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 Prtttrrtott SUj^ologtral g^^mtttary 
 
 BV 4932 .R6 1895 
 Roberts, William Charles, 
 
 1832-1903. 
 New Testament conversions 
 
New Testament Conversions 
 
 THEIR MANIFOLDNESS 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. WILLIAM CHARLES ROBERTS, D.D.. LL.D. 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION AND 
 SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK, PHILADELPHIA, 1895 
 
Copyright, 1896, bt 
 THE TRUSTEES OF THE PRESBYIERIAN BOARD 
 OF PUBLICATION AND SABBATH- 
 SCHOOL WORK. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface 5 
 
 Chap. I. The Conversion of the Eeligiously-reared 
 
 Andrew and John 9 
 
 Chap, II. The Conversion of a Ricli Tax Gatherer — 
 
 Zaccheus 24 
 
 CiiAP. III. The Conversion of an Afflicted Beggar — 
 
 Bartimeus 40 
 
 Chap. IV. The Conversion of a Timid and Lonely- 
 Invalid — the Woman with the Issue of 
 Blood 56 
 
 Chap. V. The Conversion of a Disreputable Villager 
 
 — the Woman of Samaria 72 
 
 Chap. VI. The Conversion of One Outside the Chosen 
 
 People — the Syro-Phcenician Woman. . 86 
 
 Chap. VII. The Conversion of a Broken-Down Mer- 
 chant — the Demoniac of Gadara 101 
 
 Chap. VIII. The Conversion of a Man at the Last Hour 
 
 — the Malefactor on the Cross 116 
 
 Chap. IX. The Conversion of a Prime Minister — the 
 
 Ethiopian Eunuch 131 
 
 Chap. X. The Conversion of a Man of the Highest 
 
 Social Standing — Cornelius 145 
 
 Chap. XI. The Conversion of a Great Genius — Saul of 
 
 Tarsus.! 161 
 
Preface. 
 
 TEE history of this volume of sermons is 
 soon told. During his pastorates, East and 
 West, the writer was frequently consulted 
 by members of his congregation regarding the 
 validity of their conversion. After witnessing a 
 revival of religion or listening to the experience 
 of those converted at such a season, they often 
 entertained doubts as to the genuineness of 
 their own conversion. They had accepted the 
 general impression that the means which arrest 
 the sinner's attention, the path through which 
 he is led to the Cross, and the feelings expe- 
 rienced on accepting the Saviour, are exactly 
 the same in all cases. The writer has spent 
 many an hour in prayer and in efforts to con- 
 vince such that men are not all converted in 
 the same way, made to pass through the same 
 struggles, or to experience the same joys. 
 This has seemed to many like a new revela- 
 ton. It has brought them from painful bond- 
 age to the liberty of the children of God. 
 
 This pastoral experience suggested the pro- 
 priety of preparing a series of discourses on 
 5 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 the different phases of conversion. To remove 
 every doubt as to the correctness of the truths 
 presented, conversions recorded in the New 
 Testament alone were selected as the themes. 
 From the attendance at church and the inter- 
 est manifested by the secular press, it became 
 evident that the subject was one of more than 
 ordinary interest. The discourses were reported 
 almost verbatim and published in one of the 
 leading journals of the city. Since then they 
 have been rewritten from the stenographic re- 
 ports and, the author hopes, materially im- 
 proved. Repeated requests have been received 
 that they should be put into a permanent form 
 for the benefit of the many who feel troubled 
 about the genuineness of their conversion. 
 Compliance with this request has led me to 
 throw this new volume upon the public. 
 
 The conversions considered in this volume 
 are arranged in four classes, according to pecu- 
 liarities common to the members of each. The 
 first class comprises men who had been religi- 
 ously reared, but difi'erently situated in after 
 life. The first sermon is on the conversion of 
 the disciples who were not only religiously 
 reared, but who also enjoyed the pungent 
 preaching of John the Baptist. The second is 
 on the conversion of a son of Abraham who 
 had gO'ue far astray from the faith of his 
 fathers; and the third is on the conversion of 
 an Israelite religiously reared, but who, through 
 
PREFACE. Y 
 
 bodily infirmities, bad been deprived of many 
 of the privileges which others enjoyed. The 
 second class comprises three women, one of 
 whom was an afflicted member of the Jewish 
 Church, anotlier belonged to a heretical sect, 
 and the third was a heathen, conscious of not 
 being one of the chosen people. The third 
 class comprises two men, one wrecked in body 
 and in mind by bis dissipated life, and the 
 other a malefactor drawing his last breath on 
 the cross. The fourth class comprises three 
 who occupied a very different position from all 
 the otliers, both in society and in the world. 
 One was the prime minister of a great mon- 
 arch ; the second was a member of the most 
 illustrious family of Rome; and the third was 
 the greatest genius of his age. 
 
 As these discourses have been largel}'' pre- 
 pared for the press from stenographic reports, it 
 has been impossible to give credit by name to all 
 those from whose writings extracts have been 
 taken. It is not claimed that even quotation 
 marks have been always put when the expres- 
 sions of others have been incorporated. The 
 aim of the author has not been to be original 
 and novel, but useful to every one who asks, 
 " Am I his or am I not ?" 
 
Chapter i. 
 
 THE CONVERSION OF THE RELIGIOUSLY- 
 REARED ANDREW AND JOHN. 
 
 John i. 37-50: "And the two disciples heard him speak, 
 and they followed Jesus." 
 
 THE only entrance into the kingdom of 
 heaven is through regeneration. The 
 announcement of this fact perplexes and 
 even discourages many sincere seekers after it. 
 It causes them to ask such questions as, " Is 
 every renewed person required to know the 
 time, the place and the order of his spiritual 
 birth ? " " Must he be able to tell the arrest- 
 ing means, the convicting truth and the hour of 
 deliverance ? " 
 
 These questions arise from the mistaken idea 
 that all men are converted in the same man- 
 ner, pass through the same struggles and expe- 
 rience the same joys. Those who have fallen 
 into this mistake conclude that, if they have 
 not taken the same steps and felt the same 
 agony of soul as those whom they have heard 
 9 
 
10 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSION'S. 
 
 tell their experience, they have not been 
 born again. They often become troubled in 
 mind if thej^ do not pronounce themselves self- 
 deceived. Thus multitudes of God's children 
 deny themselves for years the comforts of re- 
 ligion and deprive the Church of years of valu- 
 able service. 
 
 A careful examination of the conversions de- 
 scribed in the New Testament will show that 
 they differed from each other both in the means 
 employed and in the feelings experienced. The 
 conversion of the disciples who had been John's 
 followers presents nothing startling in the means 
 emplo3^ed, the mental process through which 
 the3^ passed, or in their outward conduct. This 
 is not strange when it is remembered that 
 they had been reared religiously, made to obey 
 the commandments, trained to live moral lives, 
 led to pass through the baptism of repentance 
 and taught to look for the coming of the Mes- 
 siah. The conversion of Zaccheus, on the other 
 hand, was very different. He had disregarded 
 the demands of the law and abandoned the 
 religious practices of the true Israel; he had 
 become thoroughly identified with the world 
 and lived like the heathen around him. He 
 was suddenly arrested in a life of extortion, 
 and brought to confess his sins and to begin 
 to live a better life. The conversion of the 
 thief on the cross was different from both. 
 He had lived the desperate life of a thief or a 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 11 
 
 murderer. Spiritual things bad found no place 
 in bis life or tbougbts. Tbe words of Christ 
 on the cross, like tbe strains of celestial music, 
 were probably tbe first means that softened bis 
 heart. The band nailed to tbe cursed tree 
 snatched him as a brand from the burning. 
 Ilis exclamation, " Lord, remember me," shows 
 that be found the Saviour at the last moment. 
 His conviction, conversion and sanctification 
 were almost synchronous. The conversion of 
 Cornelius, whilst it was not accompanied by 
 any special outward demonstration, was a great 
 surprise. Tbe power that could bring a proud 
 Roman to the feet of the bumble Nazarene must 
 have been above anything earthly. Tbe bring- 
 ing of a member of the haughty Cornelian 
 family to mingle with Jewish peasants and 
 Galilean fishermen marked a change of views 
 and feelings which none but God could effect. 
 The conversion of Saul of Tarsus was in most 
 of its features miraculous — the very kind of 
 conversion looked for, unfortunatch', b}^ tbe 
 majority of unregenerate men. He was arrested 
 in bis wild career of persecution and smitten 
 to the ground by light from heaven ; he was 
 struck with blindness and made to bear tbe 
 voice of Jesus saying, " Saul, Saul, why perse- 
 cutest thou me?" He listened to the heavenly 
 voice which changed the whole current of his 
 life. After experiencing such a conversion be 
 found no ditllculty in remembering tbe day, 
 
12 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 the means, or the circumstances connected 
 with it. 
 
 Similar varieties of conversion are witnessed 
 in our own day. The carefully instructed and 
 religiously reared are often brought to Christ 
 like the disciples, without anything to mark 
 the time or the means. President Edwards 
 states that he could not remember when he was 
 brought to Christ. Thousands like him have 
 no more knowledge of the day of their spiritual 
 than they have of the day of their natural birth. 
 There are many, on the other hand, who can 
 tell, in the words of another, the exact time of 
 it, " Giving the day and the date, the hour, the 
 providence, the place, the text, the preacher, and 
 all the circumstances connected with it. They 
 can show the arrow which, shot from some bow 
 drawn at a venture, pierced the joints of their 
 armor and quivered in their heart. They can 
 show the pebble from the brook that, slung it 
 may be by a youthful hand, but directed by 
 God, was buried in the forehead of their giant 
 sin. They can show the word that prostrated 
 their soul and — some truth of Scripture — the 
 salve that healed the sore, the balm that 
 stanched the blood, and the bandage that 
 Christ's own hands wrapped on the bleeding 
 wounds. Able to trace the steps of the whole 
 process of their conversion, its most minute 
 details, they can say with David ; ' Come 
 and hear, all ye that fear the Lord, and I 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 13 
 
 will declare what he liatli done for my 
 soul.' " 
 
 Inability to recall the moment when our 
 hearts were changed, or to tell the circum- 
 stances which led to it, or to describe the joy 
 which followed, is no cause of discouragement, 
 ^one of us can tell when or where the first 
 faint steel-gray gleam of morn appears, though 
 we turn our faces to the East and our backs 
 to the setting sun ; we know it only after the 
 day has appeared. In like manner thousands 
 of Christians can only say with the man in 
 the gospel, ''Whereas I was blind, now I see." 
 They are conscious of the presence of a life 
 that they did not once possess throbbing with- 
 in them in feelings and acts of godliness. Con- 
 sciousness of their spiritual existence is all the 
 proof men need of their birth into Christ's 
 kingdom. 
 
 In this series of discourses it will be shown 
 that every conversion is a new conversion; 
 that is to say, it is different in some of its 
 aspects from every one that has gone before 
 or that will follow. The structure of men's 
 minds is different, the individual bias is dif- 
 ferent, the training is different, the sur- 
 rounding circumstances are different, and the 
 effects of the change are different, though 
 conversion itself is in every case genuine. No 
 one, therefore, should feel discouraged when he 
 fails to find much in common between his own 
 
14 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 experience and that of his pious neighbors. In 
 our treatment of New Testament conv^ersions 
 we shall endeavor to correct the error that the 
 circumstances, the means used and the outward 
 effects of conA''ersion are in all cases the same. 
 
 The subject of this discourse is " The Con- 
 version of the Religiously-Reared Andrew and 
 John." 
 
 These disciples had followed the Baptist into 
 the wilderness, where they heard words which 
 proved like a hammer, breaking in pieces their 
 flinty hearts and piercing like a flame of fire 
 their hidden thoughts. Though they had been 
 brought up religiously, j'et not until John 
 came did they learn the awful character of the 
 law of Sinai or see its full purity or grandeur. 
 Under the Baptist's preaching they realized 
 their guilt and felt their need of the Lamb of 
 God now pointed out to them. 
 
 Notice, first, what men of this character are 
 required to do in order to enter the kingdom 
 of God. Three things are here mentioned, 
 namely, coming to Christ, trusting his saving 
 power, and following him through evil and 
 good report. Recognizing the valuable prepa- 
 ration which they had received under the 
 preaching of his forerunner, the Saviour in- 
 vited Andrew and John to visit his abode. 
 Mark the breadth and beauty of this invita- 
 tion, "Come and see"; not to one brief in- 
 terview, not to a desultory conversation, not to 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 15 
 
 one passing hour of fellowship in which they 
 might listen to his words, but to see, to 
 know, and to live with him. The same invita- 
 tion is still sent to all who have not found him. 
 
 What encouragement and promise are con- 
 tained in the word "see." It implies that the 
 deepest longing of the human heart is to see 
 Jesus. The Greeks who had heard of him 
 cried, " We would see Jesus." To see him is 
 to have one's inquiring soul satisfied. There 
 are, however, degrees of seeing him. Great was 
 the glory of Him which was seen by Moses on 
 the Mount, but greater was that beheld by 
 Andrew and John as they accompanied him to 
 the place of his abode. The entire Christian life 
 may be included in the act of seeing Jesus — 
 seeing him under his own guidance; seeing his 
 glory day by day; seeing his divine kindness 
 in providing for their wants and in watching 
 over their steps; seeing the blessings of the 
 covenant sealed by his blood ; seeing here the 
 privileges of his spiritual kingdom, and seeing 
 in the dim distance some of the glory still to 
 be revealed. 
 
 Those who are religiously reared are not 
 only to come to where Jesus dwells, but to 
 trust him for their salvation. Finding Simon, 
 Andrew's brother, the two disciples announced 
 to him the wonderful discovery they had made: 
 "We have found the Messiah," and have com- 
 mitted to him our keeping. This simple dec- 
 
16 NEW TESTAMENT CONVEESIONS. 
 
 laration must have brought to the mind of 
 Simon multitudes of facts and incidents al- 
 ready familiar to him. It may have suggested 
 to him the first promise ; the majesty of that 
 wonderful night when Jehovah appeared unto 
 Abraham on the open plains and showed him 
 the sky with its myriad stars, and gave him 
 the promise of one who should redeem Israel ; 
 of the glorious manifestation of God's interest 
 in his people in bringing them out of their 
 Egyptian bondage by the hand of Moses, and 
 of the bright star which cast its sweet light 
 on the plains of Moab. Can it be that the 
 glorious One whose advent is repeatedly fore- 
 told has at last come to earth ? Has my own 
 brother seen him and committed to him his 
 keeping ? 
 
 The revelation of Christ to those who have 
 been religiously reared in our day brings to 
 mind many passages of Scripture with a sig- 
 nificance and vividness they never had before. 
 In this new light they connect Jesus with the 
 salvation of their own souls and cast on him 
 their all for time and eternit3^ It is only 
 when they find themselves safe in the arms of 
 Jesus that their hearts are melted, and the 
 snows of the long winter of their unbelief are 
 dissolved into sweet waters, which now, freed 
 from their icy chains, flow with music in their 
 ripples and fruitfulness in their path through 
 their lately bare and barren lives. They now 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 17 
 
 SCO that there is no spiritual life without vital 
 connection with the Son of God. 
 
 The disciples not only went to see Jesus 
 and intrusted to him their all, but they left 
 the world to follow him. " Straightway they 
 forsook their nets and followed hira." No 
 mention is here made of a remonstrance or 
 hesitation. Not one of them asked if he might 
 once more cast his nets into the sea, or have 
 a day to mend them, or a few hours to dry 
 those which had just been pulled out of the 
 deep. They heard the call and instantly obeyed 
 it. The voice of Jesus is the same to every 
 one of us, and our replj^ should be identical 
 with that of Andrew and John. We must not 
 ask his permission to weave any more right- 
 eousness of our own, or to patch our character 
 that it may present a better appearance to the 
 world, or to go any longer through the dull 
 round of religious ceremonies which we may 
 have mistaken for walking with God. We 
 must straightway follow him. 
 
 Secondly, men are not all brought to do this 
 in the same manner. In the text is set forth 
 the way in which those who have been relig- 
 iously reared are brought to Christ. Andrew 
 and John had from childhood correct theoreti- 
 cal knowledge of God's demands; they had 
 lived, to all human appearance, religious lives, 
 and had been roused l)y the preaching of John 
 to look beyond the shadow to the substance, 
 
18 KEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 bej'ond the form to the realit}^, be3-oncl the 
 abstract doctrine to the Lamb of God that 
 taketh away the sin of the world. All enjoyed 
 those privileges and heard the voice of Jesus 
 inviting them. All still, no matter how great 
 their privileges or correct their lives, how deep 
 their conviction of sin or vivid their sense of 
 guilt, must hear the voice of Jesus and obey. 
 !N'one will take a single step towards Christ 
 until they hear his voice. The fiiintest long- 
 ing after him, the first tear of penitence 
 that trickles down the cheek, the first cry of 
 the soul for rest and the first motion towards 
 Christ result from hearing his voice. Have 
 j'ou, dear reader, experienced tender feelings 
 towards him ; felt the tear of penitence mois- 
 tening the eye, or a secret prompting of the 
 soul to follow him ? That is the echo of his 
 A'oice speaking in the depth of your heart. 
 It is an emotion born of God. It is the first 
 breath from the four winds passing over the 
 valley of dry bones in your soul. It may be 
 the first pulsation of the new life within. It 
 may be feeble ; it may be only a whisper 
 darting through the soul like a flash of light- 
 ning, a faint longing after God — it is neverthe- 
 less born from above. Stop not there, but ask 
 the Saviour to quicken this spark into a flame. 
 Seek the godly sorrow w^hich "worketh repent- 
 ance not to be repented of. Let nothing make 
 you linger; cast aside every hindrance and 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 19 
 
 break through all the barriers in your way to 
 Jesus' arms. The heavenly messenger who is 
 now calling may never issue another invitation. 
 
 Simon was brought to Christ by his own 
 brother, Andrew. This presents to us a very 
 suggestive thought. Instead of going first to 
 tell the story of his discovery to the multi- 
 tudes without, who are perishing for the lack 
 of knowledge, he went first to his own house- 
 hold. In this he followed the order of nature 
 as well as of grace. The conversion oi the 
 man who overlooks the perishing among his 
 own relatives and friends, and goes inimedi- 
 atcl3^ after the distant ones, is not Scriptural 
 in his conduct. It is not natural to feel anx- 
 ious for the souls of those whom we have never 
 seen and be indifferent towards those among 
 whom we live. If you, reader, have found 
 Jesus, go at once to those who are near and 
 dear to 3 on and tell them that you have found 
 the Messiah. Bid them " Come and see." Then 
 go after the outside world with the same zeal. 
 
 "The day following, Jesus would go forth 
 into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto 
 him, Follow me." There is apparent imperious- 
 ness in this command, but no a^jology is of- 
 fered. Jesus does not give Philip time to de- 
 liberate or hours for decision. He listens to 
 no plea for delay nor entertains an excuse. 
 The command is, " Follow me." It is thus that 
 Christ speaks to every one. He may find ug, 
 
20 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 as he found Philip, busily engaged in worldly 
 pursuits and fully occupied with family affairs 
 or household duties, and says, " Follow me." 
 He tells us that his claim is paramount to that 
 of all others, admitting of no dela}^ " Follow 
 me " is heard above the voice of pleasure and 
 the clatter of worldlj^ cares. When the request, 
 " Let me first bury m}^ father," is made, Christ's 
 reply is, " Let the dead bury the dead." " Fol- 
 low thou me." 
 
 The feeling which prompted Andrew to go 
 after Simon now prompted Philip to go after 
 Nathanael. But he found his mind full of 
 questionings and misgivings. He did not, how- 
 ever, stop to reason with him regarding the 
 causes of his perplexities. He entered into 
 no controversy about the probability or the 
 improbability of an^^ good coming out of Naza- 
 reth. He met his doubts and fears with the 
 kindly invitation, "Come and see." Nathanael 
 followed Jesus and, in following him, his doubts 
 disappeared, his difficulties passed away, and 
 the light of assurance concerning the identity 
 of the Messias dawned upon his soul. 
 
 Are yon, dear reader, troubled with doubts 
 and fears ? Has the poisonous arrow of unbe- 
 lief penetrated your soul ? Has the cloud of 
 disappointment eclipsed 3'our faith or intervened 
 between you and the light of your Father's 
 countenance ? Waste no time in surveying 
 the intricate fields of apologetics. Do not weary 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 21 
 
 your soul with efforts to solve the dark prob- 
 lems of providence. Follow Jesus and all will 
 be well. Are you, like Martha, troubled about 
 many things? Do crosses multipl}^? Has God's 
 providence hedged your way so that you know 
 not how to proceed ? Follow Jesus, and the 
 path of duty will be made plain, roys of heav- 
 enly love v.'ill dart through the clouds which 
 now obstruct your vision. 
 
 Tbe call of Jesus to Andrew and John, Simon, 
 Philip and Natbanael was to thcra the dawn 
 of a new and better da}^ It broke upon their 
 view whilst the rest of the world was as yet 
 sleeping the sleep of death. But by degrees 
 the true Israel, who had heard the voice of 
 the harbinger and had long waited for the 
 promised redemption, saw the rising of the Sun 
 of Righteousness and rejoiced. At last the 
 bridegroom for w^hom they had been looking 
 came. He met and recognized the bride. The 
 bride finally met and recognized the bridegroom. 
 She listened to his voice and obeyed his call. 
 He appeared to them meek and lowl}'. His 
 royalty was as 3'et concealed. The glory which 
 he had had with the Father was veiled in 
 human flesh; nevertheless, he attracted to him- 
 self all whom the Father had given him. All 
 who had been prepared by God through the 
 prophecies, the types and the shadows ; by the 
 preaching of the law and the baptism of John, 
 followed him. They found in him the fulfill- 
 
22 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 meiit of the prophecies, the substance of the 
 shadows, and the realization of the hopes and 
 lono:ings of God's people in all ages. 
 
 Are you, impenitent reader, satisfied with 
 3'our bare morality and the performance of a 
 meaningless round of religious duties? Are 
 you still unable to see the need of anything 
 more than an upright conduct? Has not God 
 spoken to j^ou through his providence, his 
 Word and Spirit ? Has he not awakened 
 doubts in regard to the safety of your pres- 
 ent attitude of mind and heart? Has he not, 
 through the preaching of the word, the faith of 
 a friend, a wife or a mother, shown you that 
 something more is needed? Has he not stirred 
 up some longings after like faith and commu- 
 nion with God with that of loved ones gone to 
 glory? Hear, this moment, the voice of the 
 Baptist, saying, " Behold the Lamb of God 
 w^hich taketh away the sin of the world." That 
 Lamb is the Christ. It is the long-looked-for 
 Messias. It is the Alpha and the Omega, the 
 beginning and the ending. He says to you, 
 *' Follow me," '' Come and see." Remain no 
 longer under the teachings of the law or in 
 the school of morality. Having worshiped long 
 enough in the outer court, accept at once the 
 invitation to '^ Come and see." Believe Christ's 
 word, seek his fellowship, and see that your 
 name is enrolled among his followers. 
 ' As soon as Andrew comprehended the full 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 23 
 
 meaning of the invitation, " Come and see," he 
 uttered the jubilant cry, '' We have found the 
 Christ." This stirred the heart of Philip to re- 
 echo the same. Nathanael took up the strain 
 which was passing from lip to lip, and added, 
 '' We have found him of whom Moses and the 
 prophets did write." This set the hearts of all 
 who believed on fire and filled their lips with 
 praise. So let it be with you, dear reader. 
 Let your cry be, " Jesus, Jesus only ; " Jesus 
 in my heart as the hope of glory ; Jesus in 
 my affections as the one altogether lovely ; 
 Jesus on my tongue as the only subject of 
 praise . Jesus in my life as my present and 
 eternal righteousness ; Jesus in my death as 
 the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother, 
 and Jesus in my heavenly joys as my all and 
 in ail. 
 
Chapter ii. 
 
 THE CONVERSION OF A RICH TAX 
 GATHERER-ZACCHEUS. 
 
 Luke xix. 5, 6 : " Zacclieus. make haste, and come down ; 
 for to-day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, 
 and came down, and received him joyfully." 
 
 THE disciples whose conversion was con- 
 sidered in our last, lived in the quiet 
 hamlets that dotted the shores of the 
 Sea of Galilee. Their calling was that of fish- 
 ermen, which was held in high repute among 
 the Jews. They had not been contaminated by 
 the dissipation of society or by the corruption 
 of wealth in large and royal cities like Jericho. 
 Zaccheus, on the other hand, was born and 
 reared amid the pomp and splendor, the vice 
 and temptations of the Herodian capital which 
 was called " the city of fragrance," because the 
 whole plain was covered with aromatic shrubs; 
 " the city of roses," because the valley of the 
 Jordan looked in the spring like a sea whipped 
 into foam, and " the city of palm trees," because 
 24 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 25 
 
 the whole region abounded in richer vegeta- 
 tion than that found in any other part of Pales- 
 tine. At this time, Jericho was able to boast 
 of the royal palace of Herod Antipas and of 
 the gorgeous abodes of his courtiers. It formed 
 the golden key which unlocked Palestine and 
 the Mediterranean to the nations of the East. 
 Its population was about one hundred thousand 
 souls, exclusive of the pilgrims who stopped there 
 for a season on their way home from observing 
 the Jewish passover. 
 
 Zaccheus not only lived in a place full of 
 temptations, but he occupied a position pecu- 
 liarly trying to his religious principles, so far 
 as he had any. He was the chief of the publi- 
 cans — an office of considerable importance under 
 the Roman government. A publican was the 
 collector of the imperial taxes. The methods 
 used by the Romans of collecting them, in a 
 city like Jericho, was to farm them out ; that 
 is, to bind the officer to pay a certain sum to 
 the government, with the understanding that he 
 was entitled to all he could exact from the people. 
 Under such circumstances a most favorable op- 
 portunity was afforded him for extortion, fraud 
 and violence. The strongest temptation was thus 
 laid in the publican's way to become rich by 
 w^hat the sacred penman calls " false accusation." 
 
 Zaccheus was not only a native of Jericho, 
 and the chief of the tax gatherers, but he was 
 rich. It is not stated whether his wealth was 
 
26 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 accumulated b}^ his own efforts or fell to him 
 by inheritance. The inference from the record 
 is that he made most of it himself, and a large 
 portion perhaps by extortion. 
 
 The subject to which 3'our attention is invited 
 is " The Conversion of a Rich Tax Gatherer — 
 Zaccheus." 
 
 Notice first, the obstacles in the way of his 
 conversion. These were mainly three ; viz., local, 
 circumstantial and associational ; m other words, 
 they sprang from the three sources referred to 
 in the text, namely, the place where he lived, 
 the office which he held, and the social [)Osition 
 lie occupied in the communit3^ 
 
 The place in which he lived exposed him to 
 three temptations. First, to a low estimate of 
 the religion of his fathers. Jericho was a city 
 of priests, who were at this time exceedingly 
 corrupt. Consequentl}^, the publicans concluded 
 that a religion which had such men to minis- 
 ter at her altars was not of much value, if it 
 was from God. On the same principle the peo- 
 ple of Rome judge in our day of the Christian 
 religion from the priests whose lives are known 
 to all who observe them. 
 
 Zaccheus was exposed also to the paralysis 
 arising from breathing the foulest atmosphere 
 of home and foreign corruption. Jericho was 
 not onl}^ a city of priests, but of all sorts of 
 people, many of whom were among the most de- 
 graded of the nations. On account of its loca- 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 27 
 
 tion, wealth and royal splendor, Jericho became 
 the home of tlie Roman tax gatherers and extor- 
 tioners generally. Through their wealth and 
 numbers they commanded a larger amount of 
 respect than they were really entitled to. For 
 their low morality did not appear in as glaring 
 a light there as it would have done in Jerusa- 
 lem or Capernaum. 
 
