MISCELLANEOUS
WRITINGS
of C.H.M.
Miscellaneous Writings of
C. H. MACKINTOSH
Volume IV
LOIZEAUX BROTHERS
New York
The first chapter of first Thessalonians presentsa very striking and beautiful picture of whatwe may truly call genuine conversion. We proposeto study the picture in company with the reader. Ifwe are not much mistaken, we shall find the studyat once interesting and profitable. It will furnish ananswer, distinct and clear, to the question whichstands at the head of this article, namely, What isConversion?
Nor is this by any means a small matter. It iswell, in days like these, to have a divine answer tosuch a question. We hear a good deal now-a-daysabout cases of conversion; and we would heartilybless God for every soul truly converted to Him.
We need hardly say we believe in the absolute,the indispensable, the universal necessity of divineconversion. Let a man be what he may; be heJew or Greek, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free,Protestant or Roman Catholic; in short, whateverbe his nationality, his ecclesiastical position, or histheological creed, he must be converted, else he ison the broad and direct road to an everlasting hell.
There is no one born a Christian, in the truesense of that word. Neither can anyone be educatedinto Christianity. It is a fatal mistake, adeadly delusion, a deceit of the arch-enemy of souls,for anyone to think that he can be a Christianeither by birth or education, or that he can be madea Christian by water baptism, or by any religiousceremony whatsoever. A man becomes a Christianonly by being divinely converted. We would earnestlypress on the attention of all whom it may concern,the urgent and absolute necessity in everycase of true conversion to God.
This cannot be overlooked. It is the height offolly for anyone to attempt to ignore or to makelight of it. For an immortal being—one who hasa boundless eternity stretching away before him—toneglect the solemn question of his conversion, isthe wildest fatuity of which anyone can possibly beguilty. In comparison with this most weightysubject, all other things dwindle into utter insignificance.The various objects that engage thethoughts and absorb the energies of men and womenin the busy scene around us, are but as the smalldust of the balance in comparison with this onegrand, momentous question of the soul's conversionto God. All the speculations of commerciallife, all the schemes of money-making, the absorbingquestion of profitable investment, all the pursuitsof the pleasure hunter—the theatre, the concert,the ball-room, the billiard-room, the card-table,the dice-box, the race-course, the hunting-ground,the drinking saloon—all the numberless and namelessthings that the poor unsatisfied heart longsafter, and grasps at—all are but as the vapor of themorning, the foam on the water, the smoke fromthe chimney-top, the withered leaf of autumn—allvanish away, and leave an aching void behind. Theheart remains unsatisfied, the soul unsaved, becauseunconverted.
And what then? Ah, yes; what then! Tremendousquestion! What remains at the end of all thisscene of commercial excitement, political strife andambition, money-making and pleasure-hunting?Why, then the man has to face death! "It is appointedunto men once to die." There is no gettingover this. There is no discharge in this war.All the wealth of the universe could not purchaseone moment's respite at the hand of the ruthlessfoe. All the medical skill which earth affords, allthe fond solicitude of affectionate relatives andfriends, all their tears,