At the close of one of his services in Edinburgh, a young man asked to speak with him and was admitted to the side-room, where he was meeting with anxious inquirers. Addressing Mr. North, he said, ‘I have heard your sermon, sir, and I have heard you preach often, now; and I neither care for you nor your preaching, unless you can tell me, why did God permit sin in the world?’ ‘Then I’ll tell you,’ the preacher at once replied; ‘God permitted sin, because He chose to do so.’ The man was taken aback by the ready retort, which threw no light on the subject of his question, and yet expressed all the conclusion which the deepest thinkers on that mysterious subject have been able to arrive at, referring it as an unsolved enigma to the divine good pleasure, which permitted it for reasons altogether wise, but not revealed to us and to a large extent inscrutable. ‘Because He chose it,’ he repeated, as the objector stood speechless, and added, ‘If you continue to question and cavil at God’s dealings, and vainly puffed up by your carnal mind strive to be wise above what is written, I will tell you something more that God will choose to do. He will some day choose to put you into hell. It is vain, sir, for man to strive with his Maker; you cannot resist Him; and neither your opinion of His dealings, nor your blasphemous expression of them, will in least lessen damnation, which will most certainly be your portion if you go on in your present spirit. There were such questioners as you in Paul’s time, and what the apostle said to them I say to you, “Nay, but, man, who art thou that repliest against God?”‘ The young man interrupted him, and asked, ‘Is there such a text, sir, as that in the Bible?’ ‘Yes, there is, in the ninth chapter of Romans; and I recommend you to go home and read that chapter, and after you have read it, and learned from His own Word that God claims for Himself the right to do whatever He chooses and does not permit the thing formed to say unto Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus?—to remember that, besides permitting sin, there is another thing God has chosen to do—God chose to send Jesus.‘
He then in a few words pointed out to him the way of salvation both from sin and wrath which God had prepared of His own free and sovereign will. The following Friday, the servant announced that a young man wanted to speak to him. On being shown upstairs, he asked Mr. North if he remembered him, but he could not recall who he was. ‘Do you not remember the young man who on Sunday night asked you to tell him why God permitted sin?’ ‘Yes, perfectly.’ ‘Well, sir, I am that young man; and you said that God permitted sin because He chose it, and you told me to go home and read the ninth chapter of Romans, and you also told me that God chose to send Jesus to die for such sinners as I was, and I went home and did, sir, what you told me.’
He said he had gone home, and after reading that chapter, which so many find a stumbling-block, he had pleaded for pardon in the name of Jesus, and for the gift of the Holy Spirit to be his Teacher, and was afterwards enabled to believe that he had been heard and forgiven, and now he said, ‘I am happy, oh, so happy, sir; and though the devil comes sometimes to tempt me with my old thoughts, and to ask me what reason I have to think God has forgiven me, I have always managed to get away by telling him that I do not want to judge things any longer by my own reason but by God’s Word, and that the only reason why I know I am forgiven is that, for Christ’s sake, God chooses to pardon me.’ Mr. North added that the changed expression of the young man’s countenance was enough to account for his not knowing him again, as it was radiant with joy and peace.’—Life of Brownlow North by Rev. K. Moody-Stuart, pp. 255-258.