FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122  
123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   >>   >|  
ed as if He were Divine, raised a storm of indignation in the heart of Paul. Probably nothing could have converted him except the miraculous occurrence which God employed. Christ had to come to him in person and in a visible shape--in the shape of the glorified humanity which He wears somewhere in that empire of God which we call Heaven. Paul knew the light in which he was enveloped to be a Divine light; the sound of the voice calling him was the thunder which from of old had been recognised by the race to which he belonged as the voice of God; he was looking straight up to the place of God; and in that place he saw Jesus, whom he was persecuting. Most Divine of all, however, were the sweetness, the clemency and the respect of the words in which he was addressed. This Jesus, against whom he was raging, came to him, not with corresponding rage, to take vengeance and destroy him, but with winning words of truth and with the call to a high and blessed vocation. It was this which broke the heart of Paul and attached him to Christ forever. He always afterwards believed that what took place on this occasion was what I have said--that Jesus of Nazareth descended from the right hand of God to prove to him who He was and to claim him as His servant and apostle--and never afterwards did he for a moment doubt that the man whom his fellow-countrymen had crucified, and whom he himself had persecuted, was seated on the throne of heaven, clothed with Divine blessedness and omnipotence. Of course others have doubted this. It may be said that what Paul saw was only a vision, and that therefore his new life was founded on a mistake. I believe his own account to be the correct one; but perhaps we need not dogmatize too much about what he saw; because it was not in reality on any theory of this vision that his faith was founded. It was not because he saw Christ that day with the bodily eye, or believed he did so, that he became or continued a Christian; it was because, trusting Christ, thus revealed, he obtained that for which he had all his life been longing: he was no longer banished or kept at a distance, but brought nigh to God; he was reconciled, and the love of God was shed abroad in his heart. He had all his lifetime been asking in despair, "What must I do to be saved?" but now he was saved. The humiliating bondage in which his spiritual nature had been held was dissolved, and, following Christ, he advanced from victory to vic
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122  
123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Christ
 

Divine

 

believed

 

founded

 

vision

 
omnipotence
 
dogmatize
 

blessedness

 
throne
 

seated


reality

 

heaven

 
clothed
 

mistake

 
account
 

correct

 
doubted
 
revealed
 

despair

 

abroad


lifetime

 

humiliating

 

advanced

 

victory

 

dissolved

 

bondage

 

spiritual

 

nature

 

reconciled

 

continued


Christian

 
trusting
 

bodily

 

persecuted

 

distance

 
brought
 

banished

 
longer
 

obtained

 
longing

theory
 

calling

 
thunder
 
recognised
 

enveloped

 

empire

 
Heaven
 

sweetness

 
persecuting
 

belonged