 Zaccheus was further exposed to the temp- 
 tations of g^yety and licentiousness. In Jericho, 
 Herod the Great lived and displa3'ed his wealth 
 and extravao^ance. The conduct of the kingr 
 and his courtiers was naturally imitated by all 
 who could afford it, and even by man}^, as in 
 our own day, who could not afford it. This 
 led the ambitious and unscrupulous to all kinds 
 of expedients to amass riches in order to make 
 a display. 
 
 Not only the place in which Zaccheus lived, 
 but also the ofllce he held, exposed him to 
 temptations. First, to extortion — a practice which 
 degraded him even in his own eyes. He knew 
 that the only redress open to an overtaxed 
 people was an appeal to law, in which their 
 chance of redress was slender before a tribunal 
 of which the judge was a heathen and the 
 gatherer an unscrupulous oflicial of the Roman 
 government. This comparative freedom from de- 
 tection was a temptation to indulge in dishonesty 
 and fraud. 
 
 It exposed him also to hardness of heart 
 
28 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 and harshness of manner, destructive of kindly 
 feelings. He came in contact with human na- 
 ture in the line of the most degraded busi- 
 ness. He had to contend with men's ignorance, 
 stupidit}'', and plans to deceive ; consequentl}'', 
 if he was ever tender hearted, he would become, 
 in time, impatient, if not feelingless. 
 
 Zaccheus's ofRce exposed him, once more, to 
 indifference to moral and religious restraints. 
 He was despised and looked upon by the peo- 
 ple as one totally devoid of character. They 
 regarded the publicans as excluded from the 
 religious life and communion of the true Israel, 
 as devoid of conscience and without the fear 
 of God before their eyes. Zaccheus accepted 
 as true this sentiment regarding the class to 
 which he belonged, and followed his calling 
 without expectation of anything better. The 
 same thing is largely true of certain classes of 
 men in our own day. They conclude that it 
 is useless to try to do anything toward becom- 
 ing religious, because they cannot rise in the 
 estimation of their fellow-men or convince even 
 their friends that they are sincere. 
 
 Zaccheus's wealth, as wxll as his office and 
 dwelling place, exposed him to temptation. It 
 cannot be denied that riches everywhere tend to 
 drive men from God and to plunge them into 
 the corruption and fashions of the world. With 
 what emphasis does the Saviour sa}^, " How 
 hardly shall they that have riches enter into 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 29 
 
 the kingdom of God!" The publican was 
 rich. As a consequence he was thrown into 
 the compan\^ of those who coukl not abide the 
 self-denial of religion, loved all sorts of indul- 
 gences, and were heathen in their principles 
 and conduct. 
 
 Zaccheus's case seemed at this time hopeless. 
 The obstacles in the way of his conversion 
 were most formidable. All connected with his 
 home, calling and condition looked like insur- 
 mountable barriers to the entrance of saving 
 truth into his heart. But God's grace triumphed 
 over them all. Grace never shines in all its 
 loveliness until it comes in contact with great 
 obstacles. Then only does it shine in its full 
 glor3^ It is in pardoning a dying thief, in wel- 
 coming a forlorn prodigal, in acquitting a noted 
 adulteress, or in seeking and saving a public ex- 
 tortioner, that its truest and brightest colors are 
 reflected. These are some of its richest tro- 
 phies. They are the gems w^hich sparkle in the 
 crown of infinite love. They arc the jewels 
 which are destined to shine forever in the dia- 
 dem of the King of kings. 
 
 Notice, next, the successive steps that led to 
 his conversion. And, first, those taken by the 
 publican himself. They are striking, and fitted 
 to reflect credit on his manliness and courage. 
 The first is to resolve to see Jesus. This was 
 the grandest resolution of his life, though it 
 did not perhaps seem so to him at the time. 
 
30 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSION'S. 
 
 We read that " he sought to see Jesus who 
 he was." He had heard of him, and the tidings 
 may have revived in his soul the earl}^ truths he 
 had learned at his mother's knee in regard to 
 the promised Messiah. He had long heard of 
 him. He had been for 3'ears dissatisfied with his 
 own life. In his sober moments he had looked 
 for some means that would bring him to believe 
 the religion of his fathers. At last lie came to 
 the conclusion that Jesus might do this. But 
 he could not see him, and felt that the fault 
 was not his but God's. He was small of 
 stature. 
 
 Besides, Christ was surrounded by a multi- 
 tude who rendered it difficult, if not impossi- 
 ble, for him to see him. Nevertheless, Zac- 
 cheus furnishes us with a striking illustration 
 of the proverb, " Where there is a will there 
 is a way." He had resolved to see the dis- 
 tinguished stranger as he was passing b3\ For 
 that purpose "he ran before" the multitude. He 
 not only desired to see him, but he put forth 
 eveiy effort in order to do it. He ran — not a 
 dignified attitude by any means for the chief of 
 the publicans — but he was in earnest, he was 
 bent on accomplishing his object, and hence he 
 laid aside minor considerations. He resolved to 
 overcome, if possible, all the obstacles l3dng in 
 his path. In his desire to see, and efforts to 
 meet Jesus, we find an illustration of what men 
 can do in our day to find the Saviour. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 31 
 
 Znccheiis not only desired to see Jesus, and 
 ran before the multitude for that .purpose, but 
 he put himself in a position in which he would 
 be able to catch a view of his face and form 
 if he could not hear his voice. " He climbed 
 np into a sycomore tree to see him.'' This 
 tree has large, long limbs running out almost at 
 right angles with the trunk, and, in many cases, 
 near the ground. Hence it was well adapted to 
 the purpose for which Zaccheus selected it. He 
 had, however, but little hope that the Saviour 
 would notice him. He hid himself among the 
 branches. Nevertheless, every step he took, 
 however trivial and accidental it may have 
 seemed at the time, brought him nearer and 
 nearer to seeing the Saviour face to face. 
 
 Not a few of us can look back and see how 
 strangely we were led to Christ's feet. Provi- 
 dence often hedged up the particular path we 
 had selected, and opened another we never 
 thought of; it thwarted some favorite plan we 
 had formed, and presented another which a 
 combination of events led us to adopt. How 
 often has some apparently accidental step, or 
 a trifling incident, led to a train of associations 
 and occurrences which changed the whole course 
 of our lives. A moment too late for the train; 
 the falling of a shower driving us to seek 
 shelter in the house of a neighbor ; a hint let 
 fall in general conversation, or the climbing to 
 some high place to gratify curiosity — on these 
 
32 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 and circumstances more trifling still bang often 
 the most momentous issues of our life. How- 
 blessed to think that in this tangled web of cir- 
 cumstances, in the labyrinth which momentarily 
 entwines itself round our feet, we are not left 
 to walk alone ! How blessed the thought that a 
 wise, loving and an unseen hand is directing 
 our steps ! 
 
 In connection with this course of the pub- 
 lican, let us trace that of the Saviour. First, 
 be went in the direction in which he was ex- 
 pected to go. IJe knew that Zaccbeus bad 
 climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him. 
 He was more anxious to see the publican than 
 the publican was to see him. The seeker was 
 sought and found. Blessed fact I If we put 
 ourselves like Zaccbeus in Christ's way, we 
 are sure to be found of him. For no cares 
 or business will draw him aside. He always 
 goes in the direction of the waiting sinner. 
 He marks every beat of bis heart, traces his 
 steps to the place in which be expects to see 
 bim, and finds him even when be has fled into 
 the most secret concealment. 
 
 Christ not only went in the way leading to 
 the sycomore tree, but he looked up. Who can 
 describe or even imagine the way Zaccbeus 
 must have felt when be saw the multitude, 
 beaded by the Master, moving toward bim ? 
 Vaguely and perhaps confusedly bis past life, 
 with its sins and sorrows, misgivings and doubts, 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 33 
 
 passed before his e3^e ; longing and hope, fear 
 and trembling expectation filled bis sonl. Yet 
 he would see Jesus, for he was to pass that 
 wa}^, and then all would be over, and he would 
 go home perhaps to quiet conscience and hope 
 for something better. But would seeing Jesus 
 meet his expectation? Would that end his cap- 
 tivity? Would it solve the problem of his life? 
 Would it remove the manacles from his hands 
 and feet? Would it take away the burden he 
 had borne for years? At this juncture the 
 Saviour made his appearance He halted, looked 
 up, and the people paused and held their breath I 
 Christ not only moved in the right direction, 
 but he looked up, not simply at the tree, not 
 with an indifferent glance, nor merely to see 
 what kind of man the hiding publican was, but 
 he cast on his hard foce a loving, melting look ! 
 There went out in that glance the declarations, 
 " Thou art the man 1 I am in search of thee ! 
 Thou art an heir of glory ! " For a moment 
 the publican was embarrassed, perplexed, and 
 no doubt troubled. But, 
 
 "A second look he gave, which said, 
 I freely all forgive ; 
 My blood is for thy ransom paid ; 
 I die that thou mayst live." 
 
 The third step was to call Zaccheus by name. 
 He singled him out from among the rest. He 
 let him know that his name and character were 
 
34 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 perfectly familiar to him. He convinced him 
 that, though a publican, lost in his own estima- 
 tion, he was of some importance in the sight of 
 the world's Saviour. Though shunned by his 
 countrymen, he thought of him I This is in 
 keeping with the rule Christ uniformly observes 
 in dealing with sinners. We read of a thief 
 saved, of a lost sheep sought and found, of a 
 leper returning to give thanks to God, of a 
 prodigal welcomed by his father, of an extor- 
 tioner sought and brought within the Saviour's 
 fold. 
 
 How tellingly does all this teach our individ- 
 ual importance in the sight of God, however 
 worthless we may be in the estimation of our 
 fellovvmeni How often is it said, "I am of no 
 importance in the world. Can God care for 
 such a poor, frail, insignificant creature as I ? 
 Can he think of one so guilty as I, one whom 
 the world despises, one forgotten by friends and 
 left alone?" Such examples as I have given 
 should rebuke our unbelieving thoughts. 
 
 The other step in the conversion of Zaccheus 
 was the command to obedience — " Make haste, 
 and come down." The publican might have said, 
 " The multitude will laugh at my coming down 
 from this tree; those who believe that I have 
 defrauded them will sneer at the thought of 
 ray becoming Christ's follower; my old friends 
 and companions will ridicule such a step when 
 they hear of it ; " or he might have exclaimed, 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. oO 
 
 " I have been a great sinner and am not worthy 
 to have the Son of God come under my roof. I 
 will mend my ways, 'in the hope of being worthy 
 to have him come into my house the next time 
 he passes by. Ere long I will abandon my oflice 
 and arrange to become one of his discii)les." 
 Christ made no reply to all this, neither rebuked 
 bim for his sins or for following a wicked call- 
 ing. He met him as he was and said to him, 
 without conditions or prerequisites, " To-day I 
 must abide in th}^ house." He met him in tones 
 of welcome which melted his hard heart. His 
 love penetrated its depth and constrained obe- 
 dience. His assurance brought him from the 
 tree and quickened his footsteps. He in return 
 welcomed the Saviour. Here is a beautiful illus- 
 tration of the way men are still made to come 
 down from their lofty heights of pride and self- 
 righteousness to meet and entertain the lowly 
 Saviour. 
 
 The last point to which your attention is in- 
 vited is the outward proof of Zaccheus's con- 
 version. What was there in his subsequent life 
 to show that he was made a child of God 
 durinor this meetinsr with Jesus? What was 
 there in his own personal experience to con- 
 vince himself of it? It is not told us what 
 happened during the Saviour's stay at his 
 house. We do not know what was said to him. 
 Nothing is mentioned in regard to his confes- 
 sion, the outpouring of his heart, or his ex- 
 
36 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 pressions of gratitude and love. No record has 
 been left of the word of counsel, instruction, 
 guidance and consolation which Jesus may have 
 given him. All these were private. But we 
 are told that he experienced — 
 
 First, feelings of joy. " He made haste, and 
 came down, and received him joyfully.'''' A new 
 feeling welled up within his soul. He had often 
 felt something like real joy in the midst of his 
 worldly companions, and in the contemplation 
 of the accumulation of his riches. But, to all 
 that, there was a serious drawback. It was not 
 unmixed with sorrow. But who can describe 
 his joy now? Who can fathom its depths, meas- 
 ure its heights or tell its breadth? Its source 
 was heaven and its flow promised to ba peren- 
 nial. 
 
 The converted man in the present day knows 
 something of the same experience. His heart 
 is filled with joy which the world cannot give 
 and which it cannot take away. It is unal- 
 loyed. . 
 
 The second effect of the publican's conver- 
 sion was to lead him to make an open ac- 
 knowledgment of his sin. " If I have taken 
 anything by false accusation." His past life 
 comes up at length in its true light. Sin ap- 
 pears exceeding sinful. Instead of realizing his 
 guilt before he came to the Saviour, he felt 
 it in its crushing weight only after he came. 
 Not until he heard the melody of heaven in 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 37 
 
 the voice -which cried, " Zaccheus, come down," 
 did he realize fully the jarring of sin. Not 
 until the sunshine of love filled his soul did 
 he see the threatening clouds of a life of extor- 
 tion; not until the Son of God entered his 
 dwelling did he become full}^ conscious of the 
 evils he had committed as a minion of the 
 Koman government. 
 
 Something of the same nature must be ex- 
 perienced b}'^ every one who comes to Christ. 
 "When the light of the divine Spirit shines upon 
 the soul, it is sure to produce a deep sense of 
 sin against God and man. Thus it has been in 
 every age; when that light fell upon Job he 
 exclaimed, "I have heard of thee by the hear- 
 ing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. 
 Wherefore I abhor myself." When it fell upon 
 Isaiah, he cried, "Woe is me! for I am a man of 
 unclean lips." When it fell upon Paul, he ex- 
 claimed, "Ijord, what wilt thou have me to 
 do?" When it fell upon the poor publican, 
 he cried, " God be merciful to me a sinner ! " 
 
 Still another effect of Christ's entrance into 
 Zaccheus's house was a sense of justice toward 
 men. This manifested itself in willingness to 
 restore what he had taken by fraud. " I restore 
 him fourfold." He does not offer simply the 
 value of what he had taken, with the addition 
 of one-fifth, which was the utmost the law im- 
 posed if the property was voluntarily restored ; 
 nor the double, the penalty attached to stolen 
 
88 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 goods. But, acting under the law of Calvary 
 and not under that of Sinai — the law of love 
 and not that of justice — he offered to restore it 
 on a munificent scale. This is the true prompt- 
 ing of a new heart. And something analogous 
 to it must be seen in the life of every converted 
 man. He must desire to repair the wrong- 
 doings of his life as far as practicable. He must 
 restore the reputation he may have ruined by 
 his slander, he must counteract the baleful in- 
 fluence of his bad example, and make up for the 
 extortion which he perpetrated through cupidity. 
 The last effect of Zaccheus's conversion was 
 the exercise of genuine Christian liberalit3\ He 
 did not stop with the feeling of jo}' which he 
 experienced, nor with the acknowledgment of 
 his sin, nor even with the restitution he made, 
 but he passed on without delay to the largest 
 alms-giving. Half his fortune went in one dona- 
 tion to the poor : " that fortune," as another 
 has said, " wliich he had amassed by measures 
 so unscrupulous ; that fortune on which he had 
 set his heart; that fortune for which he had sac- 
 rificed his good name, his happiness and his im- 
 mortal soul." But the entrance of Christ into 
 his heart produced therein a radical change. 
 He became at once a new man. What things 
 formerly were gain he now counted but loss. He 
 was more eager in his new life to restore than 
 he was in his old to appropriate ; more ready 
 to give than he was to get. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVER5ION3. 89 
 
 One of the marvels connected with this con- 
 version is that, in spite of its suddenness, it 
 was most complete. The morning saw Zaccheus 
 a man whose name his countrymen could not 
 pronounce without contempt, and whose own 
 conscience reechoed their accusation, as his con- 
 fession testifies. In the morning Christ had pro- 
 nounced him a lost man. The evening of the 
 same day beheld him rescued from perdition, 
 transformed by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, 
 made just, truthful and charitable. The palace 
 which resounded in the morning with the mirth 
 of the extortioner ransf at nisjht with the sweet 
 words of the penitent — 
 
 "Amazing grace! how sweet the sound 
 That saved a wretch like me ! 
 I once was lost, but now am found, 
 Was bhnd, but i>ow I see." 
 
Chapter hi, 
 
 THE CONVERSION OF AN AFFLICTED 
 BEGGAR-BARTIMEUS. 
 
 Mark x. 46-52: "And they came to Jericho: and as he 
 went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of 
 people, blind hartimeus, the son of Timeus, sat by the high- 
 way side beggiug," etc. 
 
 IX looking at the two men brought to Christ 
 in the neighborhood of Jericho, we discover 
 resemblances and differences in the mode 
 and circumstances of their conversion. Both be- 
 longed to the chosen people. Both were recog- 
 nized by their neighbors as the sons of Abra- 
 ham according to the flesh. Consequently^, we 
 are safe in saying that both were more or less 
 familiar with the law and the prophets, the 
 Jewish ritual and the promises concerning the 
 coming of Christ. 
 
 Both men were well known in Jericho, but 
 for diflferent reasons. The publican, by his 
 office, social position and wealth ; and the blind 
 man by his father, Timeus, who was a person of 
 note for reasons not furnished in the record. 
 40 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 41 
 
 The fact that the evangelist states that Barti- 
 meus was the son of Timeiis shows that he was 
 a man of some distinction among his fellow- 
 citizens. 
 
 The two had acquired more or less knowl- 
 edge of Jesus, either from the preaching of 
 John, or from friends and neighbors who had 
 seen and heard him. Both believed him to be 
 more than an ordinary man — perhaps a per- 
 former of miracles or a prophet, if not the 
 promised Messiah. What they had heard of 
 him produced a strong desire to see him. 
 From infancy the publican had looked on the 
 beauties of Jericho and the faces of its citi- 
 zens; but Bartimeus had seen neither. Here 
 is presented a sad contrast. '• I can fancy 
 few sadder sights," says Dr. Guthrie, " than a 
 family, parents and children, all blind — a home 
 where the flowers have no beauty, where the 
 night has no stars, where the morning has no 
 blushing dawn, and where the azure sky has 
 no blessed sun ; a home where the members 
 have never looked on each other's faces, but 
 where the blind father sits by a dull fire witli 
 a blind boy upon his knees, and the sightless 
 mother nurses at her breast a sightless babe 
 that never gladdened her with his happy smile." 
 The chasm between Zaccheus and Bartimeus in 
 this respect was as wide as that between the 
 east and the west. 
 
 The subject to which your attention is in» 
 
42 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 vited is " The Conversion of an Afflicted Beg- 
 gar — Bartimeus." 
 
 Notice, first, the view which he had been hold- 
 ing of his own condition. He thought for years 
 that it was utterly hopeless. He may have ac- 
 cepted the allegation that Jesus, who was about 
 to pass by, had power to heal diseases. He 
 might have accepted this as a general truth 
 and soliloquized, " Yes, he may have healed 
 many kinds of diseases, he may have cured 
 serious ailments, he may have even opened the 
 eyes of the blind, but I do not believe that 
 he has ever opened the ejes of one stone- 
 blind, blind for fifty years." He concluded, 
 therefore, that his case was peculiar, difficult 
 to reach, hopeless. 
 
 He mtxy, on the other hand, have implicitly 
 believed all that had been told him of Jesus. 
 He may have come to the conclusion that he 
 could heal him, if he would ; that he could re- 
 move the scales from eyes as blind as his, if 
 he was onl3'^ willing to do it. But he was sure 
 that he would never come to Jericho. It was 
 a den of thieves — a corrupt, God-forsaken cit3\ 
 Why should he come there? He would be de- 
 spised of the priests and rejected of the pub- 
 licans. That must have been known to him 
 since he was a prophet and possibly the Mes- 
 siah. He was honored at Nazareth; he was 
 followed by a multitude of admiring people 
 along the shores of Galilee ; he was sure to be 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 43 
 
 received with roj-al honor at Jerusalem. " He 
 will not come to Jericho, and I, a poor, afflicted 
 beggar, cannot leave home nor cross the coun- 
 try in order to meet him. My doom is sealed 1 
 
 " Jericho is a populous. Godless city, and 
 Christ is gracious and full of compassion. For 
 these reasons he may come to Herod's city. 
 But, if he does, he v/ill take the royal road 
 and not this obscure path beside which I sit. 
 He may open the eyes of those fortunate 
 enough to come in his way or w^ho may have 
 friends to bring them to his presence. Alas I 
 1 do not belong to that class. Consequently I 
 must keep my old seat by the roadside and be 
 contented to let him go, without his blessing, 
 even if he pass this wa}-. There is no hope for 
 me! 
 
 '• Should he come to Jericho and pass my 
 way, he will not notice me. He is a King, 
 not accustomed to speak to beggars ! He is 
 high and lifted up, hence he is above looking 
 on a blind man by the wayside. He is sur- 
 rounded by such a multitude as will render it 
 impossible for him to hear my cry. It is vain, 
 therefore, to hope for anything better than I 
 now enjo}'. Blindness and beggary will continue 
 to be my unwelcome companions to the end of 
 life!" Some such thoughts as these probably 
 passed through the mind of Bartimeus after he 
 heard of Jesus. 
 
 We often hear somethin^r like this from the 
 
44 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 lips of those who are spiritually blind. They 
 unduly emphasize their unworthiness and lost 
 condition. They sometimes aver that the class 
 to which they belong is so uninviting that the 
 Son of God will not visit them. Should 
 he have pity on an}^, it will be on those 
 who are in a favorable position, or posses- 
 sion of friends who have influence with him. 
 He will not, he cannot condescend to look 
 on any one so lowly and so far gone as they 
 are! What a strange view to take of the 
 Friend of sinners I What ignorance of the char- 
 acter of his love! What an erroneous con- 
 ception of his infinite compassion! The ground 
 of his love does not lie in lis, nor in anything 
 about us. He himself is the cause and rea- 
 son, the motive and end of his love for our 
 race. If we fail to grasp this thought we have 
 not learned the half of the fulness of Christ's 
 love. His is a love which has no motive but 
 itself; a love which is eternal, having existed 
 in the divine heart before there were creatures 
 toward whom it could flow ; a love that is its 
 own guarantee, its own cause, safe and un- 
 shaken, with all the firmness of his unchange- 
 able nature, unaff'ected by our transgressions, 
 deeper than our ill deserts, more ancient than 
 the hills, partaking of the essence of the co- 
 equal and coeternal Son of God. 
 
 It is as true of the Son as of the Father 
 that he is love ; hence, before any considera- 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 45 
 
 tion of what we need — deeper and more blessed 
 than all thoughts of compassion which spring 
 from the feeling of human distress and the 
 sight of human misery' — lies this thought of an 
 affection which does not require the presence 
 of sorrow to evoke it, which does not wait for 
 the touch of men's fingers to flow out, but 
 which is in its very nature everlasting, m its 
 vcr}^ nature infinite , in its very nature a stream 
 which pours out the flood of its measureless 
 fulness upon the heads of the poorest as well 
 as of the richest of our fallen race. This is 
 wondrous love ! 
 
 Under a painful consciousness of his inabil- 
 ity to comprehend the length and breadth of 
 Christ's compassion, or to do anything toward 
 receiving his sight, Bartimeus lifted the loud 
 cry, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on 
 me." The selfish disciples checked him, chidei 
 him, and even tried to stop him. But he cried 
 the more; for it was his first, perhaps his only 
 chance. He must remain blind till the day of 
 his death if he cannot now catch the ear and 
 arrest the progress of the great Physician as 
 he is passing by. The obstructions in his wa}' 
 only made him to cry the more a great deal, 
 " Son of David, have mercy on me." 
 
 Notice, secondly, the means Bartimeus took 
 to find relief. 
 
 He looked for it in the right place. He did 
 not, like the woman in the gospel, spend his 
 
46 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 all Oil physicians who failed to afford any relief. 
 He went not after quacks or magicians to open 
 bis eyes. He did not inalve his appeal to the 
 disciples to intercede for him. He did all he 
 could to catch the ear of the Great Physician. 
 Quitting man, he turned to God. Abandoning 
 human expedients, he resorted to divine grace. 
 Relinquishing all hopes of finding relief in 
 earthly means, he turned his darkened e3-eballs 
 toward Jesus of Nazareth, who was passing by. 
 
 He looked for relief at the right time. 
 Happy man, who hit on the nick of time I It 
 ought not to be said, perhaps, that any time 
 could be a wrong time, but Jesus had not 
 been that ^vay before and he was not likely 
 to pass again that way. This perhaps was not 
 known to the blind beggar, but it was enough 
 for him to know that he might not come ngain 
 that wa}^ and that even if he should he himself 
 might not be there to meet him or to receive 
 his blessing. He was, therefore, determined to 
 make the best of his present opportunity^ 
 
 He looked for relief in the right manner. 
 He plead no Scripture promises, for he knew 
 of none that met his case. He sought nothing 
 to commend him to Christ, for there was noth- 
 ing within his reach that could do so. He 
 came in faith, believing in Christ's power to do 
 what he asked. He came with prayer upon his 
 lips. He did not offer a long, or a carefully 
 worded one. It was a simple cry of distress : 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 4/ 
 
 *' Son of Diivid, have mercy on me." Though 
 brief, it was direct, intelliirent, importunate; it 
 recognized in the Son of David divinity as well 
 as humanity, consequently, the possession of 
 power to heal him. It w^as uttered in faith : 
 " Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me." 
 
 The greatest hindrance to the salvation of 
 this man came from Christ's own disciples. 
 They did all they could to stop his cry, not 
 because they were Indifferent to his condition, 
 but because they w^ere unwilling to lose aught 
 of the time or the words of Jesus, or because 
 they doubted his sincerity in crying for aid. 
 No matter which of these reasons influenced 
 their conduct, it was unworthy of men who 
 were themselves saved by grace. If they were 
 indiflferent to the sad condition of a blind beggar 
 sitting by the wayside, it showed a state of 
 heart unworthy the disciples of the compassion- 
 ate Saviour. If they were so anxious to hear 
 all that fell from his lips that they could not 
 afford to let him speak words of healing to a 
 blind beggar, they went be3'ond what was be- 
 coming in Christ's followers. If they doubted 
 the sincerity of the man in crying after the 
 wonder-worker, they were uncharitable. 
 
 Here we discover the great difference between 
 the thought concerning sinful creatures which 
 is natural to a holy being and that concerning 
 them which is natural to a half-hearted, self- 
 righteous man. The one is repulsion, certainly 
 
48 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 indifference; the other is pity. Jesus knew 
 what the blind beggar was, and consequently he 
 halted on the road and commanded him to be 
 brought to him. What did his knowledge of 
 him lead to? To reject him? To chide 
 him ? To hurl at him his withering rebukes ? 
 No! It made him more gentle and tender; it 
 added new brightness to his face and softness 
 to the tones of his voice as he said to him, 
 "What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? 
 Thy sins are truly great, but my love is greater. 
 Thine ill deserts are as the great sea, but my 
 love is as the everlasting mountains, whose 
 roots go down far beneath its deepest places." 
 
 What lessons of encouragement are here 
 taught the spiritually blind? They, like Barti- 
 meus, must look for relief in the right place. 
 They should resort to no earthly expedients to 
 remove their blindness; they should believe in 
 no quack or magician to render them aid; 
 for all these are but deceivers. They should 
 not content themselves with consulting parents, 
 teachers or even tender-hearted pastors, but 
 should go directly to the Great Physician. 
 They should forthwith utter the cry, " Lord, 
 save, I perish." 
 
 They must seek him also at the right time. 
 " Now is the accepted time," and not when the 
 Saviour comes again, next month or next year. 
 They must let the uncertainty as to whether he 
 will come again or not lead them to cry the 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 49 
 
 more, " Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us ; 
 have mercy on us to-day, now, this moment 1" 
 
 They must furthermore seek him in the right 
 manner. They must exercise faith in his power 
 and say to him : " If thou wilt thou canst 
 make us clean." They must not depend on an3% 
 thing of their own, but cry to him for help, 
 cry quickl}^ cry intelligent!}", cry importunately. 
 
