REVOLUTIONARY CHRISTIANITY 39 



but '* The Way/' If we are on the wrong road, we shall 

 never reach our destination ♦ 



The Pharisees wanted a Kingdom of God every bit 

 as much as Christ did. Their literature is full of this 

 desire ♦ But they chose the way of the Sword, and Christ 

 told them that it was the broad way leading to destruc- 

 tion ♦ Forty years afterwards His words were verified ♦ 



In the Acts of the Apostles we read a great deal con- 

 cerning '' The Way/' and those who are *' of the Way/' 

 Thus we are told how Saul of Tarsus went to Damascus, 

 ** that he might bring all who were of the Way bound 

 to Jerusalem/' But, fortunately, before he started on 

 his journey, he himself had seen something of '* The 

 Way/' He had been present at the stoning of Stephen, 

 and had heard him pray for his persecutors, ** Lord, 

 lay not this sin to their charge/' If Stephen had railed 

 upon those who stoned him, it would not have troubled 

 SauL He was quite accustomed to that kind of thing* 

 But this was something quite new to him, and he could 

 not get it out of his mind. Moreover he had seen 

 Stephen's face, *' as it had been the face of an angel," 

 and had heard him exclaim, ** Behold I see the heavens 

 opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of 

 God/' And as Saul rode to Damascus, he too had a 

 vision of the Lord Jesus, Thus through the influence 

 of the dead Stephen, Saul was converted to this new way 

 of life and became Paul, the great Apostle to the Gentiles, 



But Paul soon found that the Way of Love aroused 

 the opposition of vested interests of various kinds. 



First there was Conventional Piety, Some of those 

 in the Synagogue at Ephesus, ** spake evil of the Way," 

 and so strong did their opposition grow, that he was 

 obliged to leave the synagogue, and preach in the school 

 of one Tyranus, And of late we have heard many echoes 

 of that far-off time. The conventions of respectable 

 piety change but little, whilst the Way of Love is always 



