Conversion
Look and Live. — We shall never forget the day, some of us, when we left off self-righteousness and believed in Christ to the salvation of our souls. The marvel was done in a minute, but the change was so great that we can never explain it, or cease to bless the Lord for it.
“Happy day! Happy day!
When Jesus washed my sins away.”
I recollect the morning when salvation came to me as I sat in a little Primitive Methodist chapel under the gallery, and the preacher said, “That young man looks unhappy;” and added, “Young man, you will never find peace except you look to Christ;” and he called out to me, “Look!” With a voice of thunder he shouted, “Young man, look! Look now!” I did look, I turned the eye of faith to Jesus at once. My burden disappeared, and my soul was merry as a bird let loose from her cage, even as it is now as often as I remember the blessed salvation of Jesus Christ.
Christ at the Door. — I saw a young woman from America in the vestry some little time ago who came in great concern of soul to know the way of salvation, and I said to her, “Do you not see it? If you trust Christ, you are saved.” I quoted the Scriptures which teach this great truth and made them plain to her, until the Holy Spirit opened her eyes; light came on her face in a moment, and she said, “I do see it. I trust Christ with all my heart: and I am to believe that I am saved because I trust Jesus, and he has promised to save believers’?” “Yes,” I replied, “You are getting on the rock now.” “I feel,” she said, “a deep peace beginning in my soul, but I cannot understand how it can be, for my grandfather belonged to the old school Presbyterians, and he told me he was six years before he could get peace, and had to be put into a lunatic asylum, for he was so miserable.” Ah, yes, I have no doubt such cases have happened. Some will go seventeen thousand miles round about merely to go across a street, but there is no need for it. There it is — “The word is nigh thee, on thy lips and in thy heart. If with thy heart thou wilt believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and with my mouth make confession of him, thou shalt be saved.”
Man’s Convert, Not Christ’s. — You have heard Mr. HilTs story of meeting a man in the street one night, who hiccuped up to him and said, “How do you do, Mr. Hill? I am one of your converts.” “Yes,” said Rowland, “I should say you are, but you are none of God’s, or else you would not be drunk.” Converts of that sort are far too numerous.
A Stranger Finding Christ. — - Some three years ago I was talking with an aged minister, and he began fumbling about hi his waistcoat pocket, but he was a long while before he found what he wanted, At last he brought out a letter that was well nigh worn to pieces, and he said, “God Almighty bless you! God Almighty bless you!” And I said, “Friend, what is it?” He said, “I had a son. I thought he would be the stay of my old age, but he disgraced himself, and he went away from me, and I could not tell where he went, only he said he was going to America. He took a ticket to sail for America from the London Docks, but he did not go on the particular day that he expected.” This aged minister bade me read the letter, and I read it, and it was like this: — “Father, I am here in America. I have found a situation, and God has prospered me. I write to ask your forgiveness for the thousand wrongs that I have done you, and the grief I have caused you, for, blessed be God, I have found the Savior. I have joined the church of God here, and hope to spend my life in God’s service. It happens thus: I did not sail for America the day I expected. I went down to the Tabernacle to see what it was like, and God met with me. Mr. Spurgeon said, ‘Perhaps there is a runaway son here. The Lord call him by his grace.’ And he did.” “Now,” said he, as he folded up the letter and put it in his pocket, “that son of mine is dead, and he is in heaven, and I love you, and I shall do so as long as I live, be cause you were the means of bringing him to Christ $” Joy in Heaven Over a Child’s Conversion. — A poor neglected little boy in ragged clothing had run about the streets for many a day. Tutored in crime, he was paving his path to the gallows; but one morning he passed by a humble room, where some men and women were sitting together teaching poor ragged children. He stepped in there, a wild Bedouin of the streets; they talked to him; they told him about a soul and about in eternity — things he had never heard before; they sppke of Jesus, and of good tidings of great ioy to this poor friendless lad. He went another Sabbath, and another; his wild habits hanging about him, for he could not get rid of them. At last it happened that his teacher said to him, one day, “Jesus Christ receiveth sinners” That little boy ran, but not home, for it was but a mockery to call it so — where a drunken father and a lascivious mother kept a hellish riot together. He ran, and under some dry arch, or in some wild unfrequented corner, he bent his little knees, and there he cried, that poor creature in his rags, “Lord, save me, or I perish;” and the little Arab was on his knees — the little thief was saved! He said —
“Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly;”
And up from that old arch, from that forsaken hovel, there flew a spirit, glad to bear the news to heaven, that another heir of glory was born to God.
