_AND_ JUDAS ISCARIOT TOGETHER WITH OTHER EVANGELISTIC ADDRESSES BY J. WILBUR CHAPMAN HODDER & STOUGHTON NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY Copyright 1906 The Winona Publishing Company CONTENTS And Judas Iscariot An Old-Fashioned Home The Swelling of Jordan A Call to Judgment A Changed Life The Lost Opportunity A Great Victory Paul a Pattern of Prayer A Startling Statement The Grace of God Conversion Five Kings in a Cave Definiteness of Purpose in Christian Work The Morning Breaketh An Obscured Vision The Compassion of Jesus Sanctification An Unheeded Warning The Approval of the Spirit A Reasonable Service The True Christian Life INTRODUCTION The sermons contained in this volume are published in response tonumerous requests that they might be put into permanent form. The author of these sermons needs no introduction to the Christianreaders of America. His fame as an author, preacher and evangelist ismore than national. As Director of the evangelistic work carried on bythe General Assembly's Committee of the Presbyterian Church, he hasachieved distinction as a preacher of the Gospel. Under his directionsimultaneous evangelistic campaigns have been held in many of theleading cities of the land, and the Christian Church and the world havehad an experience of a new, aggressive and emphatic evangelism that hasstirred the Church, revived Christian service and been the means underGod of turning thousands to a life of allegiance to Jesus Christ. Therefore it is a privilege and pleasure to put into book form some ofthe sermons which Dr. Chapman has preached in his evangelistic work andalso as the Director of the Interdenominational Bible Conference atWinona Lake, Indiana. Thousands have borne witness to the profoundimpression and enduring influence of those messages. Especially isthis true of "And Judas Iscariot" and "An Old-Fashioned Home. " One cannever forget the scene when the latter sermon was preached onThanksgiving Day, 1905, in the great theater in Jersey City. Greatnumbers of men have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as apersonal Savior following the preaching of "The Swelling of Jordan. " The book is sent forth with devout gratitude to God for his blessingupon the preaching of these sermons, and with a prayer that even thereading of them may be attended with deeper devotion to Jesus Christ, and increasing service to those for whom Christ died. PARLEY E. ZARTMANN. AND JUDAS ISCARIOT AND JUDAS ISCARIOT TEXT: "_And Judas Iscariot. _"--Mark 3:19. There is something about the name of this miserable man which commandsour attention at once. There is a sort of fascination about hiswickedness, and when we read his story it is difficult to give it upuntil we have come to its awful end. It is rather significant, itwould seem to me, that his name should come last in the list of theApostles, and the text, "And Judas Iscariot, " would suggest to me notonly that his name was last, but that it was there for some specialreason, as I am sure we shall find out that it was. It is alsosignificant that the first name mentioned in the list of the Apostlesin this third chapter of Mark was Simon, who was surnamed Peter. The first mentioned Apostle denied Jesus with an oath, the one lastreferred to sold him for thirty pieces of silver and has gone intoeternity with the awful sin of murder charged against him. Thedifference between the two is this: their sins were almost equallygreat, but the first repented and the grace of God had its perfect workin him and he was the object of Christ's forgiveness; the second wasfilled with remorse without repentance and grace was rejected. Thefirst became one of the mightiest preachers in the world's history; thesecond fills us with horror whenever we read the story of his awfulcrime. Different names affect us differently. One could not well think ofJohn without being impressed with the power of love; nor could oneconsider Paul without being impressed first of all with his zeal andthen with his learning. Certainly one could not study Peter withoutsaying that his strongest characteristic was his enthusiasm. It ishelpful to know that the Spirit of God working with one who was a giantintellectually and with one who was profane and ignorant accomplishedpractically the same results, making them both, Paul and Peter, mightymen whose ministry has made the world richer and better in every way. But to think of Judas is always to shudder. There is a kindred text in this same Gospel of Mark, but the emotionsit stirs are entirely different. The second text is, "And Peter. " Thecrucifixion is over, the Savior is in the tomb, poor Peter, abroken-hearted man, is wandering through the streets of the City of theKing. He is at last driven to the company of the disciples, whensuddenly there rushes in upon them the woman who had been at the tomb, and she exclaims, "He is risen, has gone over into Galilee and wantshis disciples to meet him. " This was the angel's message to her. Allthe disciples must have hurried to the door that they might hasten tosee their risen Lord--all save Peter. And then came the pathetic andthrilling text, for the woman gave the message as Jesus gave it to theangels and they to her, "Go tell his disciples--_and Peter_. " But this text, "And Judas Iscariot, " brings to our recollection thestory of a man who lost his opportunity to be good and great; thepicture of one who was heartless in his betrayal, for within sight ofthe Garden of Gethsemane he saluted Jesus with a hypocritical kiss; therecollection of one in whose ears to-day in eternity there must beheard the clinking sound of the thirty pieces of silver; and theaccount of one who died a horrible death, all because sin had its waywith him and the grace of God was rejected. The scene connected with his calling is significant. Mark tells us inthe third chapter of his Gospel that when Jesus saw the man with thewithered hand and healed him, he went out by the seaside and then uponthe mountain, and there called his Apostles round about him, gave themtheir commission and sent them forth to do his bidding. In Matthew the ninth chapter and the thirty-sixth to the thirty-eighthverses, we are told that when he saw the multitudes he was moved withcompassion, and he commissioned the twelve and sent them forth thatthey might serve as shepherds to the people who appeared to beshepherdless. "Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly isplenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of theharvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. " And thenhe sent the twelve forth. As a matter of fact the Scripturesconcerning Judas are not so very full, but there is a good outline, andif one but takes the points presented and allows his imagination towork in the least, there is a story which is thrilling in its awfulness. The four Evangelists tell us of his call, and these are practicallyidentical in their statement except concerning his names. Matthew andMark call him the Betrayer; Luke speaks of him as a Traitor, while Johncalls him a Devil. The next thing we learn concerning him is hisrebuke of the woman who came to render her service to Jesus as a proofof her affection. In John the twelfth chapter, the fourth to the sixthverse, we read, "Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment soldfor three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not thathe cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag, andbare what was put therein. " Next we hear of him bargaining with the enemies of Jesus for hisbetrayal. The account is very full in Matthew, the twenty-sixthchapter the fourteenth to the sixteenth verse. "Then one of the twelvecalled Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And theycovenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time hesought opportunity to betray him. " Then we are told of his delivering Jesus into the hands of his enemies, in Matthew, the twenty-sixth chapter, the forty-seventh to theforty-ninth verses: "And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of thetwelve, came, and with him a great multitude, with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he that betrayedhim gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he:hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Master;and kissed him. " And then finally comes his dreadful end, the accountof his remorse in Matthew, the twenty-seventh chapter, the third andthe fourth verses. "Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he sawthat he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirtypieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinnedin that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What isthat to us? see thou to that. " And the statement of his suicide inMatthew, the twenty-seventh chapter, the fifth verse, "And he cast downthe pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hangedhimself. " I The natural question that comes to every student of the life of Judasmust be, "Why was he chosen?" but as Joseph Parker has said, "We maywell ask why were we chosen ourselves, knowing our hearts as we do andappreciating our weakness as we must. " It has been said that if westudy the Apostles we will find them representatives of all kinds ofhuman nature, which would go to show that if we but yield ourselves toGod, whatever we may be naturally, he can use us for his glory. It washere that Judas failed. I have heard it said that Jesus did not knowJudas' real character and that he was surprised when Judas turned outto be the disciple that he was; but let us have none of this spirit inthe consideration of Jesus Christ. Let no man in these days limitJesus' knowledge, for he is omniscient and knoweth all things. Let usnot forget what he said himself concerning Judas in John the thirteenthchapter and the eighteenth verse, "I speak not of you all; I know whomI have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eatethbread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. " Again, in the sixthchapter and the seventieth verse, "Jesus answered them. Have not Ichosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" and finally, in thesixth chapter and the sixty-fourth verse, "But there are some of youthat believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were thatbelieved not, and who should betray him. " There were others who might have been chosen in his stead. TheApostles found two when in their haste they determined to fill thevacancy made by his betrayal. Acts 1:23-26, "And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. Andthey prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take part ofthis ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. And they gave forth their lots; andthe lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the elevenapostles. " It seems to me that there can be no reason for his having been calledof Christ except that he was to serve as a great warning to those of uswho have lived since his day. There are many such warnings in theScriptures. Jonah was one. God said to him, "Go to Nineveh, " and yet, with thespirit of rebellion, he attempted to sail to Tarshish and we know hismiserable failure. Let it never be forgotten that if Nineveh is God'schoice for you, you can make no other port in safety. The sea will beagainst you, the wind against you. It is hard indeed to struggleagainst God. Jacob was a warning. Deceiving his own father, his sons in turndeceived him. May we never forget the Scripture which declares, "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. " Esau was a warning. Coming in from the hunt one day, weary with hisexertions, he detects the savory smell of the mess of pottage, and hiscrafty brother says, "I will give you this for your birthright, " whichwas his right to be a priest in his household; a moment more and thebirthright is gone; and in the New Testament we are told he sought itwith tears and could find no place of repentance. But many a man hassold his right to be the priest of his household for less than a messof pottage, and in a real sense it is true that things done cannot beundone. Saul was a warning. He was commanded to put to death Agag and theflock, and he kept the best of all the flock and then lied to God'smessenger when he said that the work had been done as he was commanded. He had no sooner said it than, behold, there was heard the bleating ofthe sheep, and the lowing of the oxen. "Be sure your sin will find youout. " The New Testament has many warnings like these in the Old, but Judassurpasses them all. There is something about him that makes us shudder. It is said that in Oberammergau, where the Passion Play is presented, the man taking the character of Judas is always avoided afterwards. Hemay have been ever so reputable a citizen, but he has been at least inaction a Judas, and that is enough. I was once a pastor at Schuylerville, N. Y. , where on the Burgoynesurrender ground stands a celebrated monument. It is beautiful to lookupon. On one side of it in a niche is General Schuyler, and on theother side, if I remember correctly, General Gates; on the third, inthe same sort of a niche, another distinguished general is to be seen, but on the fourth the niche is vacant. When I asked the reason I wastold that "It is the niche which might have been filled by BenedictArnold had he not been a traitor. " The story of Judas is like this. He might have been all that God couldhave approved of; he is throughout eternity a murderer, and all becausegrace was rejected. Numerous lessons may be drawn from such a story. Certain things might be said concerning hypocrisy, for he was in thetruest sense a hypocrite. Reference could be made to the fact that sinis small in its beginnings, sure in its progress, terrific in itsending, for at the beginning he was doubtless but an average man insin, possibly not so different from the others; but he rejected theinfluence of Christ. Or, again, from such a character a thrillingstory could be told of the end of transgressors, for hard as may be theway the end baffles description. Judas certainly tells us this. II However much of a warning Judas may be to people of the world, I amfully persuaded that there are four things which may be said concerninghim. First: He gives us a lesson as Christians. There were many names givenhim. In Matthew the tenth chapter and the fourth verse, and in Markthe third chapter and the nineteenth verse, we read that he was abetrayer; in Luke the sixth chapter and the sixteenth verse he wascalled a traitor; in John the sixth chapter and the seventieth verse heis spoken of as a devil, but in John the twelveth chapter and the sixthverse he is mentioned as a thief. To me however one of the best namesthat could be applied to him is that which Paul feared might be givento him when he said, "Lest when I have preached to others I myselfshould be [literally] disapproved" (1 Corinthians 9:27). It is indeeda solemn thought, that if we are not right with God he will set usaside, for he cannot use us. I have in mind a minister, who oncethrilled great numbers of people with his message. Under the power ofhis preaching hundreds of people came to Christ. There was possibly noone in the Church with a brighter future. To-day he is set aside, forGod cannot use him. I have in mind a Sunday school superintendent, whoused to be on every platform speaking for Christ, and then yielded toundue political influence of the worst sort, lost his vision of Christand his power in speaking, and to-day is set aside. But of all theillustrations, I know of nothing which so stirs me as the story ofJudas. He might have been true and faithful and he might have beenwith Christ to-day in glory; instead, he is in hell, a self-confessedmurderer, with the clinking of the thirty pieces of silver to condemnhim, and his awful conscience constantly to accuse him. It is indeedenough to make our faces pale to realize that, whatever we may beto-day in the service of God, we can be set aside in less than a week, and God will cease to use us if we have anything of the spirit of Judas. Second: I learn also from Judas that environment is not enough for theunregenerate. It is folly to state that a poor lost sinner simply bychanging his environment may have his nature changed. As John G. Woolley has said, "it is like a man with a stubborn horse saying, 'Iwill paint the outside of the barn a nice mild color to influence thehorse within. '" The well on my place in the country some years ago had in it poisonedwater. It was an attractive well with a house built around about it, and the neighbors came to me to say that I must under no circumstancesdrink from it. What if I had said, "I will decorate the well housethat I may change the water?" It would have been as nonsensical as tosay, "I will change the environment of a man who is wicked by nature, and thereby make him good. " Judas had lived close to Jesus, he hadbeen with him on the mountain, walked with him by the sea, wasfrequently with him, I am sure, in Gethsemane, for we read in John theeighteenth chapter and the second verse, "And Judas also, whichbetrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither withhis disciples. " He was also with him at the Supper. But after allthis uplifting, heavenly influence of the Son of God he sold him forsilver and betrayed him with a kiss. Nothing can answer for the sinnerbut regeneration. His case is hopeless without that. Third: Hypocrisy is an awful thing. The text in Galatians is for allsuch. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked. " Those words in Matthew inconnection with the sermon on the Mount are for such, when men in thegreat day shall say, "Have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thyname have cast out Devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?"Jesus will say, "I never knew you. " If we read the commission inMatthew the tenth chapter the fifth to the twentieth verses inclusive, we shall understand that these Apostles were sent forth to do a mightywork, and evidently they did it. Judas had that commission, and he mayhave fulfilled it in a sense, but he is lost to-day because he was ahypocrite. The disciples may not have known his true nature. In Johnthe thirteenth chapter the twenty-first to the twenty-ninth verses weread, "When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, andtestified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of youshall betray me. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting ofwhom he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of hisdisciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. He then lying onJesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He itis to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. And when he haddipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. Andafter the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, Thatthou doest, do quickly. Now no man at the table knew for what intenthe spake this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas hadthe bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we haveneed of against the feast; or that he should give something to thepoor. " Which would seem to impress this thought upon us. Oh, may Isay that it is a great sin to be untrue? The only time that Jesus issevere is not when sinners seek him out, nor when the woman taken inadultery is driven to him by those who would stone her with stones, norwith the thief on the Cross, but when he faces hypocrites; he can haveno tenderness for them. Fourth: I learn from Judas that sin is of slow progress. There mayhave been first just a natural ambition. He thought that the Kingdomof Jesus was to be a great temporal affair, and he desired to be a partof it. How many men to-day have wrecked their homes and all but losttheir souls, because of unholy ambitions! It may be an ambition foryour family as well as for yourself. Doubtless Jacob had such when hestopped at Shechem. The result of his tarrying was his heart-breakingexperience with the worse than murder of his daughter. There are soulsto-day in the lost world who were wrecked upon the rock of ambition. Fifth: He was dishonest. It is a short journey from unholy ambition todishonesty. The spirit of God Himself calls him a thief. But, Sixth: Let it be known that while sin is of slow progress, it isexceedingly sure. In the twenty-second chapter of Luke and the thirdto the sixth verses we read that Satan entered into Judas. It seems tome as if up to that time he had rather hovered about him, tempting himwith his insinuations, possibly causing him to slip and fall inoccasional sins, but finally he has control and then betrayal, denialand murder are the results. I looked the other day into the face of a man who said to me, "Do youknow me?" and I told him I did not, and he said, "I used to be aChristian worker and influenced thousands to come to Christ. In anunguarded moment I determined to leave my ministry and to become rich. My haste for riches was but a snare. I found myself becomingunscrupulous in my business life and now I am wrecked, certainly fortime--oh, " said he, "can it be for eternity? I am separated from mywife and my children, whom I shall never see again. " And rising in anagony he cried out as I have rarely heard a man cry, "God have mercyupon me! God have mercy upon me!" III There are but three things that I would like to say concerning Judas asI come to the end of my message. The first is that he was heartless in the extreme. It was just after atouching scene recorded in Matthew the twenty-sixth chapter the seventhto the thirteenth verses, "There came unto him a woman having analabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, ashe sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might havebeen sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought agood work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me yehave not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever thisgospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her. " It wasafter this that Judas went to the enemies of Jesus and offered to sellhim, and as if that were not enough, it was just after he had leftGethsemane, in Matthew the twenty-sixth chapter the forty-fifth to theforty-ninth verses, that he betrayed him with his kiss. "Then comethhe to his disciples and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take yourrest; behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed intothe hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at handthat doth betray me. And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of thetwelve, came, and with him a great multitude, with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he that betrayedhim gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he:hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Master;and kissed him. " The blood drops had just been rolling down the cheeksof the Master, for he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood; and Ican quite understand how upon the very lips of Judas the condemningblood may have left its mark. But do not condemn him; he is scarcelymore heartless than the man who to-day rejects him after all hisgracious ministry, his sacrificial death and his mediatorial work ofnineteen hundred years. Second: His death was awful. Acts 1:18, "Now this man purchased afield with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burstasunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. " I can imaginehim going out to the place where he is to end it all, remembering as hewalked how Jesus had looked at him, recalling, doubtless, some of hisspoken messages, and certainly remembering how once he had been withhim in all his unfaithful ministry. All this must have swept beforehim like a great panorama, and with the vision of his betrayed Masterstill before him he swings himself out into the eternity; and then asif to make the end more terrible the rope broke and his body burst andhis very bowels gushed forth. Oh, if it be true that the _way_ of thetransgressor is hard, in the name of God what shall we say of the end? Third: I would like to imagine another picture. What if instead ofgoing out to the scene of his disgraceful death he had waited untilafter Jesus had risen? What if he had tarried behind some one of thosegreat trees near the city along the way which he should walk, or, possibly on the Emmaus way? What if he had hidden behind some greatrock and simply waited? While it is true that he must have trembled ashe waited, what if after it all he had simply thrown himself on themercy of Jesus and had said to him, "Master, I have from the first beenuntrue; for thirty pieces of silver I sold thee and with these lips Ibetrayed thee with a kiss; but Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercyupon me"? There would have been written in the New TestamentScriptures the most beautiful story that the inspired book contains. Nothing could have been so wonderful as the spirit of him who is ableto save to the uttermost, and who never turned away from any seekingsinner, and he would, I am sure, have taken Judas in his very arms; he, too, might have given him a kiss, not of betrayal, but of the sign ofhis complete forgiveness, and Judas might have shone to-day in the cityof God as shines Joseph of Arimathaea, Paul the Apostle, Peter thePreacher. The saddest story I know is the story of Judas, for it is the accountof a man who resisted the grace of God and must regret it througheternity. AN OLD-FASHIONED HOME TEXT: "_What have they seen in thy house?_"--2 Kings 20:15. If you will tell me what is in your own house by your own choice I willtell you the story of your home life and will be able to inform youwhether yours is a home in which there is harmony and peace orconfusion and despair. Let me read the names of the guests in yourguest book, allow me to study the titles of the books in your libraryin which you have special delight, permit me to scan your magazineswhich you particularly like, allow me to listen to your conversationwhen you do not know that you are being overheard, give me theprivilege of talking but for a moment to your servants, and make itpossible for me to visit with your friends in whom you have particulardelight--and I will write a true story of what you have been, of whatyou are, and of what you will be but for the grace of God, even thoughI may not know you personally at all. In other words, whatever may beseen in your home determines what your home is. I was a man grown before I visited Washington, the capital of thenation. I was the guest of a member of the President's Cabinet. Riding with him the first evening, when the moon was shining, wesuddenly came upon the National Capitol, and I said to my host, "Whatin the world is that?" He said, with a smile, as if he pitied me, "That is the Capitol building, and that is the home of the nation. " Iam sure he was right in a sense, because the building is magnificent, and is in every way the worthy home of such a nation as ours; but Ithink I take issue with him, after careful thought, in his statementthat the Capitol building is the home of the nation. I can recall avisit made to a home which was not in any sense palatial, where theold-fashioned father every morning and evening read his Bible, knelt inprayer with his household about him, commended to God his children eachby name, presented the servants at the throne of grace, and then sangwith them all one of the sweet hymns of the church; and from themorning prayer they went forth to the day of victory, while from theevening prayer they went to sleep the undisturbed sleep of the just, with the angels of heaven keeping watch over them. I recall another home in the State of Ohio where the father and motherwere scarcely known outside of their own county. The size of theirfarm was ten acres, but they reared two boys and two girls whosemission has been world-wide and whose names are known wherever thechurch of Christ is known and wherever the English language is spoken. These, in the truest sense, are the homes of the nation, and such homesgive us men and women as true as steel. Napoleon once was asked, "What is the greatest need of the Frenchnation?" He hesitated a moment and then said, with marked emphasis, "The greatest need of the French nation is mothers. " If you will askme the greatest need of America I could wish in my reply that I mightspeak with the power of a Napoleon and that my words might live aslong, for I would say, the greatest need of the American nation to-dayis homes; not palatial buildings, but homes where Christ is honored, where God is loved, and where the Bible is studied. A returned missionary, who had been for twenty-five years away from hishome because he would not accept his furloughs, was asked after he hadbeen in California for a little season what impressed him the mostafter his absence of a quarter of a century. The reporter expected himto say that he was impressed with the telephone system which boundhouses and cities together, or that he was amazed at the wirelesstelegraphy, by means of which on the wave currents of the air messageswere sent from one city to another; but the returned missionaryexpressed no such surprise. He said, "When I went away from Americaalmost every home had its family altar; now that I have returned I havewatched very carefully and find that a family altar in a home is theexception and not the rule. " Wherever this is true there is real causefor great alarm, for in proportion as the home fails the nation is indanger. Hezekiah had been sick unto death. The word of the Lord by the mouthof the Prophet came to him, saying, "Set thy house in order, for thoumust die. " Then he recovered for a season. The King of Babylon sentmessengers to him, and when the messengers had gone Isaiah asked himthe question of the text, "What have they seen in thy house?" The dearest and most sacred spot on earth is home. Around it are themost sacred associations, about it cluster the sweetest memories. Thebuildings are not always palatial, the furnishings are not always ofthe best, but when the home is worthy of the name ladders are let downfrom heaven to those below, the angels of God come down, bringingheaven's blessing and ascend, taking earth's crosses. Such a home isthe dearest spot on earth, because there your father worked and yourmother loved. There is no love which surpasses this. Some years ago, when the English soldiers were fighting and a Scotchregiment came to assist, the Scotchmen, strangely enough, began to diein great numbers. The skill of the physicians was baffled. They couldnot tell why it was that there seemed to be such a rapid falling awayof the men. But at last they discovered the cause. The Scotch piperswere playing the tunes that reminded the Scotchman of the heather andthe hills, and they were dying of homesickness. When the music waschanged the deaths in such large numbers almost instantly ceased. We are drifting away from our old-fashioned homes; fathers have growntoo busy, mothers have delegated their God-given work to others. Wehave lost instead of gained. Wherever the homes are full of weaknessthe government is in danger. The homes of our country are so manystreams pouring themselves into the great current of moral and sociallife. If the home life is pure, then all is pure. I stand with thatcompany of people today who believe that we are at the beginning of agreat revival of religion, and I am persuaded that this revival is tobe helped on not so much by preaching, though that is not to beignored; nor by singing, though that in itself is useful; but it is tobe helped or hindered by the condition of the homes in our land. I I have a friend, George R. Stuart, who says that when God himself wouldstart a nation he made home life the deciding question. He selectedAbraham as the head of the home, and in Genesis, the eighteenth chapterand the nineteenth verse, he gives the reason for this in these words:"For I know him, that he will command his children and his householdafter him. " There are two great principles which must prevail in every home: First: _Authority_, suggested by the word "command. " Second: _Example_, suggested by the expression, "He will command hischildren and his household after him. " In order that one may rightly command he must himself be controlled orbe able to obey an authority higher than his own. It is absolutelyimpossible for one to be the father he ought to be and not be aChristian, or to be worthy of the name of mother and not yieldallegiance to Jesus Christ. If we are to set before those about us aright example, we cannot begin too soon. Your children are areproduction of yourself, weakness in them is weakness in yourself, strength in them is but the reproduction of your own virtue. A convention of mothers met some years ago in the city of Cincinnatiand was discussing the question as to when one ought properly to beginto train the child for Christ. One mother said, "I begin at six";another suggested seven as the proper age; another said, "I begin whenmy child takes his first step, and thus point him to Christ, or when hespeaks his first word I teach him the name of Jesus. " Finally an oldsaint arose and said, "You are all of you wrong; the time to begin totrain the child is the generation before the child is born, " and thiswe all know to be true. But the responsibility does not rest simply upon mothers; fatherscannot ignore their God-given position. Judge Alton B. Parker and hisfavorite grandson, Alton Parker Hall, five years old, narrowly escapeddeath by drowning in the Hudson River. For half an hour the two playedin the water. Then Judge Parker took the boy for a swim into deepwater. Placing the boy on his back, he swam around for awhile, andthen, deciding to float, turned over, seating the boy astride hischest. In this manner the judge floated a distance from the wharfbefore noticing it. Then he attempted to turn over again, intending toswim nearer the shore. In the effort to transfer the boy to his backthe little fellow became frightened and tightly clasped the judge aboutthe neck. Judge Parker called to the boy to let go his hold, but theyouth only held on the tighter, and, frightened at the evident distressof the judge, began to whimper. In a few moments the grasp of the boybecame so tight that Judge Parker could not breathe. He tried to shakethe boy loose, and then attempted to break his grasp. The boy held onwith the desperation of death, however, and every effort of the judgeonly plunged them both beneath the choking waves. With his last fewremaining breaths, Judge Parker gave up the struggle and shouted forassistance. The mistake that the distinguished man made was that hewent too far from shore with the boy. There are too many men to-daywho are doing the same thing. They are going out too far in sociallife, they are too lax in the question of amusements, they are toothoughtless on the subject of dissipation. Some day they will stop, themselves recovering, but their boys will be gone. Example counts for everything in a home. It there is any blessing inmy own life or others, if there has been any helpfulness in my ministryto others, I owe it all to my mother, who lived before me a consistentChristian life and died giving me her blessing; and to my father, whowith his arms about me one day said, "My son, if you go wrong it willkill me. " I was at one time under the influence of a boy older thanmyself and cursed with too much money. I had taken my firstquestionable step at least, and was on my way one night to a placewhich was at least questionable if not sinful. I had turned the streetcorner and ahead of me was the very gate to hell. Suddenly, as Iturned, the face of my father came before me and his words rang in myvery soul. If my father had been anything but a consistent Christianman I myself, I am sure, would have been far from the pulpit, and mighthave been in the lost world. There are those who seem to think thatthe height of one's ambition is to amass a fortune, to build a palaceor to acquire a social position. My friend, George R. Stuart, says youmay build your palaces, amass your fortunes, provide for thesatisfaction of every desire, but as you sit amid these luxurioussurroundings waiting for the staggering steps of a son, or as you thinkof a wayward daughter, all this will be as nothing, for there isnothing that can give happiness to the parents of Godless, waywardchildren. Some one has said, "Every drunkard, every gambler, everylost woman once sat in a mother's lap, and the downfall of the most ofthem may be traced to some defect in home life. " The real purpose of every home is to shape character for time andeternity. The home may be one of poverty, the cross of self-sacrificemay be required, suffering may sometimes be necessary, but wherever ahome fulfills this purpose it is overflowing with joy. One of myfriends has drawn the following picture which he says is fanciful, butwhich I think is absolutely true to life: Back in the country there is a boy who wants to go to a college and getan education. They call him a book-worm. Wherever they find him--inthe barn or in the house--he is reading a book. "What a pity it is, "they say, "that Ed cannot get an education!" His father, work as hardas he will, can no more than support the family by the products of thefarm. One night Ed has retired to his room and there is a familyconference about him. The sisters say, "Father, I wish you would sendEd to college; if you will we will work harder than we ever did, and wewill make our old dresses do. " The mother says, "Yes, I will get alongwithout any hired help; although I am not as strong as I used to be, Ithink