My friends, if you read your Bibles you will find your own pictures there. It just describes you. You may be a Pharisee; if so, turn to the third chapter of John, and see what Christ said to the Pharisee: "Except a man be born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God." But you may say: "I am not a Pharisee; I am a poor miserable sinner, too bad to come to Him." Well, turn to the woman of Samaria, and see what Christ said to her.
While we were in London, Mr. Spurgeon one day in his orphanage told about the boys--that some of them had aunts and some cousins, and that nearly every boy had some friend that took an interest in him, and came to see him and gave him a little pocket money. One day, he said, while he stood there, a little boy came up to him and said:
The boy sat down between Mr. Spurgeon and the elder who was with him, and said:
"Mr. Spurgeon, suppose your father and mother were dead, and you didn't have any cousins, or aunts, or uncles or friends to come and give you pocket money, and give you presents, don't you think you would feel bad? Because that's me!"
Said Mr. Spurgeon: "The minute he said that, I put my right hand down into my pocket and took out some money for him."
The unconverted have a false idea about repentance; they think God is going to make them repent. I was once talking with a man on this subject, and he summed up his whole argument by saying:
"Well," he replied: "Some people it strikes, and some it doesn't. There was a good deal of interest in our town a few years ago, and some of my neighbors were converted, but it didn't strike me."
That man thought that repentance was coming down some day to strike him like lightning. Another man said he expected some sensation, like cold chills down his back.
Repentance isn't feeling. It is turning from sin to God. One of the best definitions was given by a soldier. Some one asked him how he was converted. He said:
"The Lord said to me, _Halt! Attention! Right about face! March!_ and that was all there was in it."
A little child gives a good illustration of faith. Let the wind blow her hat into the river, and she does not worry; she knows her mother will get her another. She lives by faith.
A man in one of our meetings had been brought there against his will; he had come through some personal influence brought to bear upon him. When he got to the meeting, they were singing the chorus of a hymn: