CHRISTIAN LEADERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

  { PT.  22 } - I have risen again for his justification. I freely forgive him all. See how slow to anger our all-merciful High Priest was and how great His kindness was. Do you think He has changed His nature and forgets poor sinners now that He is exalted to the right hand of God? No, for He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He sits there only to make intercession for us. Come, then, you prostitutes. Come, you who are hated. Come, you most abandoned sinners. Come and believe on Jesus Christ. Though the whole world despises you and casts you out, yet He will not refuse to take you up. Oh, amazing, infinitely condescending love! Even you, He will not be ashamed to call His brethren. How will you escape if you neglect such a glorious offer of salvation? What would the damned spirits now in the prison of hell give if Christ were so freely offered to them? Why are we not lifting up our eyes in torment? Does anyone in this great multitude dare say he does not deserve damnation

  ( CHAPTER  4 )  -  { PT.  20 } - I have offered you salvation on as cheap terms as you can desire. I have offered you Christ's whole wisdom, Christ's whole righteousness, Christ's whole sanctification, and eternal redemption if you will only believe on Him. If you say you cannot believe, you speak the truth, for faith, as well as every other blessing, is the gift of God. So then wait upon God, and who knows but He may have mercy on you. Why do we not hold more loving thoughts of Christ? Do you think He will have mercy on others and not on you? Are you not sinners? Did not Jesus Christ come into the world to save sinners? If you say you are the chief of sinners, I answer that it will be no hindrance to your salvation. Indeed it will not, if you lay hold on Christ by faith. Read the Gospels and see how kind He was to His disciples, who had fled from and denied Him. Go, tell My brethren, He said. He did not say, Go, tell those traitors, but Go, tell my brethren and Peter. It

  ( CHAPTER  4 )  -  { PT.  20 } - Do not turn your backs. Do not let the devil hurry you away. Do not be afraid of convictions. Do not think worse of the doctrine because it is preached outside the church walls. Our Lord, in the days of His flesh, preached on a mount, in a ship, and in a field, and I am convinced that many have felt His gracious presence here. Indeed, we speak what we know. Do not therefore reject the kingdom of God against yourselves. Be so wise as to receive our testimony. I cannot, I will not, let you go. Stay a little while and let us reason together. However lightly you might esteem your souls I know that our Lord has set an inestimable value on them. He thought them worthy of His most precious blood. I urge you, therefore, O sinners, be reconciled to God. I hope you do not fear being accepted in the Beloved. Behold, He calls you. Behold, He follows you with His mercy and has sent forth His servants into the highways and hedges to compel you to come in. Remember,

  ( CHAPTER  4 )  -  { PT.  19 } - Still, after all that has been said, there can be no doubt that overall he was a notably holy, self-denying, and consistent man. The faults of his character, says an American writer, were like spots on the sun-detected without much difficulty by and cool and careful observer who takes any effort to look for them, but to all practical purposes lost in one general and genial brightness. It would be good indeed for the churches of our day if God were to give them more ministers like the great evangelist of England a hundred years ago! A short extract from the conclusion of a sermon preached by Whitefield on Kennington Common may be interesting to some readers and might serve to give them a little idea of the great preacher's style. It was a sermon on the text, What do you think of Christ? ( MATTHEW  22:42 ). O my brethren, my heart is extended toward you. I trust I feel something of that hidden but powerful presence of Christ while I am preaching to