CHARLES SPURGEON CONFESSION OF SIN – A SERMON WITH SEVEN TEXTS
PHARAOH — “I have sinned.” Exodus 9:27
MY sermon this morning will have seven texts, and yet I pledge myself that
there shall be but three different words in the whole of them; for it so
happens that the seven texts are all alike, occurring in seven different
portions of God’s holy Word. I shall require, however, to use the whole of
them to exemplify different cases; and I must request those of you who
have brought your Bibles with you to refer to the texts as I shall mention
them.
The subject of this morning’s discourse will be this — CONFESSION OF SIN.
We know that this is absolutely necessary to salvation. Unless there be a
true and hearty confession of our sins to God, we have no promise that we
shall find mercy through the blood of the Redeemer. “Whosoever
confesseth his sins and forsaketh them shall find mercy.” But there is no
promise in the Bible to the man who will not confess his sins. Yet, as upon
every point of Scripture there is a liability of being deceived, so more
especially in the matter of confession of sin. There be many who make a
confession, and a confession before God, who notwithstanding, receive no
blessing, because their confession has not in it certain marks which are
required by God to prove it genuine and sincere, and which demonstrate it
to be the work of the Holy Spirit. My text this morning consists of three
words, “I have sinned.” And you will see how these words, in the lips of
different men, indicate very different feelings. While one says, “I have
sinned,” and receives forgiveness; another we shall meet with says, “I have
sinned,” and goes his way to blacken himself with worse crimes than
before, and dive into greater depths of sin than heretofore he had
discovered.
THE HARDENED SINNER
PHARAOH — “I have sinned.” Exodus 9:27
I. The first case I shall bring before you is that of the HARDENED SINNER,
who, when under terror, says, “I have sinned.” And you will find the text in
the book of Exodus, the 9th chap. and 27th verse: “And Pharaoh sent, and
called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time:
the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.”
But why this confession from the lips of the haughty tyrant? He was not
often wont to humble himself before Jehovah. Why cloth the proud one
bow himself? You will judge of the value of his confession when you hear
the circumstances under which it was made. “And Moses stretched forth
his rod toward heaven; and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran
along upon the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
So that there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as
there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.”
“Now,” says Pharaoh, whilst the thunder is rolling through the sky, while
the lightning-flashes are setting the very ground on fire, and while the hail
is descending in big lumps of ice, now, says he, “I have sinned.” He is but a
type and specimen of multitudes of the same class. How many a hardened
rebel on shipboard, when the timbers are strained and creaking, when the
mast is broken, and the ship is drifting before the gale, when the hungry
waves are opening their mouths to swallow the ship up alive and quick as
those that go into the pit — how many a hardened sailor has then bowed
his knee, with tears in his eyes, and cried, “I have sinned!” But of what
avail and of what value was his confession? The repentance that was born
in the storm died in the calm; that repentance of his that was begotten
amidst the thunder and the lightning, ceased so soon as all was hushed in
quiet, and the man who was a pious mariner when on board ship, became
the most wicked and abominable of sailors when he placed his foot on
terra firma. How often, too, have we seen this in a storm of thunder and
lightning? Many a man’s cheek is blanched when he hears the thunder
rolling; the tears start to his eyes, and he cries, “O God, I have sinned!”
while the rafters of his house are shaking, and the very ground beneath him
reeling at the voice of God which is full of majesty. But alas, for such a
repentance! When the sun again shines, and the black clouds are
withdrawn, sin comes again upon the man, and he becomes worse than
before. How many of the same sort of confessions, too, have we seen in
times of cholera, and fever, and pestilence! Then our churches have been
crammed with hearers, who, because so many funerals have passed their
doors, or so many have died in the street, could not refrain from going up
to God’s house to confess their sins. And under that visitation, when one,
two, and three have been lying dead in the house, or next door, how many
have thought they would really turn to God! But, alas! when the pestilence
had done its work, conviction ceased, and when the bell had tolled the last
time for a death caused by cholera, then their hearts ceased to beat with
penitence, and their tears did flow no more.
