nward resolve of the wandering soul, "I will
arise, and go to my Father." Whether that decision be come to in some
crowded Meeting, or in the loneliness of some midnight hour is quite
unimportant. But how can there be true repentance, or the beginning of
reconciliation with God, until that point is reached?

And whenever that returning to God takes place, there is the same
abundant pardon, the same change of heart, the same new birth, which has
here been described. What can be more simple and matter of fact? Take
away the need and possibility of such "conversion," and this whole life
becomes a delusion, and the proclamation of Jesus Christ as a Saviour of
men inexcusable. What has created any mystery around the question
amongst Christians, if not the sacramental theory, which more or less
contradicts it all? In almost all Christian Churches a theory is set up
that a baby by some ceremonial act becomes suddenly regenerated, "made a
child of God, and an heir of His Kingdom."

If that were the case, there could, of course, have been no need for the
later regeneration of that child; but I do not believe that an
ecclesiastic could be found, from the Vatican to the most remote
island-parish where children are "christened," who would profess to have
seen such a regenerated child alive. There is notoriously no such change
accomplished in any one, until the individual himself, convinced of his
own godless condition, cries to God for His Salvation, and receives that
great gift.

What a foundation for life was the certainty which that lad got as he
knelt in that little room in Nottingham! Into that same "full assurance"
he was later on to lead many millions--young and old--of many lands. The
simple Army verse:--

I know thy sins are all forgiven,
Glory to the Bleeding Lamb!
And I am on my way to Heaven,
Glory to the Bleeding Lamb!

embalms for ever that grand starting-point of the soul, from which our
people have been able, in ignorance of almost everything else of Divine
truth, to commence a career of holy living, and of loving effort for the
souls of others.

How much more weight those few words carry than the most eloquent
address bereft of that certainty of tone could ever have!

That certainty which rests not upon any study of books, even of the
Bible itself, but upon the soul's own believing vision of the Lamb of
God who has taken its sins away; that certainty which changes in a
moment the priso