--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Weed, George Ludington collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 9 number: 6 published: 1906-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'George Ludington Weed, "Life of St. Paul for the Young—XVIII–XXI," *Improvement Era* 9, no. 6 (April 1906): 443–454.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0906unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0906unse start_page: 443 end_page: 454 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1906-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0906unse publication_year: 1906 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1906, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Life of St. Paul for the Young—XVIII–XXI LIFE OF ST. PAUL FOR THE YOUNG. BY GEORGE LUDINGTON WEED. CHAPTER XVIII. LYSTRA. Location — "The King of Pagan Gods" — Paul's Preaching Places— Cripple Healed — Mistaken for Gods — Jupiter and Mercury — Homage Offered and Refused — Changed feeling — Paul Stoned — As from the Dead. Forty miles from Iconium Paul and Barnabas reached the little town of Lystra in Lycaonia. It is not now known exactly where it stood. The supposed spot is called Black Mountain, noted as a dangerous place because of the many and daring robbers who make it their home. Lystra was a heathen city. There seems to have been no synagogue in it, and only a few Jews. The people generally knew nothing of the God the Jews worshiped. When the apostles came near the city, they saw a great temple. Before it there was a statue of "Jupiter, the king of the Pagan gods," "the father of gods and men." The ignorant worshipers believed he watched over it and kept them from harm. They brought animals to the temple to be slain by the priests and offered in worship. As there was no synagogue, the apostles held their service in the open air, on the street, or in the market-place, or under the shady trees. "There they preached the gospel" to a strange audience, villagers of little learning, and rude in dress and manner. It was the same good news concerning Christ which they preached to wise and refined men in the cities. Copyright, 1899, by George W. Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia. 444 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Paul and Barnabas seemed strange to them because of the things they said. The longer the apostles stayed, the more interested and excited the people became. Paul was the chief speaker. They were ready to say of them as some said to Jesus, "Never man spake like this man." They began to think that perhaps the apostles were gods such as they worshiped. Then something happened which made them believe this was so. In the group about Paul there was a certain man "impotent" — weak — in his feet, being a cripple who had never walked. That is a sad description. As a child he had never taken even tottering steps. He had never been a bounding boy, full of life, racing with his companions. As a man he had always to lie on the ground, as he did when Paul was preaching. He turned his face'toward the apostle, gazed upon him in wonder, believed the gospel of Christ, and even ' 'had faith to be healed." Paul understood this as he earnestly looked upon the poor man with pity and yet with gladness because of what Jesus was about to do through him. He spoke to the cripple in a loud voice, saying, "Stand upright on thy feet." Immediately "he leaped and walked" with a joy he had never known before. He was healed by Jesus whose gospel Paul was preaching, and who had said to a man sick of the palsy, "Rise up and walk." Paul may have used the words of Peter to the "impotent" man at "the beautiful gate of the temple" — "in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk." With what a thrill of delight did the cripple of Lystra give his first leap and take his first step; but with what greater joy did he learn of him by whom he had been healed! The multitudes seeing the miracle were filled with awe and excitement. They were ever ready to believe marvelous tales, especially about the deities they worshiped. Mistaking Paul and Barnabas for such, they cried out, "The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men." They believed that this sometimes happened. They gave new names to the apostles, names of heathen divinities. Barnabas is described as a tall man with a noble figure, and a kind, pleasant face. That was the sort of being which the Lystrians imagined their chief god to be, near whose temple they were gathered. So they gave to Barnabas the name of Jupiter. Mercury was believed to be small in size, and one LIFE OF ST. PAUL FOR THE YOUNG. 