The life and work of St. Paul

THE LA.3T JOUKSKY TO JKBUaALEtt. 535
haling to prison not only men, but even women ; in proof of which he appealed
to tho testimony of the ex-High Priest Theophilus, 1 and many still surviving
members of the Sanhedrin who had given him letters to Damascus. What,
then, had changed the whole spirit of his life P Nothing less than a Divine
vision of Jesus of JNazarath, which had stricken him blind to earth, and bidden
him confer with Ananias. 8 He does not tell them that Ananias was a Chris-
tian, but which was no less true that he was an orthodox observer of the
Law, for whom all the Jews of Damascus felt respect. Ananias had healed
his blindness, and told him that it was " the God of our fathers," who fore-
ordained him, to know His will and see " the Just One," 3 and hear the
message from His lips, that he might be for Him " a witness to all men " of
what he had heard and seen. He then mentions his baptism and return to
Jerusalem, and, hurrying over all needless details, comes to the point that,
while he was worshipping now twenty years ago in that very Temple, he
had fallen into a trance, and again seen the risen Jesus, who bado him
hurry with all speed out of Jerusalem, because there they would not receive
bis testimony. But so far from wishing to go, he had even pleaded with
the heavenly vision that surely the utter chaiigo from Saul the raging persecutor
Saul who had imprisoned and beaten the believers throughout the
synagogues Saul at whose feet had been laid the clothes of them that
slew His witness* Stephen the change from such a man to Saul the
Christian and the preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ could not fail
to win credence to his testimony. Bui He who spake to him would not
suffer him to plead for a longer opportunity of appealing to his fellow-
countrymen. Briefly but decisively came the answer which had been the
turning-point for all his subsequent career" Go, for I will send thee far away
"
TO THE GENTILES 1
That fatal word, which hitherto he had carefully avoided, but which it
was impossible for him to avoid any longer, was enough. Up to this point
they had continued listening to him with the deepest attention. Many of
them were not wholly unacquainted with the facts to which he appealed. His
intense earnestness and mastery over the language which they loved charmed
them all the more, because the soldiers who stood by could not understand a
word of what he was saying, so that his speech bore the air of a confidential
communication to Jews alone, to which the alien tyrants could only listen
with vain curiosity and impatient suspicion. Who could tell but what some
Messianic announcement might be hovering on his lips ? Might not he who
was thrilling them with the narrative of these visions and revelations have
some new ecstasy to tell of, which should be the signal that now the supreme
hour had come, and which should pour into their hearts a stream of fire so
> See p. 100.
' The narratives of St. Paul's conversion in lx., xxii., rzvi. are sufficiently considered
and "harmonised" not that they really need any harmonising in pp. 107 112
* " The Just One." See the gpeech of Stephen (vii. 52).
4 jiajm*. not yet "martyr," as in Rev. xvii. 6. (Clem. Ep, 1 Cor. v.) But St. Paul
would here have used the word edh, " witness."