The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 293

tell ue also distinctly, though incidentally, of a time when the writer was as vehe- mently opposed to tho Christian fa.Uh as he afterwards became attached to it. They contain, t:oo, clea~ evidenc~s of that ed_u?ation ~n the Jews' religion, and that impreg- nation with Jewish doctrme and trad1t1on, which wero likely to have had the same influence upon his mind which the same causes had upon the minds of so many of his ablost and most learned fellow-countrymen. They also display those qualitie3 of disinterestedness, courage, and decision, which make it to the hic,hest deQTee improba.blo that he shonlcl have changed his mind lightly or without c"bnviction° or duo cause for doi~g so, Ilut he did change from a_ vehement and fierce persecutor to a preacher of unnvalled zeal a.ad power, and a daily martyr of unsurpassed patience and constancy. But these same Epistles also tell us, still incidentally but also still distinctly, the cause of this change. It was nothing less than the visible appearing and the audible voice of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, of him whom he knew to have, been crucified, but whom he now saw and heard in his effulgent glory, living and potent in i!ieffable majesty. It was that sight, too bright for mortal eyes, and that voice of exquisite tenderness in its complaint, which had in an instant overborne his unbelief and melted his obdurate heart, even as his body was swayed in terror to the ground. Did St. Paul know, or did he not know, the cause of his conversion? Diel he invent a lie, or did he speak the truth, when he wove this history, or allusions to it, into his Epietles to the Galatians, the Corinthians, the Philippians, and Timothy? But even if it were possible to doubt the man whom we know as we know St. Paul, we have his account corroborated and developed by a. contemporary writer of unimpeached and unimpeachable accuracy and truth. He gives us in this chapter his own account of this wonderful conversion, and he reports to us two several accounts of it given by St. Paul himself-when on his defence before the people at Jerusalem, and again wheu on his trial before King Agrippa at Cmsarea. Did St. Luke write a lie when he reported these utterances of his noble and saintly friend? or did he speak the truth which he had such abundant opportunities of accurately knowing? There is no fact in history more certain than St. Paul's conversion, and there is no more unanswerable evidence of the truth of Christ's gospel than this same conversion grounded upon the revelation in the way to Damascus. IJ, WE MAY SEE IN ST. PAUL'S CONVERSION VIVIDLY PORTB.AYED THE LEADING DOCTIUNES OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH. What was it which arrested the persecutor in his furious course, which turned back the whole current of his thoughts, which wrought in him that noble inconsistency, that holy apostasy from his previous convictions, which have placed him at the head of Christian teachers and confessors'? It was the clear knowledge conveyed to him by his own senses of sight and hearin 6 that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was risen, was alive, was glorified. He knew that he had been tried at the bar of Pilate, condemned, crucified, buried. He had thought that sentence a just one. He had thought that that life, closed in ignominy and shame, was closed for ever, and that his own Jews' religion had thereby triumphed and been confirmed. Now he knew that God had reversed that sentence, and had raised Jesus from the dead, and declared him in so doing to be his own eternal Son, both Lord and Christ. His previous convictious were thus refuted by the fact of the life and glory and Godhead of the Lord Jesus. The truth of the mission of Jesus Christ was thus in an instant established by irrefragable proof. Henceforth J c:;us ChriBt was his Lord, his Guide, his Teacher, his Master, his almighty Saviour. Henceforth his own body and soul, his life, and a.11 his powers, his whole capacity of doing and suffering, were Christ's, wholly and only Christ's. Here then we see, as in a glass, what our own religion must be. It must consist in a full assurance of faith that Jesus Christ is risen and lives for ever in the power of his Godhead, and in the consecratiou of ourselves to his service in the power of a personal love, devotion, and attachment -those of a person to e. Person-to last while lifo lasts, and to be perfected in the lifo beyond the grave. Ill, THE CONVERSION OF ST, PAUL GIVES US ALSO A VIVID PORTRAITURE OF THE IIIIINO AND CHAll.AOTER OF Gon, .AS THEY SHINE IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST, This is St. Paul's own view of it: "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 here- after believe on )lim to life everlastiog" (1 Tim, i. 16). We have here a. pattern of th~ £0TL U l90 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLE& LoH, IX, 1-48,