Bishop Taylor Smith, was once preaching in a large cathedral about the need to listen for Christ’s call, to respond to it and to be born again. To illustrate how even devout churchgoers may not be listening for that call and therefore may never have heard it, he pointed at the Archdeacon sitting in his stall and said:
'You might even be an Archdeacon like my
friend there, and not be born again, and unless a man be born again, he cannot
see the Kingdom of God. You might even be a bishop like myself, and not be born
again, and unless a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.’
Next day he received a letter from the
Archdeacon: ‘My dear Bishop, you have found me out. I have been a clergyman for
over thirty years, but I have never known anything of the joy that Christians
speak of. Mine has been a hard, legal service. I did not know what was the
matter with me, but when you pointed directly at me and said ‘You might even be
an Archdeacon and not be born again’, I realised in a moment what the trouble
was. I had never known anything of the new birth.’
The next day Bishop and Archdeacon met
together and before long were both on their knees, the Archdeacon responding to
Christ’s call as he had never done before, taking his place before God as a
sinner, and committing his life to Christ as his Saviour.
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