TWICE-BORN MEN
REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS OF WELL-KNOWN MEN
IN DIFFERENT AGES AND IN VARIED RANKS OF LIFE
Compiled by HY. PICKERING
A Popular Scottish Evangelist
JOHN McNEILL, the Favourite Scottish Evangelist, makes a clear statement of his experience. “I never was bothered with self-righteousness. God always made me honest enough to know the blackness of my heart, and that if my sin had not hatched out, the eggs were all there. Fortunately, I was a teetotaller. Teetotalism is not salvation, but it often holds till Christ comes. It kept me from setting myself on fire in certain directions till grace came. I was big enough to do what we call in Scotland “join the Church,” but I knew I had not the great qualification for joining the Church.
“I knew my Bible well, and the Shorter Catechism. Justification by faith, effectual calling, the work of Christ, and so forth, I knew all the questions by heart, and the proof texts; but I was as blind as a bat to them all—I had no light and no peace. I wanted to get into the light, but I never could have stayed to an after-meeting, so I can sympathise with the people who, when a second meeting is mentioned, just bolt as if the police were after them. I was then staying all through the week in the old town of Greenock. Every Saturday night I walked to our quiet village to spend the Sabbath at home.
“I never could have spoken about my soul to the minister. But the minister’s son and I were great chums. Although I was only a quarryman’s son, my father belonged to the spiritual aristocracy, and it was no degradation for the minister’s son and the quarryrnan’s son to ‘hunt in couples.’ We used to talk together about a lot of things, and among others how we could become true Christians. We agreed we would try to find it out, and I wrote one evening to my minister. I said something like this: ‘I cannot say I am greatly anxious, but I feel that I ought to decide. If I do not decide for Christ, the world won’t allow me to be half-hearted. Here is a text which says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16. 31). I believe in Jesus Christ. I am no atheist or blasphemer. I believe all about Him, but I do not feel one bit the better for it.’
“Two or three days passed when the postman came round and gave me a letter from my minister, which read thus: “How pleased I am to get such a frank, open, honest letter from you about your spiritual condition, even although evidently you are all in the dark. I am glad you have taken Acts 16. 31 as a challenge text. It is a good one, and I join controversy with you there. You say you believe all about Jesus Christ, but you do not feel a bit the better. Now I want to know what I am to believe about you. Am I to believe you in saying, “I don’t feel a bit the better,” or am I to believe God uttering His verdict on you in the Word that can never lie, that the man who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is saved?’
“I was checking all God’s Word by my feelings, and reducing all God’s Word, no matter what it said, to the level of my feelings, and I did not see that was no faith at all. And the minister clenched it when he said: ‘You quote the text, Acts 16. 31, as if it read, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will feel better,” instead of “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” God says it. Never mind your feelings.’
“It was like the lifting of a curtain for me, and I saw the whole spiritual regions stand in an outline bold and clear. No great feeling even then. It was a case of believing Jesus, no matter what I felt, or didn‘t feel, I saw I was saved, but I didn’t shout. Presbyterians don’t shout. I took a walk in the station, along to the far end of the platform. I remember that morning saying to myself, ‘Has the station been whitewashed?’ The very dingy brick wall, all covered with smoke and soot from the engines, looked whiter. It was not the walls, it was my mind that was brightened. Because now, in the Scriptural sense, I knew the Lord as mine. I came back and sold the tickets, and didn’t say anything. And the next morning when I awoke up my heart was just like a fire you had left to burn out overnight, and I was as cold as could be. The Devil said, ‘It’s all a hoax.’ But I got grace to fight that battle. The minister said I was not to consult my feelings, and I rallied myself. ‘Has God’s Word altered through the night? “No!” Has Acts 16. 31 altered? “No !” Has the value of the Blood of Jesus to blot out my sins altered? ” No (“Then nothing has altered that I am resting on, nothing but my feelings.’ And you don’t need to rest on your feelings. You are saved by trusting the Lord Jesus Christ.”