TJ A young soldier, who had led a careless life, but had become afterwards a Christian, described very well the change that had been wrought in him when he said — " Jesus Christ said to me, Eight about face ! And I heard and obeyed Him in my heart." That is exactly what we call " conversion." It is a turning-about of the face — from the world to God. But with the face it is a turning also of the heart.1
2. The life which forms the termination of the one way is as certain as the death which forms the termination of the other. It is in the way of life that God so earnestly desires to see men walking. However far astray they have gone, and however near the confines of the second death they may have come, He beckons them back with His gracious hand, and beseeches them with His most loving voice, " Come now, and let us reason together." Nay, more, He commands them to turn. It is not mere liberty to retrace their steps that He gives them ; He lays His command upon them ; and it is at their peril that they disobey. " Am I at liberty to come to God ? " one asks perhaps. At liberty to come ! Is that the way to put it? At liberty to obey His direct command ! One dare not do otherwise ! There is all the obliga-
1 C. A. Salmond, For Days of Youth, 42.
EZEKIEL xxxiii. n 205
tion that a command can give ; there is a necessity laid upon us, an immediate necessity, a necessity from which nothing can loose us, a necessity arising out of the very righteousness of that God who is commanding us to quit our unrighteousness, a necessity springing from the certain doom that awaits us if we turn not.
T[ God perceives His poor creature standing with his back to Him, looking to idols, looking to sinful pleasures, looking towards the city of destruction, and what does God say to him ? He says, " Turn ! " It is a very plain direction ; is it not ? " Turn," or " Eight about face ! " That is all. " I thought," saith one, " I was to feel so much anguish and so much agony." I should not wonder if you do feel it, but all that God says is, " Turn." You now face the wrong way ; " Turn," and face the right way. That turning is true repentance. A changed life is of the essence of repentance ; and that must spring from a changed heart, from a changed desire, from a changed will.1
3. When man is posting on to death, God, as it were, follows after him, and, standing in the way before him, He spreads out His hands of entreaty, crying, " Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways." God knows the awful fate that awaits the transgressor — a fate to which the transgressor himself is often hastening blindly — and He warns him and pleads with him. He appeals to his reason, to his conscience, to his affections. How deeply affecting is the anxiety of God on man's behalf ! Cold is the heart that can resist His tender entreaty. What is the warmest human appeal compared with the appeal of God to man ? But powerful as that appeal is, it is an appeal and nothing more. God does not compel the will. His influence upon men is suasive. Heaven persuades ; man decrees. The appeal of God is to the free and rational nature of man. Man is not the victim of fate. He is not the creature of circumstances. He can get the better of his environment. The powers of evil which have gotten hold of him may be conquered. It lies with himself to decide whether he will die or live. His power of self-action is here appealed to. " Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways." Why rush on to ruin when you can turn and live? Why perish in sin when the Good Physician is standing near and asking, "Wilt thou be made whole ? " The choice of the will is the fiat of destiny.
1 C. H. Spurge on.
206 GOD AND THE SINNER
T[ We talk about the power of the will, but no effort of will can obliterate the life that we have lived, or add a cubit to our stature ; we cannot abrogate any law of nature, or destroy a single atom of matter. What it seems that we can do with the will is to make a certain choice, to select a certain line, to com- bine existing forces, to use them within very small limits. We can oblige ourselves to take a certain course, when every other inclination is reluctant to do it. Any one who will deliberately test his will, will find that it is stronger than he suspects ; what often weakens our use of it is that we are so apt to look beyond the immediate difficulty into a long perspective of imagined obstacles, and to say within ourselves, " Yes, I may perhaps achieve this immediate step, but I cannot take step after step — my courage will fail ! " Yet if one does make the immediate effort, it is common to find the whole range of obstacles modified by the single act ; and thus the first step towards the attainment of serenity of life is' to practise cutting off the vista of possible contingencies from our view, and to create a habit of dealing with a case as it occurs.1