the different steps are reproduced in every genuine conversion. But this is far from being correct. Saul of Tarsus' conversion was an altogether unique one. There has, up to this time, never been a conversion like this one. Never again were the heavens opened and a light shone brighter than the sun; never again did a sinner, such a blind persecutor, behold Jesus in glory and hear His voice, and never again was one called in such a way "to be an elect vessel" and to bear the Name of the Lord "before both nations and kings and the sons of Israel." His conversion is certainly not a pattern or outline of every other conversion and yet it is a delineation, a hypotyposis.

All the great men of the Old Testament, priests, prophets and kings, were in their lives and experiences patterns, types. The great Apostle to the Gentiles, making known the salvation to the nations, himself a Jew, is no less a type. His wonderful conversion is typical of the future conversion of the nation to whom he belonged according to the flesh. What God did in his case He can and will do for Israel in a future day. The conversion of Saul of Tarsus is the type and earnest of Israel's conversion. In this light the full meaning of the quoted passages from

the first Epistle of Timothy and Corinthians can be easily understood. In Saul's conversion Christ showed mercy "the first" or "as a first one." There are others to whom that mercy is to be shown and to whom mercy will come under the same circumstances and by the same heavenly manifestation of the glorified Son of Man, and the people to whom this will happen is Israel. When we read of Paul that he saw the Lord as one born out of due season, it is the same thought which underlies this statement. The untimely birth, before the time, suggests another birth time as well as another birth, the birth of the nation, when Israel, the remnant of His people, will be born again by looking upon Him in glory, whom they have pierced.

The comparison of Saul's conversion with the future conversion of Israel as revealed in the prophetic Word is extremely striking. The delineation is perfect.

1. Saul of Tarsus in unbelief typifies the state of Israel as a nation throughout this present age. He was a learned Pharisee, a fierce persecutor, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, blind and unbelieving. Such is Israel, another unbelieving Saul, and, like him, zealous for God without knowledge.

2. The opened heavens, the vision and voice of the glorified Jesus, by which Saul of Tarsus was arrested in his career, are typical of the coming day when the heavens will be opened again and the Lord Jesus Christ will be manifested in power and in glory. At His second visible and glorious coming the remnant of Israel will behold Him and learn by His glorious appearing that Jesus is their Messiah and King (Zechariah xii:10-14, Matthew xxiv:29, 30, Revel. i:7). The opened heavens, the great light flashing forth, the vision and voice of Jesus, the prostrate Saul there on the road to Damascus, was but a little sample of what God will do for the remnant of His earthly people and how they shall at last know Him and receive Him.

3. Paul's service to nations and kings foreshadows Israel's coming ministry to the nations of the earth. All nations are yet to know the glory of the Lord, but, world conversion is only possible after Israel is converted. Through Israel all the nations of the earth will at last be blessed.

These three great facts seen in the conversion of Saul, typifying Israel's unbelief, the manner and result of their conversion, we shall follow throughout the chapter and learn

from the Scriptures some of the revealed details. We understand therefore why the Holy Spirit puts the Apostle Paul immediately after the question of the chapter is asked. What manifestation of the grace and wisdom of God! The instrument chosen to reveal the mysteries hidden in former ages and to complete the Word of God, the one to whom is given the full knowledge of the Gospel of Grace to be preached among the Gentiles, while Israel is set aside for a time, is also made a type, a pattern of what Israel is to be and to receive in the future, when God will arise and have mercy upon Zion.

The Remnant-Israel's Apostasy Not Complete.

CHAPTER III.

The second answer to the important question and argument that God has not cast away His people Israel is continued in verses 2-6. "God hath not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Know ye not what the Scripture says in the history of Elias, how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed Thy prophets, they have dug down Thine altars; and I have been left alone and they seek my life." But what says the divine answer to him? "I have left to Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Thus, then, in the present time also there has been a remnant according to election of grace. But if by grace, it is no more of works; since otherwise grace is no more grace."

It is historical evidence which is placed in these words before us. The Holy Spirit reaches back into the history of the nation and calls our attention to an important episode. The prophet Elijah lived in a time