Our Lord’s Second Coming a Motive for Personal Holiness* By REV. R. A. TORREY, D. D. I DID NOT have the-choice of my subject tonight, but if I had I surely would have chosen the sub
of God, absolutely without error, ab solutely trustworthy, a complete and perfect revelation from God Himself, concerning His own character, nature, will and His purposes and plans, and regarding man, his nature, his char acter, his need, his ruin, the way of his salvation, his duty and his destiny, and when I was led, through finding out that the Bible was from begin ning to end the Word of God, to say in my own heart: “I will take my stand upon it as the Word of God; I will obey every commandment I find in it; I will believe and claim every promise in it, and step out on every promise that I find in it that belongs to me as a believer in Jesus Christ.” The third great epoch in my life was when I discovered that there was beyond question £ definite, experi mental baptism with the Holy Spirit for every believer in this present day; and when I sought, claimed, and beyond question obtained that definite baptism with the Holy Spirit for my self. The fourth great epoch in my life was when I got hold of the truth, and the truth got hold of me, of a personal, visible, glorious, imminent' return of our Lord. It lifted me above this world and its ambitions. What did I care whether I was rich or poor; what did I care whether I had honor or contempt; what did I care whether I was well fed or hun gry? The Lord Jesus was coming back again! I had been very ambi tious, but when this truth got hold of me I had but one ambition and that was to please my Lord, Who might come at any time, and to please Him at any cost.
ject that has been assigned to me, “The Lord’s Second Coming a Mo tive for Personal Holiness.” It is from that standpoint that the pre cious truths that we have been study ing have appealed most to me, and have meant most to me. There have been four marked epochs in my Chris tian experience. The first was when I was led to surrender to the will of God, and to accept Christ as my per sonal Saviour. For a number of years I had been consciously fighting against the will of God. In my inner most heart I knew before I was con verted that I was called to preach the Gospel. That is the reason I was not converted sooner, because I was bound that I would not preach the gospel. I was bound that I would practice law.' The first marked epoch came in the middle of the night, when, all alone in my room, I jumped out of bed in an agony of heart to take my life, but instead, dropping on my knees before God, instead of sending myself into eternity, lost, as I had intended to do when I jumped out of bed, I said, “Oh, God, I will preach the gospel” ; and in connection with my surrender to the will of God I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. The second marked epoch in my life was when I was brought to see that the entire Bible, from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of the Revelation, was the very Word ♦The , closing ad d ress a t th e Chicago P ro p h etic C onference, F rid ay , F e b ru a ry 27th, 8 p. m.
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