The Necessity of Self-Examination (2)¹

A Sermon by Thomas Boston

2 Corinthians 13:5. Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

2. The trial of this point. The text takes this up in these two things: examining oneself and proving oneself.

(1.) Examining oneself. We must carefully examine whether we are in the faith or not. And this speaks the following things:

[1.] The necessity of the knowledge of the faith, both of the doctrine of faith in its fundamentals, and the grace of faith as to its nature, even if it is not an experimental knowledge. No one can examine themselves on a point they have no idea of; so those who are grossly ignorant of the nature of faith, are quite incapable of self-examination on this point, but just walk on in darkness and confusion to their own ruin (1 Jn 2:11). How much then does it concern all to cultivate the knowledge both of the doctrine and the grace of faith!

[2.] Men may profess faith yet not have it. They may seem to be in the faith, in a gracious state, who are yet in unbelief and in the gall of bitterness; otherwise there would be no need of self-examination on that head. There is no need of it in heaven or hell for no false colours are worn there; nor do any there seem to be more than what they really are. But here, in the visible Church, there are foolish virgins as well as wise, and foolish builders as well as those who are wise. Great then is the need of self-examination.

[3.] The certain knowledge of our state, whether we are in the faith or not, gracious or graceless, may be attained in the use of ordinary means, without extraordinary revelation. Examining oneself and proving oneself are the means: “Give diligence to make your calling and election sure” (2 Pet 1:10). Many complain they can never get to a point in that matter, but let them judge as to the nature and evidences of faith; let them lay aside their laziness and their careless walking, showing a precise regard to the duties of morality, and it will not be so hard.

But when people remain in confusion as to the nature and evidences of faith, when they cannot bring themselves to consider, and continue careless in their walk, what can be expected? Hence our Lord says, “If thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” And the wise man says, “He

¹Taken with editing from Boston’s Works, vol 2. The first section, last month, contained an explanation of the text followed by the first main head, “the point to be tried” – which was: “whether [one] is in the faith”. The rest of the sermon is printed here.

becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand” (Prov 10:4); whereas diligence in the Christian walk, and tender walking in the way of the Lord, are happy means of getting marks of faith. Hence Christ says, “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me, shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him” (Jn 14:21).

[4.] A rule of trial and self-examination has been given. That we are commanded to examine ourselves implies that a rule has been given by which we are to do so. Hence the beloved disciple says, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 Jn 5:13). God’s Word is a mirror in which good and bad may see their true image, if they will. It is a fire that separates the good metal and the dross; it is our waymark, showing where we are for the present, where we are going, and pointing to the right way. This frightens many at the Bible; and few make this proper use of it, but skim over it. Pay attention to God’s Word, and try your state by it, for it is a sure and infallible rule – the only rule for doing so.

[5.] There is a faculty of self-judging in man; otherwise he would be incapable of examining himself. Hence the wise man says, “The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly” (Prov 20:27). This candle, whether shining with the light of reason only, or with the light of grace also, is capable of making the discovery. Even the foolish virgins saw at length that their lamps had gone out. And all are made to see that they are not in the faith before they are given it. So then you may, if you will, erect this court of examination within your own breast, your own soul and conscience being both judge and a party to the trial. But it is only a subordinate judge, whose sentence, if wrong, will not stand, but be overthrown by the supreme Judge, by whose law the decision must be made.

[6.] A close application of that self-judging faculty in order to try that point. The Psalmist says this was his practice: “I commune with mine own heart, and my spirit made diligent search” (Ps 77:6). The man must rouse himself up, so that he is in earnest to know his state; he must inform himself of the rule he is to be judged by, set it before himself, and apply it impartially to his own case, so that he may see how they agree and how the decision is to be made. Do not deny that you can do this. You can examine whether you are in a wealthy or a destitute condition when something is laid to your charge: whether you are guilty or not, and whether you are in someone’s favour or not. Only you cannot – because you will not – examine yourselves whether you are in the faith. O rouse up yourselves to this important exercise, shake off all lazy delays and set about it vigorously.