Have I any such here this morning? I doubt not I have hardened persons
who would scorn the very idea of religion, who would count me a cant and
hypocrite if I should endeavor to press it home upon them, but who know
right well that religion is true, and who feel it in their times of terror! If I
have such here this morning, let me solemnly say to them, “Sirs, you have
forgotten the feelings you had in your hours of alarm; but, remember, God
has not forgotten the vows you then made.” Sailor, you said if God would
spare you to see the land again, you would be his servant; you are not so,
you have lied against God, you have made him a false promise, for you
have never kept the vow which your lips did utter. You said, on a bed of
sickness, that if he would spare your life you would never again sin as you
did before, but here you are, and this week’s sins shall speak for
themselves. You are no better than you were before your sickness. Couldst
thou lie to thy fellow-man, and yet go unreproved? And thinkest thou that
thou wilt lie against God, and yet go unpunished? No; the vow, however
rashly made, is registered in heaven, and though it be a vow which man
cannot perform, yet, as it is a vow which he has made himself, and made
voluntarily too, he shall be punished for the non-keeping it; and God shall
execute vengeance upon him at last, because he said he would turn from
his ways, and then when the blow was removed he did it not. A great
outcry has been raised of late against tickets-of-leave; I have no doubt
there are some men here, who before high heaven stand in the same
position as the ticket-of-leave men stand to our government. They were
about to die, as they thought, they promised good behavior if they might be
spared, and they are here to-day on ticket-of-leave in this world: and how
have they fulfilled their promise? Justice might raise the same outcry
against them as they do against the burglars so constantly let loose upon
us. The avenging angel might say, “O God, these men said, if they were
spared they would be so much better; if anything they are worse. How
have they violated their promise, and how have they brought down divine
wrath upon their heads!” This is the first style of penitence; and it is A style
I hope none of you will imitate, for it is utterly worthless. It is of no use for
you to say, “I have sinned,” merely under the influence of terror, and the to
forget it afterwards.
THE DOUBLE-MINDED MAN
BALAAH — “I have sinned.” Numbers 22:34
II. Now for a second text. I beg to introduce to you another character —
the double-minded man, who says, “I have sinned,” and feels that he has,
and feels it deeply too, but who is so worldly-minded that he “loves the
wages of unrighteousness.” The character I have chosen to illustrate this, is
that of Balaam. Turn to the book of Numbers, the 22nd chap. and the 34th
verse: “And Balaam said unto the angel of the Lord, I have sinned.”
“I have sinned,” said Balaam; but yet he went on with his sin afterwards.
One of the strangest characters of the whole world is Balaam. I have often
marvelled at that man; he seems really in another sense to have come up to
the lines of Halph Erskine —
“To good and evil equal bent
And both a devil and a saint.”
For he did seem to be so. At times no man could speak more eloquently
and more truthfully, and at other times he exhibited the most mean and
sordid covetuousness that could disgrace human nature. Think you see
Balaam; he stands upon the brow of the hill, and there lie the multitudes of
Israel at his feet, he is bidden to curse them, and he cries, “How shall I
curse whom God hath not cursed?” And God opening his eyes, he begins
to tell even about the coming of Christ, and he says, “I shall see him, but
not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh.” And then he winds up his
oration by saying — “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last
end be like his!” And ye will say of that man, he is a hopeful character.
Wait till he has come off the brow of the hill, and ye will hear him give the
most diabolical advice to the king of Moab which it was even possible for
Satan himself to suggest. Said he to the king, “You cannot overthrow these
people in battle, for God is with them; try and entice them from their God.”
And ye know how with wanton lusts they of Moab tried to entice the
children of Israel from allegiance to Jehovah, so that this man seemed to
have the voice of an angel at one time, and yet the very soul of a devil in
his bowels. He was a terrible character; he was a man of two things, a man
who went all the way with two things to a very great extent. I know the
Scripture says, “No man can serve two masters.” Now this is often
misunderstood. Some read it, “No man can serve two masters.” Yes he
can, he can serve three or four. The way to read it is this: “No man can
serve two masters.” They cannot both be masters. He can serve two, but
they cannot both be his master. A man can serve two who are not his
masters, or twenty either, he may live for twenty different purposes, but he
cannot live for more than one master purpose — there can only be one
master purpose in his soul. But Balaam labored to serve two, it was like
the people of whom it was said, “They feared the Lord, and served other
gods.” Or like Rufus, who was a loaf of the same leaven; for you know our
old king Rufus painted God on one side of his shield, and the devil on the
other, and had underneath, the motto: “Ready for both “catch who can.”
