were stunned; and some might mutter in their rage and wonder-"The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved, we bear up the pillars of it." Who could have dreamed that one so deeply committed as Saul; one so high in confidence, and who had lived but to suppress the infant religion; one who had volunteered to go on such an errand, so fully equipped with credentials, ay, and so sharply goaded on by his own zeal and fury-who could ever have dreamed that he, of all men, should waver, far less apostatize? The riddle could not be solved, though many explanatory hypotheses would soon be in circulation, and every solution but the true one received. The frantic commotion at Jerusalem is the counterpart of the joyous amazement at Damascus. Judaism had lost, Christianity had won; the loss was deplored or cursed, but the gain to that age and all ages after it could not be calculated. For it was not simply the sudden stoppage of a bloody and malignant career, nor the mere peace of the saints in Damascus. There lay in that change not only the germ of a mighty power and many a successful sermon, but there also sprang from it toil and travel beyond the narrow limits of Judea, the conception of a gospel offered to men without distinction of blood or nation, and the composition of those letters of solace and warning, instruction and precept, which form so large a portion of the New Testament. Saul became the living repository of Christ's chosen purpose, as a “light to lighten the Gentiles," and he wrought out that ideal of a church which the Lord had sketched to him, and which, rising above what was local and temporary, gladdened Antioch and penetrated Rome, despaired not of Athens

HIS COURAGE.

and shrank not from Corinth; which, in short, has hallowed Europe, and shall stretch itself over the world.

"Lord! thou wilt surely greet

Souls for Thy service meet;

No bars of brass can keep Thine own from Thee.
O! vainly Earth and Hell

Guard their grand captives well

Against the glimpses of Thy radiancy.

Thou streamest on their startled eyes,

And makest them Thine own by some Divine surprise.

"Forth from the leaguer fell

Wherein Thy foemen dwell,

The glorious captains of Thy host Thou takest;
The mighty souls that came

To quench the sacred flame,

The bearers of the Heavenly Fire Thou makest;
And hands that vexed Thy people most
Do wave the greenest palms of all the Martyr Host.

"The light not vainly glowed

On that Damascus road:

O not for nought that Voice Divine was heard,
The foeman was o'erthrown,

The champion made Thine own

When right against Thee in hot haste he spurred:

Then streamed forth the world to win

The mighty burning flame of Love which hate had been."

But Saul's mental temperament was neither blighted nor changed. A brief and single declaration of the historian reveals his nature, and portrays the first appearance of PAUL THE PREACHER-"Straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues-that he is the Son of God." So soon as his own opinions were formed, he began to urge them. He could as yet have no full or adjusted knowledge of the gospel; for he neither received it nor

was taught it "of man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ" in a series of disclosures, made to him in all probability during his subsequent long stay in the deserts of Arabia, where alone and without disturbance he was brought face to face with the Lord, and had laid bare' to his inspection the truth and relations, the connections and evidences of that great scheme, in the "defence and confirmation" of which he spent his life and met his death. But in the meantime he acted up to his lightwhat views he had he dared to express. He longed to disentangle others from the errors which had so long enslaved himself, for his was one of those practical natures in which conviction is identical with action. "Straightway he preached :" no wasting of strength by oscillation of purpose-no pang of shame that he must teach the religion which he had laboured, with stripes, and chains, and blood, to exterminate-no compromise with his feelings, as if he should only hint his doubts, and try to bring the question to a quiet discussion. He would not wear any disguise Straightway he preached." He had come to the truth, and he instantly was in an agony to inform others; for he knew their wants and also their prejudices. The Master's commission pressed upon him, and he must at once make amends for the havoc which he had wrought in the churches. Therefore he entered on the work, heedless of what might be thought of him, of what opprobrious epithets might be heaped upon him, or what ferocious enmity might be excited against him. Name and fame, with all objects of youthful aspiration, he threw aside, nor once cast a longing glance at them.

"What things

A MORAL MIRACLE.

9

were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." And he preached with constitutional intrepidity. He did not quietly ask a few of the more pious and peaceful Jews to his apartments "in the house of Judas" to talk over, without danger, the topics of dispute. He did not suggest such a timorous course, as if alarmed at his change, or doubtful of his tenacity. No. "Straightway he preached in the synagogues." Fearlessly he entered into their religious assemblies, and preached in the places where he had expected to scourge and torture the Christians, making them, as he had uniformly done in Judea, scenes of violence and outrage, of tears and blasphemy. It was a novel spectacle, and his audience could scarcely believe in its reality. It was passing strange, even to disciples. He whose rumoured coming had so terrified them, was now their ablest and boldest advocate. Such a moral miracle can the grace of Christ achieve. The assemblies of the Jews must have been convulsed with agitation-wonder on one countenance, incredulity on another-the eye of one suffused with tears, and the teeth of another gnashing in frenzy; while some tortuous spirits might cherish a forlorn hope that possibly the whole was a deep intrigue—a piece of daring hypocrisy to detect the Christians, and sweep them off in one resistless shock. And yet that earnestness could scarcely be assumed-those calm and commanding tones came from the heart: life and spirit were in those weighty and well-chosen words.

And the speaker did not fence about the subject, suggest some compromise, or deal in vapid generalities; but he openly and distinctly preached "Jesus, that He is the Son

of God." This was the pith and marrow of the controversy; not simply that Messiah was divine, or that the great Deliverer should be superhuman, but that Jesus the babe of Bethlehem "despised and rejected" of the nation, seized and "hanged upon a tree "-was the Son of God. Son of God was, in fact, a name of the Messiah. Nathaniel uses it —“Rabbi, thou art the Son of God." Peter employed it

"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." "Art thou the Son of the Blessed?" asked Caiphas, “and Jesus said, I am." "Whosoever," adds the beloved disciple, "shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God." The Angel of the Covenant, so often referred to in Hebrew narrative and oracle, and who is identifiable with the promised Saviour, was divine-no created Angel, but the Son of God often appearing in man's form, as if delighting to anticipate his future assumption of humanity. "I am Jesus," said the voice which arrested Saul, "the voice from the excellent glory;" and, therefore, he argued that this Jesus who had spoken to his inmost soul, and filled it with a new life and power, was the Son of God. His first sermon only told in other words that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The Son of Mary was the Son of God, the divine and divinely-promised Saviour.

Now the proofs that Messiah should be the Son of God must have been taken principally from the Old Testament. The references in "the Law and the Prophets" must have been the leading steps of the demonstration. Nor are they few nor unimpressive. The names of Messiah are