I can get along without any hired help. " The father says, "Well, I think by husking corn nights in the barn I can get along without anyassistance. " Sugar is banished from the table, butter is banished fromthe plate. That family is put down on rigid, yea, suffering, economythat the boy may go to college. Time passes on. Commencement day hascome and the professors walk in on the stage in their long gowns andtheir classic but absurd hats. The interest of the occasion is passingon, and after a while it comes to a climax of interest as thevaledictorian is introduced. Ed has studied so hard and worked so wellthat he has had the honor conferred upon him. There are rounds ofapplause, sometimes breaking into vociferation. It is a great day forEd. But away back in the galleries are his sisters in their old plainhats and faded clothes, and the old-fashioned father and mother; dearme, she has not had a new hat for six years; he has not had a new coatfor a longer time. They rise and look over on the platform, then theylaugh and they cry, and as they sit down, their faces grow pale, andthen are very flushed. Ed gets the garlands and the old-fashionedgroup in the gallery have their full share of the triumph. They havemade that scene possible, and in the day that God shall more fullyreward self-sacrifice made for others, he will give grand and gloriousrecognition. "As his part is that goeth down to battle, so shall hispart be that tarrieth by the stuff. " This experience describes a home in the truest sense of the word betterthan all the palaces the world has ever known where love is lacking andthe spirit of God is gone. II There are two great forces in every home. I speak of the father andthe mother, not but that the children have their part in either makingor breaking a household, but these two are the mightiest of agencies. The mother stands first. There are certain things which must be trueof every mother. She must be a Christian. The father may fail if hemust, but let the mother fail and God pity the children. She must beconsistent. The children may forget the inconsistencies of the fatherbut when the mother fails the impression is lasting as time and almostas lasting as eternity. She must be prayerful. I do not know ofanything that lifts so many burdens or puts upon the face such a lookof beauty as the spirit of prayer. And she must study her Bible. Whenwe pray we talk with God, but when we read the Bible God talks with usand every mother needs his counsel. A poor young man stood before a judge in a great court to be sentencedto death. When asked if he had anything to say, he bowed his head andsaid, "Oh, your honor, if I had only had a mother!" A mother's love is unfailing. When I was in Atlanta, Georgia, inOctober, 1904, a little girl and an old mother came to see thegovernor. They had met on the train, and the child agreed to take theold lady to see the governor of the State. They entered the governor'soffice and she spoke as follows: "I want to see the governor, " was the straightforward request of thelittle lady addressed to Major Irwin, the private secretary to thegovernor, as he inquired her errand. "That is the governor standing there. He will see you in a moment, "replied the major, indicating Governor Terrell standing in the group. The governor went over to her. "What can I do for you, dear?" heasked. Throwing back her curls she opened wide her baby brown eyes andsaid: "Governor, it is not for me; it is for this old lady. Her name is Mrs. Hackett, and she wants to talk to you about pardoning her boy. " Thiswas said by a little lady of eleven, who spoke with all the grace and_savoir-faire_ of a woman twice her age. In a voice choked with emotion, Mrs. Hackett began her tearful, scarcely audible story and presented her petition for clemency for herboy. "Governor, have mercy on me, " she began, and threw back her bonnet, showing a face wrinkled by age and furrowed and drawn by suffering, "and give me back my boy. " Breaking down under the strain of talking to the governor, whom she hadplanned for months to see, the pleading mother gave way to her grief. The governor was visibly moved, and continued to stroke the curly hairof Mrs. Hackett's little guide. "Give me back my boy. I am an oldwoman, going on seventy-nine, and I cannot be here long. I know I amstanding with one foot in the grave, and I do want to hear my boy, mybaby, say to me, 'Ma, I'm free. ' Let me go down on my knees to you andbeg that you have mercy on a mother's breaking heart. During the lastmonth I picked five hundred pounds of cotton and made two dollars toget here to see you. I got here without a cent, and this little angelgave me a dollar--her all. I don't care if I have to walk back home, for I've seen you and told you of my boy. " With unsteady voice the governor told her the law, and referred hergently to the prison commission, assuring her that they would give herpetition the most considerate attention. I am told that when the bookswere examined the crime was found to be one of the blackest on thecalendar, and yet the mother loved him. Her love always stimulates love. It lasts when everything else fails. A man cannot wander so far from God as to forget his mother, or go sodeep in sin as to be unmindful of her sweet influence. The following is a sketch, full of touching interest, of a littleragged newsboy who had lost his mother. In the tenderness of hisaffection for her he was determined that he would raise a stone to hermemory. His mother and he had kept house together and they had beenall to each other, but now she was taken, and the little fellow's losswas irreparable. Getting a stone was no easy task, for his earningswere small; but love is strong. Going to a cutter's yard and findingthat even the cheaper class of stones was far too expensive for him, heat length fixed upon a broken shaft of marble, part of the remains ofan accident in the yard, and which the proprietor kindly named at sucha low figure that it came within his means. There was much yet to bedone, but the brave little chap was equal to it. The next day he conveyed the stone away on a little four-wheeled cart, and managed to have it put in position. The narrator, curious to knowthe last of the stone, visited the cemetery one afternoon, and he thusdescribes what he saw and learned: "Here it is, " said the man in charge, and, sure enough, there was ourmonument, at the head of one of the newer graves. I knew it at once. Just as it was when it left our yard, I was going to say, until I got alittle nearer to it and saw what the little chap had done. I tell you, boys, when I saw it there was something blurred my eyes, so's Icouldn't read it at first. The little man had tried to keep the linesstraight, and evidently thought that capitals would make it look betterand bigger, for nearly every letter was a capital. I copied it, andhere it is; but you want to see it on the stone to appreciate it: MY MOTHER SHEE DIED LAST WEAK SHEE WAS ALL I HAD. SHEE SED SHEAD BEE WAITING FUR-- and here the boy's lettering stopped. After awhile I went back to theman in charge and asked him what further he knew of the little fellowwho brought the stone. "Not much, " he said; "not much. Didn't younotice a fresh little grave near the one with the stone? Well, that'swhere he is. He came here every afternoon for some time working awayat that stone, and one day I missed him, and then for several days. Then the man came out from the church that had buried the mother andordered the grave dug by her side. I asked if it was for the littlechap. He said it was. The boy had sold all his papers one day, andwas hurrying along the street out this way. There was a runaway teamjust above the crossing, and--well--he was run over, and lived but aday or two. " He had in his hand when he was picked up an old filesharpened down to a point, that he did all the lettering with. Theysaid he seemed to be thinking only of that until he died, for he keptsaying, "I didn't get it done, but she'll know I meant to finish it, won't she? I'll tell her so, for she'll be waiting for me, " and hedied with those words on his lips. When the men in the cutter's yardheard the story of the boy the next day, they clubbed together, got agood stone, inscribed upon it the name of the newsboy, which theysucceeded in getting from the superintendent of the Sunday school whichthe little fellow attended, and underneath it the touching words: "Heloved his mother. " God pity the mother with such an influence as this if she is leading inthe wrong direction! It is necessary also to say just a word about the father. There aremany pictures of fathers in the Bible. Jacob gives us one when hecries, "Me ye have bereft of my children. " David gives another when he cries, "O Absalom, my son. " The father ofthe Prodigal adds a new touch of beauty to the picture when he callsfor the best robe to be put upon his boy. I allow no one to go beyondme in paying tribute to a mother's love, but I desire in some specialway to pay tribute to the devotion and consistency of a father. There are special requisites which must be made without which no fathercan maintain his God-given position. He must be a Christian. I rodealong a country road with my little boy some time ago. I found that hewas speaking to my friends just as I spoke to them. One man called myattention to it and said, "It is amusing, isn't it?" To me it wasanything but amusing. If my boy is to speak as I speak, walk as Iwalk, then God help me to walk as a Christian. He must be a man of prayer. No man can bear the burdens of life ormeet its responsibilities properly if he is a stranger to prayer. He must be a man of Bible study. One of the most priceless treasures Ihave is a Bible my father studied, the pages of which he turned overand over, and which I never used to read without a great heart throb. "I con its pages o'er and o'er; Its interlinings mark a score Of promises most potent, sweet, In verses many of each sheet; Albeit the gilding dull of age, And yellow-hued its every page, No book more precious e'er may be Than father's Bible is to me. "Its tear-stained trace fresh stirs my heart The corresponding tear to start; Of trials, troubles herein brought, For comfort never vainly sought, For help in sorest hour of need, For love to crown the daily deed, No book more precious e'er may be Than father's Bible is to me. " He must also erect in his house a family altar. I know that manybusiness men will say this is impossible, but it is not impossible. Ifyour business prevents your praying with your children, then there mustbe something wrong with your business. If your life prevents it, thenyou ought to see to it that your life is made right and that quickly. My friend, George R. Stuart, one of the truest men I know, gave me thefollowing picture of a Christian home. He said: "When I was preachingin Nashville, at the conclusion of my sermon a Methodist preacher cameup and laid his hand upon my shoulder and said, 'Brother Stuart, howyour sermon to-day carried me back to my home! My father was a localpreacher, and the best man I ever saw. He is gone to heaven now. Wehave a large family; mother is still at home, and I should like to seeall the children together once more and have you come and dedicate ourhome to God, while we all rededicate ourselves to God before preciousold mother leaves. If you will come with me, I will gather all thefamily together next Friday for that purpose. ' I consented to go. Theold home was a short distance from the city of Nashville. There were alarge number of brothers and sisters. One was a farmer; one was adoctor; one was a real estate man; one was a bookkeeper; one was apreacher; and so on, so that they represented many professions of life. The preacher brother took me out to the old home, where all thechildren had gathered. As we drove up to the gate I saw the brothersstanding in little groups about the yard, whittling and talking. Didyou never stand in the yard of the old home after an absence of manyyears, and entertain memories brought up by every beaten path and treeand gate and building about the old place? I was introduced to thesenoble-looking men who, as the preacher brother told me, were allmembers of churches, living consistent Christian lives, save theyounger boy, who had wandered away a little, and the real object ofthis visit was to bring him back to God. "The old mother was indescribably happy. There was a smile lingeringin the wrinkles of her dear old face. We all gathered in the large, old-fashioned family room in the old-fashioned semicircle, with motherin her natural place in the corner. The preacher brother laid thelarge family Bible in my lap and said, 'Now, Brother Stuart, you are inthe home of a Methodist preacher; do what you think best. ' "I replied, 'As I sit to-day in the family of a Methodist preacher, letus begin our service with an old-fashioned experience meeting. I wanteach child, in the order of your ages, to tell your experience. ' Theoldest arose and pointed his finger at the oil portrait of his father, hanging on the wall, and said in substance about as follows: 'BrotherStuart, there is the picture of the best father God ever gave a family. Many a time he has taken me to his secret place of prayer, put his handon my head, and prayed for his boy. And at every turn of my life, since he has left me, I have felt the pressure of his hand on my head, and have seen the tears upon his face, and have heard the prayers fromhis trembling lips. I have not been as good a man since his death as Iought to have been, but I stand up here to-day to tell you and mybrothers and sisters and my dear old mother that I am going to live abetter life from this hour until I die. ' Overcome with emotion, hetook his seat, and the children in order spoke on the same line. Eachone referred to the place of secret prayer and the father's hand uponthe head. At last we came to the youngest boy, who, with his faceburied in his hands, was sobbing and refused to speak. The preacherbrother very pathetically said, 'Buddy, say a word; there is no onehere but the family, and it will help you. ' "He arose, holding the back of his chair, and looked up at me and said, 'Brother Stuart, they tell me that you have come to dedicate this hometo God; but my old mother here has never let it get an inch from God. They tell you that this meeting is called that my brothers and sistersmay dedicate their lives to God, but they are good. I know them. I amthe only black sheep in this flock. Every step I have wandered awayfrom God and the life of my precious father, I have felt his hand uponmy head and heard his blessed words of prayer. To-day I come back toGod, back to my father's life, and so help me God, I will never wanderaway again. ' "Following his talk came a burst of sobbing and shouting, and I startedthat old hymn, 'Amazing grace (how sweet the sound!) that saved awretch like me!' etc. , and we had an old-fashioned Methodistclass-meeting, winding up with a shout. As I walked away from that oldhomestead I said in my heart, 'It is the salt of a good life that savesthe children. ' A boy never gets over the fact that he had a goodfather. " "What have they seen in thy house?" If we are to help our children fortime and eternity, our homes must be better, our lives must be truer, our ambition to do God's will must be supreme. When these conditionsare met it will be possible for us to answer the question of the text. THE SWELLING OF JORDAN TEXT: "_How wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?_"--Jer. 12:5. High up in the mountains of Anti-Lebanon a famous river was born whichwas to play so important a part in the history of God's people that itwould not have been strange if the birds of heaven had chanted theirpraises when first it began its journey. From four different places inthe mountain the stream starts. Then the four streams become one, andin a single channel the river makes its way across the plain. There are two chief characteristics which must be borne in mind. Thefirst is that a part of its journey is through a rocky country, andcaves are on either side of the river, sometimes one above another;frequently three caves are to be seen one above another. The othercharacteristic is that it overflows its banks in all the time ofharvest. These two things must be kept in mind if the text would teachits lesson. There are certain people who will always remember the river Jordan--thechildren of Israel first of all, because it separated them from thePromised Land; and while scripturally Canaan does not stand for Heaven, yet in the mind of many it does, and the Jordan typifies an experiencewhich stands between us and the future. Naaman will remember it, forwhen he came as a leper to the servant of God he was bidden to washseven times in this river. At first he rebelled against the thought, finally he entered the stream, bathed twice, three times, four, five, six times, and was still a leper; but you will remember the word of theLord, seven times must he bathe, and when the seventh plunge was taken, behold, his flesh was as the flesh of a little child! No man needexpect to have light and peace and power or eternal life until he hasfulfilled all the commands of God. The wild beasts frequently make their way to these caves as a place ofrefuge. When the waters begin to rise they are driven out, when theygo to the higher cave, and then to the highest of all, and the watersconstantly rising fill this cave and they are overpowered and put todeath. They are an illustration for us. Men of to-day are in caves ofdifferent sorts; some in the cave of dissipation, others in the cave ofinfidelity, and still others in the cave of morality. One day thewaters of judgment will begin to rise, and it will be an awful thing tostand in terror before God, driven forth without refuge. I _Dissipation_. "I am in the clutch of an awful sin, " wrote some one tome recently, whether man or woman I cannot tell, but this was the story: Three years before the writer had been free, and then in an unguardedmoment had gone down. Now came the pathetic cry, "I am helpless andhopeless. " I do not know what the sin was, but it makes no difference;any sin can bind us if we but yield to it. Under the subject ofdissipation I do not speak of drinking as the worst of sins, because itis not the worst, by any means. I had a thousand times rather admit tomy home the drunkard who has been cursed with his appetite than toadmit there the man who is lecherous, who possibly stands high insociety and in the business world, but whose sin is great and whoseheart is vile beyond description. I speak of drinking because it isthe most common of sins. John B. Gough cries out concerning this sin, "I do not speak of itboastingly, " said he, "for I have known what the curse of strong drinkis; I have felt it in my own life and seen it in others, but I say thetruth, let the bread of affliction be given me to eat, take away fromme the friends of my old age, let the hut of poverty be my dwellingplace, let the wasting hand of disease be placed upon me, let me livein the whirlwind and dwell in the storm, when I would do good let evilcome upon me--do all this, merciful God, but save me from the death ofa drunkard. " When he would speak in such language, God pity the manwho yields to such a sin. It may be that gambling is your weak point. When I was in Colorado ayoung man who was a graduate of Harvard, the honor man of his class, and who had recently buried his wife, sat at the gambling table, stakedhis last dollar and lost it; then deliberately put up his little childand lost her; and then, in despair, blew out his brains and sent hissoul to hell. When such a man of culture and training would go downunder such a sin, God pity the man who yields to it. Or it may be licentiousness, that sin which makes men lower than thebeasts of the field, from which one can scarcely break away. I do notknow what the sin may be that clutches your life, but if you have givenway to it and rejected Christ, how wilt thou do in the swelling ofJordan, when the waters rise higher and higher and you are withoutChrist and without hope? II Some are in the cave of infidelity. That there are honest skeptics inthe world we all believe, and the honest skeptic is one who says, "Icannot believe as you do, and I do not know that I would if I could, but if your hope is any comfort to you, then cling to it and go down toyour grave trusting in it. " The dishonest skeptic is the man who sneers at my faith, who laughs atthe old-fashioned religion, who says that once he believed in it buthas grown away from it, seemingly forgetting that the greatest men thecountry has ever produced have been humble followers of Jesus ofNazareth. Infidelity does not satisfy. It leaves an aching void inlife and mocks us in death. Besides, it is deceiving and the talk ofthe infidel orator is deceiving. Said one of the most eloquent notmany years ago, "When I think of the Christian's God and theChristian's Bible, I am glad I am not a Christian. I had rather be thehumblest German peasant that ever lived, sitting in his cottage, vineclad, from which the grapes hang, made purple by the kiss of the sun asthe day dies out of the sky, shod with wooden shoes, clad in homespun, at peace with the world, his family about him, with never a thought ofGod--I say the truth I had rather be such a peasant than any Christianthat I have ever known. " And when he said it the people cheered him. It was, however, but the trick of an orator. Let us change thesentences and give a new ring to the thought. "When I think of whatinfidelity would do I am glad I am not an infidel; how it would rob meof the hope of seeing my mother and meeting again my child; how itwould take me in despair to the grave and send me away with a brokenheart--I say I am glad I am not an infidel. I had rather be thehumblest German peasant that ever lived, sitting in his cottage, vineclad, from which the grapes hang, made purple by the kiss of the sun asthe day dies out of the sky, clad in homespun, shod with wooden shoes, at peace with the world and at peace with God, his family Bible uponhis knees, the look of ineffable joy in his face and singing that grandold hymn of Luther's, 'A mighty fortress is our God'--I had rather besuch a German peasant than to be the mightiest infidel the world hasever known, " and so I would, a thousand thousand times. God pity youif you allow yourself to put Christ out of your life and stand in themidst of the rising floods with no hope in him! How wilt thou do inthe swelling of Jordan? III Some are in the cave of morality. It seems a strange thing to have aword to say against it, only when we remember that he that offends inone point is guilty of all, and when we remember God's word as he hasdeclared, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all the thingswritten in the Book of the law to do them. " Then the question for the moralist is this, "Have you ever offended inone point?" A splendid steamer was launched on Lake Champlain. She made her waysafely across the lake and started back, when a storm came upon her, the engines were disabled and she drifted to the rocks. "Out with theanchor, " said the captain, and the command was obeyed, but still shedrifted, and although the anchor was down she crashed against the rockswith an awful force, and all because the anchor chain was three feettoo short. Your morality so far as it goes may be a good tiling, butit does not reach the standard of God, nor can it until you are safelyunited to Christ; and if you have put him out of your life and standalone in the midst of the rising floods, then how wilt thou do in theswelling of Jordan? Sin is a terrible thing. It not only blights our hopes and prospectsfor the future, but it wrecks the strongest characters. One has onlyto open his eyes to see, if he will but look abroad, what dreadfulhavoc this awful evil hath wrought in the world, and yet the wonderfulthing is that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begottenSon that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but haveeverlasting life, " and no matter how dreadful the wreck or how awfulthe ruin, Jesus Christ comes seeking to save that which was lost. Major Whittle used to tell the story of the aged Quaker named Hartmannwhose son had enlisted in the army. There came the news of a dreadfulbattle, and this old father, in fear and trembling, started to thescene of conflict that he might learn something concerning his boy. The officer of the day told him that he had not answered to his name, and that there was every reason to believe that he was dead. This didnot satisfy the father, so, leaving headquarters, he started across thebattlefield, looking for the one who was dearer to him than life. Hewould stoop down and turn over the face of this one and then the faceof another, but without success. The night came on, and then with alantern he continued his search, all to no purpose. Suddenly the wind, which was blowing a gale, extinguished his lantern, and he stood therein the darkness hardly knowing what to do until his fatherly ingenuity, strength and affection prompted him to call out his son's name, and sohe stood and shouted, "John Hartmann, thy father calleth thee. " Allabout him he would hear the groans of the dying and some one saying, "Oh, if that were only my father. " He continued his cry with morepathos and power until at last in the distance he heard his boy's voicecrying tremblingly, "Here, father. " The old man made his way acrossthe field shouting out, "Thank God! Thank God!" Taking him in hisarms, he bore him to headquarters, nursed him back to health andstrength, and he lives to-day. Over the battlefield of the slain thisday walks Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crying out to all who arewrecked by this awful power, "Thy Father calleth thee, " and if thereshould be but the faintest response to his cry he would take the lostin his arms and bear them home to heaven. Will you not come while hecalls to-day? A CALL TO JUDGMENT TEXT: "_I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that Ihave set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, thereforechoose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. _"--Deut. 30:19. Moses was a wonderful man; whether you view him as a poet or as aleader of men, he is alike great. This text was spoken by him to thepeople of Israel at the close of his career. The leadership of God'schosen people is now to be transferred to Joshua, and it is in orderthat he may speak to them as they should be addressed, and at the sametime in order that he may free himself from judgment, that he speaks ashe does. I have two great desires as I present this message. First, that I might myself be faithful, and that it might be said thatI am free from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declareunto you the whole counsel of God. Second, that I might help some one to the knowledge of Christ. This isno time for argument, for argument always calls forth discussion. Itis no time for theory. Practical, every-day people of the world carenothing for mere theories. And it is no time for speculation, for togive such to the people is like giving a stone when they have asked forbread. But it is time for eternal choice. The audience of thepreacher vanishes when he thinks of the text and its meaning and he isface to face with the Judgment when he shall be judged for the way hehas spoken, and the people shall be called to account for the way theyhave heard. It is indeed a solemn word. "I call heaven and earth torecord this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thyseed may live. " I _Record_. I desire to use this word as if it were a noun for the timebeing, for it will bring to us the same truth. This leads me to saythat every one is making a record, either good or bad. Deep downthrough the surface of the earth you will find the evidence of stormscenturies ago; the record was indelibly made. Two records are being kept. This is indicated in the twentieth chapterof Revelation, where it is said, "And the books were opened. " Noticethat it is plural and not singular. There is a record in heaven keptby the Recording Angel. If it were in the memory of God it would be anawful thing, for while God does not remember forgiven sin, he cannot, from the very nature of the case, forget unpardoned sin, and if that isthe record one day we shall meet it face to face. There is also a record upon earth. We have seen it in the charactersof men who have gone astray, and in the faces of those who have beenaffected by their sins. In an eastern city where I was preaching my attention was called to ayoung man of brilliant prospects. He was a member of a great wholesalegrocery firm, and young men looked at him almost with envy; but hebegan to drink, and at the end of a year the senior partner called himin to say that he must change his conduct or retire from the firm. Hemade promises only to break them, and finally, going from bad to worse, he was forced to retire. One morning we read the news in the paperthat his bloated body had been found floating in the Hudson river; andhis old father, up to a few years ago, walked up and down the streetswith bowed head, giving every evidence of an almost broken heart. Sinis an awful thing and makes its record on whatever it touches. II _Two Ways_. There are just two ways in this world along which men maywalk, and they are not parallel ways. I used to have that idea, but Iam sure it is wrong. As a matter of fact, it is but one way; going inone direction is death, and in the opposite direction is life. First: Away from God, away from his love, every step only leads usfarther from Him--not because of anything he is, but because of what wehave done ourselves. A father in the South sent his boy to a northern university, and forseven years he was away from the restraints of his home. Then he cameback with his diploma but with the habit of intemperance fastened uponhim. It seemed impossible for him to break it, and his old father wasfairly crushed. His mother broke her heart and died, all because ofher boy. And yet the father loved him. One day the old father steppedfrom his carriage in the town in which he lived. The son was heard tomake a request of him, and when evidently it was refused the boy turnedand struck him full in the face. The old father staggered and wouldhave fallen to the walk except for assistance. He entered hiscarriage, drove back to his home, the servants saw him go out into thegrove where his wife was buried, throw himself on the grave and shriekaloud. Some time later the boy returned and the father met him at thedoor to say, "You must go away; you have disgraced my name and killedyour mother and broken my heart. " This is the measure of a father'slove perhaps in this one instance, but think how many times you havetrifled with God, spurned his love, disregarded his Son, and yet he hasloved you. And remember also that word which says, "There is a time, we know not when, A place, we know not where, That seals the destiny of men For glory or despair. " Second: _Towards God_. How easy a thing it is, therefore, to be savedif there is but one way and this way runs in opposite directions, meaning either life or death. It is just to "right about face, " as thesoldier would say, by an act of the will and with the help of God toturn away from sin and from self. I am very sure we can do it, becauseit is commanded in this text, and God would not mock us with a commandwhich could not be obeyed. I am equally sure that we must do it now, for God has plainly stated this in his Word. III _Choose Life_. As has been indicated, the text proves that we maychoose life if we will, but I have more especially in mind thequestion, "Why should we do it?" and I answer, because it is the bestsort of life and the only life. One of my friends used to tell of a man whom he saw in Colonel Clarke'smission. The man rose for prayers and accepted Christ. Later on hesaw him again in the mission. He went forward to testify. He had thatlook upon his face the result of sin, because of which you could nottell whether he was young or old, and leaning up against the platformhe gave his testimony. Among other things he said: "I came to Chicagosome little time ago from my home in the east, my father having madetwo requests--first, that I should change my name because I haddisgraced his; second, that I should go away and never return. I hadfallen too low here for them to receive me even in the station house, and I was on my way to end it all when I heard the music of thismission and came in and found Christ. As I came down the aisle thisevening I heard one man say to another, 'He is getting paid for this, 'and I wish to say that I am. I have a letter in my pocket from myfather, and he tells me that I cannot come home too soon for him. Boys, I am getting paid. I have a sister at home whose name I wouldhardly dare to have taken upon my impure lips, and she writes me thatevery day she has prayed for me and that a welcome home awaits me. Iam getting paid, for to-night I am starting back to my New Englandhome. " It is life which we may choose, and life of the very best sort. It isbetter than anything that this world can give. Men have tried otherways, and they have ended in despair and shame and death, but this wayis the path of the just and shines brighter and brighter unto theperfect day. Therefore choose life and choose it now. In St. Paul's cathedral in London it is said that under the dome thereis a red mark, and I have been told that this mark indicates the placewhere a workman lost his life. He fell from the scaffolding and wasdashed to pieces upon the floor. I have been told that in the Alpsvery frequently you will see black crosses where men have slipped intoeternity as the result of an accident. But I suggest these stories inorder that I may say that where you are at this present moment may bethe black cross of death, because there some one rejected Christ. Ifyou feel this, choose Jesus Christ; choose him, and choose him now. "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I haveset before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore chooselife, that both thou and thy seed may live. " A CHANGED LIFE TEXT: "_And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmityeighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise liftherself up. