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articles of food, which had occasioned so much separation between the Jews and other nations, were dismissed from further controversy, with the remark, "to him that es teemeth anything unclean, to him it is unclean." The custom of sacrificing a lamb at the Passover might be safely discontinued; Jesus being the lamb sacrificed once and for all time. Paul said: "He is one who needeth not daily to offer up sacrifice for his own sins, and then for the people's, like those High Priests; for this he did once, when he offered up himself." The strict observance of holy days and seasons among his countrymen was described by Paul as "bondage to the Law." He said: "One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike; let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.' Law was our schoolmaster, to bring us unto Christ; but now that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." He taught that the ancient rite of circumcision might be observed or not, according to the dictates of individual conscience. The promulgation of such views excited peculiar animosity against Paul, not only among those of his nation who adhered to all their old opinions, but also among many who believed Jesus was their promised Messiah. Some reviled him as an apostate from the Law; others asserted that he was born of Gentile parents, and had no right to call himself a Jew. Perhaps these charges led him to dwell with so much emphasis on his Jewish birth and his strict education as a Pharisee.

Few of those who had been educated to consider the uncircumcised as dogs, could rise with his great soul to a height that overlooked local and temporary distinctions. The question of circumcision gave rise to so many disputes in the primitive churches, that it was finally agreed to refer it to an assembly of the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. There Paul, Barnabas, and Peter, strongly pleaded the miracles God had wrought among the Gentiles, and the impolicy of laying upon them a yoke that was too heavy for them to bear. When those at Jerusalem heard how many proselytes Paul had made, and how the Holy Spirit had been

imparted to them at baptism, whereby they, as well as Jewish converts, had received power to work miracles, hey were convinced that God had appointed Paul an apostle of the Gentiles. They, therefore, agreed that foreign converts should merely be required to conform to Jewish customs so far as to refrain from eating blood, or things strangled, from the worship of idols, and from fornication. This last injunction was deemed peculiarly important, because it was a vice that had become connected with religious ceremonies, wherever the worship of Venus, and of other kindred goddesses, prevailed. The decision of this council at Jerusalem, held about seventeen years after the death of Christ, was the first step toward separating Christianity from Judaism, and thus enabling it to emerge from the narrow limitations of a Jewish sect to a new religion for the nations.

This progressive step seems to have been mainly accomplished by the agency of Paul, who from the beginning pursued a singularly independent course. After his miraculous conversion, he did not go to Jerusalem, or seek in any way to obtain information or advice from the Twelve Apostles. In his writings he professes to teach some things by "commandment," others by "permission." In some places, he declares that he does not speak from himself, but utters what "the Lord commands;" with regard to other things, he says, "to the rest speak I, not the Lord." This distinction appears to be founded on consciousness of internal guidance from above, or on some teaching of Christ, either written, or orally preserved, to which he referred as standard authority. When he was persecuting the church, he doubtless heard many accounts of Jesus from Christian prisoners, and being present at the death of Stephen, he could not have been otherwise than impressed by his forgiving spirit and undoubting faith. But he has left us no record how he acquired his knowledge of Christ, except two brief communications by a voice from heaven; once on his way to Damascus, the other while he was praying in the Temple. He says: "I VOL. II.-17

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did not confer with flesh and blood. The gospel preached by me is not after man, nor was I taught it, but by revelation of Christ." He went to Damascus immediately after his conversion, and thence into Arabia. He says: "After three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days; but other of the apostles saw I none, save James, the Lord's brother." On that occasion, it is stated that the brethren in Jerusalem were afraid of him, and "believed not that he was a disciple." They knew that he had been a violent persecutor, and there being little intercourse between Damascus and Jerusalem, they had not heard of his conversion. But Barnabas, who had been a fellow student with him in his youth, and who knew how boldly he had been preaching Jesus, told them what wonders the Lord had done for him. Fourteen years afterward, when Paul went up to Jerusalem, to the council above mentioned, he does not speak of the leading apostles as if he were much acquainted with them. He says: "When James, Peter, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave unto me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go unto the Gentiles, and they unto the circumcision."

Some time afterward, Barnabas wished to take his nephew Mark with them, as their minister, when they visited the churches they had planted in various cities; but Paul objected, because on a previous occasion Mark had left them, and had returned to Jerusalem, and "went not with them to the work." On this subject, the contention between Paul and Barnabas "was so sharp, that they departed asunder one from the other," and it does not appear that they ever met again.

The atmosphere of Jerusalem was not free enough for such a man as Paul. When he went thither in time of famine, with donations for his Christian brethren, from various churches he had established in foreign lands, he found James, and the other elders, rejoiced to hear how God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry;

but they added: "Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are that believe; and they are all zealous for the Law. And they are informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews, which are among the Gentiles, to forsake Moses; saying they ought not to circumcise their children." Before the people assembled together to hear Paul preach, they advised him to mollify their prejudices by purifying himself at the Temple, according to the Mosaic ritual, and by paying for four men, who wished to shave their heads in fulfilment of a vow; and Paul did as they advised. But when the Jews saw him, they began to excite fury against him, saying he taught contrary to the Law of Moses, and profaned the Temple. by bringing Greeks into it. Paul delivered an address to the multitude, in which he told them the particulars of his miraculous conversion, and excused himself for preaching to foreigners by an account of a trance, which fell upon him while he was praying in the Temple, during which he saw a vision of Jesus, who said to him: "Get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. Depart; for I will send thee far hence. unto the Gentiles." The people listened till he came to that word; then they cried out: "Away with such a fellow from the earth! for it is not fit that he should live." Such was the uproar, that Paul escaped scourging only by appealing to the protection of Roman law.

It required a special vision from heaven to prepare the way for Peter to visit a Roman centurion, though he was "a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, and gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always, and was of good report among all the nation of the Jews." Enlightened by a vision, and summoned by an angel, Peter went to him, saying: "Ye know that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean." After his scruples concerning unlawful food were thus done away by direct teaching from heaven, he

went to preach in the Syrian city of Antioch, where he associated freely with Gentiles and ate with them. But when some strict Jewish Christians arrived from Palestine, he "feared them which were of the circumcision," and withdrew from the Gentile converts. "Other Jews, who were with him, dissembled also." This excited the indig. nation of Paul, who says he "withstood him to the face before them all, because he was to be blamed."

But, notwithstanding these occasional differences, the early followers of Jesus were very closely bound together, not only by love and reverence for his memory, and by the dangers and sufferings they shared together, but also by the strong belief that they were chosen and set apart from the world, and that the hour of their deliverance was at hand. Sure of being sharers of his kingdom on the renovated earth, the world that was passing away under their eyes, and so soon to be destroyed, took small hold on their affections. They preached a Gospel of love and equality, and practised it also. While Paul was pursuing his missionary labours with so much energy and zeal, he made tents for a living, that he might not be an expense to others. There was community of property among them, and they called each other by the simple and endearing name of brethren. "The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul: neither said any of them that aught of the things he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. As many as were possessors of lands or houses, sold them, and brought the price of things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet; and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need." Their resemblance to the Essenes in this, and in many other particulars, was so observable, that for a long time Philo's description of the Essenes was supposed to be an account of a Christian association. With the apostles, however, community of goods seems to have been resorted to merely as a temporary convenience, while so many of their members felt it a duty to travel and preach, and worldly occupations were of necessity fre