By Martin Knapp
Pentecostal converts are those who are "born of the Spirit." Their lives witness to the electric character of their birth. They are as different from the superficial, spurious professions which abound on every hand as a strong, noble man is from a sawdust dummy. A Pentecostal church and ministry naturally bring forth the offspring of stalwart converts. Counterfeit converts shrink from Scripture tests, but these welcome them, and always hear the following marks:
They possess spiritual life. Their lives are hid with Christ in God, and this life "no man taketh from them," for it is the life of God in the soul.
They are full of spiritual activity. The life within manifests itself in many ways. They are ever engaged about their Father's business, and glad to go work in even the humblest place in His vineyard. Spiritual inactivity is positive proof of spiritual sickness or death.
They are loyal converts. Not always loyal to ecclesiastical church committees and worldly methods of backslidden churches; but they are loyal to Christ, and love Him and keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." They are living comments on the truth of the divine declaration that "he that is born of God doth not commit sin." They are committed to everlasting loyalty to the Son of God, the Word of God, the Spirit of God and the Church of God. They are transformed converts. With them old things have passed away, and all things are become new. Old companions, old books, old thoughts, old habits and old amusements have all given place to new songs, new thoughts, new companions and new associations. Professed converts in whom no such changes have taken place labor under a terrible delusion.
They are convicted converts. The light of the Holy Spirit shining in their hearts and the life of Jesus there soon reveals the presence of inbred sin. Its uprisings of fear, and sin, and pride, and envy, and unbelief, and temper, sooner or later reveal to them the need of the sanctifying baptism with the Holy Ghost, which will utterly expel these noxious weeds and make the soul a blooming garden of the Lord; for this they hunger and thirst, and pray and seek, and confess their need until the work is wrought and they rejoice in all the "fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of peace."
They are soul-seeking converts. One of the first tendrils that shoots from the vine of a truly converted soul is the desire to see others saved. This desire prompts to earnest effort and prayer, to awaken others and lead them to the Saviour. This leads to fasting and personal warnings, and invitations and the distribution of books and tracts and papers designed to lead into experiences of salvation. Professors who are asleep to the peril of those surrounding them, and make no efforts to save them, thus give positive proof that they themselves are not regenerated.
They are illuminated converts. Jesus, the light of the world, is shining in their hearts and on their pathway. All lesser lights are now dim, as they have turned to follow Him wherever He may lead, and walking in the light as He is in the light, they taste the blessedness of His fellowship, and will never rest until they know this blood applied which cleanses from all sin.
They are rich converts. Their names are enrolled among the number of whom it has been divinely declared that they shall "inherit all things." Their treasure is laid up, not in the breaking banks of earth, but in the vats of the skies, where robbers can not come nor rust destroy. When earth shall melt and suns and systems disappear, their wealth will keep on increasing in values which figures can not measure.
They are divinely protected converts. He who toucheth them "toucheth the apple" of God's eye. It were better for all such that a millstone were hanged about their necks and they were cast into the sea. God holds them in the hollow of His hand and no man is able to pluck them Out. In the presence of wicked men and devils they can triumphantly sing and shout, "Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory."
They are unworldly converts. They can not be otherwise, for it is divinely declared that if "any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." They have renounced its pomp and glory, with all covetous desires for the same, so that they will not follow or be led by it. Worldly fandangos and fraternities inside the church or out have lost their charms to them, for a bright and morning Star has risen on their sight which dims their vision to all lesser lights. The worldly convert is always a counterfeit convert. Worldliness is spiritual treason, and worldly churches are the devil's churches, worldly preachers his ministers, worldly professors his members.
They are Christlike converts. Jesus was born in a manger, and His dying couch was a rugged cross. He came to minister to others, not to be coddled. He stooped to the vilest, and no place was too humble if His Father's interests could be served. How different from His professed followers, who shun the cross, evade missions and meetings that are lowly and unpopular, and substitute starch and sentiment for sanctity.
They are churchgoer converts. "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom of some is" (Heb. x. 25). Professed converts, who have no affinity for public services are deceived God's true children love to mingle and unite in their praises, prayers and professions. Lukewarmness at this point is a certain symptom of a fatal disease.