 If the disciples' hearts should be cold, we 
 are assured that Jesus's is tender. If professed 
 Christians should be selfish, we are told that 
 Jesus is self-denying. If men should be suspi- 
 cious of our motives, we learn that the Searcher 
 of hearts knows them and will freely forgive. 
 His infinite loving-kindness does not turn away 
 from us because we are sinners, but remains 
 hovering about us, with wooing invitations and 
 gentle drawings, in order to bring ns to re- 
 pentance and open a fountain of genuine affec- 
 tion in our dry and dusty hearts. 
 
 " Sin," says some one, " is but a cloud, be- 
 hind which the everlasting sun lies in all its 
 power and warmth, unatfected by the cloud ; 
 and the light of his love will yet pierce 
 through with its merciful shafts, bringing heal- 
 ing in their beams and dispersing all the 
 pitchy darkness of man's transgressions. And 
 as the mists gather themselves up and roll 
 away, dissipated by the heat of the sun in the 
 upper sky, and reveal the fair earth below, so 
 the love of Christ shines in, melting the mists 
 
50 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 and dissipating the fog, thinning it off in its 
 thickest places, and at last piercing its way 
 right through it down to the heart of the 
 man who has been l^ing beneath the oppres- 
 sion of this thick darkness, and who thought 
 that the fog was the sky and that there was 
 no sun above." 
 
 Notice, thirdly, the response Bartimeus re- 
 ceived from the passer-by. It is impossible 
 to see this in all its grandeur without call- 
 ing to mind who Christ was, whither he was 
 going, and what was awaiting him at Jerusa- 
 lem. He was the son of David, the promised 
 Messiah, the Eternal Son of God who had 
 created all things by the word of his power; 
 he was at this moment displaying in his life and 
 actions the attributes of divinity, and attending 
 to the affairs of ten thousand worlds. He was 
 on his way to Calvary, where he was soon to 
 be offered up like his illustrious type on Mo- 
 riah ; he was to drink of the cup of divine 
 wrath, struggle with the powers of darkness, 
 suffer the hidings of the Father's face, and die 
 upon the cross amid the insults of an infuriated 
 mob. 
 
 Under such circumstances what could ar- 
 rest his attention? What impede his prog- 
 ress ? What could call his mind away from 
 these great events? Would the destin}^ of 
 one person be sufficiently important to gain a 
 thought of his at such a moment? Would 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 61 
 
 angels or cherubim be allowed to intrude at 
 this time? Could there be a voice in heaven 
 or on earth able to catch his ear at such a 
 juncture? Was there a being in the universe 
 bold enough to approach him under the shadow 
 of his approaching sufferings? Yes, one, and 
 perhaps only one. Hark! "Son of David, have 
 mercy on mel" Who is that man? An afflicted 
 mortal. A blind beggar, obtruding his petty 
 sorrows on the heart that is gathering to 
 itself the woes of a world. What rashness! 
 In this light we should be indulgent toward 
 the disciples' conduct. Will the voice of such 
 an one be heeded? Will the war-chariot rush- 
 ing into battle turn aside for a worm ? Will 
 the swell of the sea, breaking on the shore, 
 be checked by a straying bird? Shall not 
 heaven and earth join the multitude in biddino- 
 Bartimeus hold his peace? If they do they will 
 betray a mistaken view of the heart of Jesus. 
 If they decide that by so doing they are hon- 
 oring him who came to seek and to save the 
 lost, they will be put to shame b^- his gracious 
 act. He turned at the beggar's cry and looked 
 with compassion on his blind eyes. lie " stood 
 still " and cast upon Bartimeus a look of infin- 
 ite benignit}^ 
 
 " Oh, when," asks some one, " did Christ ever 
 refuse to stay at the call of a distressed 
 sinner? Nay, if he stayed at the gates of 
 Jericho, when can he refuse? Is he not the 
 
52 NEW TESTAMENT COiS: VERSIONS. 
 
 same, yesterday, to-cla^^, and forever? Has the 
 love which death and the grave could not 
 quench perished in his exaltation? Did he 
 not bring it with him from the throne? And is 
 it not an everlasting love? Oh, needy sinners, 
 he cannot refuse your cry. ' Jesus, Son of 
 David, have mercy on me' finds its way through 
 adoring ranks of saints and urges and constrains 
 his blessed heart. He cannot resist it." 
 
 Christ not only listened to the cry of the 
 blind beggar, but he called for him. The 
 three evangelists differ in their statement of 
 this act. Some claim that they find here a jar- 
 ring note, but to our ear there is nothing but 
 the harmony of heaven. Listen! Matthew 
 says, " he called ; " Mark, " he commanded him 
 to be called ; " and Luke, " he commanded him 
 to be brought unto him." These are but pro- 
 gressive steps from blindness to sight, from 
 death to life. Bartimeus was savingly called by 
 Christ; he was instrumentalhj called by men ; 
 and he was efficiently called by the helping 
 hand which guided him to the presence of 
 Jesus. This is indeed effectual calling. God 
 calls you, dear reader, to eternal life. His ser- 
 vants are commissioned to call you ; they come 
 now with their loving invitation. Will 3'ou heed 
 them ? All the aid you need in order to come 
 is accessible, freely offered you. Hands are 
 ready to guide, tongues are willing to instruct, 
 and means are within reach to strengthen you. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 53 
 
 Having come to tbe Saviour in obedience 
 to bis call, Bartimeus was asked, "What wilt 
 thou that I should do unto thee?" What 
 is your request? Christ well knew what he 
 wished, but he let him tell his own story. 
 lie said, " Lord, that I might receive my sight." 
 "And immediately he received his sight." Upon 
 asking, the blessing was bestowed. The blind 
 man immediately saw. A new universe now 
 burst upon his sight. All about, around and 
 within him seemed new. The great sun, the 
 full moon, and the million stars, with all the 
 beauty of air, cloud, trees, flowers and hills 
 came to the blind man as he opened his eyes. 
 But the firat object that struck his illumined 
 eyeballs was the Opener. Though brightly 
 shone the sun and fair seemed the Jordan val- 
 ley, though gorgeous appeared the foliage of 
 the sycomore and the acacia, all new and won- 
 drous sights to him, yet they were not the first 
 objects that he saw. The renewed faculty of 
 vision was first exercised on him by whom the 
 sight had been bestowed, and upon him all 
 the wealth within its power was cheerfuU}' lav- 
 ished. 
 
 Who can depict the glowing views which 
 break upon the vision of the newly-converted 
 soul ? A new heaven and a new earth ; new 
 objects to live for, new beauties in life ; new 
 fountains of delight, and new sources of con- 
 solation. Songs in the night and stars of 
 
54 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 promise; the light of morning with its fragrant 
 breath and the singing of birds; health for the 
 sick, restoration to the banished, pardon to the 
 doomed and life to the dying ; love, joy, peace, 
 hope, crowns, waving palms and blessed visions 
 of eternal glory come now to sight. 
 
 Notice, lastly, two of the results of Christ's 
 gracious act in opening the blind man's eyes. 
 He followed Jesus in the way. He did not 
 say, " Having received my sight, I shall hence- 
 forth be able to take care of myself" His grat- 
 itude was too great for that. The sunflower 
 could more readily hide its face and turn aside 
 from the light of day than the eyes of poor 
 Bartimeus could allow Jesus to go out of his 
 sight. Those newly opened eyes looked after 
 him whithersoever he went. They followed his 
 steps and waited for further manifestations of 
 his glory. Bartimeus carried out the command, 
 " If any man love me, let him follow me." 
 Christ's sheep hear his voice and follow him. 
 It is hardly credible that he has very many 
 sheep who refuse long to do his bidding. The 
 Psalmist does not speak for himself alone, but 
 for all true believers, when he says, "My soul 
 foUoweth hard after thee." It was the salv^ation 
 of Caleb and Joshua in the day of wrath, and 
 it is recorded as their glory that they followed 
 the Lord fully. It is the only path of safety, 
 and the only one which stops not short of 
 the heavenly Canaan. Following Jesus is the 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSION'S. 55 
 
 antidote of all error, all doubt and all despon- 
 dency ; it insures soundness in doctrine, growth 
 in grace, and comforting, perpetual and life- 
 giving illumination of soul. 
 
 Bartimeus not only followed Jesus but in 
 addition to it, he ''glorified God:'' The piety 
 of the early Church was of the frank, outspoken 
 kind. None were ashamed of their King. None 
 shrank from being regarded as his subjects. 
 What bursts of joy were heard from their 
 lips, what loud thanksgivings, like the swell of 
 the sea, w^ere those which found utterance in 
 the well-known words, " Come and hear, all 
 ye that fear God, and I. will declare what he 
 hath done for my soul. I will bless the Lord 
 at all times : his praise shall continually be in 
 my mouth. magnify the Lord with me, and 
 let us exalt his name together ! " Let all who 
 trust that they are God's children follow this 
 example of the Psalmist. 
 
Chapter iv. 
 
 THE CONVERSION OF A TIMID AND LONELY 
 
 INVALID-THE WOMAN WITH THE 
 
 ISSUE OF BLOOD. 
 
 Mark v. 2-5-34 : "And a certain woman, which had an 
 issue of blood twelve years," etc. 
 
 LIGHT is a great revealer. It discloses 
 to the eye that which, without it, would 
 remain concealed. It brings out the 
 good and the bad, the cornel}^ and the repul- 
 sive. It renders visible the tints of the cloud 
 and the blue of the sea, the curve of the 
 brook and the contour of the mountain. 
 
 Light not only reveals what without it 
 would remain unseen, but it brings out of 
 their hiding places ol)jects not known to 
 exist. It extracts odor from the rose and 
 fragrance from the violet; it draws poison out 
 of a harmless weed, and lifts the noisome pest- 
 ilence from the fetid pool ; it calls the bird out 
 of its nest and the wild beast from its lair. 
 
 The same thing is witnessed also in the spir- 
 itual world. Christ himself is its light. His 
 56 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 57 
 
 coming was marked by the appearance of virtue 
 and vice never before known ; of beauties and 
 deformities the outlines of which were seen by 
 no man's eyes until then. Ever}^ circuit made 
 by the Sun of Righteousness disclosed the 
 healing virtue of his beams, the genial nature 
 of his presence, and the sweet beauty of his 
 light. It moreover disclosed the deformity of 
 sinful life, the foul diseases to which our fallen 
 nature is heir, the hidden iniquit}' which sleeps 
 in the human breast, and the poisonous miasma 
 that rises from concealed sinks of corruptioa. 
 
 As in the days of his flesh, Christ still 
 draws out the unknown and neglected sons 
 and daughters of sorrow in order to receive 
 his blessings. Seated in glory ^ he is the great 
 High Priest who can be touched with the 
 feelings of our infirmities ! The Bible tells 
 us that he looks down upon us with more 
 than the compassion which he manifested when 
 living upon earth. " His garment," says some 
 one, " wide spread and dropping low, is near 
 our hand, and he feels a sinner's and a suf- 
 ferer's touch upon his throne, with circle on 
 circle of glory gathering round him, and 
 saints and angels thronging in. He came 
 down that, in his nearness to our miser}', we 
 might learn to know his heart, and he rose that 
 we might be assured of his power to help and 
 to heal." 
 
 The subject here suggested is the Conversion 
 
58 NEW TESTAMENT CONVEKSIONS. 
 
 of a Timid and Lonely Invalid — the Woman 
 with the Issue of Blood. 
 
 Notice, first, her condition before she touched 
 the hem of Christ's garment. She is repre- 
 sented as a person whose life had a dark back- 
 ground of loneliness, ignorance and disease, 
 that set forth Christ's compassion in bold relief. 
 It is probable that she was unknown to the 
 people among whom she lived, unknown to the 
 multitude who followed the Saviour, and un- 
 known to him, except as she was one of the 
 she^p whom his Father had given him to re- 
 claim. She may have shrunk from society on 
 account of her disease, or may have been ren- 
 dered unable by her malady to take an active 
 part in society, or may have evaded her neigh- 
 bors in consequence of her condition. What- 
 ever may have been the cause of her loneli- 
 ness, the fact remained. When she came out 
 of her obscure abode and mingled with the 
 crowd who followed the Saviour on his way 
 to heal the daughter of Jairus, she keenly 
 realized her condition. No one hailed her by 
 name. No one recognized her by a nod. 
 No one encouraged her by a kind word. 
 Even the Saviour did not accost her. No 
 one seemed to understand her eagerness, know 
 her heart's longing, or appreciate her motive 
 in pushing through the multitude. She had 
 been lonely in her own home, and she is now 
 lonely in a crowd. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSION-S. 59 
 
 She was not onl}' lonely, but ignorant. 
 From not knowing the Scriptures and the 
 power of God, we may reasonably concUide that 
 she was ignorant even of common things con- 
 cerning the Christ. Be that as it ma}^ she en- 
 tertained some dim and confused views of his 
 power to heal. She thought of him, possibly, as 
 a worker of miracles, who, like the magicians of 
 the day, ciired by material means. She knew 
 nothing of his divine will, of his infinite knowl- 
 edge, or of his pit>'ing love. She felt that, if 
 she could but touch the hem of his garment, 
 the repositor}^, as she thought, of his healing 
 virtue, she would be made whole. And she 
 sought to obtain this without his knowledge 
 or agency. What ignorance of the Saviour's 
 character and of his way of working ! What 
 misconception of the relation existing between 
 his person and his healing blessings ! What 
 low, superstitious views of the salvation of the 
 soul ! 
 
 She was, moreover, the victim of an incurable 
 disease. We read that she was suffering from 
 the issue of blood. Like the lepros}^ this dis- 
 ease afforded those afflicted with it no hope of 
 securing a cure by human expedients. And yet, 
 that indisposition to give up and accept of her 
 lot, led her to try all the physicians she heard 
 of in the expectation that some of them might 
 succeed in removing it. For twelve long 3^ears 
 she hoped against hope, suffered from the treat- 
 
60 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 ments to which she was subjected, and spent all 
 she had in seeking what she might have known 
 to be impossible. 
 
 This is not all 1 She was ceremonially un- 
 clean, and consequently debarred the privilege 
 of going to the only place where she could rea- 
 sonably ex[)ect comfort. She was not allowed to 
 enter the courts of God's house. Her heart was 
 not permitted to swell with joy in connection 
 with the Jewish feasts. She was obliged to 
 feel that she had no part or lot in the inheri- 
 tance of Jacob. How trying to a true daughter 
 of Abraham ! Doubly trying it must have been 
 to one who had all her days attached even 
 superstitious importance to the outward rites 
 and ceremonies of the temple. 
 
 Long before she met the Saviour she had 
 sunk into a state of helplessness and despair. 
 How could it have been otherwise? She was 
 lonely and without a relative to care for her! 
 She was ignorant, and often haunted by supersti- 
 tious notions I She had become convinced that 
 her disease was incurable and had no means of 
 support during the remaining days of her life. 
 Who would not f6el despondent under such an 
 accumulation of evils ? 
 
 Is not this a picture of thousands of men 
 and women in our own da}^ ? Many feel that 
 no one cares for their souls. Not a friend 
 has taken them by the hand or said to them, 
 *' Be of good cheer." They go to God's house 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 61 
 
 and come from it without recognition. Even 
 tlie minister foils often to reach their case from 
 tlie pulpit, or to aid them b}- a call at their 
 homes. In man}" cases, they are ignorant of 
 spiritual truth and the way of salvation. 
 They have never understood thoroughly the way 
 of life. The3^ have turned to the world for the 
 cure of their spiritual malady, and received no 
 response. They ought to have known that it 
 furnishes no. remed}" for the diseases of the 
 soul. It has no balm for a wounded heart. 
 It is a broken cistern which for a thirsty one 
 holds no water. It promises, but it never per- 
 forms. It bruises, but it never heals. Sinners 
 have no share in the blessings promised to 
 God's people. They are strangers to the joy 
 of salvation. They are without hope and with- 
 out God in the world. No light of truth shines 
 within their souls, telling of sin put away and of 
 peace proclaimed through Christ's blood. There 
 is no salvation lighting up the heart with 
 love, quickening it with devotion, and mak- 
 ing God's service a delight. All is dark- 
 ness and uncertainty^ fear and dread, bondage 
 and restraint, dreariness and death. The memo- 
 rial over the skeleton remains of a bishop, 
 scratched by his own hand in one of the dun- 
 geons of Rome, is the only true superscription 
 to put over the brightest and best the world 
 can hold out to them : " No rest here but in 
 Christ." 
 
62 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 Notice, secoiicll}^, v/liat prompted this woman 
 to turn to Christ? There are many things 
 connected with her life not revealed to us. 
 We are not told how she learned that Jesus 
 was to come her way ; how she found that there 
 was virtue in the hem of his garment ; how she 
 became convinced that he could do more for 
 her than all her physicians. There is a thick 
 veil thrown over the whole of this. We cannot 
 afhrm that any friend of Jesus had told her, 
 because her conduct was not that of a person 
 well informed regarding his character. Besides, 
 repeated disappointments, like those she had 
 so often experienced, would have cast strong 
 doubts on a mere report. An agent had been 
 at work in her heart, of which she was probably 
 unconscious, and of whose work she was not able 
 to otfer an}^ explanation. The Spirit of God had 
 been preparing the vessel for the virtue that 
 was to be poure'd into it. 
 
 Here is disclosed a phase of conversion worthy 
 of our careful notice, viz., the preparatory work 
 of the Spirit, before the sinner is conscious of 
 it, producing contrition, the lifting of the eye, 
 the falling of the penitential tear, involving per- 
 haps years of providential dealings by which the 
 soul emerges at length from darkness to light. 
 Who can trace it ? Where is its record ? There 
 is a veil thrown over it. The soul's conversion 
 is like tlie volcanic eruption which, though un- 
 seen by mortal eye, has been little by little gath- 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 63 
 
 ering its elements for one grand explosion, until 
 it makes itself heard and felt. What is called 
 a sudden conversion is frequently sudden only 
 in the sense that the coming out is sudden. 
 The work had been secretly going on within for 
 years under the eye and agency of the Spirit. 
 
 Not only the Spirit had been working quietly 
 within, but the Saviour himself, like a great 
 magnet, had come near enough to draw the 
 soul to his feet. " Faith," says some one, '" goes 
 straight to Christ like a driven arrow, with 
 grounds for going that it cannot tell to others, 
 or tell even to itself. There is an intuition 
 which has reason in its heart, and which will 
 be able one day to bring them out full ami 
 clear — a groping half-blind which will yet find 
 enlightened eyes — a sense of misery, of sin, 
 urged to him by a divine necessity. ' Lord, 
 to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of 
 eternal life,' " 
 
 There is nothing here out of analogy with 
 what is perfectly familiar to us in the natural 
 world. Who can tell why the needle points to 
 the pole? Why the buds feel their way to the 
 warm breath of spring ? Why the flowers turn 
 to the sunlight ? The only answer which can be 
 given is that the}' are made for it. Souls, in 
 like manner, are made for Christ. He created 
 them, loved them, died for them, and, when he 
 comes near, they feel his drawing power and 
 cannot keep away from him or live without him. 
 
64 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 The reason of this is not hard to find. It is 
 Christ's whisper in the heart, " M}^ sheep hear 
 m}^ voice." The cure began with this woman 
 before she had touched the hem of his garment. 
 Christ's arm guided her to himself. His 
 strength sustained her in her weakness. His 
 lips whispered, " Come unto me, all ye that 
 labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest." " Some day, we shall find that Christ 
 was with us in all our good purposes, in all our 
 choosing and chosen hours ; Christ was with 
 us bat we knew it not. Nevertheless our heart 
 burned within us while he talked with us 
 by the way. This gives the assurance of final 
 success to those who long for the healing of the 
 soul, for where that soul feels its need of 
 Christ, it is Christ who is there, leading it to 
 himself." 
 
 A striking illustration of this is aff*orded in 
 the case of a deaf boy who was brought to 
 Christ during a season of religious interest. 
 He could not hear any thing said by the 
 preacher. He could not enter into the spirit 
 of the prayers. He could not throw his soul 
 into the sweet incense of praise, and 3'et he was 
 most attentive on the service ; he was interested 
 in the work going on, he was at times moved to 
 tears, and was finally converted. With others, 
 he applied for a place in the church, and was 
 accepted by the session. Strange to say, his ex- 
 perience was identical with that of his friends 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 65 
 
 who could both see nnd hear! Like them, he 
 was taught of God. Heavenly mekxly got some- 
 how into his deaf ears, and heaven's glory 
 shone upon his blind eyes. The Spirit worked 
 faith within him, which drew his whole being to 
 the feet of Jesus who was passing by. 
 
 Notice, thirdly, how she presented herself to 
 the Saviour. In general terms, it may be said 
 that she presented herself just as she was. She 
 was alone, and consequently had not the i^rayers 
 of relatives to depend upon, nor the interces- 
 sion of neighbors to look to, nor the instruc- 
 tions of a teacher to follow. She had spent her 
 all on physicians, and therefore she could bring 
 no gift to the altar. She had shed no tears of 
 repentance, consequently she could not point to 
 them as her precious jewels. She had not kept 
 the whole law of God, and hence she could not 
 present any righteousness as a plea. She offered 
 no prayer for mercy, and therefore could not 
 lean on it. What, then, did she do? She drew 
 near enough to touch the hem of Christ's gar- 
 ment. There is something striking in this. She 
 longed for a sense of nearness to Christ. Her 
 heart pressed close to the Healer as a sick child 
 to its mother's breast. This was done in obe- 
 dience to an instinct of her soul which the 
 Saviour himself had sanctioned. 
 
 She not only drew nigh him, but touched the 
 hem of his garment. She did it with fear 
 and trembling. She durst not appeal to his 
 
bb NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 heart, for she was ignorant of its feelings 
 toward her; she shrank from meeting his eye, 
 because she knew not but it was full of terror. 
 She resolved to let him pass b}^ and then 
 quietly put forth her trembling hand to touch the 
 hem of his garment. At that moment cross 
 currents of emotion agitated her soul. She had 
 doubts, yet she believed that Christ could do 
 her good ; she was afraid lest she might be 
 rebuked and driven back, yet she became 
 bold enough by her very despair to try the 
 experiment; she was too diffident to cast her- 
 self on his pity, yet she had too much faith 
 not to try his healing virtue. In this conflict 
 of hope and despair, she stretched forth her 
 hand and touched the hem of his garment. 
 
 There is here not only an approach and a 
 touchy but a true exercise of faith. She would 
 not have come near the Saviour, if she had not 
 had some confidence in him ; she would not have 
 touched the hem of his garment, if she had not 
 believed that there was in it some healing virtue, 
 but oh, how iveakj how selfish, how groveling 
 was her faith ! It was but a mustard seed. It 
 had in it scarcely any knowledge of Christ's 
 true character. She looked upon him, perhaps, 
 more as a magician than as the Redeemer of 
 the world. Yet, she knew enough to approach 
 him. 
 
 Her faith was as selfish as it was iveak. She 
 sought health ; but did not care for the Healer. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 67 
 
 She wanted his blessing, but did not feel dis- 
 posed to honor him as the giver. She would 
 probably have been contented to have had noth- 
 ing to do with hira, if she could only steal 
 some healing virtue. She felt but a little grati- 
 tude toward him who, she hoped, was uncon- 
 scious of the good she had derived from her 
 touch. 
 
 Her faith was groveling as well as weak and 
 selfish. It was scarce more than the faith of 
 a patient in a skillful physician, the faith of a 
 client in an advocate, the faith of a beggar in a 
 kind friend, yet it was accepted of God as suffi- 
 cient to save. 
 
 The path to Christ is here beautifully set 
 forth. Men must come to him like the poor 
 woman in the text. It is so plain that even a 
 wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err 
 therein. Trust in the prayers and intercessions 
 of friends must be relinquished ; reliance upon 
 interviews with pastors or parents, leaning on 
 our own understanding, looking to human ex- 
 pedients, trust in penances, prayers, rounds of 
 religious duties, tears and church ordinances, 
 confidence in our own efforts, charitable deeds 
 or kind dispositions — all these must be relin- 
 quished. Trust in Christ himself is the only 
 wa3\ None will ever obtain Christ's blessing 
 without it. When the landscape is cloud}-, 
 when the sky is overcast, when the stream is 
 dry, when the pitcher is broken at the cistern, 
 
68 NKW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 and every bud, blossom, flower and leaf is seared 
 and frost-bitten, then the sinner must follow 
 Christ and strive to touch the hem of his ofur- 
 ment. 
 
 All must come nigh to him, touch the hem 
 of his garment, and exercise faith in his saving 
 power. None are required to have the faith of 
 Abraham, the ardor of Peter, or the love of 
 John. A conviction that this is needed is one 
 of the causes of men's hesitation in coming to 
 Christ. They feel that without this their faith 
 is not genuine, or complete, and hence conclude 
 that it will not save them. Even the best of 
 Christians are often tried in this way. Their 
 ideal perfection is a faith that shall alwaj^s be un- 
 broken and undarkened by the slightest shadow 
 of doubt. But the reality of experience does 
 not tally with this. 
 
 " Ma}^ there not be," sa3's some one, " an 
 inner heart and centre of true trust, with a 
 nebulous environment of doubt, through which 
 the nucleus shall gradually send its attractive 
 and consolidating power, and turn it too into 
 firm substance ? May there not be a germ, in- 
 finitesimal, yet with a real life throbbing in its 
 microscopic minuteness and destined to be a 
 great tree with all the fowls of the air lodging 
 in its branches ? May there not be hid in a 
 heart a principle of action which is obviously 
 marked out for supremfiC3% though it has not 
 yet risen to sovereign power and manifestation 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 69 
 
 in either the inward or outward being ? Where 
 do we learn that faitli must be complete in 
 order to be genuine ? i . may begin with desir- 
 ing the blessing rather than the Christ. It must 
 end with dosiring him more than all besides, 
 and with utterly losing self in his infinite love. 
 Its starting point may well be, ' Save, Lord, or 
 I perish.' Its goal must be, 'I live, yet not I, 
 but Christ liveth in me.' " 
 
 There is no faith so feeble to which Christ 
 fails to respond. Tlie most ignorant, self-regnrd- 
 ing, timid trust ma}^ unite the soul to the world's 
 Redeemer. To desire under these circumstances 
 is to have, and whosoever will may take of the 
 water of life freel3\ If you but cry to him, 
 though he maj^ have passed by, he will halt. If 
 you come trusting yet doubting, he will forgive 
 the doubt, and confirm the trust. If you come 
 to him knowing nothing more than that 3'ou are 
 full of sin, which none can forgive save Christ, 
 he will meet you. If 3-ou put out a tremulous 
 hand to touch the hem of his garment, if you 
 sincerely believe that he has healing balm, it 
 will be according to your faith. 
 
 Notice, lastly, the way this woman w^as 
 brought to a full knowledge of Christ. From 
 diffidence, enfeebled health, or shame on account 
 of her malady, she expected to steal away from 
 him unnoticed, as she hoped she had come to 
 him. But she was forced to face the throno-inor 
 multitude, and to tell her sad story. This gave 
 
70 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 her courage. In a moment she leaped from 
 timidity to boldness; stretched out her hand a 
 tremulous invalid ready to hide in any corner 
 in order to escape notice, but in a moment after 
 she knelt at Jesus' feet and confessed him before 
 the world as her personal Redeemer. 
 
