f Tarsus. How he worked, and how the church
feared him, we shall see more in detail in our next lesson. Suffice it
to say here that had he continued in his first course, the whole
history of the spread of the Gospel would have been very different
from what it was. From the standpoint of the truth of God, next to
Moses, Paul was the greatest man who has ever lived. To have him on
the side of the truth, instead of against it, was a great thing for
the church of that day and for the church since that day. That which
is of the utmost importance in the conversion of Saul is the fact that
Jesus himself appeared to him, and in this way gave him, as it were,
the Master's own sanction to act as one of the Apostles. As a matter
of fact, the two most important miracles of the New Testament are the
resurrection of the Lord and the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.

(4) _The tearing down of the middle wall of partition._ This took
place in Caesarea, and to Peter was given the great privilege of
tearing this wall down. What was this wall? (Eph. 2:14.) It was one
divinely built centuries before. Up to the experience at Caesarea (Acts
10) no Gentile might come into the church of God, excepting by way of
the Gate of the Proselyte. He must submit to Jewish ordinances and
customs before he could be one of the Covenant People. The Apostles
themselves had no thought that the Gentiles ever could come into the
church excepting in the usual way. Without circumcision, they believed
no man could be acceptable to God. Now the time had come when this
"middle wall" must come down, and to Peter was given the high
privilege of accomplishing this task. But to convince Peter that the
command was of Divine origin, it was needful for God to perform a
double miracle, the like of which had never been seen. Therefore to
Peter on the housetop at Joppa, and to Cornelius the centurion, in
Caesarea, God gave a vision, and when the two visions were brought
together, they were found to match exactly. Then when the Holy Spirit
came to the men at Cornelius' house, Peter was convinced that the
middle wall was down, and that to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews
the door was open on condition of faith in the Messiah. In this event
and that of the church on the day of Pentecost, when Peter opened the
door of the church to 3000 Jews, we see, in part at least (and in
large part), the fulfilment of "the power of the keys" (Matt. 16:19).
To exaggerate the importance of this