"Comfort ye My people" -ISAIAH 40:1
Suppose
a poor sinner under the awakenings of grace, and by the leadings of
the Holy Ghost, from the conviction of sin, comes forth with the
anxious question, what must I do to be saved? And, suppose, that
instead of the immediate answer Paul gave to this same question, when
put to him by the Jailor at Philippi, “Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thine house”
[ACTS
26:30-31].
Suppose, that a preacher should direct such an one to his repentings
and reformings, to his amendments, and tears, and prayers, telling
him to hope that Christ will do the rest, when he hath done his best?
What a trifling would this be with an alarmed sinner under his soul
distresses? And what could charity herself say of all such preachers,
but as Job did of those pretended friends of his when they read to
him such reproving lectures on his dunghill, “Miserable
comforters are ye all!” [JOB
16:2].
Oh! how
sweet doth God the Spirit preach Christ in His fullness,
completeness, and all-sufficiency, when He saith, “In
the LORD shall all the seed of of Israel be justified, and shall
glory” [ISAIAH
45:25].
-Gospel report by preacher Robert Hawker (1753–1827 A.D.)
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