Paul did. What a fearful wrench to his mind and his heart;
what a humiliation to his self-conceit, to have to change his mind
once for all on all matters in heaven and earth. What must it not
have cost him to throw up at once all his friends and relations; to
part himself from all whom he loved and respected on earth, to feel
that henceforth they must look upon him as a madman, an infidel, an
enemy. To an affectionate man, and St. Paul was an extremely
affectionate man, what a bitter struggle that must have cost him.
But he faced that struggle, and conquered in it, like a brave and
honest man. And the consequence was, that he had, in time, and
after many lonely years, many Christian friends for each Jewish
friend that he had lost; and to him was fulfilled (as it will be to
all men) our Lord's great saying, 'There is no man that hath left
house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or
children, or lands for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall
receive an hundredfold now in this time, . . . and in the world to
come eternal life.'
Next; we may take comfort, in the hope that God will not impute to
us these early follies and mistakes of ours; if only there be in us,
as there was in St. Paul, the honest and good heart; that is, the
heart which longs to know what is true and right, and bravely acts
up to what it knows.
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