allowed to enter the Temple .

I n numbers they were about four thousand, o f

whom the greater part t il led the soil . They

owned no s laves , and desired no riches .

They held that al l th ings were due to the wil l

of God , and such among them as were mos t

severe l ived in desert caves,clothed only with

42 PAUL OF TARSUS.

leaves and eating only roots and berries,while

dai ly bath ing in the mountain brooks . They

hated war also, and fled from the pleasures

which entice the soul . Among their sacred

books were works now lost,in which the

names of the angels were enumerated with

other secret mysteries .

How came i t that these p ious cel ibates

had arisen as an order in Syria,in Egypt, and

even farther west,i n I on ia , during the age

of the Greek domination I n the rel igion of

the Law of Moses we find noth ing to account

for these Quakers of’ the age—Quakers in

a l l save that they were venerated and loved ,

because the Eastern mind cou ld esteem thei r

piety , while the fo l lowers of"Fox were hated

and despised by barbarous peasants and dis

solute Caval iers . The answer is clearly that

some influence outs ide J udaism was permea t

i ng the society of the age in Western Asia .

Nor have we far to seek to find what it was .

PAUL OF TARSUS . 43

Even four centuries before the t ime o f

which we treat there were ph ilosophers

known to A ristotle in Syria whom he l ikens

to those of I ndia. Zeno h imself, the fi rst

S to ic , had come to Macedon from the Phoe

n ic ia n coast,and the S toic had much in com

mon with the E ssene I t was five hundred

years and more since a great thought had

been born i n the heart of the Buddha ; and

with the conquest of Bactria by the Greeks ,

and the rule of half-Greek kings in I nd ia ,

with the trampl ing under foot of caste,wh ich

was the greatest of Buddha’s departures from

older teaching,i t became possible for the

miss ionari es of th is rel igion,and for the

ph ilosophers of a country where human

thought had attained to heights and depths

not dreamed as yet by the Pharisee , to

spread the knowledge of their faith in all

l ands, and to in fl uence the thought and l ife

even of the J ew.

" L ive,

" said the Buddha,

44 PAUL OF TARSUS.

both i n publ ic a nd in private, in the practice

of those virtues which, when unbroken , whole ,

and spotless,make men free, and which a re

untarn ished by bel ief i n the value of outward

rites and ceremon ies or by hope in any

future l ife .

" The rules of the order wh ich

he founded were in al l respects very close to

the practice of the Essenes,but

,though he

den ied not the possibi l i t ies of the future , he

taught men rather to turn the ir thoughts to

the duties of the present world .

" Trouble

not yourselves, he said , " about the gods .

Seek only after the fruits of the noble path

o f self-culture and sel f-control . The shadows

of th is world,love

,ambition

,r iches

,and

honours, pass away, and all that is rea l and

worthy of effort i s found i n th e pure and

kind ly l ife of him who l ives for others . Truly,

of all d ivine gen ius wh ich had been known

among men , that of the I ndian teacher who

tried and proved the van i ty,not on ly of

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46 PAUL OF TARSUS.

thought the s impl icity of a bel ief in l iving

for others .

Among these ascetics none had been

more famous than J ohn the wild hermit of

the J udean deserts. Pharisee and Sadducee

al ike had gone out to hear h im preach and to

see h im baptize ; and , when the cruel tyrant

took h is head,al l classes al ike condemned

the evil deed, for many held J ohn to be a

prophet . Paul himself may have been among

those who heard the voice crying in the

wilderness predicting the end of the present

age and the coming of’

the expected Messiah

but when that voice was s ilent,and the

Messiahs of the age had failed one after the

other in face of authority, the expectation of

the Messiah was once more reduced to a

pious hope of the uncerta i n future which

never inconveniently d isturbed the business

of the present.

Then came the news of a new teacher yet

PAUL OF TARSUS. 47

more loved by the Gal ilean poor. Men said

that he wrought wonders such as were un

known since the days of E l isha ; that he

cast forth devils,and walked upon the sea

and stil led the storm . Certain it was that

he went about doing good and preach ing

to the poor .

There was noth ing very strange in th is .

Many a Rabbi could cast out devils, and al l

men knew how many there were to be so cast

out . More than one Rabbi could fly through

the air, and stil l the tempest . Many another

Essene hermit had healed the s ick and loved

the outcast among the people . But there

was more than th is . Men said he was the

Messiah h imself, raising the dead and preach

ing the kingdom of God . The Sadducean

priests and the Pharisaic doctors,however

will ing to tolerate an Essene teacher, had

l ittle pleasure in the troubles which always

followed the appearance of reputed Messiahs .

48 PAUL OF TARSUS.

The Sadducees bel ieved in no such future

hero ; the Pharisee, however zealously he

pa in ted the joys of the future age of gold ,

was hardly less d i sturbed in h is inmost heart

by the idea that the t ime was come . And

besides , i t was most improbable that in th is

instance the claim could be good . The

Messiah was to be a son of Dav id,to appear

in Bethlehem , whose coming should be as the

l ightn ing flash sh in ing from East to West.

A Gal i lean "a peasant son of a carpenter "

from Nazareth , the rude town where the

rustic dialect was hardly to be understood '

What Rabb i had ever foreto ld such an origin

for Messiah What man of education even

now had declared for J esus of Gal ilee The

th ing was impossible . I t was one of those

popu lar delus ions common among the fisher

folk and ploughmen of the north . There

had been so many of such Messiahs before,

i t wa s strange that they should stil l be able

PAUL or TARSUS. 49

to persuade the people . You might calculate

also from Dan iel that the t ime was not yet

come, and no real ly learned scholar would

al low that the foretokens of Messiah ’s com

ing had yet been manifested .

So thought Gamal iel ; and h is students

repeated h is opin ion when asked what it was

proper and correct for educated and respect

able people to bel ieve .

" No doubt," they

said,

" th is is a good and holy man . No

doubt he does cast out devils,and may

perhaps stil l the storms and even raise the

dead,but that he is the Mess iah no Rabbi

can allow . I f Messiah had come we should

be the first to know. Not among peasants

would he fi rst be recognized,nor would he

deign first to reveal h imself to the beasts of

the people .

"

The Passover season came round . J eru

salem was full to overflowing. The Jews

were flocking in from every s ide, and sorelyD

5 0 PAUL or TARSUS.

taxed the hospital ity of their fel lows i n

the town . They were even sleeping in

the o l ive-yards and camped in the gardens .

The Temple was thronged . The dealers

i n sacrifices had set up the ir booths and

were driving an unusual trade. P ilate ,

who always fel t more uncomfortable at

th is t ime than during the rest of the

year, was l iv ing in Anton ia and had rein

forced the legion . The pilgrims from the

north brought the strange news that J esus

h imself was coming to the feast, and many of

h is poor followers with h im . Paul went out

from the Sheep Gate on the first day’

of the

week , and was among those who fi rst met the

surging crowd which suddenly came round

the bend of the wh ite road from Bethany and

covered the chalky s10pes of Ol ivet,w i nd

ing down towards the vallev. I t was not

unusual to see the wild Gal ilean pilgrims

coming in with palm branches and hymns

PAUL OF TARSUS. 5 1

from J ericho at such a season,but there was

something more on th is occasion to draw

forth the enthusiasm of the people . What is

i t ? The new prophet from Gal ilee . They

are shouting for him as M essiah . He is

coming as the prophecy describes, " rid ing on

a n ass . They are casting thei r cloaks i n

the dust for h im to ride over. H is d isciples

say that the day of h is triumph is come .

The crowd surged by . The white robe,

the chestnut locks, the deep dark eyes, have

been clearly seen by Paul as the slow beast

p icks its way among the stones. A lone i n

all that shouting and triumphant crowd that

face i s stil l and grave . This,then

,i s the

prophet of Gal ilee, and these poor peasants,

with but a s ingle sh irt on their backs and

patched sandals to thei r feet, are the men who

have come to teach Caiaphas and Gamal iel

and to turn the world upside down .

But worse remains behind . The Ga l i leans

52 PAUL or TARSUS.

have gone up to the Temple . They a re

not used to the customs of the p lace .

They find a regular trade i n sacrifices going

on in the courtyard,and the zeal of the

Master has broken forth . The traders are

flying with the1r p igeon -coops and calves over

the Tyropoeon bridge, and the aston ished Paul ,

carried away by the crowd,hears beh ind h im

the voice which cries, " My house shal l be

cal led a house of prayer,but ye have made

it a den of th ieves .

Pi late’s worst apprehensions were real i zed .

A riot i n the Temple , a n angry con fl ic t

between the people and thei r teachers,

and st i l l worse poss ibi l it ies to be feared .

Caiaphas was indignant,and al l h is rela

t ions and retainers were furious . A hasty

council was cal led in the Temple . The

proprieties had been outraged and there

was besides no knowing wha t‘

a dvantage

the Romans might take of these d isorders .

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54 PAUL OF TARSUS .

so quietly with the help of Caiaphas, but for

this unfortunate tumul t. Now even Caiaphas

wil l not hear reason , and ins ists on pun ish

ment by death . Pilate went on shuffl ing and

temporiz ing as long as he could . First he

hears that it i s a Gal ilean,and his diplomati c

mind conce ives a bril l iant idea— to show his

courtesy to Herod and at the same time shift

the burden onto h is shoulder. But Herod

sees through the move , and with equal

courtesy sends back the prisoner. He can

not condemn men to death outside h is own

province . Another expedient occurs to

Pilate’s mind . Perhaps they may take him

instead of Barabbas . He brings them out of

the grimy pri son in the narrow lane . You

may see the fierce fanatical features of the

Zealot l it up by the torches ; the pa le, calm

figure of the poor man’s Messiah standing

beh ind in the shade . But th is again is a

failure. The crowd are main ly fo l lowers of

PAUL OF TARSUS. 5 5

Caiaphas,servants of the priests , or fanat ical

Pharisees . To them the murderer who re

presents their national hatred of Rome i s

more than the Gal i lean prophet. " Not th i s

man,

" they shout with one voice ," but

Barabbas .

Was ever a governor more to be pitied ?

Two factions in the c ity, and a holy man l ike

J ohn,whom Herod was so much blamed for

beheading,the cause of their wrath . Then ,

too , there came that message from his wife

the women were always so much affected by

the Essene l ife, and so much venerated the

teachers of purity and of love—the l ittle no te

sent to the tribunal , " Have thou nothing to

do with th is j ust person . Pilate was gene

rally accustomed to take her advice,and for

the moment the message decided h im .

" I

find no fault i n h im ; neither doth Herod . I

wil l chastise him, and set him f ree .

" J ust

such a compromise as he had always trusted

5 6 PAUL OF TARSUS.

in , and l ike h is former compromises this too

failed . The fierce shouts which shook the

j udgment hal l effaced the memory even of

h is wife’s advice . Meanly he gives up to the

crowd the right of punishment wh ich had but

a few years s ince been taken by decree from

the Sanhedrim .

" Take ye him,and crucify

h im yourselves .

O Pilate, Pilate "i n al l ages your miserable

cowardice and incapacity wi l l be recorded

against you as the cause of the g reatest in

justice’

the world has ever seen . J udas was

a vulgar traitor ; Caiaphas wa s a narrow

minded priest ; but what were you Were

you not placed on your judgment seat to rule

the mob to which you have y ielded D id

not Rome send you forth to uphold j ustice

and mercy, and to see that no good man in

your province shou ld suffer wrong ? You

schemed and flattered and cringed to get

th i s post, and , when the momen t comes for

PAUL OF TARSUS. 5 7

a l i ttle courage, you have disgraced the

Roman name .

But Paul was one in th is fierce crowd .

True,his master Gamal iel had not quite

made up h is mind , but to the student i t al l

appeared quite clear. This could not be the

Messiah , nor could a riot i n the Temple be

j ustified even by the words of a Psalm .

Among the fierce voi ces crying for cruc i

fix ion his, too, was raised he also was one i n

the great crowd wh ich poured out of the c ity

gate to the h i llock on the north There on

the bare l imestone knoll he saw the three

low crosses, the three white naked forms ,

with the darkness of the Ap ri l thunder-clouds

beh ind them,i n the stil lness wh ich went

before the storm . No Mess iah was th is who

bowed his head and d ied with the bitter cry

My God , why hast thou forsaken me ?

Some said he called El ias, but the mystic

El ij ah wa s no doubt recording under the tree

5 8 PAUL or TARSUS.

of Paradise the sin of h im who made a r iot

i n the Temple . No thought of pity has yet

entered the mind of Pau l,but rather as a

zealous Pharisee he rej oices to see the utter

failure of th is ignorant Gal ilean faction which

has convulsed J erusalem for five short days .

( 59 )

CHAPTE R V .

SEVERAL years went by after the fatal day

of the Passover riots . The Gal ilean faction

was not,after al l , extinct, i n sp ite of its

failure . Many people bel ieved that thei r

Master had risen from h is tomb,and few

were the scept ics who would deny that such

resurrect ion was poss ible , seeing that for

almost any miracle there was a precedent i n

the h istory of I srael . The peasant p iet ists

had not returned to Gal ilee ; they were stil l

i n J erusalem,waiting, they said , t i l l the

Master came back, which he had promised

soon to do They were even making con

verts,for publ ic opin ion i s given to react ion ,

60 PAUL OF TARSUS.

and there were many who had grieved to

see the righteous suffer. The sayings of the

Gal ilean were becoming known in the city,

and the story of h is l ife in Gal i lee . Gamal iel

h imself wa s opposed to the violence of Caia

pbas ; and P i late’s position had been severely

shaken . Of h im we need speak no more ;

his miserable career was soon over . The

Samari tans being few in number , he thought

i t safe to massacre them but the legate re

ported h im to Tiberius,and suspended h im

from his post ; d isgrace and ban ishment

followed,and the placeman sinks into that

obscurity from which he should never have

risen,while h is ghost

,says the legend , haunts

the gloomy lake in which the suicide found

a grave .

