"And suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven; And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ?"-Acts IX. 3, 4.

This rendered him impatient of all opposition to the doctrines and tenets he had imbibed, and a vehement blasphemer and persecutor of the Christians, who were commonly reputed the enemies and destroyers of the Jewish economy.

The first action we find him engaged in, was the disputation he and his countrymen had with the martyr Stephen, with regard to the Messiah. The Christian was too hard for them in the dispute but they were too powerful for him in their civil interests for being enraged at his convincing arguments, they carried him before the high-priest, who by false accusations condemued him to death. How far Saul was concerned in this cruel action, is impossible to say; all we know, is, that he "kept the raiment of them that slew him."

The storm of persecution against the church being thus begun, it increased prodigiously, and the poor Christians of Jerusalem were miserably harrassed and dispersed. In this persecution our apostle was a principal agent, searching all the adjacent parts for the afflicted saints, beating some in the synagogue, inflicting other cruelties, confining some in prison, and procuring others to be put to death.

Nor could Jerusalem and the adjacent parts confine his fiery zeal: he applied to the Sanhedrim, and procured a commission from that court to extend his persecution to Damascus. How infernally insatiable is the fury of a misguided zeal! How restless and unwearied in its designs of cruelty! It had already sufficiently harrassed the poor Christians at Jerusalem; but not content with this, it persecuted them even unto strange cities, even to Damascus itself, whither many of them had fled for shelter, resolving to bring them back to Jerusalem, in order to their punishment and execution.

But it was the will of Providence he should be employed in a work of a very different nature; and accordingly, he was stopped in his journey. For as he was travelling between Jerusalem and Damascus, to execute the commission of the Jewish Sanhedrim, a refulgent light, far exceeding the brightness of the sun, darted upon him; at which both he and his companions were terribly amazed and confounded, and immediately fell prostrate on the ground. While they lay in this state, a voice was heard, in the Hebrew language, saying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" To which Saul replied, "Who art thou, Lord?" And was immediately answered, "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest: It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." As if the blessed Jesus had said, "All thy attempts to extirpate the faith in me will prove abortive; and like kicking against the spikes, wound and torment thyself."

Saul was sufficiently convinced of his folly in having acted against Jesus whom he was now assured to be the true Messiah,

and asked, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" On which the blessed Jesus replied, "Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do."

The company which were with him heard the voice, but did not see the person who spake from heaven. In all probability they were ignorant of the Hebrew language, and therefore only heard a confused sound; for the apostle himself tells, that "they heard not the voice of him that spake;" that is, they did not understand what was spoken.

The apostle now arose from the earth, but found himself deprived of sight: the resplendent brightness of the vision being too intense for mortal eyes to behold. His companions, therefore, led him by the hand to the city of Damascus, where he entered the house of Judas, and remained there three days without sight, nor did he eat or drink, but spent his time in prayer to the Almighty, beseeching him to pardon the sins of his ignorance,

and blinded zeal.

In the mean time our blessed Saviour appeared in a vision to Ananias, a very devout and religious man, highly esteemed by all the inhabitants of Damascus. "And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street, which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas, for one called Saul, of Tarsus, for behold he prayeth, and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias, coming in and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight."

Ananias, who was ever ready to obey the commands of the Most High, startled at the name, having heard of the bloody practices of Saul at Jerusalem, and what commission he was now come to execute in Damascus. He, therefore, suspected that his conversion was nothing more than a snare artfully laid by him against the Christians. But our blessed Saviour soon removed his apprehensions, by telling him that his suspicions were entirely destitute of foundation; and that he had now taken him, as a chosen vessel, to preach the Gospel both to the Jews and Gentiles, and even before the greatest monarchs of the earth. "Go thy way," said he, "for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and the kings, and the children of Israel." At the same time he acquainted him with the great persecutions he should undergo for the sake of the Gospel: "For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake."