 You who are really saved are trying perhaps 
 to keep your salvation a secret. Against all 
 the instincts of your new nature 3'ou wish to 
 shut up the fire which is burning in your spirit, 
 to seal your lips in silence, and to trust 3'our 
 love to concealment. Let the question put to 
 the woman in the text arrest your attention. 
 Come back, why are you turning away ? Christ 
 has done his part, wh}^ will you not do yours ? 
 You owe your soul to him ; why do you not 
 say so ? You have not been ashamed to accept 
 his blessing ; why should you be ashamed to 
 own it ? It is a dishonorable thing to steal it. 
 It is not worthy of your manhood to accept a 
 benefit and refuse to give credit for it to the 
 benefactor. 
 
 The confession of Christ not only imparted 
 boldness but peace also to the timid convert. 
 She came trembling at his word, for though 
 cured, her mind was not yet at rest; because, 
 though she had exercised faith, she had not as 
 yet openly called upon his name. Faith secured 
 the cure, profession of faith was to bring the 
 rest. She knew that it was not right to carry 
 off the bless in or in a furtive manner. She was 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 71 
 
 not satisfied with herself, her soul was not at 
 rest, her conscience made her tremble at the 
 Saviour's voice. 13 at when she acknowledged 
 the mercy by open praise, he said unto her, 
 " Daughter, be of good comfort, go in peace." 
 He had withheld the expected peace to this 
 moment because until now she had not done his 
 will ; he had withheld it until now, because she 
 had not exercised a full faith in his word. In 
 the act of professing Christ, however, her faith 
 was strensjthened. It forthwith rose to a lii2:her 
 point than it had ever reached before and 
 henceforth trusted Christ not only as the Healer 
 of her body, but also as the Saviour of her 
 soul. 
 
Chapter v. 
 
 THE CONVERSION OF A DISREPUTABLE 
 
 VILLAGER-THE WOMAN OF 
 
 SAMARIA. 
 
 John iv. 13-15: "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall 
 thirst again : but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall 
 give liim shall never thirst ; but the M'ater that I shall ^ive 
 him shall be iu him a well of water springing up into everlast- 
 ing life." 
 
 IN this chapter is found a fine photograph set- 
 ting forth with astonishing accuracy every 
 particular of the scene at Sychar. In 
 style and finish, if not in minuteness of de- 
 tail, it stands almost alone. " It is not," says 
 one commentator, " a monument composed of 
 an aggregate of stones, but, like the patriarch's 
 pillar at Bethel, a glorious monolith — its hiero- 
 glyphics the riches of redeeming love and 
 mercy." It is a master exhibition of Christ's 
 condescension and readiness to forgive. 
 
 The subject suggested by it is the Conversion 
 of a Disreputable Villager — the Woman of 
 Samaria. 
 
 73 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 73 
 
 Notice, first, the place of her abode. This 
 is called Shechern, Sychar, or in modern times, 
 Nablous. It was not an inviting place. Though 
 associated in early times with the pitching of 
 Abraham's tent; with the purchase of a burying 
 place by Jacob; with the reading of the curses 
 and the blessings by the Levites, and with the 
 resting place of Joseph's bones, yet it had by 
 this time acquired an unenviable reputation. It 
 was one of the cities which belonged to Jero- 
 boam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. 
 Its name had been changed to Sychar, meaning 
 drunken or foolish, on account of the wicked- 
 ness of its citizens. Jesus afterwards forbade 
 his disciples to go to any of the cities of the 
 Samaritans. Nevertheless, he went there now 
 himself; thus rising above dispensational bar- 
 riers and overstepping the limitations of his 
 mission, in order to take pity on one of that 
 lost race. 
 
 From among the vicious of this place the 
 Saviour had resolved to gather some trophies 
 of redeeming grace. He concluded that he must 
 show even there the omnipotence of that love 
 which was to change the lion into a lamb, the 
 outcast into a child, and the alien into an heir. 
 He must i)lant some trees of righteousness at 
 the foot of the Mount of Curses, and preserve 
 a remnant of the God-forsaken Samaritans. Ja- 
 cob's well must send forth richer blessings than 
 the water it furnished the Shechemites. 
 
74 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 Notice, secondly, Christ's meeting a disrepu- 
 table woman of the place. These two persons 
 form almost the sole actors in this memorable 
 scene. They were as different from each other 
 as light and darkness, and 3'^et fellowship 
 sprang up between them. They were as far from 
 each other morally and spiritually as the poles of 
 the earth, and yet they were brought together by 
 a mysterious spiritual power. They were mem- 
 bers of two antagonistic nations, and yet their 
 national prejudices now melted like snowflakes 
 in the midday sun. They were devotees of 
 rival religions, and 3^et the worst rivalry yielded 
 at this time to peace and concord. 
 
 The more conspicuous of the two of course is 
 the weary stranger, who sat on Jacob's well. 
 Here you catch a full view of the Saviour's 
 humanitj'. You can see the dust of the road, 
 clinging to his sandals, and the large beads of 
 sweat standing on his brow. You can read 
 weariness in his limbs and heaviness in his eyes. 
 You can feel that that hungry and thirsty one, 
 who flings himself on the grass or sits on the 
 masonry beside the well, is bone of your bone 
 and flesh of your flesh. 
 
 There is a world of comfort in all this. 
 Christ could have called the ravens to bring 
 him food, and the clouds to distil of their con- 
 tents to quench his thirst. lie might have 
 turned the stones of the valley into bread, and 
 opened fountains of water on the rocky sides 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSION'S. 75 
 
 of Ebal and Gerizim ; he might have summoned 
 angels to minister to his wants, but he preferred 
 asking a poor woman of S3'char to do it. He 
 was willing to put himself under obligation to 
 one who was despised by his people on account 
 of her birth, life and religion. Here is true 
 humanity. Kindness and heartfelt sympathy 
 lay beneath that heaving heart ; tenderness and 
 love were shrouded in the soul of that weary 
 man ; grace and mercy were blended most beau- 
 tifully in that face wrinkled with care. 
 
 Our Saviour to-day wears in glory the same 
 human form. He is changed as to his out- 
 ward appearance, but not as to his heart's inner 
 workings. The weary pilgrim who cast him- 
 self on the well at Sychar is enthroned amid 
 his redeemed ones in heaven. The divine Shep- 
 herd who is to-da}' leading his flocks to living 
 fountains is, in the sympathies of his glorified 
 manhood, the same Saviour who sat on Jacob's 
 well. When the cries of the tried and tempted 
 of earth reach his ears, they receive the loving 
 response of a human heart. 
 
 There is not only humanity, but humility 
 displayed in this incident. Though a man, wear^^ 
 with travel, 3'et he might have shared the feel- 
 ing of his race in despising a Samaritan. He 
 might have given her a shekel of silver for the 
 cuj) of water, and thereby put her under obliga- 
 tion to him, but instead of that, he asked of her 
 a favor, showing thereby that he did not despise 
 
76 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 her on account of her poverty, religions con- 
 nections, or manner of life. Tiiere is no surer 
 ■way of putting ourselves on equality with our 
 fellow-men than by asking of them a favor. If 
 we would touch the heart of the humble and 
 cast down, if we would win the confidence and 
 sympathies of the lowly, we must condescend 
 to ask of them a service. Our gifts to them 
 lead them to feel the distance existing between 
 us, but their gifts to us cause them to feel that 
 they stand on the common level of humanity 
 with us. 
 
 There is not only humanit}^ and humility but 
 charity here displayed. It astonished the dis- 
 sipated Samaritan. " How is it that thou, be- 
 ing a Jew " (his dress, tongue and appearance 
 betraying him); " askest drink of me, which 
 am a woman of Samaria ? " Tlie Jews and the 
 Samaritans had been for ages bitter enemies. 
 It, therefore, surprised this woman to find a 
 Jew able to rise above the prejudices of his race. 
 It touched her heart, and gave her a better view 
 of life. It disposed her to hearken favorably 
 to what the stranger had to say. 
 
 During this interview, Christ rose from being 
 a son of Abraham to being the Son of the 
 Highest. In the offer made he show^ed himself 
 greater than the patriarchs. " Art thou greater 
 than our father Jacob, which gave us the well ? " 
 He not only offered her living water, but re- 
 hearsed the sad story of her life. On hearing 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 77 
 
 this, she pronounced him a prophet. She felt 
 that he could enter into the concealed depths of 
 the heart, and reveal its hidden iniquity'. She 
 ■was conscious of being in the presence of an 
 extraordinary person. At this juncture, he 
 says, " Whosoever drinketh of the water that 
 I shall give him shall never thirst; but the 
 water that I shall give him shall be in him a 
 well of water springing up into everlasting life." 
 These simple words are full of divinity I They 
 carry us up to heaven I What effect they must 
 have produced as the}^ fell fresh from the 
 lips of Jesus on the ears of the poor villager ! 
 They turned her reproving questions into an 
 humble prayer: " Grive me this water." They 
 changed to her mind the weary stranger from a 
 prejudiced Jew to an object of religious worship. 
 
 The other person in this picture is a disrepu- 
 table villager. " There cometh a woman of 
 Samaria to draw water." She is one of the 
 daughters of Sychar, living at this very time in 
 adultery, and knowing to some extent its sinful- 
 ness. On being accused of it, her conduct 
 showed that she was ill at ease. She showed 
 that she had been sinning against the dictates 
 of her own conscience. 
 
 She was ignoritnt as well as dissolute. Reli- 
 gious things had not occupied much of her 
 attention. "The living water," "the well of 
 living water," " the water springing up into 
 everlasting life," were expressions far beyond 
 
78 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 her comprehension. To her they were like the 
 words of an unknown tongue. She could think 
 of no water higher, or more precious, than the 
 contents of Jacob's well. There was over her 
 mind and heart a veil of ignorance that caused 
 her to misinterpret all that the Saviour had said 
 to her. She stood in his presence a living em- 
 bodiment of Paul's words : " The natural man 
 receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." 
 
 She was not only dissolute and ignorant, but 
 immersed in the cares of tliis life. She hardly 
 knew what it was to look heavenward. The 
 earthl}' water-pot and the well of S3'char ; the 
 duties of her household and the physical wants 
 of her family so filled her mind that she had 
 neither room nor opportunity for anything else. 
 The present so absorbed her thoughts as to 
 exclude altogether the future. 
 
 Notice, thirdly, the interview which took 
 place between these dissimilar persons. It 
 would be natural to expect from Christ some 
 words of reproof, heavy accusations or solemn 
 threats. We might infer that his words under 
 such circumstances would be deep as the thun- 
 der and scathing as the lightning, but lo I they 
 fell as the rain and distilled as the dew. He 
 did not denounce her adultery, though of course 
 he disapproved of it ; he did not find fault with 
 her ignorance, though he deplored its existence ; 
 he said nothing concerning worldliness, though 
 he regretted it, but simply asked her for some 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 79 
 
 water to drink. Here we find sovereign grace 
 in all its glor3% He first spoke to the sinner, 
 and not the sinner to him. He was at Sychar 
 the tender shepherd, who went after, until he 
 found, the lost sheep, before the lost sheep 
 struggled to get back to the fold or to seize the 
 shepherd. He begged, besought her, as though 
 he were the gainer. 
 
 Christ not only spoke to her first, but he did 
 it unexpectedly. The woman had no expecta- 
 tion of meeting the world's Saviour at Jacob's 
 well. She as usual went after water without 
 looking for aught beyond. She did not know 
 that her name was written in the Lamb's book 
 of life, and that therefore it was needful for 
 the Messiah to go through Samaria. Even after 
 seeing his face she did not suppose that he 
 would speak to her. And, after his speaking, 
 she did not suspect that he would make her 
 at once an heir of eternal life. 
 
 This is a specimen of what occurs all around 
 us. The Saviour comes unexpectedly^ to this 
 and that one. The still, small voice reaches 
 the heart in the most unaccountable ^ay. There 
 goes a sick soldier to a stranger's door to obtain 
 permission to sleep on his veranda. He is 
 otfered a bed in the house, but he declines it on 
 account of his condition. He asks leave to lie 
 anywhere under the shelter of the dwelling and 
 it was granted. A little girl comes out to see 
 him and feels a deep sympathy for his condition. 
 
80 NEW TESTAMENT CON-VEKSIONS. 
 
 She offers him her kind ministry, but he is in 
 no need of it. Foiled in this, the little angel 
 praj^s for hira before she goes to bed, and the 
 soldier hears the words : " Blessed Jesus, shel- 
 ter the poor soldier on our porch ; may he love 
 thee, and be cleansed in thy blood." These 
 words sank into his heart and awoke new re- 
 flections. They broke his slumbers and dis- 
 turbed his rest, but they led him to look for a 
 nobler rest. Little did he think, when he ob- 
 tained permission to lie over night on the piazza, 
 that Jesus would speak to him through the 
 window from the mouth of a babe. 
 
 Christ not only spoke first, and unexpectedly, 
 but convincingly. He clearly showed his divine 
 skill and tenderness. He dealt with Nicodemus 
 — a man carefully reared and versed in all of 
 life's proprieties — gently and delicately. He 
 dealt kindly with the woman of Samaria, but 
 with her dissolute life, ignorance, and blunted 
 feelings he knew that there were no scruples to 
 consult. She needed the piercing blast of the 
 north wind, bringing with it sharp convictions of 
 sin, and hence he resorted to that kind of means. 
 He hurled the barbed arrows of truth through 
 the thick folds of guilt and pollution covering 
 her heart, and turned the full blaze of the eternal 
 throne upon her darkened understanding, until 
 she lay bleeding at his feet. " Go, call thy hus- 
 band." Here was a sharp thrust at her con- 
 science. " I have no husband." " True," re- 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 81 
 
 sponded the Searcher of hearts, '' thou hast 
 had five husbands; and he whom thou now 
 hast is not thy husband." This went deep, 
 and called up memories of past iniquities. 
 It opened that desolate soul to her own 
 severe inspection. It gave her a clear view 
 of the world of sin wrapped up within. It 
 brousjht her to a full consciousness of what she 
 was in God's sight. It proved to her the harbin- 
 ger of the Sun of Righteousness which dispersed 
 the clouds that had thus fixr obstructed her 
 vision, and enabled her to rejoice in the truth 
 she had as yet but dimly seen. 
 
 Christ spoke to her savingl3^ This was his 
 aim in the whole interview. It would be inter- 
 esting to trace the successive steps leading to 
 this culmination. They resemble those which 
 she took from her bleak home to Jacob's well. 
 Each brought her nearer and nearer, until she 
 finally reached the water. Every word and ques- 
 tion of the Saviour led to the living water. 
 Jesus answered and said unto her : " Whosoever 
 drinketh of this water shall thirst again : but 
 whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give 
 him shall never thirst ; but the water that I 
 shall 2:1 ve him shall be in him a well of water 
 springing up into everlasting life." Under this 
 simple figure was disclosed to her the great 
 plan of salvation which instantly rose before 
 her in its source, progress and results. 
 
 Its source is more than hinted at. It is not 
 
82 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 good works, it is not perfect obedience. It 
 does not spring out of the earth ; it flows not 
 from the rock, it distils not from the clouds. It 
 is the gift of God: "The water that / shall 
 give." It comes from the Saviour's heart. It 
 flows down from the eternal hills. 
 
 Salvation is not only of God, but in the sin- 
 ner's heart. It is not an outward robe which the 
 storms of winter may tear away, nor a detached 
 object which human means may remove ; but a 
 spiritual life — a hidden life. " The water that I 
 shall give him shall be iii him." It is " Christ 
 in the soul the hope of glory." The spring 
 whence the river flows is below ground. The 
 stream is visible, rising and flowing, winding 
 and reflecting the sun's ra3^s, but no eye can 
 detect the source. The Christian is unseen. 
 His life is hid with Christ in God. 
 
 This salvation which is of God and in the 
 heart is largely independent of outward influ- 
 ences. It is wholly so in its perpetuity. No 
 external agent can destroy it. But its outward 
 manifestation and fullness may be somewhat 
 dependent on worldly influences. But even 
 these cannot be wholly destroyed. Summer's 
 drought cannot dry them and winter's frost can- 
 not bind them. " The water that I shall give 
 him shall be in him a well of water." There is 
 joy often within when the outgoings are dark 
 and threatening. The spiritual stream frequently 
 flows freshest when that of earth is dried up. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 83 
 
 This siilvjition is beyond all price. It is 
 more precious than gold — even the gold of Ophir. 
 " Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall 
 give him shall never thirst." What a contrast 
 between this and all other means used to slake 
 the soul's thirst! The inscription wiitten by 
 our Lord on the well of Sychar may be writ- 
 ten on all the wells of this w^orld. " Whosoever 
 drinketh of this water shall thirst again." Let 
 a man drink ever so deeply of the sparkling 
 brooks of worldly pleasure, and he will thirst 
 again. Let him quaff to his heart's content of 
 the turbulent waters of self-indulgence and he 
 will thirst again. Let him sip ever so freely of 
 the stream of power, and he will thirst again. 
 Let him catch the golden tides of wealth and 
 he will thirst again. But the water that Christ 
 shall give him " shall be in him a well of water 
 springing up into everlasting life." 
 
 Alas, that so many in Christian lands should 
 eagerly pant after the painted glories of this 
 unsatisf3'ing world I Alas, that so many should 
 drink of these earthly streams, when the living 
 water is so full, so fresh, so free I For what, 
 within a few brief 3''ears, will it all come to? A 
 death-bed without hope, an eternity unprovided 
 for, a corpse, a shroud, a grave I All that the 
 world can give, apart from Christ, cannot satisfy 
 the soul. 
 
 Notice, lastly, some of the results of Christ's 
 interview with the woman of Samaria. It con- 
 
8-i NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 vinced her of the worthlessness of her own 
 faith. This was for her a sober matter. It is a 
 solemn thing for a soul to be stripped at once 
 of its shelter, its carefully constructed defenses, 
 and its strong tower! It is pitiable to see one 
 who has been at ease exposed suddenly to the 
 stormy blast and made to shiver in the wintry 
 cold. The woman of Samaria was, in her way, 
 religious. She was able to point to the moun- 
 tain side on which her forefathers had wor- 
 shiped for centuries. Siie knew considerable 
 about the Messiah, and looked, in her way, for 
 his coming. To some extent she was acquainted 
 with his character. She had some knowledge of 
 God and of the principles of morality. She had 
 been an observer of the rites and ceremonies of 
 the Samaritan religion. She thought that she 
 had enough to shelter her in the day of storm 
 and judgment. But, lo ! all these were swept 
 awa}^ by a single sentence of the great Prophet : 
 "Ye worship ye know not what." What you 
 inhabitants of Sychar take to be religion is no 
 religion at all. The props on which you now 
 lean will presently let you fall. The refuge into 
 which you have fled is a refuge of lies. There 
 is no genuine worship as long as the soul re- 
 mains unrenewed by grace, and as long as the 
 love of Christ is not shed abroad in the heart. 
 She was not only convinced of the worthless- 
 ness of her religious duties, but taught the true 
 way to worship God : " They that worship him 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 85 
 
 must worship him in spirit and in truth." No 
 elaborate ritual is demanded. No sacred place is 
 needed to make it effectual. No carefull}' arranged 
 words are called for. Two things only enter into 
 it, A'iz., a spiritual and holy God revealed as a 
 loving Father, and an humble, trusting soul 
 looking up to him with reverence and faith. 
 
 The last result of the interview at Jacob's 
 well was to turn a wicked woman into a noble 
 missionary who should carry glad tidings to her 
 fellow-citizens. The woman left her water-pot 
 and went her wa}' into the cit}^ and said to the 
 men, " Come, see a man which told me all things 
 that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" In 
 her abounding joy she forgot her errand at 
 the well. She ran back to the city without her 
 pitcher, to tell her relatives and friends of the 
 living water. She left Sychar a wretched sinner, 
 and returned a rejoicing saint. In a moment a 
 fountain was opened in her stony heart, that 
 was not only to bubble up, but to flow over. 
 Not only her own powers were refreshed, but 
 the waste places around her home. Her soul 
 w^as not hereafter to be a stagnant pool, but a 
 sparkling spring discharging everywhere its liv- 
 ing water to cause the God-forsaken town and 
 the blighted valley to blossom as the rose. 
 
 The grace which was so full and free at Jacob's 
 well is still full and free. The Spirit and the 
 Bride still say, Come. The water of life is still 
 freely given. 
 
Chapter vi. 
 
 THE CONVERSION OF ONE OUTSIDE THE 
 
 CHOSEN PEOPLE-THE SYRO- 
 
 PHCBNICIAN WOMAN. 
 
 Matt. XV. 28 : " O, woman, great is thy faith : be it unto thee 
 even as thou wilt." 
 
 THIS is one of the most touching incidents 
 in the life of our Lord. He was once 
 prompted to overstep the boundary of his 
 own country', not to teach nor to heal, but to 
 seek a little rest in a quiet region overlooking 
 the old cities of Phoenicia. We read that " he 
 rose and went into the borders of Tjre and 
 Sidon." This is a tract of country lying be- 
 tween the Tyrian Ladder, or the ridge of rocks 
 north of the bay of Acre, and the foot of Leba- 
 non. The precise spot to which he resorted was 
 the ancient town of Sarepta, on the shores of the 
 Mediterranean. Here he hoped to escape notice, 
 and spend a short time unrecognized by its 
 inhabitants. But he failed in this. Just as 
 soon could the sun find a place in the heaven 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 87 
 
 whore lie might pause and rest, as Christ could 
 find a hiding place in any land. Whither could 
 the Friend of sinners go without being fol- 
 lowed by the poor and needy claiming his friend- 
 ship and waiting for his blessings ? Whith- 
 er could the great Physician go without en- 
 countering sufferers ready to appeal to his loving 
 and compassionate heart ? His fame had been 
 noised abroad, and his works of mercy had 
 become known to all the people of these regions. 
 "Behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the 
 same coasts, and cried unto him, saying. Have 
 mercy on me, Lord, thou son of David ! " 
 Her nalionality is here given for an important 
 purpose. She was not one of the lost sheep 
 of the house of Israel, but a descendant of those 
 corrupt tribes whom the chosen people were 
 to exterminate. She was a child of that 
 doomed race in whose room the descendants 
 of Abraham had been planted. She was a 
 woman of Phoenicia not onl}^ in its Canaan- 
 itish but S^'rian sense — that Syria which had 
 not onh^ so often, in its limited acceptation, 
 been the foe of Israel, and consequent!}^ bears 
 in Isaiah's prophecies the burden of Damascus, 
 but which three hundred years before Christ's 
 advent had merged in itself as one empire, the 
 old glories of Assyria — the Assyria of Shalma- 
 neser, Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar — and 
 which thus involved in its associations and con- 
 nections the whole body of the Uastern enemies 
 
88 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 of the Jewish people. She is farther called " a 
 Greek," and \^ery properly, for all this region was 
 subdued by Alexander the Great, and continued 
 until after her day to be regarded as a Greek 
 colony. She had doubtless fallen into the de- 
 generacy and idolatry of her fellow-citizens. 
 Hence, by birth, by pedigree and by religion, 
 this woman was a Canaanitish Gentile. 
 
 She had somehow heard of Christ's grace 
 and j)Ower, and was determined to try both. 
 '' Humble, penitent and believing," sa3's Archer 
 Butler, " she came from the long slaverj^ of her 
 idols. She spoke for one whom she had left at 
 home, and spoke as only a mother could. Her 
 words were few — she strove not to be heard for 
 her much speaking, but quantity was compen- 
 sated by intensity of feeling and truth of con- 
 viction. Tears and cries, not words and periods, 
 were intended for him who hears not with 
 human ears ; who regards not the tongue, but 
 listens to the beating of the heart ! Her words 
 were few, but what a body of theology they 
 contain ! She cried unto him, saying, ' Have 
 mercy on me, Lord, thou son of David ! ' 
 ' Merc}^,' for ever}^ thought and purpose of thy 
 heart is compassion ; ' mercy,* for art thou not 
 the long-expected Messiah, at once the Lord 
 of all and the Son of David, true God and true 
 Israelite ? " 
 
 Most unexpected barriers here rise mountain 
 high. She has found the right person, " Son 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 89 
 
 of David." She addresses him bv that name, 
 but he retires mysterionsly behind those lofty 
 Jewish barriers which conceal him from the 
 view of a ^oor Canaanite. Reappears as a min- 
 ister of the circumcision for the truth of God, 
 to confirm the promise made unto the fathers. 
 Not one jot or tittle of those promises could 
 ever fail in the hands of such a fjiithful and au- 
 gust minister; and therefore, unless the Syro- 
 Phcjenician could view him in a higher character 
 than as a minister of the circumcision, he must 
 maintain strict silence. " He answered her not 
 a word." What a damper to her warm heart I 
 What a blight of her fond hopes ! She had 
 poured out words of the tenderest pathos on 
 the cars supposed to be alwa3's open to the cry 
 of distress ; she had pleaded with all the earnest- 
 ness of a mother with one who had been called 
 the Friend of sinners ; and she had cast her 
 tearful eyes on his benevolent face in hope of 
 a gracious response, but he had no answer for a 
 Canaanite. He must stand for the truth of God 
 and confirm the promise made unto the fathers. 
 With these promises she had nothing to do. 
 He could not help a Gentile at the expense of 
 the seed of Abraham. 
 
 An ordinary seeker might give up his effort 
 before this first barrier. But not this Canaan- 
 itish woman. Her faith was not to be foiled. 
 She became somehow convinced that there was 
 a rich blessing in the heart of Jesus for her, 
 
90 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 and she was bound to have it. She had set out 
 to touch his loving, tender heart, and she would 
 not be put off. The dispensational barriers 
 might be lofty, but that made no difference to 
 her. They might be immovable, but it was all 
 the same to her. She knew nothing about his 
 covenant regulations with his own people. She 
 was not supposed to know. All she thought of 
 was his blessed character and tender heart. She 
 had heard that he was mighty to save, and 
 hence felt that, though he might not be able to 
 7^emove the barriers, he could rise above them. 
 Just here the light of hope began to break upon 
 her soul — though the glories of the Son of 
 David could only shine within the boundaries 
 of Jewry, the glories of the Son of God could 
 shed their bright beams over all the earth. The 
 Plenipotentiary of heaven could perhaps, if he 
 would, transcend his commission. He cannot 
 be bound by laws, when he himself is the Law- 
 giver. 
 
 The simple fact that he had all power in 
 heaven and on earth was not wholly satisfactory-, 
 however, because the same power that had made 
 Carmel to blossom had left Sinai a desert. He 
 had said, " I will have mercy on whom I will 
 have mercy." " It is not meet to take the chil- 
 dren's broad, and to cast it to dogs." At this 
 very point, seemingly the darkest and the most 
 discournging in her search after Christ's mercy, 
 her faith takes a bold and loft}^ flight. " She 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 91 
 
 springs," says the writer alread}' quoted, " from 
 Christ's supreme control and infinite power to 
 the benevolent equity of Providence. She rises 
 above the clouds of divine power which seem to 
 us, w^ho can only see from below, dark^ disturbed^ 
 stormy^ into the holy serenit}^ beyond them. 
 She sees the calm Sovereign of the universe 
 partial, yet impartial too, preferring some, yet 
 forgetting none. She knows that his care is 
 ovor all his works, and, deepest wonder of her 
 heaven-sent enlightenment ! she can see that he 
 loves her, and yet accords his unquestionable 
 right to love, if he please, others more ; allows 
 she can ask but little, yet believingly dares to 
 pronounce that little certain I She will permit 
 no mystery of dispensation to contradict the 
 truth of the divine character. ' Truth, Lord,' 
 is her retort, for the calmness of her settled con- 
 victions left her power to point her reply : 
 ' Truth, Lord : yet the dogs eat of the crumbs 
 which fall from their masters' table.' Every- 
 thins: is here. All Christianity is concentrated 
 in one happ}' sentence. She believes in her own 
 lowliness ; she believes in God's absolute su- 
 premacy; she believes in the secret propriety 
 of the apparent inequalities of his providence ; 
 she believes that those inequalities can never 
 affect the true universality of his love." 
 
