The New Song

And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. REVELATION 14:3

Julia Foote’s conversion begins with a song she could not sing. The text of the sermon at that quarterly meeting in Albany was the verse above, and as the minister dwelt on it she saw, she says, her lost condition as she never had before. A voice inside her kept repeating one sentence: “Such a sinner as you are can never sing that new song.” She fell to the floor and was carried home, and for many hours the same voice followed her in the dark.

It is worth pausing on what she was not. She was not a hardened criminal but a fifteen-year-old from a churchgoing family who had been to a few parties and dances. But the new song belongs to the redeemed, and she knew she was not redeemed. That is the first thing her conversion teaches: that the gap between a respectable young person and the kingdom of God is not a matter of degree. It is the difference between singing the song and being unable to learn it.

A cry and an answer

What broke the darkness was not a long prayer or a clever thought. It was a cry. In great terror she said, “Lord, have mercy on me, a poor sinner!” and at once, she tells us, the accusing voice stopped, a light grew brighter, and she caught the words of distant singing: this is the new song, redeemed, redeemed. She sprang up from the bed where she had lain for twenty hours without food or drink and began to sing it herself.

God be merciful to me a sinner. LUKE 18:13

Not every conversion is so dramatic, but the shape of it is the shape of every true one. The sinner is brought to the end of herself, she calls on God for mercy with nothing in her hands, and God answers with a gift she could not have made for herself. The song is given, not learned. That is why no man could learn it: it is not a matter of study but of redemption.

And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. PSALM 40:3

The word that came to her

The first thing she did was reach for the Bible. She wanted to read about the new song. What her eye fell on instead was the forty-third chapter of Isaiah, and she quotes it in full in her memoir: the Lord who created Jacob and formed Israel telling him not to fear, for He has redeemed him and called him by name.

But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. ISAIAH 43:1

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. ISAIAH 43:2

She would pass through many waters and fires. The promise she read on the morning of her conversion was not that there would be no fire, but that the flame would not kindle upon her. She came back to that idea years later, as we shall see, and made it one of the pillars of her teaching.

Not the altar nor the minister

Then came the doubt. A week after her conversion she was tempted, she says, by the thought that she had been deceived, because people did not get religion lying on a bed at home; they went to the altar and were prayed for by the minister. It seemed very reasonable. Her minister came in within the hour, heard her out, and gave her the answer she never forgot: “My child, it is not the altar nor the minister that saves souls, but faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for all men.” Then he opened the Bible and read her the second chapter of Ephesians.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. EPHESIANS 2:8

This is a small scene, but it matters more than it looks. Julia Foote would later be accused of being carried away by feelings, visions and excitements, and there is something in the charge. But at the foundation of her faith lay not a feeling but a fact: that Christ died for all, and that the one who trusts Him is saved, whatever the circumstances, whoever is or is not present. When she said she believed with all her heart that her sins were forgiven and the Saviour loved her, then, and not before, the joy came.

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ROMANS 5:1

Telling others

The other mark of her conversion is that she could not keep it to herself. She went from house to house, telling her young friends what a Saviour she had found and that He had taught her the new song. Some of them laughed and said they had seen her serious before, and it had not lasted. Her reply was simple and unanswerable: she had been serious before, but she had never been able to sing the new song until now.

There is a seriousness that comes before conversion — a resolution, a fit of good behaviour. Julia had had several, and they had all broken, because they were made in her own strength. Conversion is not another resolution. It is a new heart and a new song, and those who have it cannot help singing.

A reader should hold her story with some care. God does not bring every sinner to the floor for twenty hours, and it would be cruel to tell a quiet enquirer that she cannot be saved without a vision of light or a sound of singing. Julia herself learned the lesson in that first week: it is faith in Christ, not the manner of coming, that saves. But her story does ask whether we have ever come to the end of ourselves at all. A religion that has never cried for mercy has very rarely sung the new song.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Can you name the point, dramatic or quiet, at which you came to Christ with nothing in your hands? If you cannot, do not despair; come now, with the prayer of the publican.

2. Read Isaiah 43:1–7 slowly, putting your own name in place of Jacob’s. Mark which promise you most need this week.

3. If you are troubled because your conversion did not look like someone else’s, hear her minister’s answer: it is faith in Christ that saves, not the altar or the preacher.

4. Tell one person this week, simply and without argument, what Christ has done for you.

5. Distinguish, in your own life, between seasons of seriousness and the new song. Ask God for the second if you have only known the first.

A PRAYER

Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. I bring You nothing but my need.

Thank You that the new song is given and not earned, and that You call Your people by name.

When I doubt, take me back to the cross and not to my feelings. When I am tempted to keep quiet, open my mouth.

Walk with me through whatever waters and fires are ahead, and let no flame kindle upon me, for I am Yours. Amen.