Christian life; Free Church of England -- Sermons; Sermons, English; Young men
I am not seeking to explain or defend what I am saying. I may try to
make it a little more clear before I close. For the moment I am
putting before you what I believe to be the truth of very truth. To
some I may be speaking in an unknown tongue, but not to all. If there
is one here who, with some years behind him, has ever been in serious
conference with himself, he knows that there is something radically
wrong with himself, which calls for something he is powerless to
supply. He knows that the springs of his being have been poisoned, and
he has no detergent to make them sweet. It is the fashion in our day
to speak of the old description of "hell-deserving sinner" as marred by
exaggeration, if not to say morbid. I do not fall into that fashion,
for it expresses just what I am--a hell-deserving sinner. When the
great Puritan, John Newton, saw a man taken out to be hanged, he said:
"But for the grace of God there goes John Newton." It is when the true
idea of sin is realized under the convincing power of the Holy Spirit,
that the "necessity of the sacrificial work of Christ will be felt,
understood, and become the one foundation of human hope."
Do you say that you have felt nothing of this convicting and convincing
power? Then I ask: Have you ever passed through an hour of serious
inquest with your own soul? Have you ever tried to know yourself even
as you are known? The debate cannot be all on one side. A man only
knows that he is ignorant through the need of a knowledge he has not
got. Before I can persuade you that Christ is your Saviour, you must
realize that it is a Saviour you need. Before you can start out for
Christ you must come to yourself. And while men make a mock of sin,
while they regard it as a matter of indifference, or profess to explain
it away under the terms of science and philosophy, we need not wonder
that they have so little faith in higher things. We need go no further
for an explanation of the thoughtless unbelief which is eating its way
like a festering sore to the heart of our modern world. If the lusts
of the flesh and the pride of life sum up the totality of our being
here, why should that crowd on the artist's canvas be represented as
moved by an anguish that touches no chord in its soul; which is,
indeed, foreign to its every thought, sympathy, and pursuit? So long
as men are indifferent about the very question, Why that anguish? vain
is the appeal, "To you is it nothing your Saviour should die?" So long
as men are utterly unconcerned about the fact, and nature, and effects
of moral evil, then selfishness will remain for men the only recognized
law of self-preservation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account