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THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 
 
THE 
 
 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 THREE DISCOURSES 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE JAEVIS GEER, D.D. 
 
 liECTOE OF ST. TIMOTHY's CHUKCH, NEW YORK. 
 
 ><^?*«ChK- 
 
 
 iefa-g0rk: 
 SAMUEL K. WELLS, 
 
 389 BROADWAY. 
 
 1871. 
 
GIFT 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congresa, in the year 1871, 
 
 BY SAMUEL Ti. WTLLS, 
 In the Ofllce of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington. 
 
 
TO ONE 
 
 WHOSE UNS'AXLING SYMPATHY 
 
 HAS CHEEBED HIM ON DUEING A MINISTRY OF 
 
 nVE-AND-TWENTY YEAES, 
 
 THIS VOLUME IS 
 
 MOST AFFECTIONATEIiY DEDICATED 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 416015 
 
COSITEl^TS. 
 
 THE CONVEESION OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Its Relation to Unbelief. ... 9 
 
 II. Its False Uses and True. . . 32 
 III. Its Relation to the Church. 58 
 
•> > > , ' • 
 
 ' i 
 
 
 THE 
 
 COITYEESIO]^ OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 I. Its Relation to Unbelief. 
 
 ''Behold, lie prayeth." 
 
 Acts ix. 11. 
 
 It is hardly possible to dwell, upon the 
 wonderful contrast between the earlier and 
 later periods in the life of St. Paul, their 
 directly antagonistic character, his intense 
 hatred of the Church, and his subsequent 
 zeal, untiring labors and final martyrdom 
 for the faith of Christ, and then read his 
 own account, or that of St. Luke in the 
 book of the Acts of the Apostles, of the 
 cause of this change, without feeling that, 
 
10 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 regarded as a testimony to the truth of all 
 that is recorded of Jesus of Nazareth, His 
 Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection and As- 
 cension, it is not to be escaped, it cannot 
 be resisted. While the same individual 
 characteristics run through both the earlier 
 and later periods, and everywhere exhibit 
 themselves, such as zeal, energy, per- 
 severance, courage, ardor and boldness, 
 there yet probably never lived a man, two 
 sections of wliose life offer a greater con- 
 trast to each other, than the two which 
 make up the life of St. Paul. It was no 
 idle thing that his name was changed ; 
 that he is known in the inspired volume 
 by a diflerent name during the different 
 periods. "By their fruits ye shall know 
 them.'' And how diverse were the fruits 
 of his life ! Look at Saul, tlie inllamed 
 zealot, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, the 
 relentless persecutor of the Church. Then 
 
Its Relation to Unbelief. 11 
 
 turn your eye upon Paul, the rapt Apostle, 
 full of the Holy Ghost, bearing forth the 
 Gospel of Christ with burning zeal among 
 all nations and people. 
 
 Look at Saul under authority and com- 
 mission from the chief-priests, seizing men 
 and women, and all whom he " found of 
 this way," bringing them bound to Jeru- 
 salem, and dragging them to prison and 
 to death ; then behold Paul under a com- 
 mission from Jesits Christ, the Lord of 
 Glory, going forth into the same cities, 
 and into the midst of the very scenes of 
 his persecutions, exhorting and persuading 
 every man, night and day, with tears, to 
 turn to the living God, to enter the ark of 
 Christ's Church. 
 
 Look at Saul, to use his own words, 
 compelling the disciples to blaspheme : 
 then behold Paul, by his ceaseless labors 
 and entreaties, bringing men to their knees 
 
12 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 in reverencing, honoring, and supplicating 
 the Name of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 Look at Saul, "exceedingly mad^^ 
 against the disciples, persecuting them 
 " even unto strange cities," and then behold 
 Paul, in the midst of that scene which 
 occurred when he was about to depart 
 from Ephesus, when he kneeled down and 
 prayed with them all, and the Ephesian 
 Christians *' all wxpt sore and fell on 
 Paul's neck and kissed him." 
 
 Behold him, a Jew, persecuting Chris- 
 tians even unto death. Then hear him 
 a Christian, giving vent to his impas- 
 sioned desire for the salvation of the Jews, 
 willing himself to be accursed from Christ 
 
 that they might be made partakers of 
 His Great Salvation ; while forty Jews, 
 actuated by the same spirit which had 
 actuated him, being a Jew, banded 
 together, had bound themselves vmder 
 
Its Relation to Unbelief. 13 
 
 an oath, neither to eat nor sleep till they 
 had killed Paul. 
 
 Look at Saul at the martydom of St. 
 Stephen, standing by and urging on his 
 murderers, holding their garments, con- 
 senting unto his death, and then behold 
 Paul, arising, as it were, out of the very 
 grave of St. Stephen, the mightiest cham- 
 pion of the Faith of Christ. See him 
 stoned at Lystra and drawn out of the city 
 for dead, and follow him on, until he too 
 becomes a martyr for the faith of Christ 
 and is beheaded at Rome under the 
 impious Nero.* 
 
 Look at Saul, successfully pursuing, and 
 becoming enriched in his mind with all. 
 the varied learning of the heathen schools. 
 Then hear St. Paul discoursing of the 
 wisdom of this world as foolishness with 
 God. Hear him preaching Christ crucified, 
 
 * Eusebius. 
 
14 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the 
 Greeks foolishness — hear him declaring 
 how he comited all things but dung that 
 he might win Christ and be found in Him. 
 See him caught up into the third heaven, 
 where he heard unspeakable things which 
 it is not lawful for a man to utter. 
 
 Look at him pressing forward on his 
 way to Damascus. As he goes thither- 
 ward. Saul is breathing out threatenings 
 and slaughter. He arrives in Damascus. 
 ]3ut he is another man. Bowed down, 
 liumbled to the dust in penitence and 
 shame, he supplicates fervently for j^ardon. 
 ** Behold, he prayeth." Three days pass 
 ^ by of prayer and fasting. He did neither 
 eat nor drink. Three days without sight, 
 and Saul is a baptized man. His sins are 
 washed away. He is now calUng on the 
 Name of the Lord. He who came to kill 
 and to destroy, stayed to preach that men 
 
Its Relation to Unbelief. 15 
 
 might have life, yea, that they might have 
 it more abundantly. He who had come 
 up to Damascus, burning with the fire of 
 intensest hatred against the religion of a 
 crucified deceiver, "straightway preached 
 Christ in the synagogues, that He is the 
 Son of God." 
 
 Whence is this change ? Has it been 
 frivolously made ? Has he lightly given 
 himself to those interests which he so much 
 hated and despised? Is he but a weak 
 and fickle man? Is he an anomaly, of 
 whom we may not judge by the known 
 rules by which we estimate the character 
 of men and explain their conduct ? Read 
 his own account or that given by St. Luke 
 in the book of the Acts, of what occurred 
 while he was on his way to Damascus, and 
 you have the full explanation of this great 
 change. The appearance to Saul as he 
 was journeying to Damascus, of which he 
 
16 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 ever spoke freely, fully, and powerfully, 
 gives, and that alone can give, the explana- 
 tion of the deep and awful apprehensions 
 of the glory and greatness and Divine Na- 
 ture of Christ whicli possessed his whole 
 soul. From this all through his subse- 
 quent life, his words, works, and writings 
 came welling up in such . plentiful profu- 
 sion — all bearing the same impress, all 
 consistent with tliis one fact and occurrence. 
 These were not based on opinions, reason- 
 ings, or inferences drawn by his powerful 
 mind — in which there might have been 
 some flaw, undetected by himself, in which, 
 however confident a convert may himself 
 be, others could admit them or not as they 
 might choose. They were based upon a 
 fad, which was of such a nature that he 
 could by no possibility have been deceived 
 as to its truth and reality. He was stricken 
 to the earth. There was a brightness above 
 
Its Relation to Unbelief. 17 
 
 the mid-day sun. Jesus revealed Himself 
 to him, that He might make this most un- 
 promising instrument " a chosen vessel 
 unto the Lord.'^ 
 
 JS'ever have evidences of deep convic- 
 tion of the truth of principles upon which 
 the whole life and conduct were changed, 
 been given which were stronger than those 
 afforded by the life and labors of St. Paul. 
 But when, added to this, it is remembered 
 that they were grounded upon the certainty 
 which he surely possessed 'of the event 
 which transpired, they together tell be- 
 yond the reach of a cavil, of the mid- day 
 appearance to him on his way to Damascus 
 in a light from heaven above the bright- 
 ness of the sun, of his risen and ascended 
 Lord ; and therein that * ' the Lord, He is 
 God, the Lord He is God." 
 
