The life and work of St. Paul

;172 HR MFB AND WOEK OF ST. FATrt*
'highest form of revelation one of those moments of inspiration in which the
soul, like Moses on Sinai, sees God face to face and does not die. St. Paul, it
must be remembered, had a work to perform which required more absolute
self-sacrifice, more unwavering faith, more undaunted courage, more unclouded
insight, more glorious superiority to immemorial prejudices, than any
man who ever lived. It needed moments like this to sustain the nameless
agonies, to kindle the inspiring flame of such a life. The light upon the
countenance of Moses might die away, like the radiance of a mountain peak
which has caught the colour of the dawn, but the glow in the heart of Paul
could never fade. The utterance of the unspeakable words might cease to
vibrate in the soul, but no after-influence could obliterate the impression of
the eternal message. Amid seas and storms, amid agonies and energies, even
when all earthly hopes had ceased, we may bo sure that the voice of God still
rang in his heart, the vision of God was still bright before his spiritual eye.
;
The only recorded incident of this year of service is the visit of certain
brethren from Jerusalem, of whom one, named Agabus, prophesied the near
-occurrence of a general famine. The warning note which he sounded was
not in vain. It quickened the sympathies of the Christians at Antioch, and
enabled the earliest of the Gentile Churches to give expression to their
reverence for those venerable sufferers in the Mother Church of Jerusalem
who " had seen and heard, and whose hands had handled the Word of Life." 1
A contribution was made for the brethren of Judaea. The inhabitants of that
country, and more especially of the Holy City, have been accustomed in all
ages, as they are in this, to rely largely on the chaluka? or alms, which are
in other countries. The
willingly contributed to their poverty by Jews living
vast sums collected for the Temple tribute flowed into the bursting coffers of
the Bent Haitian much as they now do, though in dwindled rills, into those
of a few of the leading AsJikenaeim and Ansche hod. But there would be
little chance that any of these treasures would help to alleviate the hunger of
the 3
struggling disciples. Priests who starved their own coadjutor* would
hardly be inclined to subsidise their impoverished opponents. The Gentiles,
who had been blessed by the spiritual wealth of Jewish Christians, cheerfully
returned the benefit by subscribing to the supply of their temporal i\?eds. 4
The sums thus gathered were entrusted by the Church to Barnabas and SauJ.-
The exact month in which these two messengers of mercy arrived to assist
their famine-stricken brethren cannot be ascertained, but there can be but
little doubt that it was in the year 44. On their arrival they found the
Church in strange distress from a new persecution.
It is not impossible tb#t
the fury of the onslaught may once more have scattered the chief Apostles.,
for we hear nothing of any, intercourse between them and the two great
lJohni.1.
:V ::
^rankl (Jcws * tte East, ii. 31) a sum of 818,000 piastres finds ite
It is distributed