s called to a sacred office, and made a prophet. He
was called, and he forthwith answered the call. God said, "Samuel,
Samuel." He did not understand at first who called, and what was
meant; but on going to Eli he learned who spoke, and what his answer
should be. So when God called again, he said, "Speak, Lord, for Thy
servant heareth." Here is prompt obedience.

Very different in its circumstances was St. Paul's call, but resembling
Samuel's in this respect, that, when God called, he, too, promptly
obeyed. When St. Paul heard the voice from heaven, he said at once,
trembling and astonished, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do[1]?"
This same obedient temper of his is stated or implied in the two
accounts which he himself gives of his miraculous conversion. In the
22nd chapter he says, "And I said, What shall I do, Lord?" And in the
26th, after telling King Agrippa what the Divine Speaker said to him,
he adds what comes to the same thing, "Whereupon, O King Agrippa, _I
was not disobedient_ unto the heavenly vision." Such is the account
given us in St. Paul's case of that first step in God's gracious
dealings with him, which ended in his eternal salvation. "Whom He did
foreknow, He also did predestinate[2];"--"whom He did predestinate,
them He also called"--here was the first act which took place in
time--"and whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He
justified, them He also glorified." Such is the Divine series of
mercies; and you see that it was prompt obedience on St. Paul's part
which carried on the first act of Divine grace into the second, which
knit together the first mercy to the second. "Whom He called, them He
also justified." St. Paul was called when Christ appeared to him in
the way; he was justified when Ananias came to baptize him: and it was
prompt obedience which led him from his call to his baptism. "Lord,
what wilt Thou have me to do?" The answer was, "Arise, and go into
Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are
appointed for thee to do[3]." And when he came to Damascus, Ananias
was sent to him by the same Lord who had appeared to him; and he
reminded St. Paul of this when he came to him. The Lord had appeared
for his call; the Lord appeared for his justification.

This, then, is the lesson taught us by St. Paul's conversion, promptly
to obey the call. If we do obey it, to God be the glory, for He it is
works in us. If we do not obey, to ourselves be