ST. PAUL.

Saul, who also is called Paul. Acтs xiii. 9.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF ST. PAUL.

THERE is a peculiarity in the festival of this day; in that it is commemorative, not of the death or martyrdom of the Saint who is the subject of it, but of his conversion to the Christian faith; a peculiarity, the cause of which is to be found in the strangeness and importance of that event; in the wonderful occurrences which preceded it; in the testimony which it bore to God's grace; and in its momentous consequences to the Church at large, as well as to the individual who was thus brought into her fellowship, "Saul, who is also called Paul."

The original name of the Apostle was Saul; and by that name he is called in the early periods of his history. Whether he was at first called by both names, the one indicating him

to be by extraction a Jew, the other by privilege a Roman citizen; whether he was so called, merely in compliance with an usage for those Jews who were much connected with Greece and Rome to assume a name more familiar to foreigners than their own; whether he changed his name together with his religion, when from a Pharisee he became a believer in Christ; or whether he acquired his latter name from his conversion of Sergius Paulus to the faith of Christ, being first called Paul in consequence of that event by the family of the Roman proconsul: certain it is that upon this last occasion the name of Paul is first attributed to the Apostle by the Evangelist St. Luke, who had until that time continually called him Saul, and continually afterwards calls him by this new surname; a name, by which he has been constantly described through succeeding ages.

St. Paul was, as he himself informs us, "of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee." He had a sister whose son was a Christian; a young man, whose discreet conduct was of great service to the Apostle, when a prisoner at Jerusalem, and who is deserving of our grateful recollection. And some of his kinsmen appear to have been

believers in the Gospel, and to have been so before himself: which may be reckoned a proof of the virtue and piety of this family".

He was born at Tarsus, the chief city of Cilicia, "no mean city," a place celebrated for philosophy and polite literature: and he was by birth intitled to the privileges of a Roman citizen. In early life he was probably instructed in the accomplishments of his native city, and thus became a master of Greek learning, his acquaintance with which is shewn by several passages in his speeches and Epistles: certainly he was for some time educated in Jerusalem under Gamaliel, a celebrated Jewish Rabbi, by whom he was "taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers," and made great "proficiency in the Jewish religion," and in "all customs and questions which are among the Jews." To these branches of education was added instruction in the business of tent-making, according to a constant principle and practice of the Jews, who esteemed it a necessary part of education, for even their most learned Rabbis to be instructed in some manual trade, whereby, if occasion required, they might be able to maintain themselves. The trade, to which our Apostle was

a Dr. Lardner.

brought up, was an honest but mean course of life; and, as Chrysostom observes, an argument that his parents were not of the nobler and better rank.

St. Paul's natural abilities were splendid and powerful; his apprehension quick, his feelings lively, his resolution firm and immovable; and he was thus well qualified to maintain and propagate such principles, as he should judge proper to be espoused. Zealous in the service of God, of conscience pure and void of offence, in life unblameable, of integrity uncorrupt; he was thus qualified to espouse the principles, of the justice of which he saw reason to be convinced. His appeals to the Jews, to whom was known his manner of life from the beginning, and the unfeigned thankfulness and satisfaction with which he reflects upon the motives which actuated his conduct, prove the uprightness of St. Paul, and bis obedience to the dictates of his conscience according to the knowledge which he possessed. Thus in his zeal for the Jewish law, his hereditary religion, and that in the principles of which he had been carefully educated, he was at first a bitter enemy of the faith of the Gospel, and a furious opposer of all who made profession of it.

b Dr. Cave.