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and saidunto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity: And he laid hishands on her; and immediately she was made straight, and glorifiedGod. _"--Luke 13:11-13. These verses present to us one of the most interesting storiesimaginable--of interest to us first because it is one of our Lord'smiracles, and one has only to study these manifestations of his powerto be persuaded of his divinity; interesting, again, because it is theaccount of a remarkable recovery from a great infirmity, for instead ofbondage which had held this woman for eighteen years we behold herstanding upright glorifying God. But it is all the more interesting tous because it presents a picture of what may be called the overflowministry of Jesus, of which there are many instances--as, for example, the account of the staunching of the issue of blood when the womantouched the hem of his garment. He was going upon another errand, butwas so filled with virtue that when one of the multitude at his sidetouched him, by faith healing was the result. And, again, we have anillustration in the raising of Jairus' daughter, and once again in therescue of the widow's son from death. He was on his journey across thecountry and beheld the funeral procession coming. Mr. Moody used tosay that Jesus broke up every funeral he attended, and he stops longenough in this journey to restore this boy to his broken-heartedmother. Again, in the case of the woman of Samaria, when he is goingabout his Father's business, he stops by the wellside to rest, and evenin his resting moments forgives a woman's sins, so that under herinfluence an entire city is moved. Would that we could learn that itis the overflow of our lives that gives power to our Christianexperience! This text is one of the best illustrations of this truthin the life of our Savior. I Many lessons might be drawn from this scripture, the first of whichwould be his power to uplift womanhood; but this is so well understoodthat it is unnecessary to take a moment of time to discuss it, exceptto say in passing that all that woman is today she owes to Jesus ofNazareth. She was as truly bound as this afflicted woman, and just astruly was she set free. But I prefer rather to let the woman ofSamaria illustrate many Christians to-day who are bound in one way oranother and so are shorn of power. For this suggestion I am indebtedto my dear friend, the Rev. F. B. Meyer, a brief outline of whosesermon I recently had the privilege of reading. She was a daughter of Abraham, as we read in verse 16, "And ought notthis woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?"And therefore she was like many children of God whom we know. What itis that binds them we cannot always tell. With this person it isfashion, and with that it is earnings; with another it is pride, andstill another selfishness; with this one it is the encouragement ofsome passion, and with still another it is the practice of some secretsin. It is not necessary to describe the bondage; it is true, alas, that many of us are sadly crippled in our influence because of thesethings, for this woman was just as truly bound as if she had been inchains. When Jesus entered the synagogue his eye saw her instantly, and he detected her difficulty. He is in the midst of us to-day, andwhile we are unconscious of the bondage of the one who is beside us, heunderstands it perfectly. That minister who has lost his old power andis therefore an enigma to his people, that church officer who is out ofcommunion and whose testimony has lost its old ring of genuineness, that young woman bordering on despair because in her heart she knowsshe is not right with God, and that young man whose character is beingundermined by the cultivation of a secret sin--all these are known tohim. He looks them through and through, and not a point of weakness ishidden from his gaze. Note again, that she was powerless to help herself. I doubt not thatshe had tried again and again to lift herself up. She had been unableto turn her eyes upward to see the stars, her vision had been centeredupon things below, and in this way she is like many a Christianattempting to be satisfied with earthly things and making life amiserable failure. The Scriptures declare that she "could in no wiselift up herself, " and I have been told that this expression is the sameword which is used in another place in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where Jesus is said to be able to save to the uttermost; so that reallythe Scriptures mean that she tried to the uttermost to lift herself upand failed, and that she had gone to the uttermost in the matter ofbondage, and then because Jesus is able to save to the uttermost he sether free; or, in other words, her need was met by his power. Oh, whatan encouragement to know that the thing which has been your defeat andmine he may easily conquer! It is a striking picture to me; he laidhis hands on her and said, "Woman, thou art loosed, " and she stoodstraight and glorified God. Some years ago there came into the McAuley mission, in New York City, aman who was, because of his sin, unable to speak and was bound downuntil, instead of standing a man six feet high, as he should have done, he was like a dwarf. He came to Christ in the old mission, and whenkneeling at the altar he accepted him, as if by a miracle Jesus set himfree also, and when he stood up the bonds were snapped that held him, and he had his old stature back again. His speech, however, was notentirely recovered. It is the custom in the mission for one to observehis anniversary each year and to give a testimony. Whenever theanniversary of this man occurred he always had another read his lesson, then he would stand before the people bowed down as he had been in sinand suddenly rise before them in the full dignity of his Christianmanhood, glorifying God in his standing. This was like the woman ofthe text, and oh, that it might be like some one reading this who, bound by an appetite or a passion, shall be set free by the power ofGod! The difference between this woman in the one case bound and wretchedand in the other straight and glorifying God is the difference betweenChristians bound by appetite, pride or sin and when set free by thepower of Christ. It is the difference between the average Christianexperience and what God means we should be. Two things this woman had--first, his word, when he said, "Woman, thouart loosed"; and, second, the touch of his hand as he laid his handsupon her. Both of these privileges we may have. II Have you really taken all that God meant you should have? Your life isthe test of this question. If you are constantly failing at the samepoint, if you are dominated by a spirit of unrest, if you are lackingin spiritual power, something is wrong and you need the touch of theliving Christ. The early disciples were an illustration of those of uswho have not yet fully appreciated and appropriated our Savior. He hadgiven them life, for in the seventeenth of John he declares that thisis true. They had peace as a possession, for in the fourteenth chapterand twenty-seventh verse he says, "Peace I leave with you, my peace Igive unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not yourheart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. " They also had joy as agift, for he said, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joymight remain in you, and that your joy might be full"; and yet theyquarreled among themselves, one of them denied him with an oath, andall of them forsook him. They were a weak, vacillating company of men, but suddenly there came a remarkable change. It was as if there hadbeen two Peters. The first was a coward, the second a perfect giant inhis fearlessness. The first was afraid of a little girl, the secondfaced a mob and fearlessly proclaimed the truth of God that condemnedhim; and the secret of this change is found in the fact that the HolyGhost had fallen upon him and upon them. This is what we need. Jesuswas God's gift to the world, and the Holy Ghost is his gift to thechurch. Have we failed to take both? A man over in England, tellinghis pastor about his experience, said that he had taken Jesus for hiseternal life and the Holy Ghost for his internal life. This iscertainly what we need to do more than anything else. We need the HolySpirit of God in our lives. He would illuminate our minds as we readthe Bible, strengthen our faith as we appropriate Christ, transform ourlives as he came to do, and enable us to live and preach indemonstration of the Spirit and with power. Have you ever stopped tothink what is really associated with the full acceptance of the thirdPerson of the Trinity? First, _Power_. "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost hascome upon you. " Second, _Ability to pray_. "We know not what we should pray for as weought, but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us. " Third, _Victory over sin_. "For the law of the Spirit of Christ inChrist Jesus sets me free from the law of sin and death. " Fourth, _Cleanness of life_. "Ye have purified your souls in obeyingthe truth through the Spirit. " Fifth, _The representation of Jesus Christ_. Not imitation, butreproduction, is what we need. Two artists are painting before a picture. The work of one is sadlydeficient, the other an inspiration, for one is copying while the otheris reproducing his own work. Oh, that we might be so filled with thespirit of God that men should take knowledge of us that we not only hadbeen with Jesus but were like him! Two things we need, both of whichwe may have: _His word and his touch_. First, his Word. We surelyhave this. Has he not said, "Ye shall receive power"? But with thisthere is coupled a condition, "Come out from among them and be yeseparate. " Fulfilling this condition, we have only to step out uponhis promise on the ground of the fact that he has said, "That ye mightreceive the promise of the Spirit through faith. " Second, we have the touch of his hand. This emphasizes his reality. One of the greatest dangers of the day, it seems to me, is the factthat we are so inclined to make him unreal. It also indicates hisnearness. He can fill us so that his life may come throbbing into ourvery being, and this is the secret of victory in the time oftemptation. We must be empty to be filled, but no man can emptyhimself. Two ways may be presented for the emptying of a jar of air. First, use the air pump; but in this way it cannot be perfectly done. Second, fill the jar with water. This is the better way. When Christfills our lives he empties us of self and sin. To some unknown friendI am indebted for four steps which we must take if we would be loosedfrom our bondage and stand straight in the presence of God and men. First: What God claims I will yield; that is myself. Second: What I yield God accepts. Since I have taken my hands off frommyself I am not my own. "I have not much to bring Thee, Lord. For that great love which made Thee mine, I have not much to bring Thee, Lord, But all I am is Thine. " Third: What God accepts he fills. Fourth: What God fills he uses. III Mind you, it is not once and for all that we are filled with the Spiritof God; there will be a necessity for daily renewal, not only becausewe may sin but also because we may use the strength which he hasimparted to us. Three suggestions may be made, therefore, for ourconstant infilling. First: Make his word your daily portion. Count that day lost whichpasses without a portion of his word absorbed into your life. Second: Make his will supreme. There can be no joy in the householdwhen the children rebel against the parents. There can be no power inChristian experience when our wills are contrary to his. Third: Make him the king of your life. His coronation will one daycome, when he shall be proclaimed King of kings and Lord of lords; butwhile we wait for that we may crown him in our own lives. When Queen Victoria had just ascended her throne she went, as is thecustom of Royalty, to hear "The Messiah" rendered. She had beeninstructed as to her conduct by those who knew, and was told that shemust not rise when the others stood at the singing of the Hallelujahchorus. When that magnificent chorus was being sung and the singerswere shouting "Hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah! for the Lord Godomnipotent reigneth, " she sat with great difficulty. It seemed as ifshe would rise in spite of the custom of kings and queens, but finallywhen they came to that part of the chorus where with a shout theyproclaim him King of kings suddenly the young queen rose and stood withbowed head, as if she would take her own crown from off her head andcast it at his feet. Let us make him our King and every day be loyalto him. This is the secret of peace. THE LOST OPPORTUNITY TEXT: "_And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone. Andthe king of Israel said unto him, So shall thy judgment be; thyselfhast decided it. _"--1 Kings 20:40. There is a very striking incident connected with this text. The greatbattle is raging, a certain important prisoner has been taken, and ifyou read between the lines you seem to know that upon him depend manyof the issues of war. His skill in leading the enemy had beenmarvelous, his courage in the thick of the fight striking; and now heis a prisoner. The king puts him in the keeping of a Jewish soldier, saying, "Guard this man; if he escapes thy life shall be demanded forhis. " It is possible that they gave an extra pull to the thongs thatbound the enemy and the guard was left alone with him. It is animportant duty he has to perform. His life hangs in the balance. Hemust have been impressed with it. But, as we read on between thelines, strange as it may seem, he becomes negligent, his bow is laiddown and his spear is left standing against the tent. He becomeshungry and takes a few small cakes to eat, he is weary and lies down todoze and sleep. Suddenly there is a snap and a bound, and the guardarouses himself just in time to see his prisoner dash into the thicket, and he is gone. Now the king requires the prisoner at the guard'shand. Terror-stricken, he falls upon his face to cry aloud in thewords of the text, "And as thy servant was busy here and there, he wasgone. And the king of Israel said unto him, So shall thy judgment be;thyself hast decided it. " It is my purpose to show in this illustration that God is alwaysplacing opportunities within our grasp. In a sense they are bound, forthey may be made to do our will if we rightly use them. And it is alsomy purpose to show that as saint and sinner alike we have permittedopportunities to slip away while we doze in weariness or give attentionto matters of less importance. God save us all from the expression, "It might have been, " when it is too late, for even God himself cannotreverse the wheels of time and bring back the lost opportunity. We seethis all about us. I hold in my hands a piece of cold iron. I cannotbend it; if I put it in the fire it becomes pliant; if I take it out itis cold again. There is a point in time, however, where it is bent aseasily as a piece of paper. Years ago our nation sent astronomers to Africa to witness the transitof Venus. Preparation for this great sight had been going on formonths. There was a critical moment when the sun, Venus and the earthwere all in line. Every astronomer knew that at that moment his eyemust be at the smaller end of the glass if he would see the planet goflying past the larger end. If he should miss that moment no power onearth could bring the planet back again. The world is full of thesemoments. Galileo studied the eye of an ox and beheld the principle of the lens. Watts [Transcriber's note: Watt?] looked at the teakettle lid as it waslifted by steam, Columbus saw the wind's direction and knew there wasland not far away. The difference between these men, to whom the worldis indebted, and many others is this, that they have looked at theoxen's eyes and have been unmoved, have allowed the teakettle to boilwithout making an impression upon them, and the wind to blow withoutleading them to any shore. The opportunity for greatness is gone. There is not a person in the world but to whom at some time a greatopportunity has been given, and for the use or abuse of it we shall becalled to a strict account. I These opportunities for doing good come to the one who is a Christian. First: I would not preach to others what I did not first preach tomyself, but there are many of us as ministers like Chalmers, who wasone day visiting an old man seventy-two years of age, apparently inperfect health. They talked together about everything but Christ. Theminister was inclined to speak about his soul, but did not. Beforemorning the old man was dead. Dr. Chalmers returned to the house, called all the old man's household about him, and offered the mosttouching apology and prayer. He spent the entire day in the woods, saying, "If I had been faithful this might not have been. " I have noquestion but God would say, "So shall thy judgment be. " Second: You who are Christian workers have failed. A Christianmerchant was told that there was a certain man with whom he had tradedfor years to whom he had never spoken about his soul. "I will speakthe next time I see him, " he said, but he never came, for while he wasbusy here and there the man was gone from him. Before he came againdeath met him. So shall his judgment be. Third: You who are parents have failed. Years ago a young Scotchmanfrom Fife, in Scotland, was leaving home. He was not an activeChristian. His mother went with him to the turn of the road and said, "Now, Robert, there is one thing you must promise before you go. ""No, " said the lad, "I will not promise until I know. " "But it willnot be difficult, " said his mother. "Then I will promise, " he said. And she said, "Every night before you lie down to sleep read a chapterand pray. " He did not want to promise it, but he did. Who was thatRobert? It was Robert Moffat, the great missionary, who, when he cameinto the Kingdom, brought almost a continent in after him. Many amother has lost her opportunity to speak to her boy, and she has lostit because she has not lived as a mother should who would help her boy. So shall her judgment be. II These opportunities come to the unsaved. The Bible is full of men whohave had an opportunity to be saved but are lost. First: There is Herod. His face blanches as he listens to the truth, he is ready to forsake some of his sin; but more is required than thatto be a Christian, and Herod fails. Second: Look at Felix. As he gazes into the face of Paul the Apostleand hears his message, he trembles; a moment more he will be aChristian; but more is required than that to be saved, and Felix islost. Third: Behold Judas. See him at the feet of Jesus. Later he is fullof remorse because he has sold him for thirty pieces of silver; butmere remorse never saved a soul, and Judas is lost. You have doubtless heard of that young girl of whom the poet tells us. She had a string of pearls in her hand and her hand is in the water, the string is broken, and one by one the pearls slip away. So it hasbeen with you who have been Christians. My hope is that there may beone pearl left yet. To-day is the accepted time; do not let theopportunity slip. III The Bible is full of men just the opposite who had opportunities to besaved and embraced them. First: Zaccheus. There was just one day, one hour, one moment; whenJesus would pass by, and Zaccheus ran to the sycamore tree; but he madehaste and came down, and that saved him. Second: Bartimeus. There was just a moment when Jesus was near to hearthe sound of his voice. If Bartimeus failed that moment he would beblind forever. I can see him quickly turning his sightless eyes in thedirection of the Savior. He cried unto him and it was his earnestnessthat saved him. We must make haste while yet it is to-day. Third: Coming down from the mountain, where he had preached his greatsermon, Jesus beheld the leper. He was dead, according to the law, yethe had a napkin bound about his mouth. If one had called to him, "Yourchild is dead, " he could not have gone to see the little one. But hebreaks through all of this and cries, "If thou wilt thou canst make meclean. " It was his desperation that saved him. Fourth: Look at the dying thief, so near that he could have touchedChrist if he had been free. Here yawned before him the very brink ofhell, here was judgment for his sins, for he acknowledged that he wasjustly punished. I can see him struggle to decide whether he shallspeak or not, and at last he cries, "Lord, remember me. " And Jesussaid, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise. " It was his lastchance, and he took it. And this may be yours. God forbid that youshould let the opportunity slip away. But whether my message is to ministers, to Christian workers, toparents or to the unsaved, I call your attention to this fact: It waswhen the soldier was busy that the prisoner escaped. Many of you havebeen busy about pleasure, and some day it will mock you. You have beencaught by the fascination of business, and it does not prevent yoursoul having been surrounded by sin from which after a while you cannotescape, and if the opportunity slips away so shall our judgment be, forwe must decide it. In a few years at the latest, possibly in a fewmonths, perhaps in a few weeks--who knows but within a fewdays?--eternity shall be upon us. If it is an opportunity that is goneor a soul that is lost it will be a sad eternity indeed for us. Tothis end may God keep us watchful. A GREAT VICTORY TEXT: "_And they stood every man in his place round about the camp, andall the host ran, and cried, and fled. _"--Judges 7:21. Few things in this world are so inspiring to the traveler and at thesame time so depressing as a city or temple in ruins. I remember adelightful experience in passing through the ruins of Karnak and Luxor, on the Nile in Egypt, and later passing through Phylae at Assuan on theNile; and these two thoughts, each the opposite of the other, keptconstantly coming to my mind. The loneliness is oppressive, and onewould be delighted to hear the song of a bird, the bark of a dog, orthe cry of a child. These ruins were once happy homes, or were templesfilled with worshipers. Here little children played and gray-hairedpatriarchs worshiped their gods. Akin to this picture is the one of the people of Israel at the time ofthis story, and the alternating feelings of pleasure and sadness keepconstantly coming and going. The condition of the land beggareddescription. Homes were there, but no children were about the doors;there were fields, but no crops to be harvested; pastures, but nocattle fed upon them; the hills were to be seen, but no flocks bleatedon their sides; people were there, but they were found in the caves andhiding away on the mountain sides. When they had entered Canaan, thesechosen people of God, he had said unto them, "And it shall come topass, if thou shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thyGod, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command theethis day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nationsof the earth; and all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtakethee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in thefield. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thyground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and theflocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou bewhen thou goest out. The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise upagainst thee to be smitten before thy face; they shall come out againstthee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall commandthe blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settestthine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thyGod giveth thee. The Lord shall establish thee an holy people untohimself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep thecommandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways. And all thepeople of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of theLord; and they shall be afraid of thee. " We have here the Old Testament Beatitudes, and there is nothing likethem. The story with which the text is associated really begins in the firstverse of the sixth chapter of Judges, "And the children of Israel didevil in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord delivered them into thehand of Midian seven years. " But there must also be read in connectionwith this the last verse of the fifth chapter of Judges, "So let allthine enemies perish, O Lord; but let them that love him be as the sunwhen he goeth forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years. " It seems incredible that there could be such a difference in theexperiences of God's people, and yet, as you study them in all theirwanderings, you will find, if you turn over but one leaf of the Bible, the people who sing to-day are active in evil to-morrow, and thehistory of Israel is the history of one's self. Life is like a shortladder, as some one has said, and we spend most of our time going up topray and down to sin. There is a striking picture in the second verseof the sixth chapter. The chosen people of God were dwelling in cavesinstead of their rightful positions in their homes, and the same istrue to-day; men who ought to be at the front are left behind becausethey are living selfish lives or lives of sin. Do not for a momentthink that I am saying that because a man is living out of sight thathe is doing nothing, for we have only to remember Gideon to know thatthis is not true. He was a hidden man doing an honest work, and theAngel of the Lord called him, saying, "The Lord is with thee, thoumighty man of valor. " To this Gideon makes a significant reply in thethirteenth verse of the sixth chapter of Judges, "And Gideon said untohim, Oh, my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallenus? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsakenus, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. " For the angelhad said, "The Lord is with thee, Gideon, " and Gideon had said, "If theLord is with us, then how can these things be?" And the angel did notsay it. How often it is true that we miss the truth of God because wemiss the grammar of the Bible. When Gideon had thus replied, we readin the fourteenth verse of the sixth chapter, "And the Lord _looked_upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israelfrom the hand of the Midianites; have not I sent thee?" And the thingto pay special attention to there is that the angel _looked_ at Gideon. Sometimes in translating a foreign language you come upon a word whichyou cannot express in your own language; so it is with us here, for theLord looked Gideon into a new man and said unto him, "Go and thou shaltsave the people, " which leads me to say that one man right with God ismightier than a host against God. The seventh chapter of Judges openswith the significant word "then. " You must have all that goes beforein your mind to appreciate this word. God has a plan for every life, and all your sickness, your disappointment, your discipline, is forsomething. There must be a "then" for you. It is the call of God andthe answer to it that makes real life. Compare Gideon the farmer withGideon the soldier, and you will see the difference in a human life. Let one, however low or ignorant, but hear the voice of God and respondto it, and when such an one answers God's call for his country, for thechurch, or for Christ, the heroic in him is being stirred. It is said that years ago there used to be a man in Mr. Spurgeon'sTabernacle who never had spoken in his social meetings, for the reasonthat he had a stammering tongue. One day he heard the great preachersay that the Lord could use even the tongue of the stammerer. It senthim to his home, and to his knees, and when he rose to his feet afterhaving yielded himself wholly to God, as if by miracle God gave him thegift of speech, and I have been told that no one in the Tabernaclespoke more to the edification of the people or the praise of God thanhe. Some years ago when John G. Woolley was delivering his closing addresson the commencement day at college a young boy heard him under peculiarcircumstances. He had walked in from the country. It was a hot day, and to quench his thirst he had tasted the water of one of the springs. It made him very ill, and just to escape the heat of the sun he creptunder the platform, which had been erected upon the college campus forthe commencement exercises. While there he fell asleep and wasawakened by the sound of a musical voice. Something that thegraduating student said stirred his soul, and he there made a vow thathe would be a preacher. It was God's call to him and his answer. Hehas since become one of the world's most famous preachers, and hisinfluence has been as wide as the world itself. When the Midianitesstood against the children of Israel God called Gideon to lead an armyagainst them, and this text is part of this story. The scene was remarkable. Thirty-two thousand people followingGideon's leadership with the first flush of the battle upon them. Theywere ready to march, and God said when he looked at them, "The peopleare too many. " They would seem to us to have been too few, forliterally a multitude of Midianites stood against him. But we go wrongso often by applying human arithmetic to divine decrees. It is saidthat when Napoleon marched with his soldiers he was counted as beingequal to 40, 000 of his men, and so, after all, it is not a question ofnumbers with God, but of the few men whom he can use. The test by means of which Gideon's army was decreased was remarkable. In Judges, the seventh chapter and the second to seventh verses, weread, "And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee aretoo many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israelvaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. Nowtherefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoeveris fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from MountGilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; andthere remained ten thousand. And the Lord said unto Gideon, The peopleare yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try themfor thee there; and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, Thisshall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever Isay unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. Sohe brought down the people unto the water; and the Lord said untoGideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a doglappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that bowethdown upon his knees to drink. And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men; but all therest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. And theLord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I saveyou, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand; and let all the otherpeople go every man unto his place. " This test is going on now amongmen; by the way we walk and talk, by the way we listen and work, menform their judgment of us, and so does God. We may measure ourspiritual state by the way we spend our leisure moments, by the way wespend our Saturday afternoons, by our rest days, and by the books weread. There is flowing past us the stream of literature and the streamof pleasure, and the question is whether we are going to fall downbefore these streams to drink or whether we are just going to dip up aswe hurry along to fulfill our mission; or, in other words, whether weare to be so taken up with God's plan that we have no time to idle awayand no disposition to turn aside. "It does not so much matter how many members one may have in hischurch, for under the banner of a popular Christianity soldiers march. What if there should be a struggle ahead when to be a Christian wouldmean to suffer martyrdom, or dying at the stake, or contending with thebeasts of Ephesus like Paul, how then do you think it would be?" Andyet all the time to-day the struggle is going on; both from within andfrom without the foe is assailing us, the Bible is being attacked, Christ is being denied, the resurrection is counted a myth, and thefuture is being questioned, and in every part of the church it wouldseem as if men thought that the life of the Christian was all aholiday, for people are idling, gossiping, buying and selling, marryingand giving in marriage, instead of being in the thick of the fight inthe name of the Lord of hosts. Give us three hundred in the churchright with God rather than the thirty-two thousand compromising withsin and the world, and we shall win the victory. I I am impressed in this story with the thought of how much may beaccomplished without wealth, influence or material strength. Wesomehow seem to think that we cannot work as ministers without a fineequipment. We have an idea that we must have a committee back of us tobe assured of success, that if we are without influence we have a smallmission in the world, forgetting that Michelangelo wrought the frescoesin the Sistine Chapel with the ochres which he digged with his ownhands in the garden of the Vatican; forgetting also that the greatestwork in the world has been accomplished by men like Gideon, who delayednot for elaborate preparation, but just took firebrands andtorches--indeed, anything they could lay their hands upon--and criedout, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon, " and won the victory. Thetext is most striking, and presents an outline which any one ought tobe able to see. II _They stood_. It is not so easy to stand as to march or to fight. Ihave been told that the most difficult service of the soldier is picketduty; and yet never until we learn to stand shall we be able to fight. In the fourteenth chapter of Exodus, the thirteenth and fourteenthverses, we read, "And Moses said unto the people. Fear ye not, standstill, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to youto-day, for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see themagain no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you and ye shall holdyour peace. " And again, in 2 Chronicles, the twentieth chapter and theseventeenth verse, it is recorded, "Ye shall not need to fight in thisbattle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of theLord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed;to-morrow go out against them, for the Lord will be with you. " Three thoughts are impressed upon my mind: First: _Before any service, let us stand, giving God a chance with us_. Let him use you and not you use him so much. In the beginning of hisChristian service Hudson Taylor, the China Inland missionary, wasdesirous of being used and cried out for God to send him out intoservice. At last God seemed to say to him, "My child, I have made upmy mind to save inland China. If you will come and walk with me I willdo it through you, " and the China Inland Mission was born. Second: _Wait for orders_. In Ephesians the sixth chapter and thetenth to the thirteenth verses, we have the following description of asoldier: "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the powerof his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able tostand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against fleshand blood, but against principalities, against powers, against therulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness inhigh places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that yemay be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, tostand. " The striking part of that description is the sentence, "havingdone all, to stand. " In other words, with all our ingenuity and ourplanning, with all our preparation and equipment, we lack one thing:that one thing is the touch of the Almighty God. Third: _Be willing to do the common thing_. It was rather interestingto march with thirty-two thousand, and a striking thing to breakpitchers and cry aloud, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon, " but justto stand was a different matter, and not at all easy. If we were onlywilling to do the common things for Christ we should accomplish more inour lives. The great Bethany Sunday school building standing in Philadelphia is amodel in its perfect equipment. The mighty Sunday school held there isone of the wonders of the world. The building was begun not only inthe mind and heart of the distinguished superintendent, the Hon. JohnWanamaker, but when he appealed for funds as they were then needed oneof the poorest children in the city made practically the first and bestcontribution. She gathered bones from the alleyways, sold them andbrought her few pennies to help make this wonderful work a success. III _Every man in his place_. First: Let us remember that God has a plan for every life. Ephesians4:8-13, "Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he ledcaptivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of theearth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far aboveall heavens, that he might fill all things. ) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastorsand teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of theministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come inthe unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto aperfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. " Second: That which in our lives fits into God's plans dignifies andstrengthens in every way. A few years ago there was a young man selling farming implements. Hefelt inclined to do Christian work, and later on became a ChristianAssociation secretary. He became known locally because of his abilityto sing in a male quartette. He was a good singer. Whether he wasmore than the average secretary I do not know. He one day felt thecall to preach and shrank back from it because he felt he was withoutability, then gave himself to God without reserve. He has since becomeone of the greatest preachers to men in our country, has possibly ledmore men to Christ than any other man of his day, and it was myprivilege a short time ago to see hundreds of men under the power ofhis preaching come to Christ; and this was all because Fred B. Smithgave himself unreservedly to Christ. Third: It may be a very ordinary service that God calls you to perform, but if you feel it your place your service will please him. Rev. Dr. Torrey tells the story of the poor mother who by hard day's work madeit possible for her boy to attend college. The day of the graduationcame, and he said to her, "You must go with me to the commencement. "Naturally she shrank from it, for her clothing was of the poorest sort;but he said that there would be no commencement without her. He wasthe valedictorian of his class. Proudly he led her into the hall, andwith beaming face she listened while the great throng applauded hisbrilliant speech. When he received his gold medal he walked down fromthe platform and pinned it upon her breast, saying, "This is yours, "and she was as proud as any queen could have been. It was a verycommon thing to wash and iron for one's daily living, but to be honoredthus was something any mother might long to experience. She simply didher best in a humble way and pleased God. IV _Round about the Camp_. First: Let it be remembered that we have a responsibility to others. Some years ago on the Irish Sea a terrific storm was raging. It wasknown that just off the coast a vessel was going to pieces. Suddenlytwo men, an old sea captain and his son, put out through the storm. Everybody tried to persuade them not to do so, for it seemed to beabsolutely useless. Over the waves, which appeared almost mountainhigh, they pushed along until at last amid the cheers of the waitingthrong they returned with their little boat filled with those who hadbeen all but lost upon the ship. When the minister said to the old seacaptain, "Why do you do this? Why take such a risk?" he answered, "Ihave been there myself, and I knew the danger. " It is because we havebeen once in sin and now are redeemed by the precious blood of Christthat we say something to those who are about us. Second: We are responsible for others. When Horace Bushnell was atutor in Yale he was a stumbling block to all the students because hewas not a Christian. He realized this himself, and yet he said, "Howcan I accept Christ or the Bible, for I do not believe in either one. "And then the question came to him as from God, "What do you believe?"and he said, "I only know there is a difference between right andwrong. " God seemed to say to him, "Have you ever taken that standwhere you would say, 'I am committed to the right even if it ends indeath'?" and he said, "I never have. " Falling upon his knees he said, "O God, if Jesus Christ be true, reveal him to me and I will followhim. " And he began to walk in the light, which constantly increased, and almost every student in Yale came to Christ. "No man liveth untohimself alone. " We are responsible for the souls of other men. We arealso responsible for their service; if we are half-hearted they willsurely be. V "_And the host ran, and cried and fled. _" What hosts are against usto-day? First: As individuals there may be coming constantly to our minds aquestion of doubt, of pride, or of secret sin, and we wonder if theseare evidences that we are not Christians. Not at all. They are butthe fruit of our old nature, and are the hosts encamped against us. Wehave only to take our stand with Christ, right with him, and we shallwin the victory. Second: In the Church we meet with indifference, worldliness, infidelity, and we wonder how we may win the victory. The answer issimply, "We have but to be right with God and to walk with God, " andthree hundred such followers of his could put the enemy to rout quickly. Third: There is also a battle which those of us who are Christians areobliged to fight. It has to do with the unsaved man. Men are notChristians to-day not because they do not believe, not because they arewithout interest in the future, but simply because they have put offand put off, and I know of no way to overcome this difficulty except bytaking one's stand with Christ and with those who are like-minded withChrist. Having first concern for the lost, then his intenseearnestness in their salvation, the proscrastination of the sinner willflee away. For such a victory as this we plead and pray. PAUL A PATTERN OF PRAYER TEXT: "_If ye shall ask anything in my name I will do it. _"--John 14:14. Jesus testified in no uncertain way concerning prayer, for not alone inthis chapter does he speak but in all his messages to his disciples heis seeking to lead them into the place where they may know how to pray. In this fourteenth chapter of John, where he is coming into the shadowof the cross and is speaking to his disciples concerning those thingswhich ought to have the greatest weight with them, the heart of hismessage seems to be prayer. What an encouragement it is to hisdisciples to pray when they remember that he said, "Verily, verily, Isay unto you. He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he doalso; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto myFather. