The reader may be a young man or a young lady who has recently stood by the bedside of a dying mother; and she may have said, “Be sure and meet me in heaven,” and you made the promise. Ah! you shall never see her more, except you are born again. I believe Jesus of Nazareth, sooner than those infidels who say you do not need to be born again. Parents, if you hope to see your children who have gone before, you must be born of the Spirit. Possibly you are a father or a mother who has recently borne a loved one to the grave; and how dark your home seems! Never more will you see your child, unless you are born again. If you wish to be re-united to your loved one, you must be born again. I may be addressing a father or a mother who has a loved one up yonder. If you could hear that loved one’s voice, it would say, “Come this way.” Have you a sainted friend up yonder? Young man or young lady, have you not a mother in the world of light? If you could hear her speak, would not she say, “Come this way, my son,”—“Come this way, my daughter?” If you would ever see her more you must be born again.
We all have an Elder Brother there. Nearly nineteen hundred years ago He crossed over, and from the heavenly shores He is calling you to heaven. Let us turn our backs upon the world. Let us give a deaf ear to the world. Let us look to Jesus on the Cross and be saved. Then we shall one day see the King in His beauty, and we shall go no more out.
[CHAPTER III.]
THE TWO CLASSES.
“Two men went up into the temple to pray.”—Luke xvii. 10.
I now want to speak of two classes: First, those who do not feel their need of a Saviour who have not been convinced of sin by the Spirit; and Second, those who are convinced of sin and cry, “What must I do to be saved?”
All inquirers can be ranged under two heads: they have either the spirit of the Pharisee, or the spirit of the publican. If a man having the spirit of the Pharisee comes into an after-meeting, I know of no better portion of Scripture to meet his case than Romans iii. 10: “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth; there is none that seeketh after God.” Paul is here speaking of the natural man. “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” And in the 17th verse and those which follow, we have “And the way of peace have they not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”
Then observe the last clause of verse 22: “For there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Not part of the human family—but all—“have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Another verse which has been very much used to convict men of their sin is 1 John i. 8: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
I remember that on one occasion we were holding meetings in an eastern city of forty thousand inhabitants; and a lady came and asked us to pray for her husband, whom she purposed bringing into the after meeting. I have traveled a good deal and met many pharisaical men; but this man was so clad in self-righteousness that you could not get the point of the needle of conviction in anywhere. I said to his wife: “I am glad to see your faith; but we cannot get near him; he is the most self-righteous man I ever saw.” She said: “You must! My heart will break if these meetings end without his conversion.” She persisted in bringing him; and I got almost tired of the sight of him.
But towards the close of our meetings of thirty days, he came up to me and put his trembling hand on my shoulder. The place in which the meetings were held was rather cold, and there was an adjoining room in which only the gas had been lighted; and he said to me, “Can’t you come in here for a few minutes?” I thought that he was shaking from cold, and I did not particularly wish to go where it was colder. But he said: “I am the worst man in the State of Vermont. I want you to pray for me.” I thought he had committed a murder, or some other awful crime; and I asked: “Is there any one sin that particularly troubles you?” And he said: “My whole life has been a sin. I have been a conceited, self-righteous Pharisee. I want you to pray for me.” He was under deep conviction. Man could not have produced this result; but the Spirit had. About two o’clock in the morning light broke in upon his soul: and he went up and down the business street of the city and told what God had done for him; and has been a most active Christian ever since.