Therefore, conversion is a duty that the sinner owes to God. It is the
sinner's duty; then he must perform it. We have seen that the Lord
commands it, and that sinners did perform it. Do you say it is a work
begun upon them and accomplished by them? Then sinners must be passive
in the beginning of this work, and the beginning is most essential, for
unless the thing is begun it will never be accomplished. Is this
beginning the work of God wrought upon the sinner by a special operation
of the Holy Spirit? If this be so it follows that the entire Christian
life is of necessity, and not of choice, for the root always bears the
tree, and not the tree the root. If the cause is the unconditioned power
of God, the effects growing out of that cause are the fruits of
necessity; and so the Christian is a necessitated creature, and entitled
to neither praise or reward, for it was not he that did it, _but God_.
And in this case the sinner is not a moral agent, for in moral agency
the sinner, with a knowledge of the right and the wrong, begins the work
_himself_ and does it himself. This does not exclude the instrumentality
of Christ, the Apostles, prophets and Christians, who, by the words of
the Holy Spirit, have placed before sinners all the knowledge necessary
to give them correct ideas of duty, and also the motives to be accepted.
An agent is one who has power to begin action, and moral agency in
conversion is the exercise of that power, with a knowledge of the right
and the wrong, and so it comes to pass that conversion to God always
makes a Christian, provided, however, that the man, knowing what to turn
from and what to turn to, honestly turned from the wrong to the right,
which is the same as to say that he was a moral agent in his conversion.
A man may _turn_ without a knowledge of the right and the wrong, but it
is turning _round_ and _round_ and remaining in the same place, _i.e._
in ignorance of God's will, and so remaining in disobedience. Such may
be and often is.
In all such cases the person has been the creature of passion, wrought
upon by excitement, and left in ignorance of duty in disobedience to the
gospel of Christ. A good rule by which to determine when such is the
case, and it is the Master's rule, is the unwillingness of the person to
do the commandments of God, and to receive for instruction upon the
subject of duty, his word, an unteachable disposition, which not only
refuses to obey when the commandments are presented, but absolutely
persists in opposing them. A man in this condition is worse than
ignorant, his heart is irreconciled to the government of God, and he may
turn around and around and die in sin and transgression. Do you object
that God controls in conversion, and, therefore, the man is illuminated
in a mysterious manner, and necessitated aright--that he is a
necessitated moral agent? Necessitated moral agency and free slavery are
identical. There is no such thing as necessitated moral agency. What I
am compelled to do is not mine, but his who compelled me. All that we
call moral or immoral, virtuous or vicious, praiseworthy or blameworthy,
in our conduct, depends wholly upon the will. It begins in us and is
done by us. It is ours and we will answer for it. No man is to be blamed
or praised for that which he neither had power to do or avoid. This, in
harmony with the words _agent_ and _action_, is saying no more than that
a man is to be praised or blamed for actions done by himself and not by
another. It is the gospel rule, "that every man shall receive according
to that which he bath done; that every man shall give account of
_himself_ to God."
If the sinner is to blame for remaining in an unconverted state, then of
necessity conversion is his own voluntary act; a duty imperatively
enjoined upon him, in the performance of which he needs to be guided by
the knowledge of the right and the wrong, as much as in any other duty.
On the other hand, if it is a work wrought upon the man by a special
effort of the Holy Spirit, then the man is free from all responsibility
in the premises, for he will answer only for his _own work_.
"Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of
life." Prov. iv, 23. "He taught me also, and said unto me: Let thine
heart retain my words; keep my commandments and live." Prov. iv, 4.
"Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way."
Prov. xxiii, 19.
"Man, with naught in charge, could betray no trust,
And if he fell, would fall because he must.
If love reward him, or vengeance strike,
His recompense in both would be unjust _alike_."
If the sinner is passive in his conversion he can claim no reward, for
it is the act of another. All action is the work of an agent, of a being
who acts. And every being who acts is the beginner of the motion which
constitutes the action. The bullet that kills the man, the explosion
that makes it fly, the sparkles from the cap which produce the
explosion, are not agents, all being equally passive; nor is it the
finger operating upon the trigger that begins the motion; that also is a
passive instrument; it is the mind giving to the finger direction and
energy which is the mover in this business, and as such, is, properly
speaking, the agent. But if we were super-naturally informed that the
mind thus exerted was made to do so by the mysterious and irresistible
impulse of a superior being, we should instantly declare _that being_
the agent, and the mind irresistibly influenced only a passive
instrument, and no more to blame than the gunpowder. Now, if the sinner
is passive he is no more to blame or praise than the passive instruments
employed by the murderer. And if he is not passive, but active, then the
thing is begun and done by himself _as the real agent_. Action implies
motion, and where there is no power to begin motion there can not be
action, _but rest_. If the sinner has power to begin that action called
conversion, then he is a moral agent in his conversion, provided that he
begins it with a knowledge of the right and the wrong in their relations
to the subject, for action without knowledge of duty is not conversion
to the service of God. In this case the moral element is wanting, the
man acts blindly from impulse or passion; which is no more than saying
that men must know what to _convert from_, and what to _convert to_,
before they can act intelligently as rational moral agents. As such, the
thing of first importance is to teach men the will of God upon the
subject of conversion, that they may know what to do. Anciently men were
told what to do. And the gospel of Christ tells men the same story yet.
