THE SABBATH HOUR

Northern Advocate, 16 March 1929, Page 3

THE SABBATH HOUR

THE CONVERSION OF PAUL. i : Sermon preached l by Dr. A. Boyd Scott, at Glasgow, on Sunday, January 27, and reported in the “British Weekly,” “Brother Saul, receive thy sight.” —Act& xxii. 13. I We are counselled by Christian tradition to mark the 25th day of January with devout and grateful thoughts of St. Paul’s , Conversion. Truly the day on which that great Apostle lost his external sight for £ season, but was endowed in a flhsh with the eyes of faith, is one of the golden days in calendar of mankind’s spiritual history. Even the most perfervid Scot who on the 25tt of January beholds the name of Burns written across the stars _ wit agree that of still greater moment than the birth of him in whose heart Scotland in song is the rebirth of that soul in whom Christiar thought and experience attained theii richest symphony. It is usual to speak of Paul’s Conversion by Christ as a “sudder

conversion.” Certainly it was abrupt and violent. But it was not unprepared. The conviction which burst into bloom in his soul that day at noon on the Damascus road had been growing secretly within him out of sight, hardly guessed at, possibly even by himself. The soil had been prepared for the tender plant of it by the harrow of the Law’s despair that raked through his heart; and something of the blood of those he had haled to martyrdom must have watered it, and such light as he saw on Stephen’s face must have acted as sunshine about it. Even the most sudden conversions have growth and development behind them. The explosive point of abandoning the old life and embracing the new life

must not be interpreted as the action of a bolt from the blue out of all relation to what is smouldering,, sometimes for very long, within the' man’s hidden heart. Nor is it true or helpful to say that no conversion is as it should be unless it shows that violently explosive phase. Boys and girls, nurtured from the first in devout homes and within the household of the Church, may be expected to take their place as fully enlisted followers of their Saviour very much as do those who “come of age” in their family’s succession. But

there must be an act of consummation on their part. There are no “once-born” Christians; all must be “twice-born.” The boy must halt on the Zion road, along which his steps have been moving from childhood, even as definitely as Paul halted on the Damascus road, and face His Lord, and seal his submission to Him, and be sealed by Him. With multitudes of young people the occasion called Confirmation may be quite rightly identified with Conversion but there must be about it the same isolation of the soul with the Saviour, and the same decisiveness, and the same personal surrender as marked the covenant of Paul with Christ.

Observe next that Paul’s conversion entailed a Commission by. Christ. Straightway the Lord gave him instructions of service. Conversion is I always attended with commision. I Some people forget this. In conversion or confirmation the “great transaction’s done”; but this, does not mean that the man has nothing further to transact. There are those who look upon confirmation as little more than a spiritual vaccination. Happy are they whose soul has blossomed in reconciliation and communion with God in Christ; but the blossom must passi into the fruitfulness of service. The first thing a converted or confirmed’ child of God must do is to look forth for some straight street and avenue* of Christian service for his Lord, and take up his lodging there. And, further, it is now his adventurous duty to sanctify all the relationships of his daily life, in work and recreation, with'the spirit of Christ which now possesses him. This is an enterprise before which many quail and draw back. And well they may! Even Paul had given up the endeavour had Paul had none but Paul on whom to rely. But let us note this 1 further, that Paul’s conversion by Christ, while it entailed a commission from Christ, brought with it also a Companionship with Christ. Of late years our teachers have done well to emphasise this. Paul was the man he was and the mighty servitor of Christ he became because at every step of his course he recognised that the living, present, and abiding Christ was there by his very side, and in his heart as the pulse of his daring, and in his mind as the mag-

net of his every movement; and in the joy of this companionship journeyed and revelled. Not a Jiew of us, I fear, have yet to salute this mighty power of Christ’s real presence, and to yield ourselves to its envelopment, so that we too “can do all things!”! When you and I feel the obligations of Christian discipleship too heavy, and our testimony for Christ in word and work faltering, and our spirit fraying and becoming ungenerous and irritable, and ourselves unequal to the glory of . the daily missionary life to which we have all really dedciated ourselves, what is the reason of our weakness and faltering? Ask it of yourselves sincerely, and in twenty instances! in a score we shall find the reason is just this l —we have got out of step with our Captain and Comrade, out of personal touch with the living, present and abiding Lord; we have broken on our part our companionship with Christ.