p. 149 | Thoughts About Conversion by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 2, 1869

Thoughts About Conversion.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

My experience teaches me that many, very many, persons start out with a very wrong idea of what they must do to be converted to God. Frequently, when I speak to persons who are making some effort to become Christians, and ask them why they do not do this or that duty, why they do not pray, or confess Christ publicly, or be baptized, or something of the kind, they say, “I am not fit to do it.” Then what do they intend to do? Why, they expect to wait till, by their own efforts, they become good enough to perform these duties acceptably to God. They realize that they have been sinners in the past; that they have displeased God and done wickedly. They feel as though God would not hear such person’s pray; so they propose to wait before they call upon him, and reform their lives, and become as near like Christians as they can in other respects. When they have made themselves pretty good in their own eyes, then they expect to call upon God, and that he will then listen to them.

Now what is all this? Nothing but a struggle of the carnal mind, and the old man, to keep itself alive. It is an effort to dress one’s self up in his own righteousness, and then expect that God will forgive his few sins because he is pretty good in so many respects. Is this the way to seek God? Is this the way the Bible points out for sinners to be converted and cleansed from sins? Far from it. This is just the way to deceive one’s self and make damnation sure. This is the way to build up a cold, human self-righteousness, which has no Christ, no salvation, no true repentance. This is a sad and awful mistake to make; yet it is one that I fear is frequently made. Christ is the sinner’s only hope. No other way can be found to pardon, and to the favor of God.

The case stands like this: We have sinned, polluted ourselves with wicked deeds, and stained our characters with iniquity. In the sight of God we stand guilty, all polluted and condemned for those sins already committed. In the book of God these sins stand to our account. Now suppose we do stop sinning; suppose we do not commit any more wicked deeds; suppose we do reform our lives so as to pass for very good persons. Does this make us any more innocent in the sight of God? Are we any less sinners than we were before? Not in the least. All these same sins stand against us, and will stand there till the day of Judgment, unless cleansed away by the blood of Christ.

Now what shall we do in this case? The very first thing for the penitent sinner to do, is to go to God and humbly confess all his sins. Then look to Christ and ask pardon of all his sins for Jesus’ sake. He must not expect pardon simply because he has stopped sinning, because he has reformed his life, or because he feels very bad for his sins. He must not expect pardon for any of these things; but he must seek for it and expect it, wholly and only, because Jesus has died for him. There is a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, the fountain of Christ’s precious blood. With this he must be cleansed from his sins. This is that which will bring the blessing of God. This salvation is without money and without price. It is free for all. Yet, strange to tell, the poor sinner does not like to accept it. He will do everything rather than to throw himself upon the mercy of God, and the love of Jesus. He wants to fix up something that he can do himself, so as in some manner to claim pardon for his sins, because of something that he has done. But this will never do. The carnal heart must die. Christ alone must be all in all; he alone must have the praise and glory of every sinner’s salvation. Hence the very first thing for every one to do is to call upon God for mercy, and believe in Jesus Christ for the remission of his sins.

D. M. Canright. Sigourney, Iowa.