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, thatthe Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:12-13). Jesus was himself a pattern of prayer. He had prayed under allcircumstances; with him the day was born in prayer, went along inmeditation and closed in most intimate fellowship and communion withhis Father. Under all circumstances, whether it be the raising ofLazarus from the dead, or the breathing in of the very spirit of God soessential to him in his earthly ministry, he prayed; and because he wasa man of prayer himself, he could speak to his disciples with authorityconcerning this subject. If we ourselves would know how to pray there are certain greatprinciples which must be remembered when we come to him. First: _We must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of themthat diligently seek him_. If one has hazy or mystical ideas of Christthen from the very nature of the case prayer is impossible. Second: _We must believe his word_. Mr. Spurgeon's statement that whenhe went to God he always went pleading a promise is the secret of hisgreat success as a man of prayer. Earthly parents are not insensibleto the pledges they make to their children and surely God cannot be. Third: _We must confess and forsake our sins_. To confess sin is toarraign before us those sins of which we know ourselves to be guilty, and when they appear before us in solemn and awful procession we mustheartily renounce them. If we do not we cannot pray. In another placein God's word we read, "Ye ask and receive not, because, . . . " andwhile in the verse the rest of the sentence is "Ye ask amiss, " we mightfinish by saying, "We ask and receive not, because our lives are notright in God's sight. " Fourth: _We must exercise our faith_. The little child who prayed forrain and then wanted to carry an umbrella with her when the sun wasshining is an oft repeated illustration, but such faith as this is whatevery child of God must practice. The text is exceedingly broad. "If ye shall ask anything in my name Iwill do it. " It is broad enough to include temporal blessing andspiritual power, comprehensive enough to lead us to believe that Godwill direct our lives if we ask him and will bear our burdens eventhough they be almost insignificant in their weight. Thank God for the"anything" in the text! It may be stated truly that God's promises to Israel are especiallyconcerning temporal blessing and that his promises to the church haveparticular reference to spiritual possessions; and they both, thehistory of Israel and the history of the church, prove that God willgive to us temporally as well as spiritually. These blessings areincluded in the "anything. " I have been greatly impressed with Paul as a pattern in prayer, and forthe outline of this message as well as for many of the suggestions I amindebted to an English clergyman, the Rev. E. W. Moore, who haswritten, "The Christ Controlled Life, " and "Christ in Possession, " andhas recently sent out a little book entitled, "The Pattern Prayer Book. " I have noticed in studying Paul that the burden of his prayer was forspiritual blessing rather than for temporal power, and throughout theEpistles at least seven illustrations are to be found concerning thissubject. I _Prayer for Pentecost_. Ephesians 3:17-19, "That Christ may dwell inyour hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, maybe able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passethknowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. " Just what is the burden of this prayer of Paul's? First: He is not asking for that indwelling which is ours atconversion; for this he would not need to pray, for at the moment ofregeneration Christ is ours and eternal life (which is only another wayof saying, "the life of the eternal") is our never failing possession. Second: He is not asking for the bodily presence of Christ, as somehave suggested, for in this scripture he states that it is by faiththat Christ is to dwell with us. Third: It is by no means a figurative expression, for if this were truethere would be no comfort in it to God's children. Yet, as a matter offact, this prayer of Paul's has been an inspiration to God's peopleeverywhere. It is rather a special Pentecostal privilege for God'schildren concerning which Paul is praying. In Galatians 4:19 we read, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ beformed in you. " And this is his petition. Let it be noticed that the tense of the verbin this connection denotes singleness of action, so that Paul's prayermay be answered not gradually but immediately. If this be true thenlet it be answered now for you and for me. There are three blessings which would flow out of this answer to prayer. First: _Constancy of experience_. "That Christ may dwell, " pleads theApostle. It does not mean that he is to come in a fitful experience, but the language of the hymn is true, "Abide with me; fast falls the even tide, The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide; When other helpers fail, and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me. " Second: _Strength will be our possession_, for the Apostle tells usthat we are to be "rooted and grounded in him. " As the roots of thetree take hold upon the ground and the giant oak withstands the stormsof the Northern coasts, so we may withstand temptation and trial and bemore than conquerors if this prayer is answered. Third: _There will be cleansing_, for we are told that "as a manthinketh in his heart so is he. " We are told also that we must keepour hearts with all diligence, for out of them are the issues of life. It is easy enough to understand how our lives would be pure if Christwere only in possession. II _Prayer for Perception_. Colossians 1:9-10, "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desirethat ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdomand spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord untoall pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in theknowledge of God. " The need of this prayer was not that the Colossianswere weak, or that they had been conspicuous in the failure of theirChristian experience, for in the third and fourth verses of the firstchapter of Colossians, Paul says concerning them, "We give thanks toGod and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which yehave to all the saints"; and then in the face of this statement heprayed earnestly for them. The subject of his prayer was not that hedesired anything, humanly speaking, very great for them; he did not askhonor, nor did he desire that wealth should be theirs, but merelystates in the ninth verse that they might be filled with the knowledgeof his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. I have beentold that literally, this means that they might have full knowledge, not simply a passing opinion concerning him and his work. If we study this particular scripture in which Paul is praying for theColossians we will learn how this prayer is to be answered. First: We must meditate upon God's word. He makes himself especiallyknown to his people in his word. There are certain great principleswhich we must remember if we would know God's will. (1) _We must present our bodies to him_. Romans 12:1, "I beseech youtherefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodiesa living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonableservice. " (2) _We must be delivered from this present evil age_. Galatians 1:4, "Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from thispresent evil world, according to the will of God and our Father. " (3) _We must separate ourselves from the world_. 1 Thessalonians 4:3, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye shouldabstain from fornication. " (4) _We must be thankful_. 1 Thessalonians 5:18, "In everything givethanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. " (5) _We must continue patiently to serve and follow him_. 1 Peter2:15, "For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put tosilence the ignorance of foolish men. " All of these things are God's will for us. If we but practice them theresults can be only beneficial. As a result of such a study of God'sword the general knowledge of God and his will shall be ours. Second: The spiritual perception spoken of in this particular scripturemay be ours, as we listen to the Spirit of God, for he will speak to usGod's message and make known to us God's will. The purpose of thisprayer of Paul's for the Colossians was that they might walk worthy toall pleasing. What a joy it is to know that we may please God! Forthis we should be grateful. III _Prayer for Purity_. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, "And the very God ofpeace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and souland body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord JesusChrist. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. " This prayer is also remarkable if we notice the spiritual condition ofthe Thessalonians, for of them we read that they had received the wordof God with joy, and had turned from idols to serve the living God, andyet the Apostle prays for their sanctification. By this he does notmean sinlessness, and a careful study of his position would lead us toknow that he does not teach that sanctification may be ever apart fromgrowth. We must day by day come more and more into the likeness ofChrist. There are three words which it would be well for us toremember in our study of this subject. First: _Position_. If we would grow unto his likeness we must be wherehe can let shine upon us the light of his countenance. Frances RidleyHavergal had an aeolian harp sent to her which she tried to play withher fingers, and failed. At last a friend suggested that she place itin the window, and the music as the wind touched the strings wasentrancing. We must be where he can use us. Second: _Purification_. Sanctification is necessary because God usesonly that which is clean, never an unclean life. Third: _Possession_. It is really Christ filling us, and he will fillus if we give him the opportunity. The extent of this work is madeplain in Paul's prayer: (1) The spirit is touched, and the spirit is that part of our naturewhich is capable of fellowship with God. (2) The soul is filled, and the soul is the seat of all ourintellectual faculties. (3) The body is possessed, and since the body is just the servant ofthe higher powers of man, we can easily understand how necessary thework is. It is needful, (_a_) For our peace, for the God of peace is to sanctify us. (_b_) For our prayers. For Paul is talking about prayer when hepraises. (_c_) For our praise, for we are told that we must rejoice evermore. IV _Prayer for Power_. Ephesians 1:15-20, "Wherefore I also, after Iheard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may giveunto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know whatis the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of hisinheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of hispower to usward who believe, according to the working of his mightypower; which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. " The Church at Ephesus was in every way remarkable, but to this peoplePaul wrote his most spiritual epistle, which in itself is a complimentto them, for as in another instance it was not necessary for him towrite unto them as if they were carnal. With this people for the spaceof two or three years he labored, as we find recorded in Acts thenineteenth chapter and the tenth verse, "And this continued by thespace of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the wordof the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. " Acts 20:31, "Thereforewatch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not towarn every one night and day with tears. " There were no divisions in this church as at Corinth; there were noheresies as at Galatia, and no dissensions as at Philippi; and yet, forall that, he prays most earnestly. The natural question for us to askis, just what is it for which he prays, and the question is easilyanswered. First: For advancement in knowledge; he asks God that the eyes of theirunderstanding might be enlightened. Under this general petition thereare three special requests. (1) _That they might know the hope of their calling_. We have but tostudy Paul's Epistles to realize that this calling involved: A perfect vision, for one day it is Christ's promise and teaching thatthey shall see him as he is. The hope of this would keep them faithful. It involved, in the next place, a perfect likeness, for, seeing him ashe is, they would become like him, and the hope of this would keep themclean. It involved, in the third place, a perfect union, for when this hope oftheir calling is fulfilled there is no possibility of anything comingbetween the believer and Christ; so the fellowship must be perfect. (2) Paul also requests that they may know the riches of the glory ofhis inheritance in the saints. That is very wonderful. He does notsay the riches of the saints in him--that could be easily understood;but what an inspiration it is to know that he has glory in us, and thatthe mere possession of poor, frail creatures like ourselves is to him aperfect delight! We sometimes say that we could not get along withoutChrist, but how inspiring it is to know that he could not and he wouldnot get along without us! (3) The Apostle also prays that the church at Ephesus might know whatis the exceeding greatness of Christ's power towards us. It is notsimply a great power that is described but an exceedingly great power. There is absolutely no limit to what he can accomplish in and throughus if we but yield ourselves unreservedly to him. Second: Another question, may naturally come to us. Why have we notthis power of his? The answer is simply because the eyes of ourunderstanding have not been enlightened. We have been too muchself-centered and too closely wedded to the world. We need a strongervision. There are stars in the heavens to-day that have never yet beenseen, not because they do not exist but because there has been no glassinvented strong enough to take them in. Each new day brings a visionof new heavenly bodies. We also need stronger faith, for if we havebecome persuaded of the fact that he can do all things the victory iswon when we take this position. V _Prayer for Perseverance_. Philippians 1:9-11, "And this I pray, thatyour love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in alljudgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may besincere and without offence till the day of Christ. Being filled withthe fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the gloryand praise of God. " Paul has a tender affection for this PhilippianChurch. Naturally he would wish for them only the best things, and theburden of this prayer of his is, First: That they might be able to persevere to the end, or rather tothe day of Christ. Let it not be forgotten that he who said, "Nothingcan separate us from the love of God, " at the same time prays thatthose who are the object of this love may be faithful in theirperseverance until time shall be no more. It is God's privilege topreserve us, it is our privilege to persevere; and if we study thewords "preserve" and "persevere" we shall find that they are composedof almost the same letters with only a slightly different arrangement. We must be exceedingly careful in our walk and we must rely perfectlyupon Christ. Second: Paul prays for the purity of these Philippians when he asksthat they may be sincere and without offence. I have been told thatthe word "sincere" sometimes means sunlight; which leads me to say thatour conduct as Christians should be such as to bear the clearest lightof investigation. Possibly the use of this word grew out of the customof the people who stored away their goods in the darkest corners of thebazaar where their defects could not be seen plainly. When thepurchase had been consummated they were brought out into the sunlight. The word also means "wax. " It is said that in the days of imperialRome when a sculptor came to a flaw in the marble he filled it with waxto hide the defect, but when the hot days came and the wax was meltedthe defect was seen plainly. Paul is desiring for these Philippiansthat there may be none of this, but that their lives should commendthemselves both to God and to men. Third: He desires that they may be filled with the fruits ofrighteousness, not simply that they may produce fruit of one sort oranother. It is not enough simply to bear fruit. "Herein is my Fatherglorified, that ye bear much fruit. " This is the overflow experienceof the Christian and must be realized by us all. VI _Prayer for Perfectness_. Hebrews 13:20-21, "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd ofthe sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make youperfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which iswellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. " The burden of this prayer of the Apostle isthat his people may do the will of God. This is required in all timesand for various reasons. First: The glory of God demands it, and unless we are doing his will weare robbing him of his glory. Revelation 4-11, "Thou art worthy, OLord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created allthings, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. " Second: Our own happiness depends upon it. Let it not be thought for amoment that we are simply to do God's will when some sort of trial isupon us, but rather let us remember the scriptural expression, "Idelight to do thy will, O God. " What if God's will should be done forbut one year in all things in any of our cities; would the result beanything else than perfect joy? Third: Our safety depends upon it. We must lean hard upon God's will. In Switzerland at one of the most dangerous passes, where men used totravel with their faces white with fear, to-day any ordinary travelercan pass in safety because along the edge of the cliff there is an ironrail against which you may lean and have almost no danger beside you. This iron rail corresponds to the will of God for Christians. Paulalso asks in this prayer that God's people may be made perfect to dohis will. We need not be afraid of this word perfect, nor of Paul'sprayer, for as Dr. Moore has said, it is not a perfection of doing buta perfection to do, not a finality but a fitting. The same Greek wordis used elsewhere, as for example, "Fitted. " Romans 9:22, "What if God, willing to show his wrath, and tomake his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels ofwrath fitted to destruction. " "Prepared. " Hebrews 10:5, "Wherefore when he cometh into the world, hesaith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thouprepared me. " "Framed. " Hebrews 11:3, "Through faith we understand that the worldswere framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were notmade of things which do appear. " "Restored. " Galatians 6:1, "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in afault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit ofmeekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. " "Mend. " Mark 1:19, "And when he had gone a little farther thence, hesaw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were inthe ship mending their nets. " The illustration has been used of a man with his leg out of joint. Hecannot walk except with great pain, but when he puts himself withoutreserve into the hands of the doctor and the leg is set he can thenrise and walk. He is not a perfect walker, but he is made perfect towalk. And the idea of all the verses above quoted is that we may beset with right relations to Christ that he may have his way with us, that we may stand where he willed we should stand; and as a result weshall be well pleasing in his sight. VII _Prayer for Peace_. 2 Thessalonians 3:16, "Now the Lord of peacehimself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all. "Peace is most difficult to define. It is the opposite of unrest, confusion and strife; and this peace for which the Apostle prays is, first, not the peace of indifference. Let this never be forgotten. Second: It is not the peace of prosperous surroundings. Some peoplefrequently fail at this point but it is the very peace of God himself. The peace here prayed for looks in three directions. First: Godward. "Being justified by faith we have peace with God. "His pardoning voice we hear and he is reconciled. Second: Inward. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; letnot your heart be troubled. " Third: Outward. With such a possession we may meet trial and bearburdens and never be moved. How may we secure such a possession? (1) By having confidence in Christ's work, for when he met hisdisciples and showed them his hands and his side, he said, "Peace beunto you. " (2) By submission to Christ's rule. "Thou wilt keep him in perfectpeace, " or, as the literal translation is, "Thou wilt keep him inpeace, peace, who trusteth in thee because his mind is set on thee. "This is our possession, and for that Paul prays. A STARTLING STATEMENT TEXT: "_The wicked shall not be unpunished. _"--Prov. 11:21. There are very many passages of Scripture which ought to be read inconnection with this text; as for example, "Fools make a mock at sin"(Proverbs 14:9), for only a fool would. Better trifle with thepestilence and expose one's self to the plague than to discount theblighting effects of sin. And, again, "The soul that sinneth it shalldie" (Ezekiel 18:4). From this clear statement of the word of Godthere is no escape. Or, again, "Our secret sins in the light of thycountenance" (Psalm 90:8). There is really nothing hidden from hissight. We may conceal our sinful thoughts from men and sometimes evenour evil practices; but not from God. Or again, "Sin, when it isfinished, bringeth forth death" (James 1:15). Here is unexampledprogress indicated from which there never has been the slightestdeviation. But one of the sharpest texts in all the Word of God, andone which men somehow in these days seem to ignore, is Paul'sexpression, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: whatsoever a mansoweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7), and if we comparethis reference in the New Testament to the text in the Old Testamentthe harvest indeed seems to be sure, for "The wicked shall not beunpunished. " There is a note of truth in all of these statements for both saint andsinner. Jeremiah the thirtieth chapter and the eleventh verse, "For Iam with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: though I make a full end ofall nations whither I have scattered thee, yet I will not make a fullend of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leavethee altogether unpunished. " The old Prophet is speaking to the peopleof Israel; and while he tells them that they are God's people, nevertheless they shall not altogether go unpunished, for if they sowto the flesh they must of the flesh reap corruption. In Deuteronomythe fifth chapter and the ninth verse, we read, "Thou shalt not bowdown thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am ajealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the childrenunto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. " It is asolemn fact that the sins of the fathers descend upon the children untothe third and fourth generation. It is more solemn that so blightingis the effect of sin that the fourth generation is the last. There isno fifth. Even though we be pardoned from sin forever, we shall notaltogether go unpunished. Certainly it is true that if one rejects Jesus Christ, punishment forhim is absolutely certain. The other day in the city of Chicago thefollowing appeared in the _Inter-Ocean_ as an editorial under the titleof "Preaching for Men. " "To those who look upon men as they are it is simply astounding that somany preachers should act as if the hope of reward alone could beefficient to move average mankind to leave sin and follow afterrighteousness. In every other relation of human life every man isconstantly confronted with the alternative: Do right and be rewarded;do wrong and be punished. The pressure of fear as well as the pressureof hope is continually upon him. He knows that he may conceal hiswrongdoing from the eye of man, but he is always under the fear ofdiscovery and punishment. But he goes to church, and in nine cases outof ten the preacher, while insisting that he can hide nothing from theeye of God, yet says nothing to arouse in him that fear of God which isthe beginning of wisdom. If he turn from religion to science he findsscience more positive of the certainty of punishment than of thecertainty of reward. Science cannot, for example, assure him of a longlife, even though he scrupulously obey hygienic laws. But it canassure him of a speedy death if he wantonly violates those laws. Precisely this fact that the consequences of sin in punishment can beforetold more positively than the consequences of righteousness inreward is what makes fear the strongest influence dominating anddirecting human conduct. Yet many preachers deliberately abandon theappeal to fear and then wonder why their preaching does not move men toactive righteousness. When more preachers recover from the delusioninto which so many of them have fallen such complaints will diminish. For all human experience proves that the preaching that appeals to fearof punishment as well as to hope of reward is the preaching that isreally effective--is the preaching of all the great preachers of thepast and the present--is the preaching that moves. " The statement of the text is exceedingly plain and the teaching isunquestioned. It is a good thing for us to-day to understand what sinis, for if we have a wrong conception of sin it naturally follows thatwe shall have a wrong conception of the atonement. Without anunderstanding of sin there is no sense of guilt, and without the senseof guilt there is no cry for pardon. The best definitions that I haveever found for sin are written in the word of God. I 1. "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is thetransgression of the law" (1 John 3:4). The word "transgression" meansto go across. Does your life parallel God's law or cross it? Youranswer to this question determines the measure of your sin. You haveonly to read the ten commandments and try to mold your life by them tofind your answer. Better still, you have only to read thesecommandments in the light of Jesus' interpretation, where the look oflust is adultery and anger without cause is murder, to see how farshort you have come; and if this is true certainly you are a sinner, and the text is for you. "The wicked shall not be unpunished. " 2. "All unrighteousness is sin; and there is a sin not unto death" (1John 5:17). Righteousness means right relations with God. You maymake ever so strong a claim to right living and speak ever sovehemently concerning the good that you are accomplishing in the world, but the first question for you to settle is this, What is your relationto God and what have you to say with reference to your acceptance orrejection of Jesus Christ? It is a solemn thought that whatever we docounts for nothing if our relation to God be wrong, while the littlethat we may do may count for much if we have taken the right positionbefore him. 3. "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to himit is sin" (James 4:17). Omission, according to this scripture, is sin; neglected opportunity issin, shirking responsibility is sin, refusing to obey God is sin; andso when I ask you about being a Christian, if it is best and right andyou acknowledge that it is, then if you are not a Christian, this veryfact is in itself sin, for when one knows the right and refuses to doit he is a sinner, and the text is true--"The wicked shall not beunpunished. " 4. "And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not offaith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Romans 14:23). Activedoubt is sin. If you have a doubt concerning the sinfulness of certainthings, then to do those things is sin. If I have the least doubtconcerning the amusements which may be questionable, or the positionwhich may be doubtful, so long as a doubt or a question remains thesethings are sin; and the Bible states the fact that "The wicked shallnot be unpunished. " 5. "And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and ofrighteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8). Unbelief is the chiefestof sins. It is to reject Jesus Christ, it is to close in our own facesthe door of hope, it is to trample the blood of the Son of God underour feet, and it means also to insult the spirit of grace. One morning in the city of New York a man dashed down the street andpast three men standing on the pier. They could not tell how old hewas, nor how he was dressed, but they saw him jump upon the bulkheadnear by, strip off his overcoat, coat and hat, and, before they couldstir to save him, plunge off the end of the pier. There was a shortrope lying near by, and seizing this a man ran with his companions tothe point from which the man had jumped. They threw the rope towardthe struggling figure that they could just make out below them. Therope fell a foot and a half too short. Then they ran back to the gasplant and got a longer rope. The ice was running so thick in the riverthat the man's head and shoulders were still to be seen above the waterwhen they returned. Taking careful aim they threw the rope squarelyacross the struggling form, shouting, "Catch it and we'll pull youin. " The unknown man, however, making a last effort, threw the ropeaside and shouted back: "Oh, to h--- with it! I'm through!" Then hesank out of sight. That is a picture of the man who, having offered tohim mercy and grace in Jesus Christ, spurns all that God offers, and istherefore hopeless. Sin separates us from God. Sin separates us from each other. Sin pollutes us and we become impure. Sin deceives us and we are in danger and know it not. A friend of mine walking along the streets of Cincinnati early onemorning saw a young girl standing upon the very edge of the roof of oneof the highest office buildings. She was carefully balancing herselfand every moment it seemed as if she would fall. The elevator was notrunning, but he made his way hurriedly to the roof of the building, walked carefully across it, seized her by the hand, drew her back andfound that she had risen in her sleep and all unconsciously wasstanding on the very brink of eternity. This is what sin does for us, and it is a solemn thought that for all such the text is true, "Thewicked shall not be unpunished. " II I do not make my appeal, however, on the ground that the punishment isall for the future, for that is indeed sure. I ask you the question, Do you believe in heaven as a place of rewards? If so, the sameargument will prove the existence of hell. Do you reject hell, becauseit seems to you to be inconceivable? Then the same argument will blotheaven out of existence. What it is that awaits the wicked, I am sureI do not know--only that it is to be away from God, with the door ofhope shut forever, and the Bible tells me that there is weeping andwailing and gnashing of teeth, for the wicked shall not be unpunished. I lift my voice against the punishment here, for sin is so sure in itsdeadly work, it is so insidious in its influence, that before you knowit it is upon you; just one day of trifling and you are gone. The people about Pittsburg will never forget the Cheswick mine horrorin 1903, when one hundred and eighty-two dead men were taken from themine. Under the direction of one of the mining engineers, a rescuingparty started into the mine to see if there was any hope of saving themen who might be yet alive. The journey is described by one whovolunteered to go with the engineer on his perilous journey. "When wegot to the foot of the shaft, Mr. Taylor lighted a cigar. He blew outa great cloud of smoke and watched it drift into a passage. 'Thisway, ' he said, 'The smoke will follow the pure air draught. ' So wewent on, Mr. Taylor blowing clouds of smoke, and we following them. Suddenly he wheeled and yelled; 'The black damp is coming!' The cigarsmoke had stopped as though it had come to a stone wall, and was nowdrifting over our heads. We ran with death at our heels, ran with ourtongues dry and swelling and our eyes smarting like balls of fire. Itseemed only a minute until Mr. Taylor shrieked and fell forward on hisface. He crawled along for a while on his hands and knees, and thenfell again and lay still. I stopped for a second, with the idea ofcarrying him. Then I realized how hopeless that was. We were still aquarter of a mile from the mouth of the pit. He was a very heavy man, and I, as you see, am small and weak. Again I ran choking and beatingmy head with my hands. I fell, cut my face, called upon God, struggledto my feet and fell again. So I plunged on, falling and fightingforward. Black madness came upon me. The horrible, sickeningafter-damp was tearing my heart up through my dry throat. My brain wasbursting through my temples. Then a stroke, as though by a sledgehammer, and I knew nothing more. They found me at ten minutes past oneTuesday morning. At first they thought I was dead. Then they saw myhead rise and fall while I weakly pounded on a rock with a stick that Ihad caught in my delirium. " This is to me a striking picture of whatsin does for us. There is no one so strong but he may be overpoweredby its awful influence. God save us from it, for "The wicked shall notbe unpunished. " III Oh, is there no hope? For it would seem from the message thus far asif nothing but despair was ahead of us. Two ways to escape from thepower of sin have been suggested; one is man's way, the other is God's. Let us consider them both. 1. Man suggests reformation. But how about the sins of the past? Theyare still untouched. Man tells the sinner to do his best; but howabout the will which has been weakened by sinful practices, and whichseems unable to act? Man tells the depraved man to change hissurroundings; but how about the heart that is unclean? The fact is, man's way will not reach us. In January, 1904, the American Liner New York left Southampton and cameinto the New York harbor with a sad story to tell. A sailor wassuspended over the side of the vessel making repairs when an enormouswave tore him away, and he was very soon under the forepart of theship. The waves began to carry him away, and a life line was thrown tohim with a buoy attached. The sailor, sometimes visible and thenobscured by the rising of a swell, grasped the line, and a cheer wentup. He took a half turn with the line around his waist, was rollinghimself over into the bight of the line and it looked as if he would besaved. The sailors on deck were just about to haul in. The poorfellow's hands and fingers must have been numb, for he suddenly rolledout of the half-formed bight, losing his grip upon the line. None of the passengers could help the man, none of the crew dared jumpto his rescue, no boat could live in such a maelstrom. The sailor, whowas struggling and being whirled around and bobbing like a cork, hisoilskins partially spreading out and sustaining him, kept driftingfurther and further away. Aroused by the commotion, the second officer came on deck just as thesailor lost his hold. Tossing aside his cap, overcoat and jacket, hebade the seamen take a bowline hitch around his body and lower himaway. The volunteer life-saver was cheered by the passengers as hewent over. It was bitter cold, the sleet sharp and the swells ugly. Astrong swim in the trough of the seas and over the crests and theofficer might reach the seaman. It was his only chance. He had no more than touched the spume before the waves hurled himagainst the side of the steamer again and again, bruising his ankle andknee, but he struck out bravely and gradually drew nearer the sailor. For fifteen minutes the second officer struggled. During one of hisbrave spurts in the direction of the struggling man he looked up to therail. The practiced eye of the seafaring man saw something that causedhim suddenly to turn and breast his way back to the ship. The line wastoo short. The seaman holding the line attached to the officer had inhis hands the mere end of it, and there was not another bit to pay out. It was a sixty fathom line, "all gone, " and the officer yet only halfway to the drowning man. It was too late to splice another. Had itbeen thought of in time the man might have been saved. A longerstruggle was useless, and the officer allowed himself to be hauledaboard, leaving the helpless man to go to his last account. That isalways the difficulty with man's effort to save the lost. It does notreach far enough and fails just when it ought to hold. 2. God's way. