PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
IV  "THY MARTYR STEPHEN"
F. B. Meyer

1. THE MOVEMENT OF WHICH STEPHEN WAS THE PRODUCT AND REPRESENTATIVE MAY FOR A MOMENT CLAIM OUR ATTENTION.

It casts a suggestive sidelight on the career of "the young man Saul."

Three streams of thought were meeting in tumultuous eddies in Jerusalem.

There were the Jews of the Pharisee party, represented by Gamaliel, Saul of Tarsus, and other notable men. They were characterized by an intense religiousness, which circled around their ancestry, their initial rite, their law, their temple. Were they not Abraham's children? Had not God entered into special covenant relations with them, of which circumcision was the outward sign and seal? Were they not zealous in their observance of the law, which had been uttered amid the thunder-peals of Sinai, not for themselves alone, but for the world? Had not their rabbis added to it an immense number of minute and careful regulations, to which they yielded scrupulous and anxious obedience? And as for the Temple, the whole of their national life was anchored to the spot where it stood. There was the only altar, priesthood, shrine, of which their religion admitted. Though the Temple might be a den of thieves, and Jerusalem full of uncleanness, they felt that no harm could befall them, no fiery storm overwhelm. Like their forefathers in Jeremiah's days, they trusted in lying words, saying, "The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, are these"; but had no thought of amending their ways and their doings. Narrow. casuistical, bigoted, intensely fanatical; priding themselves on their national privilege as the chosen people, but resentful against the appeals of the greatest of their prophets; counting on the efficacy of their system, but careless of personal character -- such was the orthodox and conservative Jewish party of the time.

Next came the Hebrew Christian Church, led and represented by the Apostles. To culture and eloquence they laid no claim. Of founding a new religious organization they had no idea. That they should ever live to see Judaism superseded by the teaching they were giving, or Christianity existing apart from the system in which they had been nurtured, was a thought which, in the furthest flights of their imagination, never occurred to them. Their Master had rigorously observed the Jewish rights and feasts; and they followed in his steps, and impressed a similar course of action on their adherents. The church lingered still in the portals of the synagogue. The disciples observed the hours of prayer, were found in devout attendance at the Temple's services, had their children circumcised, and would not have dreamed of being released from the regulations that bound the ordinary Jews as with iron chains. And it seems certain that, if nothing had happened of the nature of Stephen's apology and protests, the church would have become another Jewish sect, distinguished by the piety and purity of its adherents, and by their strange belief in the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth, who had been crucified under Pontius Pilate.

Lastly, there were the converts from among the Hellenist Jews. In Acts 6:1, R.V., these are distinctly referred to; and in Acts 6:9 the various synagogues in which they were wont to meet are enumerated -- -of these Stephen was the holy and eloquent exponent.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
IV  "THY MARTYR STEPHEN"
F. B. Meyer

The origin of the Hellenist or Grecian Jews must be traced back to the captivity, which God over-ruled to promote the dissemination of Jewish conceptions throughout the world. It was but a small contingent that returned to Jerusalem with Nehemiah and Ezra; the vast majority elected to remain in the land of their adoption for purposes of trade. They slowly spread thence throughout Asia Minor to the cities of its seaboard and the highland districts of its interior, planting everywhere the synagogue, with its protest on behalf of the unity and the spirituality of God. Egypt, and especially Alexandria; Greece, with her busy commercial seaports; Rome, with her imperial cosmopolitan influence -- became familiar with the peculiar physiognomy and customs of this wonderful people, who always contrived to secure for themselves a large share of the wealth of any country in which they had settled. But their free contact with the populace of many lands wrought a remarkable change on them.

Whilst the Jews of Jerusalem and Judaea shrank from the defiling touch of heathenism, and built higher the wall of separation, growing continually prouder, more bitter, more narrow, the Jews that were scattered through the world became more liberal and cosmopolitan. They dropped their Hebrew mother-tongue for Greek; they read the Septuagint version of the Scriptures; their children were influenced by Greek culture and philosophy; they became able to appreciate the purposes of God moving through the channels of universal history; they learnt that though their fathers had received the holy oracles for mankind, yet God had nowhere left Himself without witness. Compelled, as they were, to relinquish the Temple with its holy rites, except on rare and great occasions, when they travelled from the ends of the earth to be present at some great festival, they magnified in its place the synagogue, with its worship, its reading of the law, its words of exhortation; and they welcomed to its precincts all who cared to avail themselves of its privileges, and to set their faces towards the God of Abraham. Many of these open-minded Hellenist Jews, when they had passed the meridian of their days in successful trade, came back and settled in Jerusalem. The different countries from which they hailed were represented by special synagogues: one of the Libertines who had been freed from slavery, one of the Cyrenians, one of the Alexandrians, one of them of Cilicia and of Asia. The mention of the latter is specially interesting when we recall that the chief city of Cilicia was Tarsus.

