stand." But, now, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, had shined in his heart:" and straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God: and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.

This truth had been revealed to him at once: as when God had said at the creation, "Let there be light; and there was light." In the ordinary course, the conviction would be more gradual. He would have examined into the life and death, the ministry and doctrines, of Jesus: he would have compared them with the scriptures; with the history of his nation; with Moses and the law; and more especially with the prophecies concerning him who was to come. Thus, under the teaching of the Spirit, he would arrive by gradual steps at the truth, that this is very Christ, and that this who was the Christ, was also the Son of God.

But such a mode of conviction would require time. Still more would it require time, that the truth should take such hold upon his heart as to enlist it in the cause, and devote him henceforward to the gospel.

Here, however, was no such delay. Straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues. And he himself explains it: telling us, that "it pleased God to reveal his Son in him:"2 that "the mystery was made known to him by revelation:" that the 3 Eph. iii. 3.

2 Gal. i. 16.

truths which he declared he " received of the Lord," not by intercourse with his fellow-men.*

This enabled him more fully in his after-life to magnify, as he did, the power of divine grace, which had made him what he was. This led him to declare, with the energy which he was constantly employing, that the gospel comes "not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance;" 5 that Christ is "the power of God, and the wisdom of God."6 Experience enabled him to raise an expectation of this in others, with a force which can be derived from experience alone. Speaking that which he knew, and testifying what he himself had felt, striving according to the divine "working which wrought within him mightily," he confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.

23. And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him : 1

24. But their laying await was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him.

25. Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket.

26. And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple.

1 The many days here spoken of, seem to have been chiefly spent by Saul in Arabia. He says distinctly in writing to the Galatians, (i. 17,) that after the revelation made to him, he "went into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days." These three years, must be taken from the date of his conversion, not of his return to Damascus. Otherwise, as Professor Burton has observed, it is impossible to understand how his presence at Jerusalem should have caused so much apprehension. Had he been, during those many days, i. e. three whole years, preaching at Damascus, it must have been known to the disciples at Jerusalem.-Burton, Lect. iii. ad. fin.

27. But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.

28. And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.

29. And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians: but they went about to slay him.

30. Which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Cæsarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus.

This was the apparent cause of Saul's departure from Jerusalem. But it was only the method by which the will of God was brought to pass. Saul was not intended to remain at Jerusalem, or ordained to preach the gospel to the Jews. We learn elsewhere, (ch. xxii. 17,) that while he was praying in the temple, the Lord appeared in a vision to him, saying, "Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee: and when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. And he said unto me, Depart; for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles."

Saul would have excused the violence of his

countrymen, who were the more indignant against him because he had left their party, and was now promoting the faith which before he destroyed. But the Lord, whose servant he had become, designed him for other duties: to be prepared for which he was now sent forth to his native city, Tarsus.

31. Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.

The churches had rest. The various companies of persons throughout the land who had been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and were united in worshipping God as his disciples: these were left for a while in peace.

If we can suppose that there were in this our country, enemies of the faith of Christ: not only secret enemies, but men who had both activity and power to harass and vex all that professed it: to arrest the preachers or the hearers of the gospel, and to treat them at their will: then we have the description of that state in which the Christians of Judea had been before placed. Such was the "havoc of the church" which Saul himself had made; when entering into every house, and haling men and women, he committed them to prison."

On a sudden, one principal mover in these per