Damascus, since the glorious light struck him instantly to the earth and blinded him; and those who were with him, though they saw the light, beheld no man. But he tells us that the Lord Jesus appeared to him once* at Jerusalem, while he was praying in the Temple, and desired him to leave Jerusalem, since the people there would not listen to his words, or receive his witness, (because he had been so well known there as a persecutor of the Christians.) Depart, for I will send thee far hence to the Gentiles;" these were his Lord's words. It was this com

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* This, it is supposed, happened during the visit of Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, which I have lately mentioned.

mand which decided the course of Paul's future labours; he was to be the Apostle of the Gentiles-the word Apostle, you know, means one sent, and he was sent by his Lord to the Gentiles,-to the idolatrous Gentiles in particular, who had not yet heard the glad tidings of salvation,-who, if they "knew God, worshipped him not as God," but gave themselves up to idolatry, and every kind of wicked

ness.

We will now follow Paul on this his first journey. He returned with Barnabas, the companion of his labours, to Antioch, and after having received the blessings and prayers of the ministers of that church, they set forward on their important but

perilous undertaking, to convert the heathen world.

Taking with them Mark, whom I have mentioned before, they went to Seleucia, a sea-port town near Antioch, from whence they sailed, as you may see in the map, to the Isle of Cyprus, the native country of Barnabas. They landed at the town of Salamis, where they preached to the Jews of that place, and then proceeded to Paphos, where Paul worked a miracle on the following

occasion:

Sergius Paulus, the deputy governor of the island, sent for Paul and Barnabas, that he might hear from them the word of God. Now there was at that time with Sergius,

a false prophet and sorcerer* named Elymas, who endeavoured to turn him away from the Christian faith, which he was disposed to receive: upon which, Paul, fixing his eyes on the wicked man, declared that as he had endeavoured to pervert the ways of the Lord, (to hinder the designs of his Providence, that is,) he should be blind for a certain time. And immediately a mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking some one to lead him by the hand. This miracle decided the faith of Sergius, he became a Christian, and was, I think, the first among the idolatrous Gentiles whose conversion is mentioned.

* A sorcerer is one who pretends to work miracles.

Shortly after, Paul and his companions set sail from Cyprus, and landing in Pisidia, a province of Asia Minor, went to Antioch; which Antioch you must remember to distinguish from Antioch in Syria, which they set out from. Mark left them here, and returned to Jerusalem.

What happened to them at Antioch in Pisidia, I will relate in my next chapter.