Let us look around one of the Savior's witnesses and see what we can discover. First, we find Saul, a bold and fearless Jew, a Roman citizen by birth, and a pharisee in the Jews religion; a legalist by profession; laboring under all the prejudices of the straitest sect of the pharisees; persecuting the Savior's disciples to the death. He was a man of no mean attainments. His worldly prospects were greater than those of any other man known to be converted from among the Jews. The testimony which he submits for our consideration is like the evidence of all the others. It consists in simple facts about which there was no possibility of being mistaken, for the facts were seen and heard. Allowing that Saul did neither see nor hear the Savior, he was insincere. And if he was, then we shall always be at a loss to know what constitutes the basis of an honest reputation. Did he give his evidence, knowing that it was false, with the intention of deceiving? If so, what were his motives? He could have had no reasonable inducements. Christianity could not furnish him with temporal power, credit, or interest during all his lifetime. So far as credit was concerned, in the affair of his conversion, he knew that the world had none to give. He knew that preaching Christ crucified was "to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness." He knew that the Christ himself had been crucified. Credit or reputation was lying upon the anti-christian side of the gospel. He was already in high esteem among the Jews; a "_ring-leader_," pursuing the course of action calculated in the very nature of things to advance him higher in their estimation. His entire life demonstrated the fact that he expected nothing of the Jews, for it was spent, with trifling exceptions, among the Gentiles. His enterprise was with them, for he was sent to them.
The difficulties lying in the way of any worldly emoluments were many and great. He had to contend with the authority and policy of the rulers; with the interest, credit and clique of the priests; with the prejudices and passions of the people; with the shrewdness and pride of the philosophers. Every man acquainted with ancient history knows that the established religion with which he would necessarily come in conflict, was interwoven with their civil institution, and supported by the rulers as _an essential_ part of their government. The Romans allowed a great many religious systems to exist, but they allowed no such thing as a religion destructive of the genius of paganism. The existing religions were many, and embraced the system of many gods ruling under one "Master God," as "his members," or representatives. The antagonism between Paganism and Christianity may be seen at once, in the fact that the Gospel of Christ was death to all the lower gods. On this account the first Christians became at once the object of national hatred and scorn. This accounts for the fact that bloody Rome baptized herself in Christian blood in spite of all her tolerance of religion.