ning, of the lessons there taught, are bound
up, not only with the history of Israel, but with all which from that
day to this has told for the world’s progress. The highest testimony
to the greatness of Moses, the judgment passed upon his life by
48 Education
Inspiration, is, “There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto
Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.” Deuteronomy 34:10.
Paul, Joyful in Service
With the faith and experience of the Galilean disciples who had
companied with Jesus were united, in the work of the gospel, the
fiery vigor and intellectual power of a rabbi of Jerusalem. A Roman
citizen, born in a Gentile city; a Jew, not only by descent but by
lifelong training, patriotic devotion, and religious faith; educated
in Jerusalem by the most eminent of the rabbis, and instructed in
all the laws and traditions of the fathers, Saul of Tarsus shared to
the fullest extent the pride and the prejudices of his nation. While
still a young man, he became an honored member of the Sanhedrin.
He was looked upon as a man of promise, a zealous defender of the
ancient faith.
In the theological schools of Judea the word of God had been
set aside for human speculations; it was robbed of its power by
[65] the interpretations and traditions of the rabbis. Self-aggrandizement,
love of domination, jealous exclusiveness, bigotry and contemptuous
pride, were the ruling principles and motives of these teachers.
The rabbis gloried in their superiority, not only to the people
of other nations, but to the masses of their own. With their fierce
hatred of their Roman oppressors, they cherished the determination
to recover by force of arms their national supremacy. The followers
of Jesus, whose message of peace was so contrary to their schemes
of ambition, they hated and put to death. In this persecution, Saul
was one of the most bitter and relentless actors.
In the military schools of Egypt, Moses was taught the law of
force, and so strong a hold did this teaching have upon his character
that it required forty years of quiet and communion with God and
nature to fit him for the leadership of Israel by the law of love. The
same lesson Paul had to learn.
At the gate of Damascus the vision of the Crucified One changed
the whole current of his life. The persecutor became a disciple, the
teacher a learner. The days of darkness spent in solitude at Damascus
were as years in his experience. The Old Testament Scriptures stored
in his memory were his study, and Christ his teacher. To him also
Chapter 7—Lives of Great Men 49
nature’s solitudes became a school. To the desert of Arabia he went,
there to study the Scriptures and to learn of God. He emptied his soul
of prejudices and traditions that had shaped his life, and received
instruction from the Source of truth.
His afterlife was inspired by the one principle of self-sacrifice,
the ministry of love. “I am debtor,” he said, “both to the Greeks, and
to the barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.” “The love of [66]
Christ constraineth us.” Romans 1:14; 2 Corinthians 5:14.
The greatest of human teachers, Paul accepted the lowliest as
well as the highest duties. He recognized the necessity of labor for
the hand as well as for the mind, and he wrought at a handicraft for
his own support. His trade of tent making he pursued while daily
preaching the gospel in the great centers of civilization. “These
hands,” he said, at parting with the elders of Ephesus, “have ministered
unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.” Acts
20:34.
While he possessed high intellectual endowments, the life of
Paul revealed the power of a rarer wisdom. Principles of deepest
import, principles concerning which the greatest minds of this time
were ignorant, are unfolded in his teachings and exemplified in his
life. He had that greatest of all wisdom, which gives quickness of
insight and sympathy of heart, which brings man in touch with men,
and enables him to arouse their better nature and inspire them to a
higher life.
Listen to his words before the heathen Lystrians, as he points
them to God revealed in nature, the Source of all good, who “gave
us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food
and gladness.” Acts 14:17.
See him in the dungeon at Philippi, where, despite his painracked
body, his song of praise breaks the silence of midnight. After
the earthquake has opened the prison doors, his voice is again heard,
in words of cheer to the heathen jailer, “Do thyself no harm: for
we are all here” (Acts 16:28)—every man in his place, restrained
by the presence of one fellow prisoner. And the jailer, convicted [67]
of the reality of that faith which sustains Paul, inquires the way of
salvation, and with his whole household unites with the persecuted
band of Christ’s disciples.
50 Education
See Paul at Athens before the council of the Areopagus, as he
meets science with science, logic with logic, and philosophy with
philosophy. Mark how, with the tact born of divine love, he points to
Jehovah as “the Unknown God,” whom his hearers have ignorantly
worshiped; and in words quoted from a poet of their own he pictures
Him as a Father whose children they are. Hear him, in that age of
caste, when the rights of man as man were wholly unrecognized, as
he sets forth the great truth of human brotherhood, declaring that
God “hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all
the face of the earth.” Then he shows how, through all the dealings
of God with man, runs like a thread of gold His purpose of grace
and mercy. He “hath determined the times before appointed, and the
bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply
they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from
every one of us.” Acts 17:23, 26, 27.
Hear him in the court of Festus, when King Agrippa, convicted
of the truth of the gospel, exclaims, “Almost thou persuadest me to
be a Christian.” With what gentle courtesy does Paul, pointing to his
own chain, make answer, “I would to God, that not only thou, but
also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such
as I am, except these bonds.” Acts 26:28, 29.
Thus passed his life, as described in his own words, “in journeyings
often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine
[68] 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
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and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.” 2 Corinthians
11:26, 27.
“Being reviled,” he said, “we bless; being persecuted, we suffer
it: being defamed, we entreat;” “as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as
poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing
all things.” 1 Corinthians 4:12, 13; 2 Corinthians 6:10.
In service he found his joy; and at the close of his life of toil,
looking back on its struggles and triumphs, he could say, “I have
fought a good fight.” 2 Timothy 4:7.
These histories are of vital interest. To none
