Basic HTML Version
True Conversion
263
Last June I saw that your only hope of breaking the chain of your
bondage was a removal from your associates. You had yielded to
Satan’s temptations until you were a weak man. You were a lover
of pleasure more than a lover of God, and were fast traveling the
downward path. I have been disappointed that you have continued
in the same indifferent state in which you have been for years. You
have known and experienced the love of God; and it has been your
delight to do His will. You have delighted in the study of the word of
God. You have been punctual at the prayer meetings. Your testimony
has been from a heart which felt the quickening influences of the
love of Christ. But you have lost your first love.
God now calls upon you to repent, to be zealous in the work.
Your eternal happiness will be determined by the course you now
pursue. Can you reject the invitations of mercy now offered? Can
you choose your own way? Will you cherish pride and vanity, and
lose your soul at last? The word of God plainly tells us that few
[294]
will be saved, and that the greater number of those, even, who are
called will prove themselves unworthy of everlasting life. They will
have no part in heaven, but will have their portion with Satan, and
experience the second death.
Men and women may escape this doom if they will. It is true that
Satan is the great originator of sin; yet this does not excuse any man
for sinning; for he cannot force men to do evil. He tempts them to
it, and makes sin look enticing and pleasant; but he has to leave it to
their own wills whether they will do it or not. He does not force men
to become intoxicated, neither does he force them to remain away
from religious meetings; but he presents temptations in a manner to
allure to evil, and man is a free moral agent to accept or refuse.
Conversion is a work that most do not appreciate. It is not a
small matter to transform an earthly, sin-loving mind and bring it
to understand the unspeakable love of Christ, the charms of His
grace, and the excellency of God, so that the soul shall be imbued
with divine love and captivated with the heavenly mysteries. When
he understands these things, his former life appears disgusting and
hateful. He hates sin, and, breaking his heart before God, he em-
braces Christ as the life and joy of the soul. He renounces his former
pleasures. He has a new mind, new affections, new interest, new
will; his sorrows, and desires, and love are all new. The lust of the