The life and work of St. Paul

SAUL THE PERSECUTOR, 95
manner, dimmed in blood the light upon a face which had been radiant as that
of aii angel with faith and love.
Stephen was dead, and it might well have seemed that all tho truth which
was to be the glory and the strength o Christianity had died with him. But
the deliverance of the Gentiles, and their free redemption by the blood of
Christ, were truths too glorious to be quenched. The truth may be suppressed
for a time, even for a long time, but it always starts up again from its apparent
grave. Fra Dolcino was torn to pieces, and Savonarola and Huss were burnt,
but the Reformation was not prevented. Stephen sank in his blood, but his
place was taken by the young man who stood there to incite his murderers.
Four years after Jesus had died upon the cross of infamy, Stephen was stoned
for beiug His disciple and His worshipper ; thirty years after the death of
Stephen, his deadliest ODDonent died also for the same holy faith.
THE CONVERSION. *;
CHAPTER IX.
SAUL THE PEBSECUTOa.
Horl Kfrrpov 5^ roi \axrie(i.tv
TeAe'tfet b\iff6ripos olpos. FIND. fyth. ii. 173.
" AT a young man's feot." The expression is vague, but there is good reason
to believe that Saul was now not less than thirty years old. 1 The reverence
for age, strong among all Orientals, was specially strong among the Jews, and
they iiover entrusted authority to those who had not attained to full years of
discretion. "We may regard it as certain that even a scholar of Gamaliel, so
full of genius and of zeal as Saul, would not have been appointed a commis-
sioner of the Sanhcdrin to carry out a responsible inquisition earlier than the
ago of thirty ; and if we attach a literal meaning to tho expression, " When
they were being condemned to death, I gave a voto against them," 2 this
implies that Saul was a member of the Sanhedrin. If so, he was at this time,
by the very condition of that dignity, a married man.3
1 Josephus uses vtaviat of Agrippa I. when he must have been at least forty (Antt.
xviii. >, i ; v. supra, p. 7).
' Acts XXV'i. 10, aratpou/4cViop re OLVTWV xar^i-eyxa \jirjov.
8 Selden, DC Syncdr. ii. 7, 7. In the Mishna the only qualifications mentioned for
membership of the Sanhedrin axe that a man must not be a dicer, usurer, pigeon-flyer, or
dealer in the produce of the Sabbatical year (Sanhedr. iii. 3) ; but in the Gemara, and in
later Jewish writers, we find that, besides the qualification mentioned in Exod. xviii. 21,
and Deut. i. 13 16, a candidate must be free from every physical blemish, stainless in
character, learned in science, acquainted with more than one language, and with a family