We can hardly fail to be struck by the confident language in which the First Council of the Church claims for its decisions the full weight of Divine Authority; and though it differed from later Catholic Councils in that it was presided over by inspired men, yet we may well believe that to those General Councils which really deserved the name, the Holy Spirit vouchsafed such a special measure of His guiding Power, as might suffice to preserve their decisions from error, and enable them to hand down unblemished the deposit of Truth which Christ left with His Church. Section 4. _St. Paul's Second Apostolic Journey._ [Sidenote: A.D. 53. St. Peter's probable visit to Antioch.] St. Paul and St. Barnabas bore back to the Church in Antioch the decree of the Council at Jerusalem, and it was probably about this time that St. Peter paid to Antioch the visit of which we read in the Epistle to the Galatians[16], when his fear of "them which were of the circumcision," led him to shrink from continuing to eat and drink with the Gentiles, and drew down St. Paul's stern rebuke. [Sidenote: Separation of St. Paul and St. Barnabas.] The difference of opinion about St. Mark soon after separated the two Apostles, whose labours amongst the heathen had been till now carried on together, and St. Paul began his missionary travels without an Apostolic companion[17]. He went first through Syria and his native country Cilicia, {37} "confirming" the baptized, and then to the scene of his first contact with actual heathendom at Derbe and Lystra. St. Paul's course of conduct with regard to the circumcision of St. Timothy, a native of Lystra, shows us clearly how fully his mind had grasped all the bearings of the question between Jews and Gentiles[18]. [Sidenote: St. Paul's indifference to circumcision in itself.] Circumcision and uncircumcision were alike matters of indifference to him, in no way affecting salvation, excepting so far as they might tend to the edification of others. He did not blame those converted Jews who still thought it needful to observe the Mosaic law, but he resisted to the uttermost all attempts to make that law binding on the Gentiles, and would not sanction any thing which might seem to imply that the Life-giving ordinances of the Gospel were not sufficient for every need. St. Timothy, uncircumcised, would have obtained no hearing from Jews for the Gospel he preached, and therefore he was circumcised as a measure of Christian expediency. [Sidenote: St. Paul crosses over to Europe. St. Luke joins him.]