After some years of absence, Paul returned to settle at Jerusalem. It is possible that its Jewish leaders, having been impressed by his remarkable talents and enthusiastic devotion to Judaism, had summoned him to take part in, or lead, that opposition to Christianity, to which events were daily more irrevocably committing them. It is almost certain, also, that to facilitate his operations he was at this time nominated to a seat in the Sanhedrin, which enabled him to give his vote against the followers of Jesus (Acts 26:10).

His first impressions about the followers of "the Way," as the early disciples were termed, were wholly unfavourable. It seemed to him sheer madness to suppose that the crucified Nazarene could be the long-looked-for Messiah, or that He had risen from the dead. He, therefore, threw himself into the breach, and took the lead in disputing with Stephen, who had just been raised to office in the nascent church; and, not content with the conservative and timid attitude which the Apostles had preserved for some five years, was now leading an aggressive and forward policy.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
IV  "THY MARTYR STEPHEN"
F. B. Meyer

2. THE BURDEN OF STEPHEN'S TESTIMONY.

Which he gave with such wisdom and grace in the synagogues of Jerusalem, and especially in the Cilician, may be gathered from his apology, which. while touching chords that vibrated most deeply in the hearts of his hearers, and appearing merely to rehearse the great story of the past, was intended as his own vindication and defence. It is a marvellous address, the whole meaning of which can only be realized when his position and circumstances are borne in mind. It was the first attempt to read the story of God's dealings with Israel in the light of Christ; the earliest commentary on the Old Testament by the New; the fragmentary draft of the Epistle to the Hebrews; the suggestion to at least one of his hearers of a deeper way of studying the lessons of Mosaism. The mystery which had been hidden from ages and generations, and which was probably still hidden even from the Apostles, was made known to this Christian Hellenist Jew. His eyes were the first that were opened to see that the old covenant was becoming old, and was nigh to vanishing away, because on the point of being superseded by that better hope, through which all men might draw nigh to God.

Can we not imagine those eager disputings in the Cicilian synagogue between these two ardent and vehement spirits, close akin at heart, as the future would show, though now apparently so far divided. Each thoroughly versed in Scripture, each agile in argument and strong of soul, each devoted to the holy traditions of the past; but the one blinded by an impenetrable vail, whilst to the other heaven was open, and the Son of Man was revealed standing at the right hand of God.

Like most who speak God's truth for the first time, Stephen was greatly misunderstood. We gather this from the charges made against him by the false witnesses, whom the Sanhedrin suborned. They accused him of uttering blasphemous words against Moses, of speaking against the Temple and the law, of declaring that Jesus of Nazareth would destroy the Temple, and change customs delivered by Moses. And as we attentively follow his argument, we can see how it was that these impressions had been caused.

Saul would expatiate on the glories of the Temple, standing on the site where for centuries Jehovah had been worshipped. But Stephen would insist that any holy soul might worship God in the temple of his own soul; that there was no temple in the old time when God spake to Abraham and the patriarchs; that David was discouraged from building one; and that at the time of its dedication Solomon expressly acknowledged that God did not dwell in temples made with hands.

Saul would insist on the necessity of the rite of circumcision. But Stephen would argue that it could not be all-important, since God made promises to Abraham long before that rite was instituted.

Saul would show the unlikelihood o! Jesus being God's Deliverer, because He was unrecognized by the leaders and shepherds of Israel. Stephen would rejoin that there was nothing extraordinary in this, since Joseph had been sold for jealousy, and Moses rejected on three distinct occasions, "Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute?"

Saul said that all the prophets pointed to the glorious advent o! the Messiah. Stephen reviewed Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, and showed that it behoved the Christ to suffer.

Saul affirmed that nothing could supersede Moses. Stephen quoted Moses himself as asserting that the Lord God would raise up a greater prophet than himself.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
IV  "THY MARTYR STEPHEN"
F. B. Meyer

All this Stephen affirmed with the greatest reverence and awe. He spoke of the God of Glory; of the great ones of the past as "our fathers"; of the angel that spake at Sinai; and the living oracles of Scripture. And yet it is undeniable that he saw with undimmed vision that Jesus of Nazareth must change the customs which Moses delivered, and lead his church into more spiritual aspects of truth.

How little he weened that he was dropping seed-germs into the heart of his chief opponent that were to bear harvests to one hundred-fold -- nay, to many millions-fold, through the centuries, and in the broad harvest-field of the world! Thus a plant may yield one white flower, but the seeds it drops may live and bloom again in uncounted springs.

But as the battle rose and fell within the walls of that Cilician synagogue, it was an amazing conflict. Here ancient authority, there individual responsibility. Here the bondage of the letter, there the freedom of the spirit. Here the priest and ecclesiastic, there the Spirit-taught and led of God. Here bigotry and pride, there humility and insight. Here the shackles of the prison of the soul, there the open heaven. In miniature it was the battle of all the ages, the one eternal conflict between form and spirit, between a false religiousness and the religion of the soul, which stands unveiled before God.


