1

prisonment. (Ch. xix. 21; xx. 23, 24; xxi. 4, 11-13.) Thy witness—as if to say, "May I not then also lay down my testimony, even though it were in death; may I not also be counted worthy of the martyr's crown? Would not my blood similarly, and still more, be followed by a new blessing and increase of faith in the word of Thy testimony?"—All this was good and pleasing to the Lord, who therefore let His servant give vent to his feeling; but it showed that St Paul did not know, as his Master did, the depth of the apostasy of the world, the utter blindness of unbelieving Israel. And it is, further, proof of the lesser guilt of his own earlier unbelief, since he has no experience of the hardened perverseness of the rebellious will; but, on the other hand, as was said before, there is something of evil self which opposes the Lord in these words. For, he has in some degree departed from that first question of unconditional obedience "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" and seems to question his Lord touching his appointments; he has his own thoughts as to the special importance of his own converted person in the kingdom of God.

FOR I WILL SEND
As in the case of

In this, again, he is right, only not as he thinks with respect to Israel,-the kingdom of God is greater, and shall extend much wider and farther. DEPART THEE FAR HENCE UNTO THE GENTILES! Ananias, the Lord refers him, too, back to His first commandment, Depart! and, as then, gives another FOR, with a new reason and more conclusive explanation of what He does. Not merely, The Jews will not believe! but, as it is hinted, Others will believe, and thou art reserved and appointed to testify to them. The Lord's I answers the (similarly prominent in the original) I which His servant had laid stress upon. Whither the Lord would send (literally more strong-would send out, send away), thither must His servant go, without demur; and though it be far hence, to those among the Gentiles, who with their whole heart hung upon Israel. This is probably the first plain announcement, though preliminary and pointing to the future, of his vocation as the Apostle of the Gentiles: "I will to, or will, send thee." In this calm manifestation Paul was already, before he was separated by the prophets in Antioch,

1 Τοῦ μάρτυρός σου-the expression begins already to pass over into the later meaning of martyr, witness unto blood, as in Rev. ii. 13.

called to his labours among the Gentiles: hence the Holy Ghost said, ch. xiii. 2,-"To which I have already called them (Barnabas also). Yet not before St Peter had preached to Cornelius (of which more afterwards)-so that the transition of the Gospel to the Gentiles was not here indicated to St Paul as something in itself new and strange; only his own specific vocation. The more full call by the appearing Lord, which is related in ch. xxvi. 16, has no special note of time connected with it; but we place it, on account of the connection, without determining the order of time, after the present announcement.

The Lord may indeed have spoken more than this; for at the word concerning the Gentiles, St Paul was interrupted. But it does not to us seem probable that the Lord's words communicated in ch. xxvi. followed here immediately there are reasons against it which will be considered in the proper place. Thus we may suppose that He by degrees prepared Paul for the full announcement of his vocation. Rightly understood, we adopt v. Gerlach's note, that this was "his proper vocation as an Apostle" by the Lord Himself, after the preliminary declaration given by Ananias; but not yet his actual and formal institution to the apostleship of the Gentiles. St Paul, in that first sojourn in Jerusalem, had consorted only with the Hellenists, or foreign Jews (ch. ix. 29). When they went about to slay him, he obediently declined the death of martyrdom, and (after tarrying there fourteen days, Gal. i. 18) was brought by the brethren down to Cæsarea to Tarsus, his paternal home (as we read in ch. ix.). But, after he had accomplished much in the Gentile mission, he purposes in spirit to go once more up to Jerusalem, from which indeed the Lord had sent him away; and it pleased the Lord to accept this act of seeming disobedience (St Paul does not forget his special call; he does not purpose to remain in Jerusalem)-for He acknowledges in ch. xxiii. 11, as it were with approbation, even this testimony. But He orders the matter so, that he who stood as a witness before the council, and before the king, and the governor, should be carried to Rome as a prisoner-to proclaim, before the supreme power of this world, the kingdom of God. which is not of this world.

IV.

FURTHER APPEARANCE TO SAUL: TO WHOM I NOW SEND THEE.

(Acts xxvi. 16-18.)

"RISE and stand upon thy feet!" Thus, in these more emphatic and literally recorded words, did the Lord speak near Damascus. But it is certain and self-evident that He could not have spoken then what St Paul here adds before Agrippa; for, that twice-related, definitive mandate, "It shall be told thee in the city," does not harmonise with so early an explanation and mission. Consequently, we must assume that the Apostle here sums up compendiously what was said at a later time; and connects it all very appropriately with the account of his destination-expressed in the simple Stand upon thy feet! -to a new service of activity in the work of Jesus. Thus it appears as if one word-" For therefore have I appeared unto thee, that thou mayest stand before Me, as My servant and witness, through My help and salvation" (comp. ver. 22). If, after three years, the Lord Himself in the temple at Jerusalem announced as something new-"I will send thee among the Gentiles!"—yet that which we read here in ch. xxvi. was not spoken till afterwards.

