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Page 40
But if, on the other hand, his sins do not trouble the sinner; if
they are as trifles to him; if they do not daily drive him to the
Cross, the elements and evidences of the new life are certainly
wanting. Such a person is in an unconverted state. And let not such an
one delude himself with the false idea that something, which he called
a change, had taken place at some time in the past. He can know
whether he is _now_ in the faith.
It is poor theology, it is altogether anti-scriptural, for a
Christian to go through the world singing plaintively:
"Tis a point I long to know;
Oft it causes anxious thought,
Do I love the Lord, or no?
Am I His, or am I not?"
He whose faith, reaching up out of a heart that mourns over and
hates sin, lays hold of Christ, even tremblingly, can say, "_I know
in whom I have believed_," "_I know that my Redeemer liveth_."
He can joyfully sing:
"I know that my Redeemer lives!
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, He lives, who once was dead,
He lives, my ever-living Head.
"He lives to bless me with His love,
He lives to plead for me above,
He lives my hungry soul to feed,
He lives to help in time of need.
"He lives to silence all my fears,
He lives to wipe away my tears,
He lives to calm my troubled heart,
He lives all blessings to impart.
"He lives, all glory to His Name!
He lives, my Jesus, still the same;
Oh the sweet joy this sentence gives,
I know that my Redeemer lives!"
CHAPTER XX.
CONVERSION--HUMAN AGENCY IN
What part and responsibility pertain to the human will in
this matter?
Before we leave the subject of conversion, it is important that
we consider and understand this question also. For on this point also
grievous and dangerous views and practices prevail. Human nature tends
to extremes. Here too, there is a tendency to go too far, either in
the one direction or the other. There are those, on the one hand, who
virtually and practically make this change of heart and of nature a
_human_ work. They practically deny the agency of the Holy
Spirit, or His means of Grace. On the other hand, there are those
whose ideas and teachings would rid man of all responsibility in the
matter, and make of him a mere machine, that is _irresistibly_
moved and controlled from above.
Is either of the above views the correct and scriptural one? If
not, what is the Bible doctrine on this subject? What has the human
will--_i.e._, the choosing and determining faculty of the mind--to do
with conversion? What, if any part of the work, is to be ascribed to
it? Is it a factor in the process? If so, in what respect, and to what
extent? Where does its activity begin or end? In how far is the human
will responsible for the accomplishment or non-accomplishment of this
change? These questions we shall endeavor briefly and plainly to
answer.
We must necessarily return to man as he is before his conversion,
while still in his natural, sinful, unrenewed state. In this state of
sin, the will shares, in common with all the other parts of his being,
the ruin and corruption resulting from the fall. The natural man has
the "_understanding darkened;_" "_is alienated from the life of
God, through the ignorance that is in him, because of the blindness of
his heart_." He "_receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God
... neither can he know them_." He is "_in darkness_," "_dead in
trespasses and sins_."
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