3. HIS MARTYRDOM.

We know little of Stephen's life. It was more than probable, as we have already said, that he knew Jesus in his earthly life, for he instantly recognized Him in the heavenly vision. Perhaps he had followed Him during the latter part of his ministry; he could at least describe Him as the Righteous or Just One, as though he had had ample opportunity of appraising his blameless worth. Surely he must have seen Him die; for the traits of his dying beauty moulded his own last hours. How meekly to bear his cross; to plead for his murderers with a divine charity; to breathe his departing spirit into unseen hands; to find in death the gate of life, and amid the horror of a public execution the secret of calm and peace -- all these were rays of light caught from the Cross where his Master had poured out his soul unto death.

This, too, powerfully affected Paul. That light on the martyr's face; that evident glimpse into the unseen Holy; those words; that patience and forgiveness; that peace which enwrapt his mangled body, crushed and bleeding, as he fell asleep -- he could never forget them. Long years after, when a similar scene of hate was environing himself, he reverted to Christ's martyr, Stephen, and counted it a high honour meekly to follow in his steps. Not only did he mould his own great speeches on the model of that never-to-be-forgotten address; not only did those conceptions of the spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom affect his whole after-teaching and ministry, but the very light that radiated from that strong, sweet, noble character seemed to have been absorbed by his spirit, to be radiated forth again in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in strifes, in tumults, in pureness, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in kindness, in the Holy Ghost, in love unfeigned.

It is thus that the martyr church has ever overcome by the word of her testimony, because the saints have loved not their lives even unto death. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The destruction of the flower is the scattering of its pollen. The hammer is broken on its anvil. The power of the persecutor is overcome by the patience of his victims. Saul, at whose feet witnesses lay down their clothes, is catching up and assuming the mantle of the departing prophet and saint.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
V  A LIGHT FROM HEAVEN
F. B. Meyer

(Acts 26:13)

"As to Thy last Apostle's heart
Thy lightning glance did then impart
Zeal's never-dying fire."
KEBLE

IF THE importance of events can be estimated by the amount of space given in Scripture to their narration, the arrest placed by the risen Lord upon the career of Saul of Tarsus must take the second place in the story of the New Testament. It is described three times, with great minuteness of detail -- first by Luke, and twice by himself -- and the narration occupies more space than the story of any other event except the crucifixion of our Lord.

This must be accounted for, partly because of the important part played by the Apostle in the moulding of the early church, and partly because his conversion was due to the personal agency of the risen Lord, who appeared as literally as during any of the appearances of the Forty Days. This was no mere vision, like that which John had when he was in the Spirit, no mere transient impression on the sensitive plate of the imagination, no evanescent, dream-like fancy; but a manifestation of the risen Lord, like that which won the faith of Thomas.

It was one of the deepest convictions of the Apostle in all his after life that he had veritably and certainly seen the Lord; and was therefore as really empowered to be a witness of his resurrection as any who had companied with Him, beginning from the baptism of John until the day that He was received up. "Am I not an Apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?" he asks (1 Corinthians 9:1, R.V.). And after enumerating the Lord's appearances after his resurrection, he adds, placing that scene on the road to Damascus on a level with the rest, "Last of all, as unto one born out of due time, He appeared to me also" (1 Corinthians 15:8, R.V.). Ananias used the same phrase when, entering the darkened chamber in which the Apostle lay like an eagle with broken wing, he said, "The Lord, even Jesus, who appeared unto thee in the way which thou earnest, hath sent me."

Six days before, Saul had left Jerusalem with a small retinue furnished as his escort by the high priest. The journey was long and lonely, giving time for reflection, of which he had known but little during the crowding events of the previous months. He had been too closely occupied by those domiciliary visits, those constant trials, those scourgings, tortures, and martyrdoms; and in the incessant occupation he had been drifting with the rush of events, without taking his bearings or realizing their precise direction.

It was high noon. Unlike most travellers, he forbore to spend even an hour in the retirement of his tent for shelter from the downward rays of the sun, piercing like swords, whilst all the air was breathless with the heat. He was too weary of his own musings, too eager to be at his work. Suddenly the little cavalcade left the stony wastes over which the track had lain, and began to pass beneath "the flickering shadows of ancient olives," whilst Damascus suddenly came into view, amid a soft haze of verdure: its gardens, orchards, and groves making an emerald setting for its terraced roofs and white glistening cupolas.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
V  A LIGHT FROM HEAVEN
F. B. Meyer

The goal of the long journey was well in sight. Within an hour or two he would be within the gates and traversing the street called Straight, to deliver his commission to the authorities and to ascertain the best point for commencing proceedings. But suddenly a great light -- above the brightness of the Syrian noontide sun -- shone around him; and a voice, amid the blaze, unintelligible and inarticulate to his companions, though clear enough to himself, was heard, speaking in the familiar Aramaic, and calling him by name (Acts 26:14).

