“In the Holy Scriptures the question of the text is asked and answered many times. Hardly any two answers are alike. Are there different conditions and different duties required of different men? By no means. But the Holy Spirit adapted the answer to the different spiritual states of the various inquirers. The answer is made to each questioner’s heart. A self-righteous young man came to Jesus asking, ‘Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit everlasting life?’ Jesus answered, ‘Keep the commandments: thou shalt do no murder; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness; honor thy father and thy mother; and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ The young man answered, ‘All these have I kept from my youth up; what lack I yet?’ Jesus said, ‘If thou wilt be perfect, go sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.’ The young man went away sorrowful. Jesus knew his self-righteousness, and gave him answers which opened that young man’s eyes to see himself. He gave him a test command, and the young man’s revulsion from that duty showed that, notwithstanding his self-confident claim to righteousness, his riches filled all his heart. If your hearts are filled with the love of the world, you must put your possessions out of your hearts and follow Jesus.
“Nicodemus also came making the same inquiry. He must have asked something like this, for Jesus answered such a question. ‘Ye must be born again; ye must be born of the Spirit,’ said Jesus. Nicodemus was looking for a legal salvation by outward formal services, but Christ gave him to understand that salvation involves a great spiritual renovation wrought by the Holy Spirit, by which men old in sin become new creatures and enter the kingdom of God as little children. He taught him thus that salvation was only from God. If any of you are looking for a cloak of self-righteous religious duties which you can put on, be assured that true religion springs from a work of God wrought in the heart. You must be born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. You must become new creatures in Christ Jesus.
“On the day of Pentecost the great company of men ‘out of every country under the whole heaven,’ while listening to Peter’s pungent address, cried out, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, for the remission of sins,’ answered Peter. Here were men who had a hand in crucifying Christ, or if they had no active share in that deed of darkness, they had consented to his death; they were partakers of the crime; very likely they had cried, ‘Crucify him, crucify him.’ They saw their sin, and were pricked in the heart. Well might they repent of their rejection and crucifixion of their promised Saviour, the Son of God, from heaven. Others were devout men who had come to Jerusalem to worship. Like Simeon they may have waited long for the consolation of Israel. How easy for them to enroll themselves among the followers of Christ! All alike are commanded after repentance to put on Christ by baptism. That burial with Christ was the symbol of their dying and living again—of their dying unto sin and living again unto God. The same duties are enjoined upon you. Repent of your long rejection of the grace of God and his Son Jesus Christ, and before God and men devote yourselves to his service by a public confession of Christ in baptism.
“The jailer of Philippi was taken in the midst of his sins. He was holding the servants of Christ in his dungeon. He knew for what offence they had been seized, and he made himself a partner in the crime of persecuting them by the zest with which he thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks. His conscience was ill at ease. Then came the earthquake’s shock, and he felt as if called to stand face to face with his Judge. His soul was pierced through and through with a sense of guilt. ‘What must I do to be saved?’ he cried in the bitterness of his conviction. ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,’ answered Paul. This is the answer to all of you who are well convicted of sin and have given up all self-righteous hopes. Christ saves you. Look to Christ, ask Christ; whosoever comes to him he will in no wise cast out. Will you not come to him? Will you not trust his promises and commit yourselves to his hands to be saved? He waits to bless you. He delights to be gracious. To save sinners he lived among men, and died and has ascended. His hands are full of gifts. He comes to you, and stands and knocks at the door of your hearts. Will you bolt the door? There is joy in heaven over repenting sinners. This alone of all earthly transactions carries joy to Christ and the angels. Accept of Christ, and earth and heaven will throb with a common joy.”
These words were listened to with most earnest attention, for at that time Christ and heaven were realities in the minds of men, and salvation was a living issue. Mr. Wilton spoke as an earnest man, without cant or circumlocution, pressing upon men of thought and conscience the great concerns of eternity. The full result of this discourse will be known only when the opening of the books at the last day shall reveal it, but the beginning of the result was seen in the evening prayer-meeting. When the invitation was given for anxious persons to make known their feelings, both Ansel and Peter arose, and confessing in few words that the Spirit of God had been striving with them, and that they had been resisting the Spirit, said that now they were determined to resist no more, and asked Christians to pray for them that they might be able to submit fully to the Lord Jesus and trust entirely in him. Then there was a pause. Mr. Wilton was just on the point of rising to close the meeting when Mr. Hume rose to his feet. After a sudden start of surprise, a deep hush passed over the congregation, and in the midst of deepest silence Mr. Hume said:
“I have been more than merely an impenitent man: I have been an unbeliever; I have been an infidel. I have not only tried to disbelieve the Holy Scripture, but I have actually disbelieved. I have thought myself wiser than the word of God. I do not mean that I have enjoyed peace, that my conscience has been at rest, and that I have been happy in my unbelief. Three months ago I began to grow more than usually discontented with myself. Questions which I counted settled and put to rest for ever came back to trouble me. A hundred times a day the questions came, What if there be a God who holds me responsible? What if there be a future life and a judgment day? What if Christ be the Son of God? Why such questions should haunt me day and night I could not tell. I have learned to believe that the Spirit of God was speaking to me. This restlessness brought me to the church for half a day. If my object was to gain rest in unbelief, I could not have done worse. My old arguments were unavailing to break the force of the truths preached. The questions which had been sounding in my ears and echoing in my heart began to change to solemn affirmations: ‘There is a God;’ ‘There is a day of judgment;’ ‘Appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment;’ ‘Christ is risen.’ Texts of Scripture learned in my boyhood and forgotten long years ago came back fresh to my memory. But I will not stop to rehearse to you all my struggles of mind for two months past. For a few weeks you have seen me here. I determined that I would try to find Christ if he manifests himself to men in these latter days. For two weeks I have tried to pray, but I have found no satisfaction. Christ has not manifested himself. My darkness has grown deeper and deeper. I have sometimes almost determined to abandon all thought of Christ and throw myself back again upon my former unbelief. But I could not lay down the subject.
“Since I began to try to pray I have felt, faintly at first, like the whisper of a suggestion, but becoming clearer and stronger, like a voice from heaven, that I must in this congregation confess my former state and the feelings which I have had. It seemed to me that I could not do this. It seemed easier to die than to stand up here and confess that my belief, which I had pressed upon others and had boasted of as better than the gospel, had given me no peace. To-day I have been made to understand that the Spirit of God has set me face to face with this confession. I have seen what it means to be saved—that my self-will must die or I must bid adieu to Christ and hope. I cannot live and die hopeless. I cannot rest my head upon unbelief. I confess to you that all my thoughts have been wrong. My beliefs and my unbelief have done me no good. My whole life has been enmity and opposition to the Holy Spirit. I will try to oppose the Spirit no more. I know not what the Spirit may lay upon me, I know not how soon I may break my resolution, but I now feel that I want to be saved from sin, and cannot do otherwise than follow the Spirit though I dwell in darkness for ever. If Christ reject me I cannot complain, but if you think there is hope for one who has so despised the grace of God, I entreat you to pray for me.”
It is needless to say that from scores of family altars and closets supplications went up to God that night for the salvation of Mr. Hume and Ansel and Peter, and men prayed especially that Mr. Hume, who for years had been such a tower of strength to the ungodly and the dread of Christians, might be saved for the glory of Christ and the confounding of unbelievers. Those prayers were heard. When the report of that meeting and that confession went out through the community, unbelievers were silent. It was as if the God of battles had emptied his quiver into the hearts of his enemies.