The posit ion of the establ ished teachers in

J erusalem wa s becoming more difficult than

they had expected . Logical ly,the death of

J esus shou ld have been the end of their

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6 3 PAUL OF TARSUS.

out, as others have done , i f it is let alone .

Persecution makes them strong, and, i f there

were truth in their bel iefs,you are fighting

against God . But the Sadducees were not

to be persuaded ; they bel ieved in neither

Messiah nor resurrection .

" These pestilent

fellows,they said, " are worse than Pharisees

they hold to the same errors, and add others

yet worse. "

Thus,then , Caiaphas, feel ing that stil l

another examp le must be made from among

the Greeks and Hebrews who, one by one ,

were join ing the followers of J esus, seized

on the new convert , Stephen , and tried him

as a blasphemer,one of the charges which

,

with sorcery and idolatry , was puni shed by

ston ing.

The courage of the Essenes was well

known and often shown . The J ewish his

torian says of them that " they gave abundant

evidence how great they were of sou l i n their

PAUL or TARSUS. 63

trial s, wherein , although they were tortured

a nd racked, yet might they not be forced to

b laspheme thei r teacher, or to eat what was

forbidden them : no, nor once to flatter their

tormentors or to shed a tear ; but they smiled

in thei r very pains, and laughed those to

scorn who infl i cted torments on them , and

w i l l ingly gave up their souls as knowing they

should again rece ive them .

"

Once having taken his part, no doubt

that he was right entered the mind of Paul .

Again he went forth with the crowd to the

bare l imestone knoll . On that fatal rock the

witnesses threw off their cloaks , and laid them

at h is feet. The barbarous custom of’

the

Law obl iged the first witness to push the

criminal over the edge, and, if he st il l l ived

after the fall , the first stone was cast at h im,

and al l I srael— that is,every fanati c and

pitiless zealot present—dashed rocks and

stones on the mangled frame. Paul , perhaps,

64 PAUL or TARSUS.

had never before seen the cruel and long

drawn J ewish pun ishment. Never wil l he

forget the pale, unmoved face of the martyr,

and the ecstasy with which he murmurs h is

dying words : " Lord,lay not th is s in to

their charge .

"

The persecution scattered the surv ivors .

From Jeru salem they fled to their friends in

other cit ies , and the second " expedient " of

Caiaphas fai led to stamp out—nay, helped to

spread—the new faith . The struggle became

more bitter with every unjust act of those in

authori ty,and the gentle constancy of the

persecuted advocated their cause . The

young Pharisee of twenty-five, turn ing a deaf

ear to Gamal iel’s voice,was distingu ished for

h is zeal and energy . Who was more to be

trusted to eradicate the heresy " Who more

active in bringing prisoner after prisoner

before the Sanhedrim " Clearly he was the

fi t emissary to whom should be entrusted

PAUL OF TARSUS . 6 5

the task of following the dispersed ring

leaders wherever they might go, confut ing

their arguments,bearing witness to their

blasphemies, warn ing the country Rabbis ,

and bringing the heretics everywhere before

the tribunals of rel igion .

Not unwi l l ingly, on such an errand the

zealous young student of the Law set forth

for Damascus .

( 66 )

CHAPTER V I .

READER, l ike me you may have been one of

the many who yearly cross the stony plateau

west of Damascus—treeless and glaring in

the noonday sun,with brown desert . crags

r is ing before, and castellated ridges behind .

On the right, Hermon rises to the peak

where the snow is not‘

yet melted by the hot

east wind b lowing from the Syrian deserts .

Over th is plain j ourneyed a l i ttle caravan

of J ewish traders . Perched on their mules ,

with their bedding for sadd les , and their

wares i n the gay saddle-bags or hung before

them,they slowly wound along the dusty

road . Above them the fierce m idday sun

PAUL OF TARSUS. 6 7

beat down . I n their faces the parch ing east

wind , dry and unrefresh ing, blew fitful ly .

Their eyes burnt by the glare of the wh ite

chalk, thei r throats and l ip s parched with

heat and dust, they toiled on towards the

yet d istant c ity , which was the ch ief market

of Syria under i ts A rab king,Aretas .

Among these dusty wayfarers was Paul .

From in n to inn , over mountains and plains,

he had for weeks been travell ing from J eru

salem, and to one l ittle accustomed to such

toil the journey had been hard to bear .

Nearly exhausted by that terrible heat,he

s its nodding on h is ti red mule , and many a

former scene comes back to h is m ind . He

sees again the chestnut locks, the deep dark

eyes,the slow beast p icking its way among

the stones . He sees the bare l imestone

knoll,the three low crosses, the three wh i te

naked forms, with the darkness of the

thunder- cloud beh ind them . He sees again

6 8 PAUL OF TARSUS.

the wi ld figures dash ing rocks and stones on

the mangled frame,the pale

,unmoved face

,

the ecstatic gaze ; and i n h is ears stil l ring

the dying Wo l‘ds ' " Lord , lay not th is sin to

thei r charge. "

A doubt c rosses h is mind—the first

doubt he has ever fel t. He is far away from

the narrow fanatics of J erusalem , from the

fierce triumphant cries of those with whom

he has hitherto east i n h is lot. I n the

sol itudes of Gal ilee and Hermon he has

found time for thoughts wh ich never vis i ted

h is mind amid the pas sionate exc itement of

the ci ty l ife . The sun beats down on h is

head, the east wind smites h i s face, and he

fal ls on the dusty road . Then before h im

sh ines a mighty l ight. He is caught up to

the third heaven , he hears the voice of the

thunders in Paradise uttering things unspeak

able . Whether in the body or out of the body

he knows not , but to his ears a gentle voice

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70 PAUL OF TARSUS.

that overcometh the world " ? That n ight

Penn became a Quaker. So also with Paul

the shackles of education , every influence

of home and teacher,every prejud i ce and

conviction , were thrown suddenly from him ,

and he rose to seek the Essene baptism ,

and to withdraw as a hermit i nto the

wilderness .

A fter a t ime- how long a t ime we do not

know—he came back , and , the old sp iri t of

argument mingl ing with his new-born convie

t ion,he began to d ispute with the . Rabbis of

Damascus concern ing the prophecies as to

Messiah . The Jews were powerful‘

i n the

c ity , and wel l regarded by A retas . The

horror and d ismay of the Pharisees may be

imagined . The young man whose coming

had been antic ipated with such sat isfaction ,

Wh ose zeal was so much praised in the J eru

salem letters, who was to argue down the

heret ics and rid the land of their m isch ievous

PAUL or TARSUS. 7 1

doctrines,came indeed at length , but came as

a convert. I t was such a p ity, so fine a

career spoiled , so excel lent a you ng man gone

hopelessly wrong, such shame to I srael i n the

s ight of the heathen . So also said the world

when Penn’s father (the imperious old man

with a warm heart,much to be pitied) turned

him out of doors . Y et from the fol ly of

Penn rose the S tate of Pennsyl vania, the

first S tate founded in that age where the

rights of human i ty ,‘

the doctrines of peace

and just deal ing and freedom , Were carri ed

into practice . Nay, before h is death even

the o ld seaman‘

was obl iged to confess ," Son Wil l iam, i f you and your friends keep

to your plain preach ing and plain l iving ,

you wil l make an end of priests to the end

of the world .

Paul was only twenty-five, a n age when

not unfrequently men first th ink for them

selves,and break away from the old habits

7 2 PAUL OF TARSUS.

and bel iefs due to education ; but i t i s very

difficult for their elders and teachers to be

l ieve that Opin ions formed at such an age

can have any value,especially when they

are new and confl ict with the general views

of soc iety . The prudent man who has no

ca l l to convert the world conceals the new

thoughts ris ing in h is mind ; but of such

stuff Paul was not made Henceforth i t i s

to be h is fate,wherever he goes

,to s ti r up

fierce controversy and pass ionate oppos ition .

I t began at Damascus it went on for nearly

th irty years of stormy l ife . Without such a

man’s aid the new faith must have died out,

as the Syrian sects did gradually d ie ; for,

bi tter a s was the contradiction his advocacy

aroused,there was that i n h is education and

acknowledged learn i ng which made him

more formidable to the doctors of the day

than any poor fisher of Gal ilee, however

near he may have been to the Master. The

PAUL OF TARSUS. 7 3

doctors of Damascus were roused at once

to fury, and the career of the great miss ion

ary begins with a hasty departure in a basket

let down the wal l . Many such adventures

are before h im The small and feeble frame

has many toils to undergo ; but the sp iri t

burns more keen ly with in after every per

secution endured .

Among the many strange facts i n th is

strange l ife, none i s stranger than the sudden

ness wherewith , without i nstruction , without

any real knowledge of the teach ing and l ife

of his new Master, Paul flung himself to

the front as a champion . D istrust and sus

p ic ion could not at once be overcome . H is

presen t conduct might be only a stratagem,

an unscrupulous attempt to entrap h is vict ims .

These doubts i n t ime were found to be

unj ust ; but i n all h is writings Paul never

quotes the words of J esus,never refers to the

general ly cred ited story of h is l i fe , never

74 PAUL OF TARSUS.

rea l ly enters into the spirit of the Master he

had elected to serve . H is mind can on ly

receive that which i t i s fi tted to hold . H is

argument is always the same , and is confined

to a bel ief that Messiah had come ; that the

old world had passed away, with al l its dut ies

and rules that the end was n igh—the great

final catastrophe at the door ; and that time

was scan t to warn men of what had happened

and what was about to come , to bid them

l ive,not as they were to l ive for centuries to

come,but as those who await the immediate

approach of the end of the world .

Three years passed away from the day

when he fel l i n the dust of the desert,years

of wh ich we know noth ing except that he

returned to h is home at Tarsus . What a

coming home was that " The Buddha came

back to h is royal father w i th shaven head

and begging bowl,and history records many

another painful meeting between the old

PAUL OF TARSUS. 7 5

world father and the reforming son . But of

Paul’s relat ions to hi s parents'

a nd to h is

early teachers we learn nothing : a gulf is

fixed between his old and h is new l ife, and

we find h im obl iged to earn h i s bread as a

carpet-maker or perhaps subsisting at times

on the alms of the p ious .

Another great change i n h is future was

due to the cel ibacy of the sect which he

joined . The J ew was bound to marry early .

" Child ren’s chi ldren are the crown of old

men,

" said the proverb .

" Many ch ildren

are fit for the righteous, said Rabbi S imeon .

" A t e ighteen a man should marry ," sa id

J udah son of Tamai . But Paul , awaiting

from day to day the great catastrophe , after

wh ich there should be neither marrying nor

giving in marriage,though free from the

fanatical hatred of women which has d istin

gu ished Chri stian fathers of the Church , yet

would have al l men even as h imself.

PAUL OF TARSUS.

Pride of education and the old habits of a

sect which held aloof from others struggled

ever in h is heart with the new conviction .

I t was d i fficult for h im to go as an equal to

meet the Gal i lean fisher round whom the

Church was gathered . Never could he quite

enter into the spir i t of h im who taught that

men must become as l ittle ch ildren . Even

in his latest days he penned the d iscordant

words " " When I was a child I spake as a

ch ild,I understood as a ch i ld , I thought as a

ch ild , but when I became a man I put away

child ish th ings . "

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7 8 PAUL OF TARSUS.

act of prudence had been manifested by the

gracious rain wh ich at once followed a long

continued drought .

There were other evils i n J erusalem itsel f.

I t i s true that Caiaphas h ad been deposed

almost as soon as P ilate was d isgraced , but

J onathan son of ' Amanns, who thus recovered

h is former office, was l ittle better than the

usurper.

The clemency of the legates had given

greater l iberty of action to the Sadducean

priests than that which they enj oyed even

under P i late . The luxury of these pontiffs

exceeded any yet known in J erusalem . Their

tunics cost an hundred minas. Some even

performed the sacr ifices in gloves of s i lk .

The servants of the high priest beat the sons

of I srael i n the street . The nephews and

cousins of the pontiff held al l offices of im

portance i n the c ity . The mighty banquets

which he ate could on ly be compared to the

PAUL OF TARSUS. 7 9

gluttony of Agrippa . I t was wh ispered that

three hundred calves,three hundred pipes of

wine , and forty sea/ts of young pigeons were

dai ly required by the household of I shmael

ben Phabi .

Amid these scenes of luxury and of agita

t ion Paul came back to Jerusalem , to see and

talk with two humble followers of J esus who

sti l l l ived i n the c ity—Peter the fisher and

James the brother of the Lord , with whom he

dwelt for fifteen days, his first initiat ion i nto

a c loser fel lowship with those to whom alone

the Master’s l ife was fully known . Trad it ion

relates that J ames was of the most ascetic

class of an ascet ic sect . He ate no meat, and

l ived only on herbs and leaves . Hateful to

the luxurious priesthood,he was yet respected

by the people,and when twenty-four years

later he was stoned, together with h is com

panions,there were many in the c ity who

protested against the renewal of persecutions

8 0 PAUL OF TARSUS.

which had not been attempted for nearly a

generation .

