"Billy" Sunday, the Man and His Message: With his own words which have won thousands for ChristEllis, William T. (William Thomas)
Religion
"Billy" Sunday, the Man and His Message: With his own words which have won thousands for Christ
Ellis, William T. (William Thomas)
Baseball players -- United States -- Biography; Evangelists -- United States -- Biography; Sunday, Billy, 1862-1935
His friend told him not to go up there amid all the excitement, but to
wait and settle it at home. He said he had waited thirty-five years and
hadn't settled it at home, but the friend persisted against his going
forward and giving his heart to God. Finally the time passed and they
had to catch the train and the man hadn't gone forward. He told me that
he had never had a desire to give his heart to God until that time,
twenty-one years later, when he heard me preach. The Spirit called him
when he heard Moody, and then the Spirit did not call him again until
twenty-one years later, when he heard me.
I have never said and I never will say that all unbelievers died in
agony. Man ordinarily dies as he has lived. If you have lived in
unbelief, ninety-nine cases out of one hundred you'll die that way. If
Christianity is a good thing to die with it is a good thing to live
with.
Death-bed Confessions
I don't go much on these death-bed confessions. A death-bed confession
is like burning a candle at both ends and then blowing the smoke in the
face of Jesus. A death-bed confession is like drinking the cup of life
and then offering the dregs to Christ. I think it is one of the most
contemptible, miserable, low-down, unmanly and unwomanly things that
you can do, to keep your life in your own control until the last moment
and then try to creep into the kingdom on account of the long-suffering
and mercy of Jesus Christ. I don't say that none is genuine. But there
is only one on record in the Bible, and that was the first time the
dying thief had ever heard of Christ, and he accepted at once. So your
case is not analogous to this. You have wagon loads of sermons dumped
into you, but it's a mighty hard thing to accept in the last moment. If
you've lived without conviction, your friends ought not to get mad when
the preacher preaches your funeral sermon, if he doesn't put you in the
front row in heaven, with a harp in your hands and a crown on your head.
God can forgive sins but you have got to comply with his requirements.
He is not willing that any shall perish, but he has a right to tell me
and you what to do to be saved.
A doctor had been a practitioner for sixty years and he was asked
how many Godless men he had seen show any trace of concern on their
death-bed. He said he had kept track of three hundred and only three
had shown any real concern. That is appalling to me. You ordinarily die
as you have lived.
A minister was called to a house of shame to be with a dying girl in
her last moments. He prayed and then looked at her face and saw no
signs of hope of repentance. He was led to pray again and this time he
was led to put in a verse of scripture, Isaiah 1:18: "Come now and let
us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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