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Show LESSON PROM PAJS LIFE Obedience to Vision the Keynote, Formative Influence of His Character May Be Scarce Overestimated. Marvel of Biblo Incident Is Not the Vision, but That Aristocratic Soul Obeyed. At Phillips "Congregational church the Ta' T A Clmnlrln unnn Irllirr f mm thf w6rds of Paul addressed to King Agrip-pa, Agrip-pa, where he recounted the story of his conversion, averring. "I was not disobedient dis-obedient to the heavenly vision," said, in part: "Tho wonderful thing about all this was not that Paul had a vision, for to every man on tho earth a vision comes in some high nnd all-precious moment of life. True, to us there may not como as to Taul an outward, a physical vle-lon, vle-lon, but none the less real are the vis-Ions vis-Ions and the voices that come amid life's commonplaces of things and experiences ex-periences to which the life that gives heed is not only bound, but from whose springs of power and consecration the life moves up to high emprise and loftier being, if the heart be submissive to the message. Men no more see angels an-gels and seraphim from the other world. But sometimes a man finds the angel vision In tho face of a little child, In the grlef-brulsed face of a wronged woman, and hears the voice of God In the tones which the commonest things speak to him. Nothing1 Marvolous in. Vision. "The marvel is not the virion, but the. obedience. The wonder Is not that Christ made in that vision an appeal to Paul, for God makes such appeal to every life, ti9 he gives men to see him at the closest npproach to life In the coming of Jesuo to the race. The wonder, won-der, age-long, and to tho carnal mind inexplicable, is that this proud and brilliant Jew, famed for his erudition and notable for his loyalty to the Ideal and system of Israel, should Hash so quickly and maintain so unswervingly an afilrmatlon of submission In love to the despised Christ. Tho marvel of Paul's life is summed In this sentence, 'I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.' "His was one of the finest minds of all history. Rend his epistles and be at once convinced. His pathway from the time of his completion of the course of learning at the feet of tho great Gamaliel was ono whose vista ended at me marDio stairway, capped Dy me golden throne of power, and the highest reward Judaism could extend. He was an aristocrat, a man thinking great thoughts, wrestling Joyously with great problems, and yet- -when the vision comes to him he does not disobey. "History has never given a tiny niche in Its halls 10 fame, never raised a memorial by the winding road men have followed from the beginning, never flung the smallest blossom upon the dust of the men who saw visions nnd lived as if they had not. Its. wayside shrines, Its glory of chiseled marble, Its epic set to the music Immortal, Its precious scripts all beautiful with color and cunning workmanship, are the outpour out-pour of the world's heart for what of Its own have coon, and seeing been. "The poor little man of Assist, living his life of prodigal luxury and ease, sees a vision, and In his obedience gives a life whose salvatory influence swept with healing his beloved Italy. But he was obedient. "And In that tremendous life of Paul, the apostle, the obedience was always one of test and wrestle. His vision led him not where favoring breezes blew, but against the tide and current of that which flowed and filled his world; In face of persecution, trial and all violence vio-lence nnd difficulty, he moved obediently. obed-iently. Appeals to Subsequent Ages. "That obedience vas not only marked by the result In Paul's own life, but in the life of his time and the following ufcje. iiu uuuineu u. mannoou massive and beautiful, whose spirit has charmed every student of it, and whose proportions propor-tions have not often been approached In. the centuries. The result outside his own character ls, as always, of the greater importance. The formative influence in-fluence of Paul, vital, constructive, characteristic in the planting of the kingdom of God, may scarce be overestimated, over-estimated, and' Is a sufficiently wonderful wonder-ful result of his obedience. He was to all the diverse life he touched so trans-formlngly trans-formlngly what he was, because God moved In his obedience. And to the age Increasingly glorious he appeals, not only In the Ideal his life offers, but the more In Its constructive achievement achieve-ment ond illuminating message; for oC all who have lived since Christ none has either gripped so deeply or presented present-ed so perfectly the system of truth, which, centering In Jesus, Is at once our hope and Inspiration, as this man who saw his vision and obeyed." |
