The Sequestrated Soul
P.C. Barker Acts 9:9 And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. In the wonders of the conversion of Saul we are greatly impressed with the close regard paid to the needs of human nature. It is not all miracle, nor must it be so viewed. Amazing is the grace of what cannot be construed as anything less than superhuman intervention. An adoring surprise is certainly not diminished when we notice how that intervention condescends so soon, so readily, to make itself at home with the harmonies of human nature. It does not affect to disdain them, nor doe, it dispense with them, because of the majesty of its own omnipotence, but rather emphatically "condescends to the low estate of men." For the experience of intense excitement through which Saul had just passed is sure, upon the reckonings of human nature by itself, to be decisive of his future. If it do not make him, it will most surely undo him for ever. He may "be exalted above measure" or he may be depressed "above measure." Either of these two extremes is a constant result in human life of whatever might come nearest to such excitement and impression as those here described. In the presence of a position so critical, it does not follow that nature is entirely helpless nor that miracles must be implored. In succeeding degrees repose, silence, even darkness will be prescribed, and we shall be told unerringly that life or death is the alternative issue of attending upon such prescription or neglecting it. And this is a principle observed in the marvels of the conversion of Saul. That which may be viewed as proof of intervention superhuman does its short, sharp work, to be followed by the immediate resumption of methods which human wisdom and human experience would dictate. The experience of Saul here narrated may be regarded as it was - I. THE CONSEQUENCE OF DEEP MENTAL, SPIRITUAL IMPRESSION. No doubt the exceeding brightness of the "light that shined about him from heaven" may be credited with a natural power to infer the blinding of his eyes. But the same light "fell round about them that journeyed with" Saul, and they saw that light (see the accounts in Acts 22., 26.), and yet it had no blinding effect upon them - at all events no effect of the kind lasting three days. In fact, for Saul it was but the signal of the light that flashed upon the inner eye that belonged to him. But it is of God, and At is not below the Spirit of God to assert and to prove the completest mastery over man - body, soul, and spirit. And the continued loss of sight and the continuous fast are justly regarded as the result of the deep mental, spiritual impression now made on Saul. That impression was of the nature of: 1. The shock of inordinate surprise. Not an idea, not a fear, not the vaguest surmise had come near the strong horseman of such an arresting check. 2. The shock of overmatched force. The weak and tender and gentle will yield and bend. It is a matter of breaking to others, and if the heart break not, who can imagine the strain? That heart will be rocked to its foundation. 3. The shock of a flood of mental conviction, and so far forth illumination, breaking in upon an estranged nature and terrifying by the dark shadows it casts proportioned to its own luster. 4. The shock of the rapid rising of the tides of penitential grief, and grief that energetically stirs up repentance. 5. The shock of compunction for ingratitude and all the past hostility of a hating heart when mercy began to dawn and love began to be born. 6. The shock of one mere glimpse through the merest chink of the sepulchral soul into the outer and upper and most inspiring light. 7. The shock of a real change. What busy but amazed, aching, anguished tumult within that soul! And who shall stay bodily sense and bodily appetite from resigning and retreating from that scene and confessing themselves merely the subordinate and temporary? II. THE GRACIOUS PROVISION OF DIVINE THOUGHT FOR YET DEEPER IMPRESSION AND FOR LASTING RESULT. Very strong impressions, if made very rapidly, may very rapidly pass away. Explain it as we may or leave it unexplained, the fact is too well ascertained. How very vivid sometimes the dream that visits us! how exceedingly difficult to throw it off for the first minutes of waking! but after those few first minutes are past, no mist climbed the mountain-side, nor morning cloud the heaven, quicker to vanish than that dream and its impression vanish. And so it is evident that everything is not necessarily gained or surely gained when vivid effects, ay, effects howsoever vivid, are gained. 1. Vivid impression needs the staying effect of reflection. 2. Vivid impressions which are also of the most startling personal character need the conciliating influences of some calm familiarity with them. They must be faced, must be looked at so that they may be recognized again, must be granted the opportunity of revealing their lovely aspects as well as their bright or powerful aspects. 3. The vivid impressions that belong to a heart touched by the Spirit of God particularly demand to dwell a while with that Spirit, and dwell as though quite alone with him, (1) that he may be honored; (2) that he may work his work amid the absorbed and the undivided, undistracted attention of that human heart. In what ineffable communion with the Father supreme, with the Savior and Mediator Jesus, and with eternal realities, will the Spirit then engage the yielding heart! It is not that the Spirit cannot work apace, but, as in everything else, it is that man cannot - he is slow, slow indeed, as compared with that Spirit's swift power. 4. Strong convictions do none the less need the confirming effect of deliberate resolution, of some contributing and very conscious effort on our own side. 5. The most right resolutions need that we summon our whole self, after carefully "counting the cost," to prove moral courage and spiritual vigor by taking some practical step. It is Jesus himself who lays the stress on "counting the cost," for those who would be his followers, do his work, "enter the kingdom of God." And to changed objects of life, methods of life, and society in life, such as those to which Saul - ay, to which any true convert - is called, needs it not the entrance by unmistakable, confessed self-renunciation? Of the honesty and thoroughness of such self-renunciation it is at all events no feeble symbol when sense and appetite resign their grip, generally so tyrannical. And now in no parable, but in most literal truth, Saul is befriended by Divine forethought and care. The strong man is taken out of his own keeping. When he was his old self, he had indeed "girded himself and walked whither he would;" but now he is too glad to "stretch forth his hand, and that another should gird him" and lead him whither he had never, never thought of going. It was the completing so far of God's great love to him, and Jesus' great compassion toward him. He is delivered, fairly delivered from himself for three days. He sees not, eats not, drinks not. Neither does he go out to this present world by the beautiful gate of the eye, nor does the support of the outer world come so much as to his body. He is sequestered with the Spirit, who reveals to him the errors of the past and something of the destiny of the future; who makes him to know Jesus and himself - the fullness and grace of the one, the poverty and insufficiency of the other. The plain facts for Saul again and again speak with lessons most needed for us and for all time. They suggest to us what meditation we need, what devotion, what divorce from sight and from appetite which may so seduce the soul, what grateful and close communion with God, obedience to the Spirit, and trust in the Savior, and how the safest augury for the future is that we do break with the past. Wonderful and fascinating to imagination Saul's "retreat" of three days. To the things that then transpired, however, we need not be and ought not to be entire strangers. We may learn what Saul learned if we will go where he learned them, and may ere long say for ourselves - "There if thy Spirit touch the soul And grace her mean abode, Oh, with what peace and joy and love She communes with her God!" - B. Parallel Verses KJV: And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. WEB: He was without sight for three days, and neither ate nor drank.