Israel had of what he means, in these chapters. rejected Messiah when upon earth, crucified Him. In the martyrdom of Stephen, they were resisting the Holy Ghost and the power which He in heaven had now shed abroad. Saul got a marked place in that sinful act: "the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul" (chap. vii. 58). "Saul was consenting unto his death" (chap. viii. 1); "As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, committed them to prison" (ver. 3);" and Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem "1 (ix. 1, 2). In the blindness of his heart he thought he did God, Jehovah of Israel, service, for he was alive without the law once; yet at this, the time of his conversion, he had no sore conscience, no suspicion that he was wrong, for he tells us (1 Tim. i. 13)," I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." What! be a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious (ver. 13) ignorantly? Yes, easily enough, when the vail is over the heart, and the mind is set upon the law of God and Jehovah and not upon Christ Jesus. As Paul says, and it is an awful word in its bearing upon the professed Christianity of our own days; upon the many who are "desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm" (1 Tim. i. 7)-those who would, one way or the other, merge Christ in the law:-" Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: and not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail un 1 Let my reader bear in mind, while he studies Paul's gospel, the thoughts and sayings of many an evangelist, "you must know yourself to be a sinner, ere you can need a Saviour"; "the vision of Christ's glory in heaven can produce no sense of sin or of need in man"; "there is nothing in the heart of man down here, which can respond to the glory in heaven." taken away in the reading of the Old Testament: which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart" (2 Cor. iii. 12-15). This Scripture was not written in vain as to this day (1867) for those that have hearts to be warned. Saul knew it not, nor did he then know the next verse as he did afterwards: "Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away" (ver. 16). The Gospel was hid from him, hid as from one that was lost: in whom the God of this world had blinded the mind as of one who believed not (2 Cor. iv. 3, 4). Occupied with the temple and religion of Jehovah, God of Israel, and full of zeal for the law of Moses, etc., etc., his temper and tone were like one of old: "Come and see my zeal for the Lord." He had no sense of need of mercy, of grace, or of a Saviour. But if he did not feel the need of a Saviour, the Saviour felt yearning as to him, and made known to him His needs of showing mercy and grace, and the mind of God and of Heaven as in contrast with the mind of man and of earth. This is the proper and true order of grace always and at all times: "I am the first and the last." But besides this it is the manifested order of grace now, under the apostleship of the uncircumcision; as Paul said of himself, quoting Isaiah in all his very boldness: "I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me" (lxv. 1, and compare Rom. ix. 30). Saul did not seek Christ, yet was Saul found of Christ; Saul did not ask after Christ, but Christ manifested Himself to Saul. This, emphatically true of Paul and his gospel, is the order really of grace; for the lost sheep sought not the shepherd; the piece of lost silver sought not the woman. But by the lost sheep and the piece of lost silver (in Luke xv.) the publicans and sinners who knew their lost estate, as saltless salt, were represented; in Saul's case, he had the conscience that he was all right, so far as confidence in himself and a ground for confidence in the flesh went: a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law a pharisee; full of zeal; "touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless" (Phil. iii, 5, 6); " I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth" (Acts xxvi. 8, 9). But when Christ took up Saul to make a model man of him," Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting" (1 Tim. i. 16); when it "pleased God. . to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen" (Gal. i. 16); when God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness (Gen. i. 3) shined into his heart, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. iv. 6), what discovery was then made to this Saul? Heaven and earth contrasted stood; Jesus, as He is, in His place on high, in His own character stood in contrast with Saul as he was in his place on earth and in the character natural to him. God and His ways stood in contrast with man in the world and his ways; Christ on one side, Satan on the other; the energy of Jesus working by the truth and through the Spirit upon a man whose energy was as peculiar as the man was great among and above his fellows, and yet at this moment detected as identified with Satan in work and way and character, against man and against God, and against one of the dearest counsels of God-the Church. Shut up in his own set of circumstances, as much as the woman of Samaria was in hers, he had only a human mind, and that a fallen one and one under Satan's deluding power, to act by. He leaned to his own understanding and consulted his own wisdom -and his wisdom, perfect in his own eyes, had no standard by which he could measure it. He was nearing Damascus, his schemes well laid, his plan well prepared for, when suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. Fallen to the earth he hears a voice and has to converse with Him who spake. m Some want to make this pattern to be of the Jewish people in the latter day. But will this stand? for the remnant get well ploughed up by sorrow and conviction, ere Christ appears to them; suddenly as to Saul in the end, I admit, but not to put them under the same doctrine, or into the same position as He did Saul. Us He has put there, yea, into everything that Paul had as a Christian-apostleship and service excepted. The Lord." Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" The Lord." I am Jesus whom thou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.' (Then trembling and astounded.) Saul.-"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" The Lord." Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou shalt do." Three little sentences dropped from the Lord's lips in heaven, what discovery did they make to Saul, think you, reader? First. I must remark that when God, or the Son of God, speaks, it is the speaker who gives the word spoken its power. "And God said, Let there be light, and there was light," etc., etc. The word was God's and the power to accomplish its purport was God's. So was it as to the rainbow and the seasons (in Gen. ix. 12, and xi. 21, 22); so was it in government as to Israel set apart from the nations; so is it with the word, looked at as the word of the living God always. If I preached law with the view of awakening, or if I preached pardon for the guilty sinner, everybody knows it would be just the same as I have said. They that heard my words as if they were the words of a man merely, might gibe and mock; they that heard them as the word of the living God, would be pricked to the heart by them,-would know the power of God's word,-the two-edged sword, -sword of the Spirit-but they only. Secondly. Though it is not for me to give an account of what did pass through Saul's mind beyond what is written, I may be allowed to show what may have passed through that mind. Himself, Saul, surrounded by a light from heaven,called by his own name, "Saul, Saul,"-and the present purpose and occupation of his soul, his purpose, his plan, his present business called in question by the One above, whose voice spake to him,-as being about a business which told of a bitter zeal in Saul's heart against Him• self. 66 Why persecutest thou me?” The connection of this with the mystery will be looked at afterwards. When opposite extremes seem to meet the human mind feels it. One, an unknown One, in heaven, who had aroused Saul's attention by a flood of light from above; knowing him though Saul knew Him not, accosted him and repeated his name; and knowing what was in his heart, what his business, challenged him as to the reason of his bitter zeal against Himself. Challenged him as one man might speak to another. "Was there not here enough to arrest me?" Paul might surely say. And Saul asked Him who He was, for he knew not; and then the awful discovery, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." The head of the Nazarenes, Jesus, the Lord of all glory! yet in all the gentleness possible, arguing and talking with this mad persecutor, this apostle of cutting off of all the innocent Nazarenes. To Saul, at least, it was as the word of the living God. His lot was chosen. 66 Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" was his word:-and to the answer he gave a practical reply, by doing what he was bidden. And the Lord said, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And he went. The Nazarenes, whom as a lion ravening for its prey, he had sought in pride and fierceness, and bloodthirstiness, and in ignorant contempt of the Nazarene, now as a lamb he sought; he needed help from one of them; and had to be debtor to those that journeyed with him, and they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus (ver. 8), and he went. The light was the discoverer to Saul of darkness within and darkness around-that is clear. Thirdly. Nor, if the acorn contains the oak-tree; if the moon that shone in paradise lightens our nights still, if the sun which hid its light at Calvary shines on us, is there any difficulty in seeing how the scene just reviewed suffices for every poor sinner now. First, how did heaven stand forth in contrast to earth, and how did the light of the contrast then shine out! Heaven, the dwelling-place of God, had provided the Son of God, who came seeking fruit as the heir from His Father's vineyard. Heaven had received Him back |