point, in a chapter which is only intended to be a general introduction to the Apostle's history. Our desire has been to give a picture of the condition of the world at this particular epoch: and we have thought that no grouping would be so successful as that which should consist of Jews, Greeks, and Romans. Nor is this an artificial or unnatural arrangement: for these three nations were the divisions of the civilized world. And in the view of a religious mind they were more than this. They were "the three peoples of God's election; two for things temporal, and one for things eternal. Yet even in the things eternal they were allowed to minister. Greek cultivation and Roman polity prepared men for Christianity." These three peoples stand in the closest relation to the whole human race. The Christian, when he imagines himself among those spectators who stood round the cross, and gazes in spirit upon that "superscription," which the Jewish scribe, the Greek proselyte, and the Roman soldier could read, each in his own tongue, feels that he is among those who are the representatives of all humanity. In the ages which precede the crucifixion, these three languages were like threads which guided us through the labyrinth of history. And they are still among the best guides of our thought, as we travel through the ages which succeed it. How great has been the honor of the Greek and Latin tongues! They followed the fortunes of a triumphant church. Instead of Heathen languages, they gradually became Christian. As before they had been employed to express the best thoughts of unassisted humanity, so afterwards they became the exponents of Christian doctrine and the channels of Christian devotion. The words of Plato and Cicero fell from the lips and pen of Chrysostom and Augustine. And still those two languages are associated together in the work of Christian education, and made the instruments for training the minds of the young in the greatest nations of the earth. And how deep and pathetic is the interest which attaches to the Hebrew! Here the thread seems to be broken. "JESUS, King of the Jews," in Hebrew characters. It is like the last word of the Jewish Scriptures, the last warning of the chosen people. A cloud henceforth is upon the higher sense. The Roman, powerful but not happy the Greek, distracted with the inqui ries of an unsatisfying philosophy — the Jew, bound hand and foot with the chain of a ceremonial law, all are together round the cross. CHRIST is crucified in the midst of themcrucified for all. The "superscription of His accusation" speaks to all the same language of peace, pardon, and love. people and the language of Israel. "Blindness in part is happened unto Israel, till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." Once again Jesus, after His ascension, spake openly from Heaven "in the Hebrew tongue" (Acts xxvi. 14): but the words were addressed to that Apostle who was called to preach the Gospel to the philosophers of Greece, and in the emperor's palace at Rome.1 1 See inscription in the three languages on a Christian tomb in the Roman Catacombs, at the end of the volume. CHAPTER II. Jewish Origin of the Church.-Sects and Parties of the Jews. Pharisees and Sadducees. St. Raul a Pharisee. - Hellenists and Aramæans. St. Paul's Family Hellenistic but not Hellenizing. His Infancy at Tarsus. - The Tribe of Benjamin. - His Father's Citizenship. Scenery of the Place. His Childhood. · He is sent to Jerusalem. State of Judæa and Jerusalem. - Rabbinical Schools. - Gamaliel. Mode of Teaching. - Synagogues. Student-Life of St. Paul.- His Early Manhood. - First Aspect of the Church. -St. Stephen.- The Sanhedrin. St. Stephen the Forerunner of St. Paul.-His Martyr dom and Prayer. CHRIS HRISTIANITY has been represented by some of the modern Jews as a mere school of Judaism. Instead of opposing it as a system antagonistic and subversive of the Mosaic religion, they speak of it as a phase or development of that religion itself, — as simply one of the rich outgrowths from the fertile Jewish soil. They point out the causes which combined in the first century to produce this Christian development of Judaism. It has even been hinted that Christianity has done a good work in preparing the world for receiving the pure Mosaic principles which will, at length, be universal.1 We are not unwilling to accept some of these phrases as expressing a great and important truth. Christianity is a school of Judaism: but it is the school which absorbs and interprets the teaching of all others. It is a development; but it is that development which was divinely foreknown and predetermined. It is the grain of which mere Judaism is now the worthless husk. It is the image of Truth in its full proportions; and the Jewish remnants are now as the shapeless fragments which remain of the block of marble when the statue is completed. When we look back at the Apostolic age, we see that growth proceeding which separated the husk from the grain. We see the image of Truth coming out in clear expressiveness, and the useless fragments falling off like scales, under the careful work of divinely-guided hands. If we are to realize the earliest appearance of the Church, such as it 1 This notion, that the doctrine of Christ will be re-absorbed in that of Moses, is a curious phase of the recent Jewish philosophy. "We are sure," it has been well said, "that Christianity can never disown its source