(2.) Proving oneself. You must prove yourselves. This implies:

[1.] You must not take the matter of your state upon trust, hoping for the best without due evidence, and stopping there, like the person of whom it is said: “He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?” (Is 44:20). That is an easy way indeed, but very unsafe; as was the case with Laodicea, unto whom the Lord says, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev 3:17).

Those beginning self-examination find it difficult, and they shrink back, contented to hope well, on what grounds they do not know; so the examination is broken off before the matter is brought to a proof. If the examination before the tribunal of God could be shifted that way, and the decision made in men’s favour as superficially, the matter would be less important. But there the examination must go through, and the decision must be made according to, not men’s groundless hopes, but the reality of things; according to what Bildad says, “So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish: whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider’s web” (Job 8:13, 14).

[2.] The matter may, through a close examination, be brought to a decisive proof, however dark and intricate it may seem to be; otherwise we would not be directed to prove ourselves. By close examination of themselves and thoroughly sifting their own hearts, men may discover what is in and about them that declares conclusively, according to the Word, whether their state is good or bad. This will leave men inexcusable if they do not pursue the matter but contentedly walk on in darkness. Carry out the duty closely, according to Scripture rules, and you will find out how matters stand.

[3.] We must not stop till we come to a conclusion, but pursue our self-examination. Thrust forward resolutely, looking to the Lord for light and His help in the search. He will roll away stones of difficulty and make darkness light before you. Remember what Christ says, “Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance” (Mt 13:12). And suppose you should not reach that proof at one time, you must carry on the examination at another time, and so from time to time, till you reach the proof. This is your duty; and if you steadfastly persist in it, you will bring matters to a conclusion.

[4.] Having reached the proof of your state, whether you be in the faith or not, pronounce judgement on it, whether it be good or bad. This is the end for which the self-examination is gone through, and the proof is searched out, so that you may form a sure conclusion, whether you are in the faith or not. It is necessary to do this, so that (1) if you find you are not in the faith, you may

give no sleep to your eyes, or slumber to your eyelids, till you are brought into that happy state, and (2) if you find you are in the faith, you may give God the glory of it and honour Him because you are in this blessed condition.

3. Application. Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith, and do not cease till you bring the matter to a proof, a decisive point. Before I press this exhortation, with motives, I will take notice of some impediments in the way that keep men back from self-examination:

(1.) To be carried away with the things of this world, as with a flood, so that they can think of nothing else and have a heart for no other business. Some are so overwhelmed with worldly cares and secular business that any solid concern about their salvation is quite dismissed, and there is no access for it. Hence our Lord cautions His disciples: “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares (Lk 21:34). Some are so drenched in the vanity and pleasures of the world that they neither think of it, or have heart or hand for it. Madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead, and are at their destination before ever they have put this matter to a trial. O guard against this excessive attachment to the world, which will prove ruinous in the end.

(2.) Love to carnal ease is predominant. Spiritual sloth is so masterly over those that give up themselves to it that, in the midst of warnings from heaven, from without and from within, they must have their ease and keep themselves undisturbed, cost what it will. Hence Solomon says, “How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man” (Prov 6:9-11). But what a risk that is, predicting a fearful wakening! If you love your own souls, strive against this sluggish disposition.

(3.) A false notion of the easiness of the way to heaven. Even when they think of getting to heaven, many never consider the necessity of being in the faith, of regeneration, universal and unlimited obedience to God in the way of duty, and sparing no known sin; only they believe God is a merciful God and that, when the time comes, they must apply for His mercy. Hence our Lord exhorts, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Lk 13:24).

