tbl\! lif~ or death is. the alte!'D.a~ive issue of attending upon 11uoh prescription or n11g- lecting 1t. And this 1s a pr1nc1ple observed in the marvels of the conversion of &ul. That which may be viewed as proof of intervention superhuman does its short, sharp work, to be followed by the immediate resumption of methods which human wisdom and human experienoe would dictate. The experience of Saul here narrated may be rer:ardrd as it was- 1. THE COl\"SEQUENOE OF DEEP IDn."TAL, SPIRITUAL IMPRESSION. No doubt the exceed- ing brightness of the "light that shined about him from heaven" may be credited with a natural power to infer the blinding of his eyes. But the same light "fell round about them that journeyed with" Saul, and they saw that light (see the accounts in eh. x~ii., xx~.), and yet it had no blinding effe~t upon them-a~ all events no effect of the kmd lastmg three days. In fact, for Saul 1t was but the s1gn,1l of the light that flashed upon the inner eye that belonged to him. But it is of Goel. a.id it is not below the Spirit, of God to assert and to prove the completest m:i.stery ovt1r man-body, soul, and spirit, And the continued loss of sight and the continuous fast are justly regarded as the result of the deep mentAl, spiritual impression now made on Saul. That impres~ sion was of the nature of : 1. The shock of inordinate surprise. Not an idea, not a fear, not the vaguest surmise had come near the strong horseman of such an ar,esting check. 2. The shock of overmatched force. The weak and tender and gentle will yield and bend. It is a matter of breaking to others, and if the heart break not, who can imagine the strain? That heart will be rocked to its foundation. 8. The shock of a flood of mental conviction, and so far forth illumination, breaking in upon an estranged nature and terrifying by the dark shadows it casts proportioned to its own lustre. 4. The shock of the rapid rising of the tides of penitential grief, and grief that energetically stirs up repentance. 6. The shock of compunction for ingratitude and all the past hostility of a hating heart when mercy began to dawn and love began to be born. 6. The shock of one mere glimpse through the merest chink of the sepulchral soul into the outer and upper and most inspiring light. 7. The shock of a real, change. What busy but amazed, aching, anguished tumult within that soul I And who shall stay bodily sense and bodily appetite from resigning and retreating from that scene and confessing them- 11elves merely the subordinate and temporary? Il. THE GIU.CIOUB PROVISION OF DIVINE THOUGHT FOB YET DEEPER ntPBESBION AND FOB LilTING RESULT. Very strong impressions, if made very rapidly, may very rapidly pass away. Explain it as we may or leave it unexplained, the fact is too well ascer- tained. How very vivid sometimes the dream that visits us I how exceedingly difficult to throw it o:lf for the first minutes of waking I but after those few first minutes are past, no mist climbed the mountain-side, nor morning cloud the heaven, quicker to vanish than that dream and its impression vanish. And so it is evident that every- thing ii! not necessarily gained or surely gained when vivid effects, ay, effects howso- ever vivid, are gained. 1. Vivid impression needs the staying effect of reflection. 2, Vivid impressions which are also of the most startling personal character need the con- ciliating influences of some calm familiarity with them. They must be faced, must be looked at so that they may be recognized again, must be granted the opportunity of revealing their lo1Jely aspects as well as their bright or powerful:aspects. 3. The vivid impressions that belong to a heart touched by the Spirit of God particularly demand to dwell a while with that Spirit, and dwell as though quite alone with him, (1) that he may be honoured; (2) that he may work his work amid the absorbed and the undivided, undistracted attention of that human heart. In what ineffable communion with the Father supreme, with the Saviour and Mediator Jesus, and with eternal realities, will the Spirit then engage the yieldi.cg heart I It is not that the Spirit cannot work apace, but, as in everything else, it is that man.cannot-he is slow, slow indeed, as compared with that Spirit's swift power. 4. Strong convictions do none the less need the confirming effect of deliberate resolution, of some contributing and very conscious effort on our own side. 6. The most right resolutions need that we summon our whole self, after care- fully "countiug the oost," to prove moral courage and spiritual !igour by taking some practical step. It is Jesus himself who lays the stress on" countmg the cost," for those who would be his followers, do his work," enter the kingdom of God." And to changed objects of life, methods of/ife, and society in life, such as those to which Saul-ay, to which any true convert-is called, needs it not the entrance by unmistakable, confessed OIL IX, 1--48.J THE ACTS OF TIIE APOSTLES. 311
Relf-renunciation? Of the honesty and thoroughness of such· self-renunciation it is at all ovents no feeble eymbol when sense and appetite resign their grip, genernlly so t.yrannical. And now in no parable, but in most literal truth, Saul is befriended by Divine forethought ancl care, The strong man le taken out of his own keeping. Wher. ho was his old self; he had indeed "girded himself and walked whither he would;" but now ho is too glad to " stretch forth hie band, and that another should gird him " and load him whither he had never, never thought of going. It was the completing so far of God's great love to him, and Jesus' great compassion toward him. He is delivered, fairly delivered from himself for three days. He sees not, eats not, drinks not. Neither does he go out to this present world by the beautiful gate of the eye, nor does the support of the outer world come so much as to bis body. He is sequestered with the Spirit who reveals to him the errors of the past and something of the destiny of the future.' who -makes him to know Jesns and himself-the fulness and grace of the one, the poverty and insufficiency of the other. The plain facts for Saul again and again speak with lessons roost needed for us and for all time. They suggest to us what meditation we need, what devotion, what divorce from eight and from appetite which may so seduce the soul, what grateful and close communion with God, obedience to the opirit, and trust in the Saviour, and how the safest augury for the future is that we do break with the past. Wonderful and fascinating to imagination Saul's " retreat n of three days. To the things that then transpired, however, we need not be and ought not to be entire strangers. We may learn what Saul learned if we will go where be learned them, and lllll.Y ere long say for ourselves-