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Sketches from the Life of Paul
only with the help of divine grace; but many neglect to seek such help,
and endeavor to bring down the standard to meet their deficiencies,
instead of bringing themselves up to meet the standard of God. Such
was the effort of these men who were so severely dealt with for their
sins. They were endangering the purity of the believers, and it was
necessary that a firm, decided course be pursued to meet the wrong
and hurl it from the church. Paul had faithfully reproved their sin,—the
vice of licentiousness so prevalent in that age,—but they had refused
to be corrected. He had proceeded according to the instructions of
Christ regarding such cases, but the offenders had given no token of
repentance, and he had therefore excommunicated them. They had
then openly apostatized from the faith, and united with its most bitter
opponents. When they rejected the words of Paul, and set themselves
to hinder his labors, they were warring against Christ; and it was by the
inspiration of the Spirit of God, and not as an expression of personal
feeling, that Paul pronounced against them that solemn denunciation.
On his second voyage to Rome, Paul was accompanied by several
of his former companions; others earnestly desired to share his lot,
but he refused to permit them thus to imperil their lives. The prospect
before him was far less favorable than at the time of his former im-
prisonment. The persecution under Nero had greatly lessened the
number of Christians in Rome. Thousands had been martyred for their
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faith, many had left the city, and those who remained were greatly
depressed and intimidated. At Paul’s first arrival, the Jews of Rome
had been willing to listen to his arguments; but through the influence
of emissaries from Jerusalem, and also because of the received charges
against the Christians, they had become his bitter enemies.
No warm-hearted disciples now met Paul and his companions at
Appii Forum and Three Taverns as before, when he was constrained to
thank God and take courage. There was now no one like the courteous
and kindly Julius, to say a word in his favor, no statement from Festus
or Agrippa to attest his innocence. The change which had taken place
in the city and its inhabitants—the city still scarred and blackened from
the terrible conflagration, and the people, by tens of thousands, reduced
to the most squalid poverty—seemed to harmonize with the change
in his own condition and prospects. Through the surging crowds that
still thronged the streets of Rome, and that looked upon him and his
fellow-Christians as the authors of all their misery, Paul passed, not