They are Sabbath-keeping converts. They realize that the Sabbath law is not abrogated, and so delight in keeping it holy. Sunday newspapers have no welcome in their homes. They plan to dispense with all needless labor on that day, and to spend it in restful, worshipful service, such as God delights to bless. Spurious converts seek their own pleasure instead of God's glory on this holy day. True ones find their highest joy in its glad observance.
They are the product of a live church. A cold, dead, formal church will freeze converts to death. Babies, however well born, would soon die on an iceberg. A mother who does not love children can not mother then. The church that does more to fill her ranks with worldings, who will give their social influence and money, than with souls born of God can have no spiritual children. Many modern revival reports should read, "One hundred bastards born," instead of "One hundred conversions." Whether there should be weeping or rejoicing over revival statistics depends upon their character. If the quality is bad; the bigger the worse. If its converts are not born of God, and yet think they are and profess to be, as in many instances, the revival is one of deception and hypocrisy, instead of true religion. Such are not converts of Pentecostal ministers and churches. Now as then true converts bear the marks of divine and heavenly birth. All who lack this should forsake every false way and fly to God for salvation.
They are in God the Father. "Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace" (1 Thess. i. 1). Bible regeneration takes the soul out of the world and makes it a living branch of the true vine. He who is not in God is in the world. When such persons profess to be saved they call God a liar, and, as a rule, deceive no one but themselves. The threshing machine of conviction and conversion separates the soul from the straw of sin and the world, and stores it safely into the granary of God's justifying grace. Entire sanctification cleans out the chaff and cockle, and fits it for use or market.
They are a source of joy to true ministers. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers" (1 Thess. i. 2). The greatest weight to Pentecostal pastors is unconverted church members. They can not rejoice in them, for they are the devil's most effectual barriers to the advancement of God's kingdom, and the only ray of hope the preacher has is that God's grace is able to transform them. Truly converted souls are sources of comfort, strength and inspiration. They have the faith which prompts them to work. It is the mainspring of ceaseless activity in God and for God. The base substitute of worldly works with which Satan counterfeits this in sham professors is one of his shrewdest traps. Thus duped people run a ceaseless round of worldly activities trying to palm this off under the label of "church work," for the genuine. But God is not mocked, and there is no place for such converts in His Church. Fairs, festivals, card socials and other schemes for worldly amusements in the church are an offense unto God, an abominable stench which he will not tolerate in His Church. They are the sickly offspring of spurious faith, a decaying corpse of dead "works," usurping the place of Spirit-inspired activity. Prayer, and praise, and liberality, personal appeal and testimony bud, blossom and ripen from every truly converted soul as naturally as fruit from a healthy peach tree.
Love is the mainspring of their labor. "Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father" (1 Thess. i. 3). Divinely imparted love impels them. Loving God, they desire to please Him; loving man, they try to be a blessing to him; loving their enemies, they pray for them. Love to God and man is an incentive of all the efforts of the truly saved. Zeal for the church, and its societies and some of its members may exist where this love is wholly lacking. True love lives for God and others, sham love for self.
They are hopeful converts. "And patience of hope" (1 Thess. i. 3). They do not hope that they are saved, for this they know, but that God will keep them to the end, and that soon the Saviour will return, and that they shall reign with Him forever. This hope has a good foundation in every truly converted person, and is an anchor to the soul, both "sure and steadfast." What a contrast to the "hope" of sham religionists, which is built on the quicksands of self or church or creed, and destined soon to perish!
They are "know so" converts. "Knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election" (1 Thess. i. 4). Not a "hope so," "think so," "guess so," "maybe so" delusion, but the certain knowledge of their enrollment in the book of life. An assurance which neither men nor devils can take from them.
They have peace with God. They have been at war with Him but how have fully surrendered, and made their peace with Him. It is the sweet, restful peace that Jesus gives to all who serve Him, in contrast with the false, deathly peace with which Satan tries to comfort those who try to believe they are saved when they are not.