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from allsin, " that is God's message. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and theunrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and hewill have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantlypardon. " This is God's invitation. "I even I, am he that blotteth outthy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. "This is God's pledge, and he has never failed to keep it. In the old days, when England and Scotland were at war, the Englishcame up against Bruce. They drove him from his castle and as he fledaway from them they let loose his own bloodhounds and set them upon histrail. His case seemed hopeless. He could hear the bay of the houndsin the distance, and those who were with him had just about given up indespair; but not so with Bruce. He came to a stream, flowing throughthe forest, he plunged in, waded three bow-shots up the stream and thenout upon the other side. The hounds came up to the stream, stopped andsniffed; they had lost the track. They turned back defeated, and Brucein time won the day. Is it not like this with our sins? Like a packof hounds they are after me; wherever I flee they are close upon me. "The wages of sin is death, " I am told, but I have found the way ofescape. Here flows a stream which runs red with the blood of JesusChrist, and I plunge in and am free. "There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel's veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains. " THE GRACE OF GOD TEXT: "_I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mineown sake, and will not remember thy sins. _"--Isaiah 43:25. In looking over an old volume of Sermons preached by H. GrattanGuiness, forty-five years ago, I came across the message which hedelivered with this text as a basis. So deep was the impression madeupon me by my first reading of the sermon that I have taken Mr. Guiness' outline and ask your careful attention to its development. If one should enter a jewelry store and ask to see a diamond, or anyother precious stone, the jeweler would first spread upon his show casea black cloth and then place the diamonds upon it, not only forprotection but also in order that the black background might bring outdistinctly the brilliancy and worth of the gems. So God gives thisbest of all his promises with the dark picture of sin clearly andthoughtfully portrayed. In verses twenty-second to the twenty-fourthwe read, "But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast beenweary of me, O Israel. Thou hast not brought me the small cattle ofthy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee withincense. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hastthou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me toserve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. " In these verses God says that his people have not called upon him inprayer, they have not presented their offerings, neither have theypresented unto him themselves. He also affirms that they have weariedof him, and that they have also wearied him with their iniquities, andthen he exclaims, "I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense, " and with these clear statements hegives us the gracious statement of the text, "I, even I, am he thatblotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will notremember thy sins. " Mr. Guiness gives us four beautiful thoughts in this text concerningour sins. First: They are blotted out from God's Book. Second: They are blotted out with God's hand. Third: They are blotted out for his sake. Fourth: They are blotted from his memory. A more admirable outline of a text of Scripture I do not know, a morecheering message to a child of God I have never found. I Not long ago, in Chicago, a young man was induced to confess to onewhom he thought was his friend the killing of his father and mother. As the confession was being made, as he supposed to but one person, itwas all being taken down by those who were near enough to hear himspeak, and when he appeared before the court his own confession wasused against him and sent him to a life imprisonment in thepenitentiary. What was true of this young man is true of us. Everysermon the minister preaches is recorded, every word an individualspeaks is put down. It is a solemn thought to realize, that at thejudgment we shall give account for even our idle words. Science has proven that our acts, our words and even our thoughts maketheir indelible record. Not long ago in our home we came across a long-unused phonograph. Westarted it going, placing upon it one of the cylinders which had beenpacked away with the phonograph, and were startled to hear the voice ofone who had been dead for years. We heard the message he dictated, thesong in which he joined and the laugh with which he closed it, and yethis voice has long been silent in death. There is not a sin of youryouth which has not made its record, not a passion of your mature yearsthat does not stand somewhere against you, not an act, a feeling or animagination that has not been indelibly written; not all the changes oftime, not all the efforts of man, can wipe these things out. In the British Museum there is a piece of stone not larger than theaverage Bible at least four thousand years old, and in the center ofthe stone there is a mark of a bird's foot; four thousand years ago thetrack was made, and for four thousand years the record has stood. Ifthese things are true of us--and they are, according to the Word ofGod--then what prospect is there for us but that of eternal punishment?For when we stand at the judgment there shall appear before us the sinsof omission and the sins of commission, the sins we have forgotten andthe sins we have but recently committed against ourselves, against ourfellow men, and against God. It is indeed a black picture, and with whitened faces and rapidlybeating hearts we ask, Is there any hope? I bring you God's graciousanswer to this important question: "I, even I, am he that blotteth outthy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. "Notice, it is the voice of God speaking. "I, even I, " he exclaims, "will blot out your transgressions. " It is, first of all, a commercial term. We were in debt to God, hopelessly in debt, and our obligation has been canceled; over againstour sin is placed the righteousness of the Son of God, and we are free. "Jesus paid it all, All to him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. " It is also a chemical expression, for it is a picture of God applyingthe blood of Jesus Christ to every page of the written record. Thesins of our youth long ago passed out of mind; the sins of our manhood, which have taken up every part of our being, the sins of to-day--allhave gone, for he himself has blotted them out. When we realize thatwe are forgiven of God it means more than if we were forgiven of men, for in the might of his forgiveness our past sins are gone, they shallnot even be mentioned against us; the fear of judgment is taken away, for Jesus himself says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He thatheareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlastinglife, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from deathunto life" (John 5:24). It is the Passover story over again, "When Isee the blood, I will pass over you. " Thus are our sins blotted out. II It is with God's hand that the work is done; and for very many reasonsthis is a great comfort to us. First: Because it was God's hand that made the record, he it was whoput down all your sins. He never rested in his work; week after week, month after month, year after year, the recording work was being doneuntil your record became blacker than the blackest midnight; and beholdthe hand that made the record blots it out. Second: It was his hand against which you offended. Your sin wasagainst yourself. It is true it hurt your character, lowered yourself-respect; but more especially was it against God, for you despisedhis authority, forsook his service, broke his laws, defied his justice;you grieved his spirit, and you crucified his Son. And behold it isthe hand against which you committed all these offenses which blottedout your transgressions. Third: It is the offended hand which blots them out. It was the handthat opened the fountains of the deep, and behold the floods came, thewaters above and the waters below clasped their hands and destructionwas everywhere save in the Ark. It was his hand that broughtdestruction upon the cities of the plain, consuming them with a mightyflame, and it was his hand that opened the sea for the children ofIsrael and then closed the sea over the pursuing Egyptians. The verythought of the offended hand makes us tremble, but behold, it is thishand that blots out all our transgressions. Fourth: It is the hand of justice that does the work. The same handwrote, "The wicked shall not go unpunished, " and wrote again, "The soulthat sinneth it shall die, " and wrote yet again, "The wages of sin isdeath. " This hand is stretched forth in our behalf. I doubt not the question has often come to us, "How can God be just andbe the justifier of them that believe?" In the light of suchstatements as these just quoted I am sure it is for this reason--it isfor the offering of the just for the unjust. He made him to be sin forus who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God inhim. A man was needed for such an offering, and Christ became man. The man required must be born under the law, so Christ came in thelikeness of sinful flesh. The man born under the law must be withoutsin, so he was born pure. The man born under the law and without sinmust be willing to die, and so he came saying, "I delight to do thywill, O God. " And the man born under the law, without sin and willingto die must be able to provide an atonement which would make thewandering sinner and the love of God one, and so Christ at the commandof God was thus furnished a sacrifice of sufficient power and magnitudeto save the whole world. It is this hand of God that blots out ourtransgressions. Fifth: It is the hand of the Supreme Being that does the work. What aword of encouragement this is. It was this hand that made the worldsand hurled them off into space. It was this hand that created man andmade him in the likeness of God. It was this hand that formed thecountless number of angels, and has ever directed their heavenlymovements. It was this hand that wrote the law upon Sinai. And it wasthis hand that holds the keys of the kingdoms of heaven and hell. Heblots out our transgressions. From his decision there can be noappeal. With such a work as this, who shall lay anything to the chargeof God's elect? Would God that justifieth do it, or Christ that diedconsent to it? In the light of such a thought the Apostle Paul says, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, norprincipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, norheight, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate usfrom the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans8:38-39). III Our sins are blotted out for his sake. God saves the sinner not alonebecause of pity for the sinner, and certainly not simply because he isin danger of hell, but in order that he may glorify himself; and thisis no selfish glorification, but rather in order that he may show to usnow and throughout all the ages what he really is. God has madedifferent revelations of himself. We have beheld his wisdom increation, in his providences and in his word. We have seen his justicein that he gave his only begotten Son to die for poor lost men. Wehave seen his power in the working of miracles and the transformingeffect of his grace. It remains for us to see his love in the story ofsalvation, for until we behold him as the Savior of the sinner we donot know him. It is this that shall make us not only rejoice here intime but rejoice with joy unspeakable in eternity. The Apostle Paulwrites in Ephesians 2:7-8, "That in the ages to come he might shew theexceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through ChristJesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not ofyourselves: it is the gift of God. " IV Our sins are blotted out from God's memory. The last of this wonderfultext is the best. When we detect a failure of memory here in thisworld among our friends it is an evidence of weakness, but it is noweakness in God to forget. This is but another one of thoseexpressions descriptive of God in which human language is used todescribe a thought and in which human language is too poor an agency toconvey all the depth of the meaning. It is just another picture of Godstooping down to meet our weakness and it is God assuring us that oursins are gone completely. It is as if they never had existed, for theyshall never stand against us and in the day of judgment they shall noteven be mentioned. Our sins must have been a grief to him, just as thesin of an earthly child is the source of sorrow to an earthly parent;but they are so no longer, for he has forgotten. The Bible representsGod as being angry because of our transgressions, but if ever there wasanger with him it is so no longer, for you cannot be angry with aperson whose injury against you you have forgotten entirely. We do notin this world speak of what we have forgotten, nor will God speak ofour sins. We do not punish what we have forgotten, nor will God permitus to be punished, for he has blotted out our transgressions and willremember them no more. There is no awaiting penalty for your sin, there is no judgment to meet at the great white throne, there is nohell for you at the last, for your sins, for Christ's sake, have beenforgotten. If you cast a stone into the water and it sinks away there is for atime a ripple, where the stone has gone down; but in a moment it hasgone forever, you can see it no more. So God has cast our sins intothe sea and the place where they have gone cannot even be found. V But what must I do to take advantage of all this gracious offer of God?I answer according to the Scripture. There must be true repentance;repentance is a change of mind, it is having a new mind for God. Theremust be regeneration; regeneration is a change of nature, it is a newheart for God. There must be conversion; conversion is a change ofliving and a new life for God. If we would be born from above we mustaccept God's word. Two friends were conversing one evening. One of them with a skepticalmind had just rejected the Bible because it did not tell him the thingsthat he would know. He insisted on knowing how the worlds were made, and demanded that he should be told concerning the origin of heaven andwhy God permitted it, and because the Bible failed here he would havenone of it. Just as his friend was leaving the skeptic said to him, "Here is my lantern. I want you to take it and it will light youhome. " But the lantern was refused by the Christian man, "for, " saidhe, "this lantern will not light up the mountains in the distance, northe valley stretching away at my feet. " His friend was amazed. "Man, "said he, "take the lantern; it will make a road for you across the moorand light up your pathway home. " "Oh, " said his friend, "if that istrue I will take it; but listen to me. So is the Bible not for distantpaths of investigation; it is not so much to tell us concerningcreation and existence--we shall know these things by and by. It isfor the path at your feet and it will light you home a space at atime. " The skeptical man saw it in an instant, he took God's word andcame back again to the faith of his childhood. So I offer it to you with its promises as of lanterns, if its commandsare carefully received and followed out. You, too, may pass fromdarkness into light and you may claim from God this text of mine whichsays, "I even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mineown sake, and will not remember thy sins. " CONVERSION TEXT: "_And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, andbecome as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom ofHeaven. _"--Matt. 18:3. Jesus Christ was the world's greatest teacher and preacher. Multitudesfollowed him because he taught them, not as the scribes, but as onehaving authority. He came to them with the deepest truth of God, butcouched in such familiar expressions, and told in such a fascinatingway, that all men heard him and went their way rejoicing that so greata teacher had come into the world as the messenger of God. He desiredto speak to them concerning the kingdom, and seeing on the distanthillside a farmer sowing his seed, he gave them the parable of thesower; and every farmer in his company began to understand his message. He told them the story of a woman baking bread, and in the spreading ofthe leaven every housekeeper had a vision of one of the deepestprinciples of the coming kingdom. He gave them the account of the boywho went away from his home, breaking his mother's heart, and, according to tradition, putting her in her grave; causing his oldfather to bow his head in shame again and again, and yet in spite of itall, his father loving him; and every listener learned from the story alesson concerning the love of God which could have been given to him inno other way. He was acknowledged as the world's greatest teacher andpreacher. The text is introduced by the word "verily, " and this is peculiar toJesus. The word calls especial attention to the coming message. Itwas as if he had sounded a bell and said, "Stop and listen"; andwherever the word "verily" occurs the Bible reader would do well togive heed to the message of Jesus. What hope is there for the moralist when Jesus said, "Except ye beconverted"? What hope can there be for the man who says God is somerciful that he will not allow him finally to be lost when Jesus said"Ye shall not enter into the kingdom, except ye be converted and becomeas little children. " It will be necessary for us to read carefully verses eight and nine inthis eighteenth chapter of Matthew, if we would be impressed with theimportance of conversion. There are solemn words here. "Wherefore ifthy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them fromthee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, ratherthan having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: itis better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than havingtwo eyes to be cast into hellfire. " I have been told that there are two ways of reading this text. Thefirst is as we have it in the King James version; the second would makeit read thus: "Verily, I say unto you, except ye convert yourselves andbecome as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom ofheaven. " Those who hold to this second reading say that there is adifference between regeneration and conversion--that regeneration isGod's part of the contract, while conversion is ours; that conversionis simply having the willing mind, while regeneration is God'simparting to us his own life; and to convert one's self is simply to bewilling to be saved. And this is all-important, for even God himselfcannot save us against our wills. But I prefer to use, in my treatmentof the text, the generally accepted idea of conversion, and wish mymessage to center around the following questions: What is conversion?How may I be converted? Do I know when I was converted? How may Iknow certainly? I What is conversion? I own a piece of property, and you desire topurchase it. You pay me a price, and the property is transferred frommy ownership to yours. It is a converted piece of property. This isjust a hint as to what conversion is. We were sold under sin; and ifany should object to this expression, we have sold ourselves under sin. Jesus came and in the shedding of his own blood paid the price of ourredemption. As a child of God, I am bought back from bondage tofreedom. To be converted is to be turned about. Going away from God, I turn towards him. With my face set away from heaven, I deliberatelyturn and accept Jesus, who said, "I am the way, the truth, and thelife. " To be converted is to cross the line which separates light fromdarkness, and may be done as easily as if one drew a line in the pathbefore him and stepped over it. Both of these would be by the act ofone's will; only it is to be remembered that when by faith we acceptJesus there is imparted to us a knowledge which comes from the HolyGhost alone; while we seem to be acting in our own strength, yet reallyit is in the strength of God. Let it be remembered, however, that notwo people may have exactly the same experience. There is anillustration of this in the healing of the blind men in the NewTestament. I can imagine them having a convention, and each giving histestimony. One declares that the only way to receive your sight is tohave clay and spittle put upon your eyes and to wash in the pool ofSiloam. Another ridicules this experience and declares that only thetouch of the fingers of Jesus is necessary. Still another speaks andemphatically declares that even the touch of Jesus is superfluous, forat the command of Jesus he saw clearly. Another says thatinstantaneous sight is impossible, and describes his own experience, when he saw men like trees, walking. But when all have given theirtestimony, they finally unite in declaring that whereas they once wereblind, now they can see; and after all this is the important matter. Afriend of mine described a number of people who came to view "TheAngelus" that celebrated masterpiece of Millet's. Some people admiredthe perspective; others, the figure of the man; others, that of thewoman. One man simply stood aghast as he looked, and exclaimed, "Whata marvelous frame that picture has!" and no two people expressed thesame opinion concerning the masterpiece. How could we expect them tohave the same experience in coming to Christ? It may be that some will say, "Why insist upon conversion when my lifeis a moral one?" And my answer is that the difficulty with morality isthat it is worked out according to men's standard and falls far shortof God's. In my first pastorate I had a blind man as one of my hearers. He usedto walk about the village where I preached, generally without a guide, and apparently went as easily as a man with eyes. He had a littlestick in his hands, with which he touched the trees and the fences, andseemed to know by the very sound where he was. One day at noon, whenhe should be going home, I saw him walking rapidly away from his home. I finally convinced him that he was going in the wrong direction, andhe asked me to set him straight, which I did. Going in the newdirection, he used his stick in the same fashion, used his legs in thesame mechanical way, but the difference between the man in the firstinstance and the second was this--that in the first picture he wasgoing away from home, while in the second he was going homewardrapidly. The trouble with man's morality is that it is self-centeredand not Christ centered if he is rejected. II How may I be converted? For from the text which says "Except ye beconverted" it would seem as if some power outside of ourselves must beworking in our behalf, and this is true. The foundation of it all isthe atonement by Christ, his sacrificial death upon the cross. Rejecting this truth, there is no hope for us. In our sinfulcondition, the spirit of God rouses us, convicts us of sin, convincesus of our need of a Savior, and finally God, in his grace, gives us thestrength to yield, and we pass from darkness to light. Sometimes great need drives us to light, as in the case of Nicodemus;while again great sin compels us to come to him, as in the case of thethief on the cross. But whether it be need or sin, let us start withlittle faith, if we have no more, and God will meet us the moment westart. I once conducted services in a soldiers' home. The commandingofficer told me, when the service was concluded, of a former inmate, anold sea captain, who came to the institution a confessed infidel. Herefused to attend any of the services in the chapel; finally he wastaken ill, and then the commanding officer entered his room, asking himto read the Scriptures, which he declined to do. Again he camesuggesting that he read the Bible to see if there was any part he couldbelieve, and a bottle of red ink and a pen were left by his bedside, the officer suggesting that he mark any verse red if he could acceptit. This appealed to the dying man and he said, "Where shall I read?"The officer said "Begin with John's Gospel. " And he did so. He readthrough two chapters without making a mark, and through fifteen versesof the third chapter. Then he came to the sixteenth verse, which is apicture of the very heart of God, and he reached for his pen and markedthe verse red. When this much of the story had been told we reachedthe old captain's room and passed the threshold to find the bed empty, for he was gone. "I wish you might have seen his Bible, " said thecaptain. "I sent it to his family recently. There was not a page init that was not marked red. " Over his bed swung a pasteboard anchor;marked upon it were these words--"I have cast my anchor in safeharbor. " For he had gone home. III Do you know when you were converted? That is, do you know the exacttime? There are two extremes in experiences in this matter. I recallthe experience of an old man who sat in my lecture room one Fridayevening, and just as the hands of the clock marked the hour 9:30 hesaid "I will, " and came to Christ. That was the moment of hisconversion. But, as for myself, I have not had this experience; I donot know just when I turned to Christ. It must have been when I wasbut a small child. One of the best women I know has had an experiencesimilar to mine, while one of the greatest preachers in the land hastold me that he was a drunkard until he was 21 years of age, and then, on his knees, by his father's death bed, he came to the Savior. Afterall, it is not so much a question of the knowledge of the day, or thehour, or the month of one's conversion as "Do we now know Christ?" IV How may we know that we have passed from death into life? Certainlynot with our feelings as a proof, for they change as the sands shift onthe seashore. If our feelings be the foundation, then we may be in thekingdom and out of it a great many times a day. It is not always to bedetermined by a great change in one's life, for men who have notaccepted Christ have had such an experience. There is only one sureway of knowing it, and that is on the authority of the word of God. John 5:24, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall notcome into condemnation: but is passed from death unto life. " And John6:47, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hatheverlasting life. " It is said that Napoleon while riding in front of his soldiers lostcontrol of his horse, when a private stepped from the ranks, seized thehorse's bridle and saved the officer's life. Napoleon saluted him andcalled him captain. "But, sir, " said he, "I am not a captain, only aprivate. " "Then, " said Napoleon, "I will commission you captain. " Andimmediately he stepped into the company of those officers; they orderedhim to the ranks, but he said, "I am a captain. " "By whose authority?"they said. If then he had replied, "Because I feel like a captain, "how ridiculous it would have been! Pointing to Napoleon, he said, "Iam a captain, because he said it. " Thus with God's word as afoundation we stand secure. V Do not forget to notice that we are told that we must come like littlechildren. Not like the philosophers of the world, but like littlechildren who always trust implicitly those who are about them. If wewould be saved, we must be willing to be taught, and we must some timemake a beginning. Then why not now? Some years ago John B. Gough visited a home in a New England city, andthe heartbroken mother told him that her boy, who was an inebriate, wasconfined in an upper room in the house, which was much like a cell. The great temperance leader went to speak to him and said "Edward, whydon't you pray?" and he said, "Because I don't believe in prayer. ""But, " said Mr. Gough, "You must believe in God. " And he replied, "Ido not believe in anything. " "I am sure you are wrong in this, " saidhe, "for I know that you believe in your mother. " Then there came anew look into his face when he said, "Yes, I believe in her. " "Well, "said Mr. Gough, "you must then believe in love. Let us fall upon ourknees and pray. " And the young man began, "O love, " and the spirit ofGod said unto him, "God is love, " and he changed his prayer and said "OGod, " and then came the same spirit and said, "God so loved the worldthat he gave his only begotten son, " and he said "O Christ, " and whenhe said this the deed was done. He immediately rose from his knees, and he has been free ever since. FIVE KINGS IN A CAVE TEXT: "_And it came to pass, when they brought out those kings untoJoshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said unto thecaptains of the men of war which went with him, Come near, put yourfeet upon the necks of these kings. And they came near, and put theirfeet upon the necks of them. And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, norbe dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the Lord doto all your enemies against whom ye fight. _"--Joshua 10:24-25. The history of the children of Israel is one of the most fascinatingstories ever written. It abounds in illustrations which are aspractical and helpful as any that may be used to-day, drawn from ourevery-day experience. God certainly meant that we should use theirstory in this way, for in the New Testament we read that the thingswhich happened to them were as ensamples for us. The word "ensample"means type, or figure, or illustration. To appreciate this text and the story of the five imprisoned kings wemust go back a little bit to the place where the leadership of Moseshad been transferred to Joshua. God is never at a loss for a man; hisplans are never frustrated. If Moses is to be set aside Joshua is inpreparation for his position. Doubtless Joshua may have felt somewhatrestrained, as he was kept in a position of not very great prominence, but he certainly realized when he stood as the leader of the childrenof Israel that all things had been working together for the good of hisleadership, and doubtless he praised Jehovah for his goodness to him. There are many incidents in connection with the immediate story of thechildren of Israel which should be mentioned here. When they were ready to move towards Canaan Joshua told them that whenthe soles of the feet of the priests touched the water of the Jordanthe water would stand on either side before them and they could passdry shod into Canaan. Suddenly the marching began. They stood withinthree feet of the waters, which ran the same as they had been runningfor years; then two feet, then one, and then six inches, but there wasno parting of the waters before them. Let us remember that God hadsaid, "When the soles of the feet of the priests touch the water theyshall separate. " And it was even as he said, and on dry land thechildren of Israel passed over to the other side. It is a perfectlynatural thing for one who is unregenerate to say, "Why insist uponconfession, and the acceptance of Christ, and how can the mereacceptance of the Savior save me from the penalty and the power ofsin?" But a countless multitude will rise to-day to say, "It was whenwe stepped out upon what we could not understand and what seemed asimpassable and impossible as the parting of the waters of the Jordanthat God gave us light and peace. " When once they were in Canaan what an interesting story that is inconnection with Rahab of Jericho! The spies had entered her home and amob outside was seeking them that they might put them to death. Rahabpromised them deliverance, only she exacted from them a promise inreturn that they would save alive her father and her mother and herloved ones; and when she let them down by means of a cord from thewindow of her home they said to her, "Bind this scarlet cord in thewindow and gather your loved ones here and they shall be saved. " Andwhen the children of Israel had marched about Jericho and the wallswere about to fall, suddenly they lifted their eyes and they saw thered cord fluttering from the window, and while all else was destroyedRahab and all her loved ones were saved. What a little thing evidently stood between them and death--just a redcord! And yet as a matter of fact it is only a red cord that isbetween us and death--namely, the blood of the Son of God; for, as inthe Old Testament times when God saw the blood and the destroying angelpassed over the home, so in these New Testament times the blood whichhas been received by faith insures us our safety and we are set freefrom sin's penalty and sin's power. The story of Achan is a note of warning. It is rather singular thatwhen the children of Israel had taken Jericho they failed at Ai, andyet not singular when we realize that one man had sinned in all thecompany. He had taken gold and silver and a Babylonish garment and hadhidden the same in his tent, and this was in direct disobedience to thecommands of Joshua. The sad thing about sin is that we cannot sin andsuffer alone. Our friends suffer, our kindred must bear a part of thewoe with us. When Achan sinned the children of Israel lost a victory. Sin is progressive. In the seventh chapter of Joshua and thetwenty-first verse, we read, "When I saw among the spoils a goodlyBabylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge ofgold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; andbehold they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and thesilver under it. " And you will notice that, first he saw, then hecoveted, then he took. It is always thus; a sinful imagination willlead to outbreaking iniquity, and a small sin encouraged willultimately mean disgrace. The story of the Gibeonites is also interesting. They had heard of thepower of the children of Israel and were afraid of them; but they madeup their minds to deceive them. So, lest the Israelites should thinkthat they came from a near by territory and therefore should turnagainst them they put on old clothes, wore old shoes upon their feetand carried musty bread in their baggage. Then they stood beforeIsrael and said, "We have come from a far country; look at ourclothing, it is worn out; and at our shoes, they are in holes; and atour bread, it was fresh when we started, it is musty to-day. " And Joshua said, "We will make them hewers of wood and drawers ofwater, " and they were saved from death but they served in bondage. Letthis be remembered always that deception inevitably means bondage. Oneis in bondage to his conscience, for it constantly reproves him. He isin bondage to the one he has deceived, for he can never stand honestlybefore him. He is most of all in bondage to his sin, for he willsurely be found out. The Amorites were against the children of Israel and they were a greatcompany. It is in connection with their struggle against this powerthat the text is written. I The Israelites started in this conflict with a mighty power againstthem, as we have seen. But so have we. There are first of all thetendencies of our old nature against which we must fight, for just aswith the law of gravitation if I take my hand away from a book or astone it falls to the floor or the ground because this law pulls itdownward, so there is a law in my members and has been in the life ofevery man since Adam's day pulling me away from the true to the false. It is for this reason that it is easier to do wrong than to do right, to be untrue than to be true. Then there is against us the very worldin which we live. Its atmosphere, its business, even its social lifeis tainted with that which is sinful or to say the least questionable, and he who lives in the world and is in any sense of it has a hardbattle to fight. But there are two special things which are against us. First: The sins which we have encouraged. It may be in the beginningvery small, but Satan is perfectly satisfied if he can have the leasthold upon the life of the one whom he wishes to wrong. I read in aChicago paper the story