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There are solemn seasons in the life of every man, e.g. birthdays, times of sickness, first leaving home. Of all such days, perhaps the most solemn, the one with the wider consequences, is the time of our conversion. It is not usual for the Scriptures to give us - what we find in modern biographies - detailed accounts of the precise experiences of such times; e.g. of Lydia we only know that "the Lord opened her heart," and of the jailor at Philippi that, in sudden alarm, he cried out, "What must I do to be saved?" We may, therefore, ask why so full an account is given us of the experience of Saul of Tarsus? The answer is found in his subsequent prominence as a Christian missionary, and in the necessity for assuring the fact that so bitter a persecutor and so zealous a Pharisee was really changed into a disciple. Some have further suggested that he was intended, in the Divine providence, to take the place from which Judas by transgression fell, and that it must be publicly known how he had received his direct commission from the risen Lord, if he was to be recognized as one of the apostolic band. The conversion of men is, in mode, as varied as are their minds, characters, and circumstances. Yet there are some essential things which may be well studied in connection with this narrative of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.

I. SAUL'S PREPARATION FOR RECEIVING A DIVINE REVELATION. Every true conversion is effected by a revelation of God to the soul. It need not be a visible revelation, such as was suitable to other times. It must be an awakening of the soul to the apprehension of Divine things, and a direct dealing of God with the awakened soul. This cardinal truth must never be lost sight of in our active use of Christian means and agencies. The unregenerate man does not know God; he cannot apprehend the holiness, the claim, or the love of God. These must be unfolded to him by revelation. As illustrations of what is meant by" conversion by revelation," see the vision of God to Jacob at Bethel, and the voice of God to Samuel in the night hours, when he was but a youth. But the capacity to receive a Divine revelation depends on previous preparations, and we have to inquire - How was Saul of Tarsus prepared? In answer the following things must be carefully treated: -

1. His education and early associations as a Jew and as a Pharisee. This involved considerable knowledge of Scripture, and a theory of the possibility of Divine communications with the individual.

2. His naturally impulsive and impetuous disposition, which led him to undertake things in an intense way, but left him exposed to the peril of sudden change of opinion and conduct, and to the danger of giving up an enterprise as suddenly as he had begun it. This disposition prepared him to be influenced by the sudden surprise on the Damascus road.

3. The ideas about Jesus Christ which he gained from the party at Jerusalem to which he belonged. Those ideas rested altogether on thin proposition: "The impostor Jesus is not risen from the dead. If it could be proved or shown that he was, then the whole doctrine concerning him held by Pharisee and Sadducee fell down about them, as a house built on the sand in a day of storms. And so God overrules men's lives now to prepare them for his revelations. Illustrate by the ways in which

(1) the satiety of pleasure,

(2) the pollutions of vice,

(3) prolonged skepticism,

(4) failure of efforts,

(5) serious illness,

(6) the naturally inquiring mind, or

(7) sudden bereavements, are overruled to become Divine preparations for our days of grace."

II. THE EFFECT OF THE REVELATION ON THE MIND OF SAUL. To his Jewish notions the light from heaven would seem to be manifestly Divine, and his first thought would be that God was honoring him with a commission to exterminate the Nazarenes. It must have come to him with startling and painful surprise that the voice speaking from heaven to him should be the voice of Jesus of Nazareth. His prejudices were crushed down in a moment. Jesus was not an impostor; he was accepted of God. Jesus was not dead; he spoke out of heaven. In Saul's response there is: 1. Conviction. If Jesus is after all the Messiah, then what have I been doing? Nothing less than fighting against the God I thought I was serving. There was no need for him to search his life and try to find every particular sin; for he felt the sin of unbelief. And unbelief is sin against every attribute of God, against his

(1) justice,

(2) holiness,

(3) wisdom,

(4) love.

Observe that this conviction of sin was felt by one who was outwardly moral. And the true conviction is not the finding of some dark, polluting deeds in our life; it is the feeling of the pollution, the godlessness, the self-seeking of our evil hearts. In his response is:

2. Penitence. Men may be convicted, and go no further. Penitence involves

(1) the sense of sin as committed against God, - illustrate by sentences of David, Peter to Ananias, and Prodigal Son;

(2) sorrow for sin and earnest purpose to forsake it;

(3) submission, as in this incident the proud Pharisee becomes as simple as a child;

(4) surrender, a special act of yielding will and heart and life to Christ. What, then, is essential to a true conversion to God?

(1) Not any particular form of experience,

(2) not any precise time, but

(3) the sense of sin and

(4) a full surrender to Christ.

The difference between common faith and saving faith is mainly this - saving faith is faith with a sense of need and personal application.

III. THE EVIDENCES THAT SAUL HAD RECEIVED A DIVINE REVELATION.

1. Changed inward life: "Behold, he prayeth!"

2. Changed outward conduct. Contrast him keeping the clothes of them that slew Stephen, and preaching at Damascus the very faith he had sought to destroy. Appeal to those whom God has been preparing by his providential orderings to receive his revelation. Maybe that revelation comes through this message. If so, what will your response to it he? - R.T.

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KJV: And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

WEB: But rise up, and enter into the city, and you will be told what you must do."