persecution of the Galilean sect; and when the first of its martyrs expired in its service, "Saul stood by consenting to his death." But the impetuosity of his temper and the warmth of his zeal soon plunged him into other exertions against it. Armed with authority from the Jewish Sanhedrim," he made great havoc" of its unresisting members, and, being, as himself affirmed, "exceeding mad against them, he persecuted them even unto strange cities." In the full climax, however, of his animosity, a sudden and total revolution took place in his conduct. Having obtained at Jerusalem a commission for the licensed perpretation of further severities, he "went down towards Damascus,"

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breathing out threatenings and slaughters." In the course of this journey, including a distance of less than 200 miles, this determined agent forgot his commission, abjured his purpose, and embraced the cause he was intent on destroying. And about three years after, the chief priests, who, had found in Saul of Tarsus, a willing instrument of their malice, heard that he was again in Jerusalem, asserting the divinity of that Nazarene, whom they had crucified, and adding at least another miracle to those, which had already bewildered and enraged them. From that time the persecutor of the Christian 1 Acts viii. 1. 2 Acts ix. 3. 3 Galatians i. 18.

Church continued ever after its faithful champion and distinguished himself more than any others by the labours and sufferings he endured in its behalf.

The other individual was in no respect unqualified to be the companion and friend of Paul. Though remarkable for that soft persuasion, which won for him the title of "a son of consolation," Barnabas possessed a firm and heroic constancy. Of intense devotedness to the Christian cause, there shone through his demeanour such emanations of tranquil majesty, that the priest of Jupiter would have honoured him on one occasion as the august father of Gods and men. Like his companion he had been instructed in the school of Gamaliel; and it appears probable from some circumstances in the record of their lives, that the friendship so nobly matured, and so unexpectedly broken, originated in the endearments of a common education. But he had been earlier acquainted with the religion they professed. He had himself witnessed the miracles of Jesus, and had enjoyed the privilege of his personal converse in the house of Mary, his sister, where Christ and his

4 Acts iv. 36.

6

5 Alexand. Monach. Encom. S. Barnab. inter vitas S. Metaph. extat ap. Sur. ad. Jun. xI. p. 170. vid. ib. n. 4, 5, 6.

6 Ibid. n. 7.

disciples were wont to resort. If his eloquence, therefore, were less lofty, and his energy less authoritative than those of his fellow-labourer, his more intimate acquaintance with those facts on which the system depended, and the irresistible graces of an amiable and dignified sobriety, rendered his co-operation abundantly efficient, and conduced to the confirmation of all those impressions which the ardour of his companion was calculated to excite.' Having introduced Paul to the society of the Apostles at Jerusalem, who were at first very naturally suspicious of his intentions, and incredulous as to the sincerity of his strange conversion, he was soon associated with him in a project for the diffusion of the New Religion through the various countries of Asia Minor.

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4

5

In the course of this most laborious and perilous service, these two individuals, after having proclaimed the Gospel for a whole year at Antioch the metropolis of Syria, had visited Seleucia, Cyprus, Perga in Pamphylia, Antioch the capital of Pisidia, and Iconium the chief city of Lycaonia. Driven at length from Iconium, they fled to Lystra and Derbe, whence they returned again to Iconium, and Antioch,

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passed through Pisidia into Pamphylia,10 and after having preached the word in Perga, went down into Attalia," whence they took ship, and sailing to the Syrian coast resumed their original position at Antioch.12 Hence they were deputed to Jerusalem, and in the course of their journey thither, Paul and Barnabas are said to have reported to their friends in Syria, Phenice, and Samaria the dissemination of the Gospel by their united instrumentality throughout a considerable portion of Asia Minor. After having executed the object of their mission, they returned again to Antioch, where with unwearied zeal and perseverance they continued to propagate the Christian faith.14

In this brief abstract of their associated labours previous to the event which is presently to be considered, no notice has been taken of many circumstances that are stated to have occurred, calculated to attach notoriety to their personal character, and to render them in an especial manner the representatives of the Institution for which they pleaded. Suffice it to say, that in one place they converted a Roman Pro-consul to the profession of the Christian religion15-that at another, they were, received by the idolatrous natives for their

10 Acts xiv. 24.
13 Acts xv. 3.

11 Acts xiv. 25.
14 Acts xv. 35.

12 Acts xiv. 27.
15 Acts xiii. 12.

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national deities in human shape'-and that they every where attracted, though with various degrees of opposition or favour, the astonished attention of their numerous hearers. That this must naturally have been the case, might have been presumed even in the absence of historical reports. They were the promulgators of strange doctrines, they denounced the errors of every other party, and they pursued every method, both of precept and example, which could tend to promote the interests of their own.

It was in this precise juncture that the event occurred, which forms the subject of this Essay. With this variety of feeling concentrated upon them from so many quarters-with the consciousness which they could not want, of the degree in which the principles of a party are, in all such cases as the present, identified with the character of its leading members, and of the connection so intimately subsisting between the credit at least, if not the success of the Christian cause, and their own fidelity, temper, and zeal, a sudden separation took place between these associated Apostles, the circumstances of which are thus related in the narrative of their own Historian.

"And some days after, Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city,

1 Acts xiv. 12.