says the sacred historian, "he was seen of them, speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." The testimonies of the Apostles then, respecting death and judgment, and eternity-respecting the immortality of the soul, the intermediate state, the resurrection of the body, and the everlasting destinies of the righteous and the wicked, are the testimonies of men who were not only inspired as were the Prophets of the ancient dispensation, (who lived in the twilight, as it were, of Christianity,) but of men who were privileged to see and converse with the Lord of life himself, subsequently to his resurrection from the dead.

To this surpassing claim to the implicit credence of mankind the Apostle John calls the attention of his readers in the opening of his first epistle, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life; (for the

life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us); that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ."

'But the Apostle Paul,' it may be urged, 'was not a disciple of our Lord till long after his resurrection from the dead;' and his writings form a large proportion of the epistolary part of the New Testamenthow then can his declarations on the points alluded to be invested either with the same interest or the same conclusiveness as those of the other Apostles, who could testify to their having seen and heard their risen Lord?

Now as it is customary with sceptics (of whom there are too many in the world around us, and by whose infidel suggestions the faith of our young people especially is in danger of being shaken)

to object to the testimony of St. Paul as of inferior value to that of the other apostles, it may be well to be reminded, on the present occasion, of some of those passages which may be adduced to shew that the objection is altogether groundless, and that those who urge it argue on premises that are absolutely false. They assume that St. Paul was never privileged either to behold the Redeemer subsequently to his resurrection, or to receive any instructions from him except through the medium of other teachers. That this assumption is absolutely opposed to the truth may be seen, in the first place, by a reference to the history of his miraculous conversion as detailed in the ninth chapter of this book. We are there distinctly told, that the Apostle actually beheld our Lord on the occasion. Ananias, putting his hands on him, said, "Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way

a Verse 17.

as thou camest, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." And this is further proved by a passage which you will find in the 22d chapter of this book, in which St. Paul is himself the speaker, and is giving to the incensed Hebrews, in their own tongue, a more enlarged account of this his miraculous interview with Christ. At the 12th verse he states as follows: "And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, came unto me and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him. And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. For thou shalt be his witness unto all men, of what thou hast seen and heard."

Such are the historical statements cor

roborative of the fact that St. Paul was not only inspired by the supernatural influences of the Holy Spirit, but that he was gifted to see in a most extraordinary manner his risen Lord, and to receive from his own lips the instructions which he was to impart to mankind. And that St. Paul attached the utmost importance to this fact is abundantly evident from several incidental remarks in his epistles. Turn, for instance, to 1 Corinthians ix. 1, where he connects with the privilege of being an apostle, and of being thus free from all ecclesiastical subjection to other men, the fact that he had seen the Saviour. "Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?"

Again, in the 15th chapter of the same epistle, we meet with a remarkable passage, which when compared with another in the epistle to the Galatians, is most instructive and conclusive. "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have