'The corruption of the best is the worst.' There is a close and strange
alliance between formal religion and murderous hatred and vulpine
craft, as the history of ecclesiastical persecution shows; and though
we have done with fire and faggot now, the same evil passions and
tempers do still in modified form lie very near to a Christianity which
has lost its inward union with Jesus and lives on surface adherence to
forms. In that sense too 'the letter killeth.' We lift up our hands in
horror at these fierce fanatics, 'ready to kill' Paul, because he
believed in resurrection, angel, and spirit. We need to guard ourselves
lest something of their temper should be in us. There is a devilish
ingenuity about the details of the plot, and a truly Oriental mixture
of murderous passion and calculating craft. The serpent's wisdom and
his poison fangs are both apparent. The forty conspirators must have
been 'ready,' not only to kill Paul, but to die in the attempt, for the
distance from the castle to the council-chamber was short, and the
detachment of legionaries escorting the prisoner would have to be
reckoned with.