proclaiming the Gospel, and not ceasing to do so even when he was a prisoner.
His deep humility is expressed by his words to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15, 9 &c.): “I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace in me hath not been void.” He corresponded faithfully with the grace of God, which was the reason why he was able to accomplish so much.
His fortitude and patience are proved by what he suffered and endured on his five great missionary journeys. He himself thus describes what he endured. “(I have suffered) by prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck; a day and a night I was in the depth of the sea. In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren. In labour and painfulness, in much watchings, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness” (2 Cor. 11, 23—27).
And what was it that constrained the holy apostle to endure all this? It was the love of Jesus! “The charity of Christ presseth us!” he says himself (2 Cor. 5, 14). The love for his Crucified Saviour drove him to renounce all the rest, and to proclaim faith in Jesus to all men, wherever he could. Love strengthened him in all his labours and sufferings, comforted him in prison, and finally impelled him to give his life joyfully for Jesus. Of this love he writes thus: “Who, then, shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword? In all these things we overcome because of Him who hath loved us. For I am sure that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8, 35 — 39). This love has made St. Paul a model of Christian perfection.
Application. (See Application, chapter XCVIII.)
Chapter XCVIII.
LAST YEARS OF THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES.
[Acts 21 to 28.]
WHEN Paul had returned to Jerusalem, he was seized by the Jews, and cast into prison. After two years’ imprisonment he was sent, at his own request, to Rome, to be judged
