The life and work of St. Paul

THE CONVERSION OF SAUL. 113
with it also the glittering city, the fragrant gardens, the burning noon. Amazed
and startled, his attendants took him by the hand and led him to Damascus.
He had meant to enter the city in all the importance of a Commissioner from
the Sauhedrin, to bo received with distinction, not only as himself a great "pupil
of the wise," but even as the representative of all authority which the Jews
held most sacred. And he had meant to leave the city, perhaps, amid
multitudes of his applauding countrymen, accompanied by a captive train of
ho knew not how many dejected
Nazarenes. How different were his actual
entrance and his actual exit ! He is led through the city gate, stricken, dejected,
trembling, no longer breathing threats and slaughter, but longing only to be
the learner and the suppliant, and the lowest brother among those whom he
had intended to destroy. He was ignominiously let out of the city, alone, in
imminent peril of arrest or assassination, through a window, in a basket, down
the wall.
They led him to the house of Judas, in that long street which leads through
the city and is still called Straight ; and there, in remorse, in blindness, iu
bodily suffering, in mental agitation, unable or unwilling to eat or drink, the
glare of that revealing light ever before his darkened eyes, the sound
of that reproachful voice ever in his ringing ears, Saul lay for three days.
None can ever tell what things in those three days passed through his
soul; what revelations of the past, what lessons for the present, what
guidance for the future. His old life, his old self, had been torn up by
the very roots, and though now he was a new creature, the crisis can never
pass over any one without agonies and energies without earthquake and
eclipse. At last the tumult of his being found relief in prayer; and, in a
vision full of peace, he saw one of those brethren for a visit from whom
ho seems hitherto to have yearned in vain, come to him and heal him. This
brother was Ananias, a Christian, but a Christian held in respect by all
the Jews, and therefore a fit envoy to come among the Pharisaic adherents
by whom we cannot but suppose that Saul was still surrounded. It was
not without shrinking that Ananias had been led to make this visit. He
had heard of Saul's ravages at Jerusalem, and his fierce designs against
the brethren at Damascus ; nay, even of the letters of authority from tho
High Priest which wore still in his hand. He had heard, too, of what hud
befallen him on the way, but it had not wholly conquered his not unnatural
distrust. A divine injunction aided the charity of one who, as u Christian,
felt the duty of believing all things, and hoping all things. The Lord,
appearing to him in a dream, told him that the zeal which had burned so
fiercely in the cause of Sadducees should henceforth be a fiery angel of tho
Cross, that this pitiless persecutor should be a chosen vessel to carry the
name of Christ before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. "For
I will show him," said the vision, "how much he must suffer for My
name." l The good Ananias, hesitated no longer. Ho entered into tho house
1 "Fortia agerc Romanum est; fortiapati Christianum " (Corn, a Lap.).