The Portland daily press., 1898-05-23
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CONVERSION.
Sermon sy Rev. d.. Butler at Free Street
Baptist Church.

Sermon Wv Rev. d.. Butler at Free Street
Baptist Church.
Rev. Nathaniel Butler, D. D., president
of Colby University, officiated yesterday
aft the Free street Baptist church at both
morning and evening services, and at the
latter preached a most thoughtful and
scholarly sermon on the subject Of "'The
Psychology of Conversion.
In opening, DR.. Butler said every science
has its own distinct sphere of inyestiea-
ton ana description. Botany attempts
to collect and state in an orderly way all
that may be known of the plant world.
Geology searches out and arranges the
facts about the building up of the earth
Anatomy ascertains and lays before us a
systematic account Of the schedule of the
animal frame. Psychology undertakes to
describe, so far as 1t can, to explain all
our mental states. the various activities
Of mind-perception, memory, Judgment,
reason, affection and will. These are the
phenomena that psychology studies.
What has Psychologist say about con-
version? Evidently it must say some
thing. for in the process Of conversion,
one undergoes profound mental changes
What then are the mental changes in
volved? What happens to a man mental
ly then in conversion9 This is precisely
the question.
What the Divine Spirit has to do in
conversion is plainly totally different
questions question that psychology along
could never answer. Botany may de-
scribe the growth of the flower from the
seed, but there is something concerned Of
which botany gives no account. Behind
every phenomenon is the agency that
eludes scientific analysis. $50 is everyone
that is born of the Spirit. -
But while psychology can Of itself give
no account of the activity of the Divine
Spirit, 1t can and must examine the
changes that take place in conversion
and it must even declare precisely in
what respects the converted man is q
"new creature If we may SO say, there
is metaphysics of conversion and
psychology of conversion. We are con-
oerned only with the latter.
The speaker then described in detail
the case of man who was converted at
the age Of 45. He was a man who had
grown up in condition Of complete de-
Epravity, out Of harmony with God, with
man and with righteousness A total
change, however, was effected in him so
that his ideas, his impulses, his motives
and desires. the whole emotional and
volitional life were made new. Such
a radical change in the content and out
put of the life we call conversion.
Tracing the step Of this typical case,
the speaker showed that the steps involved
were first, consciousness of conflict or
division or want of right adjustment in
the life. The subject himself reaches this
conclusion: 81 am not right; am not
sound,'' or in the familiar phrase, st
am sinner" This discovery of unsound-
ness seems to constitute the first psyche
logical element in conversion.
We have, however, two groups of cases.
In the one, the natural sin. Pain be-
comes sense Of guilt before an offended
judge, to be removed by legal transac-
ton. In the other group it is a conscious
ness of subjective physical or moral mis-.
cry, and to them salvation is deliverance,
now and for earthly life. from besetting
sins. Following the discovery of conflict
or t1nsoundness in the life, comes an
effort to secure peace or soundness by
ones own effort of will. Then follows
as the third stage the conviction Of utter
inability SO to secure it, ana fourth the
immed late and unquestioning act of lay
ing hold Of divine help, the act of self
surrender to power other than the will
Of the subject.
The speaker then proceeded to anaIyze
the acts of faith and self surrender, point
ing out especially the danger of setting
forth before young people false idea of
what self surrender really is. Instead
of bringing the individual into condit-
ion of 'nothingness' it really makes
him farthest from zero and produces in
him the highest intensity Of activity and
the utmost gladness and fullness of life.
Psychologically it is ''life and healthEand
peace. :"
1t was pointed out also that not only Is
faith the turning point in conversion,
but it is the turning point in every phase
of our active life.
Reference was made to the view that
the period of adolescence, namely, from
the ages of 10 to disappears to be the peri.
cd most favorable for conversion. Sta
tistlcs seem to make 1t evident that the
largest percentage Of conversions occurs
in the case Of boys at Is, and at IS, and
in the case of girls at 12 and To-
If we ask psychology to state in it's own
terms what conversion directly effects, it
replies: New affections and newly di-
rected will" The more we observe and
inquire into the activities of the mind
the more nearly do we arrive by the way
OF psychology at the conclusion that they
in whom is the NEW life" are born stnot
of blood, nor Of the will of the flesh. nor
of man, but Of God.''
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