A Strange Conversion. — I knew a preacher of the Gospel who was converted in a theatre. He was listening to a play, an old-fashioned piece, that ended with a sailor’s drinking a glass of gin before he was hung, and he said, “Here’s to the prosperity of the British nation, and the salvation of my immortal soul; “and down went the curtain; and down went my friend too, for he ran home with all his might. Those words,” The salvation of my immortal soul, had struck him to the quick; and he sought the Lord Jesus in his chamber. Many a day he sought him, and at last he found him, to his joy and confidence.
Conversion Necessary. — Furthermore, it is quite certain that human nature cannot be made better, for many have tried it, but they have always failed. A man, trying to improve human nature, is like trying to change the position of a weathercock, by turning it round to the east when the wind is blowing west; he has but to take his hand off and it will be back again to its place. So have I seen a man trying to restrain nature — he is an angry, bad-tempered man, and he is trying to cure himself a bit and he does, but it comes out, and if it does not burn right out, and the sparks do not fly abroad, yet it burns within his bones till they grow white with the heat of malice and there remains within his heart a residuum of the ashes of revenge.
Transformation Through Conversion.- — I know a village, once, perhaps, the most profane in England — a village inundated by drunkenness and debauchery of the worst kind, where it was impossible almost for an honest traveler to stop in the public house without being annoyed by blasphemy; a place noted for incendiaries and robbers. One man, the ringleader of all listened to the voice of God. That man’s heart was broken. The whole gang came to hear the gospel preached, and they sat and seemed to reverence the preacher as if he were a God and not a man. These men became changed and reformed; and every one who knows the place affirms that such a change had never been wrought but by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Diamonds Out of Pebble Stones. — There was a poor man about sixty years old; he had been a rough sailor, one of the worst men in the village; it was his custom to drink, and he seemed to be delighted when he was cursing and swearing. He came into the chapel, however, one Sabbath day, when one nearly related to me was preaching the text concerning Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. And the poor man thought, “What! did Jesus Chrsit ever weep over such a wretch as I am?” He thought he was too bad for Christ to care for him. At last he came to the minister, and said, “Sir, sixty years have I been sailing under the standard of the devil; it is time I should have a new owner; I want to scuttle the old ship and sink her altogether! then I shall have a new one, and I shall sail under the colors of Prince Immanuel.” Ever since that moment that man has been a praying character, walking before God in all sincerity.
Yet, he was the very last man you would have thought of. Somehow God does choose the last men; he does not care for the diamond, but he picks up the pebble stones, for he is able, out of “stones, to raise up children unto Abraham.” God is more wise than the chemist: he not only refines gold, but he transmutes base metal into precious jewels; he takes the filthiest and the vilest, and fashions them into glorious beings, makes them saints, whereas they have been sinners, and sanctifies them, whereas they have been unholy.
Changed by Conversion. — You have read of James Haldane. Once, when unconverted, he threw a ship’s tumbler at the head of a person who insulted him; but when regenerated on another occasion of insult, he simply said, “I would resent it, but I have learned to forgive injuries and overlook insults.” Men were obliged to say of him, “There is something in religion which can bring such a lion as that down, and make him such a lamb.” Thus you will confirm the witness of Christ, if you bear up against persecution.
