A FRENCH preacher of the gospel, named Cæsar Malan, when traveling in the provinces on one occasion, met an infidel, with whom he entered into conversation.
In the course of his remarks, he quoted various passages of Holy Scripture.
The infidel told him it was of no use his quoting from that Book to him, inasmuch as he did not believe one word of it; and that he should first establish its authenticity.
Malan replied, " Suppose I were to plunge a sword into your body; there would surely be no need of any logical proof that it was a sword; it would, prove itself by its effect upon your person.”
He then proceeded with the conversation, still quoting from the Word of God.
They parted; but the truth of God did its own work. It entered, as “the sword of the Spirit," into the heart of the infidel, and cut its way through his infidel system, showing it to be a mass of folly, and himself to be a guilty, hell-deserving sinner.
Time rolled on, and, after many years,
Cæsar Malan was one day accosted in the streets of Paris by a gentleman who asked him if he remembered having met him in the stage coach. He then told him that “the Word of God" had, in very deed, proved itself in his case to be "the sword of the Spirit,” and he now needed no logical proof.
“The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart "(Heb. 4:1212For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)). HEB 4:1212For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)
“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received THE WORD OF GOD which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, THE WORD OF GOD, which effectually worketh also in you that believe "(1 Thess. 2:1313For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)). 1TH 2:1313For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
“CAN YOU SPELL REPENTANCE?”
THESE words were once addressed by a dying child to a godless father. The-man was going on in his wickedness, but the child on her sick-bed was bound for heaven, and was soon to be in the presence of Christ.
Unhappy about her wretched parent's state of soul, she one day suddenly addressed him with, "Father, can you spell repentance?”
And through the blessing of God the question was effectual in awakening his conscience.
“Spell repentance!" said he, “Why, what is repentance?”
Nor did God allow him to go unanswered.
He found what a stranger to it he was; a guilty, lost sinner, ready to perish. But through grace "repentance unto life" was granted to him, and he learned to spell out its eternal significance. By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whom God has exalted " to give repentance, and remission of sins," he got “the knowledge of salvation," and lived to bless God for the little question that his dying daughter put to him, and which God used to turn him upside down that He might bless him for eternity. That is the way to spell ' repentance in the school of God! Dear reader, have you ever been to that school, or have you never yet learned to spell?
W. R.