Acts 9:1 The Conversion of St. Paul. That blessed war of aggression which Jesus Christ wages upon the evil one is a war which is made to maintain itself. Christ's soldiers are His captured enemies. Every soul won from resistance to the Cross is marked at once with the Cross-badge and sent into the... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:1 Early History and Conversion of Paul. Viewed as a public event in the history of the Christian Church, the conversion of Paul furnishes new and independent testimony to the Divine origin of the gospel. The story is perfectly authenticated. Twice did the Apostle repeat it in detail before... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:4 The Lord's dealing with St. Paul has been precisely the way of His dealing with thousands and tens of thousands whom He has sought to make in like manner partakers of the light of the everlasting life. Them, too, I. He meets in the way. He hedges up that way with thorns so that they canno... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:5 This declaration points: I. To past impressions. Many persons regard this startling event as the first and only period that the Saviour sought the services of an ardent man; that without any previous internal preparation he was changed in the whole current and purposes of his life. But thi... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:6 The Apostle's experience may never again be exactly reproduced as regards its external circumstances; but in every manifestation of God to the soul which has hitherto been ignorant of His true being, close upon the question "Who art thou, Lord?" will follow the further inquiry, "Lord, what... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:15 I. Saul is here a vessel. The word here rendered "vessel" may also be translated "instrument," but either reading gives a good sense. God is an infinite spring giving inexhaustibly forth; men are empty vessels receiving everlastingly of His fulness. II. He is a vessel _unto Me._The vesse... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:19 Damascus Arabia Jerusalem. We see from this chapter: I. The minute care which God has over His people. He gives to Ananias the street and the house in the great city of Damascus where Paul is sitting in his blindness, and sends him thither to his help. But though the commission came to... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:20 I. Promptitude is a pre-requisite and essential element of success. A beginning is only a beginning, and yet much depends on how it is made. Some beginnings are like the spring on the mountain side, gushing into life and flowing clearly. Some are like waters from a mossy soil, trickling,... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:31 Our Lord tells us that the Comforter's work as Comforter is to abide, to teach, to remind, to testify, to reprove. These are the ways in which He comforts. The text carries on the same idea. "The Churches... were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy... [ Continue Reading ]