They are followers of Jesus. They follow others only as others follow Him. "And ye became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost" (I Thess. i. 6). They not only eulogize the Saviour and His ministers, but exemplify them. The will and smiles of Jesus are worth more to them than the honors, pleasure and wealth of all the world. They will go nowhere that Jesus and His true ministers can not go. This principle keeps us from circuses, godless lodge-rooms, church fandangos, dances, saloons, theaters and kindred places of evil. Many people, like a guide-board, point the right way, but never go that way themselves. They profess a truth and act a lie at the same time. The Pharisees of all ages do this, and in so doing sink to their doom. Pentecostal converts, warned by their example, shun their fate.
They provoke and endure persecution. Because they are not of the world, the world hates them. They renounce the world so completely that the world in turn renounces and denounces them. A regeneration which provokes no such persecution is not from God. A conversion that can not endure persecution for Christ needs to be reconverted. The Thessalonians "received the Word in much affliction," and all who really receive it must prepare for similar experiences. The enemy is restrained now, as not then, but still harbors the same hatred towards the sons of God. People in this city endure martyrdom for Him as truly as did those of the apostolic church. Justification brings the grace to endure persecution, the baptism with the Holy Ghost enables to rejoice and be exceedingly glad in it. Those who can do neither are not the children of God. Early Christians were disowned, betrayed, threatened, arrested, tortured and killed; all but the last are of common occurrence today among converts of the Pentecostal type.
They are joyful converts. "Having received the Word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost" (1 Thess. i. 6). Birth of the Spirit always brings joy of the Spirit. A joyless religion is a Christless religion and a hopeless religion. Conversion brings joy; entire sanctification eliminates front the heart every weed that would choke it. Growth develops and matures it. "No joy, no salvation" is as true as "twice two are four." It is not a condition of salvation, but an inevitable result of it. When the great Musician touches the keys of the soul with salvation, it is one of the sweetest notes which thrill it. Though afflicted, they rejoice in it. The first work brings rejoicing Isaac into the heart, the second banishes mocking Ishmael and enables to shake jails with sings and shouts of joy. What an enigma to cruel, persecuting and intriguing priests. How different from the glum, sad, resentful, sanctimoniousness of spurious professors. What a contrast to the superficial, worldly, carnal jollity which blind devotees of worldliness seek to substitute for it! The first is a stream pure and exhaustless, its fountain, God Himself. The other is surface water oozing from the swamps of sin, soon evaporated and gone forever. Reader, which have you?
They are missionary converts. "For from you hath sounded forth the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith to Godward is gone forth; so that we need not to speak anything" (1 Thess. i. 8). The Word of God "sounded out" from them. Salvation saves from selfishness. Saved themselves, they speed to bring others to their great Physician. A saved man, who has been cured of a fatal disease, free of charge, will commend the physician to others thus afflicted. His neighbors will hear of it. Live grapevines send out new shoots and tendrils; dead ones do not. All of God's children are born with a missionary spirit. One positive proof of the alarmingly prevalent dead branches in the churches is the indifference to missionary appeals and small offerings for missions. Hundreds of thousands of professed Christians give nothing at all. Truly, such shall be cast forth as branches, and gathered and burned. No interest or investment in mission work is positive proof of no title to heaven. Better writhe under this truth now and get right than to reject the warning and writhe forever when it is too late.
They are not sanctified wholly. All of Paul's epistles are largely exhortations to the churches to be fully sanctified, and are full of facts which prove that truly converted people in them were not thus baptized. They were "yet carnal," showing that carnality had never been eradicated. Pentecostal converts always have a parallel experience. The light imparted at regeneration very soon reveals to them inbred sin and the need of the cleansing baptism. Pentecostal preaching now, as then, keeps this truth before them. Converts who claim that they were fully sanctified when converted, are unenlightened, or never were regenerated. Paul calls his converts his "glory and joy," yet longs to "perfect that which is lacking in their faith," to the end that he may establish their hearts "unblamable in holiness before God." Whatever is loved more than God is an idol, and must be abandoned to enter God's kingdom. Repentance renounces all idols; regeneration enthrones the true God, while sanctification eliminates all within which does not harmonize with Him.
