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The Story of Redemption
that faith which sustains Paul, inquires the way of salvation, and
with his whole household unites with the persecuted band of Christ’s
disciples.
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
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of God with man, run like a thread of gold His purposes 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.”
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.”
Thus passed his life, as described in his own words, “in journey-
ings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine
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
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 intreat”; “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
.