=Influence of His Early Home Upon Paul.= Probably from the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, Tarsus had been the home of a large and influential Jewish colony. They were doubtless permitted, as an independent social and religious group, to share in the citizenship of the proud Roman city. This Roman citizenship not only delivered Paul at many crises in his stormy career, but also brought him into intelligent and sympathetic touch with the great empire to which he bore the message of the cross. The atmosphere, therefore, of Paul's early life was distinctly Roman and cosmopolitan. The influence of this broad environment is traceable in all his work and teachings. From the port of Tarsus ships ran frequently to Cæsarea and Joppa, the ports of Jerusalem. Thus the journey was easy and natural for the young Jew of Tarsus as he went back to the sacred city of his race to study at the feet of Gamaliel, the greatest Jewish scholar of the age. His life in Palestine brought him into closest touch with the growing Christian church. The energy which he had inherited from his native city found expression at first in active persecution of the members of the new sect. The open-mindedness which he had acquired from his youthful environment, and which later led him to appreciate that which was good in the heathen religions, prepared the way for the supreme experience which came to him as he was crossing the desert on his way northward to Damascus.^{(42)} =Work at Antioch.= The history of the spread of Christianity for the next decade is chiefly a record of the work of the great apostle to the Gentiles. The graphic passages in the second half of the book of Acts present a remarkably vivid picture of his journeys and experiences. It was natural that Paul, a native of Asia Minor, should not remain in the narrower atmosphere of Palestine, but should find instead a congenial environment and field of work in Antioch, the great and opulent capital of Syria, the third metropolis of the Roman empire. Here he was able to observe the impression which Christianity made upon the heathen, and especially upon the Jews of the dispersion. Antioch was also the natural geographical centre from which to set out upon his missionary journeys.