Among the many extraordinary personages who have made their appearance at different times in the Christian church, the apostle Paul is, doubtless, to be ranked as the most illustrious. Honorable in his origin, endowed with the highest order of intellect and the most daring energy of character, educated in every department of knowledge, and sanctified and animated by the Spirit of God, he was, unquestionably, the greatest champion of truth that has ever figured upon the theater of time. This is plain, whether we consider the greatness of the foes whom he opposed, or the glory of the victories which he won. Called, in the order of providence, to be an apostle of Jesus, it fell to his lot to lead in the battle against principalities and against powers – the Sanhedrin of the Jews, the Areopagus of Athens, and the Forum of Rome. Festus, and Agrippa, and Felix, and Caesar were authorities with whom he contended. As to his achievements, he traversed seas and lands subduing islands, cities, and nations unto the dominion of Christ. He gave a Savior and a King to Macedonia, to Galatia, to Ephesus, to Laodicea, to Iconium, to Lystra, and to Colosse. The graces of the Parthenon, and the splendors of Diana’s temple were all made to blush and fade before his pure denunciations. Rome, at his approach, threw down her idols and acknowledged his cause. He dethroned the gods and goddesses of Greece, and planted the cross amid the glory of its renowned metropolis. And, in the greatness of his triumph, he even pushed his victories south to Ethiopia, and north, as tradition says, to the remote isle of Britain.
From: Lectures on Hebrews by Joseph A. Seiss; reprint (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2007), pp. 5-6. Originally published as Popular Lectures on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews (1846). This is the opening paragraph of Chapter 1, in which Seiss assumes that Paul was the author of the Book of Hebrews, a common opinion in his day.
Joseph Augustus Seiss (1823-1904) was a Luthern pastor, theologian, and author. He is probably best remembered today for his Lectures on the Apocalypse, published in three volumes (1870-1884).
