on
upon those who carefully read the record of his life
that he stands first in this class of men.

+The Work of the Apostle.+--As John the Baptist
preceded Christ and prepared the way for His coming, so
Paul succeeded Christ and went throughout the heathen
world proclaiming that the Christ had come, and calling
upon all men, Jews and Gentiles, to repent and accept
Him as their Lord and Savior. So wide was his work as
a missionary of the cross, and an interpreter of the Christ,
that a certain class of critics have sought to make him the
creator of Christianity, as we know it; a position which
Paul would be the first to repudiate. He sought of
himself, before he was apprehended by Christ on the way to
Damascus, to drive Christianity from the face of the
earth.

+The Leading Thought+ in Paul's mind, after his
conversion, was personal devotion to Christ; this was the
mainspring of every act. He said, "I am crucified with
Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me": (Gal. 2:20). "For me to live is Christ"
(Phil. 1:21). In his letters to the churches which he founded,
there are found no picturesque descriptions of cities or of
scenery; his one thought is to make known the Christ.
He says, writing to the Corinthian church, "and I,
brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of
speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of
God. For I determined not to know anything among
you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:1,
2). In the evangelization of the heathen world, for
which task he had been set apart by the Holy Spirit
(Acts 13:2) and which he had accepted with all his heart,
it is not only his leading, but his only thought to make
known Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

To miss this supreme purpose of Paul in the study of
his life is to miss its whole significance (Phil. 2:1-11;
Col. 1:12-20).

BIRTH

+Place.+--The world is interested in the birthplaces of
its great men. Some of these birthplaces are in doubt.
There is no doubt about the place in which Paul was
born. He says, in making a speech to the Jews, "I am
verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in
Cilicia" (Acts 22:3). This city was the capital of
Cilicia and was situated in the southeastern part of Asia
Minor. It was but a few miles from the coast and was
easily accessible from the Mediterranean sea by a navigable
river. A large commerce was controlled by the
merchants, on s