There can be no doubt, in the light of the passages we have noticed, as to the origin of that light -- it came straight from the face of the glorified Saviour. With some such light as this it had become illumined on the Mount of Transfiguration, when his face did shine as the sun, and his garments grew white as the light, and all the snows around reflected the golden sheen. Something of the same beauty and splendour was described by John in after years, when he tells of the vision given him in Patmos; but even this must have fallen far behind the Master's actual appearance on the way to Damascus. In the one case his countenance was as when the sun shineth in his strength; in the other its glory was above the brightness of the sun.

In the light of that moment the Apostle saw many things. It was like a sudden flash-light flung over an abyss, revealing secret things which had been entirely hidden, or but dimly understood.

In the glory of that light he became convinced of the truth of Christianity. His objection to Christianity was not that Jesus of Nazareth had been crucified. Had this been all, the young Pharisee would have respected Him. His blameless life; his teaching of the spirituality and unity of the Divine Nature; his belief in the resurrection of the dead; his fearless exposure of what was false and vicious, would even have attracted his admiration. But it was intolerable that He should pose as the Messiah, or that his followers should charge the rulers with the murder of the long-expected King.

There was only one thing that could convince him. He must see this Jesus of Nazareth, whom he knew to have been crucified, living on the other side of death; he must be able to recognize and establish his identity; he must hear Him speak. Such evidence given to himself would be conclusive; but nothing less would avail. If from heaven the Man of Nazareth and the Cross were to speak to him, radiant with light, exerting Divine power -- his objections would be scattered, and with another of his followers he would be compelled to cry, "My Lord and my God!"

But this very revelation was made to him. It could not be a dream, a vision, an hallucination. He was too sane to base the entire change of his career upon anything so flimsy; and in his writings he always distinguishes between these and that appearance of the Lord on the road to Damascus. No, as Barnabas said afterwards, by way of explanation to the Apostles, "he saw the Lord in the way, and the Lord spoke to him." He felt instantly that life must have henceforward a new meaning and purpose, and he must live to establish the faith of which he had made such determined havoc.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
V  A LIGHT FROM HEAVEN
F. B. Meyer

In the glory of that light he beheld the supreme revelation of God. Nature had told something of God. His glory had shone from rolling worlds, and from the outspread expanse of oceans and seas; had covered morning skies with daffodil, and evening clouds with crimson and gold; had goldened in the harvest fields and kindled around bush and brake, flower and bracken. From the first, God had not left Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling men's hearts with food and gladness. The heavens had told his glory, and the firmament shown his handiwork. Day unto day had uttered speech of Him, though there was neither speech nor language. Night unto night had shown knowledge, though their voice could not be heard. Thus through the things that had been made, the invisible things of God had been revealed, even his everlasting power and divinity. But this light was above the brightness of the sun, and made all Nature's wonders pale, as stars at dawn.

There had been a further revelation to Israel. The light that shone on the face of Moses was emblematic of the fuller disclosures of Himself which God gave to his chosen people. So excellent was that light that the children of Israel could not look stedfastly upon Moses for the glory of his face, and he was finally compelled to cover it with a vail. But that vail also had become emblematic of the blindness of Israel to the greatness of the revelation made to them.

But the glory of God on the face of Jesus was above the brightness of any previous dispensation. That was of the letter, this of the spirit; that was the ministration of death, this of life; that was temporary and passed away, this was the final and permanent outshining of the love of God. There is no conceivable method of Divine manifestation that can excel the light which shines from the face of Jesus. They were human features that looked down on the persecutor through the open doorway of heaven; but they were aglow with the light of that Shekinah which passed between the pieces of Abraham's sacrifices, shone in the burning bush, lighted the march of Israel through the Red Sea, and at the dedication of Solomon's Temple drove the priests before its waves of billowy glory from the holy place into the outer court. He beheld the glory of God in the face of Jesus whom he had persecuted.

Would you know God? You must study Him in Jesus. So utterly did the Son of Man renounce his own words, and works, and will, that we know comparatively little of Him. All was from the Father, and to the Father. The words He spake were the Father's; the works He wrought the Father's; the reconciliation perfected for erring man, achieved through Him by the Father, who was "in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." We need nothing beyond; there is nothing beyond. In heaven itself we shall still behold the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus, our eyes getting stronger to bear it, our insight being always deeper and more perfect. That light shone before the first ray of sunlight gleamed over the abyss; and it will shine when sun, moon, and stars are dark and cold.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
V  A LIGHT FROM HEAVEN
F. B. Meyer

IN THE REVELATION OF THAT LIGHT SAUL OF TARSUS SAW THE REAL NATURE OF THE WAR WHICH HE HAD BEEN WAGING AGAINST THE RELIGION OF JESUS.

The earliest name of the new sect, as we have seen, was the Way. In after years the Apostle was proud to adopt and use it: "I confess unto thee, that after the Way, which they call a sect, so serve I the God of our fathers." It was a pathetic and significant title; these simple souls had found a new and living way to the knowledge and worship of God, consecrated through the rent flesh of Him whom their chief priests and rulers had delivered up to be condemned to death.

