The life and work of St. Paul

OT PISIDIA. 201
CHAPTER XX.
ANTIOCH IN PISIDIJL
" Kespondebit tibi Evangelica tuba. Doctor Gentium, vas auroum in toto orbe
reeplendens." JER. Adv. Pelag, Dial, iii., p. 645.
HAVING now traversed Cyprus, " Paul and his company" to uso the expression
by which St. Luke so briefly intimates that the whole force of the
mission was now identified with one man weighed anchor from Paphos f.u-
Perga in Patnphylia. Whether they chose Perga as thoir destination in
accordance with any preconceived plan, or whether it was a part of " God's
unseen Providence by men nicknamed chance," we do not know. It was not
easy for an ancient traveller to go exactly in what direction he liked, and ha
was obliged, in the circumscribed navigation of those days, to be guided in his
movements by the accident of finding vessels which were bound for particular
ports. 1 Now between Paphos, the political capital of Cyprus, and Perga, the
capital of Pamphylia, there was in that day a constant intercourse, as would
probably still be the case between Satalia and the western port of Cyprus but
for the dangerous character of the now neglected harbour of Baffa. For Perga
then, the missionaries embarked. They sailed into the deep bight of
Attaleia, and up the broad, and in those days navigable, stream of the Cesfcrua,
and anchored under the cliffs, which were crowned by the acropolis of the
bright Greek city and the marble pillars of its celebrated Temple of
Artemis,
But at Porga they made no stay, and thoir visit was only marked by
a single but disheartening incident. This was the desertion by John Mark of
"
separating from them, ho returned to Jerusalem." The
the mission cause ;
causes which led him thus to look back after he had put his hand to the
plough are not mentioned, but it is evident that to the ardent soul of Paul, at
any rate, they appezirod blameworthy, for we shall see that he subsequently
refused the companionship of one who had shown such deficient resolution. 2
It is, however, but too easy to conjecture the mixed motives by which
Mark was actuated. He was young. The novelty of the work had worn oif .
Its hardships, even under the favourable circumstances in Cyprus, had not
been slight. His mother was at Jerusalem, perhaps alono, perhaps exposed to
persecution. It may be. too, that the young man saw and resented the growing
ascendency of Paul over his cousin Barnabas. And besides all this, Mark,
bred up in the very bosom of tho Church at Jerusalem, may lave felt serious
misgivings about tho tendency of that liberal theology, that broad
universalism of proffered admission into tho Church, which seemed to throw
into the background tho immemorial sanctity, not only of tho oral but ovou of
the written Law. Such may have been tho yearnings, tho misgivings,
the half-unconscious jealousies and resentments which filled his mind, ami
1 See the chapter on ancient modes of travel in Friedlander, Siltetigesch. Earns.
* Acts rv. 38.