Acts 8:3

PERSECUTIONS

3. Saul of Tarsus, flooded with native talents, literary culture, ecclesiastical prominence and unparalleled aspirations to reach the very acme of his transcendent and ambitious aspiration, arriving from the north too late to see any of the miracles wrought by Jesus during His ministry, and the Holy Ghost during the Pentecostal revival, obdurately incredulous to the testimony of the poor, despised Nazarene, at once comes to the front with the gigantic grip of his iron will, takes into hand the already complicated problem of rescuing the church from the Nazarene heresy which, in his candid judgment, is striking at the very vitals of the Mosaic institutions. Hence, as a true son of Abraham, loyal to God and Moses, he takes the bit in his teeth, determined to make a summary settlement of all difficulties. When ecclesiastical autocrats once taste the blood of persecution they invariably become insatiable. The martyrdom of Stephen lifted the flood- gate for the bloody tide which had been accumulating since the baptism of John, and had received a wonderful impetus during the revivals of Pentecost. The Roman civil arm is still willing to purchase Jewish favor at the expense of the Nazarene faction. Therefore, Saul, utilizing his wonderful sagacity as an organizer, diligently rendezvouses the orthodox magnates and the loyal element of the fallen church, sparing neither age nor sex, but running like the inquisitorial bands of St. Dominique into every house; “arresting both men and women, he continued to commit them to prison,” thus determined to make summary work and exterminate the heresy with all possible expedition, relieving the country of the nuisance and the church of the miasma already infecting her to the heart.