The life and work of St. Paul

THS LAST JCTJBSTEY TO JERUSALEM. 523
hardly disguiae-d misgiving as to the manner in wliieh his gift would be
accepted l was confirmed. Never in any ago iiavo the recipients of alms at
Jerusalem been remarkable for gratitude. 3 Was tlio gratitude of the Zealots
and Pharisees of the community extinguished in this instance by the fact that
one of the bags of money was carried by tho hands of an uncircumeised Gen-
tile P Had it been otherwise, nothing would have lain more entirely in the
scope of St. Luke's purpose to record. Though some at least of the brethren
received Paul gladly, the Elders of the Church had not hurried on tho previous
evening to greet and welcome him, and subsequent events prove too clearly
that his chief reward lay in the sense of having done and taught to his con-
verts what was kind and right, and not in any softening of the heart of the
Jadaie Christiana. Gratitude is not always won by considerateness. Tho
collection for the saint* occupies many a paragraph in St. Paul's Epistles, as
it had occupied many a year of his thoughts. But there is little or no
recorded recognition of his labour of lovo by tho recipients of the bounty
which but for him could never have been collected.
When the presentation was ever, Paul narrated in full detail 3 the work he
had done, and the Churches which he had confirmed or founded in that third
journey, of which wo have seen the outline. What lovo and exultation should
euch a narrative have excited ! All that wo are told is, that " they, on hearing
it, glorified God, and said" what? The repetition, the echo, of bitter and
even deadly reproaches against St. Paul, coupled with a suggestion which,
however necessary they may have deemed it, was none the less humiliating.
" You observe, brother, how many myriads of the Jews there are that have
embraced the faith, and they are all zealots of the Law." The expression is a
startling one. Were there, indeed, at that early date " many myriads " of
Jewish Christians, when we know how insignificant numerically were tho
Churches even at such places as Rome and Corinth, and when wo learn how
small was the body of Christians which, a decade later, took refuge at Pella
from the impending ruin of Jerusalem P If we are to take tho expression
literally if there were even as many as two myriads of Christiana who wevo
kll zealous for the Law, it only shows how fatal was the risk that the Church
\vould be absorbed into a mere slightly-differentiated synagogue. At any rate.
the remark emphasised the extreme danger of tho Apostle's position in that
hotbed of raging fanaticism, especially when they added, "And they" all
these myriads who have embraced the faith and are zealots of
"
the Law ! have
been studiously indoctrinated 4 with the belief about you, that you teach
APOSTASY JTEOH MOSES, telling all THE JEWS of the dispersion
not to circumcise
their children, and not to walk iu obedience to tho customs. What
then is the state of affairs? That a crowd will assemble is quite certain; for
1 Horn. IT. 81.
2 Witness the treatment in recent days of Sir M. Sfontefiore and Dr. Frank!, after
conferring on them the largest pecuniary benefits.
* xxL 19, naff iv cKturrcf.
< Ver. 21, Kj0)}