(4.) A secret fear that all is wrong. This frightens them away from self-examination; they choose to patch up their present case in the best way they can, rather than honestly open the wound so that it may be healed. What is this but to cause death from the disease, rather than to lay it open for cure? But the eyes most closely shut now will be opened in the other world, as the

rich man’s were (Lk 16:23). Be not discouraged with fears, but be willing to know the worst as well as the best of your case, for that is your safest course.

(5.) A general hopefulness as to their state, got by some passing reflections on some good things they imagine they have, without examining to the bottom. Men come easily at this, as it were in passing; and being easy in this course, like the church of Laodicea (Rev 3:17), they never set themselves to go to the bottom of the case. This is a very dangerous state and proves the ruin of many.

(6.) Satan has a mighty influence to hinder self-examination, both in saints and sinners. In the former he mars the comfort of the clear view of their state; in the latter he keeps them from waking out of their natural security, and so holds them back from Christ. And I know no duty he sets himself more against. Being an accomplished master in hellish subtlety he well knows that, if sinners were at due pains in examining themselves, and discovered the damnable state they are in by nature, they would hasten to escape to the gospel city of refuge. Therefore he lulls them into a sleep of profound security so that they may not feel their misery and the worse-than-Egyptian bondage they are in to sin and Satan. Awake then, you that sleep, that Christ may give you light.

I shall now press the exhortation by some motives; and O that the Lord may carry it home with power on your hearts, as your eternal welfare is deeply concerned in this!

(1.) God has given you a faculty of examining yourself. He has set up a twofold candle for you – one within you, which is conscience (Prov 20:27); and another outside of you, the written Word (Ps 119:105). And will you venture to walk on in darkness as to your state, while you have these lights to let you discover it? If you will not bring in that light and use it for this purpose, a light will be let in, whether you will or not, that will illuminate the matter, either in mercy, as in the case of the prodigal (Lk 15:17), or in wrath, as in the case of the rich man, (Lk 16:23).

(2.) To be kept back from this duty still is next door to a desperate case (Is 44:20). While a person is inquiring about his state, there is some hope; but for men to be unconcerned about it, whether good or bad, is like the case of men sleeping to death in their bleeding wounds. Publicans and harlots entered into the kingdom of heaven before self-righteous Pharisees, because the former were more ready by far to admit the conviction of the badness of their state than the latter, who were blinded with delusive ideas of their own righteousness.

(3.) It is certain you were once not in the faith, not in a gracious state, as was true of the Ephesians (Eph 2:3,12). Now, dare you pawn your eternal

salvation on it, that you are now in the faith, in a state of grace? No, but you hope the best and are easy. But one would think that, in all reason, according to the weight of the matter, one should labour for a proportionate certainty. And to leave a matter of the utmost importance in uncertainty, and make a leap in the dark into the other world, is a most miserable affair and argues the greatest instability. Surely then this requires a most solemn and deliberate trial; and if you were wise for yourselves, you would bring it to a point.

(4.) There are many false pretenders to religion, but Christ will draw the mask off their faces. Hence He says, “Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name have cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity” (Mt 7:22, 23). “When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are; then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence you are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity” (Lk 13:25-27).

Many have Jacob’s voice, but Esau’s hands; like Judas, they kiss Christ and betray Him. The Laodiceans were such pretenders when they fancied they were “rich, and increased with goods, and [had] need of nothing” (Rev 3:17). Men may go a great length in legal humiliation with Ahab, in repentance with Pharaoh, in reformation with Herod, in zeal for religion with Jehu, and in strictness of life as to the outward man with Paul before his conversion, and yet be strangers to the life of religion and godliness. Should these instances not alarm all who profess Christ, to bring the matter to a trial, whether they are in the faith or not? A mistake here has the most dangerous of consequences.