If the sinner is the agent in his conversion then he should give himself
no rest until he learns his duty and does it. But if he is not, then he
might just as well rest contented, for the passive stone that has no
power to change its place _must rest_. To say that the sinner has the
power to change is giving up the question. And when this is once given
up all good people will go to work upon sinners to teach them their
duty, and persuade them to turn, convert, to God. And the Lord will no
longer be regarded by sensible skeptics as a very changeable being.
The ancient Christians did not wrestle with God in the work of saving
sinners. He was always willing that men should be saved, and is yet
willing. If we were to wrestle with him in solemn prayer all our days he
would not be more willing than he is at this moment.
Why is it that _all men_ are not _saved_? Ans.--The Lord commands men to
convert, turn and live. Turn from what? Ans.--From the will of the flesh
and from the will of man. To what? Ans.--To the gospel of Christ. And
they refuse to do it. To say the sinner has not the power is to relieve
him, forever, of all responsibility for his continuance in an
unconverted state, and throw it, forever, upon God. To say the sinner
has not the power, and in the next breath tell him that he has, is a
square contradiction and a self-evident falsehood, only equaled by the
statement that a thing is a round square, or that ice is red hot. Let
whatever fall that may, it is true that a thing can not _be_, _exist_,
and _not_ be, not _exist_, at the same time. The sinner is either
passive or active in his conversion. He can not be both. If he has not
the power to begin and _convert_, it follows that all who have died in
sin were fated to ruin without remedy. Philosophers have said, "that the
will is determined by motives, purposes, intentions, or reasons."
Granting this to be true, we _can not_ admit that the will is
_necessarily_ determined by motives and purposes; for it is the
self-determining power of the mind that gives a motive, or reason, that
weight and influence whereby our course is determined. In other words,
it depends on ourselves whether we will act from one motive or another.
Action from motive always begins in ourselves. And if conversion is the
result of motive power, it begins in ourselves and by ourselves. Let a
man be tempted to steal, his motive is the love of money. But _if he_
refrains from the deed, his motive is a regard for duty. If he suffers
himself to be governed by the first, he is a thief and deserves
punishment, but if he allows himself to be governed by the second, he
has done well. The laws of every country suppose that men have it in
their power to give to either motive that regard which will determine
their conduct. The divine laws allow the same, placing motives high as
heaven before sinners for their acceptance, and warning them with
restraining threats deep as hell. And if sinners will not receive these
threats and act accordingly, they are without excuse. The scriptures
allow that men convert from God. How is this? Have men power to cross
the chasm backwards, and are not able, at the same time to cross it in a
forward movement? Strange logic, this! It is the same old philosophy
that sinners have the power to go to hell, but none to get to heaven;
that they are free, like the slave, to do the tyrant's bidding; that
they are free like the water that stands in the pool; that they are
mechanically free, are simply active when wrought upon, the same as any
machinery. If this be so, why is it that so many are left in an
unconverted state? Is it because the good Spirit prefers the existence
of iniquity and crime? If the Lord brings about the salvation of some,
through a mighty outpouring of his Spirit, then we shall never
comprehend his ways. Why is it that he does not give us one general
outpouring, one grand revival all over our country, and bring about the
long prayed for millennial day? Answer.--Conversion is a commandment of
God. It must be obeyed or the country lie, in direct opposition to the
will of God, in sin. His will is expressed in the words, "Let the wicked
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him
return, _reconvert_, unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and
to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."
"To Israel he saith, all the day long have I stretched forth my hands
unto a gainsaying and disobedient people." Ro. x, 21. "The Lord strove
with them by his Spirit in the prophets, and bore with them many years,
yet they would not hear." Nehe. ix, 30. "They made their hearts as an
adamant stone lest they should hear the law, and the words which the
Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets." Zech.
vii, 12. Jesus wept over them when he stood upon Mount Olivet and
expressed the greatness of his great heart in these words: "How often
would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth gather her
brood under her wings, and ye would not." Lu. xiii, 34. Their failure
was not because the Spirit did not strive with them as it did with
others who were saved. "God is no respecter of persons." Neither was it
on account of inborn depravity. For if any were corrupted in their moral
nature by Adam's sin, all were corrupted alike. So that each one would
be in this respect equally hard to overcome. But why bring up inborn
corruption and helplessness? Is not the Spirit of God able for any task
which is in its own line of work? Jesus gave the true solution of the
question. He said: "Their hearts have waxed gross, and their ears are
dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at _any time_
they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
understand with their hearts and be converted, and I should heal them."
