Lecture XVIII. Directions to Sinners (3)

What would a merchant think, if his hired clerk should take all the capital and set up a store of his own, and die with it in his hands? Will such a man go to heaven? “No,” you say, every one of you, “If such a man does not go to hell, there might just as well be no hell.” God would prove himself infinitely unjust, to let such a character go unpunished. What, then, shall we say of the man who has robbed God all his life? Here God set him to be his clerk, to manage some of his affairs, and he has gone and stolen all the money, and says it is his, and he keeps it, and dies, and gives it to his children, as if it was all his own lawful property. Is that man going to heaven? Has that man forsaken sin? I tell you, no. If he has not surrendered himself and all to God, he has not taken the first step in the way to heaven.

6. Another proper direction to be given to sinners is, “Choose ye this day, whom ye will serve.” Under the Old Testament dispensation, this or something equivalent to it, was the most common direction given. It was not common to call on men to believe in Christ until the days of John the Baptist. He baptized those who came to him, with the baptism of repentance, and directed them to believe on him who should come after him. Under Joshua, the text was something which the people all understood more easily than they would a call to believe on the distant Messiah; it was “Choose ye, this day, whom ye will serve.” On another occasion, Moses said to them, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” The direction was accommodated to the people’s knowledge. And it is good now, as it was then. Sinners are called upon to choose—what? Whether they will serve God or the world—whether they will follow holiness or sin. Let them be made to understand what is meant 355by choosing, and what is to be chosen, and then if the thing is done from the heart, they will be saved.

Any of these directions, if complied with, will constitute true conversion. The particular exercises may vary in different cases. Sometimes the first exercise in conversion, is submission to God, sometimes repentance, sometimes faith, sometimes the choice of God and his service, in short, whatever their thoughts are taken up with at the time. If their thoughts are directed to Christ at the moment, the first exercise will be faith. If to sin, the first exercise will be repentance. If to their future course of life, it is choosing the service of God. If to the Divine government, it is submission. It is important to find out just where the Holy Spirit is pressing the sinner at the time, and then take care to push that point. If it is in regard to Christ, press that; if it is in regard to his future course of life, push him right up to an immediate choice of obedience to God.

It is a great error to suppose that any one particular exercise is always foremost in conversion, or, that every sinner must have faith first, or submission first. It is not true, either in philosophy or in fact. There is a great variety in people’s exercises. Whatever point is taken hold of, between God and the sinner, when the sinner YIELDS that, he is converted. Whatever the particular exercise may be, if it includes obedience of heart to God on any point, it is true conversion. When he yields one point to God’s authority, he is ready to yield all. When he changes his mind, and obeys in one thing, because it is God’s will, he will obey in other things, so far as he sees it to be God’s will. Where there is this right choice, then, whenever the mind is directed to any one point of duty, he is ready to follow. It matters very little which of these directions is given, if it is only made plain, and if it is to the point, so as to serve as a test of obedience to God. If it is to the point that the Spirit of God is debating with the sinner’s mind, so as to fall in with the Spirit’s work, and not to divert the sinner’s attention from the very point in controversy, let it be made perfectly clear, and then pressed till the sinner yields, and he will be saved.

III. I am to mention several errors which anxious sinners are apt to fall into, respecting this great inquiry.

1. The first error is, in supposing that they must make themselves better, or prepare themselves, so as in some way to recommend themselves to the mercy of God. It is marvelous, that sinners will not understand, that all they have to do is to accept salvation from God, all prepared to their 356hands. But they all, learned or unlearned, at first, betake themselves to a legal course to get relief. This is one principal reason why they will not become Christians at once, just as soon as they begin to attend to the subject. They imagine that they must be, in some way or other, prepared to come. They must change their dress, and make themselves look a little better; they are not willing to come just as they are, in their rags and poverty. They must have something more on, before they can approach to God. They should be shown, at once, that it is impossible they should be any better, until they do what God requires. Every pulse that beats, every breath they draw, they are growing worse, because they are standing out in rebellion against God, so long as they do not do the very thing which God requires of them as the first thing to be done.

2. Another error is, in supposing that they must suffer a considerable time under conviction, as a kind of punishment, before they are ready properly to come to Christ. And so they will pray for conviction. And they think, that if they are ground down to the earth, with distress, for a sufficient time, then God will pity them, and be more ready to help them, when he sees them so very miserable. They should be made to understand clearly, that they are thus unhappy and miserable, merely because they refuse to accept the relief which God offers. Take the case of the stubborn child, when his parent stands over him with the rod, and the child shudders and screams. Should that child imagine he is gaining anything by his agony? His distress arises from his conviction, and shall he pray for more conviction? Does that make him any better? Does his father pity him any more, because he stands out? Who does not see that he is all the while growing worse?