I f you would wish to know what these ob

scure pietists bel ieved, and how the doctrines

which in after-years took so many forms and

developed so many strange antagon isms first

were taught, there is stil l extant a l ittle letter

by James to the twelve tribes of I srael—a

letter which you may read in a quarter of an

hour, and which sets forth clearly his simple

creed . Nor can it be said that (save in a

few quain t bel iefs wh ich were common ly held

by al l men around h im) th is letter has be

come either obsolete or without a value even

now,e ighteen centuries and more since it was

penned . We may regard some of its sayings

as tru isms, but they were not so when they

were written . Only because they have ever

s ince been inculcated on generations of human

beings have they come to be accepted as the

h ighest ideals of c ivi l ized man . I f we look

PAUL OF TARSUS. 8 1

back at the barbarism , the selfish sensual i ty ,

the mad luxury, the bitte r slavery, of the age

in which this letter was wri tten, we can hardly

fa il to acknowledge that the l ittle band of

humble ascetics who looked to some better

future for the world were indeed the " sal t

of the earth . U topians they were no doubt

pronounced to be by practical men who

knew the world,but, reader, have you stud ied

Moore’s U top ia," and have you discovered

that i n a few centuries the dreams of enthu

s iasts become the real it ies of l ife ?

" Pure rel igion and undefiled is’

this,said

J ames : " to v is i t the fatherless and widows in

the ir affl iction , and to keep h imself unspotted

from the world Against the rich and

powerful , whether Roman emperor or Saddu

cean pontiff, he brought the charge which the

experience of every day proved true : " Ye

have desp ised the poor ." Not that revolut ion,

equal ity, or social i sm were preached by James

8 2 PAUL OF TARSUS.

or by J esus himsel f. Horses must be curbed

by bits : ships must be directed by rudders "

the Essene sects were ever obed ient to

authority, and never sought to be " many

masters but because the rich had forgotten

(or, rather, as yet had never conceived) the ir

duty to the oppressed . Behold the h ire of

the labourers who have reaped down your

fields, which is of you kept back by fraud ,

cri eth , and the cries of them which have reaped

are entered in to the ears of the Lord of

Hosts . " " Ye have condemned and k i l led the

just,and he doth not resist you .

" The old

hatred of war, of pride, and of lust breathes in

th is short letter ; the old Essene command," Swear not at all ; let your yea be yea , and

your nay, nay , i s repeated . We are among

the Quakers of the age, and the love of jus

ti ce,mercy, and freedom , which was almost

extinct among greedy priests and ambitious

pol it ic ians, was nourished by a few poor J ewish

PAUL OF TARSUS . 8 3

heretics more zealously than by al l the ph ilo

Sophers of A thens or of Rome .

There are no doubt bel iefs whi ch find

utterance i n James’ letter wh ich seem igno

rant enough . To try to cure s ick persons by

o il and prayer may excite the contempt of the

modern scientific phys ic ian . We do not

bel ieve that rain is granted to the sol ic ita

tions of hermits any more than i t is due

to the spel ls of Zulu witch doctors . J ames

announced that the coming of the Lord was

n igh, and eighteen centuries have passed

s ince then . But, i f we would know the secret

o f the vital i ty of th is small sect, we must turn

rather to those truths wh ich remain true to

our own days, and not solely crit icize their

s imp le -minded errors . " For if there come

into your meeting a man with’

a gold ring and

fine clothes,and there come also a poor man

with vile attire,and ye have respect to him

that weareth the gay cloth ing, and say to h im ,

84 PAUL OF TARSUS.

S i t thou here in a good place , and say to the‘

poor, S tand thou there Hearken , my

beloved brethren , hath not God chosen the

poor ? I s th is a text from which no

sermons may be preached even in our day

And yet more, d id'

it not need preach ing

when the terrible luxury of the times was

gri nding the very l ife out of those uncared

for dregs of human ity ?

With such teach ing, a simple l ife and a very

primitive organ ization went hand in hand .

We know before a century was over how

these l ittle social groups were d istributed a l l

over Western As ia and I taly. They existed

i n Rome, they were found on the gloomy

shores of B ithynia, they had centres at Pel la

a nd Kokaha beyond J ordan , they were even

establ ished i n Corinth and in Thessaly. The

d istinctive rite was the Ho ly Supper—whichhad been a practice among Essenes many

eenturies before—now consecrated yet more

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8 6 PAUL OF TARSUS .

followers of J ames used to hold : when men

from city a nd country met to read the

prophets and to hear the expositions of the

elders with pious exhortations and prayers ,

fol lowed by the b read and wine, and by the

distribution to those who were sick and

absent,by the hands of deacons . Hymns

also were sung, no doubt in that h igh nasal

falsetto which you may st i ll hear at the

Passover supper . After the common feast

there wa s a further washing of hands, and

also after every prayer.

There were, however, claims made, and

common ly received as well authenticated,

which no re l igious sect of our own t imes has

long been able to support . I t was bel ieved

that these holy men not only cured s ickness

by prayer and unction,but were able a lso to

cast out devils . The claim was not pecul iar

to the sect or to the country. Phi losophers

and ascet ics from I ndia to I taly many centuries

PAUL OF TARSUS. 8 7

before,and many other centuries after, made

this claim . I t was commonly be l ieved that holy

men had power over demons , and especial ly

those who knew Chaldean charms . Rome

was ful l of such wonder-workers , at whom

philosophers scoffed and to whom the pOpu

lace went to inquire . Nor are they extinct

among us even now. The claim made by

the followers o f J esus was,that they exor

c ised without reward or h ire . There were

the demons who threw their victims down ,

those who stalked by their s ides,those who

inhabited thei r bodies as python ic and ventri

loqu ia l spiri ts . Demons, says the author w ho

describes these bel iefs about a century later,

invade even houses,and p lague thei r human

victims with fancies both in chapels and

in chambers . ' This bel ief in the power of

exorc is ing devils was at once a strong c laim

in the vulgar opin ion , and also the best

reason for the contempt fel t by Roman

8 8 PAUL OF TARSUS.

ph ilosophers for a sect whose teach ing they

took no pains to investigate. I f these same

ph ilosophers had found occas ion to vis i t the

d im cemeteries where the despised pietists

were laid , they might perchance have found

something more to admire in the short

memorial texts on " the walls . " My most

sweet ch ild .

" " My dearest wife .

" " My

innocent dove . My honoured father and

mother. " My most loved husband .

" My

spotless lamb .

" Such are the tokens of a ffec

t ion which have come down to our own t imes

in the Roman catacombs , i n a city d i sgraced

by every crime,every spec ies of barbarous

torment of h is fellows, that man has ever

conce ived . I t was not unnatura l for men of

education to laugh at what seemed on ly a

new craze, or popular delusion , but it had been

better for the Empire if the truths wh i ch

underlay these errors had been earl ier re

cogn ized .

PAUL OF TARSUS . 8 9

On ly fifteen days Paul stayed at J erusalem

with h i s new assoc iates— men whom he had

once both despised and hated,and with Whom

even now he had some d ifference of opin ion .

F ifteen days was not long to devote to a

new rel igion , but there was not much to learn

or teach .

’

The main point was agreed, that

J esus the Mess iah was soon to return . Nor

was there any doubt in the ir minds that the

teaching was to be laid before Greeks as wel l

as J ews . The school of wh ich Gamal iel wa s

the head was l iberal i n i ts views as to the

Genti les ; the E ssenes had never narrowed

their sympath ies with in the bounds of Phari

saic pride . I t was 'to the poor and the out

cast that they turned , and the peasants were

not J ews,nor even of J ewish race . Peter

,

the rude fisher,may have had in h is ve ins the

blood of those stubborn old Canaan ites whom

the Hebrews never exterminated and there

i s indeed noth ing more notable than the

90 PAUL OF TARSUS.

tolerance which in this age Wa s growing up ,

under the Roman influence i n the East , where

Jew,Greek

,barbarian , Egyptian, and I tal ian

l ived together i n the same c it ies and under

the same rulers . The schoo l of Shammai

might procla im that not a s ingle human being

save themselves was to enjoy a future l ife ,

but the idea of a rel igion which took no

count of race, custom ,or language , of caste

or class,was already five centuries old i n

As ia .

Moreover,as regarded the advocacy of

the cause,Paul felt h i s own powers to be

a l l -su fficient . Had he not studied under the

most learned doctors Was not h is education,

compared to Peter’s , as that of the Oxford

graduate to the p loughman He came rather

to approve than to be approved ; to announce

h is equal i ty, rather than h is submiss ion . D id

he ask anyth ing of the l ife and thoughts of

the Master they both served ? If so , the

PAUL OF TARSUS. or

knowledge he gained seems to have had

l ittle place i n h is after-thoughts . Had he

but truly humbled his heart and left to us a

contemporary record of a l l that he was told,

we should wil l ingly have dispensed with the

Rabbini cal rhetori c,the vehement self- asser

t ion,the ph i10 30ph ic explain ing away of

ancient narratives,of which he seems to have

been so proud, but which i n our own days

have so l i ttle value . One circumstance alone

excites h is imagination and fi l l s h is m ind .

This unknown teacher,whose words he never

quotes and whose l ife he never records, was

reported to have been seen of his d isciples

after death . The testimony of Peter and

James on th is point—of men neither learned

nor sceptical themselves— he took unques

t ioned . L ike others of the same age,he was

fully persuaded of the poss ibil ity of such an

occurrence , and the vis ions which he had

h imsel f seen convinced him of the truth .

92 PAUL OF TARSUS.

Thus , after that brief V l S l t to J erusalem ,

he went back to Asia M inor convinced of

occurrences wh ich never came with in his

own knowledge , and zealously advocating

though but imperfectly representi ng— the

claims of a Master to whom he had never

spoken , and predicting an immediate catas

trophe which as year after year passed by he

conceived to be ever at hand,but which

more than eighteen centuries after h is death

is stil l as much unreal ized as on the firs t day

of his preach ing. I t i s among the most

remarkable facts i n h istory that truths which

apply to man in a l l ages a nd countries should

have been spread abroad in the Roman

empire by means of such il lus ions and

mingled with so many errors .

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94 PAUL OF TARSUS .

preceded the new preacher,establ ish ing them

selves in every trad ing city and along every

shore. Whether Paul h imsel fwas engaged in

commerce or sole ly occupied by his miss ion ,

i t was with traders that he j ourneyed and in

commercial c it ies that he p reached .

Of his travels we gather very l ittle from

the letters to his fol lowers which he penned

from a d istance . He refrains , as a rule, from

boast ing of h is d ifficul ties , but once he breaks

forth w ith a summary of his toils . Of the

J ews ," he says , " I five times rece ived forty

stripes save one , thrice was I beaten w i th rods,

once was I stoned ; thrice I was shipwrecked ;

a day and a n ight have I been in the deep,

j ourneying oft, perils from waters, peri ls from

robbers,perils from my own countrymen ,

peri ls from the heathen,peril s i n the c ity

,

perils i n the wilderness , peri ls of the sea,

peri ls among false brethren .

~ I n weariness

and painful ness, in watchings oft, i n hunger

PAUL OF TARSUS . 95

and th irst, i n fastings often , i n Cold and

nakedness, bes ides the th ings wh ich are

without, which come on me daily—the care

of all the churches."

I t was a restless,feverish l ife . Wherever

he went he roused the pass ions of J ew and

Greek al ike . Not,i t would seem, h imself a

lovable man,but one always ready to contend

"

with friend as wel l as foe,he was intolerant

to Pete r, he quarrel led wi th Barnabas , he

was never content to work with other men ;

but yet there were in the man great powers

and affect ions wh ich could not be marred

even by the hardness of h i s indomitable will .

No persecution ever shook his purpose,no

doubt or d iscouragement paralysed h is action .

A man with whom al l strong and stern men

who followed h im have been in sympathy,

and whose m ind has influenced the h istory

of many lands where h is foot never trod .

We have an account of h is travels, wri tten

96 PAUL OF TARSUS .

perhaps by one of the next generation , which ,

though invaded by the legendary overgrowth

which in those t imes sprang up so qu ickly

round the h istory of any man of mark , yet

no doubt faithfully represents the main events

of h is wandering l ife ; and , except when the

writer is not in accord with the few notes

left to us i n Paul’s own lette r s , the narrat ive

of th is legend may be accepted for our

guidance.

From Antioch and the sha llow bay of

Seleucia the new preacher crossed over by

sea to Cyprus . He passed a long the

southern coasts as fa r‘

as the famous shrine of

Aphrod i te at Paphos,then the scene of one

of the most degrad ing rituals of pagan ism .

On the altar of the goddess no blood was

ever shed , and men bel ieved that no rain ever

fel l upon it . The great con ical stone which

was her emb lem veiled an obscene meaning .

The votive offerings were equally obscene,

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98 PAUL OF TARSUS .

but the crowded fi lthy gal leys , often creeping

only under the oars wh ich the slaves, stung

with the wh ip,laboured wearily to pu l l

through the waves, must be endured , some

times for weeks together. Pleasant it may

have been at times to sail the " wine

coloured sea " among the rocky islands of

Greece, but not when overcrowded ships

were labouring in the fierce winter storms

of th is inhospitab le coast, and the waves

dashed over the frightened mob, the chained

slaves,the savage sai lors .

Landing on the Pamphyl ia n coast, Paul

followed the trade route to I conium,clam

bering up

'

the steep mountains,with woods

of pine, oak , and beech , deep alpine ravines

w i th'

foam ing streams, beyond which towered

the snowy tops of the Carian mountains, and

thus reached the treeless downs of Lycaon ia,

where water is found only in deep wel ls,and

where a coarse grass for the flocks alone

PAUL OF TARSUS. 99

springs from the desert soi l . I t was a

country where only pastoral tribes had ever

l ived—the wild Turkish peasants who tended

their goats,camels

,and black cattle, or l ived

by robbery, or drove thei r rude waggons to

the great sal t lake farther north,bringing

into I con ium the wools and salt wh ich were

the ir only saleable articles . Over these

plains the wild asses yet roamed . I n the

mountain s there were boars and wolves,

and on the open downs the wild deer

and antelope . Everywhere the rocks were

pierced with ancient tombs , rel i cs of bygone

races . The peasants themselves l ived , l ike

the Seiri tes of old, i n underground bur

rows . Over th is country the road lay for

two hundred miles by I con ium back to

Tarsus .

