Saturday, July 16, 2011

The Cry of an Awakened Soul: Give Me Christ, Or I Die! None But Christ!

What is the one specific cry of a truly spiritually regenerated and awakened soul? Is it not for JESUS, the bread of life? Most assuredly! Go to the sinner bowed beneath the weight of the law, to the man awakened to a conviction of his sinful and lost condition, who has been brought to know the nothingness of his own righteousness, and ask him, 'What will make you happy?' Bid him go to his religious duties, to his sacraments, to his church, to his minister. Oh, how bitter will be his reproof--"I asked you, as a starving man, for bread, and you gave me husks. I need Christ--I need to know that my sins are pardoned--that my transgressions are blotted out--that I am an accepted, forgiven child of God. And nothing short of this will meet my case. I have tried every other expedient, have come to the end of all my own doings, and I perish with hunger. I have been feeding upon ashes. I have sought to meet the ravings of my spirit with the chaff. I have been drinking in the wind. Give me Christ, or I die! None but Christ! None but Christ! Place me upon a pinnacle, and give me the world. I survey from thence, still, without Christ I am undone--I starve--I perish! Lord, I fall at Your feet. You only have the bread of eternal life. Here will I lie, here will I cling; and if I perish in my hunger, it shall be asking You, imploring You, crying to You for bread!"
Oh, thank God if the blessed Spirit has brought you to see the difference between the bread of life and the husks with which man would seek to meet your spiritual craving! Fall on your knees, and thank God if you have been taught that none but Christ--a crucified, atoning, and full Savior--a Savior whose blood blots out the deepest stain of guilt, and whose flowing robe of righteousness justifies the believing soul from all sin--can meet your soul's necessity!

Octavius Winslow, The Fullness of Christ

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