157. The Prayer Of St. Paul In The Temple.

The Prayer Of St. Paul In The Temple. The Prayer as recorded.—Acts 22:17-20. The Lord’s Answer.—Acts 22:21. The Lord had chosen Saul, the persecutor, as his apostle, to be a witness of the resurrection to men of all nations, and to teach the wonderful truths of God; to tell what he had himself seen and heard; to set forth to them the first elements of the gospel as a new development of the most ancient faith known to men; as a “chosen vessel” he was permitted visions of “that just one,” who came to die and suffer for man. Some time after his conversion, while worshiping in the court of the temple, he is thrown into a trance, and in this state of ecstasy he is permitted to realize the immediate presence of the Lord

Jesus, and his prayer is there made to him. Paul seems to be fearful that the people will not receive his testimony, remembering, as they did, his former life, and his presence at the stoning of Stephen, as well as the part he had performed in his death; he reminds the Lord of all this, and would know his will concerning him. St. Paul seems to realize how difficult it will be for the worldling to comprehend the change in his heart, in his life, and doctrine, caused by his conversion, and his words are very suggestive, and full of deep meaning, “the putting off the old man with his deeds,” the becoming a “new creature,” were truths he could not proclaim in his own feeble strength.

St. Paul prays like one that could feel for others, like one familiar with the weaknesses of our nature, who could allow for distrust, for misapprehension, who expected abuse and unbelief; he had not forgotten the deep pit out of which he had been taken, and he knew that the people still remembered him as Saul, the persecutor; how, then, would they receive him as the advocate of a cause on which he had once trampled?