The passage in Josephus whence we have drawn this anecdote is important and interesting, as mentioning by name 'Jesus, who was called Christ.' The natural manner in which the name is introduced, and the entire agreement of all external authorities, leave no doubt that Josephus here intended to make reference to our Lord. He must therefore have been acquainted with the fact of his existence and the general purposes of his undertaking. That the Jewish historian did not enter into a full detail of the labours, doctrine, and death of our Lord, must, under these circumstances, be accounted for by some other supposition than that he was ignorant of them, and may, at least with those who are familiar with the unworthy motives by which Josephus was often actuated, especially in paying court to the great and powerful, be satisfactorily explained on the ground that, in his opinion, the less said about the subject the better, seeing that the new cause had not been arrested by argument, influence, or coercion, but still kept quietly, though not slowly, moving on to a degree of success, the prospect of which struck its adversaries with wonder and alarm.

CHAPTER VIII.

A LOOK BEHIND AND BEFORE.

We spoke in the last chapter of a truly great man, the Apostle Paul. Born a few years after Christ, in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, in the south-east corner of Asia Minor, famous for its schools, its learned men, and the political privileges it received from Rome, Saul, as he was originally called, being of the tribe of Benjamin, and having a father who was a Pharisee, received a strictly Jewish education, which was in some degree softened by that Greek culture, by excelling in which his native place gained its chief celebrity. As if to prevent this mellowing influence from proceeding too far, Saul's father brought him to Jerusalem in his early youth, and placed him under the care of the distinguished rabbi Gamaliel. In that city he was filled with the narrow and corrupt spirit of a traditionary Ju'daism, so that when he had come to riper years he was fully prepared to devote his abilities to the service of the ecclesiastical powers of his country. When, therefore, they, on the resurrection of Jesus, began to persecute the Christians, Saul was ere long ready to execute their evil designs. Having assisted in the stoning of Stephen, he was despatched by the priests to Dama'scus, where the Christian cause seemed to be dangerously gaining ground. While on his

road thither, he was suddenly arrested by a display of divine power. He became convinced that Jesus, whom he persecuted, was the divinely-appointed Saviour of the world, and, renouncing his former and most promising connections, and changing his name into Paul, he gave himself to Christ, knowing that disgrace, persecution, and poverty would follow (A. D. 41). In order that he might have time, leisure, and solitude to make himself familiar with Christianity, he retired into Ara'bia, where, in some sequestered spot, he, in communion with God and his own heart, formed those definite convictions and acquired that firm and lively faith which made him the boldest and the most effectual champion of a spiritual and truly universal gospel. Having thus carefully equipped himself, he appeared in the midst of his fellow-men, and began to teach and to preach in the name of Jesus. It was at Damascus, not far from which he was converted, that he opened his high commission. Proceeding thence, he undertook, with other labours, three series of missionary travels, which are enumerated in the Acts of the Apostles, and in which he proclaimed the gospel in most of the chief seats of ancient civilisation, both in Asia and in Europe. During these apostolic journeyings, he founded churches wherever he could gain a favourable hearing, and for the members of those churches, his children in the gospel, he wrote those admirable letters of his which are found in the New Testament, in which he aims to enlarge the instructions he had communicated by word of mouth, to meet and answer current objections, to remove actual difficulties, to reprove and correct acts of misconduct, to confute, and, when he could not conciliate, to silence adversaries, and, generally, to carry forward in his absence the great work of his life, by labouring to spread divine truth and reconcile man to God. In this most arduous enterprise, he found the bitterest opposition from men of his own nation, who never ceased to confront him wherever he went, and from whose inveterate and ruthless hatred in Jerusalem (A.D. 59) he was compelled, in the exercise of his rights as a citizen of Rome, to appeal to the emperor's tribunal in that distant heathen city. Thither, accordingly, he was sent, under a military guard. After a long voyage, in which he suffered shipwreck, he arrived in Rome (A.D. 62), where, in the custody of a soldier, he continued to proclaim the gospel during the space of two years. What ensued, we know not with certainty, for the book which is called 'The Acts of the Apostles' contains but a fragment of the apostolic history, and suddenly breaks off before recording the death of Paul. That event probably took place shortly after the last recorded fact, in the persecution raised against the Christians by that most abandoned man, the emperor Nero, who, setting fire to Rome for his own wicked purposes, contrived to bring the penalty of his misdeed on the heads of the innocent followers of Jesus that dwelt in that city (A. D. 64).