They have no idols. It matters not whether an idol be self, or wife, or child, or reputation, or money, or dress, or fame, or gods of wood or stone, it must be dethroned before Christ can be enthroned. This subtle sin is secretly ensnaring more than drink. Men and women guilty of the grossest heart idolatry pose as worshippers of the true God. They lure godless choirs to entertain themselves and popular preachers to please themselves, and dare to flaunt such insults in the face of Omnipotence for worship. For answer, He thunders back in His righteous wrath: "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Yea, though ye offer me your burnt offerings and your meal offerings, I will not accept them" (Amos v. 21, 22).
They are Bible reading converts. "Now, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so" (Acts xvii. 11). They both searched the Scriptures and conformed to them. No human "say so" with them could be substituted for a "thus saith the Lord." A true Christian welcomes all the light which shines from the Word, let the consequences be what 'they may. It is a delusion to place feelings, imaginations, human counsels and aids in its place. They searched the Scriptures. Some read then, others study them, and still others search them. There is no more infallible mark of the spuriousness of many professed conversions than this lack of love for the Word. People who are unscriptural in their practices, and have no love for searching the Bible, may be professors of religion, but are in no wise possessors of salvation. Pentecostal converts meet this unmistakable New Testament test.
They are penitent converts. Repentance is the first step up the ascent which leads into the temple of regeneration. None can enter without taking this step, and none call abide herein without keeping it. The hope of a professed Christian who has not done this is a damning delusion, which will, unless dispelled by the truth, drown in the depths of eternal despair. "He that doeth sin is of the devil" (I John iii. 8), "Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin" (I John iii. 9), are divine declarations which frequently fall on deaf ears. Yet they are solemnly and awfully true. They unmask millions of the devil's dupes with which the nominal churches are crowded, but that does not invalidate them. "Let God be true, though every man a liar." A repentance which holds on to a single Sin is a fraud, which must be abandoned here or exposed at the Judgment. Pentecostal converts attested the genuineness of their repentance by burning the bad books in their keeping, though it cost them thousands of dollars. Barrels of whisky poured in the streets and bonfires of tobacco and kindred Satanic property would signify a similar work today! When people genuinely repent of all sin they welcome such sacrifices. Yes; this is severe on professors who drink on the sly or are themselves slaves to tobacco. But it will be harder still for them at the Judgment unless they repent. Genuine repentance, such as must exist to possess salvation, accepts the justice of eternal punishment and renounces every sin. It also embraces restitution and complete reformation of life and character. False repentance is the devil's substitute which he seeks to palm off on souls to their ruin. It professes to break off sins that are known, but covers those that can be hid from human eyes. It is ashamed of itself, and seeks self-justification by sham excuses. It leads to false security, hardness of heart and conscience, self-righteousness, false peace, false hope, hypocrisy and hell.
They confess their sins. "Pricked to the heart" instead of "tickled in the head," as they saw the awful wrong of Sill to themselves, to others, and above all to God, and crying out in agony, they confessed their lost condition and need of a Saviour. All true converts have passed through a parallel experience. Sham confession is sometimes extorted because of exposure or fear of it, but is afraid of going too far, anxious to hide as much as possible, and has dry eyes, or if it weeps at all it is because of shame or fear of exposure, and not because of its own wickedness. Genuine confession owns up all, humbles itself completely, renounces all excuse-making and self-justification, and abandons all utterly to the unmerited mercy of God. Pentecostal conversions require Pentecostal confessions. "Whoso covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy." Unconfessed wrongs are chains with which Satan is fettering multitudes.
They are honest converts. "It us walk honestly" (Rom. xiii. 13). If they have wronged any man they are willing to restore fourfold. Restitution to the extent of ability is one of the characteristics of genuine repentance. Tears of sorrow are unavailing if they fall on hands which hug stolen goods. Old debts disowned are damning thousands. Under this crime people snivel over their lack of faith and religions feeling who should be in jail. When a man refuses to right a wrong within his reach he bolts the door of mercy to his own soul.
"With what judgment he has judged, he shall be judged; and with what measure he has meted, it shall be measured to him again." Dishonesty in business is stealing. A dishonest man is a thief. Lip profession adds lying to robbery. Repentance makes a man honest; regeneration imparts an abhorrence to dishonesty, while entire sanctification eliminates all dishonest bias from the heart.