 What a lesson is here taught those who stum- 
 ble at God's plans and purposes I It is fre- 
 quently said that if men are elected to be saved, 
 
92 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 tboy will he saved, do what they Tvill. This 
 is their sheet anchor, their stronghold. There 
 is in this an appearance of respect for the di- 
 vine power. They see no use in attempting 
 anything themselves ; for if they are not of the 
 elect, it all will be in vain. The conduct of 
 the poor idolater in the text is a standing re- 
 buke to this class. She knew that she was not 
 one of God's chosen people, and understood the 
 necessary limitations of Christ's mission, but she 
 did not on that account give up her search. 
 She persevered until she secured the blessing. 
 She was determined to reach the Saviour's heart 
 if she had to pass through iron gates, or rocky 
 barriers, and she succeeded. 
 
 Some are making barriers of their own, and 
 putting impediments in the wa}^ to heaven. They 
 are assured of the infinite love of God, they 
 have heard Christ's gracious invitations, they 
 are entitled to all the promises of Scripture — 
 for the}' are to every one that heareth, To all 
 that are weary and heavy laden — to whosoever 
 will. Let all take these promises to the throne, 
 and tell the Promiser that they understand 
 them to include them^ and he will not cast them 
 awa}'. It is an encouraging fact that the same 
 Bible which teaches God's sovereignty, teaches 
 also man's free agenC3^ The same Bible which 
 says, " Whom God foreknew, them he also pre- 
 destinated to be conformed to the image of his 
 Son," also says, " Whosoever will, let him take 
 
NEW TESTAMENT C0NVERSI0N3, 98 
 
 of the water of lift freely." Pr^ ing into the pro- 
 found mysteries of God ma}^ do as much injury 
 as gazing upon the sun did the mole, whose or- 
 gans of vision could not bear the splendor of the 
 orb of day. Let us not perplex ourselves then, 
 with those things which are too deep for us to 
 fathom, but let us bless God that, according to 
 the Scriptures, " It is a faithful saying, and 
 worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus 
 came into the world to save sinners," even the 
 chief. 
 
 The second barrier which rose between the 
 Canaanitish mother and the Saviour's blessing, 
 was his apparent indifference to her pra3'er. It 
 was discouraging enough to feel that she was, by 
 reason of her birth and religion, outside the 
 covenant blessings of the chosen people. But 
 to be treated with absolute iiidijference by the 
 Saviour of the world was all but overwhelming. 
 He might have uttered a word of pity ! He 
 might have expressed some tender regret at her 
 hopeless condition ! But he uttered not a word 1 
 In no other case is found similar coldness on 
 the part of the tender Saviour; nor are we in- 
 formed of the cause of it. 
 
 The disciples noticed it with amazement. 
 Their Master never acted so before — he had 
 never treated another as he had this poor Ca- 
 nannite. Their hearts were greath^ moved. They 
 a'^ked him to grant her request and let her go. 
 It was a rare thing in the life of Christ to 
 
94 NEW TESTAMENT COX VERSIONS. 
 
 seem less tender toward the afflicted than his 
 disciples, and to need to be importuned by them 
 to a deed of charit^^ " But all is rare here," as 
 one commentator remarks ; " rare his silence, 
 rare their entreat}^, and rare too the next step, 
 or stage, of the incident." 
 
 Two reasons for this strange conduct of Christ 
 suggest themselves. First, he may have desired 
 to test the feelings of his disciples, who, in the 
 narrow spirit of Judaic exclusiveness, might have 
 been unprepared to see him grant his blessings, 
 not onl}' to a Gentile, but to a Canaanite, a de- 
 scendant of a condemned race. It was true that 
 he had healed the servant of the Centurion, but 
 he w^as probably a Roman, certainly- a bene- 
 factor to the Jews, if not a proselyte of the 
 gate. But it is more likely in the second 
 place that, knowing what would follow, he 
 ma}^ have desired to test yet further the woman's 
 faith, both that he might crown it with a more 
 glorious reward, and that she might learn some- 
 thing profounder respecting him than the mere 
 Jewish title which she may have accidentally 
 heard. 
 
 At this juncture she came "and worshiped 
 him, saying, Lord, help me." Her faith once 
 more proved equal to the test. It enabled her 
 to put herself in the divine presence as one 
 simply needing heJp^ and no one can ever do 
 this in vain ! Oh I the depth, the power, and 
 the fullness of her short prayer, " Lord, help 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 95 
 
 mel" It consists of only three words — three 
 short ones. They form a chain with three links 
 — orolden links. The " Lord " is put at one end 
 and " me" on the other, and " help " is placed 
 as a blessed link between ! Nothing can be 
 simpler. The moment faith forms this kind of 
 chain all is fixed. The little word ''help''' 
 contains everything that the soul can need 
 here or hereafter. 
 
 Man}^ feel discouraged yet at Christ's silence 
 to their importunate prayers. They have been 
 praying for themselves, and for their friends, 
 but he has not given the slightest response. 
 On this account they are perplexed, perhaps 
 cast down. " Forty j^ears," said one, " have I 
 been pleading before the throne, and no 
 answer has 3-et come. I am ready to give 
 up." and she gave up; then the reply came. 
 Under the conviction of sin men sometimes pray, 
 and ask for an interest in the prayers of God's 
 people, while they persistently refuse to believe 
 in Christ. What is it they pray for ? What 
 is it they really want? What is it they would 
 have God do for them ? The gushing foun- 
 tain is open and accessible at their feet I 
 What are they doing ? Drinking ? No, but 
 praying God to quench their thirst I The}^ turn 
 to the passing traveler and ask him to pray 
 that God may take away this feverishness in 
 their soul. What saith the Spirit? "Come 
 and take of the water of life." You may 
 
96 NEW testame:!^t conversions. 
 
 have read that story of a ship's crew dying of 
 thirst on the coast of South America. When a 
 vessel came in sight, they hailed her and asked 
 for water • to quench their thirst. " We are 
 dying," they cried, " for the want of water." 
 " Why," replied the sailors of the hailed ship, 
 " you are in the mouth of the Amazon, you are 
 in fresh water ; why do you not cast your buck- 
 ets and help yourselves'" I sa}^ to 3^ou, who 
 may have prayed long and earnestly for the 
 waters of life, that they are all around 3'ou; 
 draw from the wells of salvation ; drink and 
 live. 
 
 The third barrier which stood in the way 
 of this poor woman was her personal unw^orthi- 
 ness. She felt that she belonged to a cast-off 
 race. She acknowledged that she was a Gentile. 
 She had not concealed from Christ her past 
 idolatry. Nevertheless slie was not prepared 
 for the last and most trying repulse. It was 
 bad enough to be told that she lay without the 
 limits of Christ's commission ; it was discoura- 
 ging to have her warm entreaties cooled by 
 a painful silence, but worse than all was the 
 designation given her by the Saviour, namely, 
 a dog. " It is not meet to take the children's 
 bread, and to cast it to dogs." Here, you saj^, 
 her faith must fail her. But wait I Will it 
 grow strong enough for this emergency ? Will 
 it bear the heat of this scorching crucible ? The 
 Saviour knows with whom he is dealing. He is 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 97 
 
 leading this Gentile mother to a point from 
 which she can get a view of him which will 
 satisfy eveiy longing of her soul. 
 
 How completely is this at last effected ! She 
 accepts the distinction made b}^ Christ between 
 the children and the dogs. She readily admits 
 that in the same household there are the chil- 
 dren of the family ; there are also the dogs, and 
 that it is right they should be fed at different 
 times and on different viands. In the great 
 human household differences of a like kind 
 exist; there are the favored sons of Abraham; 
 and there are the outcast children of Ham and 
 Japheth. " She neither disputes the fact," 
 says Dr. Hanna, " nor quarrels with those ar- 
 rangements of Providence under which a dif- 
 ferent treatment had been given to them ; she 
 takes the lowly place that Christ has given her 
 among the outcast tribes — among the dogs I 
 But have not the dogs and the children all one 
 master? Do they not dwell under one roof? 
 May not even the dogs expect some little kind- 
 ness at their master's hands? The finest and 
 the choicest of the food should be given to the 
 children, but are there no fragments for the 
 dogs? 'Truth, Lord,' she cries, venturing in 
 the boldness of her ardent faith to take up the 
 image that Christ had suggested, and to con- 
 struct out of it an argument, as it were, against 
 himself: 'Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the 
 crumbs which full from their masters' table.' 
 
98 "NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 "'Truth, Lord, but thou art the Master; and 
 there dwells in thee such a kind and loving 
 heart, that I will not believe — no, not though 
 thine own words and deeds should seem to de- 
 clare it — that the meanest creature in thy house- 
 hold will be overlooked or left unprovided for. 
 Truth, Lord, I am not a child, and I ask not, 
 expect not a child's favor at thy hands. I am 
 but a dog before thee, and it is no part of the 
 children's food — it is but a crumb from thy 
 richly furnished table that I crave ; and what but 
 such among all the rich and varied blessings that 
 thou hast come to lavish upon thine own — what 
 but such would be the saving mercy upon the 
 like of me, and healing my poor afflicted child ? ' 
 She triumphs and more than triumphs. Not one 
 moment longer does her Lord prolong the agony 
 of her suspense. ' 0, woman,' he exclaims, 
 'great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as 
 thou wilt.'" 
 
 Many in our day say that they are too 
 great sinners to be pardoned. I fear that these 
 do not feel the full meaning of their allega- 
 tion. They may be conscious of heavy guilt, 
 but they are not conscious of guilt so crushing 
 as that. One of this class told her pastor, who 
 knew the weakness of human nature, that 
 she was too great a sinner to be pardoned ; 
 that she had done despite to the Spirit of 
 grace, and defied for many years Christ's au- 
 thority. The keen eyes of that master in Israel 
 
NEW TESTAMENT COX VERSIONS. 99 
 
 saw below all that show of humilit}" a large 
 amount of self-righteousness, and joined with 
 her in her depreciation of self. When she 
 was done, he proceeded to say that she was 
 a far greater sinner than she had acknowl- 
 edged — far greater than she had any concep- 
 tion of. At this point the spirit of rebellion 
 arose. She broke out into a torrent of invec- 
 tives on professed Christians, and alleged that 
 she was much better than many of them. Her 
 concealed pride and self-righteousness came at 
 last to the surface. She went home displeased 
 with her pastor, declaring that she could no 
 longer attend his ministry since he had such a 
 low opinion of her character. But his searching 
 words had made their impression. " Yes, you are 
 a greater sinner than you have any conception 
 of," rang in her ears, until she was brought 
 to the condition of the poor woman in the text. 
 She became willing at last to accept even the 
 crumbs from the Master's table. When she 
 reached that point, the blessing came. Her sins 
 were forgiven. The Lord said unto her, " Be it 
 unto thee even as thou wilt." After this she 
 visited her pastor with a light heart and a beam- 
 ing face, in order to tell him that her sins had 
 been forgiven, but not until she had cried ; 
 
 " Other refuge have I none ; 
 
 Hangs my helpless soul on thee ; 
 Leave, ah ! leave me not alone, 
 Still support and comfort me." 
 
100 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 If 3'ou, dear reader, have imagined that you 
 are too great a sinner to be pardoned, give 
 it up at once and remember that Christ's blood 
 cleanseth from all sin. Throw 30ur d3'ing soul 
 into his loving arms. Cast your all upon him 
 for time and eternity. Approach him at once 
 with the sweet words : 
 
 " Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind ; 
 Sight, riches, healing of the mind : 
 Yea, all I need, in thee to find, 
 O Lamb of God, I come ! 
 
 *' Just as I am ! thou wilt receive, 
 Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve ; 
 Because thy promise I believe, 
 O Lamb of God, I come ! " 
 
 " Truth, Lord : yet : " is the sum and substance 
 of faith. If we have learned to connect these 
 words, we have learned to believe. " Truth, 
 Lord : " sin has abounded unto death ; yet 
 " hath thy grace much more abounded unto 
 life." " Truth, Lord : " cursed is ever^^ one that 
 abideth not in all things which are written in 
 the book of the law to do them ; yet, " He, who 
 knew no sin was made sin for us ; that we might 
 be made the righteousness of God in him." 
 "Truth, Lord" is a true view of self; "j'et" 
 is a profound knowledge of Christ, The two, 
 in their proper relation, constitute a saved per- 
 son — a child of God. 
 
Chapter vii. 
 
 THE CONVERSION OF A BROKEN-DOWN 
 
 MERCHANT— THE DEMONIAC 
 
 OF GADARA. 
 
 Mark v, 19, 20: "Go home to thy friends, and tell them 
 how great things tlie Lord hath done for thee," etc. 
 
 AS we have seen, the publican and the way- 
 side beggar both went after Jesus. They 
 had heard of his intention to pass by 
 them, and made eveiy effort to meet him. The 
 former ran before the multitude and climbed 
 into a sycomore tree, and the latter cried, 
 " Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me." 
 In the case of the Gadarene this order was 
 reversed. Though he had heard of the coming 
 of the Great Physician to Capernaum, he did 
 not cross the lake in order to consult him, nor 
 did he wait on his own shore for his arrival. 
 There is nothing in his history from which we 
 may gather that he ever expected to see him. 
 He had doubtless heard of his miracles, but had 
 expressed no desire to meet him. 
 
 Here is a case in which the Great Shepherd 
 101 
 
102 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS, 
 
 went, of his own accord, after his lost sheep. 
 He commanded his disciples to secure a boat to 
 convey him to the other side of the sea. They 
 were probably" ignorant of his object in crossing, 
 but it was enough for them to know that he 
 wanted to visit the opposite bank. There is 
 in this a lesson of great practical importance. 
 The Saviour could have walked around the sea 
 to the country of the Gadarenes, but he pre- 
 ferred allowing his disciples to take him thither. 
 This suggests that means are to be used in 
 order to bring Christ into touch with perishing 
 souls. 
 
 Christ not only went after the lost sheep, but 
 he went after it at no little sacrifice. He had 
 just been addressing the multitude until his 
 physical strength was nearly exhausted. As 
 soon as the boat left the shore, therefore, he 
 lay his head on the hard cushion of the steers- 
 man and fell into a deep sleep. But he was 
 suddenly roused by his frightened companions. 
 One of the fierce storms which are common to 
 Palestine unexpectedly swept down the slope of 
 Gennesaret. With scarce a moment's warning 
 the air was turned into a whirlwind, and the sea 
 into a foam. Danger became imminent, but so 
 great was the Saviour's fatigue that he calmly 
 slept until the cry came, " Lord ! Master ! Save, 
 we perish I " Without confusion of thought or 
 quivering of nerve, he first stilled the tempest in 
 the souls of his disciples, and then commanded 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 103 
 
 the winds and the waves to subside. But soon 
 after this had passed away the boat reached the 
 bleak country of the Gadarenes. 
 
 The subject of the text is the Conversion 
 of a Broken-down Merchant — the Demoniac of 
 Gadara. 
 
 Notice, first, his phj-sical and mental condi- 
 tion when Christ found liim. It is said that 
 he was possessed of the devil. He is called 
 in Scripture a Demoniac. For our present 
 purpose it is of no importance what theory we 
 adopt regarding the nature of the demons 
 that tormented his mind or body. The inspired 
 writers do not explain it, and commentators have 
 not been able to set the question at rest. Some 
 hold that the demons in the Saviour's day were 
 not evil spirits, but malignant diseases. Which- 
 ever it was, the results of their possession of 
 the man in the text were distressing in the 
 extreme. 
 
 The first result was the marring of his 
 personal appearance. It is safe to infer that 
 the Demoniac was in his younger daj'S a man 
 of some comeliness of person. But when he met 
 the Saviour on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, 
 he hardly looked like a man. His face was 
 burned b}' exposure to the sun, his frame 
 emaciated by hunger, and his limbs were bleed- 
 ing from self-inflicted torture. His eyes were 
 fierce and fiery from inward i)ain, and his whole 
 bearing was that of a savage beast that was a 
 
104 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 terror to the neighborhood. His food consisted 
 of what he found in the woods, among the rocks 
 and along the east coast of the sea. 
 
 The demons not onl}^ marred his personal 
 appearance, but separated him from his home 
 and friends. He was probably a native, and 
 once a respectable merchant of the city of 
 Gadara. But, under demoniacal influence, he 
 had lost his love for family and kindred, and 
 they, in turn, had become alienated from him. 
 From the loss of affection, if not from shame, 
 he left his home and city for the highlands of 
 Gennesaret, where he discovered spacious exca- 
 vations used as haunts of robbers, places of 
 refuge, and tombs for the dead. By this time, 
 his mind was so far unbalanced that, instead of 
 living with his relatives and following his orig- 
 inal calling, he dwelt among the tombs, where 
 his thoughts were filled with ghostly images of 
 the departed. 
 
 The devil not onlj^ marred his personal appear- 
 ance and drove him from his home, but plunged 
 him also into the deepest degradation and 
 misery. The tendency of sin was then, as it is 
 now, to degradation, if not to downright bestial- 
 ity. The devil creates in man's soul an affinity 
 for the low and the unclean. By it the Gada- 
 rene demoniac had been reduced to the level of 
 the swine. Like the prodigal he found himself 
 sharing the lot of the unclean beasts. 
 
 The devil, moreover, produced a species of 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 105 
 
 mental derangement. Tliis is the best way to 
 account for tlie conduct of the Gadarene in 
 making his home not among, but in the tomljs. 
 There he was a voluntar^^ outcast from society 
 without desire to hold communication with 
 his family. He cared not for their welfare. 
 But, during his lucid moments when lie realized 
 what he once was, and wliat he still might be, 
 he carried on a frantic war with himself by 
 lacerating his body with sharp flints gathered 
 on the slopes of Galilee. When he relapsed 
 from these lucid spells he was more furious 
 than before. Then, in self-protection, he forced 
 his neighbors to bind him with fetters and 
 chains. But so great was his physical strength 
 under those demoniacal possessions that he 
 broke the chains and cut the fetters in sunder. 
 It may be asked, if there is anything analo- 
 gous to this in our own day and country ? 
 No doubt there were peculiar elements in the 
 case of the Demoniac which put his case beyond 
 the limits of ordinary experience. He must 
 have been at times overpowered by some agent 
 stronger than himself. Meanwhile, it must be 
 true that he yielded to it of his own accord. 
 We are not ready to affirm that the Demoniac 
 was insane any more than the drunkard, the 
 libertine, the gambler or the defaulter of our 
 own day. All of them, however, are to be 
 regarded as being possessed of the devil in 
 some sense. Is it not true that there are 
 
106 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 raving maniacs of this sort in every commun- 
 itj in our land? Are not all those such "who 
 succumb to the tempting power of the intox- 
 icating cup ? Some of them, alas I have taken 
 every step the Gadarene Demoniac took. Their 
 visage has become marred by years of indul- 
 gence. Their home has lost its attractions, and 
 their dearest relatives, their fascination. Their 
 business and place of abode have been ex- 
 changed for the country or some out of the 
 way, godless village. There, unchecked b}'' the 
 presence of wife, children or friends, they are 
 sinking to the low level of the beast. The rec- 
 ollection of home and their once happ}'- life, 
 mingled with the compunctions of a guilty con- 
 science, lacerate the soul more severely than 
 the flints of the desert cut the ' flesh of the 
 Demoniac of Gadara. 
 
 Are not our large cities the homes of multi- 
 tudes of libertines who have exchanged the 
 sweet company of mothers and sisters for that 
 of strangers whose steps lead to death ? Do 
 not their disfigured faces and unsteady bearing 
 betray the presence of the demon lust? Have 
 not multitudes left homes of happiness and com- 
 fort for mining camps, or God-forsaken towns 
 on the frontier ? Not a few have passed from 
 one downward step to another, until they have 
 nearly reached the low level of the brute. 
 
 Is not the course also of the gambler and 
 the defaulter similar to that of the Demoniac? 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 107 
 
 How many of them in a few 3'ears, have sadly 
 changed in their personal appearance? How 
 many have become indifferent to home and 
 relatives and sought a place of abode in a far 
 country, among a people for whom they once 
 had no aflinit}' ? 
 
 Notice, secondl^y, the impotency of human 
 means to bring such persons to their right mind. 
 It can hardly be doubted that the wife and 
 children of the Demoniac did all in their power 
 to correct his habits, hide his faults and bring 
 him to repentance. No one can describe the 
 pain they experienced ; the struggles through 
 ■which they passed, and the tears they shed over 
 his bad conduct long before they let it be known 
 to his neighbors. It is safe to say that not 
 until all home expedients had failed was he 
 allowed to break through the restraints of love 
 and affection. Even when that was done friends 
 and neighbors were not wanting to offer their 
 kindly services, but they w^ere of no avail. It is 
 emphatically said that they " could not bind 
 him, no, not with chains." They tried fetters, 
 the}^ tried manacles, and the}" tried confinement. 
 But he broke the fetters, removed the man- 
 acles, and escaped from his confinement. They 
 could do nothing with him. All the expedients 
 devised failed. 
 
 Human means are no more effective in our 
 own day in bringing about a thorough reforma- 
 tion in the case of demoniacs. Many are the 
 
108 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 chains and fetters, the tears and expostulations 
 of wives and children. Friends and relatives weep 
 over, preach to, exact promises from, watch night 
 and day, follow and guard the drunkard. Par- 
 ents, children and friends expostulate with and 
 try to persuade the gambler. The law of the 
 land, public sentiment, and the punishments of 
 Almight}^ God are pointed out to the libertine. 
 Much is thus done to keep vice and crime from 
 encroaching on the liberty and enjoyment of 
 others; much to keep both within respectable 
 bounds. Nevertheless, they fail to change the 
 Demoniac ; they succeed at times in checking 
 the demon, but they do not cast him out. 
 They may protect society, but they do not save 
 the soul 1 
 
 Notice, thirdly, the reception accorded to the 
 Saviour by many who stand most in need of 
 his blessings. The Demoniac begged of him 
 to let him alone. " He cried with a loud voice, 
 saying, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, 
 thou Son of the most high God ? " The Gada- 
 rene, observe, identifies himself with the demon 
 within and bids the Saviour let him alone — " go 
 away and disturb me not." He is contented to 
 live in the tombs, to clank his chains, cut his 
 flesh, and howl like a madman. There can be no 
 sadder description than this of the sinner ! Yet 
 it is true, down to the minutest details. The 
 drunkard cries to Christ to let him alone ; not to 
 torment him, not to take away his intoxicating 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 109 
 
 cup 1 The gamuler cries to him to go away, to let 
 him alone, and not to torment him. The liber- 
 tine bids him keep away, and prays him not to 
 trouble him. The covetous man cries, " Torment 
 me not! Let me cling to my gold and die by 
 its side." The proud, the vain, the ambitious and 
 the self-indulgent cry, " Torment us not by 
 coming to us with self-denial, with religious 
 life or with a cross." This is the welcome often 
 received bv him who left heaven to conve}^ men 
 thither; who took upon him the form of a 
 servant in order to suffer for them ; who crossed 
 the tempestuous sea of life to reach them; 
 who agonized and died in order to save them. 
 Alas I multitudes speak of Christ as though 
 he came to torment their souls. Nevertheless, 
 he continues to seek and to save even the least 
 likel}^ to come. 
 
 Notice, lastly, a few of the results of Christ's 
 meeting the Demoniac. He was restored to his 
 right mind. He was not what we understand by 
 a downright maniac, but a man who was broken 
 down in health or morally wrecked. The 
 Bible often speaks of the sinner who rebels 
 against God and destroys his own happiness 
 as being beside himself. The prodigal is said 
 to have been brought to himself, impl3-ing that 
 he had been previously mad. What can be 
 greater madness than to def}^ the God in whose 
 hands our breath is ? than to carr^^ weapons 
 of i^bellion against him who controls the winds 
 
110 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 and the waves ? than to refuse the offers of 
 reconciliation when we know that persistence 
 in rebellion will prove our ruin ? The converted 
 man is restored to his right mind. 
 
 The Demoniac was brought not only to his 
 right mind, but to his right place also, namely, 
 the feet of Jesus. What a contrast between 
 •what this man was a few days before, and what 
 he is now. Yesterday he dwelt in the tombs — 
 to-day he sits at the feet of him who is the 
 Resurrection and the Life. Yesterday' he car- 
 ried upon his body the scent of corruption — 
 to-day he carries the atmosphere of heaven. 
 Yesterday he lay in the midst of the chillj^ damp 
 of the caves — to-day he basks in the full sun- 
 shine of the Sun of Righteousness. Yesterday 
 he sat under the shadow of the burnt mountains 
 of Gadara — to-day he sits under the shadow of 
 the great Rock. Yesterday he amused himself 
 with the phosphorescence of the grave — to-day 
 he revels in the light of life! 
 
 The attitude of all true converts is that of 
 sitting at the feet of Jesus. They take a low 
 place. Humility is their constant garment. It 
 shows their spiritual greatness. Much knowl- 
 edge makes one humble. The shallow man is 
 the conceited one. There is no room for 
 self at Jesus' feet. No place is found there for 
 pride. None sit at his feet but the emptj^ the 
 poor in spirit, the one who smites upon his breast 
 and cries, " God be merciful unto me, a sinner." 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS 111 
 
 Sittinf^ at his foot is a mark of disci pleship 
 also. The Demoniac, therefore, was not only 
 in his right mind and in the right place, but in 
 the right compan}-, namely, that of Christ's dis- 
 ciples. He mingled with those who were in the 
 school of Christ. It is there that the Spirit 
 teaches his lessons, and those who do not sit 
 there are not taught of him. But lie who sits 
 there gets nearest to the throne of God. No 
 soul will find itself at the foot of the throne in 
 heaven which is not found at the feet of Jesus 
 on earth. 
 
 The Demoniac was further brought to the 
 right frame of mind. It is said of him, as was 
 said of Paul, " Behold, he prayeth." Prayer is 
 the Christian's vital breath. The Demoniac 
 breathed out his desire in the ears of Christ, 
 but, strange to say, lie received no reply. The 
 prayer which he offered was the only one per- 
 haps which Jesus did not answer in the way it 
 was intended. The demons pra3'ed that they 
 might be permitted to enter the swine, and it 
 was granted ; the Gadarenes prayed that Jesus 
 might depart from their coast, and it was granted. 
 But when this restored child asked to be allowed 
 to follow the Saviour his praj^er was not heard. 
 The wayside beggar was allowed to go with the 
 multitude who were praising God, but the 
 Demoniac was refused the same privilege. Why 
 is this? The object for which he prayed must 
 have been right and proper. The spirit in 
 
112 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 ■wliicli he pra^^ed must have been humble and 
 all that could be asked. Why, then, was he 
 not heard? His motives may not have been 
 in all respects right. They may have contained 
 a selfish desire to be happy in Christ's presence, 
 and to bask the rest of his days in his love, 
 to see his face and enjo}?^ his fellowship, rather 
 than to be useful in his service. Or, his pra^^er 
 may have been offered from a trembling fear of 
 his old enemies. He may have felt that if he 
 remained in those parts the old passions and 
 habits would come back and again overcome 
 him, forgetting that he who expelled them was 
 able also to keep them out. The Lord himself, 
 though absent from him in the flesh, had prom- 
 ised to watch over him in all his ways. 
 
 Or, perhaps, his prayer may have been offered 
 from a desire to abandon the place in which he 
 had lived a raving demoniac. Shame may have 
 led him to wish to get away from the presence 
 of those whom he had injured, and who had 
 seen his wretched condition under demoniacal 
 possession. 
 