The young man Saul was exceedingly mad against the pilgrims of the Way. He made havoc of them, and the word is that which would be used of wild boars uprooting tender vines. He devastated them with the fury of an invading army. Not content with attacks on their public meetings, he paid visits to their homes, dragging forth the patient, holy women as well as the uncomplaining men, scourging them, thrusting them in prison, putting them to death, and compelling them to blaspheme the holy name by which they were called. He breathed out threatening and slaughter, as a cruel monster might snort fire. He was so mad against them, that when the church at Jerusalem lay desolate, and its garden was torn and trampled into a desert, he pursued the same methods in distant cities, and on the present memorable occasion had received letters to bring those of the Way that were there in bonds unto Jerusalem to be punished.

Great prospects began then to unfold before the persecutor, and though his tender nature must have revolted from his sanguinary and ruthless efforts, though the sight of suffering inflicted at his instigation must have been very abhorrent, he was incited to pursue the path he had entered by the enthusiastic encomiums and plaudits of his co-religionists.

There was, however, a deeper motive at work. "I verily thought I ought." This work of extermination seemed to him part of his religious duty. He owed it to God to stamp out the followers of Jesus, and the more revolting it was to his nature, the more meritorious it was in the sight of heaven. Might not these efforts condone for a coming short in respect to the demands of God's law, which now and again forced itself home on his inner consciousness? Might not his victory over the reluctance of his heart be expiatory and atone for many failures? But, like the Roman soldiers who crucified the Lord, he knew not what he did. "I was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; howbeit I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief."

As, however, that light fell upon his path, he suddenly awoke to discover that, instead of serving God, he was in collision with Him, and was actually uprooting and ravaging that for which the Son of his love had expended tears and blood. In persecuting the sect of the Nazarenes he was persecuting the Son of God. By every blow he struck at the infant church, he was lacerating those hands and piercing that side. By every sigh and groan extorted from the members of the Body he had elicited from the Head in heaven the remonstrance, "Saul! Saul! why persecutest thou Me'?" It was a terrible and overwhelming discovery. The earth seemed to yawn before him. Somehow his religion had brought him into collision with God in the person of those who were dear to Him, and evidently, instead of their being wrong and he right, they were right, and he wrong; instead of his fanatical zeal being pleasing to God it was grievous to Him, and heaping up wrath against a day of wrath. Ah! it is an awful discovery when a great light from heaven shows a man that what he has regarded his solemn duty has been one long sin against the dearest purposes of God.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
V  A LIGHT FROM HEAVEN
F. B. Meyer

THAT LIGHT ALSO REVEALED THE INADEQUACY OF HIS RELIGIOUS LIFE.

He had lived out all that he thought to be right. There was no prescription of the elders to which he had not conformed. So far as he knew what religion prescribed, he was blameless. Yea, had he not gone beyond its prescriptions in the zeal with which he had harried the church? But of late he had been compelled to confess to a dull sense of uneasiness and dissatisfaction. He studiously fought against it by immersing himself more sedulously than ever in the work of persecution; yet there it was, and sometimes the evil thing (as he thought it) cast a petrifying glance upon his utmost efforts.

Two causes further instigated this uneasiness. First, he felt that his religion did not satisfy him; it gave him no such tender views of the love of God as had impressed Moses or Daniel, and it seemed ineffective to curb the imperious demands of sin. Often the good he would he did not, whilst the evil he hated he did.

Often he felt himself a captive, sold under sin. Often he cried aloud that he was a wretched man bound to an intolerable yoke, which chafed him to the quick. And there seemed no deliverance. Always those cases of minute casuistry, always the same exactions of outward obedience, always the same weary sense of failure as the attempt to spend one day of perfect obedience was reviewed from the evening hour. Was there nothing better?

Then it seemed as though these humble disciples of Jesus of Nazareth had something better. The meekness with which they bore their sufferings was far removed from obstinacy; the purity of their home-life vindicated their professions; the light that shone upon their dying faces; the prayers for their persecutors, which they offered with their dying breath, evidenced the possession of a secret of which he knew that he was destitute. Could that religion be right which threw him into antagonism with such lovely traits and characteristics? Besides, he had often heard them speaking of their Teacher, his life of beneficence, his pure and lofty teachings, his maxims for the regulation of the inner life, his directions for the behaviour of his followers -- and when they did so they touched chords which responded deep down in his soul. It seemed to him sometimes as though this Nazarene had discovered the Pearl of great price, and held the secret of a Blessed Life. Yet how could He be the Messiah who had come to such an end! And how absurd it was to say that He had risen, when the Roman sentries had solemnly averred that his body had been stolen by his disciples, whilst they slept.