They are obedient converts. Jesus said: "If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him" (John xiv. 23). Thousands of deceived professors have the audacity to declare that "no one can live without sin." Why say they so? Evidently because they are guilty. By this they confess that they are entire strangers to the new birth. One becomes and remains a child of God by faith and obedience, and by unbelief and disobedience ceases to be, and returns to the "power of sin and Satan."
"Trust and obey;
For there is no other way
To be happy in Jesus.
But to trust and obey."
A disobedient believer is a condemned believer, and the condemned believer will be executed, unless a pardon is secured. One of the certain marks of an unregenerate life is a sinning experience, and the disposition to excuse its existence by claiming its necessity. Such professors must be awakened and converted through Pentecostal preaching now, or else be startled, when too late, by the stern declaration, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. vii. 21). Reader, which shall it be? Take your choice. True believers who mistakenly regard mistakes as sins belong to another class.
They are Christ-like converts. They are so much like Jesus that they were given His name. They were taught that if any man "have not the mind of Christ, he is none of his," and so stop short of nothing less than the Christ-mind. Before being sanctified wholly, then as now, the seed of carnality remained, and its movings were sometimes manifest, but the Christ-spirit was implanted, and, though hindered by the carnal mind, yet it was there, and gave character to its possessor. All in every age who are born of God are like His Son, their Elder Brother. Conversion implants the Christ-mind; Pentecost expels all that is contrary to it. The King of Heaven has emphatically forewarned all that only the forgiving can be forgiven. Pentecostal converts always manifest their genuineness by this mark. A professed experience of regeneration which does not have it is a delusive foundation on which to build entire sanctification, and needs to be regenerated. Bury your grudges in e crimson fountain, or they will bury your soul beneath the billows of bell. All who ignore this fundamental principle of the kingdom of God do so against divine warning, and invite the tragical consequences which they must suffer throughout eternity. Possession of an unforgiving spirit is positive proof of a am profession. Can he who has been forgiven countless sins against God refuse pardon to an erring fellow-mortal?
They are loving converts. They "know they have passed from death unto life, because they love the brethren, and they know they love the children of God because they love God and keep His commandments." They are so conscious of the "love of God shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, which was given unto them," that they welcome every test of their Christian character which may be brought to bear upon it, knowing that hove stands all tests and comes out of every furnace the brighter for the proving. What a contrast with deceived professors! They love their own social set, but often despise God's humble children. If able, they lavish dollars in gifts on themselves and personal friends to coppers for Christ's suffering poor. They sing,
"Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love,"
and sometimes act as if it was a tie of "mutual hate." They have been heard to denounce true believers, seeking or enjoying holiness, as "misguided," "erratic," "fanatic" and "fools." To all such the God of Pentecost propounds this searching question: "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, can not love God whom he hath not seen" (I John iv. 20). Whited sepulcher, what is thine answer
They are Spirit-attested converts. God's Spirit witnesses with theirs that they are the children of God. They do not depend for their knowledge on the fact of their repentance, faith, feeling, works, life, or the "say so" of other people. The Spirit who worked the change assures them of its completion and reality. Possessed of this God-given assurance, neither wicked men nor devils are able to wrest from them the consciousness of their divine sonship, and in the midst of the world's bitter storms, with confidence they sing and feel:
"Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine;
O what a foretaste of glory divine;
Heirs of salvation, purchased of God;
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood."
If one has never received this witness, it is because the work is not complete, for God delights to impart it as instantly as able. The man who would rest without a title to his property or a key to his treasures is a philosopher compared to him who is listless about his soul when uncertified of its regeneration by this witness. Multitudes of churchlings confess their lost condition by the absence of this Pentecostal blessing.
They are fruitful converts. The fruits of the Spirit pictured in Galatians v. 22, 23, are ripening in their hearts. It is true that until the second great change is wrought the carnal mind mars the growth of this celestial fruit, but it grows, and by its presence witnesses to the change. The grapes of true peace and joy and love and kindred graces never grow in unregenerate soil. Their sham substitutes, like painted pictures, may be hung upon the walls of unsaved souls, but meet no tests of real fruit. True converts have their "fruit unto holiness." Regeneration implants them; Pentecost roots out all weeds., and sends celestial showers and sunshine. Glory! Absence of the Spirit's fruitage is a positive proof of absence of. the Spirit's regenerating work. Conformity to ordinances and devotion to duty often exists in fruitless formalists, but can not be substituted for the Spirit's work, without which every branch shall be taken away and burned. Without fruit, candidates for an eternal bonfire; with fruit, for thrones and infinite empire! Which?