I t was a region stil l ful l of wild legends,

and where men stil l bel ieved the gods some

times to come down to earth . On the west

I 00 PAUL OF TARSUS.

was the kingdom of M idas,the king with

ass’

s ears . On the east,at Apamea

,the

Chaldean legend of the a rk and of the flood

was s ti l l bel ieved . I t was here that Zeus

and Hermes came as travellers to visit the

pious Bauci s and her husband . Men might

perhaps yet po int out the aged trees bend

ing towards each other i n which the souls

of the happy pair were sti l l bel ieved to

dwell .

What hope was there of teach ing better

th ings to the naked and starving savages

of this desert ? Hardly, in some places, had

they ever seen a stranger. A t one village

(so the story goes) the travel lers were re

ceived as gods , with sacrifices . Paul , with

his low th in figure and rapid speech,these

slow-witted boors regarded as Hermes , and

h is tal l comely compan ion as Zeus . The

J ews of I con ium were furious,and roused

up fanatics to stone him and leave him for

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1 0 2 PAUL OF TARSUS.

wooden houses rose from the bare and

wind-swept steppes . There were J ewish

merchants here , with a synagogue, and to

them Paul expounded h is bel iefs, meeting

with h is usual reception : a few bel ieved, a

greater number were furious against the

heretic . The expulsion of Paul was, how

ever, never the defeat o f h is teach ing, for

wherever he went a few poor bel ievers were

left beh ind h im .

How long these journeyings lasted we do

not know,but Paul l ived not less than four

teen years on the south coasts of As ia M inor

before he again went up to J erusalem to see

the brethren . During th is t ime the sect had

spread through Syria,and some were found

even in Antioch,and here first they received

a name which has been theirs ever s ince .

The Greek language was that in which—as

a sort of l i ng ual f m m a—the new teaching

was mainly uttered,and

,to the Greeks , the

PAUL OF TARSUS. 1 03

fol lowers of Messiah were Christians ; but

the common people knew nothing of Chri stos,

and in vulgar parlance the term was almost

a t once changed to Ch restian , or " pietist ."

The new ascetics were known,i n fact

,as

" good folk " by those who neither cared for,

nor were ab le to understand, their tenets,

and only saw the i r blameless l ife. The mis

take was pointed out constan tly for three

centuries , yet the old error continued ; nor

was there anyth ing of which the Chri stians

need have felt ashamed i n the popular mis

nomer.

Antioch , the great trad ing capital of As ia ,

was already the abode of Essene hermits,

whose caves remain burrowed in its rocks .

I ts pi l lared streets , i ts race - course , i ts baths

theatres, aqueducts , basil icas, and statues, i ts

populat ion of two hundred thousand souls,i ts

ramparts scal ing the mountains , i ts famous

shrine of Daphne among the Oleander

1 04 PAUL OF TARSUS.

th ickets of the Orontes, made Antioch a

centre of civil ization,without a peer i n

Western A s ia. The J ew,the Syrian , the

Greek , the Mede, the Chaldean , the I tal ian ,

and the Egyptian met in its streets ; and the

Roman ruled them all . There were syna

gogues where the pagans went to swear faith

to one another—a n oath in a J ewish syna

gogue being, for some unknown reason , held

sacred—and in these same synagogues there

were strange dances, with the blowing of cow

horns a t the feast of Tabernacles . The

lower classes were as superstitious as else

where . They t ied old coins of A lexander

the Great to the l imbs of their ch ildren for

luck, and decked themselves with amulets .

The greatest misery and the most unbounded

luxury existed s ide by s ide . The furn iture

was of gold , the robes of s ilk, i n’

ri ch men’s

houses ; the slaves were beaten with thongs,

or their flesh torn with hooks,at their

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1 06 PAUL OF TARSUS.

I n Antioch a dispute arose between Peter

and Paul . We have Paul ’s account of the

matter, which does h im credit . We have not

got Peter’

s , and must therefore beware lest

we condemn h im unheard . But,though the

fact of this d ispute cannot be doubted,there

i s no reason to suppose that the results were

e ither al i enation or hatred . I f the facts are

as Paul relates them,and

,if Peter had real ly

learned the teach ing of h is Master,he may

have been will ing to confess h is error. I t

was, after all , not a very serious matter which

Paul i nsisted on settl ing. Peter had eaten

with the Gent iles " t il l some of J ames’s

friends arrived , when he was careful to avoid

offence by so doing. Paul not only blamed

th is exclus iveness, but somewhat ungene

rously taxed Peter with dissimulat ion . I n

his account he is anxious to show that it was

only a passing disagreement,i n which he was

on the side of l iberal ity towards the stranger .

PAUL OF TARSUS. 1 0 7

The habits of a l ifetime cannot be shaken off

by every man at once . James had l ittle

regard for Gentiles, having l ived among

his own people . Paul from ch ildhood had

l ived with those of other races , and the

question was not wh ich course was r ight , but

whether Peter was j ust ified in h is harmless

d iss imulat ion , whi ch Paul so unceremon iously

exposed .

Out of th is incident a great quarrel has

been supposed by some writers to have

arisen , of which there is no mark at all i n the

early l iterature of the subject . I f Paul had

hated the followers of Peter, he would never

have shrunk from so saying in every letter he

penned . He does not, however, say any

th ing of the sort, and it i s only a century later,

when the growth of the Christian sect had

led to many divers it ies and oppos itions,that

th is antagon ism finds expression . The

I tal ian Christians follow Paul ; the Syrians

1 08 PAUL OF TARSUS.

make J ames or Peter their champion . The

later sch ism had no existence among the

immediate contemporaries of the Master who

taught that it was enough for the d isciple

to be as h is Lord .

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1 1 0 PAUL OF TARSUS.

no longer held its proud position as queen

of the c ivi l ized world . I t was no longer the

centre of an active free S tate , push ing forth

its conquering colon ies and thrusti ng back

the tide of invasion from the East . There

was no Plato or Aristotle or Socrates i n

A thens when Paul reached its Acropol is ;

the great th inkers were no more ; the narrow

pedants,who could do l ittle more than pr

serve what Greece,centuries before, had

produced , reigned in the Athenian schools .

The four great ph ilosophic sects no longer

contended, and men , who perhaps had given

up the questions which they asked , were

content with an eclectic repetit ion of what

was most generally admired in the teaching

of each ancient master . The country was

ruined , sufferi ng from the exactions of Roman

rulers . I ts trade and its a rt were drawn

away to Antioch and to Rome ; the fields

were hardly til led,and the poverty of al l

PAUL OF TARSUS . 1 1 1

classes wa s such that impious men had

al ready even laid hands on the innumerable

statues in go ld and ivory and bronze which

crowded the temples—gifts of heroic c itizens

of former days .

Ph’

i losophy in Athens was confined to the

few. The lower classes were as superstit ious

and as ignorant as elsewhere . They bel ieved

in the oracles which crows and goats , trained

by the priests , uttered , as the learned pig

aston ishes the yoke". They consulted

Hercules by throwing d ice— as the Chinese

townsman st il l d ivi nes h is fate . The mystic

orgies, the human sacrifices , the brutal con

tests of boys who fought i n bands in celebra

t ion of the feast days , the indecent p ictures

which adorned the wal ls o f houses, the

l i cence of manners and of talk among a l l

classes,witnessed a barbarism l ike that of

other Greek lands through which Paul had

j ourneyed or in which he had been reared .

1 1 2 PAUL OF TARSUS.

H is attention was ch iefly roused by the

innumerable statues, from the rude painted

figures of prim itive t imes to the later glories

of Ph id ias, mingled with inferior Roman work ,

and , a l ittle later, with images even of Nero

himself. A t the port of Athens he found

altars with the inscript ion " To unknown

Gods , which were standing a century later

when Pausan ias visited the city,and these

especial ly arrested h is thoughts . He argued

and expounded daily in the markets with

J ew and Greek,and aroused the curios ity

even of the Epicureans and S toics—the latter

well i n cl ined to the ascetic teaching of the

kindred Essene sect.

Now,Paul has told us that he always

strove to make his preach ing intell igible and

acceptable by presenting it i n famil iar guise .

He was " al l th ings to al l men ," no doubt

because, as a rule, he regarded al l men as less

gifted and more ignorant than himself. But

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1 1 4 PAUL OF TARSUS .

noth ing, and it was not t i l l many generations

later that any A then ian ph i losopher jo ined

the Chri stians . The general ve rdict was,

that the preacher had nothing new to say .

As regarded resurrection , that was no new

idea. Apo llon ius was even then vulgarly

bel ieved to be rais i ng the dead . Plato had

bel ieved that a Pers ian sage had risen from

his funeral pyre on the twelfth day . This

J esus whom Paul preached (and preached so

imperfectly) was apparently only a new

wonder-worker, l ike the countless other

practise rs of magic in whom the populace

beheved .

As regarded the one God, maker of al l

th ings,even Sophocles had long ago pro

claimed the truth in better words than Pau l’s

broken jargon of J ewish Greek .

One in good t ru th—yea , God i s one,Wh o made th e h ea ven and the widespread ea rt h ,B lue b il lows of th e deep, migh t of th e wind .

But we poor morta ls, in our ignorance,

PAUL OF TARSUS .1 1 5

To sola ce trouble of our hea rts have ra ised

Likeness of gods of s tone,a nd bra ss, and wood ,

And figures wrough t in ivory and gold .

And sa crifices a nd va in fes tiva ls,Ha ve offered th ese, and deemed ourselves devou t ."

Poor Paul had never heard of Sophocles,

and knew on ly by hearsay the teach ing of

P lato . He came to preach the immortal ity

of the sou l to men who had already bOth

conce ived the idea and doubted the resul ts

of the ir own thought. " The soul ," said

P lato, " departs to deity , but, i f earthly

minded , i s held fast and haunts the tomb , or

wanders unti l imprisoned once more in a

body.

" The final b l iss to wh ich the followers

of Plato looked was that to which Buddh ist

and yet earl ier B rahmin thinkers had long

s ince po inted , when the real should be free

from the il lus ion of material existence,the

i dea , as Plato called it, free from the pém o

mama which fade away and d ie .

" A round

the Ruler of all,al l th ings move , and

1 1 6 PAUL OF TARSUS .

he only is the cause of al l good th ings .

There is but one God was not a new

idea in Athens . Pythagoras had known it

even before P lato .

The minds of the phi losophers were ,

indeed, occupied by quite other questions .

Any who were more than mere pedagogues

or impostors robed in the S to ic cloak were

concerned rather to know what was the

primary divine orig in of matter—whether

Thales was right when he said water,or

Herac l itus i n considering air, to be the ori

gina l material , or Anaximander the heaven ly

bodies,or S trato sky and earth, or Plato

the stars .

Absurd as such speculation may sound,i t

was an immense stride from the old ignor

ant cosmogonies of Babylonian tablets and

Hebrew scrolls : i t was the dawn of that

sp iri t of inquiry into the facts of existence to

which we owe the truths of modern science .

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1 1 8 PAUL OF TARSUS .

Opposition . But the proconsul wa s a man

of education and character,elder brother of

Seneca , and possessing that spiri t of good

natured tolerance wh ich made the Romans

capable of rul ing other races . He neither

took the J ewish side nor was he interested

i n Paul’

s pecul iar v iews . I t was noth ing to

h im that the J ews beat their Rabbis before

the judgment-seat, so long as publ ic order

was not seriously menaced . For this wise

conduct, fit for a governor of mingled

populations,Marcus Annaeus Nova tus, the

adopted child of J unius Gall ion , has come

down to us in the pages of h istory‘

in the

false guise of a careless and indifferent

Gall io.

I n time Paul left Corinth and, with Aquila

and Priscilla, passed over to Ephesus, a nd ,

leaving them there,returned to Antioch . I t

wou ld appear that h is companions returned

to Rome when, with the access ion of N ero,

PAUL OF TARSU S. 1 1 9

the c ity was once more opened to the J ews

and a fact wh ich is often forgotten seems

to be indicated by the mention of thei r

names in a letter from Paul to the Roman

J ewish converts which appears to have

been written some years after the death of

Claud ius—the fact that at least th irty of

the new sect had settled in the Imperial

c ity before Paul h imself came th ither as a

prisoner.

A year passed , and Paul again traversed

Asia M inor and arrived a second time at

Ephesus . H is work was attracting more

attention than i t used to do fourteen years

or so before , when the number of h is

friends and converts was so small . I n

those years he had succeeded in plant

ing l i ttle social centres i n most of the

larger towns where their secluded l ife

and quiet d i sapprobation of the manners

and morals of the many were gradually

1 20 PAUL OF TARSUS .

rousing the hatred of Jew and Greek

al ike .

We know how in every age the hatred

of the majority increases in proport ion as

the success of a new idea becomes assured .

A t first s ilen t contempt is expected to ki l l

the eccentric ity wh ich i s so patent to the

ordinary mind . The idea grows even under

th is ch i l ly frost,and one by one i ndividual

minds are att racted . S til l , i t i s on ly the

Opin ion of the few, and , therefore, unsafe

i n the eyes of those who fol low l ike sheep

the o ld appointed bel l-wethers of society.

Neither contempt nor rid icule nor futi le

persecution had killed this seed , and it

was becoming— on ly twenty -four years after

the execution of J esus—a n absolute danger

to those whose l ivel ihood depended on the

establ ished creeds .

