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commission was universal, that he must comply literally with the command of the Saviour, and "go and teach all nations," calling no man common or unclean.

As the Gospel was now to be extended to the whole world, among the refined and cultivated Greeks, the lordly and dignified Romans, it would seem appropriate that some one should be added to the number of the Apostles of a more liberal education, and a larger acquaintance with the world, a person imbued with Gentile, as well as Hebrew learning, and qualified to defend the cause of Christ in senates and courts, before scholars and kings, magistrates and emperors. Such a man was found by an omniscient God in Saul of Tarsus. For the first few years of the preaching of the Apostles, no man in all Judea seemed less likely to become a proselyte to the new faith than he. He was an Israelite of pure descent, of the tribe of Benjamin, a tribe of an ardent temperament from the beginning. He was a native of Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, described by Strabo, a geographer contemporary with the Apostle, as a place of great wealth, and rivalling Athens and Alexandria in arts and literature. His father was of the sect of the Pharisees, and after giving his son, it is probable, the rudiments of an education at home, in which was included some knowledge of Greek literature, he sent him to finish his education at Jerusalem, under the tuition of Gamaliel, a most distin

guished Rabbi at that time, of whom we read in the Acts, as a member of the national council. Here he distinguished himself by great attainments. About the time when he was of sufficient age to take a part in public affairs, Jerusalem began to be filled and agitated with the preaching of the Apostles. Already a considerable schism had been made in the national church. The Apostles asserted that the Messiah had come in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, that he had done the work of the Messiah, been crucified, but had risen from the dead and ascended to heaven. Before his departure he had commissioned them to preach to the world the doctrines which he had taught them, to found a new community by the initiatory rite of baptism, to be kept alive by public assemblies for prayer, mutual instruction, and partaking bread and wine in remembrance of Christ, as the author and finisher of their faith.

Paul seems to have been from the first, a sincere, an honest and religious man. At his public examination before the council of his former associates, he declared: "Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God unto this day." His life had been one of the strictest conformity to the law. His only fault, like many sincere and religious men, was religious bigotry and intolerance, the assumption that he was right, and every one else wrong; and the determination either to bring his opponents

to think as he did, or to exterminate them from the face of the earth. How much he had previously known of Jesus of Nazareth, it is impossible to say. Whether he had come to Jerusalem, during the ministry of Christ, is equally uncertain. The first we hear of him is as a young man being present at the execution of the first martyr, Stephen, and as keeping the clothes of those who stoned him. Educated, as he was, in the Jewish prejudices, and entertaining their ideas of the promised Messiah, it is evident that he thought him an impostor, and his religion a delusion, and one which ought be put down by any means. To extirpate this new heresy seems to have been the first enterprise in which he engaged after coming into public life. To crush the Christians was the great project of the day, and Paul entered into it with all the ardor and zeal which seem to have been characteristic of his temperament. How long he continued this course we are not informed. But Luke tells us, that "As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and seizing men and women, committed them to prison." He says of himself, "I verily thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, which thing I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death I gave my voice against them. And I

punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme, and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities."

His zeal did not confine itself to the Holy Land. He was determined to carry his persecution to Damascus, a city of Syria on the borders of Arabia. Providing himself with a commission from the High Priest, and a suitable number of attendants, he was approaching that city bearing misery to the Christians who were there, when he was suddenly arrested by Divine interposition. At noonday a bright light suddenly shone from heaven, with such intensity as to cause him and his companions to fall to the earth. While prostrate, a vision appeared to Paul of a person to him then unknown, which said to him: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ?" We, who before have heard him say to Peter, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? feed my lambs;" recognize the speaker as Jesus of Nazareth. But 'Paul, who had never seen nor heard him before, enquires, "Who art thou, Lord?" The apparition replies, "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." Who does not here recognize the same gentle and affectionate disposition, which always identified Jesus with his followers?" And he, trembling and astonished, said: Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" And the Lord said unto him, arise, and go into the

city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man, but they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus, and he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias, and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said; behold I am here, Lord. 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 upon him that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints in Jerusalem, and how he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. And Ananias went his way and entered into the house, and putting his hands on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me

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