58 The Fundamentals of the Spirit ©f God. I t is in fact impossible that the result be otherwise. Another result is the effect produced upon the will of the convert. His will is renewed and is now in harmony with the Divine will, and this is produced by the action of the Divine will upon the will of the sinner. Here again the Divine begets its likeness in the changed will of the con verted soul. A natural and scientific result. Again, through the enlightening and persuading power of the Gospel the sinner is led to see the error of his way and the condition of his soul, and repentance of sins and faith in Christ are the result. The man is outwardly converted and his whole life and service reversed. These are again the scientific results of the means used according to the Divine order of things. That these results do not always follow the preaching of the Word may be largely due to the fact that the means have been used amiss for the mere gratification of the lust of the worker, or that other neces sary means have been neglected, especially prayer. And the reason why so many conversions are not genuine is due to the fact that they are merely external conversions, the result of exciting rant called preaching the Gospel, while prayer for the internal work of the Spirit has been totally ignored. In the whole process of conversion it is a fundamental principle that like begets like, and means produce results according to purely scientific laws, and if the results are not scientific they are spurious, external and temporary. A beautiful and pointed illustration is found in the conversion of the congregation at the house of Cornelius. The means were used—though unwittingly on the part of men—in the scientific order. Prayer, the Holy Spirit, the preached Word; and the results were conversion, confession and Chris tian service.
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