Azote and the Gaza road were the limit of the first Gospel preaching towards the south. Beyond were the desert and the nomadic life upon which Christianity has ever taken but very slight hold. From Azote, Philip the Deacon hurried towards the north, and evangelized all the coast as far as Cesarea. Perhaps the Churches of Joppa and of Lydda, which we shall soon find flourishing,[9.27] were founded by him. At Cesarea he settled and founded an important church.[9.28] We shall meet him there again twenty years later.[9.29] Cesarea was a new city, and the most considerable in Judea.[9.30] It had been built on the site of a Sidonian fortress called "Abdastarte's or Strato's Tower," by Herod the Great, who gave to it, in honor of Augustus, the name which its ruins bear even to this day. Cesarea was by much the best port in all Palestine, and tended from day to day to become its capital. Tired of living at Jerusalem, the Procurators of Judea were soon going to make it their habitual residence.[9.31] It was peopled chiefly by pagans;[9.32] the Jews, however, were quite numerous there, and severe disputes often took place between the two classes of the population.[9.33] The Greek language was alone spoken there, and the Jews themselves had come to recite certain parts of their liturgy in Greek.[9.34] The austere Rabbis of Jerusalem looked upon Cesarea as a profane and dangerous abode, in which one became very nearly a pagan.[9.35] From all the reasons which have just been cited, this city will be of much importance in the sequel of our history. It was in a manner the port of Christianity, the point by which the Church of Jerusalem communicated with all the Mediterranean. Many other missions, the history of which is unknown to us, were conducted side by side with that of Philip.[9.36] The very rapidity with which this first preaching was accomplished was the cause of its success. In the year 38, five years after the death of Jesus, and one perhaps after the death of Stephen, all Palestine on the higher side of Jordan had heard the glad tidings from the mouth of missionaries sent out from Jerusalem. Galilee, on its side, kept the holy seed and probably spread it around, although we know nothing of any missions issuing from this country. Perhaps the city of Damascus, which, from the epoch at which we have arrived, also had its Christians,[9.37] received the faith from Galilean preachers. CHAPTER X. CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. But the year 38 is marked in the history of the nascent Church by a new and important conquest. It was during that year[10.1] that we may safely place the conversion of that saint whom we saw a participant in the stoning of Stephen, and a principal agent in the persecution of 37, and who now, by a mysterious act of grace, becomes the most ardent of the disciples of Jesus.