das, one named Saul of Tarsus. For behold he prayeth." At the same time Saul, who had to be assured that this man was sent by God, "saw," in spirit, "a man named Ananias, coming in and putting his hands upon him that he might receive his sight. Ananias answered: Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints in Jerusalem; and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that invoke thy name. And the Lord said to him: Go thy way, for this man is to me a vessel of election, to carry my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him (1) how great things he must,” in his turn, "suffer for my name's sake."

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"And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house, and laying his hands upon him (2), he said: Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus hath sent me, he that appeared to thee in the way as thou camest, that thou mayest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost (3). And immediately there fell from his eyes as it were

(1) Although Jesus Christ might have shown it to him in a revelation, yet this word I will show him, does not at all prove it; it may recur to that fashion of speech in use amongst us, he shall see how much he has to suffer. Jesus Christ here glorifies himself because of what St. Paul is to suffer for his sake. This seems to signify: The persecu tor shall be persecuted; and, after being so inveterate against me and mine, I shall have the glory of seeing him suffer for my name even more than he made others undergo.

(2) This imposition of hands was not confirmation, as Calvin fancied; Ananias was neither an apostle nor a bishop; and supposing that he had been, he would have given confirmation to Saul after and not before baptism. It was merely that Saul might be cured of his blindness that Ananias imposed hands upon him, in accordance with the promise of the Saviour to those who should believe in him: They shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover (Mark, xvi.).

(3) He received the plenitude thereof in baptism. There is no doubt, however, that being so perfectly converted, he had, with the remission of his sins, received the Holy Ghost, who already dwelt within him as the principle of all sanctity. But in baptism he received a measure still more abundant, being, indeed, equal to that which the apostles received on the day of Pentecost; God, who associated him in their ministry, had decreed that the Holy Ghost should be given to him, as well as to them, without any human agency. In a vocation so extraordinary, nothing need excite surprise.

He says again, as we see in chap. xxii. The God of our fathers hath preordained thee that thou shouldst know his will, and see the Just One, and shouldst hear the voice from his mouth. For thou shalt be his witness....of those things which thou hast seen and heard. This makes it evident that Jesus Christ appeared to him in person, as St. Paul himself says (1 Cor., xv.). It was necessary that all the apostles should be ocular witnesses of his resurrection, so that each of them could say to the world: He is risen, and I have seen him.

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scales, and he received his sight; and rising up, he was baptized. And when he had taken meat, he was strengthened. And he was with the disciples that were at Damascus for some days."

"And immediately he preached Jesus in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. And all that heard him were astonished, and said: Is not this he who persecuted in Jerusalem those that called upon this name; and came hither for that intent that he might carry them bound to the chief priests? But Saul increased much more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt at Damascus, affirming that" Jesus was "the CHRIST."

This great publicity was the splendid reparation due to the honor of Him whom he had so grievously persecuted; and in spreading abroad the history of his conversion, he multiplied the fruit which an example so striking must needs have produced. Having thus acquitted himself of his duty to God and to men, he withdrew from Damascus. St. Luke says nothing of this journey, of which we only find an account in St. Paul's own epistle to the Galatians (a). "When it pleased Him," said he, "to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, immediately I condescended not to flesh and blood (1); neither went I to Jerusalem to the apostles who were before me; but I went into Arabia."

It appears by what follows that he made a considerable stay there, perhaps nearly three years. For the rest, we know nothing of what he did while there, as neither he nor any other of the inspired writers says any thing of it. Could it have been unknown, if he had preached the Gospel there, he whose ardent zeal and fervid eloquence were always sure to be effective? Would not the

(a) Gal., i. 15.

(1) I condescended not. This expression seems to convey that no considerations of flesh and blood were able to deter him from following the divine vocation. But it is plain, from the context, that St. Paul means to say that he received no instruction from any man, being sufficiently enlightened by the revelation of Jesus Christ. The Greek word which the Vulgate has rendered by condescend approaches much nearer to the meaning here assigned it, for it really signifies confer, which reverts again to what Jesus Christ said to St. Peter: "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjonas; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven;" whence we see clearly that what he congratulates him on is his having learned, not by any human teaching, but by revelation from his heavenly Father, the doctrine which he had just professed.

Christians of Judea have been apprised of it, seeing that their country lay so near Arabia? and if they had known any thing of it would they have been so suspicious of him as they were when, three years after his conversion, he appeared for the first time at Jerusa lem? These reflections have given rise to a conjecture which is not without some foundation, viz., that he lived privately while in Arabia, and that God, as he generally does, prepared him for the sacred ministry by the exercises of a solitary life.