of a woman who was making a heroic struggleagainst an awful curse. She had become addicted to the use ofmorphine. For fourteen years she was a consumer of the drug. Apparently she could not shake off the habit. Building up a resistanceto the action of the drug, her system became accustomed to enormousquantities of it. She could not eat, nor sleep, nor work without it. Most of her scanty earnings went to purchase it. She was a seamstress, and by toiling many hours a day managed to get enough money to buy it. Some years back she had been a happy wife and mother. Her husbandloved her; she was devoted to him and to their two children. She losthim; she lost the care of her children; rapidly she drifted away fromthem. The powerful narcotic helped to deaden her pain. When heranguish became unbearable a double dose of it would enable her todrowse away the hours. "I will never again touch or taste morphine, so help me God!" she said. Immediately she discontinued the use of the drug wholly. She could getno sleep; she could not swallow food half the time or retain it. Shewas beset by horrible visions. She was racked by an inexpressiblelonging. But she held on. Those who knew her and watched heragonizing battle with astonishment and sympathy told her that she waskilling herself. "It may be, " she would answer, "but I shall die trueto my oath. " "But, " they would urge, "a habit like yours, which hasobtained for years, should be broken gradually. " "I will master it. Ihave blotted it from my life, " she would answer. "I shall quit it thisway even if I go into the grave. It has mastered me; it has cost me myhome, husband and children; now I will master it. " She started atshadows, her nights were nights of horror; she would bury her nails inthe palms of her hands and compress her lips to keep from screaming. There was no rest for her. Still she tried to work and grew weaker. "You cannot give me that, " she said, "I remember my oath. Give me anymedicine you choose save opium. God would forsake me now if I forsookmy promise to him. " The physician remonstrated with her, but in vain, so he gave her a substitute which failed of its effect, as he knew itwould, and she died. Even when the hand of death had clutched hergrimly, though her terrific sufferings would have been allayed by thepoison, she refused to take it. Any person in the room would havebought it for her and administered it gladly, so that she might passaway in peace, but she would not prove traitor to herself. She was afriendless woman except for acquaintances recently made. Her life hadbeen sad and hard. Held in the grip of an enemy that set its mark uponher, she was shunned and went her downward way alone. Those who werewith her say that just before the end came she smiled, knowing that shehad won her fight; and yet years ago she began to trifle with sin, andit had mastered her. Again, we have against us sins which not only have been encouraged buthave been committed again and again until they have become a habit ofour lives, and he who has such a sin as this finds himself in the gripof one who is a tyrant. In a city paper the other day I came across the story of a man who oncehad some prominence in the world but began to go wrong, naturallydrifted towards the evil and finally found himself surrounded by thelowest of companions. Because of his natural ability he easily assumedleadership. The particular form of crime they practiced was administering chloralto those who sat at the bar in the saloon to drink. They did this byattracting the attention of the man who was to drink to something elsein the room and then the deadly knock-out drops would be administeredand they would rob the man. One night the dose was too strong and thevictim died. The one who caused his death came before the cityauthorities recently to give himself up and pitifully ask that he mightbe quickly sent to death to pay the penalty of his crime for, said he, "From that moment my mind has never been at rest. I wandered abouttown for two or three days trying to get rid of the sight of thatfellow's face; but at night was when I suffered. The moment I dozedoff I could see him in my dreams beckoning and laughing as he draggedme over some cliff, and I waked up cold with fear. No one knows what Isuffered. I left the city. I went to Denver. I went to Butte. Itraveled everywhere, but wherever I went night and day that dead manwas hovering around me. I couldn't sleep and my mind began to weaken. One night I went into a gambling den. I thought the excitement mightdrive that vision out of my head. I played roulette. I bet on theblack; the red won. And right before me I saw that printer's face justlike I see you now, grinning as the dealer dragged in my money. I ranout of that club like a crazy man and wandered about town till I saw afreight train pulling out of the yards. I climbed into an empty boxcar and lay down in the corner to rest. For a few moments the face wasgone. Suddenly a flash of lightning lit up that car as bright as thiscell, and there, just a couple of feet from me, I saw that man I'dkilled plainer than I see you. He reached out and caught me by thearm. I screamed and jumped out of the car. They found me next daylying beside the track; and when they got me to a hospital, as I hopefor pardon, that thing's black and blue finger marks showed on myshoulder. I've been in a lot of places since that but I never got overit. Finally it got so bad I couldn't stand it and I came back toChicago to confess. " And just as we have all these things against usso the children of Israel had the Amorites against them and the fivekings were unitedly arrayed to fight them. II But there was a sure deliverance for Israel and there is a suredeliverance for us. God promised to be with Joshua and his people. Joshua 1:5, "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee allthe days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: Iwill not fail thee, nor forsake thee. " Even the things that wereimpossible he helped them to accomplish. Joshua 6:1-2, "Now Jerichowas straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have givenunto thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men ofvalor. " Even where men had failed him he gave them victory. Joshua8:1-2, "And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thoudismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai:see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and hiscity, and his land; and thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didstunto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattlethereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambushfor the city behind it. " Even where the forces were combined againstthem it made no difference. Joshua 10:8, "And the Lord said untoJoshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thine hand; thereshall not a man of them stand before thee. " So it is with us. God haspromised to deliver us, and over our sinful nature, the atmosphere ofthe world, sins encouraged and sins committed, we may expect a completevictory. Everything is at man's disposal if only God is with him. Inconnection with the children of Israel even the day was made longerthat they might fight their battles. Joshua 10:12-14, "Then spakeJoshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amoritesbefore the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people hadavenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the bookof Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hastednot to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like thatbefore it, or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of aman: for the Lord fought for Israel. " The weak were made strong thatthe enemy might not triumph over them. "If God be for us who can beagainst us?" In this struggle with the Amorites Israel won the day. III The victory of the Israelites over the Amorites was like the generaldeliverance which God has given us from the power of sin, but there arecertain sins which may pursue us, and from these we ought to be setfree. When the children of Israel started from Egypt and had passedthrough the Red Sea certain of the Egyptians started after them, thewaters of the Sea came together and they were put to death. The nextday the Israelites camped upon the shore and they could easily go back. Doubtless more than one could say as he turned over the body of a deadman to see his face, "Why, this is my old tax master who used to beatme. He will never have power over me again. " Is such a deliverance asthis from individual sins possible? I think it is. I can think offive sins which stand in the way of men and which maybe likened to thefive kings shut up in the cave. First: Sinful imagination or secret sins. I doubt not but that almostevery one whose eyes may light upon this sentence has been guilty atthis point. He may have said again and again, "I will never do thisthing again, " and he has put the king into the cave and rolled thestone against the door. Second: Impurity. It may be that some one who reads this sentence willplead guilty at this point, and he may have said, "This sin which isnow my defeat began with only a suggestion of evil which I encouraged;but I will never be guilty again, " and he puts the sin into the caveand rolls the stone against the door. Third: Intemperance, not simply in the matter of drinking strong drink, but it may be intemperance in the matter of dress, or eating, orpleasure; in other words, it is the lack of self-control. This hasbeen the defeat of more men than one, and as you stop and think yousay, "I will never lose control of myself again, " and you put the sinwithin the cave and roll the stone against the door. Fourth: Dishonesty; not simply in what you do but in what you say, forone may be dishonest in speech as well as in appropriating that whichdoes not belong to him. If you should be condemned just here and havedetermined never to fail again at this point, by an act of your willyou consign this king to the cave and close up the entrance. Five: Unbelief, which is the greatest sin of all and is the last andgreatest sin to be put into the cave. As a result of such an actionthere may be temporary relief, but not permanent, for the kings maybreak away from the cave and organize their forces against you oncemore and you go down. Here comes in the power of the text. Bring thekings out, every one of them, and put your feet upon their necks andstand in all your right and dignity as Christian men, and expectdeliverance not so much because of what you are but because of the factthat from the days of the first sin it has been said, "The seed of thewoman shall bruise the serpent's head. " Near Toledo, Ohio, there used to live an old doctor noted for hisinfidelity. He was violent in his opposition to the church. One dayhe called Robert Ingersoll to the town where he lived and paid him twohundred dollars, that he might by means of his lecture break up therevival meeting. Everybody was afraid of him. He heard of an oldpreacher back in the country who was a stranger to the schools but nota stranger to God, and he asked his friends to make it possible for himto meet him. Finally they met, and the infidel with a sneer said, "Soyou believe the Bible, do you?" and he said, "Yes, sir; do you?" "Andyou believe in God, do you?" and he said, "Yes, sir. " "Well, I wantyou to understand that I am an infidel, and believe none of thesethings. " The old minister looked at him and said simply, "Well, isthat anything to be proud of?" and it was an arrow that went straightthrough the unbeliever. He went back to his office and began to thinkit over. "Anything to be proud of, " he said, and he finally realizedthat he was not in a favorable position. Then he thought of an oldChristian he knew and said, "If I could be such a Christian as that Iwould come to Christ. " He went to tell the minister, and the ministersaid to him, "Get down on your knees and tell God so, " and he began totell him, then broke down and sobbed out his confession of sin. Hiscry for deliverance was heard, and he rose up a free man in ChristJesus. From that day till this he has been freed from every one of hissins, is preaching the Gospel and counts it his highest joy tocontribute in every possible way to the enlargement of the bounds ofthe Kingdom of God. So there is deliverance from every form of sin ifwe will but move in God's way. DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE IN CHRISTIAN WORK TEXT: "_Salute no man by the way. _"--Luke 10:4. Luke is the only one of the Evangelists giving us the account of thesending out of the seventy. The others tell us that Christ calledcertain men unto him and commissioned them to tell his story; but inthis instance after Jesus had said, "Foxes have holes, and birds of theair have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head, " hecalls the seventy and sends them forth prepared to endure any sacrificeor suffer any affliction if only they may do his will. And when he hadsaid unto another, "Follow me, " but he answered, "Suffer me first to goand bury my father, " Jesus said unto him (Luke 9:60-62), "Let the deadbury their dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. Andanother also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bidthem farewell which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit forthe kingdom of God. " From this expression of the Master we quiteunderstand that no other service, however important it may seem to us, is to come between us and our devotion to him. And in the expressionconcerning the man having put his hand to the plow and looking back wehave one of the strongest illustrations that Jesus ever used. He doesnot say that if any one puts his hand to the plow and turns back tosome other form of service he is not fit for the Kingdom of God, butwhat he says is this: If any man has his hands to the plow and simplylooks back he is not fit for the Kingdom; and this for two reasons: First: Because no man could plow as he ought to unless he would keephis eyes straight ahead of him, and Second: No man could plow if he has his mind fixed upon something else. Jesus wants his disciples to know that his work is the important work, that nothing can surpass it. Not only is it wrong for us to turn awayfrom him to any other service but it is a sin even to take our eyes offof him to gaze upon anything else. Under such sharp teaching as thishe sends forth the seventy. Let it be noted, first, that he sent them forth two by two. Perhapsone was sent because he was strong in the opposite direction from hisfellow laborer. Who knows but one could speak and the other couldsing? Certainly one was the complement of the other. And they wentforth with burning hearts to give the message of Jesus. Thatillustration in the New Testament where four men brought the sick manto Jesus is along the same line. Two men might have failed utterly, three men would have found it difficult service, for four men it waseasy. I once made my way into the office of a doctor to ask him to come toChrist. The meetings were in progress in the church and I thought hewas interested. He received me kindly, but firmly declined even totalk of Christ and I left him, utterly discouraged. The next night theman gave his heart to Christ, and for this reason, I believe. We hadmade him in a little company of church officers a subject of prayer, and you cannot pray earnestly for one for any length of time withoutspeaking to him concerning his soul's salvation. Without having had aconference four men determined to see the doctor, and they all calledupon him within two hours of time. When the first came he laughed athim; when the second came his prominence in the business world at leastcommanded the doctor's respect; when the third came, having driven fourmiles in from the country, he began to be interested; and with thecoming of the fourth there was awakened in him a deep conviction. Heclosed his office, went to his home and before the evening hour ofservice came had accepted Christ. We have practically the same commission as the seventy. "As the Fatherhath sent me even so send I you, " said Jesus to us. These conditionsare as true to-day as in those days in the work of the seventy. The harvest is great. There possibly never has been a time when morepeople are absenting themselves from the church than at the presenttime. These men and women are fit subjects for the Gospel. Theseventy went as the messengers of peace, so may we go. There aretroubled hearts all about us, there are those who are in despair, menand women who are saying, "Peace, peace, " when there is no peace, whileours is the very message of peace. Jesus said to them, "Carry neitherpurse nor scrip nor shoes, " for their dependence was upon him. So mustit be to-day. Not upon method nor upon skill must we depend, nor uponthe schemes of men, however successful they may have been in the past, but upon him. In those days the men were sick and troubled, in thesedays they are dead in sins and as his messengers we carry the messageof love. I This expression of the text meant very much to the Oriental, for as amatter of fact the salutation of the Eastern people frequently took ahalf an hour of time, and sometimes an hour would be consumed. Theytouched their turbans, fell upon their knees, saluted one another witha holy kiss, talked together concerning their own interests. Thesethings were a part of the salutation. Jesus says to the seventy, "Salute no man as you go. " They were not bidden to be impolite--thisis farthest from the spirit of the Christian--yet they werecommissioned to be about the king's business and the king's businessrequired haste. The idea of the text is that there must be definiteness of purpose inChristian work. When Elisha kept his eyes fixed upon Elijah there cameto him as the result the mantle of Elijah and he was clothed withpower. When Gehazi followed Elisha's command and as he went to thehome of the Shunammite saluted no one he became the forerunner of lifeto the child. And when Paul said, "This one thing I do, " and nothingcould swerve him from his path of duty, he became the mightiestpreacher in the world's history since Christ. But let it not bethought for a moment that we are advocating a gloomy religion; far fromit. I like the story of the little girl who went one day into hergrandfather's room to ask him to read to her and found him asleep withhis head upon the back of the chair, his Bible upon his knees and thesunlight coming through the window at the proper angle to cast abouthim a halo of glory, and she ran to her mother saying, "I have been ingrandpa's room and I have seen God. " If as a Christian the people ofthe world can have any thought other than this, that we at times atleast remind them of Christ, something is wrong with our Christianexperience. There were two sides to the experience of Jesus. In one we see him atthe wedding rejoicing with those that did rejoice, making wine out ofwater and contributing to the happiness of all those who were present. In the other instance we see him upon the mountain side and crying out, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" with an almost breaking heart. When Charles G. Finney was in Utica there came down to see him a womanwho was concerned for the town in which she lived. She returned to herhome and through days and nights found it impossible either to eat orto sleep because she realized the lost condition of those about her. At last when she was so weak that she could not pray, she had rest onlywhen those about her prayed for her. When Mr. Finney reached that townone of the greatest revivals in his history as an evangelist was theresult. I was one day engaged with other pastors in an eastern city in a Gospelcampaign. The ministers were preaching in turn each day and when itcame my time to preach I could find in all the audience scarcely one ofmy people. Up to that day the interest had been remarkable, butsomehow from that day on, although people had been converted by thehundred, there was no perceptible spiritual impression. When themeetings had closed one of the prominent society leaders of my churchcame to explain to me why she was away from the service and she said, "I gave my afternoon reception and the people of our church werethere. " When I told her that I felt that as a result of that afternoonreception our own church had lost a blessing she seemed utterly amazed;and yet to this day I am firmly persuaded that hundreds of people mighthave come to Christ if we had not in that day grieved the Spirit. II The text means that those of us who are Christians shall show by ourvery faces that we are on the king's business and that it is solemnbusiness. One day a man knocked at the door of my study, was admitted, sat downon the couch in the room and began to sob. He did not need to tell mewhy he had come. I knew, but finally when he sobbed it out this washis message: "I have come to ask you to bury my wife, and to ask if youwill not go with me to comfort the children, for they are heartbroken. "I knew by the very look of his face that he had lost a loved one. Doyou think for a moment that those who gaze at us would imagine that wehad the least conviction that people away from Christ were lost? I amsure they would not. The text also means that we shall be desperately in earnest. A fatherand his boy heard a minister preach a sermon on the judgment and asthey went to their home the father said, "My boy, it was a great sermonand you must think about it. " And the boy did. He made his way to hisroom and threw himself on his bed only to hear his father downstairslaughing and singing; and he said to himself, "It is not true, for ifmy father believed I was in danger of the judgment he could not laughand he would not sing. " That day was the turning point in the boy'slife. He became a man of renown but never a believer in Jesus Christas we accept him. The text also indicates how we should pray, with an eye single to hisglory but with a purpose that cannot be shaken. Pray as the Shunammiteprayed, pray as the woman besought the unjust judge; such prayer bringsvictory. III Did you ever realize that you were standing in the way of theconversion of your friends? How about your living? If your testimonyrings anything else than true to Christ you are a stumbling block inthe way of some one. How about your testimony? In the meetings to which I referred therecame a young woman one day evidently greatly moved. First one pastorwould speak to her and then another, and finally I was given theprivilege. For a long time I could not understand her words for hersobs and then she said, "I am a Christian, a member of one of thechurches in this movement. I have been engaged to a young man for thelast three years. He was not a Christian. Three weeks ago he wastaken ill and a week ago he died. In all the time that I knew him Inever spoke to him about Christ. I do not know that he even knew thatI was a Christian, and now, " she said, with a heart which seemed to beliterally crushed, "he has gone and I never warned him. " And the textmeans that no one could come within the reach of our influence withouthaving at least a suggestion made by ourselves to them that we are thefollowers of Christ and that we long to have them know him who means somuch to us. THE MORNING BREAKETH TEXT: "_Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morningcometh, and also the night. _"--Isaiah 21:11-12. It is very interesting to note that, whether we study the Old Testamentor the New, nights are always associated with God's mornings. In otherwords, he does not leave us in despair without sending to us hismessengers of hope and cheer. The Prophet Isaiah in this particular part of his prophecy seems to bealmost broken-hearted because of the sin of the people. As one of theScotch preachers has put it, he has practically sobbed himself tosleep. A great shadow has fallen upon the people of God and he is indespair because of it. They have sown to the wind and now they arereaping the whirlwind, a result which is inevitable. They are awayfrom Zion with its temple, and are deprived of the view of thosemountains which are round about Jerusalem and to this day are clad withvines and olive trees. They are in captivity and are the abject slavesof the enemies of God. Isaiah's heart is well-nigh crushed, but in themidst of the despair he has a vision of the chariots coming and hears acry which rejoices his soul, "Babylon is fallen. " It is because ofthese tidings that he cries out in the words of the text. What a night they had had of it! They had been in darkness that wasever increasing, and the song of thanksgiving which used to fill theirsouls because of the nearness of Jehovah had entirely departed fromthem. The figure of the watchman is often used in the Bible, as for examplewhen he stands upon the city walls and is told that if he sounds thetrumpet telling of the approach of the enemy and the people hear and donot take warning their blood is upon their own heads, while if he failsto sound the trumpet and the people are cut off, their blood isrequired at the watchman's hand. And again in the first chapter ofZechariah the eighth to the eleventh verses, "I saw by night, andbehold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtletrees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled and white. Then said I, O my Lord, what are these? And theangel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be. And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, Theseare they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth. And they answered the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtletrees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, andbehold all the earth sitteth still and is at rest. " For here the manstanding in the midst of the myrtle trees is him of whom the prophetsdid speak, while the messengers are those who bring him tidings of theprogress of his kingdom. But again where David comes to the watchtower and sees the two messengers running, the second one bringing himtidings of the death of his son, and from this watch tower he staggersback again to his room crying out, "O Absalom, my son, would God I haddied for thee!" The poet usually sings of the night as a time of beauty. He sings ofthe moon and the stars; but in the Bible night always stands for thatwhich is dark, foul, loathsome, sinful, cold and deadly. There aredifferent nights mentioned in the Scripture, for the most part in theOld Testament. There was that night in Eden when sin blinded the eyesof Adam and Eve and a great darkness fell round about them. There wasthe night of the flood, all because the people had neglected God; andthere was the night of the destroying angel passing over the cities ofEgypt, all because of the indifference of those who knew not God. Buteven in these nights God does not leave his people without help, for inEden we read, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head";while in the flood behold the Ark; and in the Passover night we see theblood of the Paschal lamb sprinkled upon the lintels of the door. There are different mornings mentioned in the Scriptures, and as a rulewe find them in the New Testament. The morning of his birth. The morning of his resurrection. The morning of his miracle when the empty nets are filled and thediscouraged fishermen are made to rejoice. The morning of his return, when, after the rising of the morning star, an endless day of blessing shall be ushered in. It used to be the custom in Scotland, especially in Aberdeen, for thenight watchman of the city guard as he paced the streets to cry aloud, "Twelve o'clock and the night is dark; one o'clock and the storm isheavy, " and the restless sleeper would toss upon his pillow and listenfor the tidings of the morning hour, "Two o'clock and the morning isstarry. " It is in this spirit that we listen to-day to the cry of thewatchman when he declares, "The morning cometh and also the night. " I We are in a sense in the night in these days, even though we areChristians. First: Because of the existence of sin. It is everywhere, in the heartas a mighty principle of evil pulling us down as the law of gravitationpulls material substances toward the earth's center. In the life asshown by our habits and practices, for these are the fruits of sin. Inthe very air we breathe sin is manifest, and sin has brought the night. Second: I sometimes think that the darkness is increasing because asministers we fail to preach concerning sin. We speak of it as an erroror a mistake; we talk about the devil and call him his Satanic majesty;we preach about hell and call it the lost world, while it is true thatin the olden days when men trembled under the word of the preacher theman of God spoke of the devil and hell and sin in all their awfulness. But the morning cometh, for while it is true that sin is in the worldand it has gripped many of us, yet because of Christ's death upon thecross we are free from the penalty of sin; we may be free from thepower of sin, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets usfree from the law of sin and death; we may be free from the practice ofsin, for Christ is the secret of our deliverance. But the text tellsus that while the morning cometh the night also appears. And so forthose of us whose lives have been such a struggle we cry, "Is there nodeliverance?" and I answer, yes, we shall one day be free from thepresence of sin; and that will be at his return when we shall see himand be like him, and the new day which is never to close shall be uponus. Third: We are in the night because of the existence of sorrow. Next tosin this is the greatest fact in the world, for men are born untotrouble as the sparks fly upward. And somehow the morning and thenight as they are fastened together in this text present to us thestory of our lives, for we are first in the morning when everythingseems peaceful, and almost immediately in the night when we are reallyin despair. I journeyed from Naples to Rome over a fine piece of railway and foundmyself now in the darkness of a tunnel and almost immediately rushingout onto a fertile plain. That railroad is the story of many a life. But "Is there no deliverance that is complete?" and I answer, yes, there is a time coming when there shall be no sea and no tears and nonight, for the former things are passed away. Fourth: We are in the night because of mystery. Life is full ofquestions. "Why must I have this trial or pain or trouble?" So manyof us are asking these questions, and there is really no answer, atleast none for the present. And yet God has not deceived us, for hehas said, "What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt knowhereafter. " He tells us that when we see him we shall know, but alsodeclares that no one can see his face and live; and then, said thesainted Augustine, "Let me die that I may see him. " It is true that weshall go on from light into darkness, from morning into the night, butis there no final deliverance? And I answer, yes, when we see him andbecome like him we shall know as we are known. Let us wait and believeuntil that day. Have you ever seen a perfect rainbow--that is, a rainbow in a perfectcircle? I never have. The most perfect one I have ever seen was onthe plains of Jericho, but it was a half circle. However, in theRevelation we are told that in that day there shall be a rainbow roundabout the throne, when half circles shall be made whole and half thingsshall be made complete; that is the morning for which we long. II But there is another suggestion, "the morning cometh and also thenight. " There is the thought of the transition from the one to theother. We certainly have been in the night so far as our living isconcerned and our working, but now I feel sure there is coming a changeand we are living in a critical time. May God help us to be faithful. All truth is like a cycle and at different points in the circumferencethere are truths which must be especially emphasized. The late A. J. Gordon once preached a sermon on the "Recurrence ofDoctrine, " in which he stated that while in one day justification byfaith was the prominent truth for the church, in another sanctificationwas prominent, in still another the return of the Lord, and in stillanother the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. All this I firmly believe andit only proves to me that the prominent truth for to-day is every manfor his neighbor, every friend for his friend, every parent for hischild, the individual seeking the individual for Christ. God iscalling us to action; let us not fail. I have a friend who used to use an illustration of a sea captain, hisfirst mate and his wife wrecked upon a rocky shore, huddled togetherupon a rock out from the shore but too far for them to escape bythrowing themselves into the waves. The life-line is shot out to themand the captain puts it round his first mate and bids him jump and heis drawn to the shore in safety. Then he put the cord around the waistof his wife, but the current is running in such a way that she mustspring at just the proper second or she will be thrown back against therocks and be killed. And he shouts to her, "Spring!" but she waited tokiss him and waited too long, sprang into the sea and was thrown backagainst the rock and drawn shoreward lifeless. Whether that story istrue or not I cannot say, but it is an illustration of the present dayto me. God is saying, "Now is the day of opportunity. " May he pity usif we fail! III While all that has been said is true concerning the morning of theEternal Day, in another sense it is true that already a brighter day isbreaking. First: A better day for Bible study. This old Book which people havefeared was going to pass away is better to-day than ever. It is theobject of deeper affection, and there is no question but that morepeople are believing in it to-day as the inspired Word of God than foryears; and all because they have tested it and it has stood the test. Second: A better day of prayer is dawning. Fifty thousand people inGreat Britain are banded together to pray and to pray until theblessing comes if that be for years. Oh, that God would teach us topray! We do not half understand what it means to ask God for blessings. A story of prayer which would seem impossible if I did not know it tobe true, for I have friends who have been in the town where it occurredand have met the descendants of the old sea captain, is the story ofthe captain who took his boy and others to fish and in the midst of thehurricane the boy was washed over board. Broken-hearted, he returnedto the shore and the fisher wife, as was her custom, came down to meetthem, only to sob her way back to her home because her boy was gone. They spent the night in the kirk in prayer, when the minister said, "Why not ask God to restore his body?" and they did. They put out tosea and journeyed sixty miles until he told them to stop and when theylet over the grappling hooks they knew by the very tug of the rope thatthey had his body. They bore it back again to the broken-heartedcaptain and his wife, who had all the time been waiting in the kirk inprayer. May God teach us how to pray! A brighter day is dawning, and while it may be that some of us cannotsee it, while there may be skeptics who say it is not exactly true, yetI know from what I have seen myself that the darkness is passing away. In June, 1897, the steamer Catalonia at ten o'clock at night was foundto be on fire. One of my friends has told me that he paced the deckand considered himself lost because the flames were burning fiercely. Finally the fire was under control and the people sang, "Praise Godfrom whom all blessings flow. " Telling me of the lessons that helearned on this awful journey, he said: "That night at twelve o'clock, when the pumps were being forced and the clouds of smoke were taking onnew dimensions and we were wondering what the morning would bring us, the man on the bridge shouted, as he had at each midnight of the trip, 'Eight bells, all's well!'" Had the man down in a stateroom watchingby the side of his sick wife heard the words, he might have said, "It'sa falsehood, " but that man's vision was restricted by the narrow wallsof his stateroom. Had the mother and daughter, sitting in the cabin, with their arms about each other, wondering why they had been allowedto sail on the Catalonia and leave their loved ones behind, heard it, they might have said, "The man is beside himself, " but they could notsee beyond the cabin. Had the lonely traveler who stood near thehatchway given it a thought he might have said, "It's a lie, " but hecould not see through the clouds of smoke at which he stared silently. But the vision of the watch swept the horizon, and there was noobstruction in the ship's path. He knew that each revolution of theCatalonia's machinery pushed the ship on her way to Queenstown. He hada right to say it. I somehow seem to hear the sound of the goings in the tops of the treesand have evidence that God is coming to his church with blessing. Itis true there is in some quarters indifference, in many placesworldliness, but I can see no insurmountable barrier in the way of theprogress of the Kingdom of God. AN OBSCURED VISION (Preached at the opening of the Winona Lake Bible Conference. ) TEXT: "_Where there is no vision, the people perish. _"--Proverbs 29:18. It is not altogether an easy matter to secure a text for such anoccasion as this; not because the texts are so few in number but ratherbecause they are so many, for one has only to turn over the pages ofthe Bible in the most casual way to find them facing him at everyreading. Feeling the need of advice