Humiliation Necessary to Salvation – Charles Spurgeon

WILLIAM DAWSON once told this story to illustrate how humble the soul must be before it can find peace. He said that at a revival meeting, a little lad who was used to Methodist ways—I do not tell the story for the sake of the Methodism, but for the sake of the moral—the little boy went home to his mother and said, “Mother, John So-and-so is under conviction and seeking for peace, but he will not find it tonight, mother.” “Why, William?” said she. “Because he is only down on one knee, mother, and he will never get peace until he is down on both knees.” Now, the moral of it, using it metaphorically, is true. Until conviction of sin brings us down on both knees, until we are completely humbled, until we have no hope, no merit, no proud boasting left, we cannot find the Savior; and willing must we be, not to embrace him like sanctified Mary, but to stand at a distance like the unclean lepers.