prayed for such visible unity and died for it? An idealist is one
who forms picturesque fancies, one given to romantic expectations
impossible of accomplishment. The idealist usually has but few
practical results. But Paul accomplished things. He broke away from
his Jewish prejudices, which brought down upon his head the wrath of
his fellows. He went into the synagogs of the Jews and brought out
those who were willing to become disciples of Jesus. To build up the
work of the Lord he labored night and day with tears; he laid broad
and deep the very foundations of the Christian faith in heathen lands.
Within a very few years he established Christian churches in four
provinces of the Roman Empire--churches in which Jew and Gentile met
together in common fellowship, _in one body_. If this is idealism,
Lord, give us many more such idealists.

[Sidenote: The burden of Paul's ministry]

But the unity described by Paul in the epistles which he wrote late in
life is not given as a mere ideal standard for the future toward which
men should strive. It is given as the record of a historic fact, the
accomplishment of which lay at the very foundation of Paul's call to
the ministry.

In the second chapter of Ephesians, already quoted, Paul declares
that both Jews and Gentiles were reconciled to God in one body _by the
cross_. In the next chapter he shows his part in the accomplishment of
that end. First, he was called of God as the apostle of the Gentiles;
then by revelation was made known unto him "the mystery of Christ
which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men ...
that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and OF THE SAME BODY, and
partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel" (Eph. 3:4-6). The