Around the Wicket Gate: or, a friendly talk with seekers concerning faith in the Lord Jesus ChristSpurgeon, C. H. (Charles Haddon)
Religion
Around the Wicket Gate: or, a friendly talk with seekers concerning faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
Spurgeon, C. H. (Charles Haddon)
Christian life; Faith; Salvation
a simple child as literally to believe what the Lord says, and take
what he puts before me, resting quite content that he is not playing
with me, and that I cannot be wrong in accepting what he sets before
me in the gospel. Happy should we be if we would trust, and raise no
questions of any sort. But, alas! we will get thinking and doubting.
When the Lord uplifts his dear Son before a sinner, that sinner should
take him without hesitation. If you take him, you have him; and none
can take him from you. Out with your hand, man, and take him at once!
When enquirers accept the Bible as literally true, and see that
Jesus is really given to all who trust him, all the difficulty about
understanding the way of salvation vanishes like the morning's frost at
the rising of the sun.
Two enquiring ones came to me in my vestry. They had been hearing
the gospel from me for only a short season, but they had been deeply
impressed by it. They expressed their regret that they were about to
remove far away, but they added their gratitude that they had heard me
at all. I was cheered by their kind thanks, but felt anxious that a
more effectual work should be wrought in them, and therefore I asked
them, "Have you in very deed believed in the Lord Jesus Christ? Are
you saved?" One of them replied, "I have been trying hard to believe."
This statement I have often heard, but I will never let it go by me
unchallenged. "No," I said, "that will not do. Did you ever tell your
father that you tried to believe him?" After I had dwelt a while upon
the matter, they admitted that such language would have been an insult
to their father. I then set the gospel very plainly before them in as
simple language as I could, and I begged them to believe Jesus, who is
more worthy of faith than the best of fathers. One of them replied, "I
cannot realize it: I cannot realize that I am saved." Then I went on
to say, "God bears testimony to his Son, that whosoever trusts in his
Son is saved. Will you make him a liar now, or will you believe his
word?" While I thus spoke, one of them started as if astonished, and
she startled us all as she cried, "O sir, I see it all; I am saved!
Oh, do bless Jesus for me; he has shown me the way, and he has saved
me! I see it all." The esteemed sister who had brought these young
friends to me knelt down with them while, with all our hearts, we
blessed and magnified the Lord for a soul brought into light. One of
the two sisters, however, could not see the gospel as the other had
done, though I feel sure she will do so before long. Did it not seem
strange that, both hearing the same words, one should come out into
clear light, and the other should remain in the gloom? The change which
comes over the heart when the understanding grasps the gospel is often
reflected in the face, and shines there like the light of heaven. Such
newly-enlightened souls often exclaim, "Why, sir, it is so plain; how
is it I have not seen it before this? I understand all I have read in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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