But all these questionings about his religious life were brought to a head and confirmed when suddenly he beheld Jesus of Nazareth enthroned on the right hand of power, and shining with a light above the brightness of the sun. What could he say of a righteousness which had led him to reject and persecute the Son of God? Of what value was it? Surely that which had led him to reject and persecute the Son of God Himself in the persons of his adherents must have been a deadly and pernicious delusion. He had thought himself blameless; but in the beam of that light he discovered that he was of all sinners the chief, that he was not worthy to be called a son, and might be thankful if he were numbered among the hired servants.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
V  A LIGHT FROM HEAVEN
F. B. Meyer

NOW, TOO, HE DISCOVERED THE SOURCE OF HIS UNEASINESS OF HEART AND CONSCIENCE.

Hitherto he may have attributed it to a morbid and melancholic element in his constitution, to the reaction of his mind from the sight of suffering, to a weakness of which he ought to rid himself as speedily as possible. He now saw that these strivings were the prickings of the great Husbandman's goad, by which He had long been attempting to bring him into that attitude, and lead him to undertake that life-work which had been prepared for him from the foundation of the world.

When the Master said, "It is hard for thee to kick against the goad," his speech betrayed Him. It was said of Him during his earthly ministry that without a parable He did not speak to his people. Now from heaven his lips took up the wonted strain. He likened Himself to one who had purchased a young heifer at a great price. He has brought it into the field to drag the plough in a certain direction; but it resists and seeks another, compelling its owner to use the sharply-pointed goad, pressing it against its flanks till it obeys his will. Saul suddenly awoke to find that he had been purchased by the Lord, who had been seeking for a long time to make him take the predestined track, and that all the bitter remorse of conscience had been intended for this sole purpose. It was a new conception of the religious life. Henceforth he was not to do his own prompting, but God's; not to be clothed in his own righteousness, but in God's; not to cut up and destroy, but to construct; not to oppose the Nazarene, but to take his yoke, to bear his burden, to do his will.


THAT LIGHT ALSO REVEALED TO HIM THE COURSE OF HIS FUTURE LIFE.

Henceforth he was to be a minister and a witness of those things which he had seen, and of those in which Christ would still appear to him. All that was required of him was to live in unbroken accord with the risen Saviour, beholding his beauty, inquiring in his temple, receiving his messages for transmission to others.

It was enough. He meekly asked what he must do; what the new and rightful Master of his life would have him do. And in answer, he was told to take the next step, which lay just before him, and suffer himself to be led unto the city. He little weened how great things he would have to suffer (Acts 9:16). These were a secret which Christ whispered in the ear of his friend, Ananias. It would be enough for the new convert to learn it afterwards. After all, men do as much by suffering as by active toil; and the world owes as much to the anguish of its martyrs as to the words and deeds of its apologists and workers. And then there arose before him in a flash on the high road, and in fuller development during the three days' retirement in the house of Judas, the Lord's ideal of his life-that he should be sent to Jew and Gentile; that by his simple witness he would be used to open blind eyes; that men might turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, so as to receive remission of sin and inheritance among the sanctified. That conception moulded his life, lingered always in his memory, and formed the basis of one of his noblest outbursts (Colossians 1).

To know the Divine will, to see the righteous One, to hear a voice from his mouth, to be his witness and chosen vessel, to bear his name before Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, such was henceforth the prize of the mark of his high calling towards which he began to press (Acts 9:15; Acts 22:14). He felt that he had been apprehended; he realized something of the purpose for which he had been apprehended; and with patient faith he resolved, so far as in him lay, to apprehend it.

How could he be other than obedient to the heavenly vision that summoned him to a life of self-sacrificing toil? As a token of his meek submission, he allowed them to lead him by the hand into the city, which he had expected to enter as an inquisitor; and bent low to receive instruction from one of those simple-hearted believers, whom he had expected to drag captive to Jerusalem. Such are the triumphs of the grace of God, and in his case it was shown to be exceedingly abundant.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VI  THE INNER REVELATION OF CHRIST
F. B. Meyer

(Galatians 1:15-17)

"The proudest heart that ever beat,
Hath been subdued in me;
The wildest will that ever rose --
To scorn thy cause, or aid thy foes --
Is quelled, my God, by Thee!

Thy will, and not my will, be done:
Henceforth I'd be for ever thine;
Confessing Thee, the living Word,
My Saviour Christ, my God, my Lord,
Thy Cross shall be my sign!"
W. HONE

IN THESE wonderful verses we have an epitome of the Apostle Paul's life. There is, first, his separation in the Divine purpose before his birth for the high and blessed work of ministering the Gospel; then his vocation by the grace of God, when a voice called to him which his prepared ear detected, though to others it was as thunder; then the three successive steps with which we have to do now -- the revelation of Christ; the ministration of human sympathy and help; and his isolation in Arabia; whilst, to crown all, there is afforded an indication of his life-work of preaching among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

How different to his anticipation was Saul's entrance into Damascus! He had probably often solaced himself during his weary six-days' journey by picturing the reception which would be accorded to him by the authorities at Damascus, on his arrival at their city as the Commissioner of the High Priest, charged with the extirpation of the Nazarene heresy. But instead of honour, there was consternation and surprise. No one could quite explain or understand what had taken place. Dismounted from his horse, he went afoot; instead of the haughty bearing of the Inquisitor, the helplessness of a sightless man appealed for hands to lead him; shrinking from notice and welcome, he was only too eager to reach a lonely chamber, where he might recover from the awful effects of that collision between his mortal and sinful nature and the holy, glorious Son of God, whom he had so ruthlessly persecuted.

