Baptist as the forerunner of Christ; but this does not detract from the glory of the mission and privilege which were John's. So likewise is it true of the mission of Barnabas; but God did not use another man to introduce Paul, he did use Barnabas, and so in the providence of God it was this man who opened the door for Paul and gave him his opportunity in life.

This honor alone would be sufficient laurels for the brow of any man had he rendered no other service to mankind, as it is sufficient to know of Andrew that he led Peter to Christ. How much direct value the friendship of Paul was to Barnabas we may not say; but certain it is that, humanly speaking, the friendship of Barnabas was indispensable to Paul.

If in these studies we are constantly to keep before us not only the individual fame, services, and ability of Paul's friends, but also use them to gain a perspective for estimating the overtowering greatness of Paul himself, then we must hasten to confess that great as was Barnabas in all the essential qualities of permanent renown, yet the younger Paul easily surpassed him in almost every particular save in the qualities of heart and character. Barnabas was a man of wonderful talent, Paul was a man of transcendent genius-and this forever marks the distinction between the two.

Though we may be awed and overwhelmed by the solitary and awful grandeur of the mountain whose summit is lost above the clouds, it is no reason

why we should disparage or neglect those whose lower but still massive and lofty brows concentrate and reflect the splendor of the noonday sun-and such a mountain peak was Joses surnamed Barnabas, "the Son of Exhortation."

CHAPTER III

John Mark-The Man Who Forfeited and Afterwards Regained the Confidence of St. Paul

The story of Mark's career is based upon the following passages:-Acts 12:12 and 25, Acts 13:5 and 13, 15:36-39, Col. 4:10, 2nd Tim. 4:11, Philemon 1:24, 1st Peter 5:13, and the Gospel by Mark.

H

AVING completed our study of Barnabas, Paul's first great friend, we naturally take up next the story of Barnabas's relative, John Mark. It is here assumed that the Mark of Acts and of Paul's epistles, and the Marcus of Peter's letter, and the author of the second Gospel are one and the same person.

Most Bible students are familiar with the details of the life and character of the author of the fourth Gospel; but few have a close acquaintance with the life history of the other three. Of Matthew it is impossible to learn much, but ignorance of the lives of Luke and Mark is inexcusable. In our studies of Paul's friends we shall make a close acquaintance with both as far as the New Testament lends us its aid. They are men worth knowing for the services they rendered to Chris

tianity, for the manner in which their lives are interwoven with the life of their friend Paul, and also because of their own inherent worth and attractiveness as men and Christians.

I.

Our First Meeting with John Mark

Mark is not once mentioned in any of the four Gospels, and there is no conclusive evidence that he ever saw Christ. We are first introduced to him in the Acts where we learn that after the angel had delivered Peter from prison "he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark; where many were gathered together praying."

From this it may be inferred that Mark was reared in a devout Christian home; that his mother was prominent in the early Christian circles; and that, if a widow, she was a woman of some property, as her house was spacious enough to accommodate a large gathering.

Nothing is told us concerning Mark's conversion, but as Peter seems to have been an intimate of the home and in after years speaks of Mark as his "son," the inference is possibly warranted that he was led to Christ by Peter, for Paul often spoke of his spiritual children as his "sons." In Colossians we learn that Mark was a relative of Barnabas, probably a younger cousin.

II.

Mark Causes a Rupture Between Barnabas and Paul.

Mark's first recorded association with Barnabas and Paul is his trip with them to Antioch on their return from Jerusalem after they had distributed to the poor of the mother church the alms which had been collected in the church where they were at the time jointly laboring.

Not long after the arrival of the three at Antioch, the Holy Spirit summoned Barnabas and Paul to go forth on their first missionary journey to the Gentiles; and we read "they had also John to their minister." Just what was the nature of his duties we are not informed; whether he simply looked after their material comfort, or was also a helper in their evangelistic efforts, is uncertain, probably he did both. Together the three men traversed the island of Cyprus, Barnabas and Paul everywhere preaching; but when that work was finished and they crossed over to the mainland a simply told, but, as the outcome proved, a very significant event transpired. The historian of Acts merely states "Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia: and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem." No explanation whatever of Mark's course is anywhere vouchsafed to us, but the consequences of this desertion were far-reaching as they bore on the interrelations of the three men.