Or, was it not spoken by the Lord at all? Most expositors, even among the orthodox,1 have come to regard it as quite probable that St Paul set down as the Lord's word what had been said to him by Ananias, and afterwards had been revealed to his own spirit. Against this we protested in our “Discourses of the Apostles." Alford replies that he does not see the necessity of regarding all these words as having been once spoken by the Lord; but to us it is not merely matter of seeing or insight, but of still more decisive feeling. It is lamentable that orthodox expositors do not more correctly feel, in cases where the feeling should decide. We cannot agree with Baumgarten that, "on every view, it is of no moment which way we decide;" we think that it may here be decided with confidence that, though the words "were not spoken by the

1 Baumgarten included, whose general fidelity to the miraculous revelations scarcely prepared us to expect this from him!

Lord in immediate sequence," yet that they were not "communicated by Him to St Paul at a later period through Ananias." It is true that the weight of the matter does not rest upon the exact order of time or literality of the words; but, in the case of this narrative, and the very important words of the Lord to His servant, the difference between immediate and indirect speaking is of much moment; even as St Paul elsewhere, and on other occasions, makes this distinction prominent. Would he forget that distinction here? Here, when the Apostle makes the Lord speak of His having appeared, and having appeared again, has he only placed the words in the Lord's lips? in order afterwards, in ver. 19, to include it in the "heavenly vision!" One appearance converted the Apostle to the faith, another appointed him to be a witness, and these are embraced in one-such a combination alone is permissible -only one heavenly appearance of the Living One, to which he was now not disobedient. On the other hand, the Apostle would never have permitted himself to unite together in one, as spoken by the Lord at His appearance, words which were indirectly communicated to him: he could not have done this, either in the first testimony which he bore before the Jewish people, or here where he stands before the Gentiles, and (as Baumgarten remarks) has "the exhibition of the wide significance of the Gentile Apostolate for his object."

Let us, however, come nearer to the matter in hand. If these words were not spoken on His first appearance by the Lord, but at some later one, are they to be inserted after what is related in ch. xxii. 17-21, where the continuation was interrupted? This, for evident reasons, cannot be assumed. First, the promised sending to the Gentiles is uttered there in an entirely different, but internally necessary and significant, connection: there is no harmony between "I will send thee" first, and then immediately, "I now send thee." Then it was indeed said, ch. xxii., to the Apostle-"In Jerusalem they will not receive thy testimony;" but it was only hinted, not directly spoken, that that testimony would be effectual among the Gentiles. Here, on the contrary, he receives a great promise for the power of the word with which he is sent forth, as he in ch. xx. 32, e. g., holds it fast and repeats it. Consequently, the distinction is evident between-"I will to, I will send thee!"

in the former case, and-"I send thee now!" in the latter.1 As to this assertion, that ch. xxvi. records an appearance subsequent to that of ch. xxii., we said, in a former work, "Not much depends upon it, and it may be left to others to decide." But now we think differently; and to our more comprehensive view, after twenty-eight years, what we have now insisted upon places the gradual disclosure of the Apostle's great calling in its clearest and most impressive light.

The immediateness of these words-as spoken by our Lord Himself—is of the utmost importance as it respects the instruction for St Paul's office, and the plan of salvation, which are contained in ver. 18. Even if the Apostle had learned this through the Holy Spirit in the school of Christ, it would have been still truth derived from the Lord. But it would not have been lawful for him to say-Thus spake the Lord to me! No Apostle ever permitted himself to do that; least of all the Apostle who several times, with conscientious rigour, distinguishes between what he said himself (having the Spirit of God), and what the Lord had said to him:--the Apostle who, at Miletus, appends to his own long discourse, which had contained prophecy, the single saying of the words of the Lord Jesus, which He had spoken in His humiliation upon earth, giving it reverent distinction from his own words as their solemn close! (Ch. xx. 35.) Let it be as it may with respect to that appearance, which he here before Agrippa combines with the firstwe have from the lips of the Lord Himself, given from heaven, one of the most fundamental, profound, and important summaries of instruction for the Apostolate and ministerial office generally.

FOR I HAVE APPEARED UNTO THEE FOR THIS PURPOSE,

TO MAKE THEE A MINISTER AND A WITNESS BOTH OF THOSE THINGS WHICH THOU HAST SEEN, AND OF THOSE THINGS IN THE WHICH I WILL (YET) APPEAR UNTO THEE. Here the Lord Himself combines in one His previous and future manifestations; with reference to their sole object, the appointment and destination of St Paul to be a witness. As to this, all the various visions and revelations of the Lord, of which St Paul was counted worthy, are condensed into the one revelation of the Son, whom he should 1 The reading vv thus receives a new argument in its favour: the criticism of MSS. often thus finds its support in sound exposition.