Paul, immediately after his conversion, having been in great danger at Damascus and at Jerusalem from the rage of the Jews because of his becoming a Christian, dwelt some time in quiet at Tarsus, his native city. We have no record of how he spent his time there on that occasion. But doubtless, as at other places so there, he would proclaim the conviction which he so strongly felt of the excellence and truth of the Gospel. If so, it is probable that he met with the same kind of coldness and contempt for his message from the philosophers of Tarsus, as afterwards from those of Athens. The native city of St Paul was noted for the eagerness for learning displayed by its people. Strabo tells us “the men of this place are so zealous in the study of philosophy and all other subjects of education that they surpass the inhabitants of Athens and Alexandria, and every place that one could mention where schools of philosophy are found. The difference is in this respect. Here they are all natives who are eager after learning, and strangers do not choose a residence here. They themselves (the Tarsians) do not stay, but finish their course of training abroad. Few return home again. Whereas, in the other cities which I have named, except Alexandria, there is a contrary practice; for many come to them and live willingly there: but you will see few of those born there either going to other places for the sake of philosophy, or caring to study it at home. The Alexandrians combine both descriptions, for they receive many strangers, and send abroad not a few of their own people.” We learn also from other sources that from Cilicia, and especially from Tarsus, a great many of the most celebrated Stoics came, and it appears therefore extremely probable that St Paul would meet with such in his visit to that city. If he met with them, they would hear the truth from his lips. His heart would prompt him, as it did afterwards at Athens, to proclaim glad tidings of salvation to all; and to those who professed to seek the knowledge of deeper mysteries than the ignorant mass cared to inquire about, he would declare “the mystery which” had “been hid for ages,” but was now “revealed to the sons of men by Jesus Christ.”