character--the spirit
of unselfishness. This is the rarest quality in human nature, and it
is the most powerful of all in its influence on others, where it exists
in purity and strength. Most men are so absorbed in their own
interests and so naturally expect others to be the same that, if they
see any one who appears to have no interests of his own to serve but is
willing to do as much for the sake of others as the generality do for
themselves, they are at first incredulous, suspecting that he is only
hiding his designs beneath the cloak of benevolence; but, if he stand
the test and his unselfishness prove to be genuine, there is no limit
to the homage they are prepared to pay him. As Paul appeared in
country after country and city after city, he was at first a complete
enigma to those whom he approached. They formed all sorts of
conjectures as to his real design. Was it money he was seeking, or
power, or something darker and less pure? His enemies never ceased to
throw out such insinuations. But those who got near him and saw the
man as he was, who knew that he refused money and worked with his hands
day and night to keep himself above the suspicion of mercenary motives,
who heard him pleading with them one by one in their homes and
exhorting them with tears to a holy life, who saw the sustained
personal interest he took in every one of them--these could not resist
the proofs of his disinterestedness or deny him their affection.

There never was a man more unselfish; he had literally no interest of
his own to live for. Without family ties, he poured all the affections
of his big nature, which might have been given to wife and children,
into the channels of his work. He compares his tenderness toward his
converts to that of a nursing-mother to her children; he pleads with
them to remember that he is their father who has begotten them in the
gospel. They are his glory and crown, his hope and joy and crown of
rejoicing. Eager as he was for new conquests, he never lost his hold
upon those he had won. He could assure his churches that he prayed and
gave thanks for them night and day, and he remembered his converts by
name at the throne of grace. How could human nature resist
disinterestedness like this? If Paul was a conqueror of the world, he
conquered it by the power of love.

126. His Mission.--The two most distinctively Christian features of
his character have still to be mentioned. One of these was