1 Corinthians 15:10

1 Corinthians 15:10

Sudden Conversions.

The conversion of St. Paul was a wonderful conversion, as our church in one place calls it, because it was so unexpected and (as far as the appearance went) so sudden. It may be useful to mention one or two kinds of what may be called sudden conversions, and to inquire which of them really took place in St. Paul's case.

I. First, some men turn to religion all at once from some sudden impulse of mind, some powerful excitement, or some strong persuasion. Such sudden conversions deceive for a time even the better sort of people.

II. In these cases of sudden conversion, when men change at once either from open sin, or again from the zealous partisanship of a certain creed, to some novel form of faith or worship, their lightmindedness is detected by their frequent changing their changing again and again, so that one can never be certain of them. This is the test of their unsoundness having no root in themselves their convictions and earnestness presently wither away. But there is another kind of sudden conversion, in which a man perseveres to the end, consistent in the new form he adopts, and which may be right or wrong, as it happens, but which he cannot be said to recommend or confirm to us by his own change. A man who suddenly professes religion after a profligate life, merely because he is sick of his vices, or tormented by the thought of God's anger, does no honour to religion.

III. When men change their religious opinions really and truly, it is not merely their opinions that they change, but their hearts, and this evidently is not done in a moment it is a slow work. Nevertheless, though gradual, the change is often not uniform, but proceeds, so to say, by fits and starts, being influenced by external events and other circumstances. There was much in St. Paul's character which was not changed by his conversion, but merely directed to other and higher objects and purified. It was his creed that was changed and his soul by regeneration. That all-pitying, all-holy Eye, which turned in love upon St. Peter when he denied Christ and thereby roused him to repentance, looked on St. Paul also while he persecuted Him and wrought in him the sudden conversion.

J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons,vol. viii., p. 217. (See also Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times,"vol. v., p. 307.)

References: 1 Corinthians 15:10. Beecher, Sermons,vol. ii., p. 59; H. J. Wilmot Buxton, The Life of Duty,vol. ii., p. 94; A. Blomfield, Church of England Pulpit,vol. vii., p. 53; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ix., p. 25; W. Page, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxiv., p. 204; J. A. Carr, Church of England Pulpit,vol. xi., p. 305; A. K. H. B., Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson,3rd series, p. 216. 1 Corinthians 15:11. Church of England Pulpit,vol. xviii., p. 185. 1 Corinthians 15:12. H. W. Beecher, Forty-Eight Sermons,vol. i., p. 257.