undreamed and unrevealed until made known for the first time to "Paul, the prisoner of

Jesus Christ for you Gentiles". Paul must have visited that synagogue many times, and it

was on one of those visits that he heard Stephen, disputing with the Jews, a dispute that

crowned Stephen as the first Christian martyr and changed Saul of Tarsus into the

Apostle of the Gentiles. If we compare Stephen's speech with that of Paul's, as recorded

in  Acts 13:,  we shall not be able to resist the feeling that Paul was, perhaps

unconsciously following the same pattern. Stephen made three points:

(1) Joseph.

"The second time" (Acts 7: 13).

(2) Moses.

"The second time" (7: 35).

(3) Israel.

"As your fathers did, so do ye" (7: 51).

"And Saul was consenting unto his death" (Acts 8: 1). None could resist the

wisdom and the spirit in which Stephen spoke. Paul saw Stephen's face as it had been

the face of an angel. He heard Stephen declare that he saw the glory of God, and Jesus

standing on the right hand of God. He heard him use the title "The Son of Man" and

"The Lord Jesus", and he heard Stephen pray for his murderers "Lord lay not this sin to

their charge", and yet, he consented unto his death! Nevertheless, it must have burdened

the conscience of Saul of Tarsus, a self-righteous Pharisee, that he was obliged to side

with such brutality, and stand against such lovely grace, and he found, himself "kicking

against the pricks", and so to stifle his conscience, and to `prove' to all that he had no

sympathy with this heresy, he desired letters to Damascus to stamp out this superstition;

letters however that led straight to that spot "near Damascus" where Saul the Pharisee

died and Paul the Apostle was born.  In Acts 22: Paul rehearsed this dreadful

experience, saying:

When in that speech the Apostle reached the words "I will send thee far off to the

Gentiles", the storm broke, and he lived again in his own person the martyrdom of

Stephen. When Paul saw them "cast off their clothes", he must have remembered that

earlier he once had the clothes of those who stoned Stephen laid at his feet. The

reference in Acts 9: 5 to "kicking against the pricks" is to the ox-goad, against which a

rebellious or back-sliding animal at the plough would be brought up suddenly. We must

however remember that our present theme is "Liberty" and attractive as the early days of

Paul ever must be, we must move from the synagogue of the Libertines, to become

acquainted with a richer liberty than any "freed man" of the time ever knew.

The words used in the Original.