At Ephesus i t i s said that soothsayers had

burned their books and jo ined the p ietists,

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1 2 2 PAUL OF TARSUS .

The original shri ne had been a beech or

elm tree,into which a black meteorite had

fal len . The tree decayed , but the stump was

sti l l adored , and when the great temple , with

its cloisters and pi llars,rose round the shrine

of the " stone that fel l down from Zeus," a

h ideous symbol ic statue was erected . The

mother-goddess , with her many breasts, with

her tower-crown,and oreole of cherubim ,

stretched forth her hands and supported the

l ions on her arms . Her robe was blazoned

with the emblems of an imal creation , with

roses , serpents , and winged harpies . The idol

was not that which Call imachus described as

raised by the Amazons,yet i t was more

archaic than the statues of A thens . U nder

many names she was known in many lands,

and pilgrims came from East a nd West to

worship , taking home with them the l ittle

silver shrines which the smiths of the town

made as models of the sanctuary, and which

PAUL OF TARSUS . 1 23

no doubt were blessed by the " king priests

who served her.

The Temp le of Artemis was the centre of

l i fe in Ephesus . The town was rich and

luxurious—fu l l of magicians , diviners, musi

c ians, and buffoons, of goldsmiths and s i lver

smiths,of those who sold amulets and votive

offerings,of those who deal t i n " Ephesian

letters and spells ; full , too , of J ews, who

dealt perhaps i n forbidden trade with idolaters

-a c ity where the people preyed on human

ignorance and supersti tion . So sacred was

the shrine, that publ i c fund s from various

S tates were hoarded in its treasury as if

i n a bank . The sculptured columns of the

temple were as large as those raised by

Herod in J erusalem,a nd the glory of ver

mil ion and blue, with tracery of gold , made

the shrine resemble an Egyptian rather than

a Grecian fane . Establ ished rel igion mono

pol izes the wealth and influence of the age,

1 24 PAUL OF TARSUS .

and the carpet-maker’s crime in condemning

A rtemis was more heinous than his preach

i ng of a future catastrophe.

I t was,then

,no easy task that Publ ius

Ved ius Anton i nus, the " town secretary ," was

forced to undertake when he mediatized

between the j ustly incensed goldsmiths of

Ephesu s and the enthusiast whose pernicious

doctrine of the vanity of idols had been

freely publ ished in the schools . Perhaps , l ike

Gal l io, he despised the ignorance of those he

ruled , but toleration stops short when pub l ic

order is threatened,

" and publ i c inquiry is

demanded when the proprieties have been

outraged . Before, however, th is lawful course

was poss ible,the innovator had left Ephesus

,

to carry his d iscord -breeding tongue to J eru

salem .

Artemis is no more,the great temple is in

ruins ; but the image of the mother-goddess

stil l stands in famous shri nes where pilgrims

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CHAPTER " .

IT was about th is t ime that Paul wrote

certain famous letters to h is friends i n Rome,

i n Corinth,and among the Galatians wh ich

(with others of less certa in authentic ity)express the v iews which he held , and which

probably he continued to hold to the end of

h is l ife. Without a knowledge of these

wri tings no account of h is l ife can be

complete, yet there is perhaps no more

weari some task than that of obtain ing from

these obscure and ramb l ing effusions— which ,

though written with al l the fi re and energy of

an enthusiast, are yet the products of a

Rabbin ical education—a connected view of

PAUL OF TARSUS . 1 2 7

the teaching wh ich he was convinced to be

truth . Most writers concerning Paul fai l to

interest us because they are more concerned

wi th th is teach ing than with the adventures

and personal ity of the strange teacher I t

i s the man who is in teresting, and not h is

letters ; yet without the letters we cannot

know the man .

One point about these letters wh ich must

be clearly remembered is the smal l amount

of original ity which they evince . Paul was

not a gen ius of the first creative order. He

preached another . He was a convert, a

miss ionary, and an enthusiast , not the Master

of the World .

Mankind has recognized h is proper place

in h istory . Buddha and J esus have been

made gods Paul has never been more than

a saint . The words and thoughts of Buddha

and of J esus stil l " echo in men’s hearts,and

w i l l do so for ever ; but Paul’

s work was done

1 2 8 PAUL OF TARSUS .

long ago,and the world would be no poorer

if h is letters were forgotten . T he zealous

miss ionary is a necess ity i n history , but he

stands in the second rank as the bearer of

good tid ings, not i n the firSt rank of those

who have dared to th ink new thoughts for

the good of men , and to suffer even for the i r

sakes .

Once only does Paul rise to the true con

cept ion of the Gospel which he preached .

" For hardly for a righteous man will one die,

yet for a good man peradventure some wou ld

even dare to d ie. But God commendeth h is

love towards us i n that wh i le we were yet

s inners Chr is t d ied for us ." I t i s because of

the l ife and death of the founder,and not

because of the fantastic ph ilosophy of Paul,

that Chri st ian ity has become the rel igion of

civ i l ized man .

I n reading these strange letters we seek

to know first’

wha t Paul thought of him

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1 3 0 PAUL OF TARSUS .

the only men who have done great th ings in

the world .

As regards God himself,the bel iefs of

Paul were unaltered by h is convers ion . He

held sti l l the v iews of the broad Pharisaic

school of H illel and of Gamal iel . The change

i n his bel iefs was that which has again and

again d ivided into new sects those who

Whether they be Buddhists,Brahmins , Chris

t ians,or Moslems— have seen in some one

man the "World Teacher or the "World'

K ing predicted in the prOphetic writings of

the ir creed , predicted not on ly by Hebrew

prophets,but by

’

Persians,H indu s

,and

A rabs . The majority have always been

content to expect such a Saviour in the

future. The minority have hastened to t e

cognize h im in the present . The result has

been the continual subdiv i s i on of systems

of re l igion in al l cases i n which such a figure

was expected . I t was thus that the D ruzes

PAUL OF TARSUS . 1 3 1

spl i t off from I slam . I t is thus that the

Soudanese Moslems are d ivided from I slam

in our own times . Paul and Gamal iel were

d ivided only on one point—as to whether

or no Jesus was the Messiah . Celsus points

out,three centuries later, that the sch ism

between J ew and Christian rested only on

th is pecul iar tenet. The hope remains the

same even when , century after century,

Messiahs innumerabl e fail and d ie,for the

p ious d isciple procla ims that it is but for a

time that h is bel ief seems bel ied , and that h is

d ead hero must certainly return to prove him

right .

Paul , then , bel ieved in one God . I t took

mankind some four thousand years at least to

fully develop th is bel ief, and even then the

one God was surrounded with hosts of sp ir its .

Men began with countless gods in every

river, tree , cloud , and p lanet. They went on

to establ ish a d ivine o l igarchy of seven,

1 3 2 PAUL OF TARSUS.

twelve,

o r three heavenly rulers . They

whispered at first to the wise only that these

three (or seven , or twelve) were one, and at

length they deposed the celestial council i n

favour of one K i ng and Father. I slam,the

latest of rel igions, i s the one‘

wh ich teaches

least, and who sha l l say wh at in another four

thousand years men may or may not bel ieve

Only one thing is sure . The past i s dead ,

and mankind general ly does not retrace the

steps which its dim intel lect has made

secure .

The conception'

of God which Pau l

bel ieved was ind istingu ishable from that of

other J ewish philosophers . Phi lo, the vene

rable and esteemed wri ter who , having read

Plato,tried hard to recon ci le Greek ph i lo

sophy with J udaism , had influenced Gamal iel ,

and, through h im ,became Paul’s master .

" Prin cipal ities and powers , aeons, archons ,

p leroma , gnosis , the dem iurge, logos, b'

athos,

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1 3 ; PAUL OF TARSUS .

d ifferent to al l other men,destined for im

mortal ity, while Genti les were to d ie l ike the

beasts, and be nomore I t may seem a small

th ing to us but in the t ime of Paul i t was

a great stride in intel lectual thought—for

a Jew .

Another bel ief wh ich Paul had been taught

by his masters was that there existed a

h idden meaning " of the Hebrew S criptures .

Mankind appears always to be determined to

find more in anc ient writ ings than the author

meant to express . I t i s so that the student

of Dante and of Shakespeare reads into h is

author fancies which never entered the mind

of the earl ier gen ius. I t was so that Ph i lo,

shocked by the rude legends of h is own

people,allegorized the stories of the Hebrew

patriarchs . The bel ief lasted long, and Origen

elaborated yet further the al legori cal teach ing

of Pau l . Many of Pau l’s mystic explanations

are found also in the Talmud, handed down

PAUL OF TARSUS . 1 3 5

by d isciples of Gamal iel who had not broken

away from their original creed . There is no

need to expand on such a subj ect, for the

teaching is no longer of importance to those

who are free from the restra in ts of J udaism,

who observe no Sabbath , who perform no

sacrifices, who a re uncircumcised and never

decked with phylacteries, yet who gravely

read the inj unctions of the Pentateuch as

sacred documents of their creed . Perhaps

among book creeds there is none which

presents such strange and inconsistent sur

v iva ls as does the rel igion of Europe in the

present century

One of the most original of Pau l’s views

was that concern ing the Law of Moses .

Education had so ingrained i nto h i s nature a

bel ief in the d ivine origin of national customs

that i t was imposs ible for h is i ntel lect to

escape entirely from the influence of such

teach ing. But in h is mind he reconciled h is

1 3 6 PAUL OF TARSUS .

o ld and new views , with honesty of thought

no doubt, though with a strange absence of

logical courage. The Law was, he bel ieved ,

a d ivine institution intended to rule the J ews

unti l Mess iah came ; Messiah only could

sweep away the Law ; and with J esus i t

ceased to bind even the J ew. The Gentile

who bel ieved on J esus had no need of the

Law ; the J ew who bel ieved might well con

t inne h is trad itional practice and yet be

gathered into the same fold . Soon—very

soon—J esus must return,and then , with the

end of the world , the Law would cease to be .

There was perhaps no tenet of Pau l’

s that

was more odious to J ews than this la titud i

narian teaching as to the Law. To the

orthodox i t was as eternal,as perfect, as fitted

for al l ages and stages of c ivi l ization as the

Gospel is he ld to be by Christ ians,who bel ieve

the Law of Moses to be no longer binding.

To the zealots of J erusalem this dogma was

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1 3 3 PAUL OF TARSUS .

throne in a palace above the crystal firm a

ment, and who soon— very soon—would

come back to gather the elect and to j udge

the world . J ew, Persian, and H indu al ike

bel ieved in s uch a figure,and

,though al l

I srael were " sons of God ," Paul

,i f we

take h is wri tings as evidence, held that the

nature of J esus was someth ing more than

mOrta l . I t i s vain to try to reconstruct

h is tory in accordance with modern scept i

c ism ; and because , i n our own age, we may

deny the possibil i ty of such incarnation , i t

does not fol low that Paul d id not bel ieve i n

the dogma which was so general ly cred ited

by h is contemporaries .

What Paul may have meant by his

exp lanation of a hard fact when he said

that J esus was crucified through weak

ness,i t i s not proposed to ask . Many

exp lanations are poss ible, but the question

i s of l ittle importance . H is doctrine as to

PAUL OF TARSUS . 1 3 9

atonement, which has so much influenced a l l

later teachers , i s very clearly set forth . He

bel ieved that God was angry with men,and

that some gift more precious than any

common sacrifice had become necessary to

appease h is wrath . This sacrifice was to

be , not human , but d ivine . J esus , as a divine

person , had sacrificed h imsel f as a victim

bearing the s ins of all o ther men . H is death

was to be the vengeance on sin which would

sati sfy God . I t was a barbarous and most

i llogical idea . The j ust was to d ie for the

unj ust,and the j ust God was to be satisfied

by h imself slaying h is own son,and no longer

to feel wrath against those who had real ly

done evil . I n a few more centuries i t may

seem di f ficult to thinking men that such a

bel ief shou ld ever have existed , but i t repre

sents a confused train of human thought

which has for many ages found express ion in

action . Not only the J ews , but al l peoples of

1 40 PAUL OF TARSUS .

A s ia and of Europe have tr ied fo r countless

years to avert the dreaded anger of some

god or gods by a bribe or present. The

Celti c herdsman flung a bul lock down the

cl iff to the devil to save the rest of th e

flock . The sins of men were laid on the

goat sent to Azaze l among the J ews . The

Moabites,Phoen ic ians , Greeks, and Romans

sacrificed men to the savage tyrants of

heaven . They even slew their own -ch ildren

that they themselves might escape the

clutches of satiated vengeance . J ehovah

only was appeased by the death of h is own

son ; but the gods who have died for man ,

the self-sacrificers who rise again , are many,

and you may read of them in Vedic poems ,

i n Norse legends,i n the wild myths of

Phrygia and of I nd ia,as we l l as in the

epistles of Paul the apostle .

Such were Paul’s views as to the past .

A s regarded the future,they were equal ly

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1 4 2 PAUL OF TARSUS .t

r

by beasts and eaten by fishes, as to the

decay of corpses and the scattering of bones

in desecrated tombs .

Yes,such difficul ties arose only when the

new body was expected to be material , l ike

the old , but did not ari se when a sort of

ghostly spirit form was expected to grow

from the corpse sown in the earth as

seed for the new form , j ust as corn

springs up glorious from the grain in the

furrow. Pau l’s simile has been admired and

even regarded as proof, though science sees

no parallel between the germ and the dead

rel ics of a former organism ; but the paral le l

was drawn by other Rabbis as well as by

Paul , and was perhaps part of the teaching of

Gamal iel . The dead were to arise i n spiri t

forms , and those who, with Paul , should be

al ive on earth were " i n a moment,

" while

the trumpet sounded , to undergo a painless

change .

