LESSON 24
IN ANOTHER SCHOOL
"All the scholastic scaffolding falls as a ruined edifice, before one single word—faith."
Teachers Compared.
For several days immediately following his wonderful conversion and his restoration to sight, Saul "was with the disciples who were at Damascus." Saul had now entered another school, but how different from the one in which he sat at the feet of the learned Gamaliel! There he listened to instruction from the most learned men of his day; now he is listening to men who were thought unlearned. There he received training of the intellect; now he is receiving training of the soul. There he studied blindly; now he studies, truly seeing! His instructor is one of the faithful men whom he had despised and whom he came to arrest. "Not Peter, or James or John, no great and eminent apostle need be sent for, to instruct the learned and highly talented Saul; but Ananias, some poor, simple-hearted Christian of whom the Divine word has never before made mention, is fully sufficient, in God's hand, to teach this most richly endowed of all the early converts."
True Zeal.
As he listened, hour after hour, during those few memorable days, his soul became fired with a true zeal; and we can imagine hearing him say to his new teachers,
"Set on your foot. And with a heart new fir'd I follow you."
"And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God."
Jews Amazed.
We are not told whether any of the men who accompanied him to Damascus became converted. Perhaps one or two did; but, undoubtedly, some of them thought Saul had turned traitor. So also did the Jews in Damascus, who were amazed, and said to one another, "Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came here for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?" But the more they opposed him, the more eloquently he defended the name of Jesus and proved to them that Jesus is the Christ.
The School of Solitude.
After a few days of fiery disputations in the synagogues, Saul concluded to leave Damascus and go into retirement; so, bidding his new friends goodby, he went into Arabia in the mountains near the Red Sea. Here he received instruction in the School of Solitude.
"O sacred solitude! divine retreat!
Choice of the prudent! envy of the great!
By thy Pure stream, or in thy waving shade,
We court fair wisdom."
Like Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, and even the Savior Himself, Paul now sought to be alone with God, and to learn how to get his spirit in communion with the Holy Spirit.
How long he remained there, we do not know. All he says about this journey is: "I went into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus."