#A MIGHTY SAVIOR
"Mighty to save."
- Isaiah 63:1
THIS, of course, refers to our blessed Lord Jesus Christ who is described as "coming from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah." And who, when questioned who He is, replies, "I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save." It will be well, then, at the commencement of our discourse, to make one or two remarks concerning the mysteriously complex person of the man and God whom we call our Redeemer—Jesus Christ our Savior. It is one of the mysteries of the Christian religion that we are taught to believe that Christ is God and yet a man. According to Scripture, we hold that He is "very God," equal and co-eternal with the Father, possessing, as His Father does, all divine attributes in an infinite degree. He participated with His Father in all the acts of His divine might. He was concerned in the decree of election, in the fashioning of the covenant, in the creation of the angels, in the making of the world when it was wheeled from nothing into space and in the ordering of this fair frame of nature. Before any of these acts, the divine Redeemer was the eternal Son of God. "From everlasting to everlasting He is God." Nor did He cease to be God when He became man. He was equally "God over all, blessed forever more," when He was "the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief," as before His incarnation. We have abundant proof of that in the constant affirmations of Scripture and, indeed, also in the miracles which He worked. The raising of the dead, the treading of the billows of the ocean, the hushing of the winds and the rending of the rocks—all those marvelous acts of His—which we have not time here to mention, were strong and potent proofs that He is God! He is most truly God, even when He condescended to be man. And Scripture most certainly teaches us that He is God, now, that He shares the throne of His Father—that He sits "high above all principalities and powers and every name that is named"—and is the true and proper object of the veneration, the worship and the homage of all worlds.
We are equally taught to believe that He is man. Scripture informs us that, on a day appointed, He came from heaven and did become man as well as God, taking upon Himself the nature of a baby in the manger of Bethlehem. From that baby, we are told He did grow to the stature of manhood, and became "bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh," in everything except our sin. His sufferings, His hunger— above all His death and burial—are strong proofs that He was man, most truly man, and yet it is demanded of us by the Christian religion to believe that while He was man, He was most truly God. We are taught that He was a "child born, a son given," and at the same time, the "Wonderful, the Counselor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father." Whoever would have a clear and right view of Jesus must not mingle His natures. We must not consider Him as a God diluted into deified manhood, or as a mere man officially exalted to the Godhead, but as being two distinct natures in one person. Not God melted into man, nor man made into God but man and God taken into union together. And therefore we trust in Him as the Mediator, Son of God and Son of Man. This is the person who is our Savior. It is this glorious yet mysterious being, of whom the text speaks, when it says, He is mighty—"mighty to save."
That He is mighty, we need not inform you, for as readers of the Scriptures you all believe in the might and majesty of the incarnate Son of God. You believe Him to be the Regent of providence, the King of death, the Conqueror of hell, the Lord of angels, the Master of storms, and the God of battles, and therefore you need no proof that He is mighty. The subject of this morning is one part of His mightiness—He is "mighty to save." May God the Holy Spirit help us in briefly entering upon this subject, and make use of it to the salvation of our souls!
First, we shall consider that _what is meant by the words, "to save"; s_econdly, how we prove the fact that He is "mighty to save"; thirdly, the reason why He is "mighty to save"; and then, fourthly, the inferences which are to be deduced from the doctrine that Jesus Christ is "mighty to save."
I. First, then, WHAT ARE WE TO UNDERSTAND BY THE WORDS, "TO SAVE"?
Commonly, most men, when they read these words, consider them to mean salvation from hell. They are partially correct, but the notion is highly defective. It is true Christ does save men from the penalty of their guilt. He does take those to heaven who deserve the eternal wrath and displeasure of the Most High. It is true that He does blot out "iniquity, transgression and sin" and that the iniquities of the remnant of His people are passed over for the sake of His blood and atonement. But that is not the whole meaning of the words, "to save." This deficient explanation lies at the root of mistakes which many theologians have made and by which they have surrounded their system of divinity with mist. They have said that to save is to pluck men as brands from the burning—to save them from destruction—if they repent. Now, it means vast, I had almost said, infinitely more than this! "To save" means something more than just delivering penitents from going down to hell. By the words, "to save," I understand the whole of the great work of salvation, from the first holy desire, the first spiritual conviction, onward to complete sanctification! All this is done of God through Jesus Christ. Christ is not only mighty to save those who repent, but He is able to make men repent! He is engaged not merely to carry those to heaven who believe, but He is mighty to give men new hearts and to work faith in them. He is mighty not merely to give heaven to one who wishes for it, but He is mighty to make the man who hates holiness, love it, to constrain the despiser of His name to bend his knee before Him and to make the most abandoned reprobate turn from the error of his ways!
