The life and work of St. Paul

THE LAST JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. 517
there he held up those thin, toilworn hands before them all
" these hands
ministered. In all things I set you the example, that, thus labouring, you
ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how
He said, '
" l
It is blessed rather to give than to receive.'
After these words, which so well describe the unwearied thoroughness, the
ieep humility, the perfect tenderness, of his Apostolic ministry, he knelt
lown with them all, and prayed. They were overpowered with the touching
solemnity of the scene. He ended his prayer amidst a burst of weeping, and
as they bade him farewell anxious for his future, anxious for their own
they each laid their heads on his neck, 2 and passionately kissed him, 3
pained
above all at his remark that never again should they gaze, as they had gazed
so often,* on the dear face of the teacher who had borne so much for their
sakes, and whom they loved so well. If Paul inspired intense hatreds, yet,
with all disadvantages of person, he also inspired intense affection. He
had to use the strong expression 5 of St. Luke to tear himself from them.
Sadly, and with many forebodings, they went down with him to the vessel,
which was by this time awaiting him ; and we may be very sure that Paul
was weeping bitterly as he stepped on board, and that sounds of weeping
were long heard upon the shore, until the sails became a white speck on the
horizon, and with heavy hearts the Elders of Ephesus turned away to face
once more, with no hope of help from their spiritual father, the trials that
awaited them in the city of Artemis.
The wind blew full in favour of the voyagers, and before the evening they
had run with a straight course to Cos. Neither the wines, nor the purple, nor
the perfumes of Cos, would have much '
interest for the little band ; but, if
opportunity offered, we may be sure that " the beloved physician" would not
miss the opportunity of seeing all that he could of the scientific memorials of
the Asclepiadse the great medical school of the ancient world. Next day the
little vessel rounded the promontory of Cnidus, and sped on for Rhodes,
where, as they entered the harbour, they would admire the proverbial fertility
of the sunny island of roses, and gaze with curiosity on the prostrate mass of
its vast Colossus, of which two legs still stood on their pedestal, 7
though the
huge mass of bronze had been hurled down by an earthquake, there to stay
till, thirteen centuries later, they were broken up, and carried away on 900
camels, to be the ignoble spoil of a Jew. 8 The monstrous image one of the
wonders of the world was a figure of the sun ; and, with whatever lingering
artistic sympathy it might have been regarded by the Gentile converts,
1 The only "unwritten saying" (S^pa^ov Myna.) of our Lord in the New Testament
not preserved for us in the Gospels.
2
cf. Gen. xlv. 14, xlvi. 29.
s
KO.TC&I.OVV, deosculabantur (cf. Matt. xxvi. 49).
4 Ver. 38, 6t