The words "at any time" deserve particular attention, for the Lord's
time is _all the time_. He is unchangeable. "He is not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Pet. iii, 9.
Many people talk and act as though the Lord was the most changeable
being in the universe. They seem to think that the unchangeableness of
the Lord is in the idea that he is everlastingly changing. Let us
imagine a perfect circle with a stone permanently fixed in the center
and a man walking within, and every move he makes from side to side
affecting his relations to the center. So it is with God and the
children of men. He is immutable. He is the center of the circle. In the
right hand side of this circle are the innocent and the obedient, in the
enjoyment of all its riches, peace, pardon and all spiritual blessings.
These blessings were provided for all men, and presented in the gospel
of peace; and in the left side of this circle are all the threatenings
of God and all the wickedness and miseries of men. The wicked at the
left are able to _convert_ around to the right. In doing this they leave
their sins and miseries and come around where all the blessings of the
great salvation have always been, are, and will be until time is no
more. In all the work of human redemption there is no place for change
in God. The center has never changed. Man _alone_ changes. God has not
bestowed _special_ pardoning grace. Such phraseology is unknown in the
gospel. "His grace was given us in Jesus Christ before the world began."
2 Tim. i, 9. All that we or any others have to do is to live on the
Christ side of this circle--the right hand. If we are sinners it is our
duty to convert around to the right into new relations containing all
that is grand, glorious and desirable. The sinner, led by the motives of
the gospel, changes sides; leaving the kingdom of darkness upon the
left, and crossing the line drawn through the center of the circle, he
passes into the kingdom of light. It seems strange that intelligent men
and women should be constantly throwing mystery around a matter that is
so plain and simple. But we are aware that, by long dwelling on an idea,
and from the excited and abnormal sensitiveness of the mind, we
sometimes lose ourselves to truth amidst our own creations, which become
in the imagination stern realities, producing a species of monomania or
religious insanity.
Long dwelling upon the idea that conversion is a special work of God
destroys all disposition _to convert_, and causes men to be at ease in
disobedience. We will to do those things, and those only, which we
believe to be in our power. We are not so destitute of common sense as
to undertake that which we know to be out of our power. I never attempt
to fly, or raise a weight that I know to be far above my strength. So it
is in the question of conversion. If I believe it to be a work that is
beyond my power, there will be a corresponding indifference upon my
part. As long as men are made to believe that God must convert them by a
special interposition of his Spirit, so long their minds will be
directed, beyond the plain duties of the gospel, to the realm of the
mysterious and incomprehensible. In ancient times, when men were plainly
told to convert--_turn_--to God and do works worthy of repentance, when
the mists and mysticles of the schoolmen and dogmatists of all sects and
parties had not, as yet, beclouded the minds of men, nor corrupted the
simplicity of the Gospel, thousands were converted in a day.
Christianity overran the inhabited earth in the space of a few years.
Judaism and Paganism trembled and crumbled before its mighty power. But
now the religious world is contending with sin and crime, under the
great disadvantages of a perverted mind and a Gospel beclouded with the
smoke of Babylon, and the result is that three-score souls brought into
the church is a great success for the labors of weeks, and even months.
Why should this be so? It need not be. It would not be but for the wrong
teaching consequent upon creeds. It is said, "That many of the
Corinthians hearing, believed and were baptized." Their minds were clear
upon the great subjects of human duty and the goodness, love and mercy
of God. They had no long sessions, in which they were wrestling with God
as though he was insensitive and indifferent upon the subject of the
sinner's salvation.
They were told the story of God's love, and made acquainted with the
great fact that all things were ready for their reception; "that Christ
had finished the work which the Father had given him to do," and that it
only remained for them to believe and obey the Gospel and all would be
well. They were commanded _to convert_ to the service of God. This work
was not given into the hands of Christ to perform. It is the sinner's
own work. Christ will not believe for you. He will not repent for you.
He will not convert for you. Conversion is the overt action of the will
carried out in "breaking off from sins by righteousness." It begins in
the heart, but it does not end there. Murder begins in the heart, but
its consummation is the action of the will carried out. The man first
yielded to the temptation by saying, in his heart, I will. The next
thing in the order was carrying out the will in the deed. Nothing short
of the deed done would have met the statement in the heart, _I will_. So
it is in conversion. The man first says in his heart, _I will_, I will
forsake my former course of life and be a Christian, I will obey God, I
will do his will. And nothing short of doing the will of God as it is
addressed to him in the Gospel will carry out the action of the will,
and meet the demands of the statement, _I will_. "Whosoever will let him
come and take the water of life freely." So the "tree is known by its
fruits." "He that saith I know him, acknowledge him, and keepeth not his
commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1 Jno. ii, 4.