By the words, "to save," I do not understand how some men define them! They tell us that Christ came into the world to put all men into a "salvable state"—to make the salvation of all men possible by their own exertions. I believe that Christ came for no such thing—that He came into the world not to put men into a salvable state but into a saved state! Not to put them where they could save themselves, but to do the work in them and for them, from the first even to the last! If I believe that Christ came only to put you, my hearers, and myself into a state where we might save ourselves, I should give up preaching henceforth and forever, for I know a little of the wickedness of men’s hearts because I know something of my own—I know how much men naturally hate the religion of Christ! I would despair of any success in preaching a gospel which effects depended upon the voluntary acceptance of it by unrenewed and unregenerate men! If I did not believe that there was a might going forth with the word of Jesus which makes men willing in the day of His power—which turns them from the error of their ways by the mighty, overwhelming compelling force of a divine and mysterious influence—I would cease to glory in the cross of Christ! Christ, we repeat, is mighty not merely to put men into a salvable condition, but absolutely and entirely mighty to save them! This fact I regard as one of the grandest proofs of the divine character of the Bible revelation. I have many a time had doubts and fears, as most of you have had— and where is the strong believer who has not sometimes wavered? I have said within myself, "Is this religion true, which, day after day I incessantly preach to the people? Is it the correct one? Is it true that this religion has an influence upon mankind?" And I will tell you how I have reassured myself. I have looked upon the hundreds, no, upon the thousands whom I have around me who were once the vilest of the vile—drunks, swearers and such like—and I now see them "clothed and in their right mind," walking in holiness and in the fear of God. And I have said within myself, "This must be the truth of God, then, because I see its marvelous effects." It is true because it is efficient for purposes which error never could accomplish! It exerts an influence among the lowest order of mortals and over the most abominable of our race. It is a power, an irresistible agent of good—who then shall deny it? I take it that the highest proof of Christ’s power is not that He offers salvation, not that He bids you take it if you will, but that when you reject it, when you hate it, when you despise it, He has a power whereby He can change your mind, make you think differently from your former thoughts and turn you from the error of your ways! This I conceive to be the meaning of the text—"mighty to save."
But it is not all the meaning! Our Lord is not only mighty to make men repent, to quicken the dead in sin, to turn them from their follies and their iniquities—He is exalted to do more than that! He is mighty to keep them Christians after He has made them so and mighty to preserve them in His fear and love until He consummates their spiritual existence in heaven! Christ’s might does not lie in making a believer and then leaving him to shift for himself afterwards. No, He who begins the good work carries it on! He who imparts the first germ of life which quickens the dead soul, gives afterwards the life which prolongs the divine existence and bestows that mighty power which at last bursts asunder every bond of sin and lands the soul perfected in heaven! We hold and teach and we believe upon Scriptural authority that all men unto whom Christ has given repentance must infallibly hold in their way! We believe that God never begins a good work in a man without finishing it. We believe that He never makes a man truly alive to spiritual things without carrying on that work in his soul even to the end by giving him a place among the choirs of the sanctified. We do not think that Christ’s power dwells in merely bringing me one day into grace and then telling me to keep myself there, but in so putting me into a gracious state and giving me such an inward life and such a power within myself that I can no more turn back than the very sun in the heavens can stay itself in its course, or cease to shine! Beloved, we regard this as signified by the term, "mighty to save." This is commonly called Calvinistic doctrine—it is none other than Christian doctrine—the doctrine of the Holy Bible. In spite of the fact that it is now called Calvinism, it could not be so called in Augustine’s days. And yet in Augustine’s works you find the very same things! And it is not to be called Augustinism, for it is to be found in the writings of the apostle Paul! And yet it was not called Paulism simply for this reason—it is the expansion, the fullness of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ! To repeat what we have said before—we hold and boldly teach that Jesus Christ is not merely able to save men who put themselves in His way and who are willing to be saved, but that He is able to make men willing—that He is able to make the drunk renounce his drunkenness and come to Him—that he is able to make the despiser bend his knees, and make hard hearts melt before His love. Now, it is ours to show that He is able to do so.
