The Hell-Fire Club!
(You will find it helpful to Listen to the Audio, as you read the text below.)
Jeremiah 23:29, "Is not My Word like fire," declares the Lord, "and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?"
Mr. Thorpe was a member of an 'infidel' club. In those days infidelity was more blasphemous than now. This infidel society took the name of the "Hell-Fire Club". Among their amusements, was that of holding mock religious services, and exhibiting caricatures of popular ministers.
Thorpe went to hear George Whitfield preach, that he might caricature him before his wicked friends. He listened to Whitfield so carefully, that he caught his tones and his manner, and somewhat of his doctrines.
When the "Hell-Fire Club" met to see his caricature of Whitfield, Thorpe opened the Bible that he might take a text to preach from, after the manner of Whitfield. His eye fell on the passage, "Unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish!" As he spoke upon that text, he was carried beyond himself, lost all thought of mockery, spoke as one in earnest, and was the means of his own conversion! After his amazing conversion, Thorpe became a noted preacher of the gospel!
He was carried by the force of truth beyond his own intention, like one who would play in a river, and is swept away by its current.
In the same way, scoffers may be reached by the arrows of truth! Scripture has often been the sole means in the hands of its divine Author of converting the soul.
"For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God!" 1 Peter 1:23
"For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4:12