from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among the sanctified by faith that is in Me." journeying with Saul remain

Meantime the men speechless with terror, seeing indeed the light but not perceiving Him Who spoke, hearing His voice but not understanding His words. But although Saul has received his commission as minister and witness to the Gentiles, he still remains bewildered, and asks: "Lord, what shall I do?" And the Lord says to him: "Arise and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do.” And Saul arises from the earth, and opening his eyes, lo, he sees nothing, being blind by reason of the brightness of the light which had shined round about him. And so the blind persecutor is led as a little child by the hand of his fellow travelers into Damascus. For three days he continues without sight, neither eating nor drinking. Meantime the Lord had appeared to a certain disciple of Damascus, named Ananias, and said to him: "Ananias! Arise and go into the street called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus; for, lo, he prayeth." And Ananias answered: "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how great evils he hath done to Thy saints at Jerusalem; and he hath authority from the chief priests to bind here all who call on Thy name." But the Lord said to Ananias: "Go, for this man is to Me a chosen vessel, to bear My name before nations and kings and the sons of Israel; for I

1 Cor. xv. 3, 4.

Myself will show him how great things he must
suffer for My name's sake." And now Ananias
obeys, and enters the house of Judas, and puts
his hands on the blind persecutor, and says to
him: "Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, Who
appeared to thee in the way thou camest, hath
sent me, that thou mayst receive sight, and be
filled with the Holy Spirit. Brother Saul, look
up!" And there fall off from his eyes as it were
scales, and he looks up upon Ananias. And An-
anias says to him: "The God of our fathers hath
chosen thee to know His will, and to see the Right-
eous One, and to hear a voice from His mouth;
for thou shalt be a witness for Him unto all men
of what thou hast seen and heard.
And now
why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized, and
wash away thy sins, calling on His Name." Nor
is he disobedient to the heavenly vision. Imme-
diately he preaches Jesus in the synagogues, that
He is the Son of God. And all that hear him are
amazed, saying: "Is not this he who destroyed in
Jerusalem those who called on this Name, and
came hither for this purpose, that he might bring
them bound unto the chief priests?" But Saul
increases the more in strength, and confounds the
Jews who dwell at Damascus, proving that Jesus
the Nazarene is the very Christ. And so he goes
up to Jerusalem and throughout all Judea and
among all the Gentiles, proclaiming everywhere
the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to wit: that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and
that He was buried, and that He rose again the
third day according to the Scriptures.

The Epiphany of Saul's Conversion.

the Occasion

Such is the Story of the Conversion of Saul of Tarsus-a Conversion which, be it very particularly noted, was brought about by his vision of the Risen Lord in His Epiphany to him on the way to Damascus. Listen to his own emphatic declaration, in which, after having enumerated various of the Epiphanies of the Forty Days, he adds: "Last of all, as to one born out of due time, 1 Cor. xv. 8-10. He appeared unto me also: for I am the least of the Apostles, and am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God; but by the grace of God I am what I am." That gracious Epiphany on the way to Damascus was the turning point in the persecutor's career. Here

it was that Jesus Christ seized him, casting down Phil. iii. 12, his reasonings, and bringing every thought into 2 Cor. x. 5. blessed and abiding captivity unto His own obedience. Here it was that Saul of the Pharisees became Paul of the Nazarenes. A revolution so radical and so momentous in its bearings on the moral history of mankind demands our very special study. May the Spirit, then, help us as we ponder the following theme: the Conversion of Saul of Tarsus a Testimony to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Conversion a Stupendous Revolution.

That we may conceive the case clearly, let us, The first of all, notice the stupendousness of the revolution itself. The Apostle has left on record a memorable statement of the magnitude of the revolution. It is as follows:

If any other man thinketh that he hath ground for con- Phil. iii. 4–11. fidence in the flesh, I more: circumcised the eighth day, of

the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of

the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; as touching zeal, persecuting the Church; as touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But whatsoever things were gain to me, those I have counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dross, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, even the righteousness which cometh from God upon faith that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed unto His death; if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection of the 'dead.

Here we see a man of transcendent intellectual qualities and splendid erudition forsaking scribe and rabbi, Gamaliel and Jonathan, and consorting with the illiterate and those whom the world calls foolish a man of rank and fame and splendid ecclesiastical, political, and literary prospects, turning his back on as brilliant a future as ever beckoned forward a son of ambition, and casting in his fortunes with the obscure and despised and outlawed: a man of intense ancestral pride and conservative instincts giving up a brilliant liturgy and a venerable religion two thousand years old, and adopting a new, apparently antiMosaic, self-denying, humbling, hated, scorned, outlawed religion: a man of spotless orthodoxy and faultless morals confessing that in himself is no good thing, and that his only hope of righteousness and eternal life is in a despised, crucified Galilean in brief, we see a man whose whole theory of life has been so completely revolution

ized, that whatever things he used to prize, all these he now counts but loss for the sake of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord, for Whom he cheerfully suffers the loss of all things, and counts them as refuse, that he may gain Christ and be found in Him, no longer trusting in his own Mosaic, legal righteousness, but henceforth trusting solely in the righteousness which cometh from God through faith in Jesus the Crucified. Here is a stupendous revolution of character. How shall we account for it? It is a fair question to ask. Every effect, we are accustomed to say, must have a cause. Here is a colossal effect; what caused it? How shall we account for the transformation of Saul the Persecutor into Paul the Missionary?

Various answers have been given. They may all be reduced to three.

to Saul nei

And, first, Paul's assertion that he had seen The Epiphany the Risen Lord was a falsehood. This was the position taken by the Deists of the last century.

What motive, then, I ask in reply, could Paul have for asserting such a falsehood? For even men of the feeblest intellects do not act without motives. But here is a man of confessedly powerful, broad, keen, piercing intellect, persisting for thirty years in maintaining what he knew all the time to be an absolute lie. What motive, then, could he have for maintaining a lie so gigantic and sacrilegious and prolonged? Was it hope of advancement? But to confess the Nazarene was in those days the surest way to be defeated in every worldly ambition. Was it love of rank, or wealth,

ther a Lie :