 But what was it which made Saul of 
 Tarsus meet for such an interference 
 
 2 
 
18 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 from Heaven, so wonderful and unusual, 
 that he might be '^ a chosen vessel unto 
 the Lord?" I answer, Saul of Tarsus 
 was no trifler with what he believed to be 
 the truth of God. Though ni his zeal he 
 was fighting, in reality, against God, yet 
 he could say, as he did before Agrippa, 
 *' I verily thought with myself that I ought 
 to do many things contrary to the name of 
 Jesus of Nazareth." And before the Jew- 
 ish council, he declared, ''I have lived in 
 all good conscience before God until this 
 day." * And again he writes to St. Timothy, 
 *'I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hatli 
 enabled me, for that He counted me faith- 
 ful, putting me into the ministry, who was 
 before a blasphemer and a persecutor and 
 injurious ; but I obtained mercy because I 
 did it ignorantly in unbelief.-'" His con- 
 duct \vas sincere. Not in a common and 
 false, but in a true sense. His ignorance 
 
Its Relation to Unbelief. 19 
 
 was not a wilful ignorance. While liis 
 action was most earnest as a persecutor, it 
 did not spring from caprice, from any 
 arbitrary determination of the will to ac- 
 complish his ends, right or wrong. There 
 was not a doubt in his mind, and never had 
 been, that he was doing God's service. 
 His convictions of duty were deep and 
 strong. The great desire which actuated 
 him in his persecution of the Church 
 was to serve the God of his fathers 
 — to exterminate this alarming doctrine 
 which threatened the subversion and ex- 
 tinction of that religion which he knew 
 in ages gone had received the full sanction 
 of Heaven. Hence, in his own significant 
 
 words, ''Jesus Christ our Lord 
 
 counted me faithful." Neither as Saul of 
 Tarsus nor as Paul the Apostle was he any 
 trifler. And the entire truthfulness of his 
 action, so far as he was concerned, and the 
 
20 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 truth of his convictions are distinctly 
 manifested as such . by his unfeigned 
 amazement at the miraculous appearance 
 to him, by the way, of Jesus, whom he 
 persecuted. Then he learned how Jesus 
 was the Author and Finisher of the religion 
 of God's chosen people, the Vindicator of 
 its truth, the Fulfiller of its prophecies, 
 and that the "law was our schoolmaster to 
 bring us to Christ." 
 
 And when his eye had been touched by 
 the finger of God, and he saw Christ in the 
 law, and the law fulfilled in Him, ''he 
 
 mightily convinced the Jews 
 
 showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was 
 Christ." The word of God became in 
 his hand like '' a hammer that breaketh 
 the rock in pieces.'' Thus while^he was a 
 chosen vessel of the Lord to bear His 
 Name before the Gentiles and kings and 
 the children of Israel, and by all the ele- 
 
Its Relation to Unbelief. 21 
 
 ments of his nature was adapted to this 
 work, the fact that his conviction was so 
 clear and deep and truthful, that his con- 
 science, in all this, had not been abused, 
 nay, that in this very action against the 
 Church of God, he was striving to keep 
 his conscience void of offence, this we 
 must regard as one of the peculiar and 
 fitting qualifications of St. Paul which in- 
 duced that divine interference by which he 
 was elevated to the office of an Apostle. 
 He was a man who had but to know the 
 truth in order to labor for it. When 
 he knew it he made everything bow to 
 it. He knew no sacrifice too great to 
 make in its cause. As Saul of Tarsus, it 
 was with the whole energy of his being 
 that he ad\^nced the interests of the Jewish 
 faith, putting down eveiy obstacle which 
 stood in its way. As Paul the Apostle, 
 a convert to the faith of Christ, he tram- 
 
22 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 pled undei* his feet every earthly interest 
 which conflicted with his duty. He '4aid 
 aside every weight, and pressed towards 
 the mark of the prize of the high calling 
 of God in Christ Jesus." " What things," 
 says he, '* were gain to me, those I counted 
 loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I 
 count all things but loss for the excellency 
 of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my 
 Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss 
 of all things." 
 
 This man, whose career was so wonder- 
 ful — whose life has proved a fund of ex- 
 haustless interest and instruction to the 
 Church and to the world, who was so sig- 
 nally marked as a favorite of heaven — is a 
 type of the men we most need. It is 
 earnest men that we want in this world — 
 not wilful men, not men who are earnest 
 in gratifying a caprice, or their own wills, 
 or in accomplishing their own selfisli ends 
 
Its Relation to Unbeliej^- 23 
 
 — but we want men who are always in 
 earnest respecting the truth which they do 
 possess — who are sincere, in the sense in 
 which St. Paul was sincere through his 
 whole life : simply desiring to apprehend 
 truth, and then laboring for it with the 
 whole soul. 
 
 Such men, ever open to the influences 
 of divine truth, may meet with some won- 
 derful changes of opinion and action. But 
 they are the only men who are entitled to 
 have confidence that they will be led by 
 the hand of God. We want earnest 
 Christians, and we want earnest unbe- 
 lievers also ; men who will always be able 
 truly to say that they " verily think " that 
 they are doing God service in the lives 
 which they are leading. 
 
 I say we want earnest unbelievers. For 
 if there ever was an earnest unbeliever, 
 one who was earnest as such after the 
 
24 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 « 
 
 knowledge of Christ had been truly pre- 
 sented to him, one whose conscience had 
 never been warmed and illuminated, one 
 whose action against Christ and His holy 
 religion, could he truly said to have pro- 
 ceeded, as St. Paul said that his did, from 
 entire ignorance and pure imbelief, one 
 who acted truly and with all his soul from 
 existing and unadulterated convictions of 
 duty, that man 7iever died an unbeliever. 
 Upon such a man the Spirit of God will 
 descend. It is the kind of men who are 
 worth having to labor for the cause of 
 truth and for the glory • of God. Rare 
 men they are. For where is the unbeliev- 
 ing man, to whom Christ is preached, who 
 can rise up in his place and declare that in 
 his resistance he has not again and again 
 stifled the motions of conscience, and 
 driven back "the Light which lighteneth 
 every man that cometh into the world," 
 
Its Relation to Unbelief. 25 
 
 and which is strugghng to enter his mind 
 and his heart. If such an unbeUeving 
 man cannot be found, then to what splen- 
 did results would not earnestness lead 
 men on ! Driven not to persecute, as in 
 the case of Saul, but to accept, the out- 
 ward exertion of inward convictions would 
 break down and demolish the external 
 barriers of that practical unbelief which is 
 so common, 'so dangerous, so utterly un- 
 worthy to call forth the special action of 
 heaven. It is a kind of unbelief which 
 exists in opposition to light already given, 
 already knowingly resisted, with which our 
 Holy Religion has to contend. I say, 
 therefore, I would that every unbelieving 
 man would kindle in his heart the fire of 
 earnestness, and simply follow, not by 
 halves, here a little and there a little, but 
 with all his might, his real convictions 
 respecting truth, religious truth. Strong 
 
26 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 as the phalanx of ungodhness and worldly 
 lust and unbelief appears, the Church 
 would have little to fear from persecution. 
 Practical unbelievers would disappear like 
 dew before the morning sun. It would 
 rank, under the blessed influence of the 
 Spirit of God, among the most powerful 
 and effective means of conversion to the 
 Church of God. The trouble is, not that 
 men like Saul of Tarsus persecute the 
 Church of Christ, but that indifference to 
 truth prevails. Men are not longing for it, 
 praying for it ; and when they think they 
 have found it, devoting themselves to its 
 service with all their heart, mind, soul and 
 strength. Indifference to truth and her 
 interests broods like the spell of death 
 over the minds of men. God in His 
 providence carries home the truth of His 
 Gospel to the heart and conscience ; but 
 there is not the remotest idea of going 
 
Its Relation to Unbelief. 27 
 
 on to the discharge of duty. Men draw 
 it in with every breath they breathe. But 
 as with the air, so with the truth. They 
 learn ite value only when God takes it 
 from them. 
 