"Trembling and astonished," he seemed a stricken, dejected, broken man -- but his soul was radiant with the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. The fire that shone in the burning bush had suddenly kindled upon him. As a lightning flash illumines the ink-black night, revealing the precipice towards which the traveller was stumbling, and unveiling for one brief instant the city with its glistening buildings, or the country with its expanse of forest, river, and pastureland, so in a moment he had seen God, Christ, the Old Testament Scriptures, and the mistaken purpose of his life.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VI  THE INNER REVELATION OF CHRIST
F. B. Meyer

It is interesting to notice how much of the teaching, which the Apostle gave out in after days, may be discovered in germ in the records of his conversion.

"I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest": there is the believer's identification with the Lord, involving all that wonderful teaching of the oneness of the Head and members.

"To appoint thee a minister and a witness": there is the origin of his constant reference to witness and testimony-bearing.

"The Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee": on this he rested his claim to be considered specially the Apostle of the Gentiles, and perhaps at this time those two great revelations may have passed for a moment before the eyes of his heart, to be elaborated in after years; the one that the Gentiles should be fellow-members, fellow-heirs, and fellow-partakers with the chosen nation in all the privileges and rights of the Gospel; the other, to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from eternal ages hath been hidden in the heart of God -- the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory -- that even the hearts of Gentiles may become the dwelling-place and temple of the living Saviour (Ephesians 3, Colossians 1).

In Acts 26:17-18, we find an epitome of the first chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians. It is, in fact, the seed-plot of the Apostle's thoughts on the justification and sanctification of the soul. The whole of his message might be focused around these two points, remission of sins, and an inheritance among the sanctified, through faith in the living Christ.

At this formative period of his life three effective agencies were brought to bear on him: the work of God on his heart; contact with Ananias; and the education of the desert solitudes.


1. THE WORK OF GOD ON HIS HEART.

"It pleased God to reveal his Son in me." The Apostle knew too much of the Divine life to admit that the vast change in him could be entirely accounted for by what he had seen with his mortal, and now blinded eyes. He was aware that a true and lasting work can only be achieved when the inner eye has perceived things that are hidden from mortal sense. In other words, God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, must shine in the heart to give the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus.

Imagine the abundance of revelations made to the blinded man during those three days and nights of silence and solitude in the house of Judas. Is it wonderful that he became oblivious to the needs of the body, and did neither eat nor drink? There are hours when we lose all consciousness of earth, and already live in the heavenlies; when the soul loses count of the moments, sets sail from the coast-line of earth, and finds itself out on the broad bosom of the ocean of eternity. Such was the experience of this soul.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VI  THE INNER REVELATION OF CHRIST
F. B. Meyer

What mysteries began to pass before him, like the procession of the Divine Nature as God proclaimed his name to Moses down the mountain gorge! We talk about discovery; we should rather speak of disclosure. Is there such a thing as discovery? Is it not rather true of all invention, of all fresh readings of nature, that God is taking man up into the mountain of vision and showing him the things which have been, and are, and shall be, bidding him write them in a book for the generations to come? During those wondrous hours God unveiled secrets which had been kept in silence through times eternal, but were manifested to him according to the commandment of the eternal God, that he might make them known unto all nations, unto obedience of faith.

But the crowning revelation of all was that on which he lays especial stress. It was much to learn that Jesus of Nazareth was in very deed the Son of the Highest, and that the Christ must suffer and be the first by his resurrection from the dead to proclaim light unto the people and the Gentiles; much to be taught that remission of sins and the heritage of a holy life were the gift of God to the open hand of faith; much to discover that there was no distinction between Jew and Greek, but that the same God was Lord of all, and rich to all; but more than all was the unveiling of the indwelling Christ, living literally within him by his Spirit, so that whilst he was in Christ, Christ was also in him, as the branch has its place in the vine, and the vine lives through the branch.

O soul of man, has this revelation ever been thy experience? Dost thou know that Christ is in thee? If thou truly believest in Him, there is no doubt of it. "Know ye not as to your own selves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, indeed, ye be reprobate." And yet thou mayest be in ignorance of this transcendent possession. Ask God to reveal his Son in thee, to make thee know experimentally the riches of the glory of this mystery. He will rend the vail of the inner life in twain from the top to the bottom, and in the most holy place of thy spirit disclose the Shekinah of his eternal presence. Two conditions only must be fulfilled. Thou must be prepared to yield thine own will to the cross; and to wait before God in the silence and solitude of thy spirit.

