Life of St. Paul for the Young. XXVII–XXIX

LIFE OF ST. PAUL FOR THE YOUNG. BY GEORGE LUDINGTON WEED. CHAPTER XXVII. TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS IN EPHESUS. Synagogue and Schoolhouse—Handkerchiefs and Aprons —Seven Deceiving Brothers—A Bonfire of Books—The Month of Diana—Presidents of Games—Entertainments—Views of the City—Mementos—Effect of Paul's. Preaching— Demetrius—Effect of his Speech—The Mob—Paul's Farewell to Ephesus— The Capitals of Christianity—Summary of Paul's Trials. When Paul began to preach in the synagogue, which he was allowed to do three times a week if he wished, he was kindly received, and his words made a good impression. But after three months the Jews changed their manner toward him—opposed, rejected, and reviled him. He hired a schoolhouse and commenced daily worship for Christians and all who would attend. We are told that "God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul." There was a "special" kind. Articles of his dress —handkerchiefs which he had used, and aprons he had worn when working at his trade—were carried to the sick. We do not know whether or not this was done with Paul's permission; but we do know that the same power that healed the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment, healed these sick also. God, through his apostle, showed a real power which the pretended miracle workers could not have. Paul made the people understand that what he did was in the name of Jesus. There were seven brothers that went from place to place saying that they could cast out evil spirits. Attempting to appear equal to Paul, they commanded an evil spirit to come out of a raving maniac, "by Jesus whom Paul preached." The evil spirit in a Copyright, 1899, by George W. Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia.

LIFE OF ST. PAUL FOR THE YOUNG. 675 loud voice called out, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?" The man, in the strength of his madness, leapt upon them, tore off their clothes, and drove them from the house wounded and terrified. Many other deceivers were alarmed. Among these were some who professed to be Christians, yet had been selling curious things, such as the books that pretended to explain the hidden meaning of the "Ephesian Letters." They came to Paul confessing their wrong. They showed their true repentance and purpose not to do so any more, by bringing their books together and burning them. This was hard for them to do because they thus lost their trade. These books or scrolls were perhaps the most valuable things the men owned. Over $10,000 worth was destroyed in that bonfire in the presence of Paul. About this time Paul formed the purpose of making another visit to Jerusalem and then going to Rome. He was to carry out that plan, but in circumstances very different from what he then imagined, as we shall see. The month of May was called ''the Month of Diana," because during the whole of it there were held every year a great festival in her honor. As the temple of Diana was called the ' 'temple of Asia,'' this festival was called ' 'the common meeting of Asia.'' From regions near and far came multitudes of men with their wives and children to this festival gathering for idolatrous worship and amusement. Every year there were chosen ten men as presidents of the games. They were from the wealthiest and most noted men of the chief cities of Asia. They watched the games to see that everything was done fairly and justly, and to keep order in the theatre. They wore robes of purple or pure white, or of silk with golden threads, and were crowned with garlands or crowns set with carbuncles and pearls. Their names were placed on coins. They paid vast sums of money for the entertainment of the people- This they were willing to do in turn foi being honored as "the chief men of Asia." The entertainments were in different places and of different kinds. In the theatre were concerts and shows; in the hippodrome, horse-racing; in the stadium, gymnastic games of running, leaping and wrestling. There were noisy scenes through

676 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the day and night. In every hour of the day there were gay processions to the temple, following the bleating animals crowned with garlands, being led to sacrifice. Idlers and drunkards could be seen almost everywhere at any time. The harbor was crowded with hundreds of vessels that had themselves been crowded with pilgrims and seekers after pleasure. • The waters were alive with gaily painted small boats. From the heights of the neighboring Mount Prion sight-seekers looked down on the plains covered with goats' hair tents of the strangers, and on the shifting panorama of sea and land. The shops and bazaars were filled with all the attractive things of those days which parents and friends would buy for themselves and those left in the distant homes. The special mementos would be little models of Diana and her shrine. The poorest of the purchasers would buy those made of wood, ethers those of silver; and the wealthy those of gold. In contrast with all this was one place in Ephesus of different scenes, and one man of different purpose. That place was the schoolhouse near the synagogue, and that man was Paul. For two years he had preached in it to the little company who had followed him from the synagogue when he could preach there no longer. Large numbers had heard him and the church had increased in numbers. Many saw the folly and wickedness of idolatry. They believed what Paul had said to the Athenians that God is not ''like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device." They lost their interest in Diana, her temple and her idols, and would waste no more money in serving her. Among them were some of the wealthiest people from whom the makers and sellers of idols had made great gain, especially in the ' 'month of Diana." So these Gentile dealers became what the Jews already were, enemies of Paul. Then "there arose no small stir" about Paul and his Christian work. A master-manufacturer and seller of idols named Demetrius, determined to do what he could to stop it. He called together others of the same business and made them a speech. He told them first of the danger to their trade; then, as we may suppose, pointing his finger to the temple in sight, he tried to excite them by saying that the great goddess was in danger; and that she would be despised and her magnificence destroyed because Paul had