 Amid all the conflict of opinion, whose 
 din and noise fill the earth, men eagerly 
 seizing whatever makes for themselves, 
 bolsters them up in their chosen position, 
 thrusting from them all considerations 
 which make against them, present the 
 spectacle of .men fighting for a victory. 
 As if any victory will stand at the Day of 
 Judgment, but that which Truth shall win. 
 
 Discussions are no evidence of earnest 
 desire to get at the truth. Few of 
 them reach a whit deeper than to give 
 food to vanity, to drill, to acquire facility 
 in argument, or to justify national, individ- 
 ual, family, sectional, or hereditary preju- 
 dices or sins. The old gladiatorial contests 
 
28 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 of the Grecian games have disappeared, 
 but there has been a transmigration of 
 their soul. Their spirit has been infused 
 into and transfused throughout the gladia- 
 torial games of intellectual combat, which 
 so often serve but to perplex the mind. 
 Truth is something, one would think, not 
 to be hung over with solemn awe, but 
 to be sported with, to be discoursed of and 
 discussed for the entertainment of listeners, 
 for the display of skill, and trick, and 
 sleight-of-hand, to elicit admiration. Oh, 
 how far short of what we ought to be is 
 all this ! Truth is a solemn, awful re- 
 ality ; an unspeakable gift, to be valued, 
 loved, labored for, died for. To attain 
 'unto its possession is the greatest of bless- 
 iings. To be ever laboring for it, from no 
 desire of personal, temporal, selfish ends, 
 but in its own cause, for its own sake, 
 for humanity's sake, for the glory of God, 
 
Its Relation to Unbelief. 29 
 
 is the highest of duties. There is, we may 
 be sure, more meaning in these most signi- 
 ficant words of our blessed Lord, than we 
 are apt to give to them : '' He that doeth 
 His will, shall know of the doctrine, 
 whether it be of God " — ^. e. : He who dis- 
 charges his duties as they rise up before 
 him, with zeal and fidelity, without avoid- 
 ance or neglect, shall be led on by the 
 hand of God into the most intimate pre- 
 sence of those truths, which can be under- 
 stood only by those who sincerely seek 
 the knowledge of the will of the Lord. 
 '' The secret of the Lord is with them that 
 fear Him." And to fear God truly, covers 
 the whole ground. It comprehends, in- 
 volves, and leads to all duty — all truth. 
 
 This indifference to truth suggests above 
 all others one painful reflection. So long 
 as it prevails there can be little hope of 
 agreement — of unity. God will not, by 
 
30 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 any special act of His Providence, or 
 by the power of His Spirit, bring men 
 to its knowledge, until tliey really de- 
 sire it — and for its own sake. For then 
 only will they prize and preserve it — labor 
 and live for it. Men who are thinking 
 most of everything else but the truth 
 of God, are not the men to whom He 
 will, in any special manner, by any special 
 act, make His truth known. Saul was 
 ready, the moment the true light of 
 heaven broke in upon his soul, for any ser- 
 vice. He was not the man to ask, " Lord, 
 what wilt thou- have me to do ?" with a 
 mental reservation to do that will or not 
 according to his inclination or fancied in- 
 terests. He would take the consequences 
 of an answer to his prayer. He would 
 aim to be equal to the responsibihties 
 which it imposed. In like manner, only 
 as any one, in full purpose of heart, turns 
 
Its Relation to Unbelief. 31 
 
 his steps heavenward, to follow where God 
 shall lead, will it be a glorious announce- 
 ment when, as of Saul, it shall be said of 
 him, ''Behold he prayeth !'' 
 
THE 
 
 OOir^EESIOIsr OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 II. Its False Uses and True. 
 
 '♦ Howbeit, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me 
 j&rst, Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suflfering, for a 
 pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to 
 life everlasting. ' ' 1 Timothy i. 16. 
 
 In these words, St. Paul gives us one of 
 the chief reasons of his conversion — not 
 by any means the only one, but a leading 
 reason. It is after the manner of the 
 Spirit in God's Word to present one point 
 of a whole, as involving the rest, or as 
 corroborating such as have gone before. 
 As when after a miracle of our blessed 
 Lord we are told that "then His disciples 
 believed on Him f meaning that thereby 
 they were built up and strengthened in 
 
Its False Uses and True. 33 
 
 their belief. When Ehjah restored the 
 dead son of the. widow of Zarephath 
 to her arms, aUve again, although having 
 already full knowledge and belief that he 
 was a prophet sent from God, she now 
 expresses the confirmation which her 
 faith received, in these terms: ''N'ow, 
 by this I know that thou art a man 
 of God, and that the word of the Lord 
 in thy mouth is truth." So one point 
 of the Christian system is at one time 
 presented as in itself sufficient for salvation, 
 and then another in like manner, and this 
 because, as we must suppose, one always 
 involves the rest. Thus this reason, given 
 by St. Paul for his conversion, does not 
 exclude the others, elsewhere stated. As 
 where Christ tells him by the way, " I 
 have appeared unto thee for this purpose, 
 to make thee a minister and a witness, 
 both of these things which thou hast seen 
 
34 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 and of those things in the which I will 
 appear unto thee." Then, again, St. Paul 
 himself elsewhere states the cause of this 
 merciful interference to have been his 
 earnest endeavor to do God service, and 
 his real conviction that in persecuting the 
 Church he was pleasing God. Here then 
 were other causes given ; one of which is 
 stated at one time and another at another. 
 
 An interesting question, turning for the 
 most part on this difference, involving 
 various considerations growing out of it, 
 arises. How far does such a divine inter- 
 ference in the case of Saul, afford any 
 encouragement to that large class of men, 
 as yet wandering from Christ's fold, who 
 are untrue to the obligations and duties of 
 the Christian faith ? 
 
 How far can the suddenness, the over- 
 whelming character and other circum- 
 stances of this conversion be made appli- 
 
Its False Uses and True. 35 
 
 cable to cases of this kind? What 
 have we a right to expect, at the present 
 time, or in the days of the ordinary action 
 of the Church, as based upon this conver- 
 sion? 
 
 Let us be governed by the facts as they 
 have been given to us by the Holy One 
 Himself. And may the Blessed Spirit aid 
 us in arriving at and elucidating the simple 
 truth of His own Word and work. 
 
 The abuse of blessings / This is one of 
 those oft-spoken sentences which compre- 
 hends a great variety of sins in detail. It 
 is one of those general terms in which we 
 sum up man's guilt, because so many of 
 the lesser divisions and species of sins are 
 ranged under it. This present subject 
 brings before us, the false uses which are 
 made of the conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 The first (and in one relation the least 
 mischievous) of these is the doctrine of the 
 
36 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 irresistibility of grace, attempted to be 
 drawn from this transaction. 
 
