The Conversion of Howell Harris 4: A Sight of Calvary

On Whit-Sunday, 1735, Howell Harris went again to Communion. He had read in a book 'that if he went to the sacrament simply believing in the Lord Jesus Christ he would receive the forgiveness of all his sins.’ Now, when he repeated the Confession, he felt every word of it in very depths of his being. As he came to Communion, Howell Harris was granted a sight of the Cross and his burden was lifted:

“I was then delivered from a grievous temptation that had followed me ever since I had first given myself to the Lord. Before that time I never knew what inward trials and spiritual conflicts were, only now and then I had some uneasiness from an awakened conscience, which was quite different from those sore trials that I bore from atheistical thoughts that made my life a burden to me; for they came with such force and power on my mind that I could not withstand them. But at the Sacrament, by viewing my God on the cross, I was delivered from these temptations; now the world, and all thought of human applause and preferment, were quite vanished from my sight; the spiritual world and eternity began, though as yet faintly, to appear; now I began to have other views and motives different from what I had; I felt some insatiable desires after the salvation of poor sinners; my heart longed for their being convinced of their sin and misery. […] I went home jumping with joy … I knew my sins were forgiven me.”