PAUL OF TARSUS . 1 43

This bel ief influenced every i nst itution of

the new churches . A l l men were to l ive as

though the great event was expected from

hour to hour. They were to be pure and

kind,to be obedient to authority , excellent

i n family l ife, not to undertake new engage

ments or to seek for wives , yet to fulfi l such

work as they had in hand,and even to wed

the a ffianced . They were to collect for the

poor, to have al l things in common ,to

assemble i n their churches,hearing the

prophecies read,exhort ing one another

,and

commemorating the supper of J esus . Above

all , they were to refrain from the vices wh ich

disgraced the age, and to turn a deaf ear to

those who preached that the ci rcumstances

abrogated all law, and that the l iberty of

Christ was a l i cence to indulge in every

pass ion of a body about to be thrown off

The dogmas so taught by Paul were

1 44 PAUL OF TARSUS.

fals ified by time , but the s imple, loving l ife

wh ich J esus desired for h is d isciples is yet

the ideal towards which mankind s lowly

and with d i fficu l ty creeps, and which i t may

perhaps at length attain .

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1 46 PAUL OF TARSUS.

characteristi cs of the v ictim of every kind

of aesthetic impostor,yet of one whose

wil l as master of the world was obeyed

to the borders of the Parth ian deserts . We

cannot wonder that with such a master the

world went wrong. Misfortunes , crimes, and

disorganization , which were not repaired til l

a century had elapsed , followed the degrada

tion of the central power. Well might sober

and honest men look on th is age as the end

of the world ; and indeed , i n one sense, with

the clos ing years of the century the old world

d id expire, and something newer and better

rose from the ruin of ancient systems,with

the destructionof the J erusalem Temple, and

the spread of Christian ity in I taly .

‘ Nero, from whose education, before the

cruelty and i nsan ity of h is nature had

developed. so much was hoped, had reigned

nearly four years when Pau l , i n the summer

t ime,once more came up to J erusalem , the

PAUL OF TARSUS . 1 47

recognized centre of the Christian societies .

He found i t l ittle changed . One venal and

greedy pont iff had succeeded another in rap id

success ion as one procurator after another

came to the province . The luxury and the

d iscontent, the hatred of Rome and of the

Genti les, remained the same . Fel ix was no

better a ruler than P ilate,and owed h is post

to the in trigues whereby h is brother Pal las

brought Nero and Agrippina to power. He

was a freedman of Claud ius,cruel , greedy, and

debauched. He had married three queens i n

success ion,and h is ambition knew no bounds .

The dagger was h is argument against those

who opposed h im , and of no crime was he

believed incapable . H is lease of power was

short, and in about two years he was super

seded , for Agrippa was stil l i ntrigu ing in

Rome and had the ear of Nero . With

Agrippa the representation of the Emperor’

s

head first appea red upon the Syrian coins,

1 48 PAUL OF TARSUS .

marking the progress of Roman power and

the decay of that o ld pol icy of concil iation

by which earl ier rulers had avoided col l i s ion

with the Law of Moses .

I n one respect there was a difference ,

however . Paul was no longer an obscure

youth of mistaken l ife H e was the hated

and dreaded enemy of Phari see and Sadducee

al ike . H is actions were watched,and his

Gentile companions regarded with distrust.

Whether through the mal ice of some one

enemy or through the sudden pass ion of the

multitude,Paul had not been long in the city

when the mob rose against him . I t was sa id

that he had brought a Greek into the Temple,

and , but for the Roman guard , his l ife would

have been forfeited . The charge was no

doubt false , for Pau l h imself was mindful of

the prej udices of others,and the proh ibitory

texts were plainly carved on the boundary

barr i er i n Greek, warning the foreigner that

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1 5 6 PAUL OF TARSUS .

everywhere against our people,and the

Law and th is place, and further brought

Greeks in to the Temple,and hath pol luted

th is holy place . " The curt narrative brings

v ividly before us that angry crowd , the

Romans hasten ing down the cloisters from

the rock of Anton ia, arrest ing the man

round whom those savage bearded and

gaberd ined zealots gesticulated with in

creasing frenzy . On the stairs o f the

castle their pri soner was allowed to

make h is defence, yet a defence which stil l

further incensed those who heard h im

boldly confess the very heresies with which

he was charged . The stol id legionaries

rested on their spears while Pau l , safe in

the ir keeping, confessed the " J ust One ,

" and

h is impotent foes cast off their clothes and

threw dust into the air . The great gates

closed on the prisoner,and on the morrow

Government inquiry was opened .

PAUL OF TARSUS . 1 5 1

Another scene of v iolence fol lowed , i n

the stone hall by the Temple court,where

Pharisees and Sadducees,assembled in

council , sat to judge the heretic , and were

unable to refrai n from dissensions among

themselves . Once more the sold iers brought

back their prisoner by force,fearing lest he

should be torn in p ieces in the counci l

chamber ; and a conspiracy of S i cari i bent

on h is murder became known to the com

mander of the garri son . A prudent pol ice

officer was Claudius Lys ias, and by n ight

he hurried Paul and his escort from the

city,down the rugged mountain road s

,by

the blue springs of Antipatris,and over

the broad sandy plains of Sharon . To

the " most excellent Fel ix " he sent h is

report of a supposed Roman citizen , rescued

from the J ews, " whom I perceived to be

accused of quest ions of their Law, but to

have noth ing laid to his charge worthy of

1 5 2 PAUL OF TARSUS .

death or bonds . Such was the aspect of

the case to the sold ier . The message

whi ch to Paul was the salvation of the

world , the Gospel of the Son of God , cruci

fied some th irty years before , was to the

Roman a mere sectarian tenet of J ewish

superstition . Small indeed was the result

as yet of the death of"

J esus,and l ittle wa s

h is name known among men. Nay, even

a century later we find Cel sus of the same

opin ion with Lysias,and regarding the

whole d ifference between J ew and Christian

as a merely foo l ish d ispute whether a‘

cer

tain god had or had not been incarnate

a matter answered for both in a few words

No god or son of god has come, o r

'

ever

wil l come , down from heaven to earth .

"

There wa s no d oubt a certain cleverness

i n Paul’s own attitude at th is cris is . The

Sadducees were in power,and he c laimed that

the on ly real charge against him was the

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1 5 4 PAUL OF TARSUS .

breakers stormed against the wal l s of those

dark vaults where a no less stormy spiri t was

caged . Two centuries more must pass before

Origen, a martyr to his own fame , will come

to the same c ity to spend long years in

defending every word and thought penned by

Paul to h is fr iends in Greece and i n Rome ,

and yet another century before a church wil l

rise close to the s ite of the pri son , and a

proud b ishop rule the province where Fel ix

now is growing rich on br ibes . How can

we speak of the triumph of Christian ity, the

sudden spread of truth , the victory of the

Gospel,when three hundred years must

slowly follow, with ever-warring d isputes,

before the new faith can claim even an

equal i ty with the establ ished rites of the

ancient world C ompared with the triumph

of Muhammad, that of J esus was a slow

and insensible evolution of mingled truth

and error contend ing with other systems

PAUL or TARSUS . 1 5 5

not whol ly false. And so in our own

t ime the truths destined to l ive are stil l

clogged with errors doomed to d ie, and

the faith of the future grows unsuspected

in our m idst.

In the s ixth year of Nero, Porc ius Festus ,

the new governor, reached Caesarea in August ,

and a strong, j ust man thus fol lowed the

tyrant Fel ix . But wi th h im came Agrippa ,

and the s ister of whom scandalous stories

were already whispered . The deferred ques

t ion of Paul’

s pun ishment was raised by the

h igh priest,I smael Ben Phabi , and before th is

august audience he was at length brought

forth . The Roman , new to his post, was glad

of the advice of Agrippa .

" There is a cer

tain prisoner left by Fel ix , he said ," against

whom there is an accusation as to certain

questions of their own superstit ion and of

one J esus , which was dead , and whom th is

Paul affirmed to be al ive Such,no doubt

,

PAUL OF TARSUS .

was the official do’

cket on the subject left

by Fel ix,and for the sake of peace Festus

d etermines to send the accused out of the

country to Rome,where he must take h is

fate— e ither pardoned by Nero, and probab ly

no more troub l ing the J udean province, or

(according as the humour of the moment

may decide) sent to confront wild beasts in

the wooden theatre where the Roman aris

tocra cy a re daily del ighted with b lood

I n Agrippa Paul may have fancied that he:

would find some knowledge of the S criptures,

and some breadth of view towhich to appeal .

I f so,he l i ttle knew the man . The burn ing

rhetori c which— as in hi s letters—constituted

h is argument, was to Festus a mere raving

of the scholar b l inded by enthusiastic study.

I t was from Agrippa that the cold,cynica l

words came to h is ears : " Almost thou per

suadest me to be a Chri stian .

"

Few episodes in anc ient writ ings are more

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1 5s PAUL OF TARSUS .

cu t off the boat, and cast the wheat into

the sea . How they loosed the rudder

bands and hoisted the mainsail, and, fall ing

upon a place where two seas met, ran the

vessel ashore . How the hinder part was

broken and the fore part stuck fast ; how

the prisoners were not slain,and al l escaped

safe to the shore of Malta . How afterwards

they were warmed at a great fire, and the

barbarous people showed no l ittle kindness .

How Paul,who had encouraged al l and

worked hard to save all , and who, because

the snake in the firewood did not bite h im,

was regarded as almost divine, was carried

from Malta to Syracuse and to Rhegium and

to Puteol i,and thence, by the Appian Way,

reached the imperial c i ty , and was received

by his friends in safety .

A l l th is h is biographer has told so well

and so v ividly that we cannot doubt the

truth of the account. I t i s said that an

PAUL OF TARSUS . 1 59

old sea-captain heard th is chapter read ,

perhaps for the first t ime, a nd , ris ing

in his place as the reader came to the

lett ing go of the anchors , shouted , " Luff,

ye lubbers " Land -lubbers , luff l"

Surely to

very few authors ha s such a compl iment been

paid .

( 1 60 )

CHAPTER "II .

OUR wanderings bring us once more to the

garden of the world,the centre of c iv i l ized

l ife,and the great city of the Empire . He

who has not seen I taly ; who has not learned

the peaceful enjoyment of l ife wh ich,under

its blue sky and among its vines and ol ives,

men have known from the earl ies t days when

the happy Etruscans sat with their mates at the

banquet ; whose ideas of l ife are based whether

on the struggle and misery of the snowy North

or on the fatal ism of the Southern deserts,

can hardly have been able to conce ive how

happy human existence may be . I t was i n

I taly that the creed of love and j ustice took

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1 62 PAUL OF TARSUS .

where mothers and daughters l ived peaceful

and respected , engaged in domestic duties

and in the education of their chi ldren .

Chastity, the love of one husband , the old

reverence which placed the matron first

after the father—these were Roman virtues

not yet forgotten , and finding expression in

funeral ep itaphs or funeral orat ions which

sti l l survive The S toic philosophy, so wel l

suited to the Roman character,had st il l i ts

great d isciples among Patri cian houses ; and

the asceticism of its rules was closely akin to

that of the Syrian Essene sects . Yet in the

I tal ian l i fe there was an element of joyful

good-nature,tolerance , and enj oyment which

has perhaps never existed in the As iatic

world .

Round Nero, indeed , a very differen t so

ciety gathered ; the actor, the s inger, and the

crit i c took the place of statesmen and ph i

losophers , and the cruel ties of the amphi

PAUL OF TARSUS. 1 63

theatre formed h is amusement. H is contempt

for the old Roman l ife , h is partial i ty for

th ings Greek,Opened the gates of Rome to

crowds of foreigners excluded by Claudius,

bringing with them a babel of languages,and

innumerable variety of rel igious systems,and

every vice and imposture known to A lexan

dria,Ant ioch, or Ephesus . Yet with S to ic is

’

m

there was spread abroad a n idea of " kind

ness to al l men" which has found express ion

also in the epitaph of her who is called" mother to al l men , a parent helpful to

al l ." L i ttle encouraged by the po l it ic ia a s

of the age,there were in I taly, as wel l

as in Greece, societ ies founded for mutual

help and benefi t, recognized by the law,

and hold ing their meetings under special

enactment.

I n such a social condition the principles

of the new creed found a fitt ing soil , and

the faith spread quickly among a s imple

1 64 PAUL OF TARSUS .

and kindly folk,whose slaves were free to

talk with thei r masters, and even to eat at

their tab les ; whose women were not secluded

in unseen chambers, but free ly mingled in

al l social gatherings, and softened by their

presence the manners of the race .

But,on the other hand , ignorance and

superstition marked the Roman c ivi l i zation

not less than that of A s ia or of Greece .

The love o f wonders which we find in the

writings of Pl iny marks an absence of sci

ent ific knowledge which speaks i l l for the

powers of observation as yet awakened .

There were few common fa l lacies whi ch

he can have regarded as incredible . He

tel ls us that,by many, serpents are bel ieved

to be born out of the marrow of the

human backbone. Ovid,in l ike manner

,

bel ieved the weasel to bri ng forth its young

through its mouth , and every scientific

blunder repeated by Irenzeus or Origen

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1 66 PAUL OF TARSUS.

S trange were the ancient rites wh ich stil l

survived . I n February,the priests of Pan

whipped the brides at the festival of Luper

cal ia. To Anna Perenna the young girl s

sang indecent songs, and Fortuna V iri l i s

was worsh ipped naked by thei r mothers .

