e reckons the
appearance of Christ to himself as an outward appearance like the
appearances to the older apostles (1 Cor. xv. 5-8). We cannot get
behind the statements made by St. Paul and those made in Acts by his
friend, St. Luke. They show that he was met and conquered by Christ.
The appearance of Christ changed his whole career, transformed his
character, convinced him that Jesus was the Messiah, and that salvation
can only be obtained by faith in Him--that is, by a devoted adherence
to His Person and His teaching. After preaching Christ in Damascus, he
retired into the keen air and inspiring solitude of the Arabian desert.
{120} During this period the outline of his creed seems to have grown
clear and definite. It afterwards expanded and developed, as truly as
youth passes into manhood, but there is no evidence for any material
alteration having taken place after his return from Arabia. Many
Christians doubted the sincerity of his conversion, but St. Barnabas, a
conciliatory and kind evangelist, introduced him to St. Peter and St.
James at Jerusalem, A.D. 38. His life being threatened by the
Greek-speaking Jews, he departed for Tarsus. In due time he was
brought by St. Barnabas to aid the new mission to the Gentiles at
Antioch, a large and splendid city, admirably adapted for the first
propagation of the gospel among the heathen. In A.D. 46 he paid with
Barnabas a second visit to Jerusalem, taking thither a contribution
from Antioch to relieve the famine which raged there. In A.D. 47 he
went from Antioch in company with Barnabas on his first missionary
tour, visiting Cyprus and part of Asia Minor. On his return, A.D. 49,
he attended the Council at Jerusalem (Acts xv.; Gal. ii.), at which he
insisted that converts from paganism should not be required to submit
to circumcision and the other ceremonial rules of the Jewish Church.
Only once again has any Council of the Church had to discuss such a
burning and weighty question, and that once was at the Council of
Nicaea in 325, when it was determined to describe the fact that Jesus
is God in language which would admit of no possible mistake or
jugglery. At Jerusalem, in A.D. 49, the Church had to determine
whether it was sufficient for a man to be a Christian, or necessary for
him to become a Jew and a Christian simultaneously. Some Judaizing
Christians maintained the latter. Faithful to the teaching of our
Lord, who laid on no Gentile the necessity of adopt