"YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN" TWICE-BORN MEN TRUE CONVERSION RECORDS OF ~100 WELL - KNOWN MEN IN ALL RANKS OF LIFE Compiled by HY. PICKERING

An Irish Landlord JOHN PARNELL, Second Lord Congleton, was born in        1805, went to Bagdad as a my. in 1831.    When attending college at Edinburgh, he spent many of his evenings at balls and parties, but his heart was still unsatisfied.   Again and again he tried to be "good," but he learned that his resolutions were not strong enough to hold him, and he found himself slipping back again and again into his old ways.   After repeated failures to come up to the standard of living he had made, he thought that if he had the precepts of Christ constantly before his eyes, he would be more likely to keep them.   With this object in view, he cut out all the precepts and counsels he could find in the New Testament, and put them on a board placed on the mantelpiece.   But he soon learned the difference between knowing the Lord's will and doing it.    Still "doing his best" to merit God's favour, and almost despairing of accomplishing it, a friend said to him one day "If you want to find the knowledge of God, study the Epistle to the Romans; it is there the plan of salvation is made known."   This seemed to revive his hope, and he at once, with the object of fully understanding the Apostle's reasoning, began to copy out the Epistle.   He had got as far as the eighth verse of the eighth chapter: "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God."   The thought was suggested to his mind, "What is the use then of all my efforts?   If a sinner cannot please God, how can I do anything to gain acceptance with Him?"   Then in a moment the truth came before him: "No, I cannot please God, but Jesus Christ can.   He is the way.   He is the perfect One, and this is what is meant by those words at the end of every prayer, 'through Jesus Christ our Lord.'" "Yes," said he, "God receives sinners for His sake, and He will receive me."   There and then he saw that it was what Christ had done that had satisfied the claims of Jehovah, and through believing on Him who bore the wrath and curse and shame, he was saved.    He could not keep the good news to himself.   He testified to friends and relatives of the value of the precious Blood of Christ which cleanses from all sin.   On being asked by one if he had not to "give up" much to become a Christian, his reply was characteristic: "Give up!   No. I gave up nothing.   I got all."   For sixty years he was an earnest and faithful follower of the Lord Jesus, and ceased from his earthly labours on departing to be with Christ, October 23, 1883.

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