The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-02-01
Many >SauIs' to
Be Won Today,
Powell Declares
Conversion of st. Paul Is
Testimony to Its Pos
SibiIity, He Says.
BY THE REV. E. ANGER POWELL
Rector, Christ Church.

Rector, Christ Church.
Careful readers Of the book OF
Acts will Immediately be struck by
the apparently contradictory ac-
counts of the conversion of Saul OF
Tarsus. In the ninth chapter we
are told that "the men which jour-
neved with him stood speeches.,
hearing a voice but seeing no man,
while in the 22nd chapter Paul him.
self SAYS. And they that were with
me saw indeed the light, ana were
afraid: but they heard not the
voice of him that spake to me"
Defenders of the utterly dlscredlt-
ed doctrine of yer b inspiration
face a serious problem in attempt
ing to reconcile such statements
and, after all, the important fact
connected with Sauls conversion is
not the experience Of his followers;
what happened to them does not
matter particularly; what happened
to him matters tremendously.
Saul left Jerusalem with hatred
in his heart and a firm resolve to
increase, if possible, his persecution
of the followers of ''the way" He
entered Damascus penitent-he
left it an Apostle and evangelist.
Surely such an astounding change
can not be adequately explained 6y
the notion of instantaneous con-
version. And if the miracle of the
moment will not explain it, still less
does the theory that Saul was the
victim of a sunstroke or an epileptic
seizure. The latter suggestion is a
typical example of the length to
which some critics will go in their
attempt to cast doubt upon the es-
sential credibility of Holy Scripture.
In not a few instances the credulity
of the skeptic is comparable only to
that of the extreme fundamentals.
Conversion Was Climax
Without doing violence to the
truth it may be said that Sauls
conversion may be credited to causes
existent long before the miracle Of
the Damascus road" That event,
reasonably interpreted, was but the
climax resulting from Saul's expert
ence as an enemy of Christianity.
From what we know of Paul as a
man of sound judgment and superior
intelligence we are bound to believe
that he was strongly influenced by
the lives and deaths of his Christian
victims. He has seen Stephen and
many others die with words of for
giveness on their lips and love for
all mankind, not even excepting
their murderers, in their hearts. AS
some one has said, "the light had
been dawning though he had re-
fused to look; the voice had been
speaking, though he had declined
to listen" Much is lost and nothing
gained by the assumption that
Sauls conversion resulted from an
instantaneous, miraculously induced,
change in his character. The con-
versions of a moment are, as rule,
of little more than momentary
value.
Results Were Important
So we must believe that what
happened outside the gates of
Damascus was the climax of an
orderly process. The important thing
about the conversion of st. Paul was
the change which it wrought in his
life, the results which followed it;
not the details attendant upon it.
That day was epochal in the history
of the Christian Church. The les
son it has to teach us is the fact
that the greatest sermons are not
preached from pulpits but through
the lives and examples of such men
as st. Stephen, who was, as we may
well believe, powerful factor in
Saul's conversion. There are many
modern Saul to be won to the
service of the Master, many strong
men of great ability in other fields
OF endeavor who are capable of rem
dering as great a service to the
Church as they have hitherto
rendered to the world. The Con-
version of st. Paul is historical
testimony to the possibility of their
conversion.