As a martyr he was peerless, since his life was a protracted martyrdom.  He was a hero, always gallantly fighting for the truth whatever may have been the array and howling of his foes; and when wounded and battered by his enemies he returned to the fight for his principles with all the earnestness, but without the wrath, of a knight of chivalry.  He never indulged in angry recriminations or used unseemly epithets, but was unsparing in his denunciation of sin,—­as seen in his memorable description of the vices of the Romans.  Self-sacrifice was the law of his life.  His faith was unshaken in every crisis and in every danger.  It was this which especially fitted him, as well as his ceaseless energies and superb intellect, to be a leader of mankind.  To Paul, and to Paul more than to any other apostle, was given the exalted privilege of being the recognized interpreter of Christian doctrine for both philosophers and the people, for all coming ages; and at the close of his career, worn out with labor and suffering, yet conscious of the services which he had rendered and of the victories he had won, and possibly in view of approaching martyrdom, he was enabled triumphantly to say:  “I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith.  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.”