While Paul was thus engaged in offering the gospel to the Gentile world, Peter proclaimed it chiefly to men of Hebrew origin. Having at length freed his mind from Jewish prejudices, and, under the aid of God, gained true and deep strength of character, he, immediately after he had received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, began in Jerusalem to preach Jesus and him crucified, and heroically persisted in the great undertaking, in spite of opposition, being animated by the assurance that he ought to obey God rather than man. From Jerusalem he extended his efforts to other parts, till at last he suffered martyrdom, it is said at Rome, in companionship with Paul, though we are by no means certain that he ever visited the imperial city. Wherever he laboured, however, he, in common with the other apostles, strove to erect the church on the sole foundation, the rock which its Head himself recognised and sanctioned, namely, the great truth that Jesus was the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

Of the Apostle John's history after the death of Jesus, we have less information than we possess respecting Peter. Corrected, however, of the impetuosity which marked and injured his cha

racter during his sojourn with Jesus, and having, under the grace of God, developed, matured, and elevated that loving disposition which made him dear to his Master, John seems to have chosen Asia Minor, especially Ephesus and its neighbourhood, as the chief scene of his apostolic labours; and there, in a good old age which brought him near the end of the first century, he died, surrounded by disciples into whom he had breathed much of his own spirit. Among the incidents narrated of him by tradition, and which serve to show the idea of himself which he left in the minds of his scholars, we read that when now too aged and too decrepid to walk into the church at Ephesus and deliver a discourse, he caused himself to be carried through the throng of worshippers therein, saying as he passed along, Little children, love one another! On one occasion, being asked why he always used the same words, he answered, 'They are sufficient.'

This apostolic triumvirate, aided by other disciples, completed the work which their common Master had begun, and succeeded in planting the gospel so firmly and widely in human hearts, that ever since it has made steady progress towards that universal

diffusion which is promised in Scripture, and which will cause truth, justice, the love of God and the love of man, to cover the earth as the waters cover the depths of the sea. Differing widely in their gifts, Peter, John, and Paul laboured for one common end, and effectually conspired to bring about the same result. The love of John, the ardent logic and wide aims of Paul, and the more conservative zeal of the now cautious but self-denying Peter, combined to spread the gospel the more certainly and widely, because the diversity of their characters enabled them to adapt their several ministrations to dissimilar states of mind.

Unspeakably great was the blessing which was thus conferred on the world. Existing religions had lost their power. Heathenism had sunk to a fable. Its philosophers neglected or despised prevalent notions. Its priests, if not narrowed by bigotry, smiled at each other when the eye of one met the eye of another during the ceremonies of public worship. A scoffing spirit gained prevalence. Scorn destroyed faith in its very roots. There arose a blighting scepticism on which the educated prided themselves, though it brought death. The heart, emptied of faith, hope, and love, sought gratification in vicious pleasures, in which it sooner or later perished. Meanwhile, the most revolting corruption of morals prevailed. Vices that must not be named became fashionable and common. Rome, now the mistress of the world, caused to flow into the public coffers and the hands of its citizens the treasures of all lands, which were expended in the purchase of luxuries the most debilitating, and in furnishing with food and pleasures the depraved populace of the city. Among those pleasures, not the least were the games of the amphitheatre, where the pride, the youth, and the beauty of Rome, as well as the populace, assembled together in thousands to witness and enjoy combats in which human beings were matched against ferocious wild beasts collected for the purpose from distant climes. These unfortunate men, termed gla'diators, were one class of that very large body of slaves whom the luxurious and tyrannical Romans kept in servitude around them, and whom they employed in offices of the vilest kind, as well as in all pursuits which the martial spirit judged unworthy of a soldier. In one sense, indeed, slavery was universal, for Rome enslaved all whom it conquered, save a few favoured cities and individuals; and, as if to make the yoke more galling, frequently did the emperors, after having used them for their own vicious or unjust purposes, set abandoned emancipated slaves over subjugated lands. Such a man was Felix, who governed Judea at the time when Paul was persecuted by the priests in Jerusalem.

In Palestine existed a scarcely less need of a new religion, for that of Moses and the prophets had been overpowered and sunk in the corrupt traditions of the elders'-made up of a mixture of Chaldee and Persian superstitions, with large additions

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