 Now I do not undertake to say, that, 
 when a Christian holds this doctrine, 
 he holds a doctrine which will affect him 
 or his religious life unfavorably. We can 
 easily understand how a reverent mind 
 may incline to such a belief. Because it 
 is the grace of God, he reasons that it must 
 be irresistible, it must accomplish its in- 
 tended purpose. 
 
 But there seem to be insuperable 
 diflficulties in the way, in all those 
 passages of Holy Scripture which repre- 
 sent the Spirit of God as striving with 
 men, which bid us " Quench not the 
 Spirit,'' on the very ground that we 
 have the dangerous power and ability 
 to do so, and which represent the unfaith- 
 ful as receiving the grace of God " in vain." 
 And surely we can find no warrant for the 
 
Its False Uses and True. 37 
 
 doctrine in the conversion of St. Paul. It 
 is true it would have been a greater 
 miracle, we may almost say, than the divine 
 transaction itself, if Saul had not been 
 converted. And that, because of the 
 whole character and circumstances of the 
 appearance. In this sense we cannot but 
 say that it was irresistible — but by no 
 means in a sense which would deprive 
 Saul of his free-agency. The power of 
 choice was still his, however great the 
 madness of resisting would have been. 
 Not one word to the contrary is recorded, 
 or which supposes the opposite. He 
 did choose ;• immediately. Of his own 
 free will, he asked, "Lord, what wilt Thou 
 have me to do ?'' His own account of the 
 transaction is only reconcilable with such 
 a consciousness on his part. He says to 
 King Agrippa : ' ' Whereupon I was not 
 disobedient to the heavenly vision.'^ Here 
 
38 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 was freedom of action — here was choice 
 between obedience and disobedience. He 
 represents himself as free to act. He 
 makes it a point to be presented in his 
 defence, that since the vision was a hea- 
 venly vision, and he would follow the 
 truth, he would not be disobedient, as 
 would not any other right-minded man. 
 These, I say, are difficulties in the way of 
 receiving such a doctrine. 
 
 Yet, however little a belief in the 
 doctrine might do harm to one already a 
 Christian, I can hardly conceive of any- 
 thing within the pale of possible belief 
 which an irreligious man -might hold 
 which could be more injurious to him. He 
 proposes to wait for the irresistible opera- 
 tion of the Spirit upon him. He shuns all 
 the established means of grace. He irre- 
 verently treats the ordinary and sufficient 
 motions of the Holy Ghost, constantly 
 
Its False Uses and True. 39 
 
 iterated and reiterated in his heart and 
 conscience, as what proceeds from his own 
 nature, which he may heed or not as he 
 chooses. The years of his Hfe roll away, 
 and he goes down to his grave an im- 
 regenerated and unrenewed man. The 
 motions of the Holy Spirit have never 
 been so strong that he could not resist 
 them, if he chose. Thus the doctrine, 
 besides being unwarranted in Scripture, 
 puts the souls of unbelieving men in 
 imminent peril. 
 
 This brings me directly to the main 
 point we have in hand — the chief of the 
 false uses made of this transaction. This 
 record, it is greatly to be feared, is wrested 
 to the destruction of those who thereby 
 encourage themselves in the sin of pre- 
 sumption. Presumption, not in hoping 
 for mercy when guilt is dark and ruin is 
 impending, not in turning back unto God 
 
40 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 and suing' for pardon under any circum- 
 stances of error, crime or delusion. For it 
 is by this live coal from the altar of His 
 trutli that God would light the fires of 
 hope even in the breast of the condemned 
 criminal, sorrowing, penitent and broken- 
 hearted. ^' For this cause I obtained 
 mercy, ^^ St. Paul says, "that in me first 
 Jesus Christ might show forth all long- 
 suffering, for a pattern to them which 
 should hereafter believe on Him to life 
 everlasting.'^ This is indeed one of the 
 true, practical uses to be made of tlie 
 conversion of St. Paul. It gives ground 
 of hope and encouragement to sinful, 
 wandering men to seek forgiveness and 
 acceptance with God. The fact that 
 Jesus Christ showed so much long-suf- 
 fering and mercy in this instance, is dis- 
 tinctly presented as an evidence of God's 
 willingness to pardon all grievous offend- 
 
Its False Uses and Thue. 41 
 
 ers. The very extremity of the case of 
 Saul enters into the essence of this aspect 
 of the event. For it is scarcely possible to 
 conceive of a more flagrant dishonor done 
 to God than that a man, having the j)ower 
 to do so, should, by torture, or otherwise, 
 compel men to utter blasphemies against 
 God their Saviour, loved and revered with 
 all their heart, mind, soul and strength, 
 and whose souls were filled with a sense of 
 His awful majesty. Yet Saul had done 
 this. Nay, while he pursued the disciples 
 under various forms of persecution, by 
 torture and imprisonment, we know that 
 he did not stop short even of consenting 
 unto and procuring their death. The con- 
 version of St. Paul was designed, therefore, 
 to speak forth most eloquently, as it surely 
 does, the long-suffering of God. It is set 
 forth as a pattern for all those who ever 
 after would approach Him and believe on 
 
42 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 His name. And how great an encourage- 
 ment it ought to be to those who are ' ' in the 
 gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity !" 
 It is a living, alway-pleading embodiment 
 from the very hand of the Great Sculptor 
 Himself, of those words which He spake by 
 the mouth of His Prophet Ezekiel : " When 
 the wicked man turneth away from his 
 wickedness which he hath committed, and 
 doeth that which is lawful and right, he 
 shall save his soul alive. '^ It is "a pat- 
 tern '' which poor human nature needed. 
 Men on their way down the dark road 
 which leads to the chambers of death, 
 sometimes, when it is not too late to turn 
 and repent, become the victims of despair ; 
 so great is their guilt, so numerous are 
 their sins. The effect of an awakened and 
 smiting conscience is often to fill such men 
 with gloom and the spirit of desperation. 
 Such men, although they have abused 
 
Its False Uses and True. 43 
 
 their most precious privileges, and even 
 sinned against light and knowledge, are 
 to look upon this scene upon which we 
 are dwelling. Let them behold Saul while 
 on his way to Damascus, breathing out 
 threatenings and slaughter against the 
 Church, suddenly arrested and thrown to 
 the earth, that he might see, and know, 
 and believe, and be forgiven. It is a scene 
 which presents in glorious colors to such 
 eyes the long-suffering of God. A scene 
 by which He would snatch them from a 
 melancholy and fatal gloom. A pattern it is 
 by which, as by a light from His holy word, 
 he would light in their souls the lamp of 
 hope, that the bliss of His favor, of His for- 
 giveness, of Heaven, may yet be theirs. 
 Holy, blessed, and legitimate use is this to 
 make of this conversion ! Far be it from 
 me to say aught which should dim its lus- 
 tre, take from its brightness, or diminish 
 
44 The Coxvehsion of' St. Paul. 
 
 its force and availability for this great pur- 
 pose, for which, we are told, it was record- 
 ed. It tells sinful men that "though their 
 sins be as scarlet," God, through Christ, is 
 ready to make them as " white as snow ;" 
 though they be "red like crimson," He is 
 willing to make them " as wool." Thus to 
 hope, and learn, and believe, and hence- 
 forth go on to repentance, and so up to the 
 gates of salvation, this is not pre-sumption. 
 The presumption of which I speak is 
 this : that any man shall loait to be made 
 the object of a special, powerful, irresistible 
 or overwhelming interference from heaven. 
 Never will be revealed, till the Day of 
 Judgment, the extent of the evil which 
 has been wrought by this spirit of pre- 
 sumption, which has, in some way, been 
 infused into the hearts of multitudes of 
 men. Its pernicious effects are seen in the 
 inactivity of such men in all those matters 
 
Its False Uses and True. 45 
 
 which have respect to their spiritual duties 
 and obhgations, and God's revealed provi- 
 sions for the gift of His grace. 
 
