"I RECKON that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in "I RECKON that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in "FROM a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is "PERHAPS he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever; not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord."-PHILEM. 15, 16. "THIS is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; "O GOD, WHO THROUGH THE PREACHING OF THE BLESSED APOSTLE SAINT PAUL, HAST CAUSED THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL TO SHINE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD; GRANT, WE BESEECH THEE, THAT WE HAVING HIS WONDERFUL CONVERSION IN REMEMBRANCE, MAY SHOW FORTH OUR THANKFULNESS UNTO THEE FOR THE SAME, BY FOLLOWING THE HOLY DOCTRINES WHICH HE TAUGHT; THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN. Collect-Conversion of St. Paul. INTRODUCTION. THE PREACHER OF THE CROSS. "THEY HEARD . ....... THAT HE WHICH PERSECUTED US IN TIMES PAST, NOW PREACHETH THE FAITH WHICH ONCE HE DESTROYED. AND THEY GLORIFIED GOD IN ME."-Gal. i. 23, 24. THERE was seen, some eighteen centuries since, passing throughout the most renowned and polished cities, a stranger, a little below the average stature of the times, with marked Jewish features, of weak bodily presence, a frame somewhat bowed with travel and hardship, and limbs bearing the marks of scourging, and many a trace of violence and the dungeon-chain. Yet one could discern a zeal and holy fervor on his brow which told it was no mere human impulse which constrained him. He usually wended his way to the humblest quarters of the towns through which he passed, or if the scattered remnants of Israel were to be found therein, resorted with them to their synagogues. And there he spake with full and glowing wordsand as he spake all were fain to listen; they hung on his lips-they wondered at the new and strange B |