"I Ascribe My Change Wholly to God"

"When I was coming to Christ, I
thought I was doing it all myself, and
though I sought the Lord earnestly, I
had no idea the Lord was seeking
me. I do not think the young convert
is at first aware of this. I can recall
the very day and hour when first I
received those truths [of the doctrine
of election] in my own soul—when
they were as John Bunyan said, burnt
into my heart as with a hot iron, and
I can recollect how I felt that I had
grown on a sudden from a babe into
a man—that I had made progress in
scriptural knowledge, through
having found, once for all, the clue
to the truth of God.
One week-night, when I was
sitting in the house of God, I was not
thinking much about the preacher’s
sermon, for I did not believe it. The
thought struck me, How did you
come to be a Christian? I sought the
Lord. But how did you come to seek
the Lord? The truth flashed across my
mind in a moment—I should not have
sought him unless there had been
some previous influence in my mind
to make me seek him. I prayed,
thought I, but then I asked myself,
How came I to pray? I was induced to
pray by reading the Scriptures. How
came I to read the Scriptures? I did
read them, but what led me to do so?
Then, in a moment, I saw that God
was at the bottom of it all, and that
he was the Author of my faith, and so
the doctrine of grace opened up to
me, and from that doctrine I have not
departed to this day, and I desire to
make this my constant confession,
'I ascribe my change wholly to God.'"
— Charles Spurgeon