An Infidel’s Conversion. — I received a long letter from a certain city, from one who has been one of the leaders of the secular society in that place. The writer says,” I purchased one of the pamphlets entitled ‘Who is this Spurgeon?’ and also your portrait (or a portrait sold as yours) for 3d. I brought these home, and exhibited them in my shop window. I was induced to do so from a feeling of derisive pleasure. The title of the pamphlet is, naturally, suggestive of caricature, and it was especially to incite that impression that I attached it to your portrait and placed it in my window. But I also had another object in view. I thought by its attraction to improve my trade. I am not at all in the book or paper business, which rendered its exposure and my motive the more conspicuous. I have taken it down now: I am taken down, too. ... I had bought one of your sermons of an old infidel a day or two previous. In that sermon I read these words: — ( They go on; that step is safe — they take it; the next is safe — they take it; their foot hangs over a gulf of darkness, I read on, but the word darkness staggered me. It was all dark with me. ‘True, the way has been safe so far, but I am lost in bewilderment. No, no, no, I will not risk it.’ I left the apartment in which I had been musing, and as I did so, the three words, ‘Who can tell?7 seemed to be whispered at my heart. I determined not to let another Sunday pass without visiting a place of wor ship. How soon my soul might be required of me I knew not, but felt that it would be mean, base, cowardly, not to give it a chance. Ay, my associates may laugh, scoff, deride, call me coward, turncoat, I will do an act of justice to my soul. I went to the chapel; I was just stupefied with awe. What could I want there? The doorkeeper opened his eyes wider, and involuntarily demanded, ‘It’s Mr.- - isn’t it?’ ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘it is.’ He conducted me to a seat, and afterward brought me a hymn-book. I was fit to burst with anguish. ‘Now,’ I thought, ‘I am here, if it be the house of God, heaven grant me an audience, and I will make full surrender. 0 God, show me some token by which I may know that thou art, and that thou wilt in no wise cast out the vile deserter who has ventured to seek thy face and thy pardoning mercy.’ I opened the hymn-book to divert my mind from feelings that were rending me, and the first words that caught my eyes were,
“‘Dark, dark indeed the grave would be,
Had we no light, O God, from thee.’”
After giving some things which he looks upon as evidences that he is a true convert of religion, he closes up
by saying,” 0 sir, tell this to the poor wretch whose pride, like mine, has made him league with hell; tell it to the hesitating and to the timid; tell it to the cooling Christian, that God is a very present help to all that are in need.
A Notable Conversion. — The chaplain of a jail, a dear friend of mine, once told me a surprising case of conversion in which a knowledge of the covenant of grace was the chief instrument of the Holy Spirit. My friend had under his charge a man most cunning and brutal. Hs was singularly repulsive, even in comparison with other convicts. He had been renowned for his daring, and for the utter absence of all feeling when committing acts of violence. I think he had been called “the king of the garotters.” The chaplain had spoken to him several times, but had not succeeded even in getting an answer. The man was sullenly set against all instruction. At last he expressed a desire for a certain book, but as it was not in the library the chaplain pointed to the Bible, which was placed in his cell, and said, “Did you ever read that Book?” He gave no answer, but looked at the good man as if he would kill him. The question was kindly repeated, with the assurance that he would find it well worth reading. “Sir,” said the convict, “you would not ask me such a question if you knew who I was. What have I to do with a Book of that sort?” He was told that his character was well known to the chaplain, and that for this very reason he recommended the Bible as a Book which would suit his case. “It would do me no good,” he cried, “I am past all feeling.” Doubling up his first he struck the iron door of the cell, and said, “My heart is as hard as that iron; there is nothing in any book that will ever touch me.” “Well,” said the chaplain, “you want a new heart. Did you ever read the covenant of grace?” To go SPURGEON’S ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES
which the man answered sullenly by inquiring what he meant by such talk. His friend replied, “Listen to these words — ‘A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you,” The words struck the man with amazement, as well they might; he asked to have the passage found for him in the Bible. He read the words again and again; and when the chaplain came back to him next day, the wild beast was tamed. “Oh, sir,” he said, “I never dreamed of such a promise! I never believed it possible that God would speak in such a way as that to men. If he gives me a new heart it will be a miracle of mercy; and yet I think,” he said, “he is going to work that miracle upon me, for the very hope of a new nature is beginning to touch me as I never was touched before.” That man became gentle in manner, obedient to authority, and childlike in spirit.