445 who helped men to express their thoughts in beautiful language which interested and excited the hearers. He was called the god of eloquence. As Paul was smaller than Barnabas, and the chief speaker, he was named Mercury. The news of the wonderful miracle spread. The whole town was in the utmost excitement. The priest of Jupiter was called to do honor to the supposed gods. Oxen crowned with garlands were brought for sacrifice to them. A procession was formed to escort the supposed heavenly visitors from their lodgings to the temple. At first the apostles were ignorant of this intended idolatrous worship of them. Discovering the purpose, they were grieved at the ignorance and superstition of the people. They were filled with horror at the thought of homage being given to them which belonged to God only. They rent their garments to show the depth of their feeling. Springing to the doorway of their lodging they forbade entrance, saying: "Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein." These truthful words changed the minds of the rude heathen. But, while the multitudes turned away from the apostles, they did not turn to the true God. The oxen were driven away, but not for sacrifice. The garlands faded away as did the honor for which they were intended. With little thought the people asked, "If these strange visitors are not gods who — what are they?" In their ignorance, they were easily made to believe that Paul and Barnabas deserved ridicule and punishment, instead of honor and worship. This was done by certain Jews who had followed them from Iconium and even Antioch to turn the Lystrians against them. They made the people believe that the healing of the cripple was not a miracle by God, but was some magic done by ' 'Beelzebub, the prince of the devils," by whom certain men said Jesus performed his miracles. They persuaded the rude mob of Lystra to attempt to do what they themselves had purposed in Iconium, but failed in doing: that was to kill Paul. He was not "cast out of the city and stoned," as Stephen was in Jerusalem, but his ene- 446 IMPROVEMENT ERA. raies "having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead." What memories he must have had of that other scene when he kept the raiment of them that slew Stephen! He never forgot that hour in Lystra. In after years, when telling of his sufferings, he wrote, "Once was' I stoned." His stoning must have been near the temple of Jupiter. The Christian disciples, his faithful friends, followed him outside the walls, and stood around his mangled body. Poor Barnabas must have thought of a lonely burial in a strange city, and of the sad message he must carry to Antioch in Syria, and to Jerusalem—"Paul is dead!" But he was not dead. He had been stunned by the stones and swooned away. While they looked upon him in pity and love, he "rose up" as from the dead, and in feebleness and pain "came into the city." CHAPTER XIX. TIMOTHY— DERBE AND THE HOMEWARD JOURNEY. Lois, Eunice and Timothy — The Wounded Apostle — Paul and Timothy — Derbe — Return Journey — Churches Visited — Sailing for Syria — Syrian Antioch— Report to the Church — Summary by Paul. In the group weeping around Paul's apparently lifeless form at Lystra, may have been a woman named Lois, and her daughter Eunice with a young son fifteen years of age. His name wa& Timothy. As he looked into the pale face of Paul, stained with blood, and yet calm in apparent death, he may have had such thoughts as we have supposed Saul had when looking into the face of, the martyred Stephen. Each of them saw how a Christian can die, even a death of agony. If present, with what joy Timothy saw Paul revive, his eyes open, his hands move, his effort to rise, the returning knowledge of things about him. We may even think of his leading the apostle to his own home, where his services and the womanly care of his mother and grandmother helped returning life. 'Perhaps Timothy read to him from the Scriptures with which he had already become familiar, especially the Psalmswritten by David in affliction. LIFE OF ST. PAUL FOE THE YOUNG. 447 We have imagined that Paul in Jerusalem with Barnabas was a guest of Mary, whose son John Mark became his companion. We may also imagine Paul the guest of Eunice, whose son Timothy in future years was to be of more value to him and to the church than John Mark and even Barnabas. He was to become a companion in journeys, a trusted messenger, a minister to churches established by Paul, a comforter in prison and elsewhere, for twenty-three years until the end of the life of the apostle. With a fatherly affection, Paul callen him his son Timothy. . It is probable that Timothy, his mother and grandmother, became Christians at the time of Paul's persecution, thus giving him exceeding joy in his affliction. Suffering from his wounds, Paul fled from Lystra in Lycaonia to Derbe, where he was allowed to rest a short time, happy and successful in labor, without any to oppose him. There he gained a valued friend for many years, Gaius by name. Paul now commenced his return trip to Antioch in Syria. But he would not leave the region where Christians were like sheep on a desert or among wolves, without a visit to each flock to give strength and comfort. He was a bold man in doing this where his life was in constant danger from those whose plots of murder had thus far failed. Doubtless his friends kept secret his movements helping him as they could, as did the disciples who aided his escape from Damascus. As he went from place to place, the joyful news would be whispered, ' 'Paul is here. ' ' In each there were solemn meetings and earnest prayer, and the ordaining of elders who should be the leaders of the little company when the apostle was gone. He went from Derbe twenty miles to Lystra; thence forty miles to Iconium; then sixty miles to Antioch in Pisidia. Recrossing the steep, rugged, dangerous, rocky mountains of Taurus, where we followed him in his outward journey, he is again at Perga in Pamphylia. There he stops some time preaching, perhaps while waiting for a vessel at the seaport of Attaleia to