And  it  was  so.  For,  there  they  stood,  set  in  order
before  him,  and  passed  in  order  before  him  and
before  God.  The  souls  of  all  the  men  and  women
and  children  he  had  haled  to  prison,  and  had  com-
pelled to  blaspheme,  and  had  slain  with  the  sword.
And,  then,  as  he  hid  himself  in  the  cleft  rock — how
the  Name  of  the  Lord  would  come  up  into  his  mind.
and  how,  like  Moses  also,  he  would  make  haste  and
bow  his  head  to  the  earth  and  say  :  Take  me  for
one  of  Thy  people.      And,  till  God  would  again

41


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL

reveal  His  Son  in  Paul  in  a  way,  and  to  a  degree,
that  it  is  not  possible  for  Paul  to  tell  to  such  impeni-
tent and  unprostrated  readers  of  his  as  we  are.  And,
then,  far  over  and  above  those  terrible  sins  of  his
youth,  there  was  the  absolutely  unparalleled  and
absolutely  indescribable  agony  that  came  upon
Paul  out  of  the  remaining  covetousness  and  conse-
quent malice  of  his  heart,  and  more  and  more  so
as  his  heart  was  more  and  more  brought  down
under  the  ever- increasing  and  all-piercing  spiritu-
ality of  God's  holy  law.  An  agony  that  sometimes
threatened  to  drive  Paul  beside  himself  altogether.
