There is one sermon preached at Stone chapel way back in 1891 which was recorded by one would imagine, short hand. You may think that was ages ago and is not really relevant to us today. The preacher was a man called Mr Thomas Butler and he selected a text from the Bible from the book of the Lamentations. During the course of the sermon he felt he had to ask a very searching question of his hearers..
“How many of you know soul -trouble – crying in the bitterness of your soul? What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? There is nothing so valuable as the soul, nothing so important as soul matters. With many the question is, “What shall we eat? What shall we drink? And wherewithal shall we be clothed?”
Yet when God quickens a soul, that soul is translated out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God’s dears Son, there sure will be grief and this grief is the wound and he alone can heal it. There is a set time for God to call his people. Age will not bring concern. You may be 80 years of age and not know this trouble. Riches and poverty will not bring it. None but God can bring it into the heart. What a mercy if you have been brought to feel it!
Can you look back to the time when the Lord brought home the sins of your youth? Do you know what it is to go into the same field where you have gone with your old companions in sin, with your head bowed down like a bulrush, and crying, in the bitterness of your soul, “God be merciful to me a sinner?”
Mr Butler goes on to outline his personal experience for the spiritual benefit of his hearers. He was just 19 years of age when God worked in his soul.
He goes on…. “I will tell you what God’s people will feel……
To be continued
