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I. THE PREACHER AS EVIDENCING THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY.

1. What were the moral antecedents of this man? In general terms he was what we all are by nature — the children of wrath, even as others. But in addition to that there was a strong development of the carnal mind which brought out his enmity against God in a most striking light. He was a virulent enemy of Christ and of His Church. Such a sworn foe must have been the last man the Church had supposed would have become not only a convert, but a preacher. One could almost as soon have expected Caiaphas or Pilate. By no previous process of training was this wonderful work accomplished; but in a moment when his heart was bound with enmity against Jesus and the truth, the proud heart and the rebellious will were broken and subdued. To what can you ascribe it but to the power of God? The hand that had just grasped the weapon that was to slay was now clasped in prayer. The knees that never trembled when he stood by Stephen were now smiting for fear. The eyes that had gloated on the agonies of martyr were now overflowing with tears of penitence. I pause to ask you if this is not a fact in evidence which must carry to every ingenuous mind the conviction that the religion that could change such a heart as that of Saul of Tarsus must be Divine?

2. What was his subsequent course? Follow his career from the moment that he said, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" till he closed it by a martyr's death, and there is not in the annals of the Christian Church a character so evidencing the truth of the gospel as that shown in Saul.

3. It is of little consequence what may have been our antecedents — whether we have been persecutors of Churches, or Pharisees, wrapping ourselves up in our own righteousness — we must all pass through the same spiritual change that he did.

II. THE PREACHING AS ILLUSTRATING THE NATURE OF CHRISTIANITY.

1. "Straightway." He asked no authority from man. He applied for no orders. He passed through no theological training. From the moment of the discovery of Christ he became His preacher. I would not have you infer that a man may devote himself to the ministry apart from a previous training; for the conversion of the apostle was miraculous, and he had been trained in one of the first schools of the times; so that when by the power of Christ his heart was changed, he had all the intellectual discipline that was essentially necessary to become an able minister of the New Testament. And yet, if it please God to convert a man of intelligence, I see no reason why that man, now his heart is glowing with the love of Christ, should not straightway preach Christ. The authority that we receive is not from man. Ordination is but a recognition of the Church; a pledge on the part of our brethren of their prayers, sympathies, and confidence.

2. But what did Saul preach? "Jesus." There may be much preaching so denominated that claims no title to the character. Man may preach theology without God, Churchianity without Christianity, Christianity without Christ, the Bible without revelation, the Cross without atonement. Man may do all this, and not preach Jesus. The theme of this newly awakened convert was all summed up in one precious and Divine name — Jesus Christ.

III. THE PLACE OF PREACHING AS MANIFESTING THE POWER AND TRIUMPHS OF CHRISTIANITY.

1. He had to cope with(1) the pharisaical Jews. There was much that the Jew had to allege in favour of his religion. He could claim the oracles of God's Word as sustaining him. And yet the apostle adapted not his subject to meet the prejudices or objections of the Jews, but he met them by a simple uplifting of Christ and unfolding of the gospel.

(2) The Greek philosophers. It was here that his learning came to his help. If God gives a man intellect and furnishes his mind with learning, God intends that he shall employ these powers in the advancement of His truth. But mark, although his reasoning was logical and profound when he confronted the philosophers of Athens, his theme still was Christ.

(3) And thus this man, wherever he went, whoever were his audience — whether he confronted the Jews in the synagogue, the sceptics of Athens, or the jailor at Philippi, Christ Jesus was his grand, his only theme; and no theme but this will ever meet and overcome the enemies, the false religions, and the oppositions of the world. Let men go forth, making Christ their great theme, and such is the voice of that, accompanied with the power of the Spirit, that it would silence all the enemies of the Church.

2. What is it so to preach Christ?

(1) Saul preached Christ as the Son of God, and we cannot properly preach Christ without in the very foreground placing this grand article of our creed — that Christ is essentially Divine. The whole fabric of Christianity rests upon this. Cut this from under us, and on what do we stand — in what is the sacrifice for sinners? in what our hope for eternity? But if my Saviour is God, then my hope is resting on Deity, and I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I commit unto Him until that day.

(2) We must preach the sacrifice, the atonement of Christ, without qualification or reserve. This is a day of much reserve in the statement of those great cardinals of our faith. But the work of Christ is what it ever has been. No change in modern modes of thought or of opinion has altered the essential doctrines of Christianity. We are not to adapt our preaching to the education or the politics of the times. We are to preach the same glorious gospel which Paul preached when he uplifted the Cross of Christ as the only hope of a lost and ruined world. What a grand feature was that in his ministry — Christ the Saviour of sinners! "This is a faithful saying," etc.

(O. Winslow, D. D.)

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KJV: And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus.

WEB: He took food and was strengthened. Saul stayed several days with the disciples who were at Damascus.