Acts 9:3-19 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:… I. SPIRITUAL CRISIS. Saul had now arrived at his spiritual crisis. Such a crisis has occurred in the lives of most great reformers, and at these moments they become absorbingly interesting. Buddha waiting for the final illumination under his wisdom tree; Mohammed in the caves of the desert; Luther in the monk's cell; Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus — each in his own way was having that last desperate encounter with the past and its outworn traditions, which was to fit him to be the religious pioneer of the future. Such a passage from the old to the new may be fitly called conversion. Most of us may have known something like it. Not that everyone must pass through an intellectual or spiritual convulsion. Some souls seem to grow like flowers; some leap like cataracts. There are halcyon as well as earthquake natures; there are neutral tinted people who never seem to rise or fall very much; there are well-balanced people set in harmonious conditions who develop day by day, and never know the shocks of sudden change. II. HINDRANCES TO SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. In most of us there is a bar, and that bar has to be passed or the soul will languish. 1. Pleasure is one man's bar. Till he recognises something above pleasure he will make no way. A noble cause or enthusiasm at last lays hold upon him, and he counts pleasure lost for the first time that he may compass the new ideal. He postpones appetite, he learns self-sacrifice. The bar is passed. 2. Another drifts. Indecision, want of purpose, is his bar. The love of a pure, strong, tender woman delivers him; or the companionship of a high-minded friend steadies and directs his aims. 3. Another is an idolater of self. His horizon is hopelessly narrowed in, and there is no progress until you get out of that dismal, vicious circle. Responsibility, interests, loves and lives of others, sense of a spiritual world — in one word, God and religion in some form awakening Divine echoes, sounding undreamed of depths within, such a revelation may come upon you with a shock. The expulsive power of a noble affection, the absorbing power of a good cause, the emancipating and illuminating power of a Divine sentiment may be the terms of your conversion. 4. Saul's bar was intellectual pride and self-sufficiency. In politics this obstinate habit breeds the State despot, the man who would sacrifice party, principle, country. In religion it produces the fanatic. The Son of God may hang on a tree; Stephen with the angel face may be stoned; Savonarola and Huss may be stoned. III. DIVINE LEADINGS. There came a day when Paul wept to remember how Saul had persecuted the Church of Christ. But at present he breathes nothing but threatenings and slaughter, and is off to Damascus on his cruel purpose. But on that lonesome journey Saul thinks — 1. "Tis an odious business, this. Is it a duty? My duty! My Master Gamaliel used to say, 'Let them alone,' etc. Ah! he was too mild. One must not tolerate insult to the Holy Temple and the Law." So Gamaliel was pushed aside. 2. Saul thinks; "This Jesus. Why did the people hear Him? A magician of words it seems, mistaken at first for an eloquent Rabbi — most cursed perversion of talent. That He who spoke the story of the prodigal, which the very children now prattle, should have uttered that hateful tale of the vineyard — that was aimed at our holy rules; a poisoned tongue, an insidious, treacherous Rabbi that Jesus: His viper brood of disciples must be stamped out; 'tis the will of God." And so Jesus was pushed aside. 3. Then once again Saul thinks as the face of the murdered Stephen rises before him: "Such an one with the makings of a good Haggadist, but hopelessly tainted. Is it not written, 'The poison of asps is under their lips'? yet did not his looks belie his iniquity? We judged him, he seemed to be judging us. 'Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears.' Monstrous brazen-tongued heretic, or visionary — which? Yes, he saw a vision. I would that face had not been crushed in so bloody a death. But no, it was expedient that one man died for the people. We have stamped the thing out in Jerusalem by that stroke. Yet his smile, his prayer — last fraud of the tempter. Thou hadst Stephen in thy toils — thou shalt not take me so easily." And with this did Saul smite his jaded steed, as Balaam did his, and for a like reason. On! on! he fiercely spurred, and again his poor beast kicked against the pricks, as he was himself kicking against the pricks of a Divine Master who sought to guide him whither he would not go. Suddenly his brain reels — like an over-bent bow gives in a moment — he staggers on horseback — the bolt seems to fall from the blue. Is it thunder? Is it a voice? Is it a light? — aye, "above the brightness of the sun," but it leaves Saul in darkness. Jesus has met him by the way. (H. R. Haweis, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: |
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