ht the people to forsake Moses, to give up circumcision and the
ancient customs, hearing of his presence in Jerusalem, "the multitude
must needs come together," which points to the Jewish Christians
faithful to the law. Therefore they advised him to go through the
mockery of a purification at the Temple, "to be at charges," as they
called it, with some who had vowed a vow, and make the prescribed
sacrifices after the purification.

Poor man! After so much labor, such ardent toils, such numerous perils,
dangers, anxieties, trials, reverses, and triumphs, after ten long years
of such work and such dangers, he is not safe in Jerusalem among his own
kinsmen and among those whose Master he glorified, whose doctrines he
taught, and whose interests he protected. How small must he have
appeared to himself when walking up the Temple Mount in the company of
the four men, whose expenses he paid, to be purified with them: "And all
may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee,
are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly and keepest the
law." The man who had defied a world, to submit to the humbling
dictation of his colleagues, who were children in comparison with
him--this is mortifying to the utmost. This is the time of which it is
said in the _Talmud_ that Paul or Acher narrated, that on passing behind
the _sanctum sanctorum_ he heard the _Bath-kol_ or Holy Ghost exclaim:
"Return, all ye forward children; all return, except Paul, who has known
me and rebelled against me." Paul never forgot, never forgave, this
humiliation. It estranged his feelings altogether from his colleagues in
Jerusalem, and he embraced the first best opportunity to rid himself
entirely of his Jewish associations.

The opportunity soon offered. While near the Temple some Jews from Asia
Minor recognized him. A disturbance ensued. He was arrested and locked
up in the castle by the Roman commander. Here the author of the Acts
brings in a terrible tumult--speeches, trials, a Jewish mob, with a
noble Roman stepping in in time to wind up dramatically--not one word of
which is historical. Paul, standing accused as the ringleader of the new
sect who expected the second advent of the Messiah, could only appear
dangerous to the zealous and vigilant Roman authorities. Nothing else
was necessary to put his life in jeopardy. In the night he made up his
mind to appeal to Caesar, because he was a Roman citizen. Therefore he
was sent to