raged the Jews of these cities that they sent
emissaries to Lystra, zealous fanatics, who made such a disturbance that
Paul was stoned, and left for dead. His wounds, however, were not so
serious as were supposed, and the next day he departed with Barnabas for
Derbe, where he made a long stay. The two churches of Lystra and Derbe
were composed almost wholly of heathen.

From Derbe the apostles retraced their steps, A.D. 46, to Antioch, by
the way they had come,--a journey of one hundred and twenty miles, and
full of perils,--instead of crossing Mount Taurus through the famous
pass of the Cilician Gates, and then through Tarsus to Antioch, an
easier journey.

One of the noticeable things which marked this first missionary journey
of Paul, was the opposition of the Jews wherever he went. He was forced
to turn to the Gentiles, and it was among them that converts were
chiefly made. It is true that his custom was first to address the Jewish
synagogues on Saturday, but the Jews opposed and hated and persecuted
him the moment he announced the grand principle which animated his
life,--salvation through Jesus Christ, instead of through obedience to
the venerated Law of Moses.

On his return to Antioch with his beloved companion, Paul continued for
a time in the peaceful ministration of apostolic duties, until it became
necessary for him to go to Jerusalem to consult with the other apostles
in reference to a controversy which began seriously to threaten the
welfare of their common cause. This controversy was in reference to the
rite of circumcision,--a rite ever held in supreme importance by the
Jews. The Jewish converts to Christianity had all been previously
circumcised according to the Mosaic Law, and they insisted on the
circumcision of the Gentile converts also, as a mark of Christian
fraternity. Paul, emancipated from Jewish prejudices and customs,
regarded this rite as unessential; he believed that it was abrogated by
Christ, with other technical observances of the Law, and that it was not
consistent with the liberty of the Gospel to impose rites exclusively
Jewish on the Pagan converts. The elders at Jerusalem, good men as they
were, did not take this view; they could not bear to receive into
complete Christian fellowship men who offended their prejudices in
regard to matters which they regarded as sacred and obligatory as
baptism itself. They would measure Christianity by their traditions; and
the smaller the point of