LECTURE XVIII.

DIRECTIONS TO SINNERS.

TEXT.-"What shall I do to be saved."-ACTS. xvi. 30.

THESE are the words of the jailor at Philippi, the question which he put to Paul and Silas, who were then under his care as prisoners. Satan had, in many ways, opposed these servants of God in their work of preaching the Gospel, and had been as often defeated and disgraced. But here, at Philippi, he devised a new and peculiar project for frustrating their labors. There was a certain woman at Philippi, who was possessed with a spirit of divination, or in other words, the spirit of the devil, and brought her masters much gain by her soothsaying. The devil set this woman to follow Paul and Silas about the streets, and as soon as they had begun to gain the attention of the people, she would come in and cry, "These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation." That is, she undertook to second the exhortations of the preachers, and added her testimony, as if to give additional weight to their instructions. The effect of it was just what Satan desired. The people all knew that this was a wicked, base woman, and when they heard her attempting to recommend this new preaching, they were disgusted, and concluded it was all of a piece. The devil knew that it would not do him any good, but would help their cause, to set such a person to oppose the preaching of the apostles, or to speak against it. The time had gone by, for that to succeed. And, therefore, he comes round the other way, and takes the opposite ground, and by setting her to praise them as the servants of God, and to bear her polluted testimony in favor of their instructions, he led people to suppose the apostles were of the same character with her, and had the same spirit that she had, and thus all their efforts were defeated. Paul saw that if things went on so, he should be totally baffled, and never succeed in establishing a church at Philippi. And he turns round to her, and commands the foul spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her. When her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they raised a great persecution, and caught Paul and Silas, and made a great ado, and brought them before the magistrates, and raised such a clamor that the

magistrates shut them up in prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.

Thus, they thought they had put down the excitement. But at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises, and the prisoners heard them. This old prison that had so long echoed to the voice of blasphemy and oaths, now resounded with the praises of God, and these walls, that had stood so firm, now trembled under the power of prayer. The stocks were unloosed, the gates thrown open, and every one's bands broken. The jailor was aroused from his sleep, and when he saw the prison doors opened, as he knew, that if the prisoners had escaped, he must pay for it with his life, he drew his sword, and was about to kill himself. But Paul, who had no notion of escaping clandestinely, cried out to him instantly, "Do thyself no harm, for we are all here." And the Jailor called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before his prisoners, Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved ?"

In my last lecture, I dwelt at some length on the false instructions given to sinners under conviction, and the false comforts too often administered, and the erroneous instructions which such persons receive. It is my design, to-night, to show what are the instructions that should be given to anxious sinners in order to their speedy and effectual conversion. Or, in other words, to explain to you, what answer should be given to those who make the inquiry, What must I do to be saved?" In

doing it, I propose,

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I. To show what is not a proper direction to be given to sinners, when they make the inquiry in the text.

II. Show what is a proper answer to the inquiry. And III. To specify several errors, which anxious sinners are apt to fall into.

1. I am to show what are not proper directions to be given to anxious sinners.

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No more important inquiry was ever made than this, "What must I do to be saved?" Mankind are apt enough to inquire What shall I eat, and what shall I drink," and the question may be answered in various ways, with little danger. But when a sinner asks in earnest, "What must I do to be saved?" it is of infinite importance that he should receive the right answer. It is my desire, to-night, to tell you, professors of religion, what to answer to this inquiry, and to tell you, who are sinners, what you must do to be saved.

1. No direction should be given to a sinner, that will leave

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him still in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity. No answer is proper to be given, with which, if he complies, he would not go to heaven, if he should die the next moment.

2. No direction should be given, that does not include a change of heart, or a right heart, or hearty obedience to Christ. In other words, nothing is proper, which does not imply actually becoming a Christian. Any other direction, that falls short of this, is of no use. It will not bring him any nearer to the kingdom, it will do no good, but will only lead him to defer the very thing which he must do, in order to be saved. The sinner should be told plainly, at once, what he must do or die; and he should be told nothing that does not include a right state of heart. Whatever you may do, sinner, that does not include a right heart, is sin. Whether you read the Bible or not, it is sin, so long as you remain in rebellion. Whether you go to meeting, or stay away, whether you pray or not, it is nothing but rebellion, every moment. It is surprising, that a sinner should suppose himself doing God's services, when he prays, and reads his Bible. Should a rebel against this government, read the statute book, while he continues in rebellion, and has no design to obey; should he ask for pardon, while he holds on to his weapons of resistance and warfare, would you think him doing his country a service, and laying them under obligation to show him favor. No, you would say that all his reading and praying, were only an insult to the majesty both of the lawgiver and the law. So you, sinner, while you remain in impenitence, are insulting God and setting him at defiance, whether you read his word and pray, or let it alone. No matter what place or what attitude your body is in, on your knees, or in the house of God, so long as your heart is not right, so long as you resist the Holy Ghost, and reject Christ, you are a rebel against your Maker.