There are many such, who are ready for both. They meet a minister, and
how pious and holy they are, on the Sabbath they are the most respectable
and upright people in the world, as you would think; indeed they effect a
drawling in their speech, which they think to be eminently religious. But on
a week day, if you want to find the greatest rogues and cheats, they are
some of those men who are so sanctimonious in their piety. Now, rest
assured, my hearers, that no confession of sin can be genuine, unless it be a
whole hearted one. It is of no use for you to say, “I have sinned,” and then
keep on sinning. “I have sinned,” say you, and it is a fair, fair face you
show; but, alas, alas I for the sin you will go away and commit. Some men
seem to be born with two characters. I remarked when in the library at
Trinity College, Cambridge, a very fine statue of Lord Byron. The librarian
said to me, “Stand here, sir.” I looked, and I said, “What a fine intellectual
countenance! What a grand genius he was!” “some here,” he said” to the
other side.” “Ah! what a demon! There stands the man that could defy the
deity.” He seemed to have such a scowl and such a dreadful leer in his face;
even as Milton would have painted Satan when he said — “Better to reign
in hell than serve in heaven.” I turned away and said to the librarian, “Do
you think the artist designed this?” “Yes,” he said, “he wished to picture
the two characters — the great, the grand, the almost superhuman genius
that he possessed, and yet the enormous mass of sin that was in his soul.”
There are some men here of the same sort. I dare say, like Balaam, they
would overthrow everything in argument with their enchantments, they
could work miracles; and yet at the same time there is something about
them which betrays a horrid character of sin, as great as that which would
appear to be their character for righteousness. Balaam, you know, offered
sacrifices to God upon the altar of Baal: that was just the type of his
character. So many do; they offer sacrifices to God on the shrine of
Mammon; and whilst they will give to the building of a church, and
distribute to the poor, they will at the other door of their counting-house
grind the poor for bread, and press the very blood out of the widow, that
they may enrich themselves. Ah! it is idle and useless for you to say, “I
have sinned,” unless you mean it from your heart. That double minded
man’s confession is of no avail.
THE INSINCERE MAN
SAUL — ”I have sinned.” 1 Samuel 15:24
III. And now a third character, and a third text. In the first book of
Samuel, the 15th chap. and 24th verse: “And Saul said unto Samuel, I have
sinned”
Here is the insincere man — the man who is not like Balaam, to a certain
extent sincere in two things; but the man who is just the opposite — who
has no prominent point in his character at all, but is moulded everlastingly
by the circumstances that are passing over his head. Such a man was Saul.
Samuel reproved him, and he said, “I have sinned.” But he did not mean
what he said: for if you read the whole verse you will find him saying “I
have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and
thy words, because I feared the people:” which was a lying excuse. Saul
never feared anybody; he was always ready enough to do his own will —
he was the despot. And just before he had pleaded another excuse, that he
had saved the bullocks and lambs to offer to Jehovah, and therefore both
excuses could not have been true. You remember, my friends, that the
most prominent feature in the character of Saul was his insincerity. One
day he fetched David from his bed, as he thought, to put him to death in his
house. Another I time he declares, “God forbid that I should do aught
against thee, my son David.” One day, because David saved his life, he
said, “Thou art more righteous than I; I will do so no more.” The day
before he had gone out to fight against trio own son-in-law, in order to slay
him. Sometimes Saul was among the prophets, easily turned into a prophet,
and then afterwards among the witches; sometimes in one place, and then
another, and insincere in everything. How many such we have in every
Christian assembly; men who are very easily moulded! Say what you please
to them, they always agree with you. They have affectionate dispositions,
very likely a tender conscience; but then the conscience is so remarkably
tender, that when touched it seems to give, and you are afraid to probe
deeper, — it heals as soon it is wounded. I think I used the very singular
comparison once before, which I must use again: there are some men who
seem to have indict-rubber hearts. If you do but touch them, there is an
impression made at once; but then it is of no use, it soon restores itself to
its original character. You may press them whatever way you wish, they
arc so elastic you can always effect your purpose; but then they are not
fixed in their character, and soon return to be what they were before. O
sirs, too many of you have done the same, you have bowed your heads in
church, and said, “We have erred and strayed from thy ways;” and you did
not mean what you said. You have come to your minister; you have said,
“I repent of my sins;” you did not then feel you were a sinner; you only
said it to please him. And now you attend the house of God; no one more
impressible than you; the tear will run down your cheek in a moment, but
yet, notwithstanding all that, the tear is dried as quickly as it is brought
forth, and you remain to all intents and purposes the same as you were
before. To say, “I have sinned,” in an unmeaning manner, is worse than
worthless, for it is a mockery of God thus to confess with insincerity of
heart.