God was pleased to make this known to Saul of Tarsus. He will be equally pleased to make it known to thee; because He lives to glorify his Son, and afford the full measure of blessedness to his children. Ask for a breath of heavenly grace to part the veiling mist, and show thee the line of sun-lit Alps, irradiate with the morning glow!
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VI  THE INNER REVELATION OF CHRIST
F. B. Meyer

2. CONTACT WITH ANANIAS.

It is permitted to holy and humble natures greatly to help the spirit which is on the point of emerging from bondage. The little maiden, awaking from her death swoon, required food; Lazarus, whom Jesus had summoned back to life, needed to be unswathed and loosed. The offices which one can perform for another are beautifully illustrated in that simple-hearted saint, Ananias, whom the Lord at this moment called upon the scene, and to whom He entrusted the keys of the kingdom, that he might unlock Saul's way into perfect peace.

We know very little of Ananias, except that he was a devout man according to the law and was well reported of by the Jews, but evidently he was on intimate terms with his Master; and the Lord was willing to enter into explanations and reassurances with him, before sending him forth. A very slender taper, if it has caught the fire, may communicate its glow to the powerful wicks of a lighthouse tower.

He gave him a Brother's Welcome. Though he was fully acquainted with the object of Saul's visit to the city, he accosted him with the sweet and generous term, Brother. Brother Saul. What a thrill that address sent through the heart of the new convert! Pharisaism had never spoken thus; and as he became conscious of the presence of this new brother standing beside him and laying his hand on his fevered brow, the human love was the sign and symbol of the Divine. Ah! Love of God, what must not thou be, though I have persecuted thee so sorely, if the love of man be so strong and tender!

He communicated Priceless Blessings; for, first, beneath the laying on of his hands, sight came clear to eyes which had beheld nothing since they had been smitten by the glory of "that light." And the touch of this devout man, accompanied as it must have been with the upward glance of prayer and faith, was also the signal for the reception of the anointing grace of the Holy Spirit, infilling, anointing, and equipping for blessed service.

He baptized him. What a baptism must that have been! What a tidal wave of emotion must have swept over him, as he realized that he was being united with Jesus by the likeness of his death! In years long after, the memory of that solemn moment was fresh to him, and he refers to it in the repeated we of Romans 6. "We who were baptized into Christ Jesus." "We were buried with him." "We have become united with him by the likeness of his death." That baptism was his final and irreversible break with his past life, the Pharisaic party, and his persecution of the adherents of "the Way." Henceforth he was avowedly one with the followers of the Nazarene. From that moment he took up his cross, and began to follow his Master. The cross and grave of Jesus must now stand between him and all that had been -- all his friends, ambitions, and opinions -- whilst he must turn his face towards labour and travail, hunger and thirst, perils and persecutions, together with the daily deliverance unto death for Jesus' sake.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VI  THE INNER REVELATION OF CHRIST
F. B. Meyer

There was an even deeper thought. He knew that the root of sins was sin, the assertion of I, the body of the flesh. Too long had this been the motive-force of his career. His efforts after righteousness, as well as his zeal against the church, had manifested the intensity and virulence of this strong, selfish principle. Henceforth, however, he desired to be dead to it, and to accept the position offered to him in the risen Lord, wherein the body of sin should be done away as the centre and impulse of his being, because replaced by the indwelling Spirit of Life, which is in Christ Jesus.

"Yea, thro' life, death, thro' sorrow and thro' sinning,
He shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed;
Christ is the end, for Christ is the beginning,
Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ."

It does not appear that Ananias was cognizant of all that baptism meant to his new brother Saul. To him it was an act of obedience, a symbol of the washing away of sins. This simple soul had never trodden the difficult way of the cross. How little do we know what is passing in the thoughts of those next to us in life's strange school! But his honest help must have been very comforting to the new disciple as he united himself with the cross of Jesus, and henceforth began to fill up that which was behind of the sufferings of Christ for his Body's sake. All Ananias knew was that the Lord had said, "I will show him how great things he must suffer for my Name's sake."


3. THE EDUCATION OF THE DESERT SOLITUDES.

"Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood; neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went away into Arabia." It is not quite clear whether he began to preach before going; probably not. He wanted to be alone, to reflect on all that he had seen; to co-ordinate, if possible, the new with the old, the present with the past. For this he must have uninterrupted leisure, and he hungered for the isolation and solitude of the wilderness. Men like Ananias might reassure him; the apostles of the Lord might communicate much of his teaching and wondrous ministry; the holy beauty of the life of the infant church might calm and elevate his spirit; but, above all things, he wanted to be alone with Jesus, to know Him and the power of his resurrection, the anointing which makes human teaching needless, because it teaches all things. Three years under such tuition would doubtless make him so proficient that when afterwards he met those who were of repute among the apostles they would be able to add nothing unto him.

Arabia probably stands for the Sinaitic peninsula, with its sparse population, its marked physical features, its associations with Moses, and the Exodus, and Elijah.
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