"And again," said he, "I returned to Damascus (a). And when many days were passed (b)" after his conversion, resumes St. Luke (and this interval was the time passed in Arabia), "the Jews," whom he began again to oppose and to confound, "consulted together to kill him." Either deceived by their calumnies, or bribed by their gold, the officer who governed the city for King Aretas (c) caused the gates to be guarded, so as to prevent his escape. "But their lying in wait was made known to Saul. And they watched the gates also day and night, that they might kill him. But the disciples, taking him in the night, conveyed him away by the wall, letting him down in a basket." Thus it was that he escaped from the hands of the governor, and all those who had conspired against him.

Then, and as we have already observed, three years after his conversion, he came for the first time to Jerusalem. His purpose was to see Peter (d), with whom he remained fifteen days. Indeed, he saw none of the other apostles, with the exception of James, the brother of the Lord (1). But as his conversion was not yet generally known, or at least well authenticated, "(e) the disciples to whom he essayed to join himself were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and told them how he had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken to him; and how in Damascus he had dealt confidently in the name of Jesus. And he was with them coming in and going

(a) Gal., i. 17.
(d) Gal., i. 18, 19.

(b) Acts, ix. 23.
(e) Acts, ix. 26.

(c) 2 Cor., xi. 32.

(1) This was, on the part of St. Paul, a visit of respect which he believed it his duty to pay to him whom Jesus had established as head of his Church; it is very certain that he did not go for the sake of receiving instruction, since Peter's teacher had also been his.

out in Jerusalem, and dealing confidently in the name of the Lord. He spoke also to the Gentiles (1), and disputed with the" Jews who were "Greeks: but they sought to kill him. Which, when the brethren had known, they brought him down to Cesarea, and sent him away to Tarsus." It is to this voyage he alludes when he says that it was then he went into Syria and Cilicia (a), of which latter province Tarsus was the capital.

The Jews, enraged at his conversion, had concentrated all their fury against him. When they lost sight of him, they appeared to have forgotten the Church, at least for a time. "Now the Church had peace throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria, and was edified, walking in the fear of the Lord, and was filled with the consolation of the Holy Ghost."

CHAPTER X.

PETER CURES ENEAS, THE PARALYTIC, AT LYDDA, AND AT JOPPA RAISES TABITHA TO LIFE.AN ANGEL APPEARS TO CORNELIUS, THE CENTURION.-VISION OF ST. PETER. CORNELIUS, WITH HIS FAMILY, IS INSTRUCTED AND BAPTIZED. THE time had at last arrived which God had marked out for the full manifestation of the great secret of the vocation of the Gentiles. This had been announced by all the prophets, and clearly indicated by the manner in which even Jesus Christ had spoken of it both before and after his resurrection. Notwithstanding this testimony, so decisive, it was still an impenetrable mystery to every soul of Jewish origin. Not that they absolutely believed salvation to be only reserved for the children of the patriarchs; Peter and John

(a) Gal., i. 21.

(1) The Gentile proselytes. It was not yet understood that the Gospel was to be indiscriminately announced to all the Gentiles. This was not fully known until after the admirable vision of St. Peter, and the miraculous effects thereby produced, which shall be related in their proper place.

had received the Samaritans into the Church; Philip, the deacon, had baptized the eunuch of Ethiopia, and the apostles had admitted Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch, amongst the deacons. All this was done without any opposition, and as being in the ordinary course of things. It was, therefore, believed that the Gentiles might be incorporated with the Church, but not without having gone through the intermediate form of Judaism. Hence the reproach made to St. Peter for that he had communicated, not precisely with Gentiles, but with the uncircumcised (a), that is to say, with men who, bearing no mark of the ancient covenant, were considered as debarred from entering upon the new. At length the clouds were all dispersed, and a truth so important to mankind is made manifest to the entire world. It is not, however, to the apostle of nations that the revelation is made, but to the chief of the apostles. This qual ity, that it might not be an empty title, required that the world should learn this great truth from him. It also appeared necessary that he should throw open the gate of the Gospel to the Gentiles, as he had already done to the Jews, and that his colleagues should not commence to reap either harvest until he had gathered the first fruits thereof. But, in order to secure to him a still greater authority, and also to dispose the Jews for the reception of a doctrine so obnoxious to them, God was pleased to operate, by the ministry of Peter, two signal miracles, immediately before the promulgation of this important truth.

Profiting by the calm in which the Church then was, this vigilant pastor labored to strengthen and to increase his flock. "It came pass that Peter, as he passed through, visiting all, came to the saints (1) who dwelt at Lydda (2). And he found there a certain

to

(a) Acts, vi. 1.

(1) The first Christians were frequently styled thus, as we see by many passages in the Epistles of St. Paul. Christian and saint were then synonymous terms. Unhap pily they did not long continue so.

(2) A city of Palestine, not far distant from the Mediterranean Sea. It was subsequently called Diospolis, and was famous for the council held there, in which the errors of Pelagius were condemned. Pelagius had craft enough to screen himself from the condemnation, by subscribing to it, or acknowledging its justice, such dissimulation being

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