The life and work of St. Paul

254 THE LIFE AND WOEK Of ST. PAUL.
csteom ; they were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in death they were
not divided. 1
Thug, then, thanks to St.. Paul, the battle was again won, and the Judaisers,
who wore so anxious to steer the little ship of the Church to certain wreck and
ruin on the rocks of national bigotry, could no longer claim the sanction of the
relapsing Peter. But no sooner was all smooth in the.Church of Antioch than
the old mission -hunger seized the heart of Paul, and urged him with noble
restlessness from the semblance of inactivity. Going to his former comrade
Barnabas, he said, " Come, let us re-traverse our old ground, and see for ourselves
how our brethren are hi every city in which we preached the word of the
Lord." Barnabas readily acceded to the proposal, but suggested that they
should take with them his cousin Mark. 2 But to this Paul at once objected.
The young man who had suddenly gone away home from Pamphylia, and left
them, when it was too kte to get any other companion, to face the difficulties
and dangers of .the journey alone, Paul did not think it right to take with
them. Neither would give way; neither put in practice the exquisite and
humble Christian lesson of putting up with less than his due. A quarrel rose
between these two faithful servants of God as bitter as it was deplorable, 3 and
the only hope of peace under such circumstances lay in mutual separation.
They parted, and they suffered for their common fault. They parted to forgive
each other indeed, and to love and honour each other, and speak of each other
hereafter with affection and respect, but never to work together again ;
,
never
to help each other and the cause of God by the union of their several gifts ;
never to share with one another in the glory of Churches won to Christ from
the heathen ; and in all probability to rue, in the regret of lifelong memories,
the self-will, the want of mutual concession, the unspoken soft answer which
turueth away wrath, which, in a few bitter moments, too late repented of,
robbed them both of the inestimable solace of a friend.
Which was right ? which was wrong ? We are not careful to apportion
between them the sad measure of blame, 4 or to dwell on the weaknesses
which marred the perfection of men who have left the legacy of bright
examples to all the world. In the mere matter of judgment each was partly
6
their error lay in the persistency which did not
right, each partly wrong ;
1 See Excursus XVIII., "The Attacks on St. Paul in the Clementines." In the Romish
Church the commemoration of St. Paul is never separated from that of St. Peter. On the
feast-days set apart to each saint, the other ia invariably honoured in the most prominent
way. 2 The true reading of Acts xv. 37 Is /3ovA, , A, B, C, E, Syr., Copt.,