LIFE OF ST PAUL FOR THE YOUNG. 677 "persuaded and turned away much people saying that there be no gods which are made with hands." This speech had the effect intended. The meeting became greatly excited. "When they heard these things they were filled with wrath, and cried out saying, Gie?t is Diana of the Ephesians." Their numbers were increased from the theatre, the hippodrome, the stadium, the street, the bazaars and the homes. "The whole city was filled with confusion." Not finding Paul, who was probably concealed by Aquila and other Christians, they caught two of his companions, Gaius and Aristarchus, and dragged them to the theatre. Paul would have gone himself, ready to testify for Christ, but his friends wisely kept him from the maddened mob who were ready to murder him with their own hands, or to thrust him among the wild beasts to certain destruction. The Jews wanted to show that they hated Paul as much as did the Gentiles. So they put forward "Alexander the Coppersmith"—a Jew—to speak against the Apostles. But his voice was drowned in the repeated cry, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." This was continued for two hours until the town clerk, an important officer, appeared and quieted the throng by saying that the goddess Diana was so great that these Jewish strangers could not harm her. He reminded them that trouble might come upon the city from the Roman government for such a tumult. "And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly." Though Paul escaped death, he was still in danger. The man who could excite more interest than even that in the great festival, and could diminish a trade in the city, was to be feared and persecuted. He says he was delivered from "so great a death," but we do not know of what kind, or how he escaped. It was impossible for him to continue in Ephesus. He called the disciples together, spoke to them words of comfort in their trials, and bade them farewell. It is not certain that he ever visited the city again. We have called Jerusalem the first capital of Christianity, and Antioch was the second—cities from which the gospel news was carried to other places. Ephesus was the third capital, made so especially from Paul's short journeys from there during the three

678 IMPROVEMENT ERA. years he made it his home. That was an eventful period in his life. His ministry in Ephesus was constant and full of labors; first in the synagogue, then in the schoolhouse, then from house to house visiting individual members of the Church, checking them in wrongdoing, and encouraging them in right. He was the earnest preacher and faithful pastor. The result was the large church at Ephesus. That was also the most trying and sorrowful period of Paul's life. It is hard to follow him through his days of toil. We can only imagine what he endured. He labored at his trade for his own support that he should not be a burden to his fellow- Christians while working for his Lord. But his two kinds of work were a heavy burden on him, even when not increased by illness, to which he was subject. But worse than all were the parsecutions. We know some of them and have hints in his letters of many others. He had trouble from Jews and Pagans and even some who called themselves Christians. Soon after leaving Corinth, in his first letter to the Corinthian Church, he wrote a long list of trials, many of which it is supposed he had during the years he made Ephesus the centre of his mission work. Here it is: "in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft; of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been on the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness; besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.'' CHAPTER XXVIII. THE CHURCH AND CITY OF EPHESUS IN GLORY AND FALL. St. John and the Mother of Jesus—Graves on Mount Prion—Christianity and Mohammedanism—The Ruins of Ephesus—The Architect's Inscription—Alexander and Paul.

LIFE OF ST. PAUL FOR THE YOUNG. 679 Paul is not the only Apostle of whom we think when we read the story of Ephesus. "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother. When Jesus therefore saw his mother and that disciple standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home." If that disciple-son and that mother continued together during her life, that home was at last, according to tradition, in Ephesus; and here to the last he was faithful to the sacred trust committed to him on far-distant Calvary. Their graves, with that of Paul's beloved Timothy, make sacred some spot now hidden in the tangled thickets of Mount Prion as it looks down on the most hallowed home spot that Ephesus ever contained. In it John probably wrote his Gospel, which alone records the tender words of the cross concerning the mother and son. In Ephesus Paul planted, Apolos watered,and God gave the increase, which John gathered into a large and flourishing church. Christian temples were built almost rivaling in splendor those of Paganism. Centuries passed, and Mohammedan mosques took the place of Christian churches. The name of Jesus was despised as in the days when Paul first proclaimed it. John, when an exile in Patmos, was told by the Spirit of God to write unto the bishop of the church of Ephesus, reproving them for having left their first love of the Savior, and warning them of trouble and sorrow if they did not repent. The sad prophecy was fulfilled. The day came when no Aquila or Priscilla, no Gaius or Aristarchus, no Paul or John, no one bearing the name of Christ was found to tell of him. The splendid Christian temple built in the days of John crumbled, and nothing today tells even where it stood. Such is the sad tale of proud Ephesus itself. Reversed is the proverb, "The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose," for the rose—the beautiful flower of Asia—has faded and died where all is desert now. Diana, the patron goddess, proved herself a poor parent, unable to protect her children from harm and destruction. Two hundred years after Paul's visit, the Goths—an ancient destructive race—conquered them, and seized the riches that had been entrusted to her keeping. Could Paul visit the

