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sins, calling on the name of the Lord." So far as the record shows Saul complied with the terms enjoined upon all; that is, with the law of pardon as given by Jesus just before He ascended, as enjoined by Peter on the day of Pentecost at the opening of the gospel age, and as preached by Philip at Samaria. This law, originated by Jesus and expressed by His ambassadors, was perfect, easily comprehended by the ignorant, and equally adapted to the wise. It was competent alike to forgive the murderers and betrayers of Christ, to pardon a persecutor like Saul, and to save a pious person like Cornelius.

Finally, in summing up the history of the pardon of Saul, we will observe that, before any one can justly claim to be pardoned as Saul was, it is essential for the Lord to appear to him; that he should see a light at midday above the brightness of the sun; that others should also see it and fall to the ground with him; that he should be stricken with blindness; that he should be directed by the Lord to go to a place where it should be told him things appointed for him to do; that in going he should be led by the hand of others; that after arriving the Lord should appear in a vision to a minister giving directions where to find him; that he should have fasted three days and be praying; that the minister, on arriving, should work a miracle, restore his sight, and give him instructions about things appointed for him to do, and all this, too, before he is pardoned. And that, finally, he should have to "arise and be baptized and wash away his sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”

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Having now given the history of the pardon of Paul, may be well to pause for a moment and consider some facts connected with the life of this great man. He was born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, a city renowned as a place of education and commerce. He was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the most learned Jews of his age. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee, and a Hebrew of the Hebrews. As touching the law, he was blameless. While he was a Jew he was also a Roman citizen, and that, too, in an age when it was said that it was greater to be a citizen of Rome than to be a king. In an age when one before whom he was brought for trial said, "With a great sum obtained I this freedom," Paul said to him, "I was freeborn." Saul was present and consented unto the death of Stephen, who was the first Christian martyr. He was then a young man, for the rioters who stoned Stephen laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. Little did he then anticipate thirty years of toil and labor and suffering in the same cause for which Stephen died, and that finally he should share a similar fate, cheered by the same glorious hope. After Saul was pardoned, he began to preach the faith which he had destroyed. It is a remarkable fact that Saul was the only person pardoned after the death of Jesus, the circumstances of whose pardon are given, of whom we have any subsequent history in the New Testament. It is true Paul mentions some in his epistles whom he had baptized, but all those, the history of whose pardon is given, do not appear again in the sacred story. Not

a page of the New Testament was composed by any one nor a paragraph given of their history. But Paul, who was born out of due time (as an apostle), aside from Christ, is not only the author of more of the New Testament than any one, but the most important human character in sacred history. As the events connected with the conversion of Saul were more wonderful than those connected with the conversion of any one man, so was his subsequent history the most marked. In fact, the wonderful events connected with his call would lead us to anticipate the greatest results from his calling. As the birth of Jesus was supernatural, so was His life superhuman. The miracle of His birth would lead us to anticipate the greatness of His life, and the matchless events of His life confirmed the wonders of His birth, and the story of His birth and life are both confirmed to us by the still greater events connected with His death. And we are fully assured of all the facts connected with His existence from the manger to the cross, and from the cross to the crown, by the mighty influence which they have exerted upon the world for more than nineteen hundred years.

So with Paul. If the Lord called him and committed to him the greatest mission of the ages, giving him the world as his field, and the ingathering of the Gentiles as his harvest, we may expect his influence to be unequaled by man and only surpassed by the Lord Himself. In this we will not be disappointed. For as the events of his conversion were great, they were exceeded by the greater events of his life. We

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search history in vain for his superior. In fact, nowhere on its pages do we find his equal. The Gentile world owes to him, as to no other man, debt of gratitude which increases as the ages advance. Paul was the greatest missionary preacher of all time. In his missionary journeys, extending over Asia and Euhe planted most of the churches recorded in the New Testament. He opposed the binding of the old covenant on his new converts. He obtained a decree from the apostles at Jerusalem freeing the Gentiles from the Jewish law, carrying it with him when he revisited the churches. In accordance with this decree he taught that the Jewish law was "passing away" or "abolished," a and gives us the broad distinction between it and the gospel, showing the incompleteness of the one and the completeness of the other. Yet after all his struggles in behalf of the liberty of the gospel, his life was harassed, his converts were troubled, and his labors were embarrassed by Judaizing teachers who sought to entangle his converts in the "yoke of bondage." But he proclaimed the oneness of the race, the equality of the Jews and Gentiles, male and female, bond and free, the unity of the Church and the oneness of its members.

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Without the history of Paul's life and teaching the Church would be incomplete as an organization. While Peter speaks of elders among them commanding them to feed the flock, yet before this Paul ordained elders in a number of churches and instructed them in their duties, and later on he wrote to Titus to apa 2 Cor. iii. 13.

point elders in every city and to both Timothy and Titus he gave their qualifications. He speaks of deacons and their duties, of ministers or evangelists and their work, thus giving a full list of the officers of Christ's Church.

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He reasoned as a sage, taught more wisely than any philosopher, reproved like a prophet, and advised like a father. He denounced divisions, opposed heretics, warned his brethren, rebuked Peter, foretold the perilous times of the future, and revealed the rise, progress, and overthrow of the Man of Sin. In his life and teaching the whole range of Christian obligation for all classes, races, and people is presented more full, perfect, and complete than by any other apostle, evangelist, or teacher under Christ. His life is a model unequaled in the history of man. steps of the Master, and devoted his body "a living sacrifice" for the good of the human race. He said, "I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls." a He alone of all has said, "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ."b

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One-third of the New Testament is given to his life and epistles. He was, indeed, the great apostle to the Gentiles and, truly, he "labored more abundantly than they all." Time will be found too short to tell the story or reveal the results of his life, but away out in the cycles of eternity they will be unfolded. As a man he is the greatest moral hero of earth. His labors and sufferings, his troubles and trials, his conflict and triumph are the greatest recorded in the annals of a 2 Cor. xii. 15. b I Cor. xi. I.

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