 Admitting that the object, spirit and motives 
 of his prayer were all right, the Saviour may 
 have seen that it would be better for him and 
 the neighborhood to answer it in a different way 
 from what he intended. Of all men, he seemed 
 to be the one to go back to his country and 
 companions to tell the stor}' of Jesus' love. 
 All the disciples combined could not produce the 
 
NEW TKSTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 113 
 
 effect upon the minds of the Gadarenes which his 
 presence coidd. '' He had friends," says another, 
 " who once felt tenderly toward him, but whom 
 he had long estranged by his ungodly ways. He 
 ma}^ have had a father and a mother who had 
 spenb many a sleepless night thinking of their 
 poor prodigal, especially when the storm was 
 loud and he was alone with the demons among 
 the tombs. He may have had a wife, who 
 thought, with burning tears, of her husband, 
 who once, and perhaps still, was the idol of 
 her heart. He may have had children to whom 
 their father had been a terror and a mystery as 
 they gathered around their mother's knee like 
 scared birds when they heard his voice and his 
 steps coming near the door. To be the acquaint- 
 ance, the parents, the wife, or the children of a 
 demon-possessed man — how dreadful was the 
 thought ! He has dragged them all with him into 
 the abyss and tormented thetn through his sin. 
 In vain have they tried to bind him with chains. 
 Many a painful struggle to do so has that house 
 w'itnessed. Upon its walls the chains are per- 
 haps still hanging with the thought of their 
 being used again, and with better hopes of suc- 
 cess. Now, however, since the man has met 
 Jesus, these chains are no longer required. The 
 friend, son, brother, husband, father returns ; 
 bis face calm as an inland sea, and shining as 
 if he were fresh from the brow of Tabor. His 
 mother can see in his eves those of her child 
 
11 4: NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 again, 3^et more innocent and beautiful; the wife 
 can discern the old, familiar look of earthly love 
 transfigured with heavenly grace ; the children 
 can climb his knees and kiss his face still marked 
 by the scars of the old battles among the tombs, 
 yet full of love that casteth out fear, and whose 
 every look and word is to their young hearts 
 refreshing as the dews of Hermon." 
 
 It was Christ's will that this restored Demo- 
 niac should be a beacon light to all the people 
 of that coast. This newly enkindled light on 
 the banks of the dangerous sea was not to be 
 kept safe and warm, or hid under a bushel, but 
 exposed to sight that it might safely guide those 
 driven before the storms. How fearful is the 
 denunciation of Christ against a beacon which 
 sends forth no light : " If the light that is in 
 thee be darkness, how great is that darkness I" 
 What image could l>e more terrible than thisl 
 Here is a Christian, set forth as an eclipsed lu- 
 minary I A star in the night, or a sun at noon- 
 day, giving no light ! 
 
 At the command of Christ the Demoniac went 
 to his own house. Picture if you can that re- 
 turn — that approach to his own household — that 
 crossing of the threshold — that welcome of the 
 loved ones — those bounding feet — those clasping 
 arms — those sobbing utterances of overwhelming 
 rapture, too deep for words ! " There he is once 
 more with the living, in his own house with the 
 ministries of gentle hands, the brightness of 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSION'S. 115 
 
 loving e^-es, tlio music of sweet voices — all the 
 peace, tlie triiiinph, the rapture of holy and ex- 
 ultnnt life, within him and round him!" 
 
 Follow him one step further to the streets of 
 Decapolis, and see hira among the friends and 
 companions of his years of revelry and sin. See 
 how his eyes flash, how his heart bounds I See 
 how, in simple yet earnest eloquence, he tells 
 them of that blessed Redeemer who met him in 
 his wanderings, and who graciously saved him 
 from sin and hell ! His very presence, in his 
 right mind, was a sermon more eloquent than 
 any which Paul or A polios could preach. 
 
Chapter viii. 
 
 THE CONVERSION OF A MAN AT THE LAST 
 
 HOUR— THE MALEFACTOR ON 
 
 THE CROSS. 
 
 Luke xxiii. 42, 43 : " Lord, remember me when thou comest 
 into thy kmgdom," etc. 
 
 THESE are the last words of a dying thief. 
 He had reached the eleventh hour both 
 in time and condition. In the jaws of 
 death he cast his eye on Christ and addressed 
 him as Lord. Life was rapidly ebbing, and for 
 him the world was fast passing away. He knew 
 that there was a world beyond, but he had no 
 ground for hoping that it would be well with 
 him there. He had only a few more hours to 
 live, and the question stared him in the face how 
 he was to make the necessary preparation for 
 the future in the midst of pain, jeers and blas- 
 phemy. 
 
 He was not onl}^ on the verge of eternity, but 
 was a malefactor — a thief or a robber, probably 
 both. He was conscious of being justly con- 
 116 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 117 
 
 demned, and legally nailed to the tree of shame. 
 In addressing Christ, he thus summed up the 
 sad result of his life and that of one of his 
 fellow-sufferers : " We receive the due reward 
 of our deeds." The end of our efforts, the 
 results of our life, the prize of our conflicts, and 
 the reward of our struggles, is this righteous 
 condemnation! What could be more sad I 
 Nevertheless a ray of hope, a flash of light 
 from above appears even here. It discloses 
 the outward expression of the noblest faith, a 
 faith which sprang up where there was no soil; 
 which put forth leaves without sunshine; which 
 bore precious fruit in the absence of the usual 
 succession of seed-time and harvest. 
 
 The subject to which your attention is invited 
 is The Conversion of a Man at the Last Hour — 
 the Malefactor on the Cross. 
 
 Notice, flrst, some of the steps leading to it. 
 We discover in his words that he had now a full 
 realization of his guilt. It is a fearful expe- 
 rience for one to become suddenly conscious of 
 his lost condition ; but to become conscious of it 
 when it seems to be too late to have it remedied 
 is overwhelmingly so ! The dying thief makes 
 no attempt to conceal, to justify-, or even to pal- 
 liate his crime. He acknowledges it frankly and 
 fully: " AVe indeed justly." He thus takes the 
 entire blame to himself, and seeks the clemency 
 of the merciful King hanging by his side. 
 
 A realization of his lost condition at such an 
 
118 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 hour and under such circumstances must have 
 produced fear and trembling. Never before had 
 he seen himself in such a light. He had not 
 previously felt that he stood before any court 
 higher than the Roman tribunal. If he had ever 
 thought of the eternal throne, it was soon for- 
 gotten, banished or buried from sight. But now 
 it cannot be set aside or even disregarded. He 
 asks his fellow-sufferer : '' Dost thou not fear 
 God ? " It is every one's duty to do so. What 
 a change to go from a state of irreverence to 
 God's presence — from habitual forgetfulness of 
 divine justice to a recognition of its claims. 
 
 Here are not only a conviction of sin and 
 fear of retribution, but a new view of the Person 
 hanging by his side. Human sympathy could 
 afford him no help — for divine justice was now 
 frowning upon him. By his side hangs one who 
 seemed to be covered with obloquy and loaded 
 with shame, but who, in spite of all accusations 
 and appearances, was not only innocent of crime, 
 but omnipotent. " Lord, remember me." New 
 light instantly dawned upon the malefactor's mind 
 — the events of the past few days passed in rapid 
 sucession before his dazed vision. He had possi- 
 bly heard the testimony of Pilate, who declared 
 that he had found no fault in Christ, and that of 
 the great company of people and of women who 
 bewailed and lamented him ; he had heard many 
 speak of Christ's innocence and of the work of 
 love and kindness he had performed among them 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 119 
 
 for three 3'ears and a half. He had no doubt seen 
 his face, and discovered on it the outward glow 
 of a pure and calm conscience ; he had seen him 
 fearless, composed, 3'et meek and gentle; he 
 had heard his words to the daughters of Jeru- 
 salem, so solemn and yet so tender, so majestic 
 and yet so divine : " Weep not for me, but weep 
 for 3'ourselves, and for your children.'' He had 
 perhaps heard his prayer, revealing a love and 
 holiness, more than human : " Father, forgive 
 them I" This caused the conviction to flash 
 across his mind that Christ was the onlj'-begotten 
 of the Father — the Lord of Glory. 
 
 The thief recognized in Christ not only 
 divinity, but also kingly power: "Lord, remem- 
 ber me when thou comest into thy kingdom." 
 He looked upon him as the Sovereign of that 
 kingdom w^hich was looked to and longed for by 
 all the chosen people. What he saw in him to 
 produce this conviction it is impossible to tell. 
 Christ had no robes to set forth his kinglj^ 
 power save the crimson stream that flowed from 
 his hands and feet ; he had no crown save that 
 of thorns to set forth any dominion he might 
 have possessed ; he had no throne save the trans- 
 fixed beams of the cross ; he had no courtiers 
 but the disciples who at this trying hour stood 
 afar off. Yet, the dying thief discovered that he 
 was a king ! 
 
 Whatever ma}- have been the process through 
 which his mind passed, he came to the conclusion 
 
120 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 that the taunted sufferer hanging by his side was 
 the long-expected Messiah, the hope of Israel, 
 and the refuge of the guilty, and made his appeal 
 to him, desperate as his condition was. Con- 
 demned of men, condemned by his own con- 
 science and condemned of God, he felt that prob- 
 ably the pangs he was now enduring were only 
 the foretaste of the deeper and darker ones still 
 awaiting him beyond death. But, by his side, 
 if anywhere in the nniverse, was one who was 
 able to rescue him from his impending doom, 
 and with that conviction he turns to the bleeding 
 Saviour, and urges his plea : " Lord, remember 
 me." There is no hesitation, no circumlocution, 
 no peradventure in his speech or demeanor. He 
 sees his guilt ; he feels his danger ; he is sure 
 that he discovers in Jesus evidence of power to 
 help him, and he at once earnestly urges his 
 suit: " Lord, remember me I " No conditions are 
 here laid down, no terms are offered ; he centres 
 his hopes in the mere mercy of him whom he 
 names Lord and King. All he asks is remem- 
 brance, notice, pity, just what the Lord might, 
 of his own goodness, be disposed to grant him. 
 This is unquestionably a saving faith. When 
 alarmed under the conviction of sin, a man 
 attempts much, does much, and promises more, 
 in the hope of obtaining God's favor. But when 
 he is thoroughly humbled ; when he is truly 
 penitent, he begins to apprehend the real char- 
 acter, the all-sufficiency, and the matchless grace 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 121 
 
 of Christ, as the Savnour of perishing souls ; he 
 then abandons self-reliance, he struggles under 
 conviction; he offers no terms, he simply and 
 cordially submits to the good pleasure, the unre- 
 stricted will of God in Christ, and the feelings 
 of his heart are expressed in the words, " Lord, 
 remember me ! " 
 
 He commits his cause into his hands for time 
 and for eternity. To be remembered by this 
 High Priest who is about to enter the holy of 
 holies, is all his desire and hope. He was in 
 some way raised of God high above all his con- 
 temporaries, so that the saying became true, the 
 last was first. He had not only knowledge and 
 faith, but clear knowledge and a gigantic faith. 
 He understood, better perhaps than the apostles, 
 the nature of the two kingdoms of Christ — the 
 relation between his cross and his crown, his 
 suffering and his glory. His confidence, even in 
 his humiliation and shame, was stronger than their 
 faith or their adoring trust. He was more loyal 
 and faithful than even the chosen ambassadors 
 and pillars of the church, for he confessed his 
 heavenly Master before his revilers, testified of his 
 righteousness in the ear of those who condemned 
 him, and shared his reproach. Thus on the cross 
 of loneliest agony and bitterest suffering, when 
 this poor earth offered no consolation, no sj'm- 
 pathy, no cordial to the Son of Man, this dj-ing 
 thief afforded all three; he was indeed a lily among 
 thorns ; whose beauty and fragrance afforded 
 
122 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSION'S. 
 
 Jesus the last jo}" he experienced before his 
 death. 
 
 Notice, secondly, the difficulties with which the 
 dying thief had to contend in securing his salva- 
 tion. The first, in all probabilit}", was the sugges- 
 tion of Satan that he was too great a sinner to be 
 saved. The difference between a man who is a 
 great sinner and a self-righteous one is very great. 
 Satan seeks to destroy their souls in a variety of 
 ways. Coming to one he whispers in his ears, 
 " You are not so lost as to need salvation." He 
 comes to another and sa3's, " You are too bad 
 to think of ever getting it," The centurion is an 
 example of the former, and the thief on the 
 cross, of the latter. If any one under the blind- 
 ing 1)0 wer of the deceiver has gone so far astray 
 as to think that he does not need salvation 
 through the atoning death of Christ — if he con- 
 siders himself safe, because he has never done 
 anything particularly wrong — does not wish an3'- 
 one ill, does his duty as a father, husband, friend, 
 attends to some of the outward duties of religion 
 — supposing that all this is true, to what does 
 it amount ? It does not go beyond the religion 
 of Cornelius, for an angel sent from heaven came 
 to tell him that his prayers and alms had come 
 up as a memorial before God. But, did his 
 prayers and alms save him? No, they only 
 proved that he was seriously seeking salvation. 
 And, again, if au}^ one should say, " I am too bad, 
 too wretched, too guilty to be saved, I am beyond 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 128 
 
 the reach of mercy," let such an one consider the 
 case of the dying thief. The man in the text 
 was doubtless fempted of the devil in this direc- 
 tion. What I a thief and a robber asking mercy 
 with his dying breath ! Is it not an insult to 
 God ? In spite of all this the poor man looked 
 to God and was saved. 
 
 The second ditticulty with which the thief had 
 to contend was the outward appearance and sur- 
 roundings of the Saviour. lie saw in him no 
 outvrard signs of power or of royalty. He was 
 not present when courtiers applauded hira ; he 
 was not an eyewitness of the Galilean prophet's 
 triumph when the risen Lazarus stood before 
 him ; when those who had long been lame, halt, 
 crippled, paralytic or lunatic were gratefull}' pro- 
 claiming the power that had healed them ; he 
 was not one of the thousands who were miracu- 
 lously fed by his hand and who hailed him as the 
 prophet long foretold, the Son of David, Israel's 
 promised Messiah, Israel's King. No, no, all 
 those recognitions were probably unknown to him. 
 The dying thief spoke to Jesus — the despised, 
 calumniated, condemned Jesus — when hanging on 
 the cross ; when surrounded by a jeering crowd, 
 mocked by the rude soldiery and taunted by even 
 the priests and scribes of his own people. 
 
 The third difficulty was the desperate circum- 
 stances in which he found himself — hanging upon 
 the cross. It was not easy, hardly possible, for 
 him to speak so that the Saviour could hear him, 
 
12 J: NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 and hardly possible for him to hear the reply of 
 the Saviour. It was with difficulty he could con- 
 trol his mind and tongue under the excruciating 
 pains of the crucifixion. It was hard to think 
 under such circumstances, and 3'et he succeeded 
 in doing it to the saving of his soul. Unmoved 
 by example, unawed by power and unaffected by 
 ridicule, contempt or mocker^-, this boldest of 
 believers judged for himself, and obej^ed the 
 impulses of his own conscience, and, while all the 
 world rejected the Christ, while his very disciples 
 were hiding in cowardly desertion, this poor 
 suffering criminal, this despised outlaw, this 
 guilty but now penitent thief, dared, alone and in 
 defiance of Jews and Romans, of tortures and 
 scoffers, to single out the very person on whom 
 all others thus heaped contumely and insult, as 
 the One whom his heart and his voice, solitary 
 though it was, should hail in open acknowledg- 
 ment, as the great Prophet, the promised Mes- 
 siah, the Lord of the future, the one only hope 
 of his guilty, perishing soul : " Lord, remember 
 me." 
 
 Notice, lastly, the triumphs of the dying thief, 
 and, first, his triumph over his old habitS, pas- 
 .sions and desires. Onl}^ a few days before this he 
 was an abandoned profligate, a daring ruffian, 
 trampling under foot the laws of God and man in 
 order to gratify his passions and satisfy his lust. 
 But now he is completely changed. His lust 
 is eradicated, his fierce passions are subdued and 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 125 
 
 even his love of life is lost under the inlhience of 
 higher, nobler and holier motives. He seeks the 
 life of liis soul, regardless of the infamy that cov- 
 ered him, or the pain that was racking every fibre 
 of his frame, and of the contempt and mockery 
 which were heaped upon both, and without spend- 
 ing a thought on the pangs of death which he felt 
 must soon be uj)on him, he looked beyond death 
 and the grave and laid his last wish, his final 
 petition, before him in whom his faith then clearly 
 beheld the Lord of glory. 
 
 He also triumphed over time. To God time is 
 nothing. His Spirit can create in a moment 
 what, in others, is effected only by degrees. None 
 can reach a higher point than this sinner did 
 who was suddenly converted. To fear God, to 
 acknowledge our sins, to submit to the justice 
 of our condemnation, to turn to Christ, to call 
 him Lord, to surrender ourselves entirely to him, 
 to cry for his mercy and mediation, to believe, to 
 love, to hope, to confess and suffer Christ's 
 reproach — these are the fruits of the Spirit against 
 which there is no law. Although no time was 
 given the thief to bring forth fruit on earth to 
 verify his profession of a godly life and to prove 
 the genuineness of his conversion by a hol}^ walk, 
 yet he performed one of the greatest works which 
 any saved sinner ever did. He bore witness to 
 the truth — he bore it under trjdng circumstances 
 and before a gain-sa3ing world. True, his feet 
 and his hands were nailed to the cross, and were 
 
126 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 therefore powerless, but his e3^e, his heart and his 
 tongue were free. His e3'e was free to gaze upon 
 the Son of God ; his heart was free to believe in 
 his blessed person, and his tongue was free to con- 
 fess his name when all other tongues were silent. 
 Had he come down from the cross and lived to 
 the age of Methuselah, he could have done nothing 
 more glorious, nothing more pleasing to God 
 than that which he did during the few brief 
 moments of his Christian life — a life begun, con- 
 tinued and ended on the cross, so far as this 
 world was concerned, but to be resumed in that 
 other world in which death cannot enter. 
 
 The marvel of this conversion is that though 
 sudden it was complete. It cleared awa}^ many 
 stages at once. The dying thief did not linger in 
 gradual repentance, in dawning faith, in prelud- 
 ing prayers or in desires and efforts, before clear 
 and indisputable fruit appeared ; but summer and 
 harvest, aye, and a rich harvest, trod upon the 
 heels of spring. 
 
 Some regard conversion as a mere process of 
 training and education and not as a new birth. 
 Such ask if it is possible to prepare a person for 
 heaven in so short a time ? The answer is, Yes. 
 Suppose one was rejoicing in the birth of a child 
 to bear his name and to inherit his property, and 
 some one should say, " Wait a little ; the child is 
 only just born, it is not yet trained and in- 
 structed ; do not 3'et regard it as your son." 
 Would he not say, " Away with such reason- 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 127 
 
 iug. Tluit child, to be sure, is young— only a 
 few hours old, but it is as much my son as if it 
 had been born twenty-one years before." And 
 so when a sinner believes in Christ, he is a 
 child of God, and God provides for him an in- 
 heritance; and if death should in youth carry 
 him hence, he takes him at once to paradise. 
 
 The thief on the cross triumphed not only over 
 his habits, passions, desires, and time, but also 
 over death. '' To-day shalt thou be with me in 
 paradise." Here is implied a blessed compan- 
 ionship with the eternal King. What could be 
 more glorious ? The dying thief, like ourselves, 
 was ignorant of the locality of paradise. He 
 did not know where it was, what is the condi- 
 tion of its inhabitants, or what are their pur- 
 suits and pleasure's. But he is told in the text 
 that he is to be with Jesus. He would be willing 
 to remain ignorant of the locality if he could only 
 be with Jesus. It is a glorious fact that when 
 saints die they at once enter into the presence of 
 the great King. He said, "Where I am, there 
 shall also my servant be." 
 
 " The promise to be with Jesus comprehends," 
 says some one, " all that we can desire. It 
 includes perfect pardon ; for would Jesus wel- 
 come to his presence in glory any whose dress 
 was soiled with sin? It includes perfect sanctifi- 
 . cation ; for would Jesus invite to his immediate 
 presence any who would be reluctant to obey any 
 command he mi^ht issue ? " 
 
128 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSION'S. 
 
 There is not only companionship with Christ 
 promised the dying thief, but companionship with 
 bim in paradise: " Today shalt thou be with me 
 in paradise." Without dwelling on the connec- 
 tion which the word paradise is supposed to have 
 with heathen nations or with the primitive para- 
 dise, the first abode of men embraced the following 
 elements, viz., a state of purity or of innocence ; a 
 place of beauty, abundance and delight ; a condi- 
 tion of peaceful and full satisfaction; nearness to 
 God as a loving Father, and an implied pledge of 
 immortality. The Saviour told the thief that 
 there was in reserve for him a better world to 
 which he would conduct him after death; for 
 wherever he himself would be, there should his 
 believing people be also. 
 
 There was not only companionship with Christ 
 in paradise promised him, but companionship at 
 once. " To-day shalt thou be with me in para- 
 dise." How close to each other, according to 
 this, are pardon and paradise, the cross and the 
 crown, the battle and the prize, the wilderness and 
 Canaan, the darkest midnight and the morning 
 dawn, Calvary and Zion above I 
 
 What a striking contrast is that which we are 
 here permitted to behold — the conscious blessed- 
 ness rushing close upon the heels of the momen- 
 tar}' darkness of death I At one moment there 
 hangs the thief writhing in mortal agony; the 
 wild shouts of the fierce mob at his feet and all 
 the familiar sights of earth growing dim to his 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 129 
 
 failing vision. The soldier's spear is thrust, the 
 legs are broken, and, in an instant, there hangs 
 a relaxed corpse; and the spirit is — where? 
 Ah, how far awaj^ ; released from all its sins 
 and its mortal agony, struggling up, at once, 
 into such strange divine enlargement — a new star 
 swimming into the firmament of heaven, a new 
 face before the throne of God, another sinner 
 redeemed from earth ! Thus from the sfreatest 
 depth of sin, the Lord Jesus often gathers his 
 brightest jewels. Paul was a persecutor, Zaccheus 
 a publican, the man of Gadara a demoniac and the 
 woman of Samaria an adulteress ; and yet the 
 grace of God went plunging through the depths 
 of their sin and ignorance until it found them 
 and brought them up to the light of life. There 
 is no depth the bottom of which grace cannot 
 touch. " All over the Dead Sea of sin covering 
 the nations at the present time, God's diving- 
 bells," says some one, " are busy ; all through the 
 mountains of death, God's miners are blastinfr." 
 Where sin aboundeth, grace shall much more 
 abound. 
 
 Though we are permitted to rejoice in the 
 boundless nature of God's love, though we are 
 told that whilst there is life there is hope, yet 
 there is no safety in putting off our conversion 
 a single day. It is said of the man swept down 
 the Niagara River, that before his little skiff tilts 
 over into the whirling rapids, he may, by one 
 bound, reach the shore and be saved. This, how- 
 
130 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONSc 
 
 ever, is a fearful risk to run. For a moment's 
 miscalculation and skiff and voyager alike are 
 buried in the seething trough below, and they 
 come up torn to pieces far down on the turbulent 
 foam. " One,'' as an old divine has said, " was 
 saved at the last moment upon the cross, that 
 none might despair ; and only one that none 
 might presumed "Now is the accepted time; 
 now is the day of salvation." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CONVERSION OF A PRIME MINISTER— 
 THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 
 
 Acts viii. 26-39: "And the angel of the Lord spake unto 
 Philip saying, Arise, and go toward the south," etc. 
 
 THE remaining persons, whose conversions 
 are to be considered in this volume, ditler 
 in important particulars from those whose 
 conversions have already been under considera- 
 tion. Their surroundings in youth, their early 
 instruction, and their social positions were unlike 
 those of Zaccheus, the blind beggar, or the De- 
 moniac of Gadara. It is not necessary to add 
 that there was but little resemblance between 
 their conversion and that of the women whose 
 lives we have endeavored to depict. 
 
 The majority of the persons whose conver- 
 sion has already been considered were humble, 
 uneducated, and of but little influence in the 
 community. The seeming exception was Zac- 
 cheus, but that was only a little more than a 
 131 
 
182 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 seeming exception. For be was probably a man 
 of bumble origin and of limited earl}' advantages, 
 but bad acquired some influence tbrougb bis 
 wealtb. His calling kept bim from places of 
 importance in tbe government, as well as from 
 bigb social positions in tbe community. Con- 
 sequently tbe conversions wbicb bave been con- 
 sidered were largely tbose of tbe poor. 
 
 Tbe conversions wbicb are to occupy our 
 attention to tbe end of tbis course are tbose of 
 men of tbe bigbest cbaracter socially, politically 
 and intellectually. Tbe Eunucb in tbe text was 
 an Etbiopian nobleman of bigb rank and influ- 
 ence. Cornelius was a member of one of tbe most 
 distinguisbed families of Rome, and Saul of Tar- 
 sus, a Pbarisee of tbe rarest intellectual powers. 
 
 Attention bas been called to a number of tbe 
 difbculties wbicb bad to be overcome by tbe 
 poor in tbeir eff"orts to find tbe Saviour. At 
 times tbey seemed almost insurmountable. In 
 tbe remaining discourses your attention will be 
 called to tbe difficulties to be overcome by tbe 
 ricb. In tbese days of mission cburcbes and zeal 
 for tbe poor, tbere is some danger of overlooking 
 tbe ricb, and of neglecting tbeir spiritual needs. 
 Tbe destitution of tbe poor is brougbt before us 
 in a tbousand forms, but tbat of tbe ricb is 
 seldom dwelt upon. Even tbose wbo regularly 
 attend tbe bouse of God, are not often appealed 
 to in tbe same burning terms as tbe poor. Tbeir 
 difficulties are overlooked and sometimes set aside 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 133 
 
 unappreciated. In the second half of the last 
 century, Mr. Courtonne, a celebrated pastor of 
 Amsterdam, visited the Hague and the court 
 of the Prince of Orange. He was surrounded by 
 the officers of the Stadtholder who pressed him 
 to preach for them on the Sabbath. He refused, 
 saying that the Prince and his nobility would be 
 offended at his plain, uncompromising way of 
 presenting the truth. They promised that the 
 household of the Prince would be at church, 
 and that no one would be offended at what 
 he might present. Upon this assurance, he 
 consented to preach. When the Sabbath came, 
 the church was crowded with the nobilitj^ and 
 members of Parliament. The preacher took for 
 his text the w^ords at the head of this chapter. 
 The theme was the conversion of the Ethiopian 
 statesman, and the divisions of the discourse were 
 the following: namelj^, first, "A courtier who read 
 the Scriptures, which is surprising; second, a 
 courtier who acknowledged his ignorance, which 
 is more surprising ; third, a courtier who asked 
 his inferior to instruct him, which should cause 
 the redoubling of our surprise; and lastly, a 
 courtier who was converted, wdiich caps the 
 climax of wonders." The state of things in our 
 own day is not quite so bad, perhaps, and 3'et 
 it is still true that not many mighty are called. 
 A few of the difficulties in the way of the 
 Eunuch's conversion are given by Luke in the 
 Acts of the Apostles. He was an Ethiopian 
 
134 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 nobleman of high rank — perhaps of the highest — 
 for none but such were generally appointed cham- 
 berlains of monarchs, or lords of the treasury. 
 It is not possible to tell with certaint}^ what was 
 this man's nationality. The champions of the 
 colored race persistently hold that he was a full- 
 blooded negro. They claim that they have traced 
 his pedigree from some of the old Ethiopian fami- 
 lies which had carried the marks of that race from 
 time immemorial. We are not prepared to deny 
 positively that the Lord Chamberlain of Queen 
 Candace was a colored man. For we know that 
 not a few of the highest officers of Mexico and 
 Brazil to-day belong to that race. 
 
 It must be confessed, however, that there are 
 important circumstances connected with the 
 incident before us, which suggest that the Eunuch 
 was a Jew and not a negro. It is affirmed by a 
 trustworthy historian that a large number of 
 Jews had settled at an early day in and around 
 the capital of Queen Candace. It is farther 
 stated that the prime minister in the text went 
 up to Jerusalem to attend the yearly feasts of 
 the Jews. Hence, we may reasonably infer that 
 he was a Jew, born perhaps in Ethiopia. How- 
 ever this may be, the first barrier to his con- 
 version remains the same, viz., a strong religious 
 prejudice. If he was an Ethiopian he would have 
 adhered to the gods of his fathers and despised 
 the worship of the God of Israel. If, on the 
 other hand, he was a Jew, he would have 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 135 
 
 shown the hatred of that race toward the de- 
 spised Galilean. 
 
