The life and work of St. Paul

THE CONSULTATION AT JEKU8ALEM. 231
suffered certainly from the humble rank of its first converts, the persecu-
tions which they had endured, and the chronic famine to which their city
was liable. Paul and Barnabas were working in wealthy Antioch, and
were likely to travel among Gentiles, who, if not rich, were amply supplied
with the means of livelihood. Would they forget Jerusalem? Would they
suffer those to starve who had walked with Jesus by the Lake of Galileo, and
sat beside His feet when He preached the Sermon on the Mount ? Already
once they had brought from Antioch the deeply acceptable Chaluka, 1 which
in the fiercest moment of famine and persecution had as much relieved the
brethren as the royal bounties of Helena had sustained the Jews. Surely
they would not let religious differences prevent them from aiding the hungerbitten
Church ? It might be that they had been treated by Jerusalem Chris-
tians of the Pharisaic party with surreptitious opposition and undisguised
dislike, but surely this would not weigh with them for a moment. The three
heads of the afflicted Church begged the missionaries to the luxurious world
"that they would remember the poor." It was a request in every respect
agreeable to the tender and sympathetic heart of Paul. 2 Apart from all
urging, he had already shown spontaneous earnestness 3 in his holy work of
compassion, and now that it came to him as a sort of request, by way of
acknowledging the full recognition which was being conceded to him, he was
only too glad to have such means of showing that, while he would not
yield an inch of essential truth, he would make any amount of sacrifice in the
cause of charity. Thenceforth Paul throw himself into the plan of collecting
alms for the poor saints at Jerusalem with characteristic eagerness. There
was scarcely a Church or a nation that he visited which he did not press for
contributions, and the Galatians themselves could recall the systematic plan
of collection which he had urged upon their notice. 4 In the very hottest
moment of displeasure against those who at any rate represented themselves
as emissaries of James, he never once relaxed his kindly efforts to prove to
the Church, which more than all others suspected and thwarted him, that even
theological differences, with all their exasperating bitterness, had not dulled
the generous sensibility of a heart which, by many a daily affliction, had learnt
to throb with sympathy for the afflicted.
One part, then, of his mission to Jerusalem was fulfilled when the Lord's
brother, and he to whom He had assigned "the keys of the kingdom of
heaven," and he who had leaned his head at tho Last Supper upon His breast,
had yielded to him their friendly acknowledgment. It is on this that ho
chiefly dwells to the Galatians. In their Churches brawling Judaisers had
dared to impugn his commission and disparage his teaching, on the asserted
s GaL ii, 10. 6 ical i