IN CHURCH HISTORY. 33 



we can gather a tolerably full history of the Apostle 

 to the Gentiles. It is a marvellous history, full 

 of interesting details and surprising incidents, and 

 makes a record of heroism such as has never been 

 equalled by man. It is almost impossible to sum 

 it up in a few lines. It must be read and studied 

 in the words of matchless simplicity and earnestness, 

 in which St. Luke wrote it ; and must be gathered 

 out of the incidental allusions which the Apostle 

 makes in his Epistles. 



While on his way to Damascus, in bitter hatred 

 of the Christians, the Lord met him, and called 

 him from his work as a persecutor to be thence- 

 forth a helper in the Gospel. After his baptism he 

 spent three years in Arabia in solitude, doubtless 

 becoming fitted there for his sacred work. His 

 ministry began in Damascus, and then extended to 

 Jerusalem, and finally to Antioch. 



At this place he was commissioned to his great 

 work as an apostle to the Gentiles. From that time 

 on until some twenty years after, when he was carried 

 as a prisoner to Rome, he was almost ceaselessly in 

 motion, now in one place, now in another. His 

 missionary journeys may be grouped under three 

 great divisions. He went out and found a pagan 

 world opposed to him, to the message he bore, a 

 world superstitious and corrupt. It was his joy to 

 see, ere he died, in every place where he had 

 told of Christ, bodies of believers who rejoiced in 



