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Of how many threads is this human life woven! Through what changeful experiences do we pass, even in a short period of our course! In the brief period - possibly three years - covered by our text, we find Paul undergoing various fluctuations of good and evil. It is suggestive of the nature and character of our common human life. We may gather them up thus -

I. THE PLEASANT. Paul had the pleasure of:

1. Congenial fellowship. He was "with the disciples... at Damascus" (ver. 19); "he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem" (vers. 27, 28). Few things shed more sunshine on our earthly path than the genial society of those with whom we are one in thought and aim.

2. Conscious growth in moral and spiritual power in dealing with men. He increased in strength (ver. 22).

3. Fearless action on behalf of the true and right (ver. 29). These are joys, deep and full, to a human spirit - to be growing in influence, and to be playing a brave and noble part in the strife of life.

II. THE PAINFUL.

1. The distrust of those with whom we are in sympathy. Paul "assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were afraid," etc. (ver. 26). It is a very painful wound to the spirit to be distrusted by those to whom we really belong. To have our sincerity doubted, to have our purity questioned, to be looked at askance rather than with kindly and gracious eye, - this is one of the keen, cutting miseries of life.

2. Persecution for conscience' sake (vers. 23, 24, 29). This may go far short of "seeking our life to take it away;" it may not pass beyond the sneering word or the curling lip, and yet it may introduce great bitterness into the cup of life.

3. Humiliation. Paul never seems to have forgotten the incident of his being let down in a basket (ver. 25). He felt the humiliation of it. Anything which wounds our self-respect makes a lasting, often a lifelong, scar on the soul.

III. THE NEEDFUL.

1. Solitude. It is not stated in the text, but we know from his letters that at this juncture (probably between vers. 19 and 20) Paul went into Arabia (Galatians 1:17); there he spent much time alone with God; there he communed with his own spirit, "looking before and after;" there he re-read and read anew the Scriptures which he imagined he understood before, but now found to be other and more than he had supposed. We urgently need this element of solitude. We are not enough alone; more of quiet meditation, of communion with the Father of spirits, of reverent contemplation, would calm, steady, purify, ennoble us.

2. Social activity. (Vers. 20, 22, 29.) Whether or not we "preach Christ," "confounding" and "disputing," we must come into contact, and sometimes into collision with men. We need to know how to do this wisely and rightly, at times showing the fearless spirit, at times the spirit of discretion, at times the spirit of conciliation, always the spirit of Christ.

IV. THE ELEVATED. (Ver. 30.) This chapter simply tells us that the brethren brought Paul to Caesarea and sent him to Tarsus. But Paul himself elsewhere informs us (Acts 22:17, 18) that the Lord Jesus Christ manifested himself to him and desired him to leave Jerusalem. We do not look for such trances and visions now, but we do look, or should do so, for manifestations, indwellings, influences of the Divine Spirit of God, so that we ourselves and our whole human life may be guided and sanctified of God. Of such elements arc all our lives woven. We must gratefully accept and so sanctify the pleasant, meekly and cheerfully endure the painful, wisely employ the necessary, and reverently avail ourselves of the elevated; thus will our lives be blessed of God, thus will they speak his praise and spread his truth, thus will they lead to his presence and glory. - C.

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KJV: And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus.

WEB: He took food and was strengthened. Saul stayed several days with the disciples who were at Damascus.