carry him back to Seleucia in Syria, whence he had sailed for Cyprus at the beginning of his journey. Once more the lofty Mount Casius is in sight. He sails up the beautiful Orontes whose green banks, shaded with ilex, myrtle and arbutus, are a great and pleasing contrast to the barren plains of Lycaonia, seeming to welcome his 448 IMPROVEMENT ERA. return to Syrian Antioch. Entering the city he goes to the street Signon, of which he has pleasant memories because of the Christians who now hasten to greet him whom they sadly sent forth as their missionary to Asia Minor. With deep emotions he tells the story of his journey — his sufferings and successes. It is not about the plots to take his life, and his fleeing from city to city, and the stoning at Lystra, that he has the most to say; but that worshipers of false gods like Diana and Jupiter had become worshipers of the true God. As Paul continued his story, these disciples, who were first called Christians in Antioch of Syria, rejoiced greatly that in the city of the same name in Pisidia and other places there were those who also could be called by the name Christian, So ended Paul's first missionary journey. The memory of his experiences never faded. In after years he wrote to Timothy: "Thou hast known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came upon me at Antioch, Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me." He returned to Antioch "a shattered man:" yet with his weakened body he had a strengthened "purpose" and "faith" and "patience," to endure whatever his Lord called him to be, to do, and to suffer as the apostle of the Gentiles. CHAPTER XX. CHRISTIAN JEWS AND GENTILES. Jewish Treatment of Gentiles — Serious Questions in the Christian Church — Mistaken feeling in Jerusalem — Paul and Barnabas sent to Jerusalem — Titus — A Private Meeting — A Church Meeting — A Happy Decision — A.n Important Letter— The First General Council — Paul and John. We have noticed the hatred of the Jews towards the Gentiles. They prided themselves upon the descendants of Abraham. They believed that they were the favorites of God — that he cared for them more than for any other people. So they looked down upon the Gentiles, refusing to treat them as equals. They did business with them, but would not visit nor eat with them as with friends. We remember how, on the house-top in Joppa, God taught LIFE OF ST. PAUL FOR THE YOUNG. 449 Peter that all this was wrong; and how he went to the house of Cornelius and preached the gospel to him, a Gentile, and how he went to the church at Jerusalem and told the people there that the gospel of Christ was for all. Some were satisfied and ready to treat Gentile Christians with kindness, and welcome them to the same church with themselves. But others would not. While they called themselves Christians, they were not showing the Christian spirit. And so in Jerusalem an elsewhere the question was being asked by many, "Must the Jews who have become Christians and the Gentiles who have become Christians be members of the same church and all be treated alike; or shall there be one church for the Jewish Christians and another for the Gentile Christians?" This was a very serious question. It gave Paul and the best Christians a great deal of trouble, because these differences were contrary to the teachings of Christ who loved all, and commanded all to love one another as brethren. Some of these mistaken church members in Jerusalem went to Antioch and tried to influence the Jewish Christians there against the Gentile converts. They had been Pharisees, and said that those who did not obey Jewish law could not be saved. They claimed that Christian baptism was of no use. The Gentile converts were greatly troubled. They had not so understood Peter and Paul and Christ. The matter was so important that Paul and Barnabas were asked to go from Antioch to Jerusalem and see the apostles and get their advice. Paul was all the more ready to go because he had a revelation from God telling him so to do. He took with them Titus, a young Gentile Christian, who would be much interested in what the apostles would say. They, too, would be interested in him, because he showed what a good man a heathen might become. As the three journeyed from Antioch to Jerusalem, ' 'declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, they caused great joy io all the brethren" whom they met. Once more Paul enters the Holy City to which he had come in boyhood to \ he school of Gamaliel, and then in early manhood after his conversion to see Peter, and then to bring offerings from Antioch to the famine-stricken Christians of Jerusalem. He had a private meeting- with Peter, James — called "the just" because 450 IMPROVEMENT ERA. he was so honest and true — and John. These were the ''pillars of the church, " the men whose learning, wisdom and goodness helped the Christian company more than did any others. Tiiere was a larger meeting of the church to talk about the great question of which we have spoken. There was much said, but we have only the four speeches of Peter, Paul, Barnabas and James. With them at last all agreed, that there should net be one church for Jewish Christians and another for the Gentiles, but all should be treated as equals because both were followers of the same Lord of all. A letter saying this was written to the Christians in Antioch and other