This quieted the fears of Ananias, who immediately obeyed the heavenly vision, repaired to the house of Judas, and, laying his hands upon Saul, addressed him in words to this effect:"That Jesus," said he, "who appeared to thee in the way, hath sent me to restore thy sight, and by the infusion of his Spirit to give thee the knowledge of those truths which thou

hast blindly and ignorantly persecuted; but who is now willing to receive thee by baptism into his church, and make thee a mem ber of his body."

This speech was no sooner pronounced, than there fell from his eyes thick films, resembling scales, and he received his sight and after baptism conversed with the Christians at Damascus. Nor did he only converse with them, he also, to the great astonishment of the whole church, preached the Gospel to those Christians he came with an intention to destroy, at the same time boldly asserting, "that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God;" and proving it to the Jews, with such demonstrative evidence, that they were confounded, and found it impossible to answer him.

CHAPTER II.

Continuation of the Life of St. Paul, from the time of his Conversion, till the Council was held at Jerusalem.

THE miraculous convert, at the instance of the divine command, retired into Arabia Petræa, where they received a full revelation of all the mysteries of Christianity; for he himself declares, that he conversed not with flesh and blood. Having preached in several parts of that country some time, he returned again to Damascus, applying himself, with the utmost assiduity, to the great work of the ministry, frequenting the synagogues there, powerfully confuting the objections commonly made by the descendants of Jacob against Jesus of Nazareth, and converting great numbers of Jews and Gentiles.

He was, indeed, remarkably zealous in his preaching, and blessed with a very extraordinary method of reasoning, whereby be proved the fundamental points of Christianity, beyond exception. This irritated the Jews to the highest degree; and at length, after two or three years' continuance in those parts, they found means to prevail on the governor of Damascus to have him put to death. But they knew it would be difficult to take him, as he had so many friends in the city; they therefore kept themselves in a continual watch, searched all the houses where they supposed he might conceal himself and also obtained a guard from the governor to observe the gates, in order to prevent his escaping from them.

In this distress, his Christian friends were far from deserting him they tried every method that offered, to procure his escape,

but finding it impossible for him to pass through either of the gates of the city, they let him down from one of their houses, through a window, in a basket over the wall, by which means the cruel designs of his enemies were rendered abortive.

Having thus escaped from his malicious persecutors, he repaired to Jerusalem, and, on his arrival, addressed himself to the church. But they, knowing well the former temper and principles of this great persecutor, shunned his company, till Barnabas brought him to Peter, who was not yet cast into prison, and to James, bishop of Jerusalem, informing them of his marvellous conversion, and that he had preached the Gospel with the greatest boldness in the synagogues of Damascus; upon which they gladly received him, and familiarly entertained him fifteen days.

During this interval, he was remarkably assiduous in preaching the Gospel of the Son of God, and confuting the Hellenist Jews with the greatest courage and resolution. But snares were laid for him, as malice can as easily cease to be, as to remain inactive. Being warned by God in a vision, that his testimony would not be received at Jerusalem, he thought proper to depart, and preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. Accordingly, being conducted by his brethren to Cæsarea Philippi, he set sail for Tarsus his native city: from whence he was soon after brought by Barnabas, to Antioch, to assist him in propagating Christianity in that city.

In this employment he spent one whole year, and had the satisfaction of seeing the gospel flourish in a very remarkable

manner.

It was in this city that the disciples first acquired the name of Christians, before which they were styled Nazarenes; but this appellation soon prevailed all over the world; and the latter was in a few ages almost entirely forgotten.

The first place visited by Baruabas and Saul was Selucia where they did not continue long, but sailed for Cyprus; and at Salamis, a great city in that island, they preached in the synagogue of the Jews. From thence they removed to Phaos, the residence of Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of the island, a man of great wisdom and prudence, but miserably seduced by the wicked artifices of "Bar-Jesus," a Jewish impostor, who

styled himself Elymas, or the magician, vehemently opposed the apostles, and kept the proconsul from embracing the faith.

The proconsul, however, called for the apostles, who after severely checking Elymas for his malicious opposition to the truth, told him the divine vengeance was now ready to seize upon him; and immediately he was deprived of his sight. The vengeance of the Almighty was remarkably displayed in this