d the Jews,
and that publicly, shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ."
[117:3] His surpassing rhetorical ability soon proved a snare to some of
the hypercritical Corinthians, and tempted them to institute invidious
comparisons between him and their great apostle. Hence in the first
epistle addressed to them, the writer finds it necessary to rebuke them
for their folly and fastidiousness. "While one saith, I am of Paul, and
another, I am of Apollos, are ye," says he, "not carnal? Who then is
Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the
Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave
the increase." [117:4]

When Aquila and Priscilla were at Ephesus expounding "the way of God
more perfectly" to the Jew of Alexandria, Paul was travelling to
Jerusalem. Three years before, he had been there to confer with the
apostles and elders concerning the circumcision of the Gentiles; and he
had not since visited the holy city. His present stay seems to have been
short--apparently not extending beyond a few days at the time of the
feast of Pentecost,--and giving him a very brief opportunity of
intercourse with his brethren of the Jewish capital. He then "went down
to Antioch" [118:1]--a place with which from the commencement of his
missionary career he had been more intimately associated. "After he had
spent some time there, he departed and went over all the country of
Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples." [118:2]
On a former occasion, after he had passed through the same districts, he
had been "forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in (the
Proconsular) Asia;" [118:3] but, at this time, the restriction was
removed, and in accordance with the promise made to the Jews at Ephesus
in the preceding spring, he now resumed his evangelical labours in that
far-famed metropolis. There must have been a strong disposition on the
part of many of the seed of Abraham in the place to attend to his
instructions, as he was permitted "for the space of _three months_" to
occupy the synagogue, "disputing and persuading the things concerning
the kingdom of God." [118:4] At length, however, he began to meet with
so much opposition that he found it expedient to discontinue his
addresses in the Jewish meeting-house. "When divers were hardened and
believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he
departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing