ELYMAS THE SORCERER
A Sorcerer Rejects Gospel.
But there was living in the deptuy-house at the time a man who was not sincere, and who claimed to be a sorcerer. He rejected Paul's message, and opposed his teachings. Bar-Jesus was his right name, and he was a Jew, and a false prophet. Paul read his wicked heart, and knew that because of selfishness and love of money he rejected the Gospel.
"Then Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said, O full of subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
"And now behold the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season.
"And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some one to lead him by the hand."
If in his darkness he had let the messengers of Light lead him they would have given him eternal sight, just as Paul had received it through Ananias, in Damascus. But we are led to believe that he remained blind and bitter.
The Governor Believes.
Sergius Paulus, however, believed, "being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord." Many others believed also, and in the wicked town of Paphos, where the revellers worshiped the goddess of love, a church was organized, and a little body of Christians came together to worship the true God and His Son Jesus Christ.