CONVERSION. In a religious sense, the term means a change of mind in matters of religion. This change is often supposed to come suddenly. This is the interesting question in religion : Is conversion ever really sudden? That a person should change from one religion to another after deep thought and long study is natural. That a person who has lived without religion for some years should suddenly change his mind seems to be supernatural. There are many interesting cases of con version. Two of them are very familiar, those of Paul the Apostle and the Emperor Constantine the Great. Paul was a strict Pharisee and bitterly persecuted the early Christians. Suddenly, to all appearances, he changed his mind and became a Christian. The story is told in the Acts of the Apostles (ix. 1-18). " And Saul, yet breathing out thre.atenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, and that, if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus : and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven : And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest : it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man : but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus " (vss. 1-7). In the first place it should be noticed that, although this con version was no doubt quite unexpected, it was not sudden in the •sense of being unprepared for. It was no doubt the last thing that Saul or Paul expected. But the forti tude and endurance of the Christians had made a great impression upon him. For a long time there had been going on in his subjective mind between two sets of ideas a conflict of which he was hardly conscious. On his way
to Damascus, he fell into a kind of trance. The objec tive mind became dormant. The subjective mind, with its vast store of accumulated knowledge and experience, became abnormally active. The two sets of ideas struggled against one another for the mastery. The Christian overcame the Jewish, and, almost against his will, Paul became a Christian. This, we believe, is the true psychological explanation of all conversions of this kind. The hearing of a voice is what is known as clair audience (q.v.). St. Paul's experience was a subjective one. Christianity had made already an overpowering impression without Paul's being aware of it. In any case he would have become a Christian in time. The event was hastened, and he was, as he himself described himself, " a child untimely born " (ektrdma, I. Corin thians xv. 8). The story of the conversion of the Emperor Constantine on the eve of his great battle with I1axentius is not so interesting, and is very likely a fiction, though it was suggested by the real occurrence of similar experiences. Constantine is supposed to have seen suspended in the air a cross together with the motto " Hoc sign vinces " (" By this sign thou shalt conquer "). If we accept the story as genuine, here again the conversion was already prepared for. Con stantine had had opportunities of noting the virtues of the Christians. These had no doubt made a great impression upon him. The experience, too, was again subjective. The seeing of fiery crosses and other objects Is a not uncommon experience when the subjective mind is abnormally active. Conversion, apparently sudden and certainly unexpected, Is a very real thing. It is useless to scoff at the idea. The experience may come to anyone, even to the agnostic Who has made up his mind that his views are settled once and for all. But it has next to be admitted that the experience is not con fined to any one religion. Christians will claim of course that the Christian convert experiences a change different from that of all other converts. But it may be doubted whether there is any difference in the sense of relief and happiness felt by the convert to any religion at the time of conversion. Compare William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience.