rru 
 
 11 
 #658 
 
No. 30. 
 
 COUNSEL TO THE CONVICTED. 
 
 You acknowledge the existence of God, and your 
 accountability to him; that lie is righteous, and that 
 sin is wrong and without excuse. You acknowledge 
 that the law of God is holy, and the commandment holy 
 and just and good; that you have broken the law, and 
 are condemned by it as a transgressor. You are aware 
 that the wages of sin is " death" — that death which 
 stands over against the "eternal life" which is the gift 
 of God through Jesus Christ, and that you lie under 
 this condemnation, in your sins, exposed to the righte- 
 ous inflictions of violated law. 
 
 The more you reflect upon the subject, the more 
 your sins rise up to condemn you. They present 
 themselves in every direction, under every form of 
 thought and conduct, and in every degree of aggrava- 
 tion and guilt — law violated and authority unheeded, — 
 the goodness and long suffering of God abused, — a hard 
 and impenitent heart persisted in against all the over- 
 tures of mercy, and a poignant conviction that you have 
 (t trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the 
 blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an 
 unholy thing, and done despite," you fear, *J to the 
 Spirit of grace ;" and you cannot rest : a sense of guilt 
 and deserved wrath forbids it. Once you were "alive 
 without the law," but not so now. The desperate 
 wickedness of your heait and life is discovered to you; 
 the commandment has come; sin has revived; and you 
 appreciate, in some measure, your condition, as one 
 that is " dead in trespasses and sins." Weighed down 
 with a sense of guilt and condemnation, you exclaim, 
 Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the 
 body of this death. 
 
 But conviction does not bring peace. You are not 
 reconciled to God. Conscience-does but forbode indig- 
 nation and wrath as the portion of your cup at the hand 
 of Him who is holy and true. You dare not go back; 
 to stay where you are, you know, is death; and urged 
 
2 COUNSEL TO THE CONVICTED. 
 
 by the solemnities that surround you, and the deep com- 
 punctions of your spirit, you ask, with the convicted 
 jailer, "Sirs, what must 1 do to be saved?" I an- 
 swer, 
 
 1. Carry your case to God. Acknowledge all your 
 sin and guilt to him. Pour all your convictions into 
 his ear, and spread before him all the terrors and bur- 
 dens of your soul. Your sin is committed against him. 
 It is the violation of his righteous law — rebellion against 
 his rightful authority — disobedience to his most holy 
 will — the rejection of his infinite claims upon you ; and 
 he has a right to know, from you, your most inward 
 convictions, and your whole soul in relation to it. All 
 your way in transgression has been against God, and 
 you ought at once, and like a child, to acknowledge all 
 before him. There tell the story of your guilt, and with 
 the deepest contrition and the most heartfelt sorrow and 
 penitence, confess all your unworthiness in his sight. 
 Reason teaches this, and this course you would take if 
 you had wronged an earthly friend, or you would not 
 expect forgiveness from him, or reconciliation to him, 
 or an unburdened conscience. Equally indispensable 
 is the same course in our relations as sinners against 
 God ; and in respect to this you have, as yet, wholly 
 failed. You have not brought your state and wants 
 before God. You have not come to him, in penitent 
 acknowledgment of your sin, and confessed, in broken- 
 ness of spirit, your transgressions against him. You 
 have not opened the fountain of your grief and tears 
 before the throne. You have not unbosomed yourself 
 there. Hitherto you have turned away from God, and 
 kept your convictions and anxieties to yourself, or made 
 them known only to others like yourself. You have 
 not acted the part of a child in this matter. You have 
 not said. "Father, I have sinned 'against heaven and 
 before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy 
 son :" " against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and 
 done this evil in thy sight." 
 
