CONVERSION
405
CONVOCATION
ed^' when they ahandon paganlBm or nnheliefl and embraOB the Christian fidth ; and men in general are pToperiy said to be " converted*' when they are brought to a change of life through the influence of dirine Spraca upon the soul.
Specifically, then, conversion may be said to be ' ' that change in the thoughts, desires, dispositions, and lilb of a sinner which is brought about when the Holy Ghost enters the heart as the result of the exercise of a saving fkith in the atonement, by which the sinner ia jnstified. The process by which this great change is effected is this : The sinner is convinced of sin by the Holy Spirit ; he exercises a penitent faith in Christ ms his Saviour ; God immediately justifies him ; the Holy Spirit attests to the penitent the flut of liis par- don, and instantly sheds abroad the love of God in the beart, when all things fue indeed new** (Fanar, Biblt- cal Dictiomayj s. v.)*
The word is also used, in a narrower sense, to denote the '* voluntary act of the soul consciously embracing Christ in &ith ;** and in this sense it is to be distin- guished from regeneration, which is " a second crea- tion,'* wrought only by the Spirit of God. Kling, in Herzog, Rmt-EnafkUtp&die (s. v. BelcehrungX gives the fbllowing statement of the relations between God and man in the whole work of conversion : ** It is not a purely personal act of man (Jer. xxxi, 18, Twm thou me cmd I skaU be tumed)f but includes both the di- vine act and the human. Conviction, calling, and jostificatioo are of God. The Word of God declares God*s will convincingly in the law, and offers salva- tion through fSuth in Christ in the Gospel. In Christ law and Gospel are united. None of these divine acts preclude man*s activity (Phil, ii, 12, Work out yowr own salvation, etc.). . . . The truth lies midway between that extreme, on the one hand, which teaches that the will of man is entirely absorbed by the grace of God, and that false Synergism, on the other, which con- ceives man's will as capable of action, in the worlc of conversion, without the inworking of divine grace.'*
Wesley {LeUer to Bkhop LavingUm, Work; v, 868) remarks : "Conversion is a term I very rarely use, be- cause it rarely occurs in the N. T.'* Lavington had spoken of Wesley's idea of conversion as '* to start up perfect men at once.** " Indeed, sir," replies Wesley, *Mt is not. A man is usually converted be'fore he is a perfect man. It is probable most of those Ephesians to whom St. Paul directed his epistles were converted, yet they were not come (few, if any) to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.*' See Bbpentanck ; Rboenebation.
CONVERSION OP ST. PAUL, Feast of the, observed in the Soman Church on the 25th of Januaiy. It is generally supposed that this festival had its be- ginning in the year 1200, when it was established by order of Innocent III. Baronius says it was observed in earlier times, but had grown into disuse after the 9th century. After the 13th century it became gen- erally observed. See Paul.
Con'Tictioii. The first stage of repentance, when a penitent is led to see the evil nature of sin, and has been proved, to himself guUty of it. See RBPEirr-
AlfCE.
Convocation (fi^'Jl^O, ndkra', fh)m K'Jg, fairo', to caU; comp. Num. x, 2; Isa. i, 18), applied invaria- bly to meetings of a religious character, in contradis- tinction to congregation, in which political and legal matters were occasionally settled. See Govebk- jCEirr. Hence it is connected with t3'lp, holg, and is applied only to the Sabbath and the great annual fes- tivals of the Jews (Exod. xii, 16 ; Lev. xxiii, 2 sq. ; Nnm.xxviii, 18 sq. ; xxix, 1 sq.). In this sense, with one exception (Isa. i, 18, "assembly"), the word \b pe- culiar to the Pentateuch ; but in Isa. iv, 5, it denotes the pktce of gathering ('* assemblies"), and in Neh. viii, 8, it signifies the pA^ " reading" of the law in the