ught to
enlighten. As an encouragement to others, he enumerates the calamities
which happened to him from his zeal to serve mankind, but he never
complains of them or regards them as a mystery, or as anything but the
natural result of unappreciated devotion. He was more cheerful than
Confucius, who felt that his life had been a failure; more serene than
Plato when surrounded by admiring followers. He regarded every Christian
man as a brother and a friend. He associated freely with women, without
even calling out a sneer or a reproach. He taught principles of
self-control rather than rules of specific asceticism, and hence
recommended wine to Timothy and encouraged friendship between men and
women, when intemperance and unchastity were the scandal and disgrace
of the age; although so far as himself was concerned, he would not eat
meat, if thereby he should give offence to the weakest of his
weak-minded brethren. He enjoined filial piety, obedience to rulers, and
kindness to servants as among the highest duties of life. He was frugal,
but independent and hospitable; he had but few wants, and submitted
patiently to every inconvenience. He was the impersonation of
gentleness, sympathy, and love, although a man of iron will and
indomitable resolution. He claimed nothing but the right to speak his
honest opinions, and the privilege to be judged according to the laws.
He magnified his office, but only the more easily to win men to his
noble cause. To this great cause he was devoted heart and soul, without
ever losing courage, or turning back for a moment in despondency or
fear. He was as courageous as he was faithful; as indifferent to
reproach as he was eager for friendship. As a martyr he was peerless,
since his life was a protracted martyrdom. He was a hero, always
gallantly fighting for the truth whatever may have been the array and
howling of his foes; and when wounded and battered by his enemies he
returned to the fight for his principles with all the earnestness, but
without the wrath, of a knight of chivalry. He never indulged in angry
recriminations or used unseemly epithets, but was unsparing in his
denunciation of sin,--as seen in his memorable description of the vices
of the Romans. Self-sacrifice was the law of his life. His faith was
unshaken in every crisis and in every danger. It was this which
especially fitted him, as well as his ceaseless energies and superb
intellect, to be a leader of mankind. To Paul, and