As regards the instrumentalities employed in persuading men, I have only
to say, that men were always free as moral agents, to convert--_turn_,
under the weakest instrumentality, or refuse under the most powerful.
The Lord himself "strove with the ancient Jews by his Spirit in his
prophets, and they would not hear but resisted the Spirit." Stephen,
after he had made one grand effort to instruct his hearers, said, "Ye
stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist
the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did so do ye." Acts vii, 51. Was the
condition of those fellows unavoidable? If it was, they were not to
blame. But there was nothing in their condition that was not in their
power. If there was, why should we find these words in their law,
"circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked."
Deut. x, 16. The Lord has made the salvation of all men possible,
otherwise those remaining in an unconverted state, and dying in their
sins, are unavoidably lost. And who is to blame? The Father "so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son to die for every man. He
sent him to be the Savior of the world. The Gospel is the ministration
of the Spirit. The Apostles preached it with the Holy Spirit sent down
from heaven. They received grace and Apostleship, for the obedience of
faith among all nations, for Christ's name." Rom. i, 5. A great and
grand law governed them. In obeying it they did all that they ever did
for the world or for the church. There were just three duties prescribed
in that law. The first is in the word "teach," or, the _better
rendering_, disciple. The second is in the word "baptizing;" and the
third is in the phrase "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I
have commanded you." The whole is beautifully rendered thus, "Going
therefore, disciple all nations, baptizing them into the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." And the whole is rested
upon a declaration of kingly authority, viz: "All power in heaven and
upon earth is given into my hands," going _therefore_,--you see the
connection.
Go to the Acts of the Apostles and read for yourselves and see how they
turned men to God. Paul says, "That he showed first to them of Damascus,
and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to
the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn, convert, to God, and do
works meet for repentance." Some disobeyed under the preaching and
teaching of the Apostles. Some under the teachings of Christ. And many
"rejected the council of God against themselves in not being baptized of
John's baptism." Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the
gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." Paul was preaching at
Corinth; many of the Corinthians hearing, believed, and were baptized,
and Jesus appeared unto him in a vision by night, and said, "Speak
boldly and hold not thy peace, and I will let no man set on thee to hurt
thee."
Christ gave the commission and Paul was carrying it out. The Savior's
visit to Corinth, in vision, was to encourage Paul to go on. Would all
the preachers in this country encourage such a work by speaking well of
it? Would they say, Go on? If I was preaching in a great city under the
same circumstances that surrounded Paul in Corinth, and the days of
miracles were not past, I might rationally conclude that Jesus would
encourage me in the same manner. Be that as it may, one thing is
doubtless true, viz., the same work is the Lord's work yet, and his
visit to Corinth to encourage Paul is a great source of encouragement to
us. The primitive Christians were all baptized believers; all converted
to the service of God; none of them on probation, but all in the
fellowship. All were "sanctified unto obedience," all had "purified
their souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit." Many reverse the
order thus: "Get your souls purified and then obey the truth." But
Christ has become the "Author of eternal salvation unto all those who
obey him." Heb. v, 9. Jesus said, "Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God." Whatever this
language may mean _it_ is accomplished when the sinner is begotten in
Christ Jesus through the gospel and baptized into Christ.
Paul said of the Corinthians: "In Christ Jesus have I begotten you
through the Gospel." And they, "Hearing, believed and were baptized."
And James said: "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth."
Consequently, the entire meaning is in the power of all sinners who have
access to the Gospel of Christ. Otherwise, the sinner is unavoidably
lost for his unavoidable unbelief. But we are told in John's Record, i,
12, "That as many as received him to them gave he power to become the
sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." So the power of the
sinner to become a son of God depends upon his belief on the name of the
Son of God, and if he can not believe it is no fault of his. _Poor
fellow!_ Is he thus doomed? If he can believe on the name of Christ he
is able to reach the relation of a son. For the divine law grants the
privilege, liberty or power to as many as believe on the name of Christ.
The primitive Christians were the "children of God by faith in Jesus
Christ, for as many as were baptized into Christ put on Christ." Gal.
iii, 26, 27. John said: "Little children, let no man deceive you: he
that doth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous." 1 John
iii, 7. "If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that
doth righteousness is born of him." 1 John ii, 29. The great appeal to
man as a moral agent is in these words: "Know ye not that to whom ye
_yield yourselves_ servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye
obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness."
Rom. vi, 16. Do you not know this? Do you not know that you will
receive, in the great day, according to that which you have done,
whether it be good or bad? Then why not obey the Gospel and enjoy its
promises?
OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO REVELATION--No. VI.