 All pastoral experience will testify to 
 the fact that ,this evil is wide-spread. It 
 is constantly pleaded in extenuation of 
 neglect, ^' I have not been overwhelmed, 
 I have received no instantaneous, sensible 
 shock ; nothing has occurred within my ex- 
 perience which I cannot describe.'' Such 
 replies, when the most important of all 
 duties are pressed home to individuals, are 
 common ; given as an excuse for a little 
 more sleep, for procrastination, and for 
 a continued trampling upon the require- 
 ments of God. Such men are in a 
 very different frame of mind from that 
 of Saul when he set out to go from 
 Jerusalem to Damascus. Over and above 
 the fact that Saul was always in ear- 
 nest to know God's will, that he might do 
 
46 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 it — which, it is greatly to be feared, is not 
 the spirit of these men — there is a point of 
 difference of the greatest magnitude be- 
 tween the case of Saul and their own. 
 These have already been made to believe 
 that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. 
 They will not hesitate to say that they hold 
 the fact. Saul did not believe this when 
 he set out to go to Damascus. The point 
 of resemblance between the two cases be- 
 gins farther along on the road, after Saul 
 had fallen to the earth, and in answer to 
 his question, ''Who art Thou, Lord?" the 
 reply had been given, **I am Jesus of 
 Nazareth, whom thou persecutest." 
 
 Just here they occupy one and the same 
 point. Here the resemblance holds. Saul 
 now acknowledges the fact that Jesus of 
 Nazareth is his God and Saviour, which 
 is all that is yet accomphshed. Here they 
 
Its False Uses and True. 47 
 
 hold the same truth ; but they have been 
 convmced in different ways. Saul has 
 been convinced by the sudden and visible 
 appearance of Christ to him by the way. 
 These by the knowledge which has been 
 brought to their doors from their child- 
 hood. To them, Jesus of Nazareth has 
 been ever ''passing by'' and calling 
 them, and the fact of His Messiahship 
 has been owned. Here, I repeat, they 
 are at the same point of knowledge 
 and conviction, and Saul, like them, is 
 still without the special gift of the Holy 
 Ghost. With both, there is conviction, 
 there is knowledge. But it is only for this 
 point that the resemblance holds. The 
 moment we pass this, the widest separation 
 takes place, through their fault. Saul, over- 
 come by the momentous nature of the fact of 
 Christ's Messiahship, asks, at once, "Lord, 
 what wilt thou have me to do?" And, 
 
48 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 being thus directed, bowed down with a 
 sense of the awful responsibihty which the 
 knowledge of such a fact imposed upon 
 him, he goes as he is led along by the hand 
 towards the city of Damascus, to submit to 
 the putting on of the hands of Ananias, 
 and the washing of the waters of Baptism. 
 But how stands the case with these men ? 
 Occupying the same point of conviction, 
 possessing a knowledge they will not deny, 
 to convey which nothing miraculous has 
 been necessary, because the same thing has 
 been accomplished witliout this, these men 
 lift up no voice, as the result of this con-^ 
 viction. They do not cry out with Saul, 
 '* L'ord, what wilt thou have me to do ?'' they 
 are cold, undisturbed men, who will not 
 permit themselves to realize any responsi- 
 bility growing out of the fact that Heaven 
 has already in its own way made them 
 believe all that Saul knew when he hum- 
 
Its False Uses and True. 49 
 
 bly and earnestly addressed this question 
 to Christ. 
 
 Here is the fatal neglect, the grievous 
 wrong, the heinous sin. And when, with- 
 out their asking, Grod sends them the 
 knowledge of His will, in a voice which 
 peals upon their ears from the thousand 
 tongues of the Divine Word, the manifold 
 providences of God, their own consciences, 
 and His living ministry, these men even 
 then go their way, not to those means of 
 grace represented in the person and min- 
 istry of Ananias and the Baptism to which 
 he called Saul, but rising up with Saul, 
 they go from him, one to his farm and an- 
 other to his merchandise, and " they all 
 with one consent begin to make excuse." 
 
 These are the men who will live on in 
 their present condition, and profess to be 
 waiting to be flattered by a special visita- 
 tion and interference on the part of Heaven. 
 
50 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 Waiting to be overwhelmed ? For what ? 
 Surely, not to accomplish that which 
 God has already accomplished in them in 
 another way, but which the sudden ap- 
 pearance effected in Saul. Waiting to be 
 overwhelmed ? Surely, not to work con- 
 viction in them of a fact which they already 
 believe, a fact denied by Saul before his 
 instantaneous shock ? Waiting to be sud- 
 denly overwhelmed ? For sanctification, per- 
 chance ? Why ? — because Saul was over- 
 whelmed to be converted ? The two things 
 were distinct in his case. The gift of the 
 Holy Ghost was subsequently ma(Je to him 
 in the ordinary way. Why should God's 
 way of deaUng with these so far outdazzle 
 that of his treatment of St. Paul that these 
 shall be made the object of a sudden visita- 
 tion of His power, for a purpose which He 
 would accomplish in Saul only in the 
 ordinary and established way ? 
 
Its False Uses and True. 51 
 
 Alas, that expectations so prejudicial to 
 the progress of God^s work of salvation 
 should have become so wrought into the 
 common mind ! Alas that the always 
 open way of repentance and faith, in which 
 the blessed Spirit of God is ever ready 
 to render powerful aid, should be so 
 blocked up ! The propagators of the error 
 can • scarce ever know the extent of the 
 evil which it has wrought in keeping 
 back, it may often be, men anxious to do 
 God's will. 
 
 But we are told there are many in 
 our Christian communities, who deny the 
 Christian faith, and in this respect do now 
 resemble Saul before his conversion. 
 
 There is another important respect, how- 
 ever, in which they do not resemble him. 
 Saul was not, like so many in the world, 
 clinging to a mere denial of the Christian 
 faith, and founding his action on no system 
 
52 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 of Divine Truth. He was with all zeal 
 clinging to the time-honored and hitherto 
 divinely sanctioned system of the Jewish 
 Church. He was not living in the misera- 
 ble, unsatisfactory condition of bare denial 
 and contradiction. He doubted none of 
 the evidences of the divine origin of the 
 Jewish faith. He would have sealed this 
 conviction with his blood at any moment. 
 But have these men any such excuse ? To 
 what supposed, divinely sanctioned system 
 are they clinging with honest but mistaken 
 zeal ? To what form of religion which they 
 believe to be holier and more ancient, are 
 they deeming Christian obedience preju- 
 dicial ? and in defending which they are 
 jealous for the honor of God ? I answer, 
 none. This class of men present nothing 
 in the place of that which they do not re- 
 ceive. To borrow another's figure, used 
 with far less justice ; '* their action may be 
 
Its False Uses and True. 53 
 
 compared to a statue of Janus, with the 
 one face, which we must suppose pointing to 
 Christianity, entire, fresh, as from a mas- 
 ter's hand ; beaming with hfe and force and 
 witty scorn on the hp : the other, looking 
 toward the 'something to be put in its 
 place,' maimed, featureless, and weather- 
 beaten, into an almost visionary confusion 
 and indistinctness." — Coleridge. 
 
 Now, to bring this point to a conclusion, 
 is it safe, or wise, or scriptural, for men to 
 wait for some sudden and irresistible out- 
 pouring of God's Spirit to effect their con- 
 version? Will such men ever submit 
 themselves to God's will? As a matter of 
 experience, do they? Are they not seek- 
 ing for signs and wonders? And is it 
 not to them that the word has gone forth, 
 ''There shall no sign be given unto you 
 but the sign of the prophet Jonas ?" St. 
 Paul was an exception in that mode of 
 
54 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 producing conviction which took place 
 with all the rest of the College of Apostles. 
 Are these to be favorites of Heaven in 
 such a transaction above Peter, and James, 
 and John, and Andrew, and Thomas? 
 
