The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-05


revelation of his own controversy that no
man had before suspected that vanquished
him. Here lis one.' he says, who has read
me through and through; He knows. he
surrendered Instantly Sire he said, what
shall do? The surrender was required TO
be complete. Go on; go to DamascuS ca
for one of these despised Christians and get
your instructions from him. And he die it.
That is the kind of thorough work God
makes with the soul and that is the kind
or thorough work a true soul makes with
itself. When he surrendered he surrendered
absolutely and entirely.
Il DO not propose to discuss tonight the
Phenomena that attended Pauls conversion
Simllar phenomena have been recorded
from time to time in whom sudden changes
have been wrought Constantine thought ne
saw cross in the sky. Loyola thought he
saw the hosts of good and evil set in Dattie
array against each other. Luther thought
he saw the devil coming to tempt him and
hung the inkstanG at him. Were these real
VISIONS L know no reason why we Snouiu
think they are not. Why we should think
the celestial sphere is not all about US ana
sometimes in some sudden and illuminating
moment and what the other may
not see, but it is of very little consequence
Whether the vision was produced by phe-
nomenon in the heavens or phenomenon
in the brain makes very small consequence
In one way or another Paul was Instantly
arrested. turned about in the whole course
and current of his being. Professor JoWett
of Ballot College, will be recognized by
everyone in this congregation as first a
great scholar, and secondly thoroughly
Independent scholar, who never said what
he doubted because 1t was proper ana InlS
is what he says:
''There is no fact in history more certain or
undisputed than that in some way or other by
by an outward miraculous appearance, as He
was going to Damascus, the apostle was suddenly
Paul, Vol. l, 227.
For our purpose that is all that is neces-
sary. AS soon as his eyes were opened-for
he was blinded by the sudden light-he be-
gan to preach in Damascus, and his SER
mon was very simple one-'Jesus of MAJ
areth is the Messiah
He had come to this conclusion because
the resurrection of Jesus had been flashed
the previous vision of Stephen had in some
measure prepared him. The synagogue serv-
ice was a free and easy one. The question
meeting we are going TO hold might be Well
borrowed from the synagogue, and men
might ask questions, and sometimes the
preacher was put in great difficulty by
them. And they put their questions to him.
How could he reconcile the doctrine that
Jesus was the Messiah with this long line
of historic precedent and this divine law.
Paul was not a man to have truths in differ
ent hemsphereS of his brain. He was not
man who could old truth apart from and
inconsistent with other holdings. He felt he
must study, he must think. What place so
good for study and for thought as the foot
of Mount Sinai, where Moses had gone to
receive the law, where Elijah had gone to
see the fire and the earthquake and the
tempest and listen to the still small voice?
He turned his back on Damascus and his
work and retreated for we do not know now
lcng-tWo or three yearS-to Arabia. When
he came out from Arabia he came out
equipped for his life work He had reStudled
there the prophecies, he had re-examined
the law, he had recreated ms pnllosophy,
and all his previous Pharisaic training had
prepared him to be preacher against
EharisaiSm.
some means and of good social connections.
If he was going to attach himself TO this
sect it must be to give away all that most
men hold dear-the ambitions of his life, the
friendships of his life, the family tes-ev7
erything He has not told us the inward
story of the struggle. He has told US OF the
result. Let me read again, neither from the
old edition nor the new, but with some
notifications of both, of my own:
''Once was living without law But when 1,, the
and the commandment which was in its object
life / found to be in it's result death. For SIM
Hereby deceived me- and through the command
ment slew me. So then. the law itself is nI noly
the good becomes death to me. No. by no means
But sin, that it might appear SIN WORKS t out
sin, by of the commandment might be
law is. spiritual; but am feshly sold under sin
For what 1 am working out in life ! do not COM
y action n not hats BEn tho IS
to me, concur with the law that it is good
but that which dwe SIN IN me- in nancy v es s there
me- but how to work out that which is good 1
find not. For the good that 1 would is not the
would not But if what would not is the result
it is no more l that am working out my life
then the law that when I would accomplish
good works evil is present with me. For de-
light in the law of God in the inward man. But
/ see another law in my members warning against
tivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
o wretched man that / am; who shall deliver me
from this body of death? Thanks be to God
through Jesus Christ Lord. SO. then, my
self in the mind, serve the law of God, but in
the flesh, the law of SIM
Emerging from Arabia he comes back to
be as he often calls himself, the slave of
Jesus Christ. How he reconstructed his
philosophy and what it was after that re-
construction we are to learn in future lee
lures Tonight we leave him here, to con-
slider next Sunday night, rapidly, his mis-
sionary career"