Christ said, He “came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Are you a sinner? Then the call to repent is addressed to you. Take your place in the dust at the Saviour’s feet, and acknowledge your guilt. Say, like the publican of old, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” and see how quickly He will pardon and bless you. He will even justify you and reckon you as righteous, by virtue of the righteousness of Him who bore your sins in His own body on the Cross.
There are some perhaps who think themselves righteous; and that, therefore, there is no need for them to repent and believe the Gospel. They are like the Pharisee in the parable, who thanked God that he was not as other men—“extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican;” and who went on to say, “I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all I possess.” What is the judgment about such self-righteous persons? “I tell you this man [the poor, contrite, repenting publican] went down to his house justified rather than the other” (Luke xviii. 11-14). “There is none righteous; no, not one.” “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. iii. 10, 23). Let no one say he does not need to repent. Let each one take his true place—that of a sinner; then God will lift him up to the place of forgiveness and justification. “Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased: and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke xiv. 11).
Wherever God sees true repentance in the heart He meets that soul.
I was in Colorado, preaching the gospel some time ago, and I heard something that touched my heart very much. The governor of the State was passing through the prison, and in one cell he found a boy who had his window full of flowers, that seemed to have been watched with very tender care. The governor looked at the prisoner, and then at the flowers, and asked whose they were, “These are my flowers,” said the poor convict. “Are you fond of flowers?” “Yes, sir.” “How long have you been here?” He told him so many years: he was in for a long sentence. The governor was surprised to find him so fond of the flowers, and he said, “Can you tell me why you like these flowers so much?” With much emotion he replied, “While my mother was alive she thought a good deal of flowers; and when I came here I thought if I had these they would remind me of mother.” The governor was so pleased that he said, “Well, young man, if you think so much of your mother I think you will appreciate your liberty,” and he pardoned him then and there.
When God finds that beautiful flower of true repentance springing up in a man’s heart, then salvation comes to that man.
[CHAPTER VII.]
ASSURANCE OF SALVATION.
“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may knew that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
(1 John v. 13. )
There are two classes who ought not to have Assurance. First: those who are in the Church, but who are not converted, having never been born of the Spirit. Second: those not willing to do God’s will; who are not ready to take the place that God has mapped out for them, but want to fill some other place.