Online Tracts
An Unbeliever Convinced
On the third of November, 1876, in the Fourth Street Church, I preached a sermon on abiding in Christ. At its close, according to my custom, I invited any person present who was impressed with his need of Christ to meet me in the inquirer's room.
I found a young man there whom I judged to be about 30 years old. He was tall, stalwart, intelligent, and would have been fine looking but for a cloud that seemed to abide upon his countenance. His face seemed scarred and furrowed as though he had been through a life of battle with sin and care and had been terribly worsted in the contest.
I addressed him at once with a pointed inquiry, and almost the exact words of the dialogue that followed have been impressed upon my mind.
"I take it, Sir, that you are here to talk with me about your spiritual interests. If so, will you at once let me into the very heart of your trouble or difficulty? I am acting as a physician of souls; let there be perfect frankness between us; tell me your exact and worst symptoms, and I will do what I can to relieve them and help you to a cure."
"Well, Sir," said he, "I suppose you would consider my case a desperate one. I am an unbeliever and a disbeliever‹an infidel."
"But I suppose there are some things you believe. Do you believe the Bible to be the Book of God?"
"No, Sir."
"Well, at least you believe in God?"
"There may be a God. I cannot say I believe there is, but there may be. I do not know."
"Then let me ask you why you are here. I cannot waste time in words of no profit. I hope you have not come here to trifle with me. And yet I do not see what you want of me if you do not believe in the Bible nor in Christ and are not even sure there is a God."
"I heard you preach tonight, and it seems to me that you must believe something‹"
"You are quite right, I assure you," I interrupted.
"And it gives you peace and comfort."
"Right again! "
"Well, I don't believe anything, and am perfectly wretched; and if you can show me the way to believe anything and to get happiness in believing, I wish you would. If you can help me, do it quickly, for I have been carrying this burden as long as I can. I live across the river in Windsor. I am a law student, but I am so wretched I cannot study nor sit still. I wandered over here tonight and heard the organ playing in your church and went in expecting to hear some fine music. I heard nothing but simple congregational singing. But curiosity led me to remain and hear what you had to say, and one thing impressed me‹you have faith in somebody or something, and you are happy in believing, and my envy of you brings me here."
I had met and conversed with hundreds of inquirers, but never had met such a case before. I lifted my heart to God for spiritual guidance and again he broke out with an exclamation, "If you can do anything for me, I wish you would. "Tell me something to read," he said.
"I would have you read nothing but the Bible. You have been reading too much; that is partly what is the matter with you. You are full of the misleading plausible sophistries of the skeptics. Read the Word of God."
"But what is the use of my reading the Bible when I do not believe it to be the Word of God?"
I turned to John 5:39, and with my finger on the verse slowly read, " 'Search the scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.' "Now," said I, "if that means anything, it means that he who diligently searches the Scriptures will find that they contain the witness to their own Divine origin and inspiration and the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ."
Well," said he, "I'll read the Bible but what besides?"
I read to him Matthew 6:6, "Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." "If that means anything, it means that if you sincerely pray to God He will reveal Himself to you."
"But of what use is it to pray to God if you don't believe there is a God?"
That was a puzzling question. But a thought flashed across me, and although I had never given the counsel to anybody before, I gave utterance of it, for I felt guided.
"No matter," I replied, "provided you are sincere. If it be only 'feeling after God, if haply you may find Him who is not far from any of us,'
God will not disregard any genuine effort to draw near to Him. Go and pray, 'O God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul.' "
Anything more?" said he.
"Yes," and I opened to John 7:17 and read, "If any man do His will, he shall know of the doctrine.' That means that if you act upon whatever Light you have, you shall have more Light. In God's school we are never taught a second lesson till we practice the first.
"I have given you three texts already to ponder and study. I wish to add one more: Matthew 11:28. 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' This means that if you come directly to Jesus, He will give you rest. Now notice these four texts: One bids you read the Scriptures; one to pray in secret; one to put in practice whatever you know; and the last to come to Jesus and let Him be your personal Saviour."
"Is that all?" he inquired.
"That is all. Will you promise me to go and follow this simple prescription?"
"I will."
After kneeling in prayer together, he left me. Two weeks later, at the close of the service I gave a similar invitation to inquirers. The congregation was scarcely half out of the house when this same man came almost running towards me, with both hands extended and his face beaming: "I have found God and Christ, and I am a happy man!"
He sat beside me and told me the fascinating story. He had gone home that Sunday night, taken out from his trunk the Bible his mother had put there when he left home, had opened it and knelt before the unseen God. He simply, sincerely asked that if there was a God at all, and if the Bible was the Word of God, and Christ His Son and the Saviour of men, it might be shown him plainly. And as he read and prayed and sought for Light, Light was given. He humbly tried to follow every ray and walk in the Light, and it grew fuller and brighter until his eyes rested in faith upon Jesus.
The grand penance for all ills of the soul is a personal acceptance of Jesus as Saviour. But if there is any honest doubt that stands in the way, it may be removed by a sincere drawing nigh to God in prayer and a sincere endeavor to live exactly according to the light already
given. ‹Selected
Send for a sample of different gospel tracts,
also the magazine, Faith and Victory.
FAITH PUBLISHING HOUSE
P. O. Box 518, Guthrie, OK 73044
| 
