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."