NICHOLSON MISSION

Southland Times, Issue 22188, 2 December 1933, Page 9

NICHOLSON MISSION

“HOW TO BE SAVED.”

Last night found a large attendance at the Victoria Hall where the Irish evangelist, Rev W. P. Nicholson, dealt in a clear manner with the subject “How To Be Saved.”

He opened his message with relating an incident which occurred in his home town of Bangor, Ireland, where after an open air meeting on the beach he was talking to a man who said that though he was a deacon of a church and though he had held the position of Sunday School superintendent and, attending the House of God frequently, had heard many exhortations to be saved, yet he had never been told in a definite manner how to be saved. “Now this may be the plight of many,” Mr Nicholson said, “for most of the evangelistic preaching deals with exhortations to be saved, and it may be that many do not know how to obey the exhortation, though willing to do so. There are four steps to be taken to enter into salvation. Firstly, to take the place of an unsaved man or woman. It is hard for people of high morality to have to stand on the same ground as those who have entered into open sin. It is a difficult matter for an honest, good living man to have to stand on the same level as a drunkard or a profligate, and yet that is the first necessary step, and what God demands. Christ came to save lost sinners, and the role of lost sinners is the only one in which He can save anyone. Secondly, to be willing to be His. There must be an absolute surrender to Him. We cannot shake hands with Christ on Sunday and ‘hobnob’ with Satan all the week. God will save us, but only on His terms.” The preacher illustrated this point by the incident when Lord Kitchener had the Boer Army besieged in South Africa and was gradually drawing in the besieging forces till the defeated party could hold out no longer. A Boer general came out under a white flag to Lord Kitchener and said, giving him a despatch: “We will surrender on these terms.” Kitchener’s reply was: “You may keep your communication. I am not here to accept terms, but to dictate them.” “We cannot dictate terms to God,” said Mr Nicholson. “He gives us His terms, and for no person on the face of the globe will He alter or dishonour them. We must be willing to belong to God, to be His, to be surrendered to Him. Thirdly, we must ask Him to save us. ‘Whosoever will call upon me, I will hear,’ says the Lord. There are many whose pride prevents them just here. There is that independence in us that we will not be under an obligation even to God. But pride must go if salvation is to be entered into. We are the paupers, we are the beggars, the bankrupts. Some of us would like to pay God so much in the pound—even a half-penny in the pound—but God will not pander to our self-respect.” Mr Nicholson expounded an experience he had when going through a Mahommedan temple in Egypt. While looking at the Mahommedans playing on their mats, repeating their creed, the guide whispered to him: “Put your hands in your pockets.” On coming out Mr Nicholson asked the reason for that advice, and was told that the people who were praying would have robbed him the moment his back was turned. Prayer must be an asking from the heart, for if they asked they would receive. “The final step is that of accepting what is sought,” said the preacher. “A hungry man may have a meal put in front of him, but until he

accepts the food he remains hungry. Being conscious of our lost condition, being willing to surrender all to Christ, having asked Him to save, there remains but to accept.” Sunday afternoon’s subject is “Christ’s Second Coming,” and that of Sunday night, “Regeneration.”