From the M i lv ia n bridge the Vestal s flung

images of " ancient men as a gift to father

T iber—the last trace of human sacrifices,then already abol ished . S ceptic ism

,however

,

existed s ide by side with such bel iefs ." None but boys

,says J uvenal " bel ieve i n

ghosts and regions under earth and so a lso

thought Seneca . Yet the women had their

junones, the men their gen i i . They feared

the vampire lamia and the skeleton lemures,

and Caesar’s statue itself pres ided over a

thousand attendant lares .

I n such a world the l ittle Chri stian society

of perhaps thir ty persons had been founded

some years before Paul as a pr isoner reached

PAUL OF TARSUS . 1 6 7

Rome,and by these he was welcomed . They

were foreigners from Greece and A s ia M inor,

friends of Aquila and Priscil la,probably J ews

by birth though bearing Greek and Roman

names in many instances ; slaves and cl ients

were among them,members of the household

of Aristobulus and even of Caesar . Among

the great,the rich , and the powerful they

had neither friends nor patrons ; i t was in their

own class of l ife that they found sympathy .

The slaves i n the great households,the

artisans with whom they had trade relations,

were the first to j oi n the infant sect . Even

a century later the crit ic reproaches them

with their influence among ignorant persons,

s laves,ch i ldren , and women, " workers in

wool and i n leather, and ful lers, and untaught

rustics . " No wise man," says Celsus

,

" be

l ieves the gospel , being repel led by the mob

who have faith .

" But to that humble crowd

the words of the unknown teacher were com?

1 68 PAUL OF TARSUS.

fortable in their troubles . " Blessed are the

poor, the humble, the desp ised of th is

world ," said the Gal ilean . They strive only

to attract the s i l ly, the mean , the stupid

low ind ividuals devoid of perception,

" said

Celsus .

Upon this new society the respectable

Roman looked with suspicion and conser

va tive fear . H is posit ion was exactly that

of the orthodox of other ages . A theism

the atheism of the philosophers—he saw

Spreading among the masses . This society,

un l ike others, was secret . What may they

not do," said prejudice, " i n these secret gath

erings'

? What offence to morals , or conspiracy

against the publ ic peace, may not there be

hatch ing The sect was l i ttle known . I t

d iffered, said the h istorian, from Jewish su

perstit ion, yet i t arose among the J ews . The

Christian refused to swear by the " Fortune

of Caesar," and burnt no incense to his statue .

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1 7 0 PAUL OF TARSUS .

numerable evidences which the temples con

tain of miraculous events .

"

For " to some

the gods have appeared in visible form The

world is ful l of such instances . How many

cities have been bu il t in obedience to com

mands received from oracles,how often i n the

same way del ivered from disease and famine ?

Or,again , how many cities, from disregard

o r forgetfulness of oracles , have per ished

miserably ? How many who mourned

over their ch ildlessness have obtained the

bless ing they asked for ? How many have

turned away from themselves the anger of

demons ? How many were they whose

maimed l imbs have been restored,and , again ,

how many have met with summary punish

ment for showing want of reverence to the

temples— some being instantly seized with

madness,others Openly confessing their

crimes,others havi ng put an end to thei r

l ives,and others having become the victims

PAUL OF TARSUS. 1 7 1

of incurable maladies Yea, some have been

sla in by a terrible voice issuing from the

i nner san ctuary . Such are the very words

of the argument put forward by those who

thought the Christians worth any notice

at al l .

I n th i s great world Paul is lost to us for

ever . Trad ition says that he was beheaded

by Nero ; history knows noth ing even of h is

trial . The stormy l i fe, the strenuous efforts

of th irty years, seemed to have done l ittle to

change the h istory of the world . So long

and slow is the growth of new th ings i n

men’s minds,that the founders of thought

may never hope to see the build ing rise

complete .

Nothing to show but a few groups of

friends, a few letters in bad Greek,a

humble society of carpet-makers and ful lers "

And , after two years i n Rome, an obscure

death

1 7 2 PAUL OF TARSUS.

On the 1 9th of J uly in the tenth year of

Nero’s reign the great c ity was i n flames .

Though large as N ineveh , the capital was

ful l of wooden bu ild ings and of narrow lanes .

From the grand c ircus near the Palatine

Mount the fire spread among the Sh ops , and

swept on to the Forum, and up the h ills .

Thrice stamped out, i t thri ce blazed up , and ,

mounting the Esqui l ine , i t raged for three

more days . Of fourteen quarters, three were

i n ruins and seven more were gutted . The

temples bu il t by Serviu s Tu l l ius, the palace

of Numa, the sacred courts of J up iter S tator,

we re no more ; the monuments of a proud

history,with statues and riches

,shrines and

ancient landmarks, were swept away as i t

were in a moment, and the cap ita l of the

worl d was fal len indeed .

S tunned by misfortune, for a time the

Romans saw in this great conflagra t ion the

anger of the gods , and the women devoted

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1 74 PAUL OF TARSUS .

tected the world,and rousing the wrath of

Roman penates . The popular hate found

voice i n the cry ,

" Chri stians to the l ions '

and " for a time,says Tacitus, " the pern i

c ious superstition was in part suppressed .

"

They perished in the skins of wi ld beasts ,

torn by dogs ; they‘

were nailed to crosses,

l ike their Master ; others , as torches , l ighted

N ero’s garden in the " evil tun ic .

" The

better sort were beheaded ; the meaner were

mocked in thei r misery by the mob of the

amphitheatre . So fierce was the,persecution

that even in the minds of the ir enemies

pity was roused by thei r sufferings,and

the crue l eagerness of Nero raised a

suspic ion that on the Christians 1 he had

laid the blame of h is own mad and wanton

wickedness .

A l l th is Christian ity underwent,and yet

survived . I t was not so many decades later

PAUL OF TARSUS. 1 7 5

that comp laints were made of their i ncreasing

numbers . " The outcry i s that the S tate is

fi lled with Christians : they are in the field s ,

i n the fortresses,in the islands ; persons of

every age,of both sexes , of all condi tions ,

and even of high rank,are passing over to

them .

" " Were they to emigrate , the land

would be left almost empty ," " the temple

revenues are dwindl ing day by day,and al l

th i s with in a century and a half from the

death of Paul .

Why was i t,then

,that Chri st ianity sur

v ived ? I t outl ived neglect and contempt,

i t outl ived persecut ion and bitter oppos ition ,

slanders and argument and even rid icule.

Nay,i t outl ived its own absurdities and

superstit ions and sch isms i t has survived the

scandals of the indulgence , the cruel tyranny

of priests , the fires of the I nquisition,the

ruthless prun ing of the Reformation,not less

than the scorn of Celsus and the false philo

1 7 6 PAUL OF TARSUS.

sophy of Paul . S ti l l i t p resents an unat

ta ined ideal , and st il l i t influences the history

of nations . The gods are dead,I sis and

M ithra no less than J upiter or Tina . But

the cruc ified Christ has taken their place,

and the old adoration of the Bona Dea and

the geni i is transferred to Mary and the

saints . This survival cannot have been

merely accidental ; i t must be due to some

germ of truth which kept al ive the creed

amid all its errors and absurd ities .

We a l l know well what that d ivine germ

real ly was . Above the struggl ing crowds of

Vanity Fair stands high the great figure,

with chestnut locks and deep dark eyes and

thorn-crowned head , stretching forth the nail

torn hands , a nd cal l ing with a gentle voice" Come unto me, al l ye who labour and are

heavy-laden,and I wi l l give you rest . Great

minds and hearts,whatever the pecul iari ties

of their conceptions concerning the future

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1 7 8 PAUL OF TARSUS .

J esus cannot be held to have l ived in vain "

nor is Paul,despite h is fail ings, h is l imited

vision,h is d im perception of the truth he

strove to teach , no longer worthy of our

notice among those whose l ives have made

the h istory of the world .

PRINTED BY BALLANT YN E , HA NSON AND CQLONDON AND EDINBURGH

RA B B I JESHUA .

Extracts f rom a leng thy a nd exh austive Notice wh ich

a ppea red in the SATURDAY REVIEW,Ma rch 5 , 1 8 8 1 .

‘Tha t RABB I J ESHUA i s a remarkable book must he

conf essed , bu t i t i s sca rcely a satisfa ctory one ; and

a lthough we wou ld not pla ce i t i n an‘Index Expurga

tor i us,

’we think tha t i t i s on ly fa ir to the publ ic tha t

they shou ld be told beforehand wha t i t conta ins .

" The loca l co lou ring i s exact ; the mysterious figure

of the f orerunner of the M essiah i s sketched with a

ma ster ly hand .

" The f a scinat ing style of a grea t portion of the

volume makes this danger a l l the greater , and i s one of

the un fortunate resu lts of tha t disingenuousness with

which we a re f orced to charge the work .

" It i s therefore a l l the m ore un fa ir to incu lcate

sceptica l opin ions under an insidious disgu ise,an d to

endea vour to entrap listeners by a specious discourse.

Th e m an wh o cou ld write RABB I J ESHUA ought toha ve the coura ge of h i s opin ions : i f h e belong to the

( 2 )

ra tion a l ist ranks, he need f ear no persecution ,and ha s

n o cause f or concea lment . I f h e be a tra itor i n th e

camp of th e other side, he h a s good persona l rea sons

f or rem a in ing a mere nomi n i s umbm ,bu t he ju st ifies

our oft-repeated accusat ion .

" The work conta in s a va st amount of learn ing i n a

highly concentra ted f orm but one wh o, w ith

scholarship an d eloquence a t h i s command— f or we

mu st own that the book bea rs ev idence of both

pretends to ignore the whole Chr istian f abr ic

w il l hardly ga in much sympathy f rom a Chr istian

publ ic .

A s a memoir on the l if e of Our Lord , when str ipped

o f a l l supernatura l a ttr ibutes a nd circumsta n ces, i t i s

n ot on ly a clever sketch,but a power fu l testimony to

th e m ighty influence on hum an ity which the m ere

human elemen t of Chr ist ian ity h as exercised .

" The stores of Or ienta l myth a nd legen d on which

th e author draws throw great l ight upon the surround

ings of the centra l figure of the n arrat ive, a nd enable

u s to understand much which before seemed vague and

uncerta in .

" B ut the m ost remarkab le fea ture i n the whole book

i s th e l ife and movement which i s thrown into the

word-pictures which th e a uthor pa ints . Take,f or

instance conjectura l certa in ly , but sh owm g a

deep insight into Or ienta l l ife.

"

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2 GE ORGE REDWA Y ’S P UBLICA TION S .

Demy 8 vo, Clo th extra , 73 . 6d .

BACON , SHAKESPEARE , AND THE ROSICRUCIANS.

By W. F . C . WIGSTON . Wi th Two P la tes .CONTENTS z- Cha p ter I .

—John Heydon—The Ro sicrucia n Apo log i st—H i s Fam i lyAnd Cha rac ter—I den t i ty of Ba con's N ew A t la n t i s w i th Heydon’s Land of the

Ros icrucia ns —Bacon ’s Hand to be tra ced in th e famous Ros icruc ia n Ma n ifestoesD iscovery of h i s In i t ia ls among th e Members of the Fra tern i ty—Proofs tha t thea nted a t ing of th e Orig ins of the Rosicruc ia n Bro therhood wa s a Splend id Fra ud .

Chap ter I I .—Th e Prophecy of Pa ra ce lsus—A S tage P layer one o f th e grea test i mpostors of h i s a ge, proba bly Shakespeare—Descrip t ion of th e Ros icrucia n Man ifestoeS—Lord Ba con a s Chancel lor of Pa rna ssus—Meet ing of th e Rosicrucian s i n1 646

.

a tWa rrington , a t a Lodge, in order to ca rry out Lord Ba con's Idea s—Adop t ionof h i s Two P i l la rs, etc . etc .

Crown 8vo, C lo th, 55 .PROBLEMS OF THE HIDDEN LIFE . Being Essays

on the E th i cs of Sp ir i t ua l Evo l u t ion . By PI LGR IM .

CONTENTS —Ded i ca t ion—An Aid to R igh t Though t—The Na rrow WayOrthod oxy a nd Occu l t i sm—Th e Goa d of the Senses—Con ten t a nd Sa t isfa c t ionLove's Aim a nd Objec t—The Two Pa thways—Sir Ph i l ip S idney—The H igher Ca relessness—The Da rk N igh t of th e Sou l—The Grea t Quest- De ta chment—Med i ta t i onand Act ion—Dea th—Selflessness.

A BUDDHIST CATECHISM ; or, Outl ine of the Doctrine

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,C lo th , pr i ce 1 5 ?

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP .

By C . STAN I LAND WAKE, Au thor o f" The Evol u t ion of

Mora l i t y, " etc.

CON TENTS —Prefa ce . In troduct ion—Sexua l Mora l i ty. Chap ter I . Pr imeva lM a n .

I I . Supposed Prom i scu i ty . I I I . Pr im i t ive Law of Ma rr ia ge. IV . GroupMa rriage . V . Polya nd ry. V I . Po lygyny . V I I . Monand ry . VI II . The Ru le of

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riage by Cap ture . " II . Monogamy.

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LIVES OF ALCHEMYSTICAL PHILOSOPHERS.

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True Pr inc ipl es o f the Magnum Opus , or Grea t Work o f A lchem i ca l Re-cons tru c t ion, and some a c coun t of th e Sp ir i t u a l Chem i s tryBy ARTHUR EDWARD WA ITE . To wh ich i s added a B ibl iographyof Al chemy and Hermet ic Ph i losophy .

GE ORGE It’EDWA Y ’S P UBLICA TION S .

Two Vols. Demy 8vo, pp . 791 , C lo th , pri ce 2 1 3 .

THE WHITE KING ; or, Cha rles the First, and the

Men and Women , L i fe and Manners , L i te ra t ure and Art o f

Eng l and in the Firs t Ha l f of the Seven teen th Cen t ury. By W . H .

