TWICE-BORN MEN
REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS OF WELL-KNOWN MEN
IN DIFFERENT AGES AND IN VARIED RANKS OF LIFE
Compiled by HY. PICKERING
A Barnstaple Patriarch
ROBT. CLEAVER CHAPMAN, the Barnstaple Patriarch, who died in his 100th year, wrote :
“All that is demanded of a child of Adam, that he may pass out of death into life, is that he should take his due place in the presence of God, acknowledge his sin, and accept the Saviour Jesus. The bar to the salvation of any sinner is in himself, not in God. Let the poor sinner account his own righteousness as dung and rags, he will receive Christ; God will not, He cannot, shut him out from His heart. I am everywhere zealous to say that there is no need for a sinner crying to God for mercy, but there is need that the sinner should confess himself not entitled to a morsel of bread nor a cup of cold water; and the moment he owns his unworthiness, he cannot reject what God gives. Eternal life is the property of every one who chooses to have it.”
Mr. Chapman, in reply to a friend some years ago, wrote: “My day of birth natural is 4th January, 1803. I have known Christ by the Word and Spirit of our God more than threescore years and ten, all happy, all blessed. I am giving thanks continually, and in my constant review of all my life I see more and more cause for thanksÂgiving to God and praising His Holy Name, together with deeper reason for self-abasement.”
Mr. Chapman’s “Choice Sayings” have had an extensive sale. He died in Barnstaple on June 12, 1902.