 The whole world was lying in sin. The 
 Gospel was preached unto men — its doc- 
 trines, its basis, its hopes — and men were 
 persuaded to become Christians. Such as 
 were converted to the Faith were baptized 
 for the remission of sins, and then, with 
 the laying on of hands, received the gift 
 of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 What hope is there that these shall 
 follow the exception and not the rule ? 
 jS'ay, millions were then, at that very time, 
 going down to their graves in sin, to 
 whom Christ never appeared as He did 
 unto Saul. Wherein, I ask, is the present 
 generation of sinful men different from 
 them, save that those who now go on in a 
 
Its False Uses and True. 55 
 
 life of practical unbelief, sin against greater 
 light and knowledge, and therefore de- 
 serve greater condemnation at Grod's 
 hand? God's words to all such men are. 
 The time is always present. " Now is the 
 accepted time, now is the day of salva- 
 tion.'' "What could have been done more 
 to my vineyard that I have not done in 
 it?" '-'They have Moses and the Prophets, 
 let them hear them." 
 
 All pastoral experience goes to corrobo- 
 rate the views which have now been pre- 
 sented. The various offices of God's 
 appointment ever have been, and to the end 
 of this world, are to be discharged with 
 more or less success. The Church has 
 ever found it so. So was it even with the 
 Apostles. That which takes fast hold upon 
 one mind or one community, is resisted by 
 another, by a power of choice which makes 
 ♦ every man fearfully responsible. One 
 
56 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 after another men's minds become im- 
 pressed by the truth, at longer or shorter 
 intervals. Sometimes there are many, 
 sometimes there are few, and again, it may 
 be, none at all. Still the hammer of the 
 Word of God must fall continually. And 
 thus are men gathered into the fold of 
 Christ. The person who, when all is 
 quiet around, comes to God's minister, 
 seeks instruction and guidance, and goes 
 on by prayer and penitence in faith to 
 seek pardon and acceptance, and thus is 
 brought into the ark of Christ's Church, or 
 ratifies in Confirmation the vows of Bap- 
 tism, is a true type of those of whom the 
 sterling and reliable body of worshippers 
 and communicants is composed. These 
 are they from whom, we believe, God will 
 at the last day make up His jewels. Be 
 it understood, therefore, that the ordinary 
 means, used as united with repentance, 
 
Its False Uses and True. 57 
 
 faith and obedience, are all that any man 
 can find warrant for expecting, waiting for, 
 or depending upon. These are ever ready. 
 Christ is ever in them, and they in Him. 
 " Come, for all things are now ready." 
 
THE 
 
 CONVEESIO]^ OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 III. Its Relation to the Church. 
 
 "And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt 
 thou have me to do ? And the Lord said unto him, Arise 
 and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou 
 must do." Acts ix. 6. 
 
 Christ, who had now ascended up 
 where He was before, thought good to 
 stop the mad course of the most relentless 
 persecutor of His Church, and to make 
 liim, in that Church, a burning and a 
 shining light. 
 
 His position, as the great Apostle of the 
 Gentiles, invests all that pertains to his 
 wonderful conversion with peculiar in- 
 terest. The Epistles which he wrote are 
 fourteen in number. Through these he 
 
Its Relation to the Church. 59 
 
 continues to fulfil his great office to all 
 people ; for in them, he,* being dead, yet 
 speaketh. There probably is never an 
 instant of time in which these epistles are 
 not conveying the knowledge of divine 
 truth to multitudes of minds. 
 
 The conversion of St. Paul was sudden 
 and miraculous, and unlike, as far as we 
 know, to God's dealings with any of the 
 other apostles. 
 
 In his own account of tliis event, he 
 says, ''As I went to Damascus with 
 authority and commission from the chief- 
 23riests, at midday, I saw in the way a 
 light above the brightness of the sun, 
 shining round about me and them that 
 journeyed with me." A physicial effect 
 was produced upon him, and also upon 
 them that journeyed with him. All fell 
 to the earth, and he was struck with blind- 
 ness. Then he heard a voice saying unto 
 
60 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou 
 me?" And he* said, "Who art thou, 
 Lord ?'' And the Lord said, " I am Jesus 
 whom thou persecutest. It is hard for 
 thee to kick against the pricks." 
 
 Every account simply states these facts. 
 That Jesus is the Christ, becomes known 
 to him by this special revelation. To 
 convince him of this fact, and in and with 
 that conviction to fill his mind with awful 
 apprehensions of the divine greatness and 
 glory of Christ, was the starting point. 
 Then, Said, trembling and astonished, said, 
 " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ?" 
 
 LTp to this point the action has been 
 altogether miraculous. Shall it continue 
 to be so ? This is a question which 
 touches a vital point in our practical 
 Christianity. He who is thus addressed by 
 the prostrate Saul, while on earth re- 
 sponded to such appeals by some personal 
 
r 
 
 Its Relation to the Church. 61 
 
 action. He did not say, go to Peter, or 
 John, or James. But being present on 
 earth, and in the midst of His personal 
 ministry, He personally acted. He is 
 now the risen and ascended Lord. The 
 soul of a stricken sinner looks unto Him, 
 asks guidance, submits himself to His 
 hands to be dealt with as He shall please. 
 If He has thought fit to interfere, out of 
 the usual order, for one purpose, why not 
 for another ? Shall His response indicate 
 invisible action between the Saviour and 
 the sinner directly ? Shall He pour con- 
 tempt upon the outward action of a visible 
 body ? Or, having left it to do His work 
 upon earth, having commissioned it, having 
 breathed upon it, having promised His 
 presence and the ratification of its work, 
 having said, " He that heareth you 
 heareth Me, and he that despiseth you 
 despiseth Me,'' shall He, having arrested 
 
62 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 Saul and made him cry out to Him, then 
 remand even this special case to the visible 
 Church ? Will He by a present personal 
 act do all, in this case, where, for most 
 pressing reasons, He has. unlike His 
 action in all other cases, now done a 
 part? The question of Saul is: ''Lord, 
 what wilt Thou have me to do ?" Note 
 well the Saviour's answer : " And the Lord 
 said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, 
 and it shall be told thee wliat thou must 
 do."' Nothing has here been said to Saul 
 of the forgiveness of sins, by Him, from 
 whom alone all forgiveness can proceed ; 
 and who is^ here at hand, addressed by 
 Saul, to do this work, if it is to be done 
 mdependently of the Church on earth. 
 No action of the Blessed Spirit is re- 
 corded as transpiring, here and' now. 
 Saul is simply paralyzed by the knowledge 
 of the hitherto denied fact of the Messiah- 
 
Its Relation to the Church. 63 
 
 ship of Christ, and by the physical effect 
 upon him of the miraculous appearance. 
 He is amazed and confounded, subdued 
 and crushed. This is what, according 
 to the record, it was designed that the 
 appearance by the way should accomplish 
 for this part of the work. For everything 
 beyond this, beyond what was essential to 
 his conviction that Jesus is the Christ, 
 except his personal mission to become a 
 witness for Christ to the Gentiles, he is 
 directed to go into the city. — ' ' Lord, what 
 wilt Thou have me to do?" ''Arise and 
 go into the city, and it shall be told thee 
 what thou must do." — It is not until he 
 arrives there, and has been three days 
 without sight and without food, that the 
 Holy Ghost is given to him. How? 
 Through the laying on of the hands of 
 Ananias. " And Ananias, putting his hands 
 on him, said. Brother Saul, the Lord 
 
64 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 (even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in 
 the way as thou earnest), hath sent me, that 
 thou mightest receive thy sight, and be 
 filled with the Holy Ghost. And imme- 
 diately there fell from his eyes as it had 
 been scales ; and he received sight foi'th- 
 with, and arose, and was baptized.'' 
 