 The second difficulty was his position in the 
 government. He held the most important office 
 under the sovereign. lie was the Lord Cham- 
 berlain, or, as we would call him, the Secretary 
 of the Treasury. And, as the sovereign was a 
 woman, it is quite likely that he was virtually the 
 ruler. He exercised great power over a nation 
 both large and influential. He might have ex- 
 cused himself on this account for not attending to 
 his soul's interest. Or, he might have looked 
 down upon religion, regarding it only as an 
 object fitted to cheer the poor and occupy the 
 minds of women and children. Many in his 
 position have resorted to such subterfuges. The 
 temptations of the rich and influential are often 
 stronger than most men who are not similarly 
 situated suppose. 
 
 Then, his association was such as to drive away 
 all thoughts of religion. He had to live night 
 and day in the midst of gaiety and fashion. As 
 the highest officer of the realm, it devolved upon 
 him to entertain distinguished foreign guests, 
 and treat with courtesy and kindness the home 
 princes; to respect national prejudices and pro- 
 tect, if not worship, the gods of the land. He 
 was expected to be all things to all men. Such 
 duties are not adapted to lead men to think of 
 their soul's salvation. The exercise of power 
 does not usually foster humility. 
 
136 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 Though this man was in possession of almost 
 limitless power and fame, 3'et he was not happy. 
 Though he had abundance of wealth so that he 
 could say with the man in the gospel : " Soul, thou 
 hast much goods laid up for many 3'ears ; take 
 thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry," yet he was 
 not above and beyond anxiety. In some way, not 
 revealed to us, he had discovered that he was a 
 sinner, but he had not found how he could 
 obtain pardon. His conscience had told him of 
 guilt, but no one had pointed out to him the 
 world's Redeemer. He left Jerusalem under a 
 load of grief, deeply sighing : " wretched man 
 that I am." He was spoken of perhaps as one of 
 the successful ones of the earth and, on that 
 account, was supposed to be always happ3^ 
 But the Spirit of God had begun his work of 
 reproving him of sin and of righteousness and 
 of judgment, and consequently all his riches 
 and honors failed to satisfy his longings. His 
 soul thirsted for God, for the living God. He 
 drank of the world's pleasures, but he discovered 
 that whoso drinketh of that water thirsteth asain. 
 His soul sought goodly pearls ; but the pearls of 
 the world, valuable and bright as they had for- 
 merly seemed to him were now of no value in his 
 e^^es. He was made to desire the good part that 
 should not be taken from him. 
 
 Should it be asked what were the means used 
 to bring the Ethiopian to this state of mind, the 
 only answer that can be given is that we are not 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 137 
 
 told. We know that God has many ways and 
 messengers for this purpose. He may have 
 used, in the Eunuch's case, disappointments in 
 the things which he longed and labored for. Ilis 
 worldly ambition may have been gratified, and 
 his brightest hopes realized. All that his imagina- 
 tion had pictured as a desirable good may have 
 been gained. But he did not find any of them 
 satisfying to the soul. He may have frequently 
 soliloquized, " This will make me happy, fill my 
 soul with perennial sunshine, give me peace and 
 tranquillity ! But, alas 1 it leaves me as empty as 
 I was before." Or, perhaps, some great aflliction, 
 bitter grief, or sore disappointment— the treach- 
 ery of a friend, or the ingratitude of a dependent 
 —may have led him to reflect. Or, some captive 
 may have told him of a rest which he might find 
 for his soul in the land of Israel. 
 
 The second step taken to satisfy the longings 
 of his soul was to go up to Jerusalem. Having 
 heard that there was a place in which God 
 revealed himself to his people, he could not rest 
 till he had visited it. This occurred the very year 
 in which Christ was crucified. He had possibly 
 heard of him from priests and rulers. He may 
 have been a visitor in the Sanhedrin when Christ's 
 character and deeds were discussed. He may 
 have witnessed the trial before Pilate, mingled 
 with the multitude that followed Jesus along the 
 Via Dolorosa to the summit of Calvary and seen 
 him hanging upon the cross. He may have heard 
 
138 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 of his miracles and been present at the preaching 
 of Peter on the day of Pentecost. He may have 
 tried everything and gone everywhere for rest, but 
 failed to find it. The priests may have exhorted 
 him to be thankful for his blessings and to 
 abandon his melancholy forebodings. They may 
 have called his attention to his prosperity; to 
 the gifts and graces he possessed ; to the spheres 
 of usefulness he had filled ; and to the honors 
 which had been heaped upon him. All this only 
 made him cry: "Conscience! religion!" They 
 may have replied : " Are you not conscientiously 
 religious? Who can charge you with injustice or 
 unkindness?" He continued, ''Death! the 
 future ! " The}^ may have asked : " Can you not 
 accept the teaching of the law and the prophets 
 regarding them ? " He heard nothing from these 
 ministers of religion but commendations of his 
 merits, flattery and fulsome eulogies. But they 
 failed to satisfy him. They proved sheer mock- 
 eries. In despair he cried, " I must have truth, 
 not opinions ; sunlight, not the fitful phosphores- 
 cence of the imagination ; solid instruction, not 
 foolish flattery ; a living one, even a Father who 
 can forgive, love and guide, not cold abstraction 
 which, after all, refers me to myself as my helper 
 and saviour." He did not find in the Jewish 
 religion what he came for and diligently sought! 
 Notice, next, the means which brought this 
 anxious statesman to Christ and salvation. He 
 was returning to Ethiopia with his wounds un- 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 139 
 
 healed, though probed to the bottom; with his 
 fears unallayed, though painfully quickened; 
 with his anxiety unremoved, though greatly 
 deepened. Look at him I Within were found 
 uncertaint}', terror, anguish ; at the same time, 
 humility, longing for God, and prayerfulness. In 
 his hands was the word of God, opened at the 
 fift^'-third chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah. He 
 was searching in it after the water of life as 
 eagerl}' as he would have searched near a group 
 of palm trees after a cooling spring. An instinct, 
 stimulated by what he had seen and heard at 
 Jerusalem, told him that somewhere near this 
 spot the water of life would be found. He was 
 reading the words : " He bore our sins." What ? 
 my sins ? " He was led as a lamb to the slaugh- 
 ter." Here he paused 1 He could not go further. 
 Great tears gathered in the dark eye of the dis- 
 tinguished courtier and dropped on the pages 
 of the book in his hands. " Led as a lamb to the 
 slaughter ! " This recalled to him the Man of Sor- 
 rows whom he saw nailed to the cross. He dwelt 
 alternately on the verse just read and the strange 
 scenes he had lately witnessed. His heart was 
 throbbing and his eyes swimming with tears. 
 Of whom then speaketh the prophet ? Of him- 
 self, or of some other man? Does not the word 
 point directly to the other man who had just died 
 on the accursed tree? Those looks and tones 
 were more like heaven than earth. " When he 
 
 Wlien the 
 
140 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS, 
 
 dying thief at his side exclaimed : " Lord, remem- 
 ber me," he answered, " To-day shalt thou be 
 with me in paradise." That other man ! " Of 
 whom speaketh the prophet thus ? " 
 v/ So animated grew the reader, and so loud be- 
 y came the tones of his voice, that Philip, who was 
 near, heard the interrogatories. He was anxious 
 to help him, but was deterred by his official 
 dignity. At that moment " the Spirit said unto 
 Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot." 
 Mark the coincidence! The Spirit, who had led 
 the mind of the Eunuch to the firt3-third chapter 
 of Isaiah, brought from Samaria an inspired ex- 
 pounder of the m3^sterious passage ! Upon this 
 simple act depended untold interests! "God's 
 ways are in the sea, and his paths in the great 
 waters." "If his purposes in creation," says Dr. 
 Arnot, " require the meeting of two circling 
 worlds at some period in the evolution of time, 
 he will so arrange that the two shall approach 
 and touch each other at the verj^ point of space 
 and time which he has designed." The same 
 might and wisdom have been at work to 
 arrange a meeting wherever and whenever one 
 earthen vessel charged bears Christ, and another 
 earthen vessel empty receives Christ at a broth- 
 er's hand. The Spirit not onl}' brought the two 
 men together, but he enabled the evangelist to 
 jj speak a word in season, and gave the Eunuch a 
 ./ hearing ear and an understanding heart. Here 
 we behold the humility, meekness and docile spirit 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 141 
 
 of Llie great man : " How can I understand unless 
 some one guide me?'' How ignorant often are 
 even the most cultivated men, of the things per- 
 taining to the salvation of their souls I 
 
 Finding the distinguished statesman ready to 
 listen to his exposition, Philip preached unto him 
 the gospel. The sermon is not given. The most 
 meagre outline only is preserved. " Then Philip 
 opened his mouth, and began at the same scrip- 
 ture." It was the same Scripture as that which 
 the Eunuch was reading, namely, the fift3'-third 
 cha})ter of Isaiah. A more remarkable passage 
 of Scripture cannot be found. The evangelist 
 could not preach anything from it save Christ 
 and him crucified. He held up to the unknown 
 traveler the one whom he saw on the cross as 
 the Saviour of the world. The doctrine of the 
 cross was pressed upon his attention and con- 
 science with simple but telling power. It was 
 not only Jesus, but Jesus as the Saviour of the 
 high and the low alike. It was Jesus then and 
 there. 
 
 Notice, lastl}', the effect of the preaching, 
 upon the mind, heart and life of the Ethiopian 
 statesman. It was threefold, viz. : To believe in 
 Christ, to confess him before the world, and 
 to go his way rejoicing. As he listened to 
 the telling truths contained in the fifty-third 
 chapter of Isaiah, a new light and a new hope 
 sprang up in his heart. He became convinced 
 that the Messiah was the person whom he saw 
 
142 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 hanging on the tree. He accepted the declaration 
 tliat he was the Christ. He cast himself as a 
 helpless sinner on his mercy. He embraced the 
 Son of God in all his fulness as the Lord's 
 
 -^anointed. He made a complete surrender of him- 
 self to him and declared that all he was and all 
 
 ^he had were Christ's 1 
 
 ^ He not only believed in Christ, but he yielded 
 to the promptings of the Spirit in the heart. He 
 did not wait until Philip urged upon him the 
 necessity of being baptized : " See, here is water; 
 what doth hinder me to be baptized ? I wish to 
 be a thorough convert. I am saved by grace and 
 am glad to have the opportunity to show my 
 appreciation of the blessing." His baptism was, 
 therefore, a manifestation of his faith and a proof 
 of his obedience and submission to the will of 
 God. He was not ashamed to own, by this sim- 
 ple, visible act, his allegiance to the crucified 
 
 1/ Nazarene, and his belief in his divinitj^ 
 
 Having committed his all to Christ and been 
 baptized in his name, "He went on his way 
 rejoicing." This did not diminish the leagues of 
 desert to be traversed before he would reach his 
 home ; it did not temper for him the rays of the 
 tropical sun falling upon his head ; it did not 
 excuse him from further duty ; but it did cast a 
 new light on the desert he was crossing ; it did 
 assure him that the sun would not smite him by 
 day ; and it did furnish him with new motives 
 for the performance of future duties. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 143 
 
 If the relii2;ion of Christ were calculated to make 
 aii}^ one sad and morose, it would have so made 
 the great courtier of Queen Candace. He knew 
 that it required him to give up many of his indul- 
 gences, much of his gaiety and perhaps the entire 
 mode of his life. But, instead of making him sad, 
 it caused him to rejoice. This is in harmony with 
 the character of our religion. It should always 
 be judged by what it brings and by what it 
 takes away. It brings to us a sense of accept- 
 ance with God, and consequent rest of the soul; 
 it brings to us a life which is both bright and joy- 
 ful. It takes away from us the fear of death, 
 the strifes within us, the fierce conflict which 
 rages between our conscience and our inclinations, 
 between our will and our passions, which tears 
 the heart asunder and makes sorrow and tumult 
 wherever it comes. It takes awa}^ the sense of 
 sin. It gives us, instead of the torpid or the 
 stinging conscience — a conscience calm and free 
 from accusations, with the sting extracted. The 
 gospel works joy, because the soul is at rest in 
 God ; joy because every function of our spiritual 
 nature finds in it its object. It is both deep and 
 abiding. 
 
 All this was experienced by the Ethiopian, for 
 he went on his way rejoicing. He expected that 
 afflictions, trials and temptations still awaited 
 him in the idolatrous capital of Queen Candace, 
 and in her God-estranged court, but he knew, on 
 the other hand, that Christ had died for him, 
 
144 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 that faith was the victory which overcometh the 
 world, that God was a sun and a shield, and that 
 he would give grace and glory. 
 
 What hinders you, dear reader, to become a 
 follower of Christ ? There can be nothing on 
 his part ! For he has come to seek and to save 
 that which was lost. He calls you ; his offers of 
 pardon and peace are full and free, kind and 
 urgent, tender and loving ; his work is finished 
 and his redemption is complete. What doth 
 hinder you ? Is it your sin ? Christ died for the 
 ungodly ; he calls sinners to repentance. Is it 
 your past ingratitude and open rejection of his 
 mercy ? Though your sins be as scarlet, they 
 shall be white as snow. Is it your want of re- 
 pentance ? Christ is exalted a Prince and a 
 Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins. 
 What doth hinder you then ? 
 
 " Let not conscience make you linger, 
 Nor of fitness fondly dream ; 
 All the fitness he requireth 
 Is to feel your need of him." 
 
Chapter x. 
 
 THE CONVERSION OF A MAN OF THE 
 HIGHEST SOCIAL STANDING- 
 CORNELIUS. 
 
 Acts X. 1-48 : " There was a certain man in Ctesarea, called 
 Cornelius, a centurion of the baud called the Italian band," 
 etc. 
 
 IN view of the brevity of Scripture on the 
 subject, it is surprising to find a whole 
 chapter devoted to the conversion of one 
 man. The steps taken are given with a minute- 
 ness of detail that seems almost unaccountable. 
 Is this due to the fact that the person converted 
 was an officer of note under the Roman govern- 
 ment ? Has it been done in order to magnify the 
 power of the Christian religion to reach the heart 
 of the mighty as well as of the weak ? That can- 
 not be. For it is explicitly said in the same chap- 
 ter that God is no respecter of persons. He does 
 not fail into the weakness common among men of 
 making a display of the conversion of any one 
 because he exerts a mighty influence in the world. 
 145 
 
146 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 There is probably close connection between the 
 Saviour's great conDmand, " Go into all the world, 
 and preach the gospel to every creature," and the 
 conversion of the centurion. Christ had come 
 not only to be the glory of his people Israel, 
 but to be also a light to lighten the Gentiles. He 
 came, it is true, to hold the sceptre in Judah, but 
 it is equally true that to him must also the gather- 
 ing of the nations be. The Gentiles were to be 
 fellow-heirs and of the same body by the gospel. 
 The conversion of Cornelius, therefore, marks the 
 beginning of this promise. The way the door 
 was opened for their entrance, or the steps were 
 taken toward demolishing the middle wall of par- 
 tition between them are carefully given. Corne- 
 lius formed the joint where the Gentile branch 
 was grafted into the true vine. 
 
 This Roman soldier has often been compared 
 to the father of the faithful. It is held that what 
 Abraham was to the Jews, Cornelius was to the 
 Gentiles. He was the first Gentile publicly ad- 
 mitted by the apostle into the Christian Church. 
 With him began a new era in the kingdom of God 
 on earth, and from him may be dated " the 
 times of the Gentiles." Cornelius was not merely 
 the representative and the earnest of a great 
 multitude which no man can number, who, be- 
 sides God's ancient people, are to be gathered 
 out of all nations and kindreds and peoples and 
 tongues, but his conversion and the outpouring 
 of the Spirit upon him and all who, with him, 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 147 
 
 heard the word j^reached by Peter, were the 
 events which formed a turiiing-i:oint in the views 
 and efforts of the apostles. It was the dawn of a 
 day of light and jo\' for the Gentile world. As 
 God chose, called and separated Abraham to be 
 the father of the Heb^e\^'s according to the flesh, 
 so was Cornelius chosen to be the beginning of 
 the Gentile Church, and hence, probably, the space 
 devoted and the importance attached to the con- 
 version of this distinguished Gentile. 
 
 The person thus chosen to be the first fruits of 
 the Gentiles was one of the most attractive and 
 lovely in the world's history. In his noble char- 
 acter he blended those elements which every- 
 wiiere command respect and love. He was not 
 onl}' a captain of the Italian band, which im- 
 plies that he was a Roman, but he had inherited 
 the frank, open and manl}?^ traits of that nation. 
 Whilst he could not cringe and fawn to the high- 
 est of the high, he could not, on the other hand, 
 be discourteous to the lowest of the low. 
 
 He was not only a Roman, but probably a 
 member of the patrician branch of the Cornelian 
 family, the most distinguished in the empire. 
 By virtue of his social standing, he mingled in 
 the best society in Rome, enjo3'ed the highest 
 culture of his times, and the greatest joolitical 
 advantages of the age. He was sent with a por- 
 tion of a Roman legion as the bodv guard of the 
 governor of Syria, who had his home in the old 
 city of Ctcsarea. 
 
148 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 Whilst stationed there he became convinced 
 that the gods of the nations were dumb idols 
 which could impart neither light nor peace to 
 the soul ; consequently he turned to the God 
 of the Jews and adopted his worship. He 
 studied the Scriptures, witnessed the devotions of 
 the people of Palestine and admired their conduct. 
 Though his knowledge of these things was de- 
 fective, his privileges meagre, and his opportuni- 
 ties limited, yet he made the best use of what he 
 possessed. 
 
 Through long residence in Caesarea and by 
 mingling extensivel}^ with the Jews, he became 
 "a devout man, one that feared God with all his 
 house, who gave much alms to the people, and 
 prayed to God always." There is, probably, no 
 church in our day which would not be willing to 
 receive into her communion a man of his social 
 and official standing, his devotional spirit and 
 benevolent disposition. Two views have been 
 entertained regarding the spiritual condition of 
 Cornelius — one makes him a proselyte of the 
 Jewish Church, and a truly pious man ; the other 
 makes him like the young man in the gospel, 
 almost a Christian. It is alleged, in favor of the 
 former, that " fearing God " is a term often ap- 
 plied to proselytes of the gates ; that Cornelius 
 offered up his prayers at the usual hours among 
 the Jews ; that he had read the Old Testament ; 
 that he had paid the tithes required by the Jewish 
 law, and that he had conferred upon the Jews 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. U9 
 
 mail}' valuable gifts. In support of the second 
 view, it is said that " fearing God " is a term fre- 
 quently applied in Scripture to persons studious 
 of piet}' and filled with reverence ; that Peter 
 calls him a person of another race, with whom it 
 was not lawful for a Jew to associate, while 
 there was nothing in the law to prohibit associa- 
 ting with prosel3'tes ; that the news of his conver- 
 sion and the opposition made to Peter on account 
 of it shows he could not be a proselyte, and that 
 he is expressly classed among the Gentiles b}- the 
 apostle James. For these reasons it is difficult to 
 conclude that Cornelius was a Jewish proselyte. 
 
 On the theorj^ that he was a Gentile, he appears 
 to have received much light and knowledge from 
 the Jews. He was convinced that theirs was the 
 true God ; hence he worshiped him essentially 
 after the manner of the Jews, and showed by his 
 alms and charitable deeds his obligation to him as 
 the bestower of every good and every perfect gift. 
 With all this, he lacked one thing. To fear and 
 reverence God, to try to obey his commandments, 
 to be kind and helpful to our fellow-men, to medi- 
 tate on divine truth and to lift up our hearts to 
 heaven in prayer, are goodly pearls, but they do 
 not constitute the pearl of great price, whose pos- 
 session is satisfying to the soul. All these make 
 a sweet and beautiful character, but not neces- 
 sarily the character of a true Christian. Seeking 
 God is not the Saviour ; the Saviour is no act of 
 ours, no frame of mind, no virtuous exertion; he 
 
150 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 is a living person, who gives himself, that the 
 soul may find spiritual rest. Cornelius had many 
 good traits, but he lacked the one thing needful. 
 A man may speak with the tongues of men and of 
 angels; have the gift of prophecj^and understand 
 all mysteries and all knowledge ; bestow all his 
 goods to feed the poor, and give his bod}^ to be 
 burned, and yet, for the lack of one thing, be as 
 sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal — of no 
 value in the sight of God. We should pray to be 
 delivered from the shallow advice, that a man 
 should be satisfied with praying and doing his 
 best! As if prayers were not means to an end, 
 as if the one who reall}^ prays does not look for 
 the answer, clearly and unmistakably God's an- 
 swer, to whom he has cried. The man who is sat- 
 isfied with praying and giving, has never prayed 
 aright, and has never given from true love to God. 
 From all this we learn that irreproachable 
 morality and religious rounds of duty cannot 
 save the soul. The question, what would have 
 become of Cornelius if he had died before the 
 apostle's visit to him, is an idle one. God takes 
 care of all such contingencies ; but it must be 
 admitted that the inference is not a groundless 
 one when we remember Cornelius' own account of 
 the angel's bidding. " Send men to Joppa, and 
 call for Simon whose surname is Peter, who, when 
 he Cometh, shall speak unto thee." It may be 
 essential to some of 3"0u, whose characters, as far 
 as they are outwardly seen, secure for 3'ou no 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 151 
 
 small degree of afTectioiifite interest and esteem — 
 characters honorable, moral, amiable, reverential 
 — I say it may be essential that you too should 
 meditate on the words, " Thou art not far from 
 the kingdom of God," not far from it, yet not in 
 it. One thing your religion lacks, and may not 
 that thing be a simple, believing faith in Christ as 
 your Saviour? Ponder, I pray you, the Evan- 
 gelist's testimony, so like that of the Baptist: 
 "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that 
 hath not the Son of God hath not life." Beware 
 of a religion in which Christ does not occup}- his 
 proper place, as the Alpha and the Omega, the 
 first and the last, the all and in all I 
 
 Notice, secondly, some of the hindrances in the 
 way of Cornelius's acceptance of the one thing 
 needful. The first one in his way to become 
 a Christian was doul)tless his pride of blood. 
 Could a member of the Cornelian band ever 
 become identified with Jews? Could a proud 
 aristocratic officer of the Roman army worship 
 with tlie most despised of the subdued provinces 
 of Rome .'' Could he bear the taunts of liis rivals 
 and even those of his own fomily, and run the 
 risk of being dismissed from the Roman service? 
 His proud, unyielding spirit rebelled against all 
 this. How much less could he become the fol- 
 lower of a despised Galilean whom his govern- 
 ment had recently put to death in the Jewish 
 capital I 
 
 There was in Cornelius's way not only pride of 
 
152 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 blood, but perplexity as to Christ's character. 
 All the religion possessed by him he had received 
 from the Jews and the Jewish Scriptures; and 
 now, those very Jews, with their ecclesiastical 
 authorities at their head, had put Christ to death 
 as an impostor, and laid Christianity under inter- 
 dict and anathema. Cornelius had heard of 
 Christ, his wonderful life and his tragic death. 
 He was at a loss to know what to believe in 
 regard to him, and what dependence to place in 
 his claims to be the Messiah. 
 
 His profession also proved a hindrance to his 
 becoming a follower of Christ. There was an 
 impression in those days that a soldier could not 
 be a Christian. His duties were thought to con- 
 flict with the principles inculcated by Christ and 
 his apostles. This impression has existed to a 
 greater or less extent ever since. One illustra- 
 tion will suffice. During some of the unhappy 
 troubles in Ireland, an officer in the army of Lord 
 Cornwallis was observed to be daily absent for a 
 time from his quarters and the company of his 
 comrades. This led to the suspicion that he was 
 holding intercourse wnth the rebels, and to his 
 trial by a court-martial, which resulted in finding 
 him guilty of treason and in condemning him to 
 be shot. On hearing this, the Marquis resolved 
 to read the minutes of the trial, and, finding in 
 them a number of unsatisfactory and unaccount- 
 able things, he sent for the tried and condemned 
 man, to learn his explanation. Upon being inter- 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 153 
 
 rogaled, he solemnly disavowed every treason- 
 able practice or intention, declared his sincere 
 attachment to his sovereign, and his readiness to 
 live or die in his service ; he affirmed that the 
 cause of his freqnent absences was his withdrawal 
 to a place of retirement for the purpose of private 
 pra3'er, for which his lordship knew he had no 
 opportunity among his profane fellow-officers. 
 lie averred that he had made this defense on his 
 trial, but that the judges declared piety among 
 military officers an impossibility. In order to 
 satisf^^ himself in regard to the truth of his de- 
 fense, the Marquis observed that, if so, he must 
 have acquired considerable aptness in this exer- 
 cise. The convicted man replied that in that 
 direction he had nothing to boast of. The Mar- 
 quis then insisted on his kneeling down and pray- 
 ing aloud before him ; which he did, and poured 
 forth his soul before God, with such copiousness, 
 fluency and ardor, that the Marquis took him by 
 the hand, and said he was satisfied that no man 
 could pra}-^ in that manner who did not live in the 
 habit of intercourse with God. He not only 
 revoked the sentence, but received him into his 
 special favor, placing him on his stafl' and in the 
 line of promotion. Thus, the centurion, in s[)ite 
 of the difficulties arising from blood, mental i)er- 
 plexities and profession, was led to the feet of 
 Jesus. 
 
 In some of its aspects, his conversion was 
 almost miraculous. First, he received a commu- 
 
15i NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 nication through the instrumentality of angels. 
 Perhaps it required a divine interposition to pre- 
 pare the Gentile world for the reception of the 
 saving truths of the gospel. At any rate, Corne- 
 lius was visited by an angel. " He saw in a Adsion 
 clearl}^, about the ninth hour of the da}^, an angel 
 of God." He approached him in human form: 
 ''A man stood before me in bright clothing." 
 From this we see that celestial intelligences ap- 
 peared in New Testament times. Painters and 
 poets give us angels with wings, but in none of 
 the records of the visits of angels to our world 
 do we find them thus endowed. The appearance 
 of this celestial messenger struck fear into the 
 heart of Cornelius : " He was afraid, and said, 
 What is it, Lord?" It is probable that the best 
 way into the heart of a brave soldier is through 
 his fear. 
 
 The angel brought words of encouragement to 
 the trembling sinner. He said unto him, " Thy 
 prayers and thine alms are come up for a memo- 
 rial before God." His good character, his devout 
 spirit and his supplications were recognized in 
 heaven. He had acted according to the light 
 he had enjoyed, and consequently God was ready 
 to give him more. Every breath of sincere praj-er 
 and every generous act of the soul went up as 
 sweet incense from the altar of the heart. I 
 incline to the belief, or perhaps the conjecture, of 
 Mede, that very possibly Cornelius had been 
 laying his perplexities before the Lord in prayer, 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 155 
 
 and asking divine ouidance as to wliat lie should 
 believe and do, concerning Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 The angel gave direction to " send men to 
 Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is 
 Peter: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to 
 do." Why not tell it thyself, thou blessed mes- 
 senger of Jehovah ? Thou knowest, p.s well as 
 Peter, what the centurion is required to do I The 
 gospel is to be preached by men, not b}^ angels. 
 God in his love and compassion has ordained 
 that men saved from sin, death and hell, and 
 animated b}^ the constraining love of Christ, 
 should be his ambassadors, and declare with all 
 authority and certainty, and yet with tender sym- 
 pathy and pity, the salvation which is in Christ. 
 The messenger of peace on this occasion was 
 Simon Peter. At this Cornelius may have been 
 surprised. The teacher was not a Pharisee nor 
 a scribe, not one of the priests nor of the Levites 
 — but one Simon whose surname is Peter. He 
 was to send, not to Jerusalem, not to the tem- 
 ple, not to the synagogue, not to Gamaliel, nor 
 to one of his disciples — but to Joppa, a small 
 town on the seacoast, and to a lodger at the 
 house of Simon the tanner. What marvelous cir- 
 cumstantiality I What poet would have dared to 
 put these minute local directions into the mouth 
 of an angel? And why not? Because poets, as 
 one has well said, '' do not dare to be as poetical 
 as God's ways and God's truths are in reality. 
 For it is the highest poetry, and, blessed be God, 
 
156 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 the truest fact, that God knows and sees and 
 remembers all ; that the house where Mary 
 dwells and Martha and Lazarus — the homes of 
 all his people, however poor and obscure they 
 may be, are well known to him." 
 
