. He had
been dishonourably discharged from the army because of his extreme
dissipation and disorderliness. He had found his companionships among the
lowest of the low and the vilest of the vile. When he would go up the
street of a Western town at night, and merchants would hear his yell, they
would close their doors in fear. But this man went one night into a
revival meeting in a country church out of curiosity. He made sport of the
meeting that night with a boon companion who sat by his side, but he went
again the next night. The Spirit of God touched his heart. He went forward
and bowed at the altar. He arose a new creation. He was transformed into
one of the noblest, truest, purest, most unselfish, most gentle and most
Christlike men I have ever known. I am sometimes asked, "Do you believe in
sudden conversion?" I believe in something far more wonderful than sudden
conversion. I believe in sudden regeneration. Conversion is merely an
outward thing, the turning around. Regeneration goes down to the deepest
depths of the inmost soul, transforming thoughts, affections, will, the
whole inward man. I believe in sudden regeneration because the Bible
teaches it and because I have seen it times without number. I believe in
sudden regeneration because I have experienced it. We are sometimes told
that "the religion of the future will not teach sudden miraculous
conversion." If the religion of the future does not teach sudden
miraculous conversion, if it does not teach something far more meaningful,
sudden, miraculous regeneration by the power of the Holy Spirit, then the
religion of the future will not be in conformity with the facts of
experience and so will not be scientific. It will miss one of the most
certain and most glorious of all truths. Man-devised religions in the past
have often missed the truth and man-devised religions in the future will
doubtless do the same. But the religion God has revealed in His Word and
the religion that God confirms in experience teaches sudden regeneration
by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. If I did not believe in
regeneration by the power of the Holy Spirit, I would quit preaching. What
would be the use in facing great audiences in which there were multitudes
of men and women hardened and seared, caring for nothing but the things of
the world and the flesh, with no high and holy aspirations, with no
outlook beyond money and fame and power and pleasure, if it were not for
the regenera