places, and sent to that city by Paul and others. One of them was named Silas, who was to become his companion in mission journeys. The church in Antioch was made happy by the letter from Jerusalem. It was ready to welcome all who could be called Christians, no matter by what other name they were called or to what nation they belonged. This meeting of the apostles in Jerusalem is known in church history as the First General Council. In that meeting a pleasant thing happened to Paul. One of its members, who had made no speech, gave him "the right hand of fellowship" to show how pleased he and the others were at what he had said and done. That one was John "the beloved disciple" of their Lord. So far as we know, this was the only time that these two apostles ever met. This was in Jerusalem. Their earthly journeys were to be in different directions, guided by their Master till they should meet in the New Jerusalem. CHAPTER XXI. BEGINNING OF PAUL'S SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY. Two Years at Antioch — Plan for a Second Journey— Trouble Concerning John Mark — Barnabas and Mark — Paul and Silas — Second Journey Begun — Route — Timothy a New Companion of Paul — At Antioch in Pisidia— Cybele — "Thorn in the Flesh" — Christian Sympathy— Troas — "The Beloved Physician" — First Sight of Europe — A Vision— Macedonian Cry. After the return of Paul and Barnabas from the first missionary tour, they remained in Antioch "a long time"— two years. LIFE OF SI. PAUL FOR THE YOUNG. 451 Then Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do." This was a noble purpose. It was like that of a loving father wanting to "visit" his children. But before he started, a very painful thing happened. Good men sometimes think and feel differently, and this makes them do wrong. | They are not as good friends as they were; but in the end they may become as friendly and even loving as before. Being friends of Christ helps men to obey his command to love one another. All this was true of Paul and Barnabas. On the second missionary journey Barnabas wanted to take his kinsman John Mark with them. You remember that this young man had started with them on the first journey, but left them at Perga and returned home, because, as we have supposed, he was discouraged as he thought of the trials and dangers which must be met. Paul was unwilling to trust him again. Barnabas was disappointed and very much displeased. So these two good men, who had been together so long and done so much good together, agreed to separate. It is sad to see them part in this manner. They never met again ; but this was not because of a continued quarrel. Paul afterward wrote to Barnabas very kindly and showed him much honor. When in Rome he sent for John Mark to come to him, trusting him whom he had refused to trust in Antioch. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, his native island. Paul chose Silas for his companion, and started on his second missionary journey. It was to be longer and more dangerous and more important than his first or third. In its results, it was to be grander than any other journey taken by any other man. When Paul started with Barnabas on his first journey from Antioch, the church "fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them and sent them away." When with Silas he started on his second, the church prayed that God would guide and protect them. They first went northward through Syria; then around the northeastern extremity of the Mediterranean sea; then westward through Cilicia to Tarsus, Paul's childhood home. He revisited churches he had founded. With what glad surprise they must have welcomed his return. At Lystra he would be at home once more with ' 'Grandmother 452 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Lois;" and ''Mother Eunice," probably now a widow, and her young son Timothy, called "the young disciple of Lystra." The fatherless youth must have felt tenderly towards the great apostle who spoke of him as "my son;" "my true son in the flesh;" and of their relation being "as a son with a father." The hints we have of Timothy give us the idea of almost a perfect character. He seems to have been shy and timid, but this did not conceal his virtues from those who knew him in Lystra and Iconium. In a youth of sixteen or seventeen, when he probably became a Christian, they saw a model for young and old. He was still a young man when Paul revisited his home. The apostle saw his loving spirit, his faithfulness to duty, the courage blending with his modesty, his fitness to be a companion and helper. We do not wonder that it is said, ' 'Him would Paul have to go with him. " So, as Hannah lent her son Samuel to the Lord, and as the widowed Christian mother in Jerusalem gave her son John Mark to his work, Eunice gave the light of her home to cheer the lonely apostle and Silas, as they went on their way to lighten the Gentiles. Before they started on their journey, the whole church at Lystra assembled. In it Timothy made a public declaration of his faith in Christ, and was ordained for his new work. The elders of the church and Paul laid their hands on him in solemn consecration, and the "grace of the Holy Ghost descended like a flame into his heart. " From that day and ever after rested on him Paul's benediction, "Unto Timothy my own son in the faith; grace, mercy and peace from God our Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord." We may think of Paul once more in Antioch of Pisidia; and then among the heathen idolaters "in the region of Galatia." Among the false gods worshiped was "Cybele, the mother of the gods." People believed that a black stone which had fallen from the sky was her image. It may have been a meteorite — a mass of stone or iron such as sometimes falls from some unknown place to our world. Many Galatians in ignorance and fear worshiped this idol instead of God who made all things and all worlds — the true God whom Paul had come to make known to them. He stayed in Galatia months, perhaps years. We do not know the exact time, nor the places that he visited. But from his own writings we LIFE OF ST. PAUL FOR THE YOUNG. 