Sunshine in the soul Author:Henry Ward Beecher Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN. IHEKE cannot be too much effort made to bring before the minds of men the truths of Christ. But, when men are made attentive to the... more »m, it seems to me that they should be made to feel the obligation to obey Christ, without so much urging, conversation, and persuasive labour. Among uneducated heathen it would be different; but in a Christian country, where you have literally known almost nothing else than the truths of the gospel, presented not alone in the didactic and logical form, but presented evermore in that most blessed form in which the true gospel is preached—namely, in the example of a praying father, a praying mother, a praying brother or sister, a consistent friend, wife, or child—nothing more ought to be required. How men that have been taught in the household and in the church, by example as well as by precept, should fall into the mistake of supposing that whenever they begin to be inquirers they need then to go through another and special course of training, I cannot understand. I do not think that there is an intelligent man in this congregation that is not abundantly qualified to-day, before the sun goes down, to become a true Christian in the spiritual and experimental sense of the term. More than that. Unless there has been some kind of an official touch, a man's conversion is scarcely thought to be complete; unless some appointed class- leader, some elder, some deacon, above all, some minister, some eminent minister, has talked with him, explained it to him, upheld him in this hour, encouraged his hope and brought him clear out, he does not feel as though he were right. Whatever may be the hope he enjoys, there is still the impression that the work of grace requires the interposition of some official instruction. I wish you to ...« less