mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ.” [117:3] His surpassing rhetorical ability soon proved a snare to some of the hypercritical Corinthians, and tempted them to institute invidious comparisons between him and their great apostle.  Hence in the first epistle addressed to them, the writer finds it necessary to rebuke them for their folly and fastidiousness.  “While one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye,” says he, “not carnal?  Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?  I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” [117:4]

When Aquila and Priscilla were at Ephesus expounding “the way of God more perfectly” to the Jew of Alexandria, Paul was travelling to Jerusalem.  Three years before, he had been there to confer with the apostles and elders concerning the circumcision of the Gentiles; and he had not since visited the holy city.  His present stay seems to have been short—­apparently not extending beyond a few days at the time of the feast of Pentecost,—­and giving him a very brief opportunity of intercourse with his brethren of the Jewish capital.  He then “went down to Antioch” [118:1]—­a place with which from the commencement of his missionary career he had been more intimately associated.  “After he had spent some time there, he departed and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples.” [118:2] On a former occasion, after he had passed through the same districts, he had been “forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in (the Proconsular) Asia;” [118:3] but, at this time, the restriction was removed, and in accordance with the promise made to the Jews at Ephesus in the preceding spring, he now resumed his evangelical labours in that far-famed metropolis.  There must have been a strong disposition on the part of many of the seed of Abraham in the place to attend to his instructions, as he was permitted “for the space of three months” to occupy the synagogue, “disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.” [118:4] At length, however, he began to meet with so much opposition that he found it expedient to discontinue his addresses in the Jewish meeting-house.  “When divers were hardened and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.” [118:5] This Tyrannus was, in all probability, a Gentile convert, and a teacher of rhetoric—­a department of education very much cultivated at that period by all youths anxious to attain social distinction.  What is here called his “school,” appears to have been a spacious lecture-room sufficient to accommodate a numerous auditory.