Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-02-16
PaUL,s CONVERSION.
A Brief History Of That Most In
pOrtant Event.
The Third Of the Series Of Sermons on
the Great Apostle, BY Rev. Dr..
D. A. Cunningham, at the
First Church.

~ NOhkASSoeAOh" 49,
gentleman took for his text Acts IN. 6:
And he trembling and ast9nished, said: lord,
what wilt Thou have me 10 do" And the Lord
aid unto him. "Arise and go into the city, and 1t
shall be told the what thou must DO"
More than hundred years ago, said
the speaker, two young men OF talent and
social standing agreed between themselves
that each should take some scripture sub
iect, and from internal evidence alone
should endeayor to prove that the Bible was
an imposture. 0ne-Gilbert West chose
the subject of the resurrection; the other
Lord IittIeton, selected the life and CONVEX
sion of st. Paul. To their respective tasks
they went, but what was their mutual aston
ishment when, before the time arrived for
giving 10 the world the results Of their hos
tile criticism, each acknowledged himself to
have been convinced OF
THE TRUTH or THE BIBLE
by the study Of his own subject. The mat
ter ended by each writing an essay upon his
chosen topic, not to prove the Bible false,
but TO show that the Bible could not but be
true. AS far as the argument from the lite
ofPaul is concerned, we cannot wonder at
the result. The facts Of the history being
admitted such q conclusion was irresist-
ible."
Having, in the two previous discourses,
spoken Of St. Paurs place in history, and
Of his unconscious preparation for his work,
DIR. Cunningham then proceeded to give a
brief history of the apostles conversion.
1T was the prosecutors hope" he said,
"utterlHsto exterminate Christianity, but
little he understand its genius. 1t
thriy sn persecution. Prosperity has often
beer Atal to it-persecution, never. They
that~were scattered abroad went every
where, preaching the word. After detail.
ing the machinery put in motion By Paul
to crush out the new religion, and his prep
aration for the journey to Damascus, the
speaker proceeded to consider What was
the State of his mind?' His was
NOBLE NATURE
and tender heart, but the work he WAS en-.
gagged in might be supposed to be congenial
only to the most brutal of mankind. Had
his mind, then, been visited with no com.
FUNCTION? Apparently not. We are told
that as he was ranging through strange
cities in pursuit of his victims, he was ex-
ceedngly mad against them; and, as he
was setting off to Damascus, he was still
breathing out threatenings and slaughter.
He was sheltered against doubt by his rev.
erence for the objects which Christianity
imperiled, and, if he had to outrage his
natural feelings in the bloody work, was not
his merit all the greater?
But, on this Journey, doubt at last invaded
his mind. 1t was not difficult to conceive
whence these doubts arose. He was the
scholar of Gamaliel, the advocates of hu:
manity and tolerance, who had counselled
the SanhedTim TO let the Christians alone.
He was himself too young yet to have
hardened his heart to all the disagreeables
of such CHASTITY work. Highly strung as
was his religious zeal, nature could not but
sneak out at last. But probably his com.
FUNCTIONS we're chiefly awakened by the
character and behavior Of the Christians.
He had heard
THE NOBLE DEFENSE Of sTBPHES,
and seen bis face in the council chamber
shining like that of an angel. He had seen
him kneeling on The field Of execution, and
doubtless in the course Of his persecution
he bad witnessed many similar scenes, and
as he entered the homes of the christian to
drag them forth to prison he got glimpses
| of purity and love in their social
life which told upon a mind like
his. He heard incidents of Christ's
life from their lips which betokened a
parsonage very different from the picture
| sketched for him by his informant and the
sayings Of their Master, which the chris
tians quoted, did not sound like the utter,
ances of the fanatic he conceived Jesus to
| have been.
The news Of Saurs coming had reached
Damascus before him, and the little flock Of
| Christ's followers were praying that if ii
were possible, the progress of the wolf who
was on his way TO spoil the fold might be
arrested Nearer and nearer, however, he
| drew; ne had reached the last stage Of his
| Journey, and at the sight of the place which
contained his victims his appetite grew
keener for the prey. But
THE GOOD SHEPHERD
had heard the cries of the trembling flock
and went forth to face the wolf on their be,
half. Suddenly, at midday, as Saul and
his company were riding forward beneath
the blaze Of the Syrian sun, light which
dimmed even that fierce glare blazed round
about them, a shock .vibrated through the
atmosphere, and in a moment they found
themselves PROSTATE upon the ground The
rest was for Saul alone. A voice sounded
in his ear: saul, Saul why persecutest
thou me?' and as he looked up and asked
the radiant figure that had spoken: "Who
art thouH' The answer was 81 am Jesus,
whom thou art prosecuting.
The language in which he ever after
wards spoke Of the event forbids Us to think
that it was mere vision of Jesus he saw.
He ranks it as the last of the appearances
of the risen Savior to his disci Piles, and
places il on the same level as the appear
ance to Peter, to James, to the eleven, and
to the five hundred II was, in fact, Christ
Jesus in che vesture of His glorifed hu'
manity, who for once had left the spot,
wherever it NAV be in the spaces OF the
universe, where He now sits on His media.
| torial throne, in order to show Himself to
THIS CHOSEN DICiPLE,
and the light which outshone the sun wal
no other than the glory in which His hu
mainly is thus cloaked. What q change
came over the man? On entering the city
instead of the proud Pharisee riding through
the streets with the pomp of an inquisitor
the people ran a stricken man, trembling
cropping, clinging to the hand of his guide
who, on arriving at the house of his enter
tainment, rushes hastily to a room anc
sinks down helplessly in the darkness
But, though it was dark without, i
was light within. The blindneI
had been sent for the purpose of secludinf
him from the outward distractions and en-
aiding him to concentrate himself in th'
objects presented to the inner. eye. Fol-
the same reason, he neither ate nor dranl
for three days: he was too much absorbed
in the thoughts which crowded on hin
thick and fast. In those three days, he go
X = III r Al LII