June, 1942
' THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NE S S
209
Flame of
By BASIL MILLER
sent to give up my sins and accept Christ.”, . Came the Voice, "Will ,you accept it now, today?” v 1 . ; : . Answered Charles; “Yés, I will ac- cept it today òr w ill.die in the at tempt.” , : North of the Village lay a woods where he accustomedly walked dur- ing pleasant weather. And as, he neared the office, his storm-torn/soul drove him to the timbers. Finding his “ prayer closet” in ah opening be neath some fallen trees, he recalled the promise he had made as he *climbed, the hill into the woods, “I will give my heart to God or I never will come down from there,” ! ■Flashes out of his memory threw reassuring passages from the Bible at him. “I knew that it was God’s Word and God’s voice .,.. that spoke to me,” he says :in- describing those scenes. “The Spirit seemed to lay stress upon the idea in the text, ‘When ye shall search for me with all your heart.’ I .told th,e Lord that I would take Him at'His word; that He could not lie; and that therefore I was sure that He heard my prayer. . . All sense of sin, , all consciousness of present sin or guilt had departed from me, . . The repose of my mind was unspeakably, great” Of his experiences of the Holy Spir its special working in the hours that •followed that day, Finney writes con cerning a mighty soul-shaking and its resultant joy: “No words can ex press the wonderful love that was shed abroad in. my heart. I wept .aloud: with joy and love.” On that day the life career of Charles Finney w a s launched. He closed his law books f o r e v e r and opened his Bible. : Early Soul-Winning •Charles’ salvation work began at once on that Wednesday, and contin ued with, groVing power on- Thursday
forenoon. “ I soon sallied ,forth from the office,” he says, “to converse with those whom I should meet about their souls. I had the impression . . . that God Wanted me to preach the gospel, and that I must begin immediately. I somehow seemed to know it-.. . with a certainty that was. past all possi bility of doubt. ., . Nothing, it seemed, could be jmt in competition with the worth of souls;"and no labor . . . could be so sweet . . . as that of hold- Jng up Christ to a dying World.” The pastor of ^Finney’s church had been right in declaring, “Some of the young people will never be converted before Finney is;” And he had ex pressed doubts shortly before these events that Charles could be won by the church’s praying folk. On Thursday of that momentous week, Finney testified in the church to what he had received, and his ex perience brought a confession from the minister, saying, “I believe I have been in the way of the church and I have discouraged the church when they proposed to pray for Mr. Finney;
Saving or evangelical faith . * . is a trusting in Christ, a committing of the soul and the whole being to Him. • Faith . i , is a receiving of Christ for just what He is represented to be in His gospel. • The sovereignty of God is ah in finitely amiable, meek, sweet, holy, and desirable sovereignty. S o m e seem to conceive of it as something revolting and tyrannical. But it is thé infinite opposite of this an d . is the perfection of all that is reason able, kind, and good. • WË A promise in the present tense is on demand. In other words, it is always due, and its fulfillment, may be p lead ed and claimed by the promisee at any time. — CHARLES G, FINNEY -
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