3. Sometimes sinners imagine that they must wait for different feelings, before they submit to God. They say, “I do not think I feel right yet, to accept of Christ; I do not think I am prepared to be converted yet.” They ought to be made to see what God requires of them is to will right. If they obey and submit with the will the feelings will adjust themselves in due time. It is not a question of feeling, but of willing and acting.

The feelings are involuntary, and have no moral character except what they derive from the action of the will, with which action they sympathize. Before the will is right, the feelings will not be, of course. The sinner should come to Christ by accepting him at once; and this he must do, not 357in obedience to his feelings, but in obedience to his conscience. Obey, submit, trust. Give up all instantly, and your feelings will come right. Do not wait for better feelings, but commit your whole being to God at once, and this will soon result in the feelings for which you are waiting. What God requires of you, is the present act of your own mind, in turning from sin to holiness, and from the service of Satan to the service of the living God.

4. Another error of sinners, is to suppose they must wait till their hearts are changed. “What?” say they, “am I to believe in Christ before my heart is changed? Do you mean that I am to repent before my heart is changed?” Now, the simple answer to all this is, that the change of heart is the very thing in question. God requires sinners to love him. That is to change their heart. God requires the sinner to believe the Gospel. That is to change his heart. God requires him to repent. That is to change his heart. God does not tell him to wait till his heart is changed, and then repent and believe, and love God. The very word itself, repent, signifies a change of mind or heart. To do either of these things, is to change your heart, and to make you a new heart, just as God requires.

5. Sinners often get the idea that they are perfectly willing to do what God requires. Tell them to do this thing, or that, to repent, or believe, or give God their hearts, and they say, “Oh, yes, I am perfectly willing to do that, I wish I could do it, I would give anything if I could do it.” They ought to understand, that, being truly willing is doing it, but there is a difference between willing and desiring. People often desire to be Christians, when they are wholly unwilling to be so. When we see anything which appears to us to be a good, we are so constituted that we desire it. We necessarily desire it when it is before our minds. We cannot help desiring it in proportion as its goodness is presented to our minds. But yet we may not be willing to have it, under all the circumstances. It may be that we prefer, upon the whole, that the present possessor should continue to possess it still. Or that we choose to have our friend or child possess it, instead of ourselves. A man may desire to go to Philadelphia on many accounts, while, for still more weighty reasons, he chooses not to go there. So the sinner may desire to be a Christian. He may see many good things in being a Christian. He may see that if he were a Christian he would be a great deal more happy, and that he should go to heaven when he dies, but yet he is not willing to be a 358Christian. WILLING to obey Christ is to be a Christian. When an individual actually chooses to obey God, he is a Christian. But all such desires, as do not terminate in actual choice, are nothing.

6. The sinner will sometimes say, that he offers to give God his heart, but he intimates that God is unwilling. But this is absurd. What does God ask? Why, that you should love him. Now, for you to say you are willing to give God your heart, but God is unwilling, is the same as saying that you are willing to love God, but God is not willing to be loved by you, and will not suffer you to love him. It is important to clear up all these points in the sinner’s mind, that he may have no dark and mysterious comer to rest in, where the truth will not reach him.

7. Sinners sometimes get the idea that they repent, when they are only convicted. Whenever the sinner is found resting in any LIE, let the truth sweep it away, however much it may pain and distress him. If he has any error of this kind, you must tear it away from him, if you do not mean that he shall stumble into the depths of hell.

8. Sinners are often wholly taken up with looking at themselves, to see if they cannot find something there, some kind of feeling or other, that will recommend them to God. Evidently, for want of proper instruction, David Brainard was a long time taken up with his state of mind, looking for some feelings that would recommend him to God. Sometimes he imagined that he had such feelings, and would tell God in prayer, that now he felt as he ought, to receive his mercy; and then he would see that he had been all wrong, and be ashamed that he had told God that he felt right. Thus, the poor man, for want of correct instruction, was driven almost to despair, and it is easy to see that his Christian exercises through life were greatly modified, and his comfort and usefulness much impaired by the false philosophy he had adopted on this point. You must turn the sinner away from himself to something else. Suppose he keeps poring over himself, until he is going into a state of despair. The proper course then is, to turn off his attention from looking at himself, and make him look at some duty to be performed, or make him look at Christ, and, perhaps, before he is aware, he will find that he has submitted to God. His attention was diverted away from himself, to contemplate the reasonableness of God’s requirements, or the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement, or something of this kind, and as he dwelt upon it, he just gave up his heart, and the agony was over.