II. HOW CAN WE PROVE THAT CHRIST IS "MIGHTY TO SAVE"?
We will give you the strongest argument first. And we shall need but one. The argument is that He has done it! We need no other. It would be superfluous to add another. He has saved men! He has saved them in the full extent and meaning of the word which we have endeavored to explain. But in order to set this truth in a clear light, we will suppose the worst of cases. It is very easy to imagine, some say, that when Christ’s gospel is preached to some here who are amiable and lovely and have always been trained up in the fear of God, they will receive the gospel in the love of it. Very well, then, we will not take such a case. You see this South Sea Islander? He has just been eating a diabolical meal of human flesh. He is a cannibal! On his belt are slung the scalps of men whom he has murdered, and in whose blood he glories. If you land on the coast, he will eat you, too, unless you mind what you are doing! That man bows himself before a block of wood. He is a poor ignorant debased creature—very little removed from the brute animal. Now, has Christ’s gospel power to tame that man, to take the scalps from his belt, to make him give up his bloody practices, renounce his gods, and become a civilized and Christian? You know, my dear friends, you talk about the power of education in England. There may be a great deal in it—education may do very much for some who are here—not in a spiritual, but in a natural way. But what would education do with this savage? Go and try! Send the best schoolmaster in England over to him—he will eat him before the day is up! That will be all the good of it. But if the missionary goes with Christ’s gospel, what will become of him? Why, in multitudes of cases, he has been the pioneer of civilization and, under the providence of God, has escaped a cruel death. He goes with love in his hands and in his eyes. He speaks to the savage. And mark you, we are now telling facts, not dreams! The savage drops his tomahawk. He says, "It is marvelous. The things that this man tells me are wonderful. I will sit down and listen." He listens and the tears roll down his cheeks. A feeling of humanity which never burned within his soul, before, is kindled in him. He says, "I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ" and soon he is clothed and in his right mind and becomes in every respect a man—such a man as we could desire all men to be! Now we say that this is proof that Christ’s gospel does not come to the mind that is prepared for it, but prepares the mind for itself. Christ does not merely put the seed into the ground that has been prepared beforehand, but plows the ground, too—yes, and harrows it and does the whole of the work! He is able to do all this. Ask our missionaries who are in Africa in the midst of the greatest barbarians in the world—ask them whether Christ’s gospel is able to save! They will point to the kraal of the Afrikaan and then they will point to the houses of the Kuraman and they will say, "What has made this difference but the word of the gospel of Christ Jesus?" Yes, dear brothers and sisters, we have had proofs enough in heathen countries. And we need say no more but merely to add this—we have had proofs enough at home! There are some who preach a gospel which is very well fitted to train man in morals, but utterly unfit to save him. They preach a gospel which does well enough to keep men sober when they have become drunkards. It is a good thing enough to supply them with a kind of life when they have it already—but not to quicken the dead and save the soul—and it can give up to despair the very characters whom Christ’s gospel was most of all intended to affect. I could tell you of some who have plunged head-first into the blackest gulfs of sin which would horrify you and me, if we would allow them to recount their guilt. I could tell you how they have come into God’s house with their teeth set against the minister—determined that say what he would, they might listen but it would only be to scoff! They stayed a moment. Some word arrested their attention. They thought within themselves, "I will hear that sentence." It was some pointed, terse saying that entered into their souls. They knew not how it was, but they were spell-bound and stood to listen a little longer. And, by-and-by, unconsciously to themselves, the tears began to fall and when they went away they had a strange, mysterious feeling about them that led them to their chambers. Down they fell on their knees! The story of their life was all told before God. He gave them peace through the blood of the Lamb and they went to God’s house, many of them, to say, "Come and hear what God has done for my soul," and to—
"Tell to sinners round
What a dear Savior they had found."
Remember the case of John Newton, the great and mighty preacher—an instance of the power of God to change the heart, as well as to give peace when the heart is changed. Ah, dear hearers, I often think within myself, "This is the greatest proof of the Savior’s power." Let another doctrine be preached—will it do the same? If it will, why not let every man gather a crowd round him and preach it? Will it really do it? If it will, then the blood of men’s souls must rest upon the man who does not boldly proclaim it! If he believes his gospel saves souls, how does he account for it that he stands in his pulpit from the first of January till the last of December, and never hears of a harlot made honest, nor of a drunk reclaimed? Why? For this reason—that it is a poor dilution of Christianity! It is something like it, but it is not the bold, broad Christianity of the Bible! It is not the full gospel of the blessed God, for that has power to save! But if they do believe that theirs is the gospel, let them preach it, and let them strive with all their might to win souls from sin. We say again that we have proof positive in cases even here before us, that Christ is mighty to save even the worst of men and women—to turn them from follies in which they have too long indulged! And we believe that the same gospel preached elsewhere would produce the same results.