II. I am to show what is a proper answer to this inquiry, "What must I do to be saved."

And, generally, you may give the sinner any direction, or tell him to do any thing, that includes a right heart, and if you make him understand it, and do it, he will be saved. The Spirit of God, in striving with sinners, suits his strivings to the state of mind in which he finds them. His great object in striving with them, is, to dislodge them from their hiding-places, and bring them to submit to God, at once. Now these objections, and difficulties, and states of mind, are as various as the circumstances of mankind, as many as there are individuals. The characters of individuals, affords an endless diversity. What is to be done with each one, and how he is to be converted, de

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pends on his particular errors. It is necessary to ascertain his errors, to find out what he understands, and what he needs to be taught more perfectly, to see what points the Spirit of God is pressing upon his conscience, and to press the same things and thus bring him to Christ. The most common directions are the following:

1. It is generally in point, and a safe, and suitable direction, to tell a sinner to repent. I say, generally. For sometimes the Spirit of God seems not so much to direct the sinner's attention to his own sins as to some other thing. In the days of the apostles, the minds of the people seem to have been agitated mainly on the question, whether Jesus was the true Messiah. And so the apostles directed much of their instructions to this point, to prove that he was the Christ. And whenever anxious sinners asked them what they must do, they most commonly exhorted them to "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." They bore down on this point, because here was where the Spirit of God was striving with them, and this was the subject that especially agitated people's minds, and, consequently, this would probably be the first thing, a person would do on submitting to God. It was the grand point at issue between God and the Jew and Gentile of those days, whether Jesus Christ was the son of God. It was the point in dispute, to bring a sinner to yield this controverted question, was the way the most effectually to

humble him.

At other times, it will be found, that the Spirit of God is dealing with sinners chiefly in reference to their own sins. Sometimes he deals with them, in regard to a particular duty, as prayer, perhaps family prayer. The sinner will be found to be contesting that point with God, whether it is right for him to pray, or whether he ought to pray in his family. I have known striking cases of this kind, where the individual was struggling on this point, and as soon as he fell on his knees to pray, he yielded his heart, showing that this was the very point which the Spirit of God was contesting, and the hinge on which his controversy with God all turned. That was conversion.

The direction to repent is always proper, but will not always be effectual, for there may be some other thing that the sinner needs to be told also. And where it is the pertinent direction, sinners need not only, to be told, to repent, but to have it explained to them, what repentance is. Since there has been so much mysticism, and false philosophy, and false theology, thrown around the subject, it has become necessary, to tell sinners not only what you mean by repentance, but also to tell them what

you do not mean. Words that used to be plain, and easily understood, have now become so perverted that they need to be explained to sinners, or they will often convey a wrong impres sion to their minds. This is the case with the word repentance. Many suppose that remorse, or a sense of guilt, is repentance. Then, hell is full of repentance, for it is full of remorse, unutterable and eternal. Others feel regret that they have done such a thing, and they call that repenting of it. But they only regret that they have sinned, because of the consequences, and not because they abhor sin. This is not repentance. Others suppose that convictions of sin and strong fears of hell are repentance. Others consider the remonstrances of conscience as repentance; they say, I never do any thing wrong but that I repent; that I always feel sorry, I did it." Sinners must be shown, that all these things, are not repentance. They are not only consistent with the utmost wickedness, but the devil might have them all, and doubtless has them all, and yet remains a devil. Repentance is a change of mind, as regards sin itself. It is not only a change of views, but a change of feelings. It is what is naturally understood by a change of mind on any subject of interest and importance. We hear that such a man has changed his mind on the subject of Abolition, for instance, or that he has changed his views in politics. Every body understands that he has undergone a change in his views, his feelings, and his conduct. This is repentance, on that subject, it is a change of mind.

Repentance, always implies abhorrence of sin. It is feeling towards sin just as God feels. It always implies forsaking sin. Sinners should be made to understand this. The sinner that repents does not feel as impenitent sinners think they should feel, at giving up their sins if they should become religious. Impenitent sinners look upon religion just like this, that if they become pious, they shall be obliged to stay away from balls and parties, and obliged to give up theatres, or gambling, or other things that they now take delight in. And they see not how they could ever enjoy themselves, if they should break off from all those things. But this is very far from being a correct view of the matter. Religion does not make them unhappy, by shutting them out from things in which they delight, because the first step in it, is, to repent, to change their mind in regard to all these things. They do not seem to realize, that the person who has repented has no disposition for these things, they have given them up, and turned their mind away from them. Sinners feel as if they should want to go to such places, and want