ommunity. They
could not see that among heathens used to apotheosis, man-worship, and
plastic gods, ideas, to become effective, must put on concrete and
tangible bodies.

They could not imagine that the sensuality and corruption of the age
required heroic and terror-striking means to rouse and to move the
masses; and so the dissensions and troubles between Paul and the nascent
Church increased with the success of Paul among the Gentiles. His
epistles, one and all, are polemics, not against heathenism or against
Judaism, but against his colleagues in Jerusalem, whom, together with
their doctrines, he treats in a most reckless manner. They could not
write to counterbalance Paul--in fact, there were no writers of any note
among them. Therefore, only one side of the polemics, that of Paul, is
fully represented in the New Testament; and the side of the Jewish
Christians remained mostly matter of tradition.

Messengers were sent to follow Paul to undo his gospel and preach that
of the apostles; to introduce the law and circumcision among the Gentile
Christians. Those messengers in many cases succeeded, notwithstanding
the thundering epistles of Paul. So his influence was weakened and his
progress retarded among the Gentiles till finally, after ten years of
hard work, he concluded upon going to Jerusalem and, if possible,
effecting a compromise with the apostolic congregation. It was a
dangerous time for him to go to Jerusalem, for just then the fanatic
high-priest, Ananias, had convened a court of his willing tools, tried
James, the brother of Jesus, and, finding him guilty, of what God only
knows, had him and some of his associates executed--a bloody deed, which
cost him his office, on account of the loud and emphatic protestations
of the Jews before Agrippa II and the Roman governor. Therefore, Paul
was cautioned by prophets and friends not to go to Jerusalem.

But he was not the man to be frightened by dangers; he was the very type
of boldness and courage. He went to Jerusalem to effect a conciliation
with the Church. A synod met in the house of James the apostle, who had
succeeded the former James as head of the Church, and Paul was told to
do that against which his conscience, his honor, his manhood must have
revolted: he was required to play the hypocrite in Jerusalem, in order
to pacify the brethren who were angry at him. The thousands of Jews,
they said, who were zealous for the law, and were informed how Paul
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