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Posted by Skybuck Flying on 09/29/84 12:00
against the spirituality of their
convictions, that it is so easy to see things as they now see them. They
have often heard, that conversion is a work of mighty power, manifesting
to the soul what neither man nor angel can give such a conviction of;
but it seems to them that these things are so plain and easy, and
rational, that any body can see them. If they are asked, why they never
saw thus before, they say, it seems to them it was because they never
thought of it. But very often these difficulties are soon removed by
those of another nature; for when God withdraws, they find themselves as
it were blind again, they for the present lose their realizing sense of
those things that looked so plain to them, and, by all they can do, they
cannot recover it, till God renews the influence of His Spirit.
Persons after their conversion often speak of religious things as
seeming new to them; that preaching is a new thing; that it seems to
them they never heard preaching before; that the Bible is a new book:
they find there new chapters, new psalms, new histories, because they
see them in a new light. Here was a remarkable instance of an aged
woman, of about seventy years, who had spent most of her days under Mr.
Stoddard's powerful ministry. Reading in the New Testament concerning
Christ's sufferings for sinners, she seemed to be astonished at what she
read, as what was real and very wonderful, but quite new to her. At
first, before she had time to turn her thoughts, she wondered within
herself, tha
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