A New Creature. — Is it not said of Augustine that after his conversion he was met by a fallen woman who had known him in his sin, and he passed her by? She said, “Austin, it is I;” and he turned and said, “But I am not Austin. I am not the man you once knew, for I have become a new creature in Christ Jesus.” That is what the Lord Jesus Christ can do for you. Do you not believe it? It is true, whether you believe it or not. Oh that you would look to Jesus and begin to live! It is time a change was made; is it not? Who can change you but the Lord Jesus?
The Brand Plucked Out of the Fire. — There was one who went to hear, I believe, Mr. Toplady preach, the very day when he was aged a hundred. He had been a constant neglecter of the house of God, but when he arrived at the age of a hundred, attracted by the fame of Mr. Toplady, who was an exceedingly popular, as he certainly was a highly evangelical, preacher, and happened to be preaching in the town where the man lived, he said he would go on that day to hear him, that he might recollect his birthday. He went, and that day God in his grace met with him. I remember, too, the instance of a man who was converted by a sermon which he heard Mr. Flavel preach, and which was blessed to him eighty-three years after he had heard it, when he was at the age of ninety-eight. The word came with power to his soul after all that interval of time. Just as he was on the borders of the tomb, he was made to enter into eternal life. May the God of infinite mercy give such a blessing to aged ones here, and they will be brands plucked out of the fire.
Better Than He Expected. — It does not matter why the people come to hear the gospel; God can bless them in any case. If Christ is preached, men will be saved, even if they come to disturb. “Sir,” said one to me, “I had been to bargain about a pair of ducks on Sunday morning, and I passed by the door, and I thought I would just look in. There and then the Lord met with me, and those ducks were forgotten, for I found a Savior.”
Came to Scoff but Remained to Pray. — I read in the Life of John Wesley a story of Methodists meeting in a barn, and how certain of the villagers, who were afraid to break through the door, resolved to place one inside who would open the door to them during the service, that they might disturb the congregation. This person went in before service began, and concealed himself in a sack in a corner of the barn. When the Methodists began to sing, he liked the tune so well that he would not get out of the sack till he had heard it through. Then followed a prayer, and during that prayer God worked on the man in the sack, so that he began to cry for mercy. The good people looked around, and were astonished to find a sinner in a sack seeking his Savior. The door was not opened to the mob after all; for he who intended to do so was converted.
Joy of Conversion. — I remember hearing Dr. Alexander Fletcher, when speaking to children, tell them a simple anecdote in order to illustrate the joy of a man when he gets delivered from sin. He said, “I saw upon the pavement three or four little chimney-sweeps jumping about and throwing up their heels in great delight. And I asked them, ‘My boys, what are you making all this demonstration for?” Ah! ’ said they, ’ if you had been locked up for three months, you would do the same when you once got out of prison,” I thought it a good illustration. We can not wonder that people are joyous arid glad when, after being long shut up in the prison of the law, all sad and miserable, they have felt their bonds broken, seen the door of the jail opened, and obtained a legal discharge. What heed they about trials and troubles, or anything else? They could leap over the mountains: “By our God we leap over a wall,” may they say. “A troop may overcome, but we shall over come at last.” The heart seems scarcely big enough to hold the joy, and it bursts out, hardly knowing what to do or say. Thus it is at that wondrous hour which comes but once in a Christian’s life, when he first feels himself delivered.