680 IMPROVEMENT ERA. place today, he would gaze in astonishment at the ruins of what he beheld in glory. Columns have fallen on the vaulted chambers over which they were built. There the gleaming torch of the traveler startles the bat in its darkened home. He can hardly find the streets of Ephesus in the tangled bushes that have overgrown them. Goats find shelter where men thronged beneath the open sky. The noisy flight of raven flocks breaks the stillness above, while below the partridge broods in silence in the theatre and stadium where multitudes raised the shout of pleasure and triumph. The quarries are deserted: the marks of the tools alone tell of the toil of workmen long ago. Even the sea has shrunk from the scene of desolation. Where the waves once rolled, tossing the ships full of life, the flat morass is covered with rushes. In the mosque of St Sophia in Constantinople, are eight of the jasper columns that once stood in the now ruined temple, still beautiful in themselves, yet as if telling the story of Diana's fall and mocking Ephesian glory. The architect of the theatre in Ephesus planned an arch which so pleased himself that on a stone he placed an inscription, asking the beholder to notice his device even though he did not the sports of the theatre. That inscription has been found among the ruins where there is no arch to admire. Alexander offered a great reward if his name might be inscribed on the temple. Paul sought no such glory, but that which cometh from God only. To him it happened as God promised, "Him that honoreth me I will honor." In him, as also in John who recorded it, is fulfilled the promise, "To him that overcometh will I give a white stone, and in the stone a new name written.'' CHAPTER XXIX. PHIL1PP1 AND CORINTH REVISITED. Troas—Church in Philippi—Paul's Memories of Philippi—Corinth—Contrast to Former Visit—Sad News from Galatia—Epistle to Galatians—Christians in Rome—Epistle to the Romans—Paul's Great Subject—Phcebe. From Ephesus Paul went to Troas where on his former visit he had the vision of a man calling him to Macedonia, to which he now returned. For a time there is some uncertainty about the

LIFE OF ST. PAUL FOR THE YOUNG. 681 order of his journey and just where he went, but we know some of the places he visited. One of these was Philippi. The Church there had shown him more kindness and given him less trouble than any other. While he had to reprove other churches for some wrong things, he never did this one. Its members were poor; yet at three different times they urged him to take money they had collected for his support while preaching in other places. It has been called his most loved church. While in Philippi, he could not forget the things of six years before—the lictors' rods, the stocks, the dungeon, the midnight songs, the earthquake, the jailer's cry, his conversion and cruelty and kindness, and the release from prison. We do not know how far Paul went on this journey: perhaps it was to the Gulf of Adria. We find him again in Corinth. As he looked on its towering citadel, and entered its harbor and well known gates, he must have remembered with deep feeling his arrival there on his first visit. He had then just come from Athens with a sad spirit because he had been able to do so little in the "city given to idolatry." In Corinth there had not been a single Christian to greet him: he was alone and friendless; but now he had a welcome from Gaius whom he had baptized, and hundreds of others professing the name of Jesus. It is true that some of them had found it hard to change their heathen habits and be faithful followers of Christ, but of many it was true that ' 'old things had passed away and all things had become new." Here Luke and Timothy gladdened his spirit; so did others whose names were becoming familiar to the churches as workers together with Paul. Yet in Corinth he was saddened by news from Galatia that some were speaking against him, saying that he was not an apostle because not one of the twelve appointed by the Lord Jesus; and were turned away from the simple truth of Christ which Paul had taught. It was then that he wrote his Epistle to the Galatians. In it he claimed that he was "an Apostle by Jesus Christ" himself. He was more saddened by their forsaking Christ than their forsaking him, their once loved and trusted teacher. He told them not to believe him "or an angel from heaven" if he preached anything different from what Christ had taught. The Epistle to the Galations was not the only one Paul sent

682 IMPROVEMENT ERA. from Corinth. He had never been in Rome, but a Christian Church had been founded there, by whom we do not know. There is no history or tradition concerning the Church which was to become one of the most important in the history of Christianity. Probably the first members were converts from the synagogue in Rome, or those who had been converted in Palestine, and then moved to Rome, or some who had been present at the Pentecost when "three thousand were converted," among whom were ' 'strangers of Rome.'' Paul was not unknown to the church there. We know of his acquaintance with two whole families besides twenty-six other persons, whom he had probably met in Corinth, Ephesus and elsewhere. His interest in them was so great that he formed the plan of visiting them after he had been to Jerusalem and was on his proposed way to Spain. While in Corinth, he wrote his Epistle to the Romans. We may think of him as seated in, or walking about, a quiet room in the house of Gaius, now glancing upward to the mountain-tops, now downward upon the waters of the Ionian sea, and now on the parchment where Tertius is writing down as he is told the greatest thoughts of the greatest Apostle. The letter is about Christian doctrine, that which the religion of Christ teaches us to believe; and Christian practice, that which the religion of Christ teaches us to do. Chrysostom—the noted Christian father and teacher—called the Epistle to the Romans "the golden key of the Scriptures." In it Paul's great subject is "Justification by Faith" which means our being treated as righteous by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those three words are full of meaning, of which the young reader may know something, and which the oldest and wisest may study all their days. In Paul's letter he says, I commend unto you Phoebe, our sister," the Christian lady of Cenchrea. By her he sent to Rome his letter which must have been a great joy to those who knew and loved him, and little less to those who loved though they had never known him. He loved them all, proving it by saying to them all, "Without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers." (to be continued.)