1 N. D. Hillis, The Investment of Influence, 79.
ioo FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH
Stoned to his death by those for whom
His soul's last prayer was sped Unto his God, "Avert the doom That gathers o'er their head " ; And the stones that bruised him and struck him down Shone dazzling gems in his victor's crown ;
And as his spirit fled, A light from the land where the angels dwell Lingered saintly and grand where the martyr fell.
'Tis but a history in these days —
The cruel and final test Of those who went life's rugged ways For faith they had confessed; Yet the God who spake to the saints of old Lacks not to-day in His mystic fold
Doers of His behest: There are servants of men and saints of God Who will follow, as then, where the Master trod.1
1 P. C. Ainsworth, Poems and Sonnets, 45.
Why Persecutest Thou Me?
Literature.
Benson (R. M.), TJie Final Passover, iv. 656.
Campbell (J. M.), Bible Questions, 93.
Greenhough (J. G.), The Mind of Christ in St. Paul, 250.
Kelman (J.), Ephemera Eternitatis, 27.
Lilley (A. L.), The Soul of St. Paul, 11.
Lock (W.), St. Paul the Master Builder.
Macmillan (H.), Gleanings in Holy Fields, 101.
Matheson (G.), Spiritual Development of St. Paul, 45.
Morgan (E.), The Calls of God, 333.
Plumptre (E. H.), Theology and Life, 65.
Stanley (A. P.), Sermons in the East, 63.
Talmage (T. de Witt), Sermons, vi. 99.
Thorold (A. W.), Questions of Faith and Duty, 305.
Williams (H. C), Christ the Centre, 16.
Christian World Pulpit, liv. 22 (Gladstone).
Sermons for the People, 1st Ser., ii. 67 (Hutchings).
Why Persecutest Thou Me?
And he fell upon the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? — Acts ix. 4.
1. We do well to treasure up, whenever we can learn them, the facts that cluster round the turning-points in a great man's life ; the great critical moments which made him what he was, for good and evil, leaving an everlasting impress on his character. In proportion to the work which such a man has done in the world, as prophet, or lawgiver, or ruler, are we glad to know what were the inner sources of those great achievements ; what forces were at work, directing, in the wonderful providence of God, the whole current of his being. The thoughts which rise unbidden in his heart ; the words which are borne to his inward ear as from some human or Divine instructor; the account he himself gives us of the facts of the great change — all these have an interest for us far greater than that which attaches to any record of merely outward events, even than that which we find in the greatest actions of the man himself.
Looking to St. Paul as simply one of the great men who have stamped their minds and characters on the history of the world ; seeing in him one whose influence has had a wider range, and lasted longer than that of any other man, however mighty or famous, the account which he gives of the process by which he became that which he actually was, might well attract us, as being of immense significance. The process was one of sudden and startling change ; all the strength and intensity of his nature were transferred in a moment from one camp in the great battle- field of faith to the other ; he who was before " a persecutor and a blasphemer, and injurious," became a preacher of the faith he once destroyed. If the record of the conversion of St. Paul were simply that of an internal conflict, of growing and gather- ing convictions, of strange dreams and omens ; if it were as per-
104 WHY PERSECUTEST THOU ME?
plexing and uncertain as are the stories of the conversion of Oonstantine, it would still be, for all to whom the history of the world is not a sealed book, a page in it which they may not lightly pass over. But if we believe that the change of belief and heart was not merely a human, but a Divine work; that the words which belong to it did not come by chance, but were spoken to his spirit by Him who is the Eternal Word ; if we think of that which he beheld, not as one of the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, but as the revelation of the Son of man, then we are bound to study the whole history with a pro- founder reverence, and to examine into each single circumstance belonging to it, with the fullest conviction that there can be nothing idle or superfluous in it, nothing arbitrary or capricious.
Give thanks for heroes that have stirred Earth with the wonder of a word. But all thanksgiving for the breed Who have bent destiny with deed — Souls of the high, heroic birth, Souls sent to poise the shaken earth, And then called back to God again To make heaven possible for men.
2. The subject before us is St. Paul's conversion. Before approaching the particular study of it let us give a thought to the meaning of a much misused word. Perhaps no term in theology has been more seriously misapplied than this word " conversion " ; the place which it has filled in religious thought, and the inter- pretations which have been forced out of it by preachers within the last century, have tended to make us revert from the word altogether, as one having no use for modern times. But, while we try to avoid the errors, let us not be afraid of the word. " Conversion," if used in its true sense, does not mean some abnormal experience in the spiritual life of a man ; far from this, it is a natural experience in the history of the religious life of every soul which seeks after God ; an experience which not only enters into that life, but makes a permanent impression upon the character of the soul.