 "Hath sent 7?ie " — Here was a living, 
 visible person, appointed to represent the 
 invisible Christ, i. e., Christ here reiterates 
 that which He so often taught wliilc upon 
 earth, that is the identification of His 
 Name and authority with the office and 
 work of His visible Church. Tliis is a 
 point which St. Paul must have fully 
 understood, when he said that the ambas- 
 sadors for Christ spake and acted in the 
 "stead" of Christ. And everywhere, both 
 m times inspired and in those uninspired, 
 which immediately followed, the visible 
 
Its Relation to the Church. 65 
 
 Church, through its mmistry, spake and 
 acted for Christ. 
 
 It is important to scrutinize this re- 
 markable incident in the history of our 
 holy religion more closely, because it is so 
 confidently relied upon for inculcating the 
 validity of spiritual action, independently 
 of an organized, existing, historical body, 
 known as the Church of Christ ; and also 
 because it meets so specifically the common 
 and popular cry of no intervention between 
 the soul of the sinner and the Saviour — 
 and that, under the pretext of rendering 
 peculiar honor to the Saviour. 
 
 Look then at the scene before us, as it 
 bears upon these points. Here is a man, 
 with nothing between him and his Saviour. 
 He is asking of that Saviour, " Lord, what 
 wilt Thou have me to do ?'' What answer 
 is made ? What is done in response to 
 -this, by Him who hears and answers 
 
66 The Conversion of St. Paul^ 
 
 • 
 
 prayer? What does He, who has all 
 power both m Heaven and m earth, do? 
 What does He do who is the Author of 
 our Holy Religion ? Does He act ? Does 
 He now say, " Thy sins be forgiven thee?" 
 
 Does He dispense with His own ordinance ? 
 Does He excuse him from obedience — 
 from baptism and the hxying on of hands ? 
 By no means. He puts the intervention 
 between the sinner and Himself the 
 Saviour, by express direction. He places 
 Saul in communication with the dispensa- 
 tion which He liimself has inaugurated, at 
 the point at which he belongs, looking 
 forward, of course, to the time when no 
 intervention will be needed. He teaches 
 this: that present duty is conformity to 
 the present dispensation, appointed for an 
 ever ripening work — appointed to reach 
 results as from cause to effect. 
 
 ** Arise,'' He says, " and go into the city, 
 
Its Relation to the Church. 67 
 
 and there it shall be told thee what thou 
 must do." Ananias, by His direction, 
 became the living, visible channel of 
 farther communication with the body and 
 soul of Saul. No longer is the finger of 
 Christ literally to be laid upon the sinner, 
 as once Christ took up little children in 
 His arms, laid His hands upon them and 
 blessed them. Ananias, as the type and 
 forerunner of all Christ's ministering 
 servants ever after upon earth, appointed 
 by Christ for this purpose, visibly to act in 
 His stead, touches his eyes that they may 
 receive sight, puts his hands on him that 
 he may be filled with the Holy Ghost, and 
 bids him " arise and be baptized, and wash 
 away " his " sins, calling on the name of the 
 Lord.'' Christ says nothing to him of 
 baptism. But while on earth He had sent 
 forth His disciples to baptize every crea- 
 ture. And now it is to one of these, thus 
 
68 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 commissioned,, that He sends Saul. All 
 that Ananias does and says to Saul is said 
 and done in the name and by the authority 
 of Christ. 
 
 Perish forever before this act of Christ 
 Himself every aspersion of man against the 
 Holy OiBces and Ministrations of the 
 visible Church of Christ here upon earth ! 
 In and through Ananias Christ touched 
 and healed him. Christ, the only Source 
 of grace : Ananias, the visible channel of 
 that grace. The waters of Baptism, the 
 clay upon the eyes : Christ the power 
 which says, Be opened! 
 
 Look at it again ! scan it closely ! When 
 Saul had been convinced of the one great 
 fact, and by the personal action of Christ, 
 as in the case of the other apostles, his 
 place was assigned him as one of them, 
 although the Saviour, but for laws of 
 action establislied by Himself, might have 
 
Its Relation to the Church. 69 
 
 gone on, and directly said and done all 
 that He had appointed His Church to do ; 
 although this oft-pictured scene or idea of 
 the individual standing face to face with 
 the Saviour, was here a reality, and there 
 was nothing between them, yet Christ 
 does not take back to Himself, even in this 
 one instance, and for a special purpose, 
 that which He had commissioned His 
 visible Church to do in His Name. Saul re- 
 covers his sight through the toucli of Ana- 
 nias. He receives the Holy Ghost through 
 the laying on of the hands of Ananias. 
 And in so many explicit words, " baptism '' 
 is set forth as the instrument of remission. 
 This incident derives its great value, 
 partly from the fact that it is the only 
 recorded instance in the New Testament 
 of Christ's meeting a sinner, repenting of 
 his sins, after his Ascension. It is precious 
 to us, because in the ever widening work 
 
70 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 of the Church, the reconciUation of sinners 
 to God through Christ must be repeated 
 at every point. Each one, convinced of 
 the claim which Cln-ist has upon him, 
 must, after the example set by Christ 
 Hunsclf, be directed to the living ministry 
 for baptism and for guidance. For the 
 Church of Christ, in its holy and divinely 
 ordained offices, was a2)pointed to come 
 between the soul and God. That this is 
 so, is the special provision of Christ in this 
 present dispensation. The patriarchal and 
 the Jewish dispensations each had their 
 peculiar, and as it has proved, passhig 
 offices assigned to them. Before us and 
 beyond the present, God has in reserve 
 the vastly higher blessings of immediate 
 communion with Him, the glorious fruition 
 of His presence. These present appoint- 
 ments may be the childish things, to be 
 looked back upon as such, wliich shall be 
 
Its Relation to the Church. 71 
 
 put away from our full manhood. As, 
 after the veil of the temple was rent in. 
 twain from the top to the bottom, an 
 apostle, inspired to do so, could turn upon 
 the once needful appointments of the past 
 and call them ''weak and beggarly ele- 
 ments ;'' so may we, if permitted to enter 
 the heavenly state, there look back upon 
 the appointments of the present dispensa- 
 tion, and recognize their incomparable 
 inferiority to those in the midst of which 
 we shall be dwelling. 
 
 Yet, not obedient here and now, to that 
 which is appointed for us here and now, 
 we shall never be permitted to enter there. 
 We are Christians here, under training — ■ 
 under training according as God hath 
 appointed that we shall be trained. In 
 Heaven there will be no sun. " The Lamb 
 is the Light thereof." As well might we 
 undertake to dispense with the ordinance 
 
72 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 of the sun by day and the moon by night 
 now, for that reason, as to dispense now 
 with the temple of God and all that has 
 been divinely appointed therein ; or because 
 there is no temple there, since "the Lord 
 God Almiglity is the Temple of it," refuse 
 to build temples wherein to worship God, 
 here upon earth. 
 
 The Church of Christ on earth was 
 ordained, in its hving ministry and holy 
 offices, to come between the soul and God. 
 For this end was it created. Christ 
 purchased it with His own most precious 
 blood. Intervene ! Not to hinder and 
 obstruct, but to receive and give freely ; 
 to give that which freely it has received. 
 Hence it is written, '*The Lord added to 
 ,the Church daily such as should be saved." 
 Christ is the Fountain, the Church is the 
 channel. But for this intervention, the 
 Fountain would be sealed to us. 
 