They are hungry converts. Spiritual birth always brings spiritual sight, sound, activity and hunger. Pentecostal converts are always hungry for holiness. They "hunger and thirst after righteousness." The salvation experienced in regeneration is so sweet that they thirst for more of the same kind, and as soon as some impetuous Peter, practical Paul, or wise Aquilia, divinely instructed, unfolds to them their privilege of baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire, which will entirely sanctify their souls and make them fully free, like Cornelius and the Ephesian converts, they eagerly embrace the Blesser and the blessing. If any New Testament convert fought holiness, his name, like those of the faithless spies of Canaan, forgotten, has rotted in merited oblivion. Critics of entire sanctification, take warning, for this is a picture of your coming fate. The Mudges and the Bolands of the present day, with their less audacious followers, may gain a temporary notoriety, but their works, like the "spark of the wicked," are destined to die in the dark night of final obscurity. Hunger for the sanctifying baptism of the Spirit is the normal appetite of all who are born of the Spirit. Hence absence of this appetite is evidence of the absence of the new birth, and points with certainty to the fact that the soul is unsaved, and is resting on a false hope. Instead of hungering for holiness they hunger for excuses to shield them in rejecting it, and must repent or perish. Pentecostal converts, pray for it, seek for it, wait for it, and thank God, receive it, and then spread the good news. Hallelujah! All who have no hunger for Pentecostal Holiness are on the steep down-grade to hell. They may be dressed in silks and satins, in purple and high silk hats, and titled and high in church or state, but this spiritual law is inexorable. He who is destitute of spiritual appetite is destitute of spiritual life. Corpses never hunger.
They are expectant converts. They had "turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven " (I Thess. i. 9, 10). They were divinely taught that, as Jesus went away, so he might, at any time, return again; and receive them unto Himself, and that they were to be always ready for His return. Hence, He was the hero of their lives. He reigned in their hearts. If death should come they would at once fly to Him, and at any time He might appear and glorify them. This "glorious hope of His appearing" was one of the truths with which the apostles comforted the afflicted. Instead of teaching, as some do today, that it would hinder holiness, it was held up as one of its helps. As the mist is being swept from the sky, this Pentecostal star is again appearing to comfort and to cheer.
They are royal converts. They move in high circles. Their names are enrolled among the most honorary in the universe. Fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God, kings and priests unto God, they belong to the highest aristocracy of creation, among whom, if true, it is their portion to live and move, and sing and serve, and shout and praise forever.
Reader, these are a few of the New Testament marks which all who are born of the Spirit bear. Satan is hiring multitudes to hell who fancy they are saved, though destitute of these clearly expressed New Testament requirements. Church membership, baptism, official position, a past experience, counterfeit happiness and security, or present presumption, will avail naught, if any of these fruits are lacking. If you meet them, you are blessed; if not, whether you think it or no, infinite peril is impending. If sleeping in false security, instead of being awakened, your danger is double. I love your soul. I long for your rescue from the fearful dream that soon will culminate in an awful and eternal nightmare. Fly to Christ. Fast! Pray! Repent! Confess! Restore! Yield! Believe! Take advantage of this moment! Another hour may be eternally too late! Sinai thunders! Calvary pleads! Judgment threatens! Hell warns! Heaven beckons! Eternity is near! The wails of multitudes of deceived souls who were once, as you now, earnestly warned, echo your threatening doom from the caverns of the damned! "Awake up righteously, and sin not; for some have no knowledge of God: I speak this to move you to shame" (I Cor. xv. 34).
"I must this moment now begin
Out of my sin to wake,
And turn to God, and every sin
Continually forsake.
I must for faith incessant cry,
And wrestle Lord, with Thee;
I must be born again, or die
Through all Eternity."
