polished form of religion, would not believe in or accept Visions, or visible demonstrations of the power of God; so when he saw the glory of God, and heard Stephen tell the wonderful vision he had seen, when the howling mob gathered around Saul helped them on, and consented to his death.
Now the great persecution commenced. Saul, like a bloodhound, who had got the smell of blood, followed the trail, filling the prisons, and putting the Saints to death. (Acts 26-12.)
While on his way to Damascus to take the Saints from prison to put them to death, about noon, when the sun was shining in all its strength, this man who did not believe in the visible power of God, said he saw a light from Heaven above the brightness of the sun, “Shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.”
He and all of his party were struck to the earth as dead men. There was no loud praying or singing, or religious excitement to put these strong men in that condition. God had sent a shock from the battery of Heaven.
Saul, who had hated demonstrations of the Spirit, saw at once he was lost and on the way to hell. The Lord showed him while lying under the power of the Holy Ghost, that he must preach the Gospel, and wherever he went he must tell about all he had seen and heard, and things that the Lord would show to him in the future. Jesus appeared to him then and talked to him face to face, and many times after in vision.
The Lord used three visions to bring about the conversion of Saul, one of the brightest scholars of the Jewish Church. He was under deep conviction, neither ate nor drank for three days and nights. He counted the cost. When he accepted Christ he was filled with the Holy Ghost. The first thing he did was to preach a living Christ, and to throw open the prisons and stop the awful persecution, and show the despised followers of Jesus that he was their friend and brother. The Churches all had rest, and the waves of Salvation swept over all the land.
See the glorious results to the Church and the world. All brought about by three visions.
“Where there is no vision the people perish.”
Paul never doubted the power of God nor any demonstration. He knew more about the personality of the Holy Ghost, and his many offices, gifts, visions, revelations, divers operations, lead-