(5.) This would be a matter of the greatest use, if followed through, both to believers and unbelievers. To the former it brings the comfort of their faith, clears up their gracious state, and gives them so many evidences for heaven as they have proofs of their faith. To the other it may be the beginning of good; it will give them the knowledge of their disease, which is the first step to the cure; and if once they are thoroughly convinced of their sinful and damnable state, they may be induced to leave no stone unturned till they be rescued from it, through applying by faith to the blood and Spirit of Jesus Christ, who saves from sin and delivers from the wrath to come.

(6.) Try now your state, for God will try one and all of you, and no wrong judgement will pass before Him. To what purpose should we shift a trial,

which we know we will certainly undergo, from an infallible Judge? We cannot by any artifice hide from His eyes. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal 6:7). “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Heb 4:13). Not the least thing in us or about us can escape His all-piercing eye, for He says, “I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees” (Zeph 1:12). God has trying times for countries and for particular persons. And such a trying time we have just now. Let us regard the operation of His hands, lest He proceed against us by terrible things in righteousness. However, should we pass untried in this world, we will most certainly be tried in the other, and there will be no altering of the decision then made. Should we not then be stirred up to try ourselves now and see how matters stand between God and us, so that we may not be condemned in the great day of decision and judgement?

(7.) It is God’s express command that you should try yourselves, whether you are in the faith or not. God has not only warned you to try this important point, both by His Word and providence, but has expressly interposed His authority, binding it as an indispensable duty upon you to try yourselves, as you will answer it on your highest peril. I say then, Try yourselves as to this weighty affair, lest you are found fighting against God, rejecting His yoke and throwing off His cords from you. Try yourselves then, I say, whether you are in the faith or not, as you would regard the authority of the great Lord of heaven and earth, and would not fall into the hands of the living God, from which there is no deliverance.

Robert Findlater¹

4. The Fruits of a Faithful Ministry

The second of the Lochtayside converts whose spiritual experiences were recorded was CD, a woman of about 20. She had attended the communion in Ardeonaig in September 1816 but confessed, “Nothing I heard made the smallest impression; all I can say is that I thought oftener of eternity”. Yet during a Sabbath service at Lawers the following month, Findlater quoted the scripture, “They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced,” and at

¹The previous article appeared last month and told of the effects of Findlater’s preaching at Lochtayside, in Perthshire. It gave the first of the recorded experiences of 10 people who professed conversion during the revival, all of whom had witnessed a good confession. No names are given; they are distinguished only by letters. This is the final part of a paper read at last year’s Theological Conference All page references otherwise unidentified are from: William Findlater, Memoir of the Rev Robert Findlater, Glasgow, 1840.

once she thought she saw her sins piercing Christ. The words, and their disturbing effects, followed her till the following Wednesday, when she heard someone reading from the Bible and she realised that the wounds of Christ were the cleansing fountain for her sins. She “could do nothing but wonder at such a mystery”.

After some days of unclouded peace and joy she read for herself the passage that had so much encouraged her and became afraid that it did not apply to her condition at that time. The thought left her uneasy, yet she took encouragement from the view she had obtained of Christ. She expressed grief because of her hardness of heart, but she added, “I think that I would be content to go mourning all my days, provided I could love the Lord and be enabled to obey Him”. She was troubled by sinful thoughts but, after going to a meeting, she opened her Bible and found help in the words of Psalm 103: “Like as a father pitieth His children . . . ” (pp 240-3).

EF was a friend of CD and about the same age. She confessed, “Although I knew it was necessary I should be converted, yet, as I thought conversion within the compass of my own power and not willing to relinquish all my pleasures at so early a period of my life, I indulged the temptation of delaying till a more proper time” – as she thought. One Sabbath, Findlater preached on Zacchaeus and remarked that Jesus was one day passing through Jericho, but before the next He might be riding in triumph to Jerusalem – by which presumably he meant that the next day Zacchaeus, for all he knew, might have had no further opportunity of meeting Him. This was how EF understood him; she said, “I was pierced to the heart . . . Then I saw that there was not one moment for delay. . . I thought and believed that justice was ready to seize upon me that instant.”