 Perhaps you forget that God is on the throne of 
 grace, that he has provided a Saviour, and in infinite 
 compassion promised life to the penitent, returning 
 sinner. " As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure 
 
COUNSEL TO THE CONVICTED. 3 
 
 in the death of the wicked, but that he turn from his 
 wicked way and live." "Come unto me, all ye who 
 labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 
 "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white 
 as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall 
 be as wool." From some cause, you do not throw 
 yourself into the arms of the ever-blessed God himself, 
 who only can forgive sin. You feel guilty and self- 
 condemned, and, it may be, smitten to the earth by the 
 multitude and enormity of your sins and the exceeding 
 wickedness of your heart ; and yet you do not come 
 and take refuse in the mercy of God, and you are not 
 comforted. Forgiveness seems far from you. Your 
 conscience is not relieved. Your sin is unpardoned; 
 your load of guilt and condemnation yet remains, and 
 presses with continually increasing weight upon your 
 soul, and it ever must while you stay away from God. 
 
 2. That you have no righteousness of your own before 
 God. Seek not to justify yourself at the foot of the 
 throne, or to palliate your offences, or to turn away 
 from a full conviction of your ruined condition by sin. 
 A( knowledge/ without reserve, the claims of the law of 
 God upon you, and the justice of your condemnation as 
 a transgressor. Give up the controversy with God, and 
 as a lost and helpless sinner, who has forfeited every 
 thing, and might justly be cast off for ever, throw your- 
 self wholly upon his mercy. There "all our hopes 
 begin." It was "when we were without strength" that 
 "Christ died for the ungodly." We must go wholly 
 out of ourselves for the ground of pardon and accept- 
 ance with God. "Not by works of righteousness which 
 we have done, but according to bis mercy he saveth us, 
 by ihe washing of regeneration and the renewing of the 
 Holy Ghost; that being justified by his grace, we 
 should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal 
 life." "Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name 
 give glory for thy mercy and thy truth's sake," is the 
 song of all the ransomed of God. It is the theme of 
 the Christian in all his earthly pilgrimage, and he 
 enters into rest, exclaiming, l 'Fm a sinner saved by 
 grace." 
 
 3. Rely on Christ. He is the only Saviour, his death 
 
4 COUNSEL TO THE CONVICTED. 
 
 the only expiation for sin, the only channel of the mercy 
 of God. Without it forgiveness would be impossible, 
 and our fallen world be without help. But God has 
 laid upon him our iniquities, set him forth to be a pro- 
 pitiation through faith in his blood, and revealed his 
 righteousness, while he justifies him that believeth in 
 Jesus. He is the " only name given under heaven 
 among men whereby we must be saved," and in him 
 only have we righteousness and strength. Place your 
 dependence, then, wholly upon him; plead his interpo- 
 sition for sinners ; his atoning merits as the ground of 
 pardon, and come to God in his name. Knowing that 
 it is by being forgiven all our sin, for his sake, that we 
 are accepted and saved, receive him as a Saviour, 
 acknowledge your indebtedness to him, and give him 
 your heart. As your Redeemer and Lord, receive him; 
 consecrate your heart, your soul, your life, your all to 
 him. As one bought with his blood, ransomed from sin 
 and hell by his deatli on ihe cross, cleave in child-like 
 simplicity to him, and follow him in newness of life. 
 This is believing upon him; this is accepting him as 
 offered in the gospel. This cleaving to (Christ involves 
 repentance for sin and true humiliation before God on 
 account of it; our dying unto sin and living unto God ; 
 conversion in the spirit of our mind, and our evangelical 
 obedience. The sinner thus repenting, believing, re- 
 turning to God by the gospel, meets the terms of for- 
 giveness revealed in his behalf. Here the gushing 
 waters of salvation flow to his soul. Here sin is for- 
 given ; the controversy ceases, and reconciled and ac- 
 cepted, he becomes a child and heir of God, through 
 grace. 
 
 You have the answer then, and you see the issue : 
 " This do, and thou shall live." 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE SOUTH CAROLINA TRACT SOCIETY. 
 
 Printed by Evans & Cogswell, No. 3 Broad street, Charleston, S. C 
 
Hollinger Corp* 
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