The Way to God and How to Find ItMoody, Dwight Lyman
Religion
The Way to God and How to Find It
Moody, Dwight Lyman
Evangelistic sermons; Sermons, American
Can a man at once repent? Certainly he can. It does not take a long
while to turn around. It does not take a man six months to change his
mind. There was a vessel that went down some time ago on the
Newfoundland coast. As she was bearing towards the shore, there was a
moment when the captain could have given orders to reverse the
engines and turn back. If the engines had been reversed then, the
ship would have been saved. But there was a moment when it was too
late. So there is a moment, I believe, in every man's life when he
can halt and say, "By the grace of God I will go no further towards
death and ruin. I repent of my sins and turn from them." You may say
you have not got feeling enough; but if you are convinced that you
are on the wrong road, turn right about, and say, "I will no longer
go on in the way of rebellion and sin as I have done."
Just then, when you are willing to turn towards God, salvation may be
yours.
I find that every case of conversion recorded in the Bible was
instantaneous. Repentance and faith came very suddenly. The moment a
man made up his mind, God gave him the power. God does not ask any
man to do what he has not the power to do. He would not command "all
men everywhere to repent" (Acts xvii. 30) if they were not able to do
so. Man has no one to blame but himself if he does not repent and
believe the Gospel. One of the leading ministers of the Gospel in
Ohio wrote me a letter some time ago describing his conversion; it
very forcibly illustrates this point of instantaneous decision. He
said:
"I was nineteen years old, and was reading law with a Christian
lawyer in Vermont. One afternoon when he was away from home, his good
wife said to me as I came into the house, 'I want you to go to
class-meeting with me to-night and become a Christian, so that you can
conduct family worship while my husband is away.' 'Well, I'll do it,'
I said, without any thought. When I came into the house again she
asked me if I was honest in what I had said. I replied, 'Yes, so far
as going to meeting with you is concerned; that is only courteous.'
"I went with her to the class-meeting, as I had often done before.
About a dozen persons were present in a little school-house. The
leader had spoken to all in the room but myself and two others. He
was speaking to the person next me, when the thought occurred to me:
he will ask me if I have anything to say. I said to myself: I have
decided to be a Christian sometime; why not begin now? In less time
than a minute after these thoughts had passed through my mind he
said, speaking to me familiarly--for he knew me very well--'Brother
Charles, have you anything to say?' I replied, with perfect coolness,
'Yes, sir. I have just decided, within the last thirty seconds, that
I will begin a Christian life, and would like to have you pray for
me.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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