One morning, about a fortnight later, when she was reading her Bible, she was comforted by the words of Jeremiah 31: “Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore My bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.” Yet she did not dare count herself one of God’s children, but she added what indicated that she may already have been one of them: “I felt I could not be happy if I were not with them and of them” (pp 243-5).

For a final example we will take 25-year-old LM, who had become notorious for “revelling and drinking”, though he had kept from such sins during the two years he had spent in Lochtayside learning his trade. Afterwards he went back to his old habits. Yet while, after some time, he became tired of this lifestyle, he could not give up his sins. At a Thursday service at Ardeonaig during a communion season, he envied a woman whom he saw

under concern of soul. During the evening service, at Lawers, the sermon impressed him slightly. The impressions continuing through the following week and, the following Sabbath, he very much wished “to be truly convinced of sin”.

He could scarcely believe that Findlater, who was preaching, had not been told a great deal about his heart and life; it seemed “that he directed every sentence to me”. These impressions of his sinful state did not leave him; he was “not so much concerned for the torments of hell, which I believed to be my just portion, as for the painful reflection of being excluded from the company of Christ and His people. I often thought thus: Let me but suppose that I am on the outside of the wall of the new Jerusalem, and [experience] no other torment but seeing the blessed host [of saints] within – how could I bear it?”

When LM “found relief”, he went at once to tell three people whom he thought would rejoice with him. However, they gave him no encouragement and he began to question the genuineness of what he had experienced. He assumed “that these persons were better informed and had right knowledge of the nature and effects of regeneration; that they certainly knew the proper time that one ought to be under conviction before he found relief; and that it was because I did not continue that time they knew all was wrong. He concluded that he was deceived; so active is the devil in tempting the spiritually-inexperienced. The account concludes with the somewhat cryptic statement: “However I soon got another clear view, and that relieved me”. Yet, though the object of his faith is not spelt out, we must – in the light of what is said about the “good confession” of all ten who were interviewed – understand what LM says about a “clear view” to be a reference to a view by faith of the Saviour.

John Brown of Whitburn visited Findlater’s district in 1818 and wrote approvingly of the spiritual state of Glenlyon in particular: “Everything about it wore the impress of divine influence, and its consequences have been of the most satisfactory kind. As one of them, it may be mentioned that an intimation of sermon, which a few years ago would with difficulty have drawn together a dozen or two, will now collect the inhabitants by hundreds.”²

In July 1820, Findlater visited Inverness and was persuaded to preach in the East Church there. It was a chapel of ease, an extra church built to ease the situation where there was too little accommodation for worshippers in the existing church buildings, but it did not have a kirk session of its own,

²Tom Lennie, Land of Many Revivals, Christian Focus Publications, 2015, p 262. John Brown of Whitburn was the son of John Brown of Haddington (not the grandson, as stated in the book cited here).

and the minister had no seat on the local presbytery. Before the end of that year, Findlater was called to the congregation by the managers of the chapel, where he was to be succeeded by Finlay Cook, who in turn was followed by David Campbell of Glenlyon. But before accepting the call, Findlater insisted on hearing what the mind of the people in the congregation was. In deciding on his duty, he was influenced by the fact that his preaching seemed now to be making little impression on his flock in Lochtayside; indeed he felt quite discouraged by indications that the influence of the Holy Spirit was now being withdrawn.

Findlater was inducted to Inverness on 31 May 1821. Attendances in his congregation could number over 1800, especially at the morning service, which was in Gaelic, and the people came not only from the town, but also from surrounding villages.

Writing to a fellow minister about this time, Findlater encouraged him to “press the acceptance of the gospel by all the solemn and awful misery of those who refuse it. Urge it on their acceptance by all the winning arguments of its richness, its freeness, its love, its suitableness, its efficacy . . . . Bring these things to their consciences, and you will find that these are the truths which will meet the heart and awaken the most hardened conscience.”

