A thrilling, true story!
Dear Friends,
We had some problems with the computer and thanks to Neil Daniels you are receiving this message. If your name is here by mistake, please let me know and I will try and fix it.
Meanwhile, are you like me? Do you love true stories? If so, today’s devotional is right up your alley. It is a true story and a thrilling one. See if you don’t agree. God bless you.
Because of Calvary,
John Janney
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Psalm 19:7 (ESV)
The law of the Lord is perfect,[a]
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
“You may remember, perhaps, the case of good Mr. Wilberforce, one of the best, most excellent, and noble of all modern Christians. When he was three-and-twenty years of age, Mr. Wilberforce was very far from being religious; he was said to be the crown and glory of Doncaster races; his affable manners and the geniality and humor of his bearing made him many friends among men of the world. He went to Nice on a journey; while traveling there, he had for a companion Dean Milner. They were talking about a certain clergyman in Yorkshire. Mr. Wilberforce said he thought (p. 570) that clergyman carried his religion a great deal too far; for his part, he considered religion a very good thing if it was kept within bounds, but, he censured those who made too much of it. The dean said, ‘Mr. Wilberforce, if you read your Bible a little more, you would not think so; for I am persuaded there is no such thing as carrying religion too far.’ Mr. Wilberforce said, ‘Come, now, you and I are together; I will read the New Testament through if you will.’ ‘I will,’ said Milner, and being both of them excellent Greek scholars, during their journey they read the New Testament through in Greek. Happy, happy, happy thought for Wilberforce! He who was to speak with voice of thunder, —
‘Thus saith Britannia,
Empire of the sea,
Thy chains are broken,
Africa, be free!’ ―
must first hear the Scripture speak to him, and say, ‘Wilberforce, be free; Christ hath borne thy sins, and carried all thy sorrows; thou art saved.’” [Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit LI, (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1905), p. 570-571]