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Lives of Great Men
47
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 worked at a handicraft for
his own support. He pursued his trade of tentmaking while daily
preaching the gospel in the great centers of civilization.
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. Listen to his words before the heathen Lystrians, as he points
them to God revealed in nature, the Source of all good, who “gave
[44]
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 pain-racked
body, his song of praise breaks the silence of midnight. After the
earthquake opened the prison doors, his voice is heard again in
words of cheer to the heathen jailer, “Do yourself no harm, for we
are all here”
Acts 16:28
. And the jailer, convicted 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.
See Paul at Athens before the council of the Areopagus, as
he meets science with science, logic with logic, philosophy with
philosophy. With the tact born of divine love, he points to Jehovah
as “the Unknown God” whom his hearers 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 the court of Festus, when King Agrippa, convicted
of the truth of the gospel, exclaims, “You almost persuade me to
become a Christian.” With what gentle courtesy does Paul, pointing
to his own chain, answer, “I would to God, that not only you, but also
all who hear me today, might become both almost and altogether
such as I am, except these chains.”
Acts 26:28, 29
.
In service he found his joy, and at the close of his life of struggles
and triumphs, he could say, “I have fought a good fight.”
2 Timothy
4:7
.
These histories are of vital interest. To none are they of deeper
importance than to young people. Moses renounced a prospective