Lecture XVII. False Comforts for Sinners (2)

I have often met with cases of this kind. A mother will tell her son, who is anxious, what an obedient child he has 322always been, how good and how kind, and she begs him not to take on so. So a husband will tell his wife, or a wife her husband, how good they are, and ask, “What have you done?” When they see them in great distress, they begin to comfort them, “Why you are not so bad. You have been to hear that frightful minister, that frightens people, and you have got excited. Be comforted, for I am sure you have not been bad enough to feel so much distressed.” When the truth is, they have been a great deal worse than they think they have. No sinner ever had an idea that his sins were greater than they are. No sinner ever had an adequate idea of how great a sinner he is. It is not probable that any man could live under the full sight of his sins. God has, in mercy, spared all his creatures on earth that worst of sights, a naked human heart. The sinner’s guilt is much more deep and damning than he thinks, and his danger is much greater than he thinks it is, and if he should see them as they are, probably he would not live a moment. A sinner may have some false notions on the subject, that creates distress, which have no foundation. He may think he has committed the unpardonable sin, or that he has grieved away the Spirit, or sinned away his day of grace. But to tell the most moral and naturally amiable person in the world that he is good enough, or that he is not so bad as he thinks he is, is not giving him rational comfort, but is deceiving him, and ruining his soul. Let those who do it, take care.

2. Others tell awakened sinners that “Conversion is a progressive work,” and in this way ease their anxiety. When a man is distressed, because he sees himself to be such a sinner, and that unless he turns to God, he will be damned; it is a great relief to have some friend hold out the idea that he can get better by degrees, and that he is now coming on, by little and little, They tell him, “Why you cannot expect to get along all at once; I do not believe in these sudden conversions, you must wait and let it work, you have begun well, and by and by you will get comfort.” All this is false as the bottomless pit. The truth is, Regeneration, or conversion, is not a progressive work. What is regeneration? What is it but the beginning of obedience to God? And is the beginning of a thing progressive? It is the first act of genuine obedience to God—the first voluntary action of the mind that is what God approves, or that can be regarded as obedience to God. That is conversion. When persons talk about conversion as a progressive work, it is absurd. They show that they know just as much about regeneration or conversion, as 323Nicodemus did. They know nothing about it, as they ought to know, and are no more fit to conduct an anxious meeting, or to advise or instruct anxious sinners, than Nicodemus was.

3. Another way in which anxious sinners are deceived with false comfort, is by being advised to dismiss the subject for the present.

Men who are supposed to be wise and good, have assumed to be so much wiser than God, that when God is dealing with a sinner, by his Spirit, and endeavoring to bring him to an immediate decision; they think God is crowding too hard, and that it is necessary for them to interfere; and they will advise the person to take a ride, or go into company, or engage in business, or something that will relieve his mind a little, at least for the present. They might just as well say to God, in plain words, “O God, you are too hard, you go too fast, you will make him crazy, or kill him, he cannot stand it; poor creature, if he is so pressed, he will die.” Just so they takes sides against God, and do the same as to tell the sinner himself, “God will make you crazy if you do not dismiss the subject, and resist the Spirit, and drive him away from your mind.”

Such advice, if it be truly conviction of sin that distresses the sinner, is in no case, either safe or lawful. The strivings of the Spirit, to bring a sinner to himself, will never hurt him, nor drive him crazy. He may make himself deranged by resisting, but it is blasphemous, to think, that the blessed, wise and benevolent Spirit of God, would ever conduct with so little care, as to derange and destroy the soul he came to sanctify and save. The proper course to take with a sinner, when the striving of the Spirit throws him into distress, is, to instruct him, to clear up his views, correct his mistakes, and make the way of salvation so plain that he can see it right before him. Not to dismiss the subject, but fall in with the Spirit, and thus hush all those dreadful agonies which are produced by resisting the Holy Ghost. REMEMBER, if an awakened sinner voluntarily dismiss the subject once, probably he will never take it up again.

4. Sometimes an awakened sinner is comforted by being told that religion does not consist in feeling bad. I once heard of a Doctor of Divinity, giving an anxious sinner such counsel, when he was actually writhing under the arrows of the Almighty. Said he, “Religion is cheerful, religion is not gloomy, do not be distressed, be comforted, dismiss your fears, you should not feel so bad,” and such like miserable comforts, when, in fact, the man had infinite reason to be distressed, 324for he was resisting the Holy Ghost, and in danger of grieving him away for ever.

It is true, religion does not consist in feeling bad. But the sinner has reason to be distressed, because he has no religion. If he had religion, he would not feel so. Were he a Christian, he would rejoice. But to tell an impenitent sinner to be cheerful! why, you might as well preach this doctrine in hell, and tell them there, “Cheer up here, cheer up, do not feel so bad.”

