lip said, "If thou believest with
all thine heart, thou mayest." And they both went down into the
water; and the man of great authority under Candace, the queen of the
Ethiopians, was baptized, and went on his way rejoicing. (Acts viii.
26-38.) You will find all through Scripture that conversions were
sudden and instantaneous.

A man has been in the habit of stealing money from his employer.
Suppose he has taken $1,000 in twelve months; should we tell him to
take $500 the next year, and less the next year, and the next, until
in five years the sum taken would be only $50? That would be upon the
same principle as gradual conversion.

If such a person were brought before the court and pardoned, because
he could not change his mode of life all at once, it would be
considered a very strange proceeding.

But the Bible says, "Let him that stole steal no more" (Eph. iv. 28).
It is "right about face!" Suppose a person is in the habit of cursing
one hundred times a day: should we advise him not to utter more than
ninety oaths the following day, and eighty the next day; so that in
the course of time he would get rid of the habit? The Saviour says,
"Swear not at all." (Matt. v. 34.)

Suppose another man is in the habit of getting drunk and beating his
wife twice a month; if he only did so once a month, and then only
once in six months, that would be, upon the same ground, as
reasonable as gradual conversion. Suppose Ananias had been sent to
Paul, when he was on his way to Damascus breathing out threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples, and casting them into prison, to
tell him not to kill so many as he intended; and to let enmity die
out of his heart gradually, but not all at once. Suppose he had been
told that it would not do to stop breathing out threatenings and
slaughter, and to commence preaching Christ all at once, because the
philosophers would say that the change was so sudden it would not
hold out; this would be the same kind of reasoning as is used by
those who do not believe in instantaneous conversion.

Then another class say that they are afraid that they will not hold
out. This is a numerous and very hopeful class. I like to see a man
distrust himself. It is a good thing to get such to look to God, and
to remember that it is not he who holds God, but that it is God who
holds him. Some want to get hold of Christ; but the thing is to get
Christ to take hold of you in answer to prayer. Let such read Psalm