 Men still receive visions and dream dreams 
 which arrest them in the way of sin. You may 
 have read the account of the conversion of 
 Colonel Gardner. He was one of the boldest 
 sinners of his day. Whilst spending an evening 
 of folly with some of his gay companions, he 
 accidentall}^ discovered a tract which his pious 
 mother had put in his portmanteau, called 
 "Christian Soldier, or Heaven Taken by Storm." 
 Before retiring that night he read the tract, 
 hoping to extract some amusement from it. 
 But, before he laid it aside, he fell asleep, or 
 rather into a reverie, and saw a vision like that 
 of Cornelius, not of angels, but of Christ him- 
 self hanging in midair on the cross, looking 
 directly at him, and saying with his last breath : 
 " ! sinner, did I suffer thus for thee, and are 
 these the returns ? " This led him to study the 
 Scriptures and consult those who could direct 
 him in the way of life. He was not saved by 
 the vision, but the vision led him to the truth 
 which made him free. 
 
 Notice, next, the preaching of Peter to the 
 centurion and his family : " Peter opened his 
 mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is 
 no respecter of persons : but in ever^^ nation he 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 157 
 
 that fearc'tli him, and workcth righteousness, is 
 accepted with him." Three important truths are 
 taught us in this address : First, the universalit}^ 
 of the phin of salvation. It is not confined to 
 any special people or ])articular family, or to a 
 given condition or calling. It is for all. God 
 is no respecter of persons. No matter whether 
 one is rich or poor, high or low, learned or 
 unlearned, he is invited to secure the salvation 
 of his soul. The merits of the atonement are 
 sufticient for all ; the force of moral motive is 
 adapted to all, and the agency of the Spirit is 
 available to all. 
 
 The second truth is that the only character ac- 
 ceptable to God is that which w^orketh righteous- 
 ness. It is that which leads to a right conduct in 
 relation to man, God, and the universe. Man is 
 not accepted because of his Judaism or Gentilism, 
 not because of his birth, his country or his par- 
 ticular form of worship, but because of his moral 
 rectitude. 
 
 Here is further taught us the mediatorship of 
 Christ: "Preaching peace by Jesus Christ." 
 What the apostle says of Christ's mission is in 
 substance the same as that which he proclaims in 
 his discourse on the day of Pentecost. He shows 
 that his mission was divine in its origin, redemp- 
 tive in its purpose and universal in its applica- 
 tion. 
 
 The third fact taught us in the conversion of 
 Cornelius is the effusion of the II(jIij Ghost. 
 
loy NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 This was just as necessary to the conversion of 
 the Gentiles as to that of the Jews. The divine 
 Spirit, in its regenerating and redemptive influ- 
 ences, must ever follow the blood. The gospel 
 is the channel through which this hol}^ influence 
 flows into the soul. The gospel is the chariot on 
 which the divine Conqueror marches forth to sub- 
 due his enemies and to take possession of the 
 land promised him of the Father. The Spirit, in 
 connection with the word preached by Peter, 
 effected the conversion of Cornelius. 
 
 Thus b}^ varied means God opened the heart 
 of the Gentile soldier, and the great folding-doors 
 of the Church which form an entrance into the 
 outside world. There is significance in the 
 absence here of pomp and striking circumstances. 
 It shows that in the higher and richer dispensa- 
 tion of the gospel, the revelations of the Holy 
 Ghost are given with less of outward display, but 
 with more of inward power; that his influence, in 
 proportion as it is spiritual, resembles the dew 
 and seldom exceeds the measure of the small 
 rain on the mown grass. The Lord is less in the 
 hurricane, the earthquake and the flame than in 
 the still small voice. As in the material world 
 the mightiest agencies are the least seen and 
 heard, so in the kingdom of Christ. He writes 
 his laws in our hearts with a silent pen, whose 
 inscription is never efl^aced. His government 
 is a government of persuasive love, but love is 
 neither loud nor demonstrative. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 159 
 
 The outwiird maiiifesttitions of Cornelius's con- 
 version are very much the same as those wit- 
 nessed since his da3^ Though a member of tlie 
 proud and aristocratic Cornelian farail}', though 
 «, Roman by birth and education, and though a 
 military officer of high rank under the governor 
 of S^ria, he did not shrink from the publicity 
 connected with acknowledging the lowly Jesus as 
 his Lord and Master. He and all his house were 
 baptized. Thus, he not onl}^ declared to Jews 
 and Gentiles his covenant relations with the 
 world's Redeemer, but brought his loved ones 
 also into the same blessed relations. Encouraging 
 thought! Grace not only flows down like water, 
 so that from the head of the house it reaches the 
 youngest, " but it also, by a cognate law," says 
 Dr. Arnot, " rises np like vapor, so that it may 
 find its way from a godly child to a worldly 
 father. Parents should bring their house to the 
 Church and bring the Church to their house." 
 
 Cornelius not only showed his willingness to 
 become an open follower of Christ by being bap- 
 tized, but he showed also his readiness to be 
 thoroughly identified with his humble followers. 
 He urged Peter to stay at his house that he 
 might learn of him his duty and talk with him 
 over the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom I 
 He desired Christian fellowship and the pra^^ers 
 of a good man. Happ}- house ! Above it heaven 
 was open, from it prayers ascended, and into it 
 angels came from heaven. 
 
160 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 We learn once more from this incident that the 
 river of life does not branch out into divers 
 streams. It is the same to Jews and Gentiles. 
 " There is not a broad sweep of water," sa3^s 
 some one, " for the rich, the intellectual and the 
 cultivated, and a little scanty rill where the poor 
 now and then come and get healed by the side 
 of its precarious wave. There is no costly sana- 
 tarium beneath whose shade patrician leprosy 
 may get by itself to be ftishionably sprinkled. 
 Naaman, with all his retinue watching, must 
 come and dip and plunge like common men in tlie 
 Jordan. The haughty son of the Cornelian 
 family must be saved like the blind beggar at .^he 
 gates of Jericho." 
 
Chapter xi. 
 
 THE CONVERSION OF A GREAT GENIUS- 
 SAUL OF TARSUS. 
 
 Acts ix. 1-9: "And Saul, j'et breathing out threatenings 
 and slaughter," etc. 
 
 EXCEPT Christ's advent and the descent of 
 the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, there is 
 no event in the world's history of greater 
 importance to the race, or of richer blessings to 
 the Church, than the conversion of Saul of 
 Tarsus. It was the .starting point of man^^ of 
 the mightiest forces which have been used of 
 Providence to mould the Church and the world. 
 Whether we consider the heart, the head, or the 
 outward conduct of this Cilician Jew, we are 
 compelled to regard him as one of the most 
 remarkable men of the ages. 
 
 The rare qualities of Saul's heart are often 
 overshadowed by his peerless intellect. Amongst 
 the former may be mentioned his deep humility 
 and unaffected devotion to God's cause. He 
 was unyielding when he believed that truth and 
 principle were involved ; he was gentle and 
 IGl 
 
162 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 tender, wbeiiever he bad to deal with believers 
 who were weak in the faith ; he was self-denying 
 and patient when be was persecuted for Christ's 
 sake ; he was affectionate as a mother, toward bis 
 son Timoth}' ; his heart was ready to he sacrificed 
 for Israel, his kinsmen according to the flesh, and 
 his sympathies were world-wide in their scope. 
 
 None but those who have carefully studied his 
 epistles can form an adequate conception of his 
 Intellectual powers. Luther discovered in bis 
 writings a treasure which filled his soul with 
 peace and joy. On their radiant pages, earnest, 
 struggling souls still find such accurate descrip- 
 tions of their inmost feelings and thoughts, such 
 lucid solutions of their diflficulties, such clear 
 demonstrations of saving truths as are found no- 
 where else in ancient or modern epistolary writ- 
 ings. His counsels of wisdom, gentleness, self- 
 denial, meekness and patience direct to-day our 
 households, govern our churches, and guide our 
 missionary enterprises. Even his enemies confess 
 that bis epistles are both weighty and profound. 
 
 Paul's life and labors wi]l not be fully known 
 until their rich fruits are gathered at the last 
 day. In general terms it may be said, that 
 mainly through him the Gentiles heard the gos- 
 pel and the Church of Christ was founded among 
 them, that idolatry vanished and the pure light 
 of revealed truth shone upon the dark and be- 
 nighted nations of the earth. In Ephesus, in 
 Corinth, in Athens, in Philippi, in Thessalonica 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 163 
 
 niid in Galatia, as well as along the coast of the 
 Mediterranean, from Jerusalem to Rome — every- 
 where may be found imperishable monuments to 
 his untiring zeal and apostleship. 
 
 The elements entering into the structure of this 
 uniqne character are rare and numerous. Even 
 the setting must be carefully considered before 
 we can discover its full splendor. The time of 
 bis birth was marked by the greatest events of 
 secular history. It was during the reign of 
 Augustus, which was the most illustrious in 
 Koman history. When Saul began to inhale the 
 pure air of the Taurus mountains and to lave in 
 the crystal waters of the Cydnus, there was a 
 noted youth rambling over the hills of Hebron, 
 preparing himself by meditation and prayer to 
 become the voice of one crying in the wilderness ; 
 and another more distinguished still, seen pla}-- 
 ing around Nazareth and the slopes of Tabor. 
 And on the banks of Gennesaret could be found 
 also three or four ruddy fishermen mending their 
 nets, who were destined of Providence to become 
 the inspired apostles of the coming dispensation. 
 Neither the parents, nor the youths themselves, 
 with one exception, knew aught of the sublime 
 relations which they were to hold to each other in 
 coming years : 
 
 " God moves in a mysterious way 
 His wonders to perform ; 
 He plauts his footsteps ou the sea, 
 He rides upon the storm.'' 
 
161: NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 Notice, first, some of the important agents in 
 the formation of Saul's character. The first was 
 the example and training of his parents. They 
 were both Jews, as he has repeatedly informed 
 us. He alleges that he was a Hebrew of the 
 Hebrews, or a Jew from both parents. Though 
 residents, and perhaps natives of Tarsus, yet his 
 father and mother were bigoted members of the 
 Jewish Church. They belonged to the sect called 
 the Pharisees. And from the words, " he served 
 God from his forefathers^''' we infer that his an- 
 cestors for generations had been strict Pharisees, 
 serving the God of Israel in the synagogue at the 
 Gentile city of Tarsus. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that no mention is made 
 by Paul of his mother. Most of the distinguished 
 men of earth have owed a large debt of gratitude 
 to their mothers, and they have usually taken 
 pleasure in acknowledging it. Are we to con- 
 clude that Paul is an exception to this rule? 
 It is difficult to do so. Some commentators 
 have explained the omission by saying that the 
 mother had probably died before the son was 
 old enough to remember her. If that had been 
 the case it would have been doubtless mentioned 
 somewhere in his epistles. But a better explana- 
 tion is, that his mother, though a true woman, 
 was the most bigoted of the Pharisees, that she 
 had trained her son to hate all other sects, and to 
 be unswerving in his adherence to the interests 
 of her own relisrion, and when he was converted 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIOXS. 165 
 
 on the way to Damascus, and made one of the 
 followers of Jesus, she blotted his name out of the 
 fomily record and banished him as far as possible 
 from her memory. This conduct is not without 
 a' parallel. Many a Jewish mothe-r since then has 
 done likewise. May we not conclude, therefore, 
 that Paul, as a dutiful son, has intentionally 
 thrown the cloak, not merely of charity but ot 
 silence also, over that devoted but bigoted 
 parent. "Who can tell," says Dr. McDuff, "but 
 ere he became Paul, the Aged, he was allowed 
 to sit by the dying pillow of that mother and 
 point her sinking soul to the same Jesus who 
 met him on his way to Damascus ! " 
 
 By such parents Saul was doubtless taught to 
 believe in the Jewish Scriptures, to be a stern 
 advocate of the law's authority, and to be the 
 supporter of a regularly constituted government ; 
 to oppose every outbreak of irregularities and 
 passion ; to live a strictly moral life, to be un- 
 yielding in his opinions regarding his religion 
 and to use all means in his power to propagate 
 its truths ; to be intolerant of the opinions of 
 others, even to persecution, in order to carry out 
 the principles of his sect. Such was clearly the 
 early training of Saul of Tarsus. 
 
 In addition to this, he enjoyed all the advan- 
 tages of the Jewish school in his native city. It 
 is not likely that he was ever sent to the Univer- 
 sity of Tarsus, because there his mind would be 
 in danger of being contaminated by heathen and 
 
166 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 corrupt teachings. The Jews who lived among 
 the Gentiles, and who suffered many things on 
 account of their nationality, became intensely 
 Jewish in their views and feelings. The home 
 training and the teaching of their schools tended 
 to produce this result. When Saul was old 
 enough to be in danger of having his views 
 liberalized and his morals corrupted by contact 
 with Greeks and Sja-ians, he was sent to Jerusa- 
 lem, where he would enjoy the instruction of the 
 greatest rabbi of the nation. 
 
 There the teaching was of the same general 
 character as that which he had enjoyed at home 
 and in the school at Tarsus. Though Gamaliel 
 was a man of candor and coolness of judgment, 
 as is clear from his advice to the Sanhedrin, yet 
 he was a Jew to the very core. He was a 
 teacher of the law. He would sacrifice everything 
 to maintain authority in the Church and in the 
 State. We can readil}^ trace his influence on the 
 whole of Saul's public life — alike as a Jewish 
 persecutor and a defender of the faith which 
 he at first labored to destro3^ We can see how 
 he would be likely to sympathize with persecu- 
 tors ; how confidence could be reposed in him in 
 that regard ; how he would abstain from acts of 
 open violence and lawlessness, and yet how, 
 under the sanction of law, he might become — as 
 he did — one of the most violent enemies of the 
 Christian Churcli. 
 
 We have now before us the j^oung Cilician Jew 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 167 
 
 as the open enemy of Christianity. He hated it 
 v/ith perfect hatred. We read that he persecuted 
 its adherents unto death, binding and delivering 
 into prison both men and women. The martyr- 
 dom of Stephen had intensified his hatred. 
 " Like the taste of blood to a wild beast," says 
 one commentator, '• it heightened his ferocity and 
 quickened his powers to make havoc of the 
 Church. The very breath of liis soul was ma- 
 lignity toward the disciples of the new religion. 
 ]t was like the heat of a furnace threatening to 
 scorch and burn ever^'thing on which it fell. 
 His whole nature and education gave momentum 
 to his work of destruction " His was a mighty 
 intellect, and we know that intellect rules to a 
 great extent the feelings of love and hatred. In 
 men of weak minds the emotions are usually 
 feeble as compared with those of men endowed 
 with strong powers of mind. As Saul was great 
 in intellect his hatred of the Church was intense. 
 It was literally fanned into a flame. He was also 
 a man of tremendous impulses. lie was not one 
 of tlie cold, phlegmatic and unirapassioned ones, 
 the fires of whose natures are too weak to flame. 
 He was the very opposite. Feeling in him was a 
 sea of fire, and its great tides throbbed through 
 every artery in his body. He did nothing with- 
 out feeling. Feeling gave force to ever}^ purpose, 
 a flash to every look, emphasis to every word, 
 and a resoluteness to every act. The love of 
 such a nature was worth much — worth every- 
 
168 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 thing ; the hatred of the same was such as might 
 well make men tremble. 
 
 He was, moreover, a man of great conscien- 
 tiousness. Wherever conscience gives her sanc- 
 tion to men's feelings their strength reaches its 
 highest point. Whatever feeling, thought or 
 effort conscience sanctions, it intensifies. Saul's 
 conscience not only sanctioned, but enforced his 
 enmity toward Christ. He considered that he 
 " was doing God service," and regarded it as a 
 sacred obligation to blot, if he could, the name of 
 Jesus from the earth ! 
 
 The enmity of Saul did not live merely in 
 feeling, however strong, nor did it expend itself 
 in anathemas, however terrible. It took a practi- 
 cal shape of the most determined sort. It is 
 said that he made havoc of the Church, that he 
 shut in prison many saints, and that he did all he 
 could to make them blaspheme the name of 
 Jesus. It is stated further that he invaded the 
 sanctuaries of domestic life — entering into every 
 house — and ruthlessly tearing away those whom 
 he committed to prison. 
 
 Before he went after the poor fugitives who 
 had sought an asylum in Damascus, he showed 
 the effect of the legal training he had enjoyed 
 in Tarsus and Jerusalem. He secured from the 
 high priest letters legalizing his efforts in the 
 interest, as he regarded it, of the religion of 
 his fathers. And, as soon as he had received 
 them, he started to wreak his vengeance on young 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 1G9 
 
 and old, male and female. Witboat delay he 
 went with men of like views and purposes to 
 Damascus in order to persecute all who believed 
 in the Christian religion. 
 
 Without attempting to describe the journey, or 
 to set forth the probable thoughts which passed 
 through his mind, as he caught the first glimpse 
 of Damascus, resting like an island of paradise, 
 in the green enclosure of its beautiful gardens, we 
 shall simply undertake to portray his conversion. 
 It was one of the miraculous sort which unregen- 
 erate men generally look for. As he came in 
 sight of the w^alls of that ancient city, suddenly, 
 at midday^ there appeared a light in the firma- 
 ment, a dazzling brightness, above that of the 
 sun. It was not a flash of lightning, but a con- 
 tinued glare composed of ra3's that darted from 
 the body of the Sun of Righteousness, who 
 condescended to appear personally to the heart- 
 less persecutor of the Church, when in sight of 
 his victims, sure of speedy victory, and almost 
 ready to send up his shouts of triumph. At this, 
 he and his companions in travel, fell to the 
 earth, dazzled and confounded. He la}^ speecli- 
 less, wondering what all this could mean. When 
 he dared to lift his eyes toward the light, lo I 
 there shone the emblem of Grod's presence — the 
 Shekinah which had dwelt in the tabernacle and 
 the temple. But it was no mere light — no mere 
 vision which was before him. There was also an 
 august Person. It was Jesus of Nazareth, whom 
 
170 NEW TESTAMENT COXVERSIOXS. 
 
 he was persecuting. We are not left in doubt in 
 regard to this, because he tells us more than once 
 that he had seen the Lord. Jesus addressed him 
 in the Hebrew tongue, in that same tongue in 
 which he had conversed with his twelve disciples. 
 He named him twice: "Saul, Saul, why perse- 
 cutest thou me ? It is not my poor, innocenc 
 people that you are cruel to, but to me. I and 
 they are one. What you do to them I feel as 
 if you were doing it to me; in injuring them 
 you are injuring ?7ie." What an encouraging 
 thought ! What a disclosure of the tender 
 heart of Jesus ! Even Stephen's dying love is 
 not to be compared with this. " Wh}- persecut- 
 est thou ???e ? " If the smitten one had dared to 
 excuse himself, it would doubtless be somewhat 
 after this fashion : " I took no part in the scenes 
 of the garden or in the transactions of Calvary I 
 I was not one of those who apprehended thee 
 with swords and staves ! I gave thee no traitor's 
 kiss. I wove for thee no crown of twisted thorns. 
 I plunged no spear into th}^ side. M^^ tongue 
 was not employed in mocking thee whilst hang- 
 ing on the cursed tree." If the Saviour had re- 
 plied it would have been perhaps in some such 
 words as these : " Inasmuch as ye did it unto 
 one of the least of these my bretliren, 3-e did it 
 unto me!'' Then would come the question from 
 the confused lips of the vanquished foe, " Who 
 art thou, Lord ? " And the answer would follow 
 from the 2:lorified One: ''I am Jesus of Nazareth, 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 171 
 
 whom thou persecutest I I am the Lord of 
 glory I It is hard for thee to kick against the 
 pricks." 
 
 What could the helpless ijersecutor now ex- 
 pect ? Convinced of his guilt, what could he 
 look for but sudden destruction from the pres- 
 ence of the Lord and from the glory of his 
 power? But God's thoughts are not as our 
 thoughts. He had designs of mercy toward him 
 and had provided a work and a reward for him 
 far beyond his expectation. The power of the 
 Spirit was exerted in connection with the heav- 
 enly vision to change his heart. It is not proba- 
 ble that Saul's companions, though greatly 
 affrighted like himself, were converted. God has 
 often spoken to men in thunders and lightnings 
 and earthquakes, by voices from heaven and 
 visions from the dead, without changing their 
 hearts. Nothing but grace can do that. The 
 heart of Saul was subdued and changed, for he, 
 trembling and astonished, exclaimed, " Lord, 
 what wilt thou have me to do ? " 
 
 Notice, secondly, some of the effects of this 
 revelation upon the mind of Saul. They were 
 twofold. First, it brought him into conscious 
 contact with Christ. "Who art thou, Lord?" 
 As yet he knew not who it was that had appeared 
 and spoken to him. The M'ord " Lord " may 
 mean nothing more in this connection than " Sir." 
 As 3'et he was in the dark as to the one who was 
 dealing with him. lie knew not who came in the 
 
172 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 splendor, or who spoke in the electric flash. His 
 ignorance, however, was quickly removed. He 
 heard a voice saying, " I am Jesus whom thou 
 persecutest." This answer filled the soul of the 
 persecutor with the thought that he was in imme- 
 diate contact with Jesus of Nazareth. He saw 
 him first with the eyes of his mind and never 
 forgot the sight. He took delight in referring 
 to this again and again in after-life. 
 
 He was not only brought into contact with the 
 person of Christ, but into a complete submission 
 to his will. He said, " Lord, what wilt thou have 
 me to do ? " His own will was at last overcome. 
 The will of the Sanhedrin was no longer of 
 importance to him, the will of Christ was all. 
 The revolution was thorough and the submission 
 complete. From this time forth the glory of 
 Christ filled his vision, the name of Christ 
 charmed his ears, the interests of Christ's king- 
 dom called into exercise all the powers of his 
 soul and bod^^ From the day of his conversion 
 he lived and labored, suffered and died for his 
 Saviour. By hira he tested the value of all 
 things, and all that failed to bear that test was 
 by him rejected. Whatever task he undertook, 
 whatever plan he laid out, whatever plea he 
 urged, whatever end he set before his eyes, but 
 one question was asked regarding it, namely, 
 " How will it stand in relation to Christ ? " 
 
 What a change I How thorough, how wonder- 
 ful, how soon effected! What a world was that 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 173 
 
 "uliich burst on Saul's vision when bis eyes were 
 shut to the beauties of the plains of the Abana 
 and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus I How every- 
 thing he had valued paled before that ! What 
 nonentities seemed all the world's power and 
 greatness, its grandeur and magnificence I How 
 the unseen and eternal unveiled to his soul the 
 fictitious value set on all things seen and tem- 
 poral ! How clearly he discovered, to his great 
 dismay, that he had been walking in a vain show ! 
 
 This is Saul's second birth, and yet it is infi- 
 nitely more exalted than that on the banks of the 
 Cydnus — more exalted because in the former he 
 was born but to die, whereas in the latter he was 
 born a son of the Highest, to live forever. Bet- 
 ter ! because the march of the feet which climbed 
 the slopes of the Taurus, was along a rough path 
 between the cradle and the coffin ; whereas the 
 way of grace, with its toils and trials, shipwrecks 
 and forty stripes save one, its bitter persecutions 
 and long imprisonments, was from regeneration 
 onward and upward to a crown of glory in 
 heaven. Happy for you, dear reader, if 3-ou are 
 heaven-born and heaven-bound I It may be that 
 like Paul's, a stormy life is before 3-ou ; but let 
 storms rage and tempests roar — however rude the 
 gale or high the billows — a heaven-born passen- 
 ger in a heaven-bound bark, you cannot fail to 
 enter the haven of eternal rest. 
 
 Notice, lastly, some of the immediate results of 
 Saul's conversion. The first mentioned is that 
 
174 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 
 
 he prayed. There is deep significance in this 
 dechxration. He was a Pharisee, given to long 
 prayers on the corners of the streets. These 
 were regarded by him after his conversion 
 as of no account. lie drew his first spiritual 
 breath amid the aromatic shrubs in the plains of 
 Damascus. 
 
 " Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, 
 The Christian's native air." 
 
 The second result was willingness to mingle 
 with the persecuted people he had so heartily 
 despised. He went to the house of an humble 
 deacon, or even a private member of the church, 
 to receive instruction as to his future course in 
 the world. What! the proud disciple of Gama- 
 liel sitting at the feet of Ananias ! The most 
 brilliant member of the Jewish Sanhedrin taking 
 counsel of an humble man whom that august body 
 had condemned ! The terror of the followers of 
 Christ is now moving like a lamb among those 
 who trembled at the sound of his name ! What 
 wonder of divine grace ! To see the pride of 
 birth, loftiness of intellect, brilliancy of genius 
 and unimpeachable morality laid at the foot of 
 the cross of a despised Galilean, and to witness 
 the Jewish rabbis, the senators of the nation and 
 the learned of the land set aside for the fellow- 
 ship of fishermen, humble peasants and ignorant 
 craftsmen is no ordinary sight. This is the 
 Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes 1 
 
NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 175 
 
 The third result is the giving up of the bright- 
 est worldly prospects for a promised inheritance 
 beyond the gjiiu.-^. " Saul of Tarsus," says some 
 one, '' gave up hopes and prospects as brilliant as 
 any ever cherished by an aspiring youth ; he 
 subjected himself to the bitter hatred and scorn 
 of his kindred ; he embraced a religion at the 
 time the most unpopular of all on earth ; he ex- 
 posed himself to every form of persecution ; he 
 became poor, an outcast and a wanderer ; he set 
 before him one great object of life, if by any 
 means he might save some ; he feared no danger, 
 was appalled by no obstacle, asked no reward, 
 w^as checked by no opposition ; he avowed his 
 principles everywhere — seeking to assert and 
 defend them in places of intelligence, iniluence 
 and power — where men were best qualified to 
 judge of truth, and where a sensitive and noble- 
 minded man would feel it most keenly, if his 
 sentiments were held in contempt, when con- 
 fronted with philosophy at Athens, and when 
 arraigned for his life before Nero ; never waver- 
 ing, never shrinking, never breathing out one 
 sigh of regret, never concealing his new views; 
 exulting, triumphing, rejoicing to the end of life 
 that he had counted all things but loss for the 
 excellency of the knowledge of Christ." 
 
 What a change 1 None of the fanciful transfor- 
 mations of Ovid could rival the matchless w^ork 
 wrought by Christ upon this sinner's heart. Oh, 
 what a difference between Saul of Tarsus breath- 
 
176 NEW TESTAMENT CONVEKSIONS. 
 
 ing out threatenings, and Paul the apostle saying, 
 *' I am now ready to be offered " ! Between " the 
 dead in trespasses and sins," and the quickened 
 by divine grace ! " If God should speak to 
 Niagara and bid its floods, in their tremendous 
 leap, stand still," says Mr. Spurgeon, " that were 
 a trifling demonstration of power compared with 
 the stay of the soul bent on slaughter at the 
 gates of Damascus ! If he should suddenly speak 
 to the broad Atlantic, and bid it be wrapped in 
 flames, we should not then see such a manifesta- 
 tion of his greatness as when he converted that 
 sea of fire in the heart of Saul into a fountain of 
 love and kinduesa 1 '^ 
 
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