90 HOE,^ PACJLI]:i.E. 



the churclij entering into every house, and haJing men and 

 women, committed them to prison." Acts 8:3. 



This is the history of St. Paul, as deUvered in the Acts ; 

 in the recital of his own history in the epistle, "Ye have 

 heard," says he, " of my conversation in time past in the 

 Tews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the 

 .jhurch of God." Chap. 1 : 13. 



3. St. Paul was miraculously converted on his way to 

 Damascus. "And as he journeyed, he came near Damas- 

 cus : and suddenly there shined round about him a light 

 from heaven ; and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice 

 saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? 

 And he said. Who art thou, Lord ? And the Lord said, I 

 am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to 

 kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished, 

 said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Acts 9 : 3-6. 

 With these compare the epistle, chap. 1 : 15-17 : "When 

 it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb 

 and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I 

 might preach him among the heathen ; immediately I con- 

 ferred not with flesh and blood : neither went I up to Jeru- 

 salem to them that were apostles before me : but I went 

 into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus." 



In this quotation from the epistle, I desire it to be re- 

 marked how incidentally it appears that the affair passed at 

 Damascus. In what may be called the direct part of the 

 account, no mention is made of the place of his conversion 

 at all ; a casual expression at the end, and an expression 

 brought in for a different purpose, alone fixes it to have 

 been at Damascus : " I returned again unto Damascus." 

 Nothing can be more like simplicity and undesignedness 

 than this is. It also draws the agreement between the two 

 quotations somewhat closer, to observe, that they both state 

 St. Paul to have preached the gospel immediately upon his 

 call: "And straightway he preached Christ in tho syna- 

 gogues, that he is the Son of God." Acts 9 : 20. 'When 



