Mr. R.—Well, I hope not. All I can say is that if we do, we shall smart for it. I have done many a thing since the Lord revealed Himself to my soul that I should not have done—I have gone backward and downward; but I have always found that it does not pay when I do anything that grieves my Heavenly Father. I think He sometimes allows us to taste the bitterness of what it is to depart from Him. And this is one of the many ways by which He keeps us from falling.
Mr. M.—What do you consider to be the great sin of sins?
Mr. R.—The Word of God tells us that there is only one sin of which God alone can convince us. If I cut a man’s throat or if I steal, it does not need God to convince me that that is a sin. But it takes the power of the Holy Ghost to convince me that not to receive Christ, not to love Christ, not to believe in Christ, is the sin of sins, the root of sins. Christ says, “When the Spirit is come, He will convince the world of sin, because they believe not on Me.”
Mr. M.—What do you mean by the Word of God?
Mr. R.—The Son of God is the Word of God incarnate: the Bible is the Word of God written. The one is the Word of God in my nature: the other is the Word of God in my language.
Mr. M.—If a man receives the word of God into his heart, what benefit is it to him, right here to-night?
Mr. R.—The Father and the Son will make their abode with him; and he will be the temple of the Holy Ghost. Where He goes the whole Trinity goes; and all the promises are his. “Man doth not live by bread alone; but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
Mr. M.—Who is it that judges a man to be unworthy of eternal life?
Mr. R.—Himself!! There is a verse in Acts xiii that is worth remembering: “Seeing ye put it [the Word of God] from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.” God does not judge us unworthy. He has given His Son for our salvation. When a man puts away the Word of God from him and refuses to receive Christ into his heart, he judges himself unworthy of salvation.
Mr. M.—I understand, then, that if a man rejects Christ to-night, he passes judgment on himself as unworthy of eternal life?