p. 15 | The True Definition of Conversion

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 16, 1909

The True Definition of Conversion

Thomas Goodwin, who writes to such purpose on this as on every other, spiritual subject, says, in one place, that this is the best definition of conversion that he had ever met with: “Conversion is the total change of a man’s chief end.” Before his conversion every man’s chief end is himself; always and in everything his chief end is himself. But after every true conversion, God, sooner or later comes to his own. God, sooner or later, comes to his throne and his scepter in that man’s heart. And the truly converted man—the ideally converted man, shall I say?—lives no longer to himself, but to his God and Saviour. He has been redeemed with a price, and he knows it and acknowledges it. “There is a new lodestone,” says that great preacher, “let into every renewed heart, till every renewed man sails henceforth according to another compass.”—Whyle.