in Judaism: but a more powerful spell than this philosophy is needed to charm back the stately river into the narrow, rugged, picturesque ravine, out of which centuries ago it found its way." was when Paul first saw it, we must view it as arising in the midst of Judaism; and if we are to comprehend all the feelings and principles of this Apostle, we must consider first the Jewish preparation of his own younger days. To these two subjects the present chapter will be devoted. We are very familiar with one division which ran through the Jewish nation in the first century. The Sadducees and Pharisees are frequently mentioned in the New Testament, and we are there informed of the tenets of these two prevailing parties. The belief in a future state may be said to have been an open question among the Jews, when our Lord appeared and "brought life and immortality to light." We find the Sadducees established in the highest office of the priesthood, and possessed of the greatest powers in the Sanhedrin and yet they did not believe in any future state, nor in any spiritual existence independent of the body. The Sadducees said that there was "no resurrection, neither Angel nor Spirit." They do not appear to have held doctrines which are commonly called licentious or immoral. On the contrary, they adhered strictly to the moral tenets of the Law, as opposed to its mere formal technicalities. They did not overload the Sacred Books with traditions, or encumber the duties of life with a multitude of minute observances. They were the disciples of reason without enthusiasm, they made few proselytes, their numbers were not great, and they were confined principally to the richer members of the nation. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were the enthusiasts of the later Judaism. They "compassed sea and land to make one proselyte." Their power and influence with the mass of the people was immense. The loss of the national independence of the Jews, the gradual extinction of their political life, directly by the Romans, and indirectly by the family of Herod, caused their feelings to rally round their Law and their Religion, as the only centre of unity which now remained to them. Those, therefore, who gave their energies to the interpretation and exposition of the Law, not curtailing any of the doctrines which were virtually contained in it and which had been revealed with more or less clearness, but rather accumulating articles of faith, and multiplying the requirements of devotion; — who themselves practised a severe and ostentatious religion, being liberal in alms-giving, fasting frequently, making long prayers, and carrying casuistical distinctions into the smallest details of conduct; who consecrated, moreover, their best zeal and exertions to the spread of the fame of Judaism, and to the in - 1 Acts xxiii. 8. See Matt. xxii. 23-34. Ant. xiii. 10, 6; xviii. 1, 4, comparing the question asked, John vii. 48. crease of the nation's power in the only way which now was practicable, - could not fail to command the reverence of great numbers of the people. It was no longer possible to fortify Jerusalem against the Heathen but the Law could be fortified like an impregnable city. The place of the brave is on the walls and in the front of the battle: and the hopes of the nation rested on those who defended the sacred outworks, and made successful inroads on the territories of the Gentiles. Such were the Pharisees. And now, before proceeding to other features of Judaism and their relation to the Church, we can hardly help glancing at St. Paul. He was "a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee," and he was educated by Gamaliel,2 "a Pharisee." Both his father and his teacher belonged to this sect. And on three distinct occasions he tells us that he himself was a member of it. Once when at his trial, before a mixed assembly of Pharisees and Sadducees, the words just quoted were spoken, and his connection with the Pharisees asserted with such effect, that the feelings of this popular party were immediately enlisted on his side. "And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; and the multitude was divided. . . . And there arose a great cry; and the Scribes that were of the Pharisees' part arose, and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man." 4 The second time was, when, on a calmer occasion, he was pleading before Agrippa, and said to the king in the presence of Festus: "The Jews knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee." And once more, when writing from Rome to the Philippians, he gives force to his argument against the Judaizers, by telling them that if any other man thought he had whereof he might trust in the flesh, he himself had more: -" circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the Law, a Pharisee." And not only was he himself a Pharisee, but his father also. He was " a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee." This short sentence sums up nearly all we know of St. Paul's parents. If we think of his earliest life, we are to conceive of him as born in a Pharisaic family, and as brought up from his infancy in the "straitest sect of the Jews' religion." His childhood was nurtured in the strictest belief. The stories of the Old Testament, the angelic appearances, the prophetic visions, to him. to him were literally true. They needed no Sadducean explanation. The world of spirits was a - |