for such a time as this, I asked a number ofmy friends who knew me intimately and knew the occasion which wasbefore me to suggest what in their minds would be an appropriateScripture, and in their suggestions I have had the most singularindication of the leading of Providence. One said, "Use Hosea 5:4, where God in speaking concerning his peopleIsrael says, 'They will not frame their doings, '" which means that hispeople would not set before themselves the way in which they weregoing; or it might mean that they would not set up a plan for theirlives which would be according to his will and which he might bring onto completion. Another said, "Use Genesis 26:18, " where we are told that Isaac diggedagain the wells of his father Abraham. This is a suggestive incidentand has in it a message for to-day, for if there is one thing neededmore than another it is that the old wells at which our fathers drankand were refreshed and which, alas! in these modern times have beenfilled in, at least to a certain extent, should be opened and men besummoned once again to drink of their living waters. Another said, "Use Jeremiah 6:16, 'Ask for the old paths;'" for as amatter of fact we cannot improve upon the ways in which our fatherswalked, so far as the revelation of God is concerned or the doing ofhis will. Still another suggested that I should use Isaiah 62:10, "Gather out thestones, lift up a standard for the people, " in which the description isof a great prince coming and all hindrances should be removed that thejourney might be robbed of its difficulties and dangers. You will notice if you have watched the suggestions of these Christianworkers that the texts are practically all the same, and then when Itell you that the line of thought they have indicated was the very linewhich God suggested to me weeks and months before the conference youwill be impressed as I have been that this subject is not of my ownchoosing, and therefore must be a message from God. Neither is thetext one of my own choosing, for God pressed it in upon me again andagain and from it I was afraid to turn away. I like the text because it is in the book of Proverbs. This book isnot simply a collection of wise sayings and affectionate exhortations, for you will remember that the Proverbs were put down after the eventand not before its occurrence. This being true, Proverbs presents anestablished fact: here we find what the wise men in all the ages havelearned to be truth. If they speak of sin and its penalty they do itin the light of their own experience; if they say the fear of the Lordis the beginning of knowledge they mean that they have tried othersources of wisdom and all have failed but this. All this makes thetext exceedingly valuable, for the wise men of other days must havetried to walk without the vision and not only failed themselves buthave set the people astray. By a vision we do not mean simply an imagination or dream which mightcome to some person who had little practical understanding of the waysof life, but we mean an appreciation of God's thought and approximateunderstanding of his plan and a desire to know his will. The word "perish, " does not mean destruction, but rather the idea is to"run wild"; so the literal rendering of the text is, "Where there is norevelation the people run wild"--that is to say, if God is put out ofthought every man is a law unto himself and therefore is dangerous tothe community in which he lives. He is like a ship sailing for aharbor without chart or compass and with utter indifference to the polestar. Whatever your impressions, convictions or purposes, they shouldalways be squared by reverent, careful and profound study of God's willand word. The first sentence of the Bible is this, "In the beginning God, " and itmust be the first sentence of every plan and of every purpose of theindividual and the community or there is danger ahead. I There ought never to be an age without a vision, indeed withoutrepeated visions. If there should be such a time it might be a time ofprosperity, but inevitably souls would be neglected. There ought notto be an individual without a vision. If there should be such an onehe is missing the best of his life. If there be no vision the horizonof man may be bounded by his office, his store, his home, his own cityor his native land, while as a matter of fact this is only a part ofwhat God meant him to do and to be. God's plans are from everlastingto everlasting. The wonderful work he is doing in this world is only apart of the plan, for in the ages to come he expects to show forth themanysidedness of his grace and reveal to us the depth of his love to usin Christ. John McNeill's friend had an eagle which he had reared in the farm yardwith the ordinary fowl that lived there. This friend sold his propertyand determined to move to another part of Scotland. He could disposeof his horses and sell his chickens but no one wanted the eagle. Whatshould he do with it? He determined to teach it to fly, and threw itup in the air only to have it come down with a thud upon the ground. Then he lifted it and placed it upon the barn yard fence and washolding it for a moment when suddenly the eagle lifted its eyes andcaught a glimpse of the sun. It stretched forth its head as far as itcould, threw out one wing, then another, and with a scream and a boundwas away flying upward until it was lost in the face of the sun. Thisis what we are needing to-day--namely, to lift up our eyes and seeGod's plan and try to understand his purposes. The eagle so long hadheld its head down that it had lost the vision of the sun; the firstglimpse of it set him free. What we mean by a vision, therefore, is anappreciation of God's purposes and plans and a hearty yielding to himfor service in the accomplishment of the same. Joseph Cook when he was making a plea for China's millions said oneday, "Put your ear down to the ground and listen and you will hear thetramp, tramp, tramp of four hundred millions of weary feet. " I have tosay this morning, Lift up your eyes and look, open your ears and listenand you will both see and hear that God has a great plan for us whichhe will reveal to all if only we will permit him to do so. Inproportion as a people loses its faith in a revelation from God itfalls into decay. The student of history recalls vividly the story ofthe French Revolution, which is a proof of this statement. God has always spoken concerning his plans and it has been to livingmen and women that he has granted visions. He came to Abraham and hesaw Christ's day and was glad: he visited Moses and he endured asseeing him who is invisible: he was lifted up before Isaiah and hefirst confessed his sin and shame, then cried, "Here am I, send me. "He granted Saul of Tarsus a vision of himself as he approached Damascusuntil he cried, "Who art thou?" and then began to walk in fellowshipwith him until like the hero that he was he mounted from the EternalCity to that City which has foundations whose Builder and Maker is God. He stood before John as in apocalyptic vision he saw him with his headand his hair, white like wool, as white as snow and his eyes as a flameof fire. But if you should say, "Oh, yes, but this is in Bible times and we areliving in a different age, " then hear me when I say that he has come toliving men and women in our own day with a revelation of his will. Hespoke to Zinzendorf and we have a mighty work among the Moravians. Herevealed himself to the Wesleys and we have the mighty movement ofMethodism. He talked with Edwards and we have the great Revival of NewEngland. He revealed himself to Finney and we have the greatmanifestation of power in the state of New York. He walked and talkedwith Moody and we have the greatest evangelistic work of his day andgeneration with Moody as his instrument. These were all men withvisions. He has come to great missionaries like Paton who saw the NewHebrides Islands evangelized while yet they sat in darkness, because hesaw God. He has spoken to our own Fulton in China, who writes that thepeople are flocking to Christ. To him it is no surprise, for he knewthat they would do it while others were still skeptical. He knew itbecause he knew God. Let us remember that, however true it may be that God speaks inconscience, providence, through the church and by the preaching of hisWord, his supreme revelation is in his own Word. This Book containsthe revealed will of God and this Book is his Word. II Why are we not having revelations to-day as we know they have beengiven at other times? Why is not some one in our own land especiallyworking out some of the great plans and purposes of God? The questionis easily answered. The difficulty is not with God. He is the sameforever. We alone must be at fault. Without any spirit of harshcriticism and with a prayer to God that he will make my spirit as hewould have it, permit me to say that I fear the visions are not beinggiven to us for the following reasons: First: Because of the disrespect shown to his Son. We have come to atime when men seek to limit his knowledge, and occasionally they aresaying that he did not know concerning the things of which he spake. Such blasphemy makes us shudder. There is a disposition tomisinterpret his teaching. They did it in Paul's day and he spoke byinspiration when he said, "If any man present another gospel than thatwhich I have presented let him be accursed. " There is a disposition torob him of his deity. "Is Jesus divine?" was the question asked notlong ago of one who called himself a minister, and he answered, "Yes, in the sense that Buddha is divine or Confucius is divine. " Our facesgrow white with fear as we listen to such blasphemous statements insuch an age as this. This helps to overcast the sky and God can hardlytrust us with a vision in such an atmosphere. Second: An irreverent criticism of the Word of God. That there is areverent criticism all will allow, and that many who are walking thesepaths are devout believers in God and in his word I would like to beamong the first to acknowledge. There are three kinds of criticsto-day. First: Those who honestly want the best and who are studyingcarefully and prayerfully to know the truth. Second: Those who apescholarship. Third: Those whose lives may not be right, and for themif any part of the Bible could be cut away they would be lesscondemned. We need not fear, however; our Bible is not in danger, forthis is largely a question of scholarship. Some of you who listen tome may not class yourselves as scholars. I certainly do not put myselfin that company, but one thing I know: I have seen the Bible work as noother book has ever worked, and I have seen Jesus Christ savemiraculously multitudes of poor lost sinners. I am not disturbed forthe future; there are as great scholars as the world has ever known whostill hold to your mother's Bible and who have lost not one whit ofconfidence in it. Thomas Newberry, a devout English student, spent fifty years in studyto give the world his Newberry Bible. He said, "I accept the theory ofthe plenary inspiration of the Scriptures. I have studied every 'jotand tittle' of the Word of God and after these fifty years I see noreason for changing my position. " Scholars' names almost withoutnumber could be mentioned as believing in the Scriptures as thedivinely inspired Word of God. For myself I would have great assurancein standing side by side with Dr. Paton, and I would not think oftrembling so long as our sainted Dr. Moorehead walks courageously alonglife's journey as he nears its end with faith in God's Word unshaken, with confidence in God's Son constantly growing. This blessed old Bookhas been railed at in all the ages. Men have professed to overthrowit, they have cut and slashed at it like Jehoiakim of old, but it isbetter than ever to-day. It is the Word of God. Heaven and earth maypass away but this Word, never. Not long ago I attended a conference of Christian workers and was toldby one of them that I could not appreciate the Bible except I read itwith the thought of literary criticism in mind. My friend interpreteda portion of the Word of God for me in this way and it was beautiful. It reminded me of nothing so much as a diamond perfectly cut, kissed bythe sunlight and throwing back its sparkling light to me as I gazedupon it. Another said that I would never be able to understand the Bible until Iread it from the standpoint of the elocutionist in the best use of thatexpression, and he read in my hearing the story of Joseph and hisbrethren and I felt that I myself had never read the Bible before andreally had never heard it read. Still another came with his higher criticism and said that much of theBible was mythical, that the stories I had loved were simplyallegorical; and I listened to him and went back to my Bible to read, only to find that you may read it any way, spell it out in your youthletter by letter, read it through your tears as you reach middle lifeand your heart is aching, hold it against your heart when your eyes aretoo dim to read its pages, and it will yield to you a sweetness whichis actually beyond the power of man to describe. This is a wonderfulBook and in this Book God reveals himself. Handle it irreverently andyou will have no vision. Third: It seems to me that the church is not what she ought to be, andthis being true the vision is denied. One of my friends said the otherday that the difficulty with the church is that she has lost herinterrogation point. At the day of Pentecost people were saying, "Whatdo these things mean?" To-day they never think of saying it. I havebeen told in a little pamphlet issued by an English writer that thechurch has lost her possessive case, which means that somehow she hasgone on without realizing that the risen, glorified Christ is herblessed Lord. It is a great thing to say "Jesus"; infinitely greateris it to say "My Jesus. " The church has lost her imperative mode. Indays that are past it was possible for the church to stand in thepresence of evil and say, "In the name of Almighty God this iniquitymust stop. " But to-day it is not possible. The church has lost herpresent tense. We are constantly looking for blessings in the future. God's promises are all written for the present. It is to the church onfire that God grants a vision. Fourth: Some of the difficulty must rest with us as ministers of theGospel. I fear that some of us have lost our message. It has loosenedits grip upon us, and you never can move another man until you arefirst moved yourself by the message you would give to him. At a great gathering not long ago I heard a distinguished Easternprofessor speaking. The topic of his lecture was "My Foster Children, "and these foster children were some animals which he had had as pets, whose habits he had carefully studied. One was a Gila monster from theplains of Arizona, another was a horned owl, the third was a rat, andthe fourth was an opossum. If you can imagine more uninterestingsubjects than these you are more imaginative than myself, and yet hethrilled me and held three thousand people in breathless interest. Oh, my brethren, if I believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and as aSavior able not only to save to the uttermost but to keep througheternity, and that message grips me, I am a poor preacher if I failwith it to grip and move other men. I fear we have lost our boldness. I am a minister of the glorious Gospel of the grace of God and I have aright to demand a hearing and to give my message, not because of what Iam myself--God forbid--but because of what my Savior is. Some of ushave lost our passion for souls; we mourn over it, we know that when weonce had this it was the secret of a successful ministry. It is notwrong for me to say to you this morning that to the minister without amessage, to the minister who has lost his holy boldness, to theminister who has anything less than a burning passion for souls, Godcannot give his vision. III I know that I have your deepest sympathy in the longing which I nowexpress for this great gathering--namely, that God would give to us avision. First: As to what the Bible really is. One of my friends told me theother day of a blind girl who could not read because she had been toobusy and somehow had not thought that she could use the raised letterswhich have been such a boon to God's blind children. I am told shelearned that she might read while on these grounds last summer. It wasmade possible later on for her to have a teacher and she began to studylittle books until she could read quite fluently. One day unknown toher there was brought into her home a Bible with raised letters andwithout telling what the book was it was opened at the fourteenthchapter of John and she was bidden to read in it. She had no soonertouched the page, her fingers enabling her to read, "Let not your heartbe troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me, " than with radiantface she exclaimed, "Why this is God's Word; the very touch of it isdifferent. " I would that we might have this vision. Second: I wish that we might have a vision of Christ. He is thechiefest among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely. He is amighty Savior and a mighty helper. I cannot bring him a burden toogreat, nor talk to him about a trial too insignificant. Oh, that wemight see him as he is! And finally, I wish that we might know what service is, for knowingthis we would be instant in season and out of season. Some years agoFannie Crosby, the blind hymn writer, was speaking in one of themissions in New York City. Suddenly she stopped and said, "I wonder ifthere is not some wandering boy in this audience this evening who wouldhave the courage to step out from this audience and come up and standby my side so that I might put my arms around him and kiss him for hismother?" There was a hush upon the audience; then a boy from the rearseat started and came to the platform, and with her arms around abouthim and her lips against his cheek for his mother's sake, Fannie Crosbysaid, "Oh, my friends, let us rescue the perishing. " From this meetingshe went to her home, and sitting in her room wrote: "Rescue the perishing, Care for the dying, Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave, Weep o'er the erring one, Lift up the fallen, Tell them of Jesus, the Mighty to save. " Years afterward she spoke in St. Louis at a great meeting and relatedthis incident. Before she had finished a man in the audience sprang tohis feet and said, "Miss Crosby, listen to me. I am a prosperousmerchant in this city, a husband and a father, a Christian and anofficer in the church. I was that boy around whom you threw yourarms. " Such an experience as that is worth a lifetime of service. Iwish to put myself on record. I know that many of you are with me. Istand for nothing in these days that would in the least obscure men'svision of the power of God, or their vision of the glorious majesty ofthe Son of God, and I count nothing worth while except to do that thingwhich would mean the winning of a soul to Jesus Christ. I believe God is giving to some men in these days a vision as to whatmay be accomplished if only a mighty work of grace should be given tous. He certainly is ready to pour out his Spirit upon his own people, and it is only necessary that we should first of all realize ourweakness, then understand his power, realize that souls are lost anddying and then know that he is able to save to the uttermost; and aboveall to realize that in all ages he has used human instruments for theaccomplishment of his purposes, and realizing these things to see thatour lives are right in his sight, to have such a victory for God as theworld has never seen. For this day we hope and pray and cry aloud, "OLord, how long, how long?" THE COMPASSION OF JESUS TEXT: "_But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved withcompassion. _"--Matt. 9:36. The keynote of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ was "compassion. "You have but to follow him in his journeys by day and by night to findthe proof of this statement. Whether he ministers to the sick of thepalsy, turns aside to help the father whose child is dead, heals thewoman with the issue of blood, drives away the leprosy from the mandead by law, stops to open the eyes of the blind man by the wayside, helps the beggar or wins the member of the Sanhedrim, he is always thesame. If you journey with him in the morning on the shores of the Sea ofGalilee, or at noon rest with him as he sits on the well curb ofJacob's well; it you stop with him in the evening as he bares his sideand thrusts forth his hand to the doubting Thomas, or behold him as heis roused from his sleep in the boat to quiet the storm; if you studyhim on the mountain side at midnight or behold him in the garden ofGethsemane when no one beholds his agony but the eye of his Father--youwill learn that he was always compassionate. You cannot discover himunder any circumstances when this statement is not true of him. This ninth chapter of Matthew is indeed remarkable. It can beappreciated only when we read the closing part of the eighth chapter, for it is here that the people, angry because of the destruction of theswine, besought him to leave their country; and it is here we see himtaking his departure. Men have since that time driven him from theirhearts and their homes for reasons quite as trifling. It is a sadthing to know that any one can drive him away if he chooses to do so. The chapter is remarkable, however, because here we not only read thestory of the calling of Matthew from his position of influence, butfind more specific cases of healing than in most other chapters of theNew Testament. There is the healing of the sick of the palsy in thesecond verse, the significant part of which is he was healed when Jesussaw _their_ faith; the picture of the father whose child was dead andthen raised by him, in the eighteenth verse and the twenty-fifth verse;the account of the woman with the issue of blood, in the twentiethverse, and the picture of discouragement when all earthly physicianshad failed changed into great joy when the virtue of the greatphysician healed her: the account of the dumb man, in the thirty-secondverse, who was possessed of a devil as well; and then in thethirty-fifth verse a general statement concerning him to the effectthat he healed all manner of diseases. The chapter is also remarkable because these cases presented to Jesuswere of the very worst sort. The man with the palsy could not comehimself, however much he wanted to do so, and four men were required tobring him; the child was dead and so beyond all human help; the twoblind men were undoubtedly beggars and outcasts; the dumb man waspossessed of a devil in addition to his dumbness; the group of peoplewho were subjects of his healing power had every manner of disease, butwhile the people were different and the cases were desperate, Jesus wasalways the same. There were six specific illustrations of healing: three of these cameto Jesus for themselves, the two blind men and the woman; two otherswere brought to him, the man sick with the palsy and the man who wasdumb; and for the other case the father came and took Jesus to thechild. In all the general cases Jesus went himself to the suffering. When all these subjects have been presented then comes the text, whichis its own outline. There is first the picture of the multitudes, agreat number of people. Then the statement that they had fainted;literally it is, "they were tired. " Then they were described as sheep, the only animal known which in its wandering cannot find its way homeof itself. And finally it was stated that they had no shepherd, theresponsibility for their wandering resting upon others rather than uponthemselves. This is the outline of this message. I The picture which Jesus beheld as he walked through his own country isrepeated to-day on every side of us, and he is still moved withcompassion because of those who are helpless and undone. It is true wehave done something for him. The last census shows that the membershipof the Protestant churches has increased more rapidly than thepopulation. For this we should be thankful. It is also true that thechurch machinery of the day is well nigh perfect: the buildings andequipment with which we have to do have never been excelled. Yet, counting the membership of both the Catholic and Protestant churches, there are forty million people to-day in our land who are not in thechurch and who evidently do not care for the church. With these peoplethere seems to be a growing indifference to everything that isspiritual. A man in an apartment house in New York, when asked the other day to dosomething for a poor family for the sake of God, answeredblasphemously, "I do not care for the opinion of men, I do not evencare for God himself; I am for myself first, last and all the time. "As we walk the streets we ought to be impressed with the fact that menon every side of us are lost in the proportion of one to four. As wesit in a car we ought to be impressed with the fact that one in fourhave rejected Christ and are hopeless. In every city it is literallytrue that there are thousands of unchurched people without God andwithout hope in the world. Of them the text would be true. "But whenhe saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion. " II When Jesus saw these multitudes he saw them fainting or literally"growing tired, " and this is the picture of lost people to-day. I ampersuaded that they are tired of many things which follow in the wakeof sin. 1. They must be weary of the hollowness of the world, for it cannotsatisfy. I one day talked with a woman in Massachusetts whoseopportunity to mingle with the so-called best people of the world hadbeen unexcelled. She had been a chosen and welcomed guest in the homesof royalty and knew intimately every President of the United Statessince she had grown to womanhood. After her conversion I asked her ifthe life of the world had satisfied; her answer was, "It is hollownessand sham almost from beginning to end. " 2. The unchurched people must be weary of an accusing conscience. There is no unrest like it. The man who sees the folly of his conductand whose conscience will not let him sleep, the man who realizes theblighting power of sin and yet seems powerless to heed the call ofconscience, is in a pitiful condition. "And I know of the future judgment, How dreadful so'er it may be, That to sit alone with my conscience Would be judgment enough for me. " 3. They must be tired of the world's sorrow, for it is on every side. We are born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward and I cannot butthink that in all parts of our cities to-day the people away fromChrist are saying, "Oh, that I knew where peace might be found. " 4. I know they are tired of the slavery of Satan. A man formerlyprominent in social and political circles, the cashier of a bank, whenhe found that he was a defaulter took his own life and left a letterfor his wife in which he said, "Oh, if some one had only spoken to mewhen I so much needed help all this might have been different. " III In the Old Testament and New, God's people are represented by thefigure of sheep. Especially it seems to me this must be a good figure, because sheep when wandering find it impossible to seek again forthemselves their home, and in their helplessness they fittinglyrepresent the one who wanders away from God. There are so many peopleto-day who are trying to find their way back without Christ. They arelike wandering sheep. There are so many who are seeking to climb upsome other way into the favor of God. These are on every side of us, and the time has come for us to present unto them Jesus Christ theSavior of the world. IV These people that Jesus saw were shepherdless. The responsibility fortheir wandering therefore rested not so much upon themselves as uponthe fact that the one who should have cared for them was not doing so. We are our brother's keeper, whether we are willing to acknowledge itor not. In meetings in California one of the ministers went forth during theweek to invite those who were away from Christ to come to him. Hefound an old white-haired soldier who said, "When I was in the armyyears ago I promised God that I would be a Christian. I have neverkept my word. Yes, I will come to him now. " And when he came his wifeand children came with him. "All these years, " he said, "I have waitedfor some one to ask me. " He called upon another man who had beenimpressed in the meetings and this man acknowledged that he had longfelt his need of help, that he had prayed the night before, "O God, ifyou want me to come to thee send some one to speak to me. " When theminister came the man trembled when he said, "You must be the messengerof God for whom I have been waiting, " and he came beautifully toChrist. On every side of us people are waiting as sheep without ashepherd for us simply to do our duty. V The result of this vision which Jesus had was that he did an unusualthing. In the tenth chapter and the first verse we read, "And when hehad called unto him his twelve disciples he gave them power againstunclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sicknessand all manner of disease. " Which leads me to say that we must havethe same spirit. Our present day church methods reach not more thanone-fourth the unsaved and many of these come from the ranks of ourSunday schools and from Christian homes where for one reason or anotherthey have not made a profession of their faith in Christ. Three-fourths of the lost are left to wander farther and farther awaysimply because they will not yield to our present day church methods. This is not as Jesus would have it. In the twenty-first chapter of John the fifth and sixth verses we read, "Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answeredhim, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of theship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were notable to draw it for the multitudes of fishes. " Although thesedisciples had toiled and taken nothing the results were all changedwhen they cast their net on the right side of the boat. May it not bethat we have been fishing on the wrong side or fishing in our ownstrength, or, as some one has said, fishing in too shallow water, whenwe should have been casting our nets in the deep? The fact is, we needhim and without him we can do nothing. I have been told that of the forty distinct cases of healing in the NewTestament only six came to Jesus by themselves. Twenty were brought toJesus and to the fourteen others Jesus was taken. I doubt not that theproportion is the same to-day, and if it is true then our methods ofwork must be changed and instead of praying for them to seek Jesus wemust either take them to Jesus or bring the Master into their company. There can be no successful winning of the multitudes until the personalelement enters into it all. 1. There must be prayer. When Jacob went forth to meet Esau he walkedwith fear and trembling, but in Genesis thirty-second chapter andtwenty-eighth verse we read, "And he said, Thy name shall be called nomore Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince hast thou power with God andwith men, and hast prevailed, " so that long before Esau was met victorywas won. There must be no attempt to win the lost without first of allwe have gained an audience with God in prayer, and if we pray as weought to pray he will give us the assurance of victory before we startupon our mission. 2. There must be personal contact. It is said that a man recently wentinto a jewelry store to buy an opal and rejected all that werepresented to him. One of them he rejected instantly. The salesmanpicked it up and closed it in his hand and finally in a casual wayopened his hand and placed the opal upon the counter. "Why, " said thecustomer, "that is the opal I want. I have never seen anything finer, "and yet he had rejected it first. The salesman told him that it was asensitive opal and needed the touch of a human hand before it couldreveal its beauty. Oh, how many souls there are like this in the world! I have read that when Robert Louis Stevenson visited the island of thelepers where Father Damien did his illustrious work he played croquetwith the children, using the same mallets that they used; and when itwas suggested that he put gloves upon his hands he refused to do sobecause, he said, "it will remind them the more of the differencebetween us. " This spirit must prevail in our work if we are to winsouls. Two things we may do to reach the lost. (1) Speak to them. The power of human speech is simply marvelous. ASunday school boy appeared in a Baptist Church to apply for membershipand when they asked him about his conversion he said, "My Sunday schoolteacher took me for a walk one Sunday in Prospect Park and talked withme about Jesus and I gave myself to him. " One of the officers of mychurch when an unsaved man was asked by his minister to attend specialservices in the church and then was urged by his wife to go with her. Both invitations were angrily declined. He at last agreed to escorther to the church but not to enter in. The biting cold wind of thenight drove him into the church and he was just in time to hear theminister's appeal to the unsaved. All were asked to lift their handswho would know Christ and then he remembered that when he was a boy andhad been drowning in Lake George he lifted up his hand as high as hecould and his brother took hold of it and kept him from sinking. Suddenly it came to him in the church that he was sinking in anotherway, and instantly he raised his hand and Christ took hold of it. I donot know of a more godly man among all my list of friends than he; andhe says to-day that the invitation given to him and refused with angerled him to Christ. (2) Write. The chief justice of the supreme court of a western statewas not a Christian until a few years ago. He was a genial, kindlyman, and naturally a great lawyer, but he had never confessed Christ ashis Savior, and apparently had little real interest in the church. Oneday the pastor of the Presbyterian church determined that he wouldwrite him a letter, and then decided that so great a man would notreceive his communication and destroyed it. But the pastor's wife hadmore faith and urged him to write again. He did so, and sent thesecond letter and forwarded with it Spurgeon's "All of Grace. " Hereceived word almost instantly that the chief justice had been deeplyimpressed, and that as a matter of fact he was waiting for years forsome one to speak to him. The letter moved him and the little bookgave him the instructions needed. To-day he is one of the brightestChristians I know. His face is a benediction. He said to me one daythat it was a wonderful thing to be a Christian; that he never allowedany one to meet him that he did not talk with him about his soul. Arethere not hundreds and thousands of other men waiting, as the chiefjustice waited, for some one to speak or write? 3. There must be a personal consecration not only to Christ but to thework if we would be successful. The biography of Helen Kellar[Transcriber's note: Keller?], who was released from her imprisonmentby the devotion of her teacher, is an illustration along this line. This teacher must go to this girl sitting in darkness and describe toher the commonest objects of every-day life. She told her about water, heat and cold and when something hurt her she told her with thelanguage of touch that she loved her and Helen Kellar [Transcriber'snote: Keller?] answered back, "I love you, too. " The devotion of thisteacher brought this noble soul to light and power. A work like thisawaits many of us in bringing the lost to Christ. When Elisha went down to raise the Shunammite's boy he put his eyes tothe eyes of the boy, his hands to the boy's hands and his mouth to hismouth. Something like this we must do. We have friends who possesseyes and see not, we must have eyes for them; they have lips and speaknot, we must speak to God for them; they have hands and reach them notout after God, and we must have faith for them. In other words, wemust not let them go away from Christ. Such a spirit as this pleasesGod and such a spirit saves our friends. A friend told me that withthe ship's surgeon of a vessel he once crossed the sea. He said thedoctor told him that one day a boy fell overboard and was rescued butthe case seemed hopeless. The ship's surgeon casually passing alongthe deck said to those who labored with him, "I think you can donothing more; you have done all that is possible, " and then curiosityled him to look at the boy for himself. Instantly his whole spirit waschanged. He blew into his nostrils, breathed into his mouth, beggedGod to spare him, labored for four hours with him before he could bringhim back to life, for the boy was his own boy. What if we should nothave this spirit with the lost! "If grief in Heaven could find a place, Or shame the worshiper bow down, Who meets the Savior face to face, 'Twould be to wear a starless crown. " But on the other hand, what if we should simply be faithful? Then maythe following be true of us: "Perhaps in Heaven, some day, to me Some sainted one shall come and say, All hail, beloved, but for thee My soul to death had fallen a prey. And, oh, the rapture of the thought, One soul to glory to have brought. " General Booth of the Salvation Army describes a vessel making its wayhome from the Australian gold fields. The miners had struggled to getrich and at last every man had around about him his belt of gold. Theship lost her way in the ocean and, set out of her course, suddenlycrashed upon the rocks of an island near by. Almost instantly shesank. As one miner stood looking at the shore he knew that he wasstrong enough as a swimmer to save his gold and save his own life; butas he was about to throw himself into the sea a little girl whosemother and father had been washed overboard came over to him to say, "Oh, sir, can you not save me?" It was then a choice between the childand the gold. The struggle was terrific but at last the gold wasthrown aside, the child fastened to his body and he struggled throughthe waves until he fell exhausted and fainting upon the shore. Thegreat Salvation Army officer says that when this strong man came tohimself the little child was by his side. Throwing her arms about hisneck she exclaimed with sobs, "Oh, sir, I am so glad you saved me. ""That was worth more to him than the gold, " said General Booth. And ifin heaven some day upon the streets of gold we shall meet just oneredeemed soul who was once lost and in the darkness, and we know thatthat one soul is there because we were true, the streets of gold willbe better, the gates of pearl will be brighter, the many mansions morebeautiful, the music sweeter, and, if such a thing were possible, thevision of Christ more entrancing. Certainly it would be thrilling tohear him say to us, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto these little ones yedid it unto me. " SANCTIFICATION TEXT: "_This is the will of God, even your sanctification. _"--1 Thess. 