things for that selfsame 'Name'.  Assured by these words, Ananias pursues his

way along the street that is called Straight, and enters the home of Judas.

Scripture tells us that all that Ananias was commissioned to do was to

put his hand upon the sightless eyes of Saul.  At last, Ananias stood in the

presence of the stricken man, and as he looked upon this trophy of grace, he

must have recalled the Pharisee and the persecutor.  When he realized the

common bond that was now theirs, he was constrained not only to act, but to

speak, and we believe Saul of Tarsus had never before heard so sweet a sound

from human lips as the greeting, 'Brother Saul'.  Here doctrine and practice

met: he was still 'Saul', but he was now 'brother'.  The proud persecutor had

been received into the family of faith, not only by the Lord of glory, but by

one of His humble children.  The words and attitude of Ananias are full.  He

followed this endearing and lovely salutation with the words, 'The Lord, even

Jesus' (emphasizing the Lordship of the risen Christ, another feature

prominently marking the teaching of the apostle), and finally, he interpreted

the gift of physical sight as being symbolic of spiritual illumination:

'Receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost' (Acts 9:17).

We have not yet mentioned the first title that Scripture gives to the

apostle Paul.  Without the Book, and without having Acts chapter 9 before us,

we believe that we should select many titles borne by him before the one

given him in Acts 9:15 came into our minds, viz.  'He is a chosen vessel unto

Me, to bear My name ...'.  Paul never forgot that he had been 'chosen', a

word allied with the word 'elect', and, in Paul's estimation, a word redolent

of grace beyond dreams.  He never forgot that he was a 'vessel', and in 2

Corinthians 4:6,7 as though still thinking of that blinding light which he

saw on the road to Damascus, he writes:

'For God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined

in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God

in the face of Jesus Christ.  But we have this treasure in earthen

vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of

Then follows a list of sufferings, which shows that he had entered into

that phase of his commission covered by the words, 'how great things he must

suffer for My name's sake'.

There are but six references in the Scriptures to Ananias, five of them

being in the record of Acts 9 and one in Acts 22 when Paul is making his

defence.  Ananias may not have lived to see the fulfilment of his vision, but

he did see the miracle -working power of Christ's love.  It was an honour to

be a 'chosen vessel'; to bear the name of the Lord before Gentiles, and

kings, and the children of Israel.  It was a glory hitherto unknown by a son

of man.  To be entrusted with the fellowship of His sufferings was a trust

indeed.  Each and all of these wondrous titles Ananias no doubt unfolded

during that scene in the room in Damascus.  But all was sanctified, and

crowned and blessed beyond the power of human speech, by that grace -taught

preface: 'Brother Saul'.

Those of us who think of Paul, generally picture him as he was during

the middle or the close of his witness; a man, who in face of prison or death

could say: 'None of these things move me'.  We are apt to forget the early

days when all was new and strange, and, so doing, we undervalue the ministry