The best proof you can ever have of God’s being mighty to save, dear hearers, is that He saved you. Ah, my dear hearer, it would be a miracle if He would save the fellow that stands by your side. But it would be more a miracle if He would save you! What are you this morning? "I am an infidel," says one, "I hate and despise Christ’s religion." But suppose, sir, there should be such a power in that religion that one day you should be brought to believe it? What would you say, then? Ah, I know you would be in love with that gospel forever, for you would say, "I, above all men, was the last to receive it. And yet here I am, I know not how, brought to love it." Oh, such a man, when compelled to believe, makes the most eloquent preacher in the world! "Ah, but," says another, "I have been a Sabbath-breaker upon principle. I despise the Sabbath! I utterly and entirely hate everything religious." Well, I can never prove religion to you to be true unless it would ever lay hold of you and make you a new man. Then you will say there is something in it. "We speak what we do know and testify that we have seen." When we have felt the change it works in ourselves, then we speak of facts and not of fancies, and we speak very boldly too! We say again, then, He is "mighty to save."
III. But now it is asked, "WHY IS CHRIST MIGHTY TO SAVE"? To this there are many answers.
First, if we understand the word, "save," in the popular acceptation of the word, which is not, after all, the full one, though a true one—if we understand salvation to mean the pardon of sin and salvation from hell—Christ is mighty to save because of the infinite efficacy of His atoning blood. Sinner! Black as you are with sin, Christ this morning is able to make you whiter than the driven snow! You ask why? I will tell you. He is able to forgive because He has been punished for your sin. If you know and feel yourself to be a sinner; if you have no hope or refuge before God but in Christ, then be it known that Christ is able to forgive you because He was once punished for the very sins which you have committed, and therefore He can freely remit because the punishment has been entirely paid by Himself! Whenever I get on this subject, I am tempted to tell a story. And though I have told it times enough in the hearing of many of you, others of you have never heard it and it is the simplest way I know of setting out the belief I have in the atonement of Christ. Once a poor Irishman came to me in my vestry; he announced himself something in this way—"Your Reverence, I’m come to ask you a question." "In the first place," said I, "I am not a ‘reverend,’ nor do I claim the title. And in the next place, why don’t you go and ask your priest the question?" Said he, "Well, Your rev—sir, I meant—I did go to him but he did not answer me exactly to my satisfaction. So I have come to ask you, and if you will answer this, you will set my mind at peace, for I am much disturbed about it." "What is the question?" I said. "Why this; you say, and others say too that God is able to forgive sin. Now, I can’t see how He can be just, and yet forgive sin—for," said this poor man, "I have been so greatly guilty that if God Almighty does not punish me, He ought. I feel that He would not be just if He were to allow me to go without punishment. How, then, sir, can it be true that He can forgive and still remain the title of just?" "Well," I said, "it is through the blood and merits of Jesus Christ." "Ah" he said, "but then I do not understand what you mean by that. It is the kind of answer I got from the priest, but I wanted him to explain it to me more fully—how it was that the blood of Christ could make God just. You say it does, but I want to know how." "Well, then," said I, "I will tell you what I think to be the whole system of atonement—which I think is the sum and substance, the root, the marrow and the essence of all the gospel. This is the way Christ is able to forgive. Suppose," I said, "you had killed someone. You were a murderer. You were condemned to die, and you deserved it." "Faith," he said, "yes, I would deserve it." "Well, her Majesty is very desirous of saving your life, and yet at the same time universal justice demands that someone should die on account of the deed that is done. Now, how is she to manage?" He replied, "That is the question! I cannot see how she can be inflexibly just, and yet allow me to escape." "Well," I said, "suppose I should go to her and say, ‘Here is this poor Irishman. He deserves to be hanged, your Majesty. I don’t want to quarrel with the sentence because I think it just. But, if you please, I so love him that if you were to hang me instead of him, I would be very willing.’ Now, suppose she should agree to it and hang me instead of you, what then? Would she be just in letting you go?" "Yes" he said, "I should think she would. Would she hang two for one thing? I should say not. I’d walk away, and there isn’t a policeman that would touch me for it." "Ah," I said, "that is how Jesus saves! ‘Father,’ Jesus said, ‘I love these poor sinners; let Me suffer instead of them!’ ‘Yes,’ said God, ‘You shall.’ And on the cross Jesus died and suffered the punishment which all His elect people ought to have suffered. So that now all who believe on Him, thus proving themselves to be His chosen, may conclude that He was punished for them, and that therefore they can never be punished." "Well," he said, looking me in the face once more, "I understand what you mean. But how is it, if Christ died for all men, that notwithstanding, some men are punished again? For that is unjust." "Ah," I said, "I never told you that! I said to you that Jesus has died for all who believe on Him, and all who repent. He was punished for their sins so absolutely and so really that none of them shall ever be punished again." "Faith," said the man, clapping his hands, "that’s the gospel! If it isn’t, then I don’t know anything, for no man could have made that up, it is so wonderful. Ah," he said, as he went down the stairs, "I’m safe now, with all my sins about me, I’ll trust in the man that died for me, and so I shall be saved!" Dear hearer, Christ is mighty to save because God did not turn away the sword, but He sheathed it in His own Son’s heart! He did not remit the debt, for it was paid in drops of precious blood! And now the great receipt is nailed to the cross, and our sins with it so that we may go free if we are believers in Him! For this reason He is "mighty to save," in the truest sense of the word.
But in the larger sense of the word, understanding it to mean all that I have said it does mean, He is "mighty to save." How is it that Christ is able to make men repent, to make men believe and to make them turn to God? One answers, "Why by the eloquence of preachers." God forbid we should ever say that! It is neither by might nor by power." Others reply, "It is by the force of moral persuasion." God forbid we should say, "yes," to that! Moral persuasion has been tried long enough on man, and yet it has failed miserably! How does He do it? We answer, by something which some of you despise but which, nevertheless, is a fact. He does it by the omnipotent influence of His Divine Spirit. While men are hearing the word (in those whom God will save) the Holy Spirit works repentance. He changes the heart, and renews the soul. True, the preaching is the instrument, but the Holy Spirit is the great agent! It is certain that the truth of God is the means of saving, but it is the Holy Spirit applying the truth which saves souls. Ah, and with this power of the Holy Spirit we may go to the most debased and degraded of men, and we need not be afraid but that God can save them! If God should please, the Holy Spirit could at this moment make every one of you fall on your knees, confess your sins, and turn to God. He is an Almighty Spirit, able to do wonders! In the life of Whitefield we read that sometimes under one of his sermons, 2,000 persons would at once profess to be saved, and were really so, many of them. We ask why it was? At other times he preached just as powerfully, and not one soul was saved. Why? Because in the one case the Holy Spirit went with the Word, and in the other case it did not. All the heavenly result of preaching is owing to the Divine Spirit sent from above. I am nothing! My brothers in the ministry are all nothing! It is God who does everything! "Who is Paul? Who is Apollos, and who is Cephas but ministers by whom you believed, even as God gave to every man." It must be, "Not by might, nor by power but by My Spirit, says the Lord." Go forth, poor minister! You have no power to preach with polished diction and elegant refinement; go and preach as you can! The Spirit can make your feeble words mightier than the most ravishing eloquence! Alas, alas, for oratory! Alas for eloquence! It has long enough been tried. We have had polished periods and finely turned sentences. But in what places have the people been saved by them? We have had grand and gaudy language. But where have hearts been renewed? But now, "by the foolishness of preaching," by the simple utterance by a child, of God’s Word, He is pleased to save them who believe, and to save sinners from the error of their way! May God prove His Word again this morning!