4:3. It is quite significant that the Apostle Paul writes explicitlyconcerning sanctification to a church in which he had such delight thathe could write as follows: "Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the Church of theThessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace beunto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of everyone of you all toward each other aboundeth; so that we ourselves gloryin you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all yourpersecutions and tribulations that ye endure: which is a manifest tokenof the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of thekingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: seeing it is a righteousthing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; andto you who are troubled rest with us; when the Lord Jesus shall berevealed from heaven with his mighty angels. In flaming fire takingvengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel ofour Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with ever-lastingdestruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of hispower; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to beadmired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you wasbelieved) in that day" (2 Thessalonians 1:1-10). No higher commendation than this could be paid to any followers of theLord Jesus Christ, and yet unto such a people we find him saying, "Thisis the will of God, even your sanctification. " It reminds us of that other scene in the New Testament when Nicodemuscomes to Jesus by night. He was a member of the Sanhedrim, he was inthe truest sense of the word a moral man, and yet Jesus, knowing allthis, deliberately looked into his face and said with emphasis, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and ofthe Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is bornof the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again" (John 3:5-7). Both of these statements lead us to believe that God's requirements forhis people are very high. These we may not attain unto at all in ourown strength or the energy of our flesh or because of any inheritedrighteousness which we may possess. There is no way to reach hisstandard except by complete identity with Christ; and this is madepossible by means of faith. To know the will of God concerning anything is a great satisfaction. It is like food to our souls if we can say with Jesus, "My meat is todo God's will. " It is an indescribable pleasure if we can say with theSon of God, "I delight to do thy will. " It is the key to the highestform of knowledge, for we have found it true that "he that doeth thewill of God shall know of the doctrine. " It is the promise of eternallife, for we are told in God's Word, "He that doeth the will of Godabideth forever. " There is possibly no place where God's will for usis more clearly stated than in this text. Sometimes we may know hiswill by praying. How often revelations have come thus to us as if fromthe very skies concerning his desires for us! We may know it sometimesby thinking. If one would but yield his mind perfectly to God in hisprovidences as well as in his word he would know God's will concerninghim. We may know it sometimes by talking to others, for notinfrequently God gives a revelation to one child of his for theguidance of another's life. But in this connection it is mostdefinitely stated, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification. "And the Apostle emphasizes his words, First: By the use of the most affectionate expression, "Furthermorethen we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, thatas ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so yewould abound more and more" (1 Thessalonians 4:1). Second: He speaks on the authority of Jesus himself. "For ye know whatcommandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 4:2). Third: He emphasizes it by referring to the second coming of our Lord, for he well knew that if one was looking for the appearing of the Sonof God he would turn away from fleshly lusts and abstain from thatwhich was unclean, thus encouraging the work of sanctification. TheApostle Paul says to the Thessalonians after he has clearly set beforethem God's will concerning their living, "But I would not have you tobe ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrownot, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesusdied and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will Godbring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, thatwe which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall notprevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend fromheaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpof God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which arealive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians4:13-14). It was not enough for them, in his judgment, to abide in thefaith; they must abound in the works of the Gospel. To talk wellwithout walking well is not pleasing to God, for the character of theChristian is thus described, "He walks not after the flesh but afterthe Spirit. " The presentation of this subject impresses upon us the fact that wehave lost many of the best words in the Bible because they have beenmisused and their teaching misapprehended. If you speak of holinessmen look askance at you, and yet holiness is simply wholeness orhealthfulness and is to the soul what health is to the body. Who, then, would be without it? If you speak of sanctification immediatelyyour hearers imagine you are talking concerning sinlessness, and yetthere is no better word in the Scriptures than sanctification, for inone way it means separation from sin, in another way it means anincreasing likeness to Christ. There are six particular effects offaith. First: There is union with Christ. It is true that we were chosen inhim before the foundation of the world and that we are an elect people, but it is also true that we are by nature the children of wrath and itis necessary that we should make a deliberate choice of him as aSavior. When by faith we have taken Christ as a Savior we are unitedto him. Faith is counting that which seems unreal as real, as untrueas true and that which seems not to exist as if it existed. Faithunites us to him. Without him we are as nothing. Second: Justification. "There is therefore now no condemnation to themwhich are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after theSpirit" (Romans 8:1). "He that believeth on him is not condemned; buthe that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath notbelieved in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18). Aswe believe in Christ we are clothed with his righteousness. Whether wecan explain it or not, this righteousness answers every demand of God'sjustice. Thus it is that Romans the eighth chapter the thirty-thirdand the thirty-fourth verses becomes true for us. Let it be noticed, however, that in both of these verses the two words, "_it_, " and "_is_"are in italics, which would indicate that they were not in theoriginal. Concerning those who are justified, therefore, the verseswould read as follows: "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God'select. " The rest of the verse is a question, "God that justifieth?"The thirty-fourth verse reads, "Who is he that condemneth?" and theanswer is a question, "Christ that died, yea rather that is risenagain, who is even at the right hand of God who also makethintercession for us?" and Paul here simply means to say that if God canlay nothing to our charge and Christ would not condemn us then we arefree, and justification at least to the layman carries with it thisthought: 1. The justified man stands as if he had not sinned at all. His recordis clean. 2. The debt which sin had incurred is paid and instead of being afraidand trembling at the thought of sin we sing with rejoicing, "Jesus paidit all, all to him I owe. " Third: Participation of his life. Paul writes to the Galatians, "Ilive, and yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. " And in the fifteenthchapter of John the first six verses we read, "I am the true vine, andmy Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruithe taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the wordwhich I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As thebranch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; nomore can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are thebranches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forthmuch fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not inme, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. " So faith unites usto him and his life becomes a very part of our being. (a) It is like the principle of grafting. When the branch is graftedinto the tree the life of the tree throbs its way into the branch andultimately there is fruitfulness. If we only could sustain the rightrelations to Christ we would have the cure for worldliness. (b) Because of this participation and privilege we need not beconcerned. I have heard of a man who grafted a branch into a tree andthen went each day to take the graft out to see what progress it hadmade, and the branch died. (c) Our life need not be intermittent--that is, hot to-day and coldto-morrow--but it may be all the time an abundant life; not because ofwhat we are but because of what Christ is. Fourth: Peace. Romans 5:1, "Therefore being justified by faith, wehave peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. " And peace arisesfrom a sense of reconciliation. If faith is strong, then peace isabundant; if it is fitful peace partakes of the same character. Thatman who has faith in Jesus Christ as a personal Savior has thefollowing threefold blessing--first, _Peace with God_; second, _ThePeace of God_; third, _The God of Peace_. Fifth: Sanctification. Acts 26:18, "To open their eyes and to turnthem from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, thatthey may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them whichare sanctified by faith that is in me. " Of this we shall speak more atlength a little later. Sixth: Assurance. This is plainly written in God's word. Notice John3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlastinglife. " And John 5:24, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hearethmy word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, andshall not come into condemnation: but is passed from death unto life. "The entire first Epistle of John also emphasizes the same truth. I Sanctification is therefore entirely by faith. First: By faith we receive the indwelling of the Spirit and he makesChrist real to us. Because Christ is real by faith we may walk withhim; and that man who keeps step with Jesus Christ will find that hehas come day by day to turn away from those things which were formerlyhis defeat. We may also talk with him. That hymn which we sometimessing, "A little talk with Jesus, How it smooths the rugged way, " has been true in the experience of many of us. We may also be soconstantly associated with him that we may find ourselves actually likehim; and to grow like Christ by the power of the Spirit is to have thework of Sanctification carried on. Second: By faith exercised in God the Spirit continues his work. Wehave only to remember the promises of God concerning him, the first ofwhich is that the Spirit is here carrying on his special work in hisparticular dispensation. His second promise is that he is in us if webe children of God, and we need only to yield to his presence day byday to be delivered from the power of sin. His third promise is thathe will take of the things of God and show them unto us. Things whichthe world's people cannot understand he makes plain unto us. "Eye hathnot seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of manto conceive the things which God hath prepared for those who love him, "but the Spirit hath revealed them unto us. The fourth promise is thathe will not leave us. We may resist the Spirit, we may grieve theSpirit, but we will not grieve him away. His power may be greatlylimited in our lives, the work of sanctification under the influence ofhis presence be greatly hindered, but he is with us, "nor height, nordepth, nor any other creature can separate us from him. " Third: By faith we have a vision of things unseen and they become realto us. Faith is to the soul what the eye is to the body. The thingsof God become actually real, and becoming so they are powerful. Underthe influence of this vision temporal things are trifling. TheChristian who is true to his position lives in heaven, breathes itsatmosphere, is pervaded by its spirit and so becomes pure, tender, obedient, loving. No wonder that to these people whose lives were soattractive Paul wrote in the text, "This is the will of God, even yoursanctification. " II Justification and sanctification ought to be compared to appreciate thelatter. The first is an act, the second is a work. We do not grow injustification. There is no distinction between Christians in thisrespect; the smallest child accepting Christ is as truly justified asthe saint of a half century. So far as sanctification is concernedthere is the widest possible difference. Justification depends uponwhat Christ does for us, sanctification depends upon what Christ doesin us. First of all it is a supernatural work. In this respect amongothers it differs from reformation. Henry Drummond has said that inreformation men work from the circumference, in sanctification theywork from the center. The Triune God may really be counted upon as theauthor of this work. In 1 Thessalonians the fifth chapter and thetwenty-third verse we have the work of the Father. "And the very Godof peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and souland body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord JesusChrist. " In Ephesians fifth chapter twenty-fifth and twenty-sixthverses we have the work of the Son. "Husbands, love your wives, evenas Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it; that he mightsanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. " In John the seventeenth chapter and the seventeenth verse we havespecial emphasis laid upon the work of the Spirit. "Sanctify themthrough thy truth; thy word is truth. " What folly, therefore, to thinkthat we could carry on this work by ourselves! Second: Just what, therefore, is this work of sanctification? When weare regenerated we have given to us an entirely new nature. The oldnature and the new are absolutely different; and the old and the newwar one against the other. The Bible is full of the accounts of thosewho have met this inward conflict. Some of the most eminent people inthe world whose names have been mentioned in the Bible and out of ithave told the story of their backsliding, their falling, theirrepentance, and their lamentation because of their weakness. You haveall read the seventh chapter of Romans. Whether this is the story ofPaul's experience or not, it is the story of yours. Galatians thefifth chapter sixteenth and seventeenth verses gives us the samethought. "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall notfulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against thespirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary, theone to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. " Whatis it, therefore? It is just the working day by day of the spirit ofChrist in us. It is the growth of that spiritual nature which after awhile controls our whole being. It is the bringing into subjection ofthe old nature until it has no more dominion over us. After Paul'sstruggle in the seventh chapter of Romans he comes triumphantly to thesecond verse of the eighth chapter of Romans and exclaims, "For the lawof the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law ofsin and death. " III It God is the author, then certain things need to be emphasized. First: We need only to be yielding day by day to his efforts andpresence and power to become more and more sanctified. His life flowsalong the path of least resistance; if there is difficulty with us inthe matter of temper, sharpness of tongue, an impure mind or anunforgiving spirit, give him liberty and the work is complete. Second: We must learn that the least thing may hinder his work in us. It became necessary for me recently to purchase a hayrake. I was toldof two different kinds, one the old-fashioned kind where the prongs ofthe rake must be lifted by hand, the other an automatic arrangementwhere by simply touching the foot to a spring the movement of thewheels would lift the rake at the proper time so that raking hay was adelight. The first day the rake was in the field it was almostimpossible to use it. It was too heavy to lift by hand and the footattachment would not work. We sent for the man who had sold us theimplement. There was just one little part of the attachment missing. Missing that, hard effort was required and poor work was accomplished. It may be that some little thing stands in the way of your blessing, orthe lack of some little thing hinders your usefulness. Third: We have only to remember the law of growth. We do not grow bytrying. Who ever heard of a boy growing in this way? Who ever heardof a doctor who had a prescription for growth? Our effort forChristian growth is just a succession of failures. How many times wehave said, "I am determined to be better; my temper shall never get thebetter of me again"! We are beginning at the wrong end. Instead ofdealing with the symptoms, let us see that we are in right relationswith Christ and he will effect the cure. Let us, therefore, justobserve the right attitude towards Christ and we have the secret. Henry Drummond has said in one of his books that the problem of theChristian life is simply this: "Men must be brought to observe theright attitude. To abide in Christ is to be in right position and thatis all. " Much work is done on board a ship in crossing the Atlantic, yet none of this is spent in making the ship go. The sailor harnesseshis vessel to the wind, he lifts his sail, lays hold of his rudder andthe miracle is wrought. God creates, man utilizes. God gives thewind, the water, the heat, and man lays hold of that which God hasgiven us, holding himself in position by the grace of God, and thepower of omnipotence courses within his soul. IV We are in this world slowly but surely coming to be like Christ. To beChrist-like is one thing--we may be in this way or that--but to be likeChrist is entirely different. Wonderful transformations have beenwrought in this world by education and by culture. I remember when Iwas a lad in Indiana being told of a celebrated Indianapolis physicianwho advertised for the most helpless idiot child and the most hopelesswas brought to him. For weeks and months no impression could be madeupon that child. He used every day to take the child into his parlor, put him down on the floor and then lie beside him with the sunlightstreaming in his face. He said over and over one syllable of a worduntil at last the child caught it, and I remember as a boy seeing thatsame child stand upon a platform, repeat the Lord's Prayer and thetwenty-third Psalm and sing a hymn to the praise of God [Transcriber'snote: part of page torn away here, and one, possibly two, words aremissing] is wonderful; but more remarkable than that is the work whichis going on in us day by day. We are becoming more Christlike; one daywe shall be _like Christ_. "But _when_?" you say. This is the answer:"Beloved, now are ye the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear whatwe shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be likehim, for we shall see him as he is. " AN UNHEEDED WARNING TEXT: "_My Spirit shall not always strive with men. _"--Genesis 6:31. For the truth of this statement one needs only to study his Bible andhe will find written in almost every book of Old Testament and New asimilar expression. At the same time in the study of God's word itwill be revealed to him that God has a great plan which he is carefullyworking out. We must be familiar with the beginning and the unfoldingof this plan and with the conclusion he reached. When after therebellion of his people and their unwillingness to obey his precepts wefind him saying, "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great inthe earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart wasonly evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made manon the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, Iwill destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; bothman, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; forit repenteth me that I have made them. " Then turning to the New Testament Scriptures we find almost a similarexpression when Jesus reaches the climax of his compassionate andgracious ministry with the children of Israel. "He came unto his ownand his own received him not"; and in the twenty-third chapter ofMatthew and the thirty-seventh to the thirty-ninth verse, inclusive, wehear him saying, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest theprophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would Ihave gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth herchickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is leftunto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. " From that day on his special ministry was to the Gentiles, and he hasbeen seeking in every possible way to bring us to an appreciation ofwhat it means to know him and to be filled with all his fullness. Wehave but to stop for a moment and consider to realize that by many hisovertures have been declined, his Spirit grieved and his Son rejected. Men have lived as if they had no responsibility towards him at all andin many instances they have put him entirely out of theirconsideration. If we compare present day indifference and sin with thecondition of things at the time of the flood, and then again comparethem with the position of Israel when Jesus turned away from them withtears, it would seem almost as if the world of the present day had madeprogress both in the matter of indifference and rejection; andtherefore it is not strange that such an Old Testament text as thiswould be applicable to people living about us. It is a solemn text. "_My Spirit shall not always strive with men_. " It is along the lineof those solemn words of Dr. Alexander: "There is a time, we know not when; A place, we know not where, That seals the destiny of man For glory or despair. " Again we read, "Ye shall seek me and shall not find me, and where I amthere ye cannot come. " That also is the spirit of the text. God tellsus, "To-day if ye will hear his voice harden not your heart, " whichsimply means that if we neglect to hear the heart will become hardened, the will stubborn, and we shall be unsaved and hopeless. Again hetells us, "Now is the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation. "So for men to act as if they might come at any time and choose theirown way of salvation is to sin against him, and to all such he speaksthe text--"My Spirit shall not always strive with men. " It is assumed that the spirit of God does strive with men. If he willnot strive always, then he does strive at some particular time, andwith many of us he is striving now. We may not be willing to confessit to our friends, but nevertheless it is true. In many ways he isbringing to our attention the eternal interests of our souls, and thisis striving. It is implied that men are resisting the Spirit of God. If this werenot so there could be no striving, and the text indicates that men maycontinue so long to resist him and to sin against him that after awhile the door of mercy will close and hope be a thing of the past. I What is the striving of the Spirit? I have no doubt but that many areasking this question seriously and fearfully and it is worthy of ourmost careful consideration. 1. It is just God speaking to us and causing us to say to ourselves ifnot to others, "Well, I ought to be a Christian; this life ofworldliness does not pay. " There is nothing but an accusingconscience, a weakened character and a blighted life as the result ofit. Do not for a moment think that this is just an impression that hascome to you; it is the voice of God and you would do well to hear it. This striving of the Spirit is simply the Spirit of God seeking toconvince men that the only safe life is that which is hid with Christin God, safe not only for eternity--the most of us believe that--butsafe for time. Temptations are too powerful for us to withstand aloneand trials are too heavy for us to bear in our own strength. Thestriving of the Spirit is just our heavenly Father graciouslyattempting to persuade us to yield to him, sometimes by providences. When but a lad my old pastor used one night an illustration from whichI never have been able to get away. It was the story of the oldfisherman who took his little boy with him to fish and found that onhis accustomed fishing grounds he was unsuccessful; so, leaving the boyupon the little island, he started away to fish alone. The mists camedown in his absence and, missing his way, he lost his boy. He rowedeverywhere calling him and at last he heard him in the distance, saying, "I am up here, papa; over this way. " The fisherman found him, but not quickly enough to enable him to escape the cold night winds, and the boy sickened and died. The old fisherman said: "Every nightwhen I stood at my window I could see his outstretching hands andalways above the storm I could hear his voice calling me upward. Icould not but be a Christian. " My mother had just a few weeks beforegone home to God, and I heard her voice as plainly as I could hear thevoice of my friend at my side. Every vision of a mother in heaven, ofa child in the skies, is a call of God. He seeks to persuade us bycalamities. The Chicago theater horror, with its hundreds of women andchildren dead and disfigured, was God's call to a great city and to theworld. This is the striving of the Spirit. Not with audible voicedoes he speak to us but by means of impressions and convictions. Letus not think for a moment that these come simply because the preacherhas influence and may possibly be possessed of a certain kind of geniusor power. These are God's warnings to us. Be careful, therefore, howyou resist them. Jesus said in John the sixteenth chapter the seventhto the eleventh verses, "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It isexpedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforterwill not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. Andwhen he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousnessand of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on me; ofrighteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; ofjudgment, because the prince of this world is judged. " The word"_reprove_" is a judicial word. When the judge has heard the testimonyfor or against the criminal and the arguments of the counsel, hehimself sums up the case and lays it before the jury, bringing out thestrong points or the weak ones in relation to the criminal. This isreproving, and it is this that the Spirit does. He brings before usJesus Christ and then presents unto God our treatment of him, and so itis easy to understand how the text could be true. "My spirit shall notalways strive with men. " 2. How may we know that he is striving? There are very many ways. (1) If the attention is aroused and centered upon religious subjectsand interests, then be careful how you treat God. The student whofinds his mind constantly escaping from his books to the thought ofeternity; the business man who cannot possibly escape the thought thathe owes God something and ought not to slight him, these have proofsthat the Spirit is striving. After an evangelistic meeting which I recently conducted I received thefollowing letter, which clearly indicates the striving of the Spirit: "I had not attended the church for years until to-night, but being avisitor in C. And hearing that you were from the East and aPresbyterian I determined to go. I was lonely and it may be the Spiritwas calling me. I heard you speak of your little boys and of thesainted mother who has gone before and my proud heart was touched. I, too, have two darling boys back in the old state, a loving Christianwife and a dear old mother who in parting said, 'Dear son, I am old andI may never see you again on earth, but if I am not here when youreturn, remember, my son, my boy, we must meet in heaven. ' "How much that meant to her! I did not quite realize it then, but yourtalk to-night impressed me and I believe that her prayers are beinganswered together with those of a loving, courageous, steadfastChristian wife, and that I am at last, at the age of forty-two, beginning to see how great my opportunities to do good have been andhow my example has been a great hindrance and stumbling block to othersin the way of life. Admitting that this life has no stronger emotionthan our love for our families, how much more I am impressed to-nightwith my duty to him who gave his only Son to suffer that we might livein the life everlasting! "In a busy business life and career I had drifted away from the safeanchorage of the church and Sunday school of my boyhood and had almostconvinced myself that by charity and exercising good will andkindliness in my business I could do almost as much good as if I werein the church; but I see my mistake. To make an army effective we muststand in the ranks, must be soldiers in the army of Christ ready andwilling to do at all times whatever we see before us. "I have written my dear old mother a letter to-night which I know willplease her far more than if I had told her I had found a mine ofCalifornia gold; her prayers, my wife's, yours and those of other trueChristian men and women have been answered, and I realize that now, (not next week, nor next month, nor when I get my business finished andgo back to the East) is the day and the hour to remember Christ andknow that his love for us is greater even than the love that tugs atour heartstrings when we think of the dear little ones at home wholovingly call us father, and for whom we gladly endure the heartachesof separation when we know that our labors will contribute to theircomfort and happiness. "I realize from the standpoint of a business man how many there are inthe world to criticise your best efforts and your work and how few whoever stop to say, 'I thank you; you have done me good. ' I take timeto-night to do more. I want to say that your message from the King ofkings has not fallen on stony ground. I shall try to enter again thebattle of life, not as only in search of the wealth of this world butin search of the wealth that the world cannot take away--lifeeverlasting. "You were right. Preach and pray the fathers into the Kingdom of Godand the rest is easy, for all unconsciously our children follow in ourfootsteps, watch our every word and action; then how much, how much itmeans if our example is wrong!" II (1) Whenever we are convinced especially of the sinfulness of sin wemay be sure that the Spirit is striving with us. There are times whenwe may be thoughtless and sin with impunity; but not so when the Spiritis doing his work, for sin is an awful thing. (2) Whenever we are impressed with the heinousness of unbelief beassured that the Spirit is at work, for the worst sin in all this worldis not impurity but rather that we should not believe on Jesus Christ. To reject him is to sneer at God, to trample the blood of his Son underfoot, to count his sacrifice a common thing and really to crucify himafresh. In all this impression God speaks. (3) When we see the danger of dying in our sins he is moving us. It isa mystery to me how men can close their eyes in sleep when they realizethat any night God might simply touch them and time would give way toeternity and the judgment would be before them. As a matter of factmen are not indifferent to this, and the fact that they are not provesthat the Spirit of God is opening their eyes. (4) When he strips us of excuses be sure that he is working. The manwho has said, "I will wait until I am better, " begins to realize thathis past sins must be taken into account and no future resolutions cantouch them. The man who has said, "There is time enough, " suddenlyrealizes that between him and eternity there is but a beat of theheart. The one who has claimed that hypocrisy in the church kept himout of it comes to see that hypocrisy proves the life of the church, for men never counterfeit that which is bad money but rather that whichis good. (5) Whenever we see the folly of trusting in any other word thanChrist's then the Spirit of God is with us. Not reformation, for itdoes not touch the sins of the past; not resolution, for this is tooweak, and though we may seem better than others, this may be true onlyaccording to our own standard. When we see the folly of thesepositions the Spirit of God is doing his work; so be careful how youtreat him. III What would be the consequences of the Spirit ceasing his work? Wereally could not express it in words. No man has power or energy tomake it plain. We can only just hint at the condition. 1. There would be an opposition to religion, for whenever you find aman turning against that which has been the world's hope remember thatthe state of that man is awful in the extreme and will grow worse. 2. There will be an opposition to revivals, to all preaching and to theministers of the Gospel wherever this spirit is made manifest. Weought to tremble for ourselves if this is our spirit, or for others ifit is theirs. 3. Wherever men settle down into some form of error this is adescription of one who has sinned against the Spirit of God, for thereis a longing in every soul for something outside of and beyond one'sself; and the things of the world cannot alone satisfy. 4. When men continue to grow worse and worse and seem to glory in theirshame there is great cause for solemn thought. In the light of thesesuggestions the text is given, "My Spirit shall not always strive withmen. " IV Why should he cease his striving? Not because he is not compassionate, for he is; nor forbearing, for that is his character; not that he iswithout patience, for he is infinite in this grace; nor because he iswithout mercy, for his mercy is from everlasting to everlasting. 1. But because it will do the sinner no good to continue his pleadings. It is a known law of the mind that truth resisted loses its power. Whyshould God continue when we only spurn his offers of mercy? Agassiz, the great Christian scientist, tells of his work in themountains when his assistants lowered him to his work by means of arope and a basket. They always tested his weight before letting himdown; and yet he said that one day when they had lowered him deeperthan ever they found that they could not lift him, though they hadtested his weight before he had been lowered. They must go away overthe mountains to secure other assistance. "And then, " said thescientist, "when they did lift me they found that their failure was dueto the fact that they did not take into account the weight of therope. " Every time you refuse Jesus Christ as your Savior and God callsyou again you must lift against that other refusal, and this is why itis so difficult for some to come to Christ. 2. Because to continue warning is to hinder the sinner. The more lightwe have the greater guilt. Better would it be for the sinner when allhope is gone for the Spirit to leave, for he shall be called to accountfor warnings. Oh, the solemnity of the day of judgment! 3. Because to resist the Spirit of God is for men to sin willfully ifthe rejection is final. It is a sad thing to say "no" to God, and ifwe sin willfully there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. V What is meant by the Spirit not striving? Not that he will bewithdrawn from men in general, but rather from the individual. 1. He may not follow the sinner, who will be indifferent to preaching, to praying, to his own spiritual condition, for he has given himselfover to error. 2. It simply means that we have come to the limit of his patience, forwe have