m read Acts 8:3, and Acts 9:1; for
similar work done elsewhere also Acts 26:10, 11. How widely he was
soon known as a ruthless persecutor we learn from Acts 9:13. On
account of all this he was the most feared man in the world by all
believers.

#162. His miraculous conversion# took place on the way to Damascus on
an errand of persecution. Of this we have one narrative given by Luke,
and two given by the Apostle himself. (Acts 9:1-22; Acts 22:3-13; Acts
26:9-18). From the moment of his conversion, Saul was a changed man.
That which he hated before he now loved, and for the sake of his newly
found Master he was willing to suffer all the persecutions that he
himself had up to that time meted out to others. As a consequence of
his preaching in Damascus he was obliged to flee, and he went at once
to Arabia (Gal. 1:15-17), where many think that he spent three years
in the vicinity of Mount Sinai, where Moses and Elijah had learned so
much. It may be also that before he comes to the front in the story
told by Luke, he was in Syria and Cilicia, as mentioned in Galatians
1:21.

#163. In connection with the revival in Antioch#, he is introduced by
Barnabas, who went to Tarsus and got him to aid him in his work (Acts
11:25, 26). Here the Apostle remained for about one year, doing grand
work for the church in that place. As we have seen in our lesson on
the Acts, this was the church which organized the first missionary
work, and sent Paul and Barnabas as their missionaries to other
cities. Here begins #Paul's first missionary journey# (Acts 13:2). In
all his work Paul aimed at cities, for he knew that there he could
find men, and these were what he sought. This first journey took him
to Cyprus, Perga, Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, and back
through Lystra, Iconium, Antioch, to Attalia, and back to Antioch in
Syria. Let the scholar read the story as told in Acts 13 and 14. In
Lystra it was that he and Barnabas were first deified--thought to be
gods,--and not long after nearly killed by the inhabitants of that
city. In Malta later on he was first taken for a murderer, and then
later on deified. Paul is the only man in all the Bible history who
had such varied experiences.

#164. In his second missionary journey# he started once more from
Antioch, and together with Silas made a tour of the cities touched in
his first journey. Then they went into Galatia, and so on to Troas.
Here it was that the vision of the man of Ma