2. The zealot of the Law, all the more a zealot because it can no longer satisfy him, is on his way to persecute the truth for which his soul is longing. There is something terrifying and
1 Maurice Maeterlinck.
ii2 WHY PERSECUTEST THOU ME?
terribly pathetic in the tumult of a soul which draws near the accomplishment of such an infamy, the infamy of a loyalty which is the supreme disloyalty. It was in the exhaustion of such a tumult that the lightning which rent the Syrian sky rent also once and for all the heart of St. Paul, and revealed to him the very face of the Saviour for whom he longed. It was through the thunder of the sudden midday storm that the authentic voice of Jesus reached him at last. How often he had heard it since that day of Stephen's death, only to put it away from him as an impossible delusion. Now through the tumult without and within it strikes quite clear and definite. " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? " That was the very question which had haunted him ever since, in an act of fierce determination, he had sought out the high priests and obtained their warrant and ridden immediately through the Damascus gate. And the whole drama of hesitation repeats itself again in a flash in his soul. " Who art thou, Lord ? " "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest ! " " What wilt thou have me to do?" But at last there is peace, deliverance from the conflict of the past, an end to that stage of the conflict. The soul blinded with excess of light has found its true Master and yields itself henceforth to His direction.
3. Was Saul deceived ? Was he the subject of hallucination ? Was he so exhausted with the fatigues of the journey, which must have occupied five or six days, as to mistake the flaming of a torch, or the noontide splendour of an Oriental sun, for a supernatural revelation ? A modern conclusion of a sceptical philosopher is that he was the subject of an epileptic fit ! The suggestion is scarcely worthy of any serious notice. Those who suffer from this complaint are, for the time, unconscious, and on their recovery cannot recall anything that happened while the seizure lasted. Dazzled into blindness by the overpowering effulgence of the light, Saul of Tarsus continued in a state of misery for three days, but never lost consciousness, and could remember the minutest detail of what happened during those days of spiritual as well as physical darkness. Such a foolish hypothesis as the theory of epilepsy is an amusing specimen of the absurd lengths to which rationalistic speculation will go in its attempt to eliminate the supernatural element from the Bible. It is
ACTS ix. 4 113
impossible to account for this event satisfactorily without ad- mitting it to be a miraculous manifestation.
What's that which, ere I spake, was gone I
So joyful and intense a spark That, whilst o'erhead the wonder shone,
The day, before but dull, grew dark ? I do not know; but this I know,
That, had the splendour lived a year, The truth that I some heavenly show
Did see, could not be now more clear. This know I too: might mortal breath
Express the passion then inspired, Evil would die a natural death,
And nothing transient be desired: And error from the soul would pass,
And leave the senses pure and strong As sunbeams. But the best, alas,
Has neither memory nor tongue.1
4. From the moment when Saul saw Jesus, his life became a transformed one. Such a transformation in itself bears witness to the reality of the heavenly vision, and all the more so because the struggle was not finished in that one stupendous moment. If the transformation had resulted from hallucination we might allow the possibility of the sudden change, but that the effect should be permanent and abiding, worked out with infinite patience in a life's struggle, is incredible. We have only to read the seventh chapter of Eomans to be convinced that St. Paul's conquest which began at this moment was a real and abiding one.
5. There is yet another point. Here we have an illustration of the way in which the best and most can be made of a man. This man has no sooner been appealed to, no sooner has he seen that He whom he thought was an evil impostor is really the Lord of glory, he has no sooner recognized Jesus of Nazareth risen from the dead, and clothed in power and majesty, than he calls Him " Lord " ; and the cry of the newly won life, of the newly subdued heart, is, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " And out from that as from a fountain comes the life of splendid devotion, of brave endurance, of glorious attempt, and even yet more glorious
Coveutry Patmore. ACTS & ROM. — 8
ii4 WHY PERSECUTEST THOU ME?
victory for the Lord Jesus. And is not St. Paul influencing the whole civilized world to-day ?
Ofttimes when the days are bitter, and the pulse of life is low, And the wheels of toil in their dusty course drive heavily and
slow, When the meaning of all is blurred, and the joy of seeking