Asahel Nettleton
THE Rev. Asahel Nettleton (1783 – 1844), a graduate of Yale University, was the means of awakening thousands of souls, says his biographer. As is indicated by the following piece taken from his “Miscellaneous Remarks” in Asahel Nettleton – Sermons from the Second Great Awakening, his preaching was close and searching and was effective by the divine blessing in driving many sinners from their refuges of lies.
OBJECTION. I have a wicked heart, and it is an abomination for me to pray with such a heart.
Answer. Granted. It is so. But what then? Is it not an abomination to neglect to pray And do you think that God will accept of one abomination in excuse for another?
Objection. What shall I do then? You tell me I must neither neglect to pray, nor pray with an impenitent heart. You leave me no choice. I expose myself to the curse either way.
Answer. This statement is not correct. There is a course left for you to choose, and that is to pray as God commands you. Why are you not willing to do as He commands? It is true you have no choice between neglecting prayer, and praying with an impenitent heart. The path of duty is plain: pray as God commands you.
Objection. If to neglect prayer is sin, and if to pray with an impenitent heart is sin, I wish to know which is the greatest sin?
Answer. Why do you ask such a question? What right have you to be balancing sins, to see which you shall choose, when your duty is plain before you? It is of no consequence to you to have this question answered. To neglect prayer, or to pray with an impenitent heart, is abomination to God. Either course leads to hell. Of what consequence is it to the poor soul who is determined to walk in one of them, to know whether they are of equal or unequal length, when they both tend with equal certainty to destruction? Your duty is plain. You must pray with a penitent heart, or be lost.
Objection. But I cannot pray with a penitent and believing heart. I do not possess such a heart; and I cannot change my heart.
Answer. Do you mean to plead your wicked heart as an excuse? Will God, who commands you to love Him, excuse you from performing this duty, because you hate Him? You say you have no heart to pray aright. What a confession is this! This is the very thing for which you are to blame. Will you plead your sin and your desert of condemnation as an excuse for disobeying God? Do you think God will accept such an excuse?
Objection. The ground you take, leaves only one way for the sinner, and cuts off all hope of safety in any other.
Answer. This is the very thing I aim at. To cut off all hope of safety in your present course, is the grand object I have had in view. The ground I have taken is, that obedience, and that only, is acceptable to God; and that we cannot expect safety in any other way. There is not a principle more clearly taught in the Bible, than it is the duty of all men to love God, and to “worship Him in spirit and in truth”.