IV. The fourth point is, WHAT ARE THE INFERENCES TO BE DERIVED FROM THE FACT THAT JESUS CHRIST IS MIGHTY TO SAVE?
Why, first, there is a fact for ministers to learn—that they should endeavor to preach in faith, nothing wavering. "O God," cries the minister at times, when he is on his knees, "I am weak. I have preached to my hearers and have wept over them. I have groaned for them. But they will not turn to You. Their hearts are like the nether mill-stone. They will not weep for sin, nor will they love the Savior." Then I think I see the angel standing at his elbow and whispering in his ear, "You are weak, but He is strong. You can do nothing, but He is ‘mighty to save.’" Think about this. It is not the instrument but the God! It is not the pen wherewith the author writes which is to have the praise for his wisdom in composing the volume—it is the brain that thinks it and the hand that moves the pen. So in salvation; it is not the minister, it is not the preacher—but the God who first designs the salvation and afterwards uses the preacher to work it out. Ah, poor disconsolate preacher, if you have had but little fruit of your ministry, still go on in faith, remembering it is written, "My word shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Go on! Be of good courage. God shall help you. He shall help you and that right early!
Again—here is another encouragement for praying men and women who are praying to God for their friends. Mother, you have been groaning for your son for many years. He is now grown up and has left your roof but your prayers have not been heard. So you think. He is as merry as ever. Not yet has he made your breast rejoice. Sometimes you think he will bring your gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. It was but yesterday you said, "I will give him up, I will never pray for him again." Stop, mother, stop! By all that is holy and that is heavenly, stop! Utter not that resolution again! Begin once more! You have prayed over him. You did weep over his infant forehead when he lay in his cradle. You did teach him, when he came to years of understanding, and you have often warned him since. But all to no avail. Oh, give not up your prayers—remember—Christ is "mighty to save." It may be that He waits to be gracious and He keeps you waiting that you may know more of His graciousness when the mercy comes! But pray on. I have heard of mothers who have prayed for their children 20 years. Yes, and of some who have died without seeing them converted—and then their very death has been the means of saving their children by leading them to think! A father once had been a pious man for many years, yet never had he the happiness of seeing one of his sons converted. He had his children round his bed and he said to them when dying, "My sons, I could die in peace if I could but believe you would follow me to heaven. But this is the most sorrowful thing of all—not that I am dying—but that I am leaving you to meet you no more." They looked at him, but they would not think on their ways. They went away. Their father was suddenly overtaken with great clouds and darkness of mind. Instead of dying peacefully and happily, he died in great misery of soul, but still trusting in Christ. He said when he died, "Oh that I had died a happy death, for that would have been a testimony to my sons. But now, O God, this darkness and these clouds have in some degree taken away my power to witness to the truth of Your religion." Well, he died and was buried. The sons came to the funeral. The day after, one of them said to his brother, "Brother, I have been thinking. Father was always a pious man, and if his death was yet such a gloomy one, how gloomy must ours be, without God and without Christ?" "Ah," said the other, "that thought struck me, too." They went up to God’s house, heard God’s Word, they came home and bent their knees in prayer, and to their surprise they found that the rest of the family had done the same, and that the God who had never answered the father’s prayer in his life had answered it after his death! And by his death too, and by such a death as would appear to be most unlikely to have worked the conversion of any! Pray on, then, my sister. Pray on, my brother! God shall yet bring your sons and daughters to His love and fear. And you shall rejoice over them in heaven, if you never do on earth.
And finally, my dear hearers, there are many of you here this morning who have no love to God, no love to Christ. But you have a desire in your hearts to love Him. You are saying, "Oh, can He save me? Can such a wretch as I, be saved?" In the thick of the crowd there you are standing and you are now saying within yourself, "May I one day sing among the saints above? May I have all my sins blotted out by blood divine?" Yes, sinner, He is "mighty to save." And this is comfort for you! Do you think yourself the worst of men? Does conscience smite you as with a mailed fist and does he say it is all over with you? You will be lost? Your repentance will be of no avail? Your prayers never will be heard? You are lost to all intents and purposes? My hearer, think not so; He is "mighty to save." If you cannot pray, He can help you to do it. If you can not repent, He can give you repentance. If you feel it hard to believe, He can help you to believe, for He is exalted on high to give repentance as well as to give remission of sins. O poor sinner, trust in Jesus! Cast yourself on Him! Cry and may God help you to do it now, the first Sabbath of the year. May He help you this very day to cast your soul on Jesus. And this will be one of the best years of all your life. "Turn you, turn you! Why will you die, O house of Israel?" Turn unto Jesus, you wearied souls. Come unto Him, for lo, He bids you come! "The Spirit and the bride say come. And let him who hears say come. And whoever will, let him come and take of the water of life," and have Christ’s grace freely! It is preached to you and to all of you who are willing to receive it, it has already been given!
May God of His grace make you willing, and so save your souls, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.