A Sermon that Saved a Soul 85 Years Later

“There is an authenticated case of a man being converted by a sermon eighty-five years after he had heard it preached. Mr. Flavel, at the close of a discourse, instead of pronouncing the usual benediction, stood up, and said, ‘How can I dismiss you with blessing, for many of you are Anathema Maranatha, because you love not the Lord Jesus Christ?’ A lad of fifteen heard that remarkable utterance; and eighty-five years afterwards, sitting under a hedge, I think in Virginia, the whole scene came vividly before him as if it had been but the day before; and it pleased God to bless Mr. Flavel’s words to his conversion, and he lived three years longer to bear good testimony that he had felt the power of the truth in his heart.”

Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students

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