CHAPTER III. PAUL. Acts ix. 1-22. THIS case of conversion is, in many respects, the most remarkable of all the examples which the Spirit of God has recorded for the instruction of the Church. Saul of Tarsus, the Jewish persecutor, was suddenly converted into Paul, the Christian philanthropist, the zealous apostle of the Gentiles. And whether we consider the masculine talents, the education, the learning, the morals of the man; or the suddenness and magnitude of the change which was wrought upon him; or the rich and varied fruits of personal holiness, and public usefulness which sprung from it, -we shall discover ample reason for regarding him as one of the most signal monuments of the riches and the efficacy of divine grace. It is peculiarly fortunate, too, that, in this instance, our materials are so abundant, that there can be no difficulty in forming a correct conception, both of his state of mind before his conversion, and of his experience afterwards; for not only have we three distinct accounts of his conversion in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts ix. 1-22; xxii. 9; xxvi. 4-9), but several instructive references to it in some of his epistles (as Gal. i. 13; 1 Cor. xv. 9); while every part of his writings teems with illustrations of the magnitude and extent of that great spiritual change, by which the persecutor became a preacher of the faith he had despised. I. In reference to the state of his mind before his conversion, we derive much interesting information from various parts of his writings. It is evident, I think, that, in point of intellectual culture and attainment, as well as natural vigour and energy of mind, he was superior, not only to most of the primitive converts, but to all his fellow-apostles. It appears that, from his infancy, he had shared in the rich advantages of a liberal education; and that, as he advanced in years, he was introduced to lettered and cultivated society, which his capacious mind was qualified at once to appreciate and to improve. In a notice which is incidentally given of his early life, we read that he was born in Tarsus, the chief city of Cilicia, a capitol long distinguished for a University, where Grecian learning was taught with eminent success. Whether he attended that University or not is uncertain; but, from the frequent and appropriate quotations which he makes in several of his speeches and epistles from the poets and philosophers of Greece, it is certain that there, or elsewhere, he had acquired a knowledge of polite literature, and a taste for the pursuits of learning. He could speak to the polished Athenians, on Mars' hill, in their own exquisite tongue. T (Acts xvii. 22.) During his abode at Tarsus, indeed, he had, in part, followed the occupation of his father, as a tent-maker,-for it was the custom of good families among the Jews to bring up their children to a trade, even though they should be destined to the more liberal pursuits of learning; and the advantage of this early training was afterwards exemplified in the experience of this remarkable man. We find that, while he was yet young, he left Tarsus, and repaired to Jerusalem, the chief seat at once of Jewish learning and religion,-probably with the view of pursuing his scriptural studies, and qualifying himself for the sacred office of scribe, or doctor of the law; and he there enjoyed the privilege of studying under Gamaliel, who is described "as a member of the council, and doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people." He had enjoyed, then, the best opportunities which his age afforded, for becoming acquainted both with Greek and Jewish literature;and that he had genius to relish, and industry to profit by these advantages, appears from his wonderful writings and labours in after-life, as well as from his own testimony-"I am verily a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers,"" And I profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals," or contemporaries, "in mine own nation.” In respect, again, to his religious opinions and moral habits, it is clear that he was by conviction, as well as in profession, a Jew-holding the faith of the Old Testament, and observing the worship of the one living and true God, in opposition to all the false, but seductive forms of polytheistic superstition, which prevailed among the other nations, and which had been adorned with all the attractions of poetry, and painting, and sculpture, by the genius of Greece and Rome; and not a Jew only, but a Pharisee-a strict professor of the Jewish faith-maintaining, in opposition to the Sadducees, who were, both in their principles and habits, the libertines of the age, those grand doctrines which they had discarded,-such as the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and the certainty of a judgment to come; and exhibiting, in his outward deportment, a fair, and even a strict example, both of ceremonial observance and of civil virtue. His own account of his early life shows that he was never, either in his own estimation, or in that of his fellow-men, irreligious or immoral; on the contrary, he says, "My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among my own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; who knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee." (Acts xxvi. 4.) "And I profited in the Jews' religion above many mine equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers." (Gal. i. 14.) Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew CHAPTER III. PAUL. Acts ix. 1-22. THIS case of conversion is, in many respects, the most remarkable of all the examples which the Spirit of God has recorded for the instruction of the Church. Saul of Tarsus, the Jewish persecutor, was suddenly converted into Paul, the Christian philanthropist, the zealous apostle of the Gentiles. And whether we consider the masculine talents, the education, the learning, the morals of the man; or the suddenness and magnitude of the change which was wrought upon him; or the rich and varied fruits of personal holiness, and public usefulness which sprung from it, -we shall discover ample reason for regarding him as one of the most signal monuments of the riches and the efficacy of divine grace. It is peculiarly fortunate, too, that, in this instance, our materials are so abundant, that there can be no difficulty in forming a correct conception, both of his state of mind before his conversion, and of his experience afterwards; for not only have we three distinct accounts of his conversion |