463 learn that many turned from idolatry to the true God, and that many churches were founded by him. Paul was hindered in his journeying by a serious bodily affliction. We do not know of what kind it was. He wrote of a painful trouble which he had many years. He called it ' 'a thorn in the flesh." Some have thought this was a disease in his eyes, such as is common in the East, or that they were never well after his blindness in Damascus. This trouble may have greatly increased, or some other illness come upon him. His sufferings were very great and lasted a long time. No doubt Timothy tenderly nursed him "as a son with a father." Those who had become Christians did what they could for him, in their gratitude and love. He afterwards wrote a letter to them in which he said something like this: "You know that when I preached the gospel to you, I was taken very sick. My disease was such as to make me loathsome to you. You might have turned away from me in disgust and treated me as if you did not care for me. But this was not so: you were very kind, you treated me as if I were an angel. You were sorry because I was sick, yet you were glad to have my sickness keep me with you so long. I do believe that you love me so much that you would have been willing to pluck out your own eyes and give them to me if that could make me well." When at last Paul was ready to leave Galatia, he was in great doubt where to go, but a revelation from God directed him to Troasf without telling him where he should go from there. That city is situated at the northwestern extremity of Asia Minor on the iEgean sea, near the narrow strait of the Dardanelles which separates Asia from Europe. The region of Troas is of deep interest to the student of history. Four miles from it lay the Plains of Troy. It was the scene of the Trojan war, the greatest in olden times. Ancient writers, especially the poet Homer, have caused it to be remembered through three thousand years. Readers and travelers think of its war horses and chariots, its armies and their leaders. But none were so great as the apostle who on almost the same spot proclaimed the gospel of the Prince of Peace. Right here we may stop long enough to be introduced to a companion of Paul of whom we have not spoken. We have no- 454 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ticed the apostle's serious illness in Galatia. He may not have recovered from the effects of it in Troas. Here we find him with a physician who becomes more than that to him. Next to Timothy, he is Paul's dearest friend in his journeys, labors, trials, shipwreck and imprisonment. His name is Luke. It is through him as writer of the ''Acts of the Apostles" that we get most of what we know of the life of Paul. In the "Gospel of St. Luke," we have his story of Jesus Christ. Paul calls him "the beloved physician." As such he was grea t help to the apostle in his journeyings and sufferings. We may also believe that wherever he went he ministered to the bodies of men while he sought to help their souls. So, besides the name which Paul gave Luke, we may call him the first Medical Missionary. As Paul stood upon the shores of the Hellespont — now the Dardanelles — and thought of the power and glory which men had sought on the Plains of Troy, he thought of the power and glory of another kind which he sought, not for himself but for his leader, Jesus Christ, for whose bidding he was waiting to tell him where next to go. Behind him was Asia, where he had preached Christ crucified and his resurrection, and where Christianity had its beginning. Across the narrow strait was Mount Athos, nearly seven thousand feet high, his first sight of Europe, in which Christianity was unknown. Perhaps the lofty peak "seemed like some vast angel who beckoned him to carry the good tidings to the West." Across the iEgean sea was Macedonia, whose heathenism may have burdened his spirit when he laid his head upon his pillow. That was a memorable night in which as he slept he had a vision — no vague dream of mountain or angel, but the distinct figure of a Macedonian soldier standing on the opposite shore toward which he was looking before he went to sleep. Beckoning him, the soldier cried, "Come over into Macedonia and help us." When morning dawned, Paul told his vision to his companions. They understood its meaning as he did. Luke tells us that immediately they planned to go, feeling sure that the Lord had called them. "Therefore loosing from Troas," they crossed the iEgean sea, stopping first at the island of Samothrace, whose lofty mountains was a land-mark to the Pagan sailors who looked upon