He went on to describe his new situation: “We are here so much accustomed to the terrors of the gospel and to its free offers that they fail to produce [any] effect, and I know not a situation more discouraging than addressing a people of that description. Notwithstanding, I trust there has been more than one instance, even in Inverness since I came here, that have had their consciences awakened, but alas the dense mass of careless sinners and of formal professors [of Christianity] that meets me every Sabbath seems often, to my view, like a wall of brass – impenetrable. The Lord hasten the day when the walls of Jericho shall tumble down at the sound, even of the rams’ horns” (p 300). His biographer stated, “His great aim was to profit more than to please his audience . . . so that even casual hearers admitted that he spoke as one in earnest, who felt deeply interested in the subject, as one ‘anxious that his hearers should feel it too’” (pp 300-1).

It was Findlater’s practice to return to Lochtayside every year. His last visit was in August 1832, when he took some of the services at the communion season in Glenlyon. When he returned to Inverness he found an outbreak of cholera sweeping through the town. The next Sabbath morning he preached from Psalm 106:29: “Thus they provoked Him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them”, words which were solemnly appropriate to conditions in the town. The following Wednesday Findlater himself took ill with cholera. He asked a brother minister to pass a message to his cong-

regation: “Tell my people – tell them – to make sure of an interest in Christ, that a deathbed is not the time”. In a short time he had passed into eternity to receive his reward, on 7 September 1832. He was 45 years old. In retrospect there was a striking relevance in the text on which Findlater had preached his last action sermon, the previous month, in Glenlyon: “Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice” (Ps 50:5).

Let us now note William Findlater’s “concluding reflections” (pp 315-45) on the revival at Lochtayside (he enlarged on each of these points at some length):

1. The sovereignty of God’s grace in the influences of His Spirit, in the means He used, and the time when and the place where the blessing came.

2. God’s sovereignty as to who received a blessing.

3. When God has a purpose of mercy toward a people, “He leads those who obtain it earnestly to desire and pray for it”.

4. When the Lord has a purpose of making the gospel effective in the conversion of souls, “He generally makes use of preparatory means”. In this case, the Bible was now being circulated in Gaelic, the language of the local people; schools were established; “a young missionary was appointed who zealously and prayerfully devoted himself exclusively to the work of the ministry”. Prayer was another such means; in particular, the Friday morning before the Lord’s Supper was given over to an extended prayer meeting to plead for God’s blessing and for the outpouring of the Spirit – not only on that occasion, but throughout the world.

5. When God, in providence, calls ministers to unexpected, exceptional duties, they have a warrant to expect extraordinary help from God. William Findlater gives the example of his brother having unexpectedly to preach in November 1817 when John Macdonald was unable to make it to Lochtayside.

6. The subjects of the sermons which were blessed during the revival were “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ”. William Findlater lists the doctrines proclaimed as “original sin, the demands of a righteous and holy law, regeneration, justification by faith, and the necessity of divine influences” – while the people were directed “to the finished work of Christ as the only standing place on which they could build with confidence, be furnished with true motives to holy obedience, or relish the consolations arising from the gracious promises revealed in the gospel”.

7. The moral influence of the revival was very noticeable, which was a strong evidence of the power of the gospel. The revival had a restraining influence even on the unconverted.

8. During times of revival, there may be, not only powerful effects on

the mind, but even bodily agitation. “This was the case”, states William Findlater, “with a few individuals at this time.”

1. God is sovereign in how long a revival continues. The biographer comments, “While there are visitations of mercy, there are also visitations of judgement. When spiritual mercies and privileges are not sufficiently improved and acknowledged, God withholds those influences which are resisted.”

2. The importance of the gospel ministry being extended farther.

One final reflection: How much this secular, God-denying twenty-first century needs the gospel to be spread everywhere and the Holy Spirit to be poured out abundantly on those who hear it!