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It was considered a high honor in those days for a family to have one of their sons called to be a minister. Many families at that time dedicated their firstborn to God, as the children of Israel did of old. In the Simpson family, both Albert and his older brother were inclined to go this way. Simpson's parents realized that they must play a role in the developing of these young men if they were to become useful vessels for the Master. Albert's parents were willing to allow their sons to be set apart to be educated and trained for their eventual service. This involved a price - giving them up from work on the family farm.
Coming To Christ in Simplicity
At the age of fourteen Albert encountered a spiritual and physical crisis. At this time he was considering his future and was torn between his dutiful feelings for the ministry and his pursuits and delights in the world. He tried to grope his way to God, knowing that he needed salvation. However, the God he knew up to that point was awesome and severe. He said, "My whole religious training had left me without any conception of the sweet and simple Gospel of Jesus Christ." In doctrine he knew that "only God could give in some mysterious way a wonderful change called the new birth or regeneration."
Albert's sensitive nature was weighed down by his inward conflict. That, coupled with his frail health, brought him to a physical and emotional breakdown. At one point Albert feared he was dying. At the height of his distress, he cried out to his father to pray for him, which he did in love and tenderness. But his father, for all his strict religion, may not have known clearly the way of peace himself. "No one," Simpson said, "shared with me the simple way of believing in the promises and accepting the salvation fully provided and freely offered."
After he recovered to a certain extent, he was up and about, though still in distress concerning his soul. One day he came across an old book, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification by Walter Marshall.
 Simpson at the time of his conversion |
In it he read: "The first good work you will ever perform is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Until you do this, all your works, prayers, tears, and good resolutions are vain. To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is to believe that He saves you according to His word, that He receives and saves you here and now, for He has said: 'Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.'" This was food enough for Simpson's hungry soul. He knelt in prayer and restfully realized the forgiveness of his sins and the sweeping away of all his fears. God had delivered him. He was regenerated. Albert described his experience: "To my bewildered soul this was like the light from heaven that fell upon Saul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus. I immediately fell upon my knees, and looking up to the Lord, I said, Lord Jesus, Thou hast said, 'Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.' Thou knowest how long and earnestly I have tried to come, but I did not know how. Now I come the best I can, and dare to believe that Thou dost receive me and save me, and that I am now Thy child, forgiven and saved simply because I have taken Thee at Thy word. Abba Father, Thou art mine, and I am Thine."
Initial Growth and Equipping
His new birth was accompanied by an early joy of salvation and followed by a time of rapid spiritual growth. He became hungry for the Scriptures and took them into his soul with "unspeakable ecstasy." He marveled that the former "empty words" became "divine revelations." "The promises of God," he said, "burst upon my soul with a new and marvelous light."
Continued
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