I have been brief upon this character; for it seemed to touch upon that of
Balaam; though any thinking man will at once see there was a real contrast
between Saul and Balaam, even though there is an affinity between the
two. Balaam was the great bad man, great in all he did; Saul was little in
everything except in stature — little in his good and little in his vice, and he
was too much of a fool to be desperately bad, though too wicked to be at
any time good: while Balaam was great in both: the man who could at one
time defy Jehovah, and yet at another time could say, “If Balak would give
me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the
Lord my God, to do less or more.”
THE DOUBTFUL PENITENT
ACHAN — “I have sinned.” Joshua 7:20
IV. And now I have to introduce to you a very interesting case; it is the
case of the doubtful penitent, the case of Achan, in the book of Joshua, the
7th chap. and the 20th verse: “And Achan answered Joshua, indeed I have
sinned.”
You know that Achan stole some of the prey from the city of Jericho —
that he was discovered by lot, and put to death. I have singled this case out
as the representative of some whose characters are doubtful on their death
beds; who do repent apparently, but of whom the most we can say is, that
we hope their souls are saved at last, but indeed we cannot tell. Achan, you
are aware, was stoned with stones, for defiling Israel. But I find in the
Mishna, an old Jewish exposition of the Bible, these words, “Joshua said to
Achan, the Lord shall trouble thee this day.” And the note upon it is —
“He said this day, implying that he was only to be troubled in this life, by
being stoned to death, but that God would have mercy on his soul, seeing
that he had made a full confession of his sin.” And I, too, am inclined, from
reading the chapter, to concur in the idea of my venerable and now
glorified predecessor, Dr. Gill, in believing that Achan really was saved,
although he was put to death for the crime, as an example. For you will
observe how kindly Joshua spoke to him. He said, “My son, give, I pray
thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him, and
tell me now what thou hast done, hide it not from me.” And you find
Achan making a very full confession. He says, “Indeed I have sinned
against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. When I saw
among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels
of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them,
and took them, and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my
tent, and the silver under it.” It seems so full a confession, that if I might be
allowed to judge, I should say, “I hope to meet Achan the sinner, before
the throne of God “But I and Matthew Henry has no such opinion; and
many other expositors consider that as his body was destroyed, so was his
soul. I have, therefore, selected his case, as being one of doubtful
repentance. Ah! dear friends, it has been my lot to stand by many a deathbed,
and to see many such a repentance as this I have seen the man, when
worn to a skeleton, sustained by pillows in his bed; and he has said, when I
have talked to him of judgment to come, “Sir, I feel I have been guilty, but
Christ is good; I trust in him.” And I have said within myself, “I believe the
man’s soul is safe.” But I have always come away with the melancholy
reflection that I had no proof of it, beyond his own words, for it needs
proof in acts and in future life, in order to sustain any firm conviction of a
man’s salvation. You know that great fact, that a physician once kept a
record of a thousand persons who thought they were dying, and whom he
thought were penitents; he wrote their names down in a book as those,
who, if they had died, would go to heaven; they did not die, they lived; and
he says that out of the whole thousand he had not three persons who
turned out well afterwards, but they returned to their sins again, and were
as bad as ever. Ah! dear friends, I hope none of you will have such a deathbed
repentance as that. I hope your minister or your parents will not have
to stand by your bedside, and then go away and say, “Poor fellow, I hope
he is saved. But alas! death-bed repentances are such flimsy things, such
poor such trivial grounds of hope, that I am afraid, after all, his soul may
be lost.” Oh, to die with a full assurance, oh! to die with an abundant
entrance, leaving a testimony behind that we have departed this life in
peace! That is a far happier way than to die in a doubtful manner, lying
sick, hovering between two worlds, and neither ourselves nor yet our
friends knowing to which of the two worlds we are going. May God grant
us grace to give in our lives evidences of true conversion, that our case
may not be doubtful!
