AWAKING TO TRUE RELIGION
AWAKING TO TRUE RELIGION
"What must I do to be saved?" Acts 16:30.
The circumstances which led to this momentous inquiry, were deeply interesting. Paul and Silas had gone into Macedonia, preaching the gospel; and having come to Philippi, they were arrested by the magistrates of the city, scourged, and thrown into a dungeon. The jailer having received a strict charge to keep them safely, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. It is one of the glories of the gospel that it does not restrict its blessings to any condition in life; that its richest consolations may be enjoyed as well in a dungeon as in a palace: and hence we find that the blessed Savior appeared marvelously for these persecuted men. That they would be engaged in prayer, it were natural to expect; but the walls of their prison are made to echo not only to the voice of prayer—but of praise; for we are expressly informed that "they sang praises to God." At this moment there was a great earthquake which shook the prison, so that the doors were thrown open, and the keeper awoke in the utmost consternation. Supposing the prisoners to have escaped, which would have been at the forfeiture of his life, he drew his sword, and was nearly in the act of destroying himself, when Paul—the same Paul whom he had just before confined in a dungeon—with much of his master's benevolence, cries out, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here." "Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
It is not easy, nor, for my present purpose, important, to determine, whether the jailer had ever heard the gospel before this time; whether any conversation had previously taken place between him and the apostles, which originated these convictions; or whether the light which he received, was directly communicated at the time by the Holy Spirit. It is sufficient for us to know that he really became an anxious inquirer on the subject of his salvation.
It will occur to you, my young friends, that the preceding discourse was occupied with an examination of some of the excuses, with which youth are prone to put off the claims of true religion. I would willingly hope that there are those among you, who have become satisfied of the worthlessness of these excuses, and have resolved never more to plead one of them—not even at the bar of conscience. Nay more, I would indulge the hope that you have not only given up your excuses—but that you have become impressed with the importance of your soul's salvation; insomuch that when you heard the text announced, your heart instantly responded to the sentiment contained in it, as one in which you have the deepest personal interest. In the hope which I have now expressed, it is my purpose, in the present discourse, to inquire into the meaning of this momentous question, with a view to place distinctly before you that state of mind commonly called CONVICTION OF SIN; that you may be assisted, on the one hand, to decide upon the character of your pious impressions, and on the other, to gain such a view of your condition as shall be necessary to lead you to escape from the wrath to come.
What then is the import of the question contained in the text—"What must I do to be saved?"