[An Extract of a Letter.]
... When I wrote to you last, I did not forget that you knew all that I was writing, so far as mere theoretical knowledge is concerned, and I did but seek to remind you of truths which I knew you had already heard. But it is one thing to hear all these truths from a preacher, and quite a different thing to be convinced of their truth in such a way that your life shall be changed, both as to the manner and prospects of it—a change that is not attained either by education, self-improvement, imitation of good examples, good resolutions, or anything in yourself; but it is the result of vital faith, the free and undeserved gift of God to all who receive Christ Jesus as their Saviour, and believe on Him as the Son of God.
You say that an example is needed, and there I quite agree with you; but I do not know of any man either here or elsewhere fit to be an example for a Christian man. There is but one example for such a one, and that is His Lord, whose life is minutely recorded, that we may study Him as our example, and by so doing be directed along the narrow path, which is Himself—the way. It is quite a mistake to imagine that self-improvement in any way is that which God expects from any of His wandering creatures as the first step in their return to Him. If this were required, none would ever return to Him at all, for the beet man living never did nor could improve himself to such a degree as to be worthy of God’s forgiveness. All ideas of self-improvement, or services being required to propitiate God and to induce Him to receive you, are but inventions of Satan to prevent you. God is already propitiated by the atonement of Christ, who is “the propitiation for our sins and the whole world.”
The moment a sinner takes his true place, feeling and confessing himself one thoroughly lost, guilty, and undone—one who is so bad that he cannot possibly be worse, there is an immediate, perfect, and divine settlement of the question of himself and his sins. The grace of God deals with sinners, not self-improved men; and when you know yourself to be a sinner, you know yourself to be one whom Christ came to save, and the more clearly any one can prove you to be a sinner, the more plainly he establishes your title to the love of God and the work of Christ. For “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God,” and therefore—
“Just as I am—without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidet me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come!”
I wish you could be induced to take the step pointed out in this little verse. It is a hard matter for a man to be convinced that he is really a sinner and needs a Saviour, for an unconverted man often does that which seems perfectly right and reasonable, and therefore is not easily convinced that his whole life has been wrong; but if you compare your life with the requirements of God’s law, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy strength, and with all thy soul, and thy neighbor as thyself,” then you must see that you have failed to do that which it requires, and therefore, with all the rest of Adam’s sons, you are a sinner. But God, when He pronounced the curse upon all Adam’s race, provided the means by which all might return to Him; for He desires that none should perish, but that all should come to Him and have life, and by that very means Christ Jesus (I think His word will warrant me in stating) is ready and anxious to receive you now. If you could indeed realize the tact that God is love, and loves you and wishes your return, I think you would not refuse much longer. What other principle but love could ever have induced Him to allow His holy One to die for sinners? the most perfect manifestation of perfect and divine love. You remember that in the parable the prodigal returned to his father in his rags, and that the father did not reproach him for his ragged condition, but received him just as he was, and further ordered the best robe to be put on him. So with our Father; if you will return to Him in your rags (that is, your sins), with the prodigal’s confession, He will not reproach you for your sins, but will at once forgive you, cleanse you from all of them in the blood of Christ, and clothe you with perfect righteousness.