In The Life and Labours of Asahel Nettleton, an account is given of the conversion of a young girl named Susan Marble during a revival in Connecticut, 1820. The conditions leading to her conversion are instructive.
She appears to have been a youth of remarkably amiable disposition. Her biographer, speaking of her state of mind while under conviction, says: “It was peculiarly interesting to converse with her at this time. A person ignorant of the natural character of man, as delineated in the Scriptures, would think that one so young and amiable could need nothing new; yet, according to the estimate of the Saviour of sinners, she still lacked one thing. This she felt and deplored. What chiefly distressed her was the sinfulness and hardness of her heart, and its opposition to God.”
I quote this remark for the purpose of turning the attention of the reader to the fact, that those who were converted under Mr. Nettleton’s preaching, however young, and however amiable, were, brought to see the sinfulness and hardness of their hearts, and their opposition to God.
Bennet Tyler, The Life and Labours of Asahel Nettleton (Banner of Truth, 1975), 136–137.
On the methods leading to revival, Nettleton wrote,
We have no new Gospel, no other terms of salvation than those that have always been held out for acceptance. The sinner has been taught invariably that he must not look for comfort without submission. And such has been the faithfulness of our spiritual teachers, that, in most cases, those who have been slain by the law, and brought to despair of climbing up some other way, have been led directly to the Saviour, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and who has always been ready and willing to receive them.
Ibid., 138–139.
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