cians to regard him as a greater master in their own craft. So
among others the Jewish chief priest Sceva's seven sons began to use
the central name of Paul's preaching as a new and most efficient
formula for exorcism. 'We adjure thee by Jesus whom Paul preaches.'
But it is frequently noticeable that St. Paul refused to allow himself
to use superstition as a handmaid of religion. The providential
disaster which befell these exorcists gave St. Paul an opportunity of
striking an effective blow where it was most needed against exorcism
and magic. The Christian converts came and confessed their
participation in the black arts, and burnt their books of incantations,
in spite of their value. The whole transaction must have impressed
vividly in the minds of the Ephesians the contrast between Christianity
and superstition.

St. Paul had already encountered opposition as well as success at
Ephesus, for when, writing {41} from Ephesus, he speaks to the
Corinthians[44] of having 'fought with beasts' there, the reference is
probably to what had befallen him in the earlier part of his residence
through the plots of the Jews; that long Epistle to the Corinthians can
hardly have been written _after_ the famous tumult recorded in the
Acts. But that tumult, raised by the manufacturers of the silver
shrines of Artemis, was of course the most important persecution which
befell St. Paul at Ephesus. The narrative of it[45] is exceedingly
instructive. We notice the friendliness of the Asiarchs, i.e. the
presidents of the provincial 'union' and priests of the imperial
worship, and the opinion of the town clerk, that St. Paul must be
acquitted of any insults to the religious beliefs of the Ephesians[46].
Christianity had not, it appears, yet excited the antipathy of the
religious or civil authorities of the Empire, but it had begun to
threaten the pockets of those who were concerned in supplying the needs
of the worshippers who thronged to the great {42} temple at Ephesus.
We need not inquire exactly how the little silver shrines of Artemis
were used; but they were much sought after, and their production gave
occupation to an important trade. The trade was threatened by the
spread of Christianity. The philosophers despised indeed the
idolatrous rites, but they despised also the people who practised them,
and had no hope or idea of converting them[47]. St. Paul was the first
teacher at Ephesus who touched the fears of the idol makers