I do not like riding in the Damascus street-cars.
We were on our way to the reputed houses of Judas and Ananias. About eighteen or nineteen hundred years ago, Saul, a native of Tarsus, was particularly bitter against the new sect called Christians, and he left Jerusalem and started across the country on a furious crusade against them. He went forth "breathing threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord." "And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: "And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?' "And when he knew that it was Jesus that spoke to him he trembled, and was astonished, and said, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"' He was told to arise and go into the ancient city and one would tell him what to do. In the meantime his soldiers stood speechless and awe-stricken, for they heard the mysterious voice but saw no man. Saul rose up and found that that fierce supernatural light had destroyed his sight, and he was blind, so "they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus." He was converted.
Paul lay three days, blind, in the house of Judas, and during that time he neither ate nor drank.