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Sketches from the Life of Paul
noise of the multitude, demanded their attention; and, as the tumult
was suddenly quelled, he inquired,—
“Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions
with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities
unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all
things that are therein; who in times past suffered all nations to walk
in their own ways. Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness,
in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons,
filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
The people listened to the words of Paul with manifest impatience.
Their superstition and enthusiasm had been so great in regard to the
apostles that they were loth to acknowledge their error, and have their
expectations and purposes thwarted. Notwithstanding the apostles
positively denied the divinity attributed to them by the heathen, and
Paul endeavored to direct their minds to the true God as the only object
worthy of worship, it was still most difficult to turn them from their
purpose.
They reasoned that they had with their own eyes beheld the mirac-
ulous power exercised by the apostles; that they had seen a cripple
who had never before used his limbs, made to leap and rejoice in per-
fect health and strength, through the exercise of the marvelous power
possessed by these strangers. But, after much persuasion on the part of
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Paul, and explanation as to the true mission of the apostles, the people
were reluctantly led to give up their purpose. They were not satisfied,
however, and led away the sacrificial beasts in great disappointment
that their traditions of divine beings visiting the earth could not be
strengthened by this example of their favor in coming to confer upon
them special blessings which would exalt them and their religion in
the estimation of the world.
And now a strange change came upon the fickle, excitable people,
because their faith was not anchored in the true God. The opposing
Jews of Antioch, through whose influence the apostles were driven
from that district, united with certain Jews of Iconium, and followed
upon the track of the apostles. The miracle wrought upon the cripple,
and its effect upon those who witnessed it, stirred up their envy, and
led them to go to the scene of the apostles’ labor, and put their false
version upon the work. They denied that God had any part in it, and