Brethren, if you want to answer infidelity*, preach the gospel; tell the people that Jesus Christ is able to save sinners. Lift high the bloodstained cross, proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prisons to them that are bound. This will make a stir, this will agitate the masses. There is nothing like it. Christ’s gospel is like fire flung amongst the standing corn, it makes a wondrous conflagration. Preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, the people must come to hear it, they are not masters of themselves, they cannot stay away; and as they hear it, and as they feed upon it, and joy comes unto them, and peace, and new life, facts will answer theories, salvation will be the best reply to the witticisms and the sophistries of unbelief.
Do not enter into arguments, but test the gospel practically.... If they tell us that the gospel which we preach is not true, we point to many here present whose stories of reclamation from vice and deliverance from despair and uplifting into light and life and holiness are proofs that the gospel is divine. There they are! Facts, facts, facts, these are God’s replies.
*- in the old sense of unbelief, especially mocking and atheistic unbelief
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Beware Of Unbelief," delivered June 6, 1875. Image by Angelo Amboldi on Flickr under Creative Commons License.
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We know that facts alone will not satisfy the mind that is in enmity with God. But, then there is the Spirit, which when and where He comes men will not go unmoved, and those which He comes upon will not be able to resist.
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