The fire of God was in the bones of young Joseph Alleine. His
preaching and his prayers dripped with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. ''O
Lord,'' he prayed, ''choose my words; choose my weapons for me; and when I put
my hand into the bag and take out a stone and sling, do Thou carry it to the
mark and make it stick, not into the forehead, but into the heart of the
unconverted sinner, and smite him to the ground as You did to Saul of Tarsus.''
Alleine's words in this book mirror his message to the unconverted. Chapter 1
shows what Conversion is, what it is not. Chapter 2 opens up the necessity of
conversion. Chapter 3 exposes the marks of the unconverted. Chapter 4 proves
the misery of the unconverted. Chapter 5 describes the means of conversion.
Chapter 6 then closes with the motives of conversion. All of these explain why
this book is named An Alarm to the Unconverted. Sinners who have read, and who
now will read, this classic of classics have squirmed, excused, pleaded
falsely, yet have been unable to escape the message straight from Heaven:
''Study your own hearts. Do not rest till God has made thorough work with you.
For you must be other men, or else you are lost men''( p. 8) Tens of thousands,
yea more, have accredited this book with having opened their eyes to their
unconverted state. Among these, perhaps even half of these, were church members
sailing under Christ's colors. These fervent words have burned their way into
the hearts of both the small and the great. George Whitefield told how it
affected him. C. H. Spurgeon ''when brought under conviction'' turned to this
book. Like Pilgrim's Progress, this book has been through hundreds of
printings. Many of these have been private printings of ten thousand or more
copies. Why is this? It speaks the message of God so plainly that it brings
conviction such as attended the apostle Peter's preaching when he cried out,
''Therefore, repent and be converted, unto the blotting out of your sins.”