The sinner is on the very verge of hell, he is in rebellion against God, and his danger is infinitely greater than he imagines. Oh, what a doctrine of devils! to tell a rebel against heaven not to be distressed. What is all his distress but rebellion itself? He is not comforted, because he refuses to be comforted. God is ready to comfort him. You need not think to be more compassionate than God. He will fill him with comfort, in an instant, if he will submit. But there he stands, struggling against God, and against the Holy Ghost, and against conscience, until he is distressed almost to death, and still he will not yield; and now some one comes in, “Oh, I hate to see you feel so bad, do not be so distressed, cheer up, cheer up, religion do not consist in being gloomy, be comforted.” Horrid!

5. Whatever involves the subject of religion in mystery, is calculated to give a sinner false comfort.

When a sinner is anxious on the subject of religion, very often, if you becloud it in mystery, he will feel relieved. The sinner’s distress arises from the pressure of present obligation. Enlighten him on this point, and clear it up, and if he will not yield, it will only increase his distress. But tell him that regeneration is all a mystery, something he cannot understand; and leave him all in a fog of darkness, and you relieve his anxiety. It is his clear view of the nature and duty of repentance, that produces his distress. It is the light that brings agony to his mind, while he refuses to obey. It is that, which will make up the pains of hell. And it will almost make hell in the sinner’s breast here, if only made clear enough. But only cover up this light, and his anxiety will immediately become far less acute and thrilling. But if you lift up a certain and clear light, and flash it broad upon his soul, and if he will not yield, you kindle up to the tortures of hell in his bosom.

6. Whatever relieves the sinner from a sense of blame, is calculated to give him false comfort.

The more a man feels himself to blame, the deeper is his 325distress. But anything that lessons his sense of blame, of course lessons his distress, but it is a comfort full of death. If anything will help him divide the blame, and throw off a part of it upon God, it will afford comfort, but it is a relief that will destroy his soul.

7. To tell him of his inability, is false comfort. Tell an anxious sinner “What can you do? you are a poor, feeble creature, you can do nothing.” You will make him feel a kind of despondency. But it is not that keen agony of remorse, with which God wrings the soul, when he is laboring to cut him down and bring him to repentance.

If you tell him he is unable to comply with the Gospel, he naturally falls in with it as a relief. He says to himself, “Yes, I am unable, I am a poor, feeble creature, I cannot do this, and certainly God cannot send me to hell for not doing what I cannot do.” Why, if I believed that the sinner was unable, I would tell him plainly, “Do not be afraid, you are not to blame for not complying with the call of the Gospel: for you are unable, and God will never send you to hell for not doing what you have no strength to do. “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” I know it is not common for those who talk about the sinner’s being unable, to be so consistent, and carry out their theory. But the sinner infers all this, and so he feels relieved. It is all false, and all the comfort derived from it, is only treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.

8. Whatever makes the impression on a sinner’s mind that he is to be passive in religion, is calculated to give him false comfort.

Give him the idea he has nothing to do but to wait God’s time; tell him conversion is the work of God, and he ought to leave it to him; and that he must be careful, not to try to take the work out of God’s hand; and he will infer, as before, that he is not to blame, and will feel relieved. If he is only to hold still, and let God do the work, just as a man holds still to have his arm amputated, he feels relieved. But such instruction as this, is all wrong. If the sinner is thus to hold still and let God do it, he instantly infers that he is not to blame for not doing it himself. And the inference is not only natural but legitimate, for he is not to blame,

It is true that there is a sense in which conversion is the work of God. But it is false, as it is often represented. It is also true that there is a sense, in which conversion is the sinner’s own act. It is ridiculous, therefore, to say, that a sinner is passive in regeneration, or passive in being converted, 326for conversion is his own act. The thing to be done is that which cannot be done for him. It is something which he must do, or it will never be done.

9. Telling a sinner to wait God’s time.

Some years ago, I met a woman in Philadelphia, who was anxious about her soul, and had been a long time in that state. I conversed with her, and endeavored to learn her state. She told me a good many things, and finally said she knew she ought to be willing to wait on God as long as he had waited upon her. She said, God had waited on her a great many years, before she would give any attention to his calls, and now she believed it was her duty to wait God’s time to show mercy and convert her soul. And she said, this was the instruction she had received. She must be patient, and wait God’s time, and by and by he would give her relief. Oh, amazing folly!

Here is the sinner in rebellion. God comes with pardon in one hand, and a sword in the other, and tells the sinner to repent and receive pardon, or refuse and perish. And now here comes a minister of the Gospel, and tells the sinner to “wait God’s time.” Virtually he says, that God is not ready to have him repent now, and is not ready to pardon him now, and thus, in fact, throws off the blame of his impenitence upon God. Instead of pointing out the sinner’s guilt, in not submitting at once to God, he points out God’s insincerity in making the offer, when, in fact, he was not ready to grant the blessing.