=Situation and History of Tarsus.= The man who led this forward movement and formulated the world-wide policy of the Christian church was born in a city of southern Cilicia, which stood midway between the east and the west. There the influences of the ancient Orient and of the more active Occident met and mingled. The city of Tarsus lay on a rich, moist, alluvial plain, ten miles north of the Mediterranean and only eighty feet above the level of the ocean. Two miles farther north rose the foot-hills that led up to the lofty, massive peaks of the Taurus Mountains. These northern heights shut off the cooling winds, making the climate of Tarsus hot and enervating. In ancient times the sluggish river Cydnus flowed through the centre of the town on its way to the sea. The strength of Tarsus consisted in its position at the southern end of the great Cilician Plain. At this point the main highway from Antioch to Ephesus and Smyrna touched the Cydnus and thence turned northward, crossing the Taurus range by the famous Cilician Gates. Its commercial prestige, however, was not so much the result of its natural position as of the energy of the early population. They had drained the marshes about the Cydnus and transformed the lake immediately south of the town into a large inland harbor. They also cut the road beside the narrow stream that penetrated the Taurus range, making Tarsus the seaport of the wide plains to the north. Tarsus in the days of Paul was a magnificent city of fully half a million population. Its citizens were supremely proud of their city--a pride which the great apostle to the Gentiles clearly shared. The energy which characterized the inhabitants, as a result of their successful struggle with adverse natural conditions, was also reflected in the character and work of its most distinguished citizen.