Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-03-02
On the Life and Conversion Of the
Apostle Paul,
Preached at the First Presbyterian Church
Last Evening, by Rev. Dr..
Cunningham.
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Local Facts.

Last evening Rev. ID. A. Cunningham
delivered the fourth of his series Of sermons
on the Apostle Paul, at the First Pres6y-
terrain Church, to q large congregation. The
text was from Galatians, l., II: Neither
went | up to Jerusalem to them which were
Apostles before me; but | went into Arabia
and returned again unto Damascus"
"When q man has been suddenly con-
yerted," said the divine, 'ss Paul was, he is
generally driven by q strong impulse to
make known what has happened to him.
Such testimony is very interesting and i'm
p~ressive, for it is that OF q soul which..is re-
ceiying its FIRST glimpses of the realities Of
the unseen world, and there is q vividness
about the report it gives of them which pro-
duces an irresistible sense of reality.
Whether Paul yielded at one to this
impulse or not, We cannot say with Ger
tainty. The language Of the Book OF
Acts, where it is said that 'straightway he
preached Christ In the s~ynagogues, would
lead US to suppose so. But we learn from
his Owl writings that there was another
powerful impulse influencing him at the
same time; and it is uncertain which OF the
two he obeyed first. This other impulse
was the wish 10 retreat into solitude, and
think out the meaning and issues of that
which had befsllen him. 1t cannot be
wondered at, that he felt this TO be a neces-
sity. He had believed his former creed in
t~eDsely, and staked everything on it; to see
it suddenly shattered in pieces must have
shaken him severely. The new truth which
had flashed upon him was so TAR
reaching and revolutionary that it
could not be taken in at once in all
its bearings. Paul was a born thinker; 1t
was not enough for him to experience any
thing; he required 10 comprehend 1t, and
fit it into the structure of his convictions.
Immediately, therefore, after his conversion
he went away, he tells in the text, into Ara
bia. He does not, indeed, say for what
purpose he went, but, as there is nc record
OF his preaching in that region, and this
statement occurs in the midst OF a vehe-
ment defence of the source of his Gospel,
we may conclude with considerable certain
ty that he went into retirement for the pur
pose of grasping in thought the details an
the bearings of the revelation he had re
ceived directly from Jesus Christ. In lonely
contemplation he worked them out; and
when he returned to mankind, he was in
possession of that view of Christianity which
was peculiar to himself, and formed the
burden of his preaching during the subse
quent years.
The reverned gentleman then went on t,
sketch the period covered By Paups retire
ment, and outlined the train Of thought pur-
sued ty him in his endeavors TO arrive at a
correct understanding of the great truths OF
Christianity, and said that it was in his con-
ception of Christ that Psurs gospel wears
It's imuerishable crown The Evangelist
sketched in a hundred traits of simple and
affecting beauty, the fashion Of the earthly
life of the man Christ Jesus, and in there
the model of human conduct will always
have to be sought; but TO Paul was reserved
the task of making known, in Its heights
and depths, the work which the son of God
accomplished as the Of the race.
When the Church Of Christ thinks of her
Head as the deliyerer ofthe soul from sin and
death, as a spiritualizIng presence ever with
her, and at work in every believer, and as
the Lord in all things, who will come again
without salvation, il is in forms OF thought
given her by the Holy Ghost through the
fundamentally Of this Apostle.
After sketching his return to Jerusalem,
and his flight thence to Tsrsus, and his sub
sequent journey to Antioch at the invitation
OF Baruabas, the speaker dwelt at length up
on the political complexion of the world at
that period, which Paul and his fellow apos,
ties were on the point of setting forth to
conquer, and closed by asking how many Of
his hearers had embraced the Hesven-sent
Christianity which made Paul what be was
and which he preached so faithfully and so
successfully.