utor in his laborious work. Thus Saul came to Antioch to
assist Barnabas.

No city could have been chosen more suitable for the peculiar talents of
Saul than this great Eastern emporium, containing a population of five
hundred thousand. I need not speak of its works of art,--its palaces,
its baths, its aqueducts, its bridges, its basilicas, its theatres,
which called out even the admiration of the citizens of the imperial
capital. These were nothing to Saul, who thought only of the souls he
could convert to the religion of Jesus; but they indicate the importance
and wealth of the population. In this pagan city were half a million
people steeped in all the vices of the Oriental world,--a great influx
of heterogeneous races, mostly debased by various superstitions and
degrading habits, whose religion, so far as they had any, was a crude
form of Nature-worship. And yet among them were wits, philosophers,
rhetoricians, poets, and satirists, as was to be expected in a city
where Greek was the prevailing language. But these were not the people
who listened to Saul and Barnabas. The apostles found hearers chiefly
among the poor and despised,--artisans, servants, soldiers,
sailors,--although occasionally persons of moderate independence became
converts, especially women of the middle ranks. Poor as they were, the
Christians at Antioch found means to send a large contribution in money
to their brethren at Jerusalem, who were suffering from a
grievous famine.

A year was spent by Barnabas and Saul at Antioch in founding a Christian
community, or congregation, or "church," as it was called. And it was in
this city that the new followers of Christ were first called
"Christians," mostly made up as they were of Gentiles. The missionaries
had not much success with the Jews, although it was their custom first
to preach in the Jewish synagogues on the Sabbath. It was only the
common people of Antioch who heard the word gladly, for it was to them
tidings of joy, which raised them above their degradation and misery.

With the contributions which the Christians of Antioch, and probably of
other cities, made to their poorer and afflicted brethren, Barnabas and
Saul set out for Jerusalem, soon returning however to Antioch, not to
resume their labors, but to make preparations for an extended missionary
tour. Saul was then thirty-seven years of age, and had been a Christian
seven years.

In spite of many disadvantages, such as ill-health,