Its Relation to the Church. 73 
 
 When we reflect that this objection to 
 any intervention between the soul and 
 God is carried so far as to be made to 
 apply to the mediation of Christ Himself, 
 in His own person, and to cause His 
 rejection, surely we ought to look upon 
 the spirit itself with something more than 
 suspicion. The soul which longs after 
 God, and reahzes its own sinfulness, knows 
 that there must be a process of prepara- 
 tion through which it must pass before it 
 can be made meet for the presence of God. 
 It must be kept standing in the vestibule 
 awhile before it can enter the temple itself. 
 It must " by baptism put on Christ," before 
 it can be accepted by the Father. The 
 children of Israel, when in the midst of all 
 those visible manifestations of His presence, 
 the thunderings and the lightnings, and 
 the noise of the tnnnpet, and the mountain 
 smoking, "said unto Moses, Speak thou 
 
74 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 with us, and we will hear, but let not God 
 speak with us, lest we die." God, by 
 working in and for us through means, has 
 responded to this craving of man's nature. 
 His immediate presence, in the case before 
 us, made palpable, although veiled in the 
 mountain, it was not in man to be able to 
 endure. It is in express reference to this 
 scene that St. Paul speaks of the great 
 blessing of the gift of the Church : "Ye 
 are not come unto the mount that might 
 be touched, and that burned with fire, nor 
 unto blackness and darkness and tempest, 
 and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice 
 of words ; which voice they that heard 
 entreated that the word should not be 
 spoken to them any more. And so terri- 
 ble was the sight that Moses said, I ex- 
 ceedingly fear and quake. But ye are 
 come unto Mount Zion, the city of the 
 living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem.'^ 
 
Its Relation to the Church. 75 
 
 When Saul was converted in the extra- 
 ordinary manner narrated, the brightness 
 of the divine presence was above that of 
 the midday sun. Saul was blinded, and all 
 who were with him fell to the earth. 
 Read the record of the Transfiguration. 
 Hear God saying, "There shall no man 
 see me and live.'' Remember how, when 
 the shechinah, or divine glory, filled the 
 tabernacle, Moses was not able to enter 
 into it — could not look upon it without 
 danger to his life. Remember how it is 
 written of the Temple of Solomon, that 
 after it was built and consecrated, "the 
 glory of tlie Lord filled the house, and the 
 priests could not enter into the house, 
 because the glory of the Lord filled the 
 house." As well might we insist that 
 electricity shall have no conductor, as to 
 insist that there shall be no visible Church. 
 As well might we say, no atmosphere shall 
 
76 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 come between us and the sun ; that its 
 rays must fall du^ectly upon: us. Could we 
 have our way in nature, in this same 
 spirit, instead of falling to warm and to 
 nourish, and to cause the earth to bring 
 forth abundantly, the rays of the physical 
 sun would fall to wither and to blight, to 
 kill and to destroy. All things would 
 perish from off the face of the earth, 
 througli the very agency appointed to give 
 life and to sustain it. God's way is, 
 through the hitervention of the atmosphere, 
 so to refract and convey the rays of the 
 sun that they shall reach us for purposes 
 most beneficent. And so, but for the in- 
 tervention of the visible Church, the out- 
 dazzling rays of the Sun of Righteousness 
 would fall not to heal and save, but to 
 destroy us. 
 
 God is spoken of in two ways in the 
 Holy Scriptures, and these depend upon 
 
Its Relation to the Church. 77 
 
 the relation which we sustain to Him. 
 In one ''Our God is a consuming fire.^^ 
 In the other He is the ''Light of Life/' 
 "The way of salvation/' our "Refuge/' 
 and " our Saviour." If we cast aside the 
 provisions of grace within the system of 
 grace, the appointed interventions, "Our 
 God is a consuming fire." Christ is the^ 
 " Sun of Righteousness." He would send 
 down the saving rays of His light upon us. 
 But He follows His own analogies, laid in 
 nature, in the creation of the world. 
 These illustrate His wisdom in the world 
 of grace. He would send down His own 
 effulgence upon us, not to wither and 
 destroy, but through His own appointed 
 medium, and that is His visible Church. 
 As in the natural world, without tliis in- 
 tervention, brought near to us, either we 
 could not communicate with God at all, as 
 receiving the bright beams of His Divine 
 
78 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 Nature, or if we did we should perish. 
 Christ's visible Church, like His human 
 Body, makes His presence as God upon 
 earth possible. It is given as a shield to 
 protect us while we are brought into His 
 awful presence, and near to His sacred 
 person. Nay, under this present dis- 
 pensation, so far advanced beyond all that 
 has gone before, both the Father and the 
 Son enter into us and make their abode 
 with us. We now commune with Him to 
 the saving of the soul. We become 
 temples of the Holy Ghost, to the healtli- 
 ful and happy sanctification of the whole 
 man. The Incarnation is perpetuated. 
 Mercy is inscribed upon the very portals 
 of this house of the Lord, which men call 
 an intervention. '' Her walls are salvation 
 and her gates praise.*' "The Church is 
 His Body — the fulness of Him that filleth 
 all in all." It is that kingdom of God to 
 
Its Relation to the Church. 79 
 
 discourse respecting which to His disciples 
 our blessed Lord remained forty days upon 
 earth after His resurrection. 
 
 Men may talk boastfully of personal 
 independence, but it comes to be but a 
 poor thing when it is an independence ol 
 the holy mission and offices which are 
 God's own merciful provisions for man's 
 redemption, sanctification and final salva- 
 tion. 
 
 Let no one be betrayed by this cunningly 
 devised artifice which is invested with so 
 much power, because of its insidious flattery 
 of our corrupt nature. This is an old 
 enemy from which the race has already 
 fearfully suffered. The angels were once 
 ambitious to be independent of God ; and 
 for their reward were cast down to the 
 bottomless pit, "reserved under chains and 
 darkness unto the Judgment of the Great 
 Day.'' That old serpent, the devil, one of 
 
80 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 these fallen angels, instilled the same spirit 
 into the first pair, saying, "Ye shall be as 
 gods, knowing good and evil.'' The 
 struggle with men now is to bring them to 
 comply with the terms of this present 
 dispensation. The ''carnal mind'' is still 
 " enmity against God." It seeks isolation, 
 independence. It ever tends to indi- 
 vidualism. In Christ we are* 'members 
 one of another." The Church is His Fold, 
 His City, His Holy Mountain, His Ark, 
 His Kingdom, His Body, in which we are 
 bound together "by joints and bands" and 
 united with the Head, from whom nourish- 
 ment is ministered to every part, so that 
 the whole Body " increaseth with the 
 increase of God." Christ said, " Saul, Saul, 
 why persecutest thou Me ?" because he 
 " persecuted the Church^ Not to re- 
 cognize the interests of Christ and His 
 
Its Relation to the Church. 81 
 
 Church as inseparable, to strike at one, as 
 if to honor the other, to rend asunder the 
 Body from the Head, to neglect the offices, 
 institutions and appointments of the 
 Church, is to abandon the whole Christian 
 idea — is to accept the infidel idea — to take 
 infidel ground. One who does this should 
 not call himself a Christian because he 
 happens to have been born in a Christian 
 land. 
 
 Let us be armed as God arms us in 
 His Holy Word against those attacks upon 
 the visible existence and office of the 
 Church of Clu'ist, to which we are exposed 
 in so much that is written, printed and 
 declaimed. Let these plain principles of 
 the Divine economy be to us as the sword 
 of the Spirit, ever at hand, to be used, at 
 least, in the protection of our own hearts 
 and minds against their pernicious effiicts. 
 
 6 » . 
 
 
 i 
 
82 The Conversion of St. Paul. 
 
 And let us not, while professing the 
 Christian Faith, prove recreant to its 
 essential principles, or attempt to be wise 
 above the wisdom of the Author and 
 Finisher of our Faith. 
 
 THE END 
 
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