THE REPENTANCE OF DESPAIR
JUDAS — “I have sinned.” Matthew 27:4
V. I shall not detain you too long, I trust, but I must now give you another
bad case the worst of all. It is the THE REPENTANCE OF DESPAIR. Will you
turn to the 27th chap. of Matthew, and the 4th verse? There you have a
dreadful case of the repentance of despair You will recognize the character
the moment I read the verse: “And Judas said, I have sinned.” Yes, Judas
the traitor, who had betrayed his Master, when he saw that his Master was
condemned, “repented, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the
chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed
innocent blood, and cast down the pieces in the temple, and went” and
what? — “and hanged himself.” Here is the worst kind of repentance of
all: in fact, I know not that I am justified in calling it repentance; it must be
called remorse of conscience. But Judas did confess his sin, and then went
and hanged himself. Oh! that dreadful, that terrible, that hideous confession
of despair. Have you never seen it? If you never have, then bless God that
you never were called to see such a sight. I have seen it once in my life, I
pray God I may never see it again, — the repentance of the man who sees
death staring him in the face, and who says, “I have sinned.” You tell him
that Christ has died for sinners; and he answers, “There is no hope for me.
I have cursed God to his face; I have defied him; my day of grace I know is
past, my conscience is seared with a hot iron; I am dying, and I know I
shall be lost!” Such a case as that happened long ago, you know, and is on
record — the case of Francis Spira — the most dreadful case, perhaps,
except that of Judas, which is upon record in the memory of man. Oh! my
hearers, will any of you have such a repentance? If you do, it will be a
beacon to all persons who sin in future, if you have such a repentance as
that, it will be a warning to generations yet to come. In the life of Benjamin
Keach — and he also was one of my predecessors — I find the case of a
man who had been a professor of religion, but had departed from the
profession, and had gone into awful sin. When he came to die Keach, with
many other friends, went to see him, but they could never stay with him
above five minutes at a time, for he said, “Get ye gone; it is of no use your
coming to me; I have sinned away the Holy Ghost; I am like Esau, I have
sold my birthright, and though I seek it carefully with tears, I can never
find it again.” And then he would repeat dreadful words, like these: “My
mouth is filled with gravel stones, and I drink wormwood day and night.
Tell me not tell me not of Christ! I know he is a Savior, but I hate him and
he hates me. I know I must die. I know I must perish!” And then followed
doleful cries, and hideous noises, such as none could bear. They returned
again in his placid moments only to stir him up once more, and make him
cry out in his despair, “I am lost! I am lost! It is of no use your telling me
anything about it!” Ah! there may be a man here who may have such a
death as that, let me warn him, ere he come to it; and may God the Holy
Spirit grant that that man may be turned unto God, and made a true
penitent, and then he need not have any more fear; for he who has had his
sins washed away in a Saviour’s blood, need not have any remorse for his
sins, for they are pardoned through the Redeemer.
THE PREPENTANCE OF THE SAINT
Job. — “I have sinned.” Job 6:20
VI. And now I come into daylight. I have been taking you through dark
and dreary confessions. I shall detain you there no longer, but bring you
out to the two good confessions which I have to read to you. The first is
that of Job in 7th chap, at the 20th verse: “I have sinned; what shall I do
unto thee, O thou preserver of men?” This is the repentance of the saint.
Job was a saint, but he sinned. This is the repentance of the man who is a
child of God already, an acceptable repentance before God. But as I intend
to dwell upon this in the evening, I shall now leave it, for fear of wearying
you. David was a specimen of this kind of repentance, and I would have
you carefully study his penitential psalms, the language of which is ever full
of weeping humility and earnest penitence.
THE BLESSED CONFESSION
THE PRODICAL — “I have sinned.” Luke 15:18
VII. I come now to the last instance, which I shall mention; it is the case
of the prodigal. In Luke 15:18, we find the prodigal says: “Father I have
sinned.” Oh, here is a blessed confession! Here is that which proves a man
to be a regenerate character — “Father, I have sinned.” Let me picture the
scene. There is the prodigal; he has run away from a good home and a kind
father, and he has spent all his money with harlots, and now he has none
left. He goes to his old companions, and asks them for relief. They laugh
him to scorn. “Oh,” says he, “you have drunk my wine many a day; I have
always stood paymaster to you in all our revelries; will you not help me?”