DAVEN PORT ADAMS.CONTENTS or VOL . I . -Persona l H i s tory of Cha rles I .

—Some of the Roya l Ch i ld ren : Pr incess E l iza be th , Duke of G loucester, Pr incess M a ry , a nd Henr ie t ta ,Duchess o f Orlea ns—The Court of Cha rles I . : Ph i l ip , Ea r l o f Pembroke , TheCoun tess of Ca rl i sle, S ir Kenelm D igby—A K ing's Fa vour i te George Vi l l iers, Dukeo f B i i ck ing ham—No tes—A Modera te S ta tesma n : Lu cius Ca ry , Lord Fa lkland—An

Abso lute Sta tesma n : Th e Ea rl o f S tra ff ord—A Ph i losopher o f the Reign o f

Cha rles I . Edwa rd , Lord Herbert o f Cherbury—G l impses o f L ife a nd Ma nnersThe Stra fl

'

ord Let ters—Append ix—Notes a nd Correct ions—Ind ex to Vo l . I . CONTENTS 0 11" VOL . I I . —Three Nob le La d ies : Ma rga re t , Duchess o f Newca st le . Lad yAnne Fa nsha we , M rs . Hutch inson—Th e Arts i n England d ur ing th e Re ign o f

Cha rles I . : 1 . Music ; 2 . ThefD rama § 3 . Pa in t ing a nd Arch i tec ture—L i tera ture inthe Re ign of Cha rles I . : 1 . Th e Court ly Poet s ; 2 . The Ser ious Poe ts—M en o fLet ters i n the Re ign o f Cha rles l .—Append ix—No tes a nd Correct ions- Index toVol . I I .

Second Ed i tion . Crown 8 vo , C lo th , pr ice 6s.DREAMS AND DREAM-STORIES. By ANNA BONUS

K INGSFORD ,MD . of Par i s ; Pres iden t of the Hermet i c Soc ie t

A u thor of " The Perfec t Way i n D iet , " etc . etc. ; and Pa rtAu thor of The Perfec t Way ; or, The Find ing o f Chr i s t . " Ed i tedby EDWARD MAITLAND .

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CHRISTIAN SCIENCE HEALING : Its Principles and

Prac t i ce, w i th fu l l Exp lana t ion s for Home S t uden t s . Wi th a

Chap ter on the presen t Theosoph i ca l Movemen t . By FRANCESLORD, Co-tran s la tor o f FrObel

’s

" Mo ther’s Songs,Games

, and

S tor ies .CONTENTS —The Tu e lve Lectures wh i ch usua l ly const i tute "

A Course o f Ins truc t ion in Chr i st ia n Science —A S imple P la n for Trea tmen t (a lso a rra nged for u sed ur ing six d a ys)—Genera l D irect ions on Hea l ing—The Hea ler’s Se lf-Tra in ingTea ch ing—Books—Ough t Chr i st ia n Sc ience Work ever to be pa id "OH—HomeHea l ing (Cha ra cter a nd Cond uct)—C ircumsta nces—Ch i ldren a nd Ed uca t ion—AS imple Accoun t o f th e Doctrine of Karma or Re- incarna t ion—A short Abstra ct o fthe Bhagavad G i ta .

Demy 8vo, pp . x i . and 2 72 , C lo th, 7 5 . 6d .

GILDS : Their Origin, Constitution, Objects, and La terH i s tory . By the la te CORNEL I US WALFORD

,

F. R. H . S . Ba rri s ter-a t-Law.

Conta ins a Geogra ph i ca l Survey of th e G i ld s of Berk s,Cambr idge ,

Derby,Devon

,G loucester H a n ts . Hereford , Ken t , Lanca sh ire , L inco ln, M d d"Northumberla nd , Oxford , Sa lop, Somerset , Wa rwi ck, YOrk .

l esex , Norfolk ,

G E ORGE BED WA Y’S P UBLICA TION S .

REDWAY’S ESOTER I C SER IES . VOL 1 .

Sma l l 4to, Wh i te C lo th , 1 0s . 6d .

THE MAGICAL WRITINGS OF THOMAS VAUGHAN(Eugen i u s Ph i la l eth es). A Verba t im Repr in t o f h i s Fi rs t FourTrea t i ses : Anth roposoph ia Theomag ica , An ima Magi ca Abs

cond i ta , Mag ia Ad am i ca,The True Coel um Terrae. Wi th the

La t in Pa ssages Tran sl a ted i n to Eng l i sh , and w i th a B iograph i ca lPreface a nd E ssay on th e E so ter ic L i tera t u re of Wes tern Ch ri s tendom . BY ARTHUR EDWARD WA ITE .

Crown 8vo, C lo th , w i t h Fron t i sp iece, p ri ce 45 . 6d .

LESBIA NEWMAN . A Novel . By HENRY ROBERTS . DALTON .

I zmo,C lo th , pr ice 55 .

APPLE BLOSSOMS, Ga thered in my Own and in FrenchOrcha rd s . Poem s and Songs. By W . H . C . NATION. Wi thI l lu s tra t ions by FRANK D ICKSEE, G . E . H I CKS

,

TOWNELEY GREEN , CHARLES CATTERMOLE, W . GALE, and

G. BOUV IER .

Two Vo ls . 1 2mo,pr ice 2 1 5 .

SATIRES, Pol itica l and Socia l, in Prose and Verse.

Ed i ted by W. H . C . NATION .

I N PREPARAT ION .

A M agn i ficen t Fo l io Ed i t ion of

GOETHE’S FAUST . From the German by JOHN ANSTER ,

LL .D . , w i th an In trod uc t ion by B URDETT MASON . I l l u s t ra tedby FRANK M . GREGORY.

Goe the’s F a ust wa s commenced In 1 7 7 4—5 completed a nd pub l i shed in 1 80 1

:D r .

J ohn Anster wa s the ea rl iest tra nsla tor o f F a ust in to Engl ish he a t f i rst con tr ibutedfragmen t s of the poem to B l a ckwogd

’s M ag a z i ne, and publ i shed th e who le in 1 8 3 5 .

H i s version gave pleasure to Co leridge, and is l iked i n Germany .

Crown 8vo, C lo th , 65 .

THE NEW AM ER I CAN NOVEL .

THE STALWARTS ; or, Who Were to B lame ? ByFRANCES MARIE NORTON , the onl y S i s ter o f Charl es -

J. G u i teau .

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GE ORGE B EDWA Y’S P UBLICA TION S .

Crown 8 vo, pp . x iv . and 360, C lo th , 75 . 6d .

POSTHUMOUS HUMANITY ; A Study of Phantoms.

By ADOLPHE D’ASSIER, Member o f th e

,

Bord ea ux A cademy of

Sc ience. Trans l a ted and Anno ta ted by H ENRY S . OLCOTT,Pres iden t of the Theo soph i ca l Soc iety .

Demy 8vo, pp . x iv. a nd 307 , C lo th , 7 5 . 6d .

THE LIFE , TIMES, AND WRITINGS OF THOMASC RANMER

,D .D .

,th e Firs t Reform ing Archb i shop o f Can terbu ry

By CHARLES HASTINGS COLLET I‘E . Ded i ca ted to Edwa rdWhi te, 93rd Archb i shop of Can terbury .

Pos t 8vo, w i th Pla tes , pp . v i i i . and 359, Cl o th g i l t , 1 05 . 6d .

THE KABBALAH UNVEILED (Kabba la Denuda ta ).Con ta in ing the Fol low ing Books o f the Zoha r —I . The Book o f

Concea led Mys tery . 2 . The G rea ter Ho ly A s semb ly . 3 . The

Les ser Ho ly As semb ly . Transl a ted in to Eng l i sh from the La t inVers ion o f KNORR VON ROSENROTH, and Co l la ted w i th the

O rig ina l Cha ld ee and Hebrew Tex t , by S . L. MACGREGORMATH ERS .

4to, pp . 3 7 , C lo th ex tra , 3 5 6d . The Wood cu t s coloured by hand, 55 .

I ssue l im i ted to 400 cop ies p l a in a nd 60 co l ou red .

THE DANCE OF DEATH . In Pa inting and in Print.By T . T INDALL WILDR IDGE . Wi th Wood c u t s .

Fcap . 8vo, pp .

'

40, C lo th l imp, 1 5 . 6d .

LIGHT ON THE PATH . A Treatise written for th e

Persona l Use of Those who a re Ignoran t o f the Eas tern Wisdom ,

a nd who Des i re to Enter w i t h in i t s Infl uence. Wr i t ten down

by M . C.,Fel low of th e Theosoph i ca l Soc iety .

Th i rd Ed i t ion, rev i sed and en l arged . C rown Svo , et ched Fron t i sp iecea nd \Vood cu ts, pp . 3 24, C lo th g i l t , 7 5 . 6d .

MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK ; or,The Science o f

Fin i te and Infin i te L i fe . Con ta in ing Pra c t i ca l H in t s for S t uden t sof Occu l t i sm . By FRANZ HAR'

I‘

ZMANN , M .D .

CONTENTS —The I dea l- The Rea l a nd th e UnreaL—Form—L i fe—Ha rmony

I l lusion—Consciousness—Unconsc iousness—Transforma t ions—Crea t ion—L igh t, etc .

Crown 8 vo,pp . 265 , C lo th ext ra , 65 .

LOTUS : A Psychologica l Romance. By the Author of

A New Ma rgueri te.

GE ORGE REDWA Y’S P UBLICA TIONS .

Crown 8vo, pp . iv . and 2 56 , C lo t h (Cheap Ed i t ion), 65 .

A PROFESSOR OF ALCHEMY (Denis Zacha ire) . ByPERCY ROSS, Au thor of "

A Comedy W i thou t Laugh ter.

"

Fcap . 8vo, pp . 56, C lo th l imp , 1 5 .

THE SHAKESPEARE CLASSICAL DICTIONARY ; or,My tho logi ca l A l lus ion s in th e Plays o f Shakespea re Expla ined .

For th e Use of S chool s and Shakespeare Read ing Soc iet ies . ByI I . M . SELBY .

" A handy l i t t le work o f reference for readers and students of Shakespeare.

S c/zonl B oa rd Clzro f zz'

rl c.

The book present s a grea t d ea l of informa t ion in a very sma l l compa ss."—S¢/zool

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SERPENT WORSHIP , and other Essays, with a Chapteron To tem i sm . By C . STAN ILAND WAKE .

Wrapper, pr ice 1 5 .

JOURNAL OF THE BACON SOCIETY . Pub l ishedPer iod i ca l l y . Vol . I . (Par t s i . to pp . x . a nd 2 78 , 8vo,C lo th , 65 .

Fcap . 8vo, pp . v i i i . and 1 20,C lo th , 3 5 .

A WAYFARER’S WALLET (Dominus Red ivivus). By

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‘

and Arranged by W . T. MARCHANT.

CONTENT S —Introd uctory—H i story—Ca rol s a nd Wa ssa i l Songs—Church A lesa nd Observa nces —\Vh i tsun A les—Po l i t i ca l—Ha rvest Songs—Genera l Songs Ba rleya nd Ma l t—Hops Sco tch A le Songs—Loca l a nd D ia lect Songs—T ra d e SongsO x ford Songs—Ale W ives—B rewers—D r ink ing Clubs a nd Customs—Roya l a ndNob le Drinkers Bla ck Beer—D r ink ing Vesse ls \Va rm A le—Fa cts

,Scraps, a nd Ana .

Demy Svo,C lo th, red edges, 7 5 . 6d . The Theolog ica l and

Phi lo soph i ca l Works ofHERMESTRISMEGISTUS, Christian Neopla tonist. Trans

l a ted from the Ori g ina l Greek,w i t h Prefa ce , N o tes , and Ind i ces

By JOHN DAV ID CHAMBERS , M .A . ,o f Or i el Co l lege

Oxford , Record er of New Sarum .

8 GEORGE REDWA Y’S P UBLICA TIONS .

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MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHIES OF SOMERSET .

By Mrs. E . BOGER .

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THEOSOPHY, RELIGION , AND OCCULT SCIENCE .

By HEN RY S . OLCOTT, Pres iden t of the Theosoph i ca l Soc iety .With G lossary of Ea s tern \Vords.

CONTENTS —Theosophy or Ma teria l ism—Wh ich —The Theosoph i ca l Soc ie tya nd i t s A ims—The Common Found a t ion of a l l Rel ig ions—Theosophy : th e Sc ien t ificB a si s of Rel ig ion—TheOSOphy : i ts Fr iend s a nd Enem ies—Th e Occu l t SciencesSp iri tua l i sm a nd Theosophy—Ind ia : Pa st , Presen t , a nd Future—The C iv i l i sa t iontha t Ind ia need s—The Sp ir i t of th e Zoroastrian Rel ig ion—The L ife of Buddha andi ts Lessons, etc .

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INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF MADAME BLAVATSKY.

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THE ART OF JUDGING THE CHARACTER OF INDIVIDUALS from the i r H andwr i t ing a nd S tyle. Wi th 3 5 P la tes ,con ta in ing 1 20 Spec imen s of the Handwri t ing of Va riou s Cha rac ters .Ed i ted by E DWARD LUMLEY .

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PARACELSUS. The Life of Philippus Theophrastus ,B omba s t of Hohenhe im , known by the name of Pa racelsu s . And

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GE ORGE REDWA Y’S P UBLICA TION S .

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J OHN LEECH , ARTIST AND HUMOURIST. A B io

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THE HERMETI C WORKS .THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD OF HERMES MER

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Essay, In trod u c t ion s , and N o tes , by Dr. ANNA K INGSFORD and

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