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The Acts of the Apostles
an effort to set the truth before his countrymen. As he was about to
be led into the castle he said to the chief captain, “May I speak unto
thee?” Lysias responded, “Canst thou speak Greek? Art not thou that
Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out
into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?” In reply
Paul said, “I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a
citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto
the people.”
The request was granted, and “Paul stood on the stairs, and beck-
oned with the hand unto the people.” The gesture attracted their at-
tention, while his bearing commanded respect. “And when there was
made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,
Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense which I make now
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unto you.” At the sound of the familiar Hebrew words, “they kept the
more silence,” and in the universal hush he continued:
“I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia,
yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according
to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward
God, as ye all are this day.” None could deny the apostle’s statements,
as the facts that he referred to were well known to many who were still
living in Jerusalem. He then spoke of his former zeal in persecuting the
disciples of Christ, even unto death; and he narrated the circumstances
of his conversion, telling his hearers how his own proud heart had
been led to bow to the crucified Nazarene. Had he attempted to enter
into argument with his opponents, they would have stubbornly refused
to listen to his words; but the relation of his experience was attended
with a convincing power that for the time seemed to soften and subdue
their hearts.
He then endeavored to show that his work among the Gentiles had
not been entered upon from choice. He had desired to labor for his
own nation; but in that very temple the voice of God had spoken to
him in holy vision, directing his course “far hence unto the Gentiles.”
Hitherto the people had listened with close attention, but when
Paul reached the point in his history where he was appointed Christ’s
ambassador to the Gentiles, their fury broke forth anew. Accustomed
to look upon themselves as the only people favored by God, they were
unwilling to permit the despised Gentiles to share the privileges which
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had hitherto been regarded as exclusively their own. Lifting their