“Get you gone” they say; and he is turned out of doors. He goes to all his
friends with whom he had associated, but no man gives him anything. At
last a certain citizen of the country said, — “You want something to do, do
you? Well go and feed my swine.” The poor prodigal, the son of a rich
landowner, who had a great fortune of his own, has to go out to feed
swine; and he a Jew too! — the worst employment (to his mind,) to which
he could be put. See him there, in squalid rags, feeding swine; and what are
his wages? Why, so little, that he “would fain have filled his belly with the
husks the swine eat, but no man gave to him.” Look, there he is, with the
fellow commoners of the sty, in all his mire and filthiness. Suddenly a
thought put there by the good Spirit, strikes his mind. “How is it,” says he,
“that in my father’s house there is bread enough and to spare, and I perish
with hunger? I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father,
I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be
called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.” Off he goes. He
begs his way from town to town. Sometimes he gets a lift on a coach,
perhaps, but at other times he goes trudging his way up barren hills and
down desolate vales, all alone. And now at last he comes to the hill outside
the village, and sees his father’s house down below. There it is; the old
poplar tree against it, and there are the stacks round which he and his
brother used to run and play; and at the sight of the old homestead all the
feelings and associations of his former life rush upon him, and tears run
down his cheeks, and he is almost ready to run away again. He says “I
wonder whether father’s dead I daresay mother broke her heart when I
went away; I always was her favorite. And if they are either of them alive,
they will never see me again; they will shut the door in my face. What am I
to do? I cannot go back, I am afraid to go forward.” And while he was
thus deliberating, his father had been walking on the housetop, looking out
for his son; and though he could not see his father, his father could see him.
Well, the father comes down stairs with all his might, runs up to him, and
whilst he is thinking of running away, his father’s arms are round his neck,
and he falls-to kissing him, like a loving father indeed, and then the son
begins, — ”Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am
no more worthy to be called thy son,” and he was going to say, “Make me
as one of thy hired servants.” But his father puts his hand on his mouth.
“No more of that,” says he; “I forgive you all; you shall not say anything
about being a hired servant — I will have none of that. Come along,” says
he, “come in, poor prodigal. Ho!” says he to the servants, “bring hither the
best robe, and put it on him, and put shoes on his poor bleeding feet; and
bring hither the fatted calf and kill it; and let us eat and be merry. For this
my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found. And they
began to be merry.” Oh, what a precious reception for one of the chief of
sinners! Good Matthew Henry says — “His father saw him, there were
eyes of mercy; he ran to meet him, there were legs of mercy; he put his
arms round his neck, there were arms of mercy; he kissed him, there were
kisses of mercy; he said to him — there were words of mercy, — Bring
hither the best robe, there were deeds of mercy, wonders of mercy — all
mercy. Oh, what a God of mercy he is.”
Now, prodigal, you do the same. Has God put it into your heart? There are
many who have been running away a long time now. Does God say
“return?” Oh, I bid you return, then, for as surely as ever thou dost return
he will take thee in. There never was a poor sinner yet who came to Christ,
whom Christ turned away. If he turns you away, you will be the first. Oh, if
you could but try him! “Ah, sir, I am so black, so filthy, so vile.” Well
come along with you — you cannot be blacker than the prodigal. Come to
your Father’s house, and as surely as he is God he will keep his word —
“Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.”
Oh, if I might hear that some had come to Christ this morning, I would
indeed bless God! I must tell here for the honor of God and Christ, one
remarkable circumstance, and then I have done. You will remember that
one morning I mentioned the case of an infidel who had been a scorner and
scoffer, but who, through reading one of my printed sermons, had been
brought to God’s house and then to God’s feet. Well, last Christmas day,
the same infidel gathered together all his books, and went into the
marketplace at Norwich, and there made a public recantation of all his errors, and a profession of Christ, and then taking up all his books which he had written, and had in his house, on evil subjects, burned them in the sight of the people. I have blessed God for such a wonder of grace as that, and pray
that there may be many more such, who, though they be born prodigal, will
yet return home, saying, “I have sinned.”