The life and work of St. Paul

230 THE LIFE AND WOEK OF 8T. PAUL.
Alike the commencement and the course of their overland journey were
cheered by open sympathy with their views. From Antioch they were
honourably escorted on their way; and as they passed through Berytus,
Tyre, Sidon, and Samaria, narrating to the Churches the conversion of the
Gentiles, they like Luther on his way to the Diet of Worms were en-
couraged by unanimous expressions of approval and joy. On arriving at
Jerusalem they were received by the Apostles and elders, and narrated to
thorn the story of thoir preaching and its results, together with the inevit-
able question to which it had given rise. It was on this occasion appa-
rently that some of the Christian Pharisees at once got up, and broadly
insisted on the moral necessity of Mosaism and circumcision, implying,
therefore, a direct censure of the principles on which Paul and Barnabas
had conducted their mission. 1 The question thus stated by the opposing
parties was far too grave to be decided by any immediate vote ; the deliberate
judgment of the Church on so momentous a problem could only be
pronounced at a subsequent meeting. Paul used the interval with his
usual sagacity and power. Knowing how liable to a thousand varying
accidents are the decisions arrived at by promiscuous assemblies fearing
lest the voice of a mixed gathering might only express the collective in-
capacity or the collective prejudice he endeavoured to win over the leaders
of the Church by a private statement of the Gospel which he preached.
Those leaders were, he tells us, at this time, James, 2 who is mentioned
first because of his position as head of the Church at Jerusalem, and
Peter and John. These he so entirely succeeded in gaining over to his
cause he showed to them with such unanswerable force that they could
not insist on making Gentile Christians into orthodox Jews without incurring
the tremendous responsibility of damming up for ever the free
river of the grace of God that they resigned to his judgment the mission
to the Gentiles. Eminent as they were in their own spheres, great as
was their force of character, marked as was their individuality, they could
not resist the personal ascendency of Paul. In the presence of one whose
whole nature evinced the intensity of his inspired conviction, they felt tliat
they could not assume the position of superiors or guides. 3 Whatever may
have been their original prejudices, these noble-hearted men allowed neither
their private predilections nor any fibro of natural jealousy to deter their
acknowledgment of their great fellow-workers. They gave to Paul and
Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, and acknowledged them as Apostles
to tho Gentiles. One touching request alone they made. The Church of
Jerusalem had been plunged from tho first in abject poverty. It had
suffered perhaps from the temporary experiment of communism; it had
1 The irapeM\9ri