 I have heard men tell the story of their conversion, and of their
spiritual life, in such a way that my heart hath loathed them and
their story, too, for they have told of their sins as if they did boast in
the greatness of their crime, and they have mentioned the love of God, not
with a tear of gratitude, not with the simple thanksgiving of the really
humble heart, but as if they as much exalted themselves as they exalted God.
Oh! when we tell the story of our own conversion, I would have it done with
great sorrow, remembering what we used to be, and with great joy and
gratitude, remembering how little we deserve these things. I was once
preaching upon conversion and salvation, and I felt within myself, as
preachers often do, that it was but dry work to tell this story, and a dull,
dull tale it was to me; but, on a sudden, the thought crossed my mind,
"Why, you are a poor, lost, ruined sinner yourself; tell it, tell it as
you received it; begin to tell of the grace of God as you trust you feel it
yourself." Why, then, my eyes began to be fountains of tears; those
hearers who had nodded their heads began to brighten up, and they listened,
because they were hearing something which the speaker himself felt, and which
they recognized as being true to him if it was not true to them.
 Can you
not remember, dearly-beloved, that day of days, that best and brightest of
hours, when first you saw the Lord, lost your burden, received the roll of
promise, rejoiced in full salvation, and went on your way in peace? My soul
can never forget that day. Dying, all but dead, diseased, pained, chained,
scourged, bound in fetters of iron, in darkness and the shadow of death,
Jesus appeared unto me. My eyes looked to Him; the disease was healed, the
pains removed, chains were snapped, prison doors were opened, darkness gave
place to light. What delight filled my soul!—what mirth, what ecstasy, what
sound of music and dancing, what soarings towards Heaven, what heights and
depths of ineffable delight! Scarcely ever since then have I known joys which
surpassed the rapture of that first hour.—C. H. S.
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