The Great Change - Part One

Extract

The Great Change – Part One
A. W. Pink

Introduction
Section One

Introduction

Some of our older readers may recall a book which made quite a stir in the religious world, especially the Arminian sections of it, some forty years ago. It was entitled, “Twice-born Men,” and was written in a somewhat racy and sensational style by a well-known journalist, Edward Harold Begbie (1871-1929). It purported to describe some startling “conversions” of notorious profligates and criminals under the evangelistic efforts of the Salvation Army and City Missions. Whether or not the reader is acquainted with that particular book, he has probably read similar accounts of reformations of character. He may, as this writer, have personally heard the “testimonies” of some unusual cases. We recall listening unto one in New York City some twenty-five years ago: A man past middle age who had “spent twenty Christmas days in prison,” who had been delivered from a life of crime, attributing his deliverance to the amazing grace of God and the efficacy of the redeeming blood of Christ, and who―to use one of his Scriptural quotations―had been given “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isa. 61:3).

Many, if not all, of those reformed characters testify that so thorough was the work of grace wrought in them that their old habits and inclinations had been completely taken away, that they no longer had the slightest desire to return to their former ways, that all longing for the things which once enthralled them was gone, declaring that God had made them new creatures in Christ, that old things were passed away, and all things had become new (2 Cor. 5:17). Personally, we do not deem our self competent to pass an opinion on such cases. Certainly, we would not dare assign …