Gentiles.^379 Then followed an uninterrupted activity of more than a quarter of a century, which for
interest and for permanent and ever-growing usefulness has no parallel in the annals of history, and
affords an unanswerable proof of the sincerity of his conversion and the truth of Christianity.^380
Analogous Conversions.
God deals with men according to their peculiar character and condition. As in Elijah’s vision
on Mount Horeb, God appears now in the mighty rushing wind that uproots the trees, now in the
earthquake that rends the rocks, now in the consuming fire, now in the still small voice. Some are
suddenly converted, and can remember the place and hour; others are gradually and imperceptibly
changed in spirit and conduct; still others grow up unconsciously in the Christian faith from the
mother’s knee and the baptismal font. The stronger the will the more force it requires to overcome
the resistance, and the more thorough and lasting is the change. Of all sudden and radical conversions
that of Saul was the most sudden and the most radical. In several respects it stands quite alone, as
the man himself and his work. Yet there are faint analogies in history. The divines who most
sympathized with his spirit and system of doctrine, passed through a similar experience, and were
much aided by his example and writings. Among these Augustin, Calvin, and Luther are the most
conspicuous.
St. Augustin, the son of a pious mother and a heathen father, was led astray into error and
vice and wandered for years through the labyrinth of heresy and scepticism, but his heart was
restless and homesick after God. At last, when he attained to the thirty-third year of his life (Sept.,
386), the fermentation of his soul culminated in a garden near Milan, far away from his African
home, when the Spirit of God, through the combined agencies of the unceasing prayers of Monica,
the sermons of Ambrose, the example of St. Anthony, the study of Cicero and Plato, of Isaiah and
Paul, brought about a change not indeed as wonderful—for no visible appearance of Christ was
vouchsafed to him—but as sincere and lasting as that of the apostle. As he was lying in the dust of
repentance and wrestling with God in prayer for deliverance, be suddenly heard a sweet voice as
from heaven, calling out again and again: ’Take and read, take and read!" He opened the holy book
and read the exhortation of Paul: "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the
flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." It was a voice of God; he obeyed it, he completely changed his
course of life, and became the greatest and most useful teacher of his age.
Of Calvin’s conversion we know very little, but he himself characterizes it as a sudden
change (subita conversio) from papal superstition to the evangelical faith. In this respect it resembles
that of Paul rather than Augustin. He was no sceptic, no heretic, no immoral man, but as far as we
know, a pious Romanist until the brighter life of the Reformation burst on his mind from the Holy(^379) Paul never numbers himself with the Twelve. He distinguishes himself from the apostles of the circumcision, as the apostle
of the uncircumcision, but of equal authority with them. Gal. 2:7-9. We have no intimation that the election of Matthias (Acts
1:26) was a mistake of the hasty Peter; it was ratified by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit immediately following.
(^380) On the testimony of Paul to Christianity see above § 22. I will add some good remarks of Farrar, I. 202: "It is impossible,"
he says, "to exaggerate the importance of St. Paul’s conversion as one of the evidences of Christianity .... To what does he testify
respecting Jesus? To almost every single primary important fact respecting his incarnation, life, sufferings, betrayal, last supper,
trial, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and heavenly exaltation .... The events on which the apostle relied in proof of Christ’s
divinity, had taken place in the full blaze of contemporary knowledge. He had not to deal with uncertainties of criticism or
assaults on authenticity. He could question, not ancient documents, but living men; he could analyze, not fragmentary records,
but existing evidence. He had thousands of means close at hand whereby to test the reality or unreality of the Resurrection in
which, up to this time, he had so passionately and contemptuously disbelieved. In accepting this half-crushed and wholly execrated
faith he had everything in the world to lose-he had nothing conceivable to gain; and yet, in spite of all-overwhelmed by a
conviction he felt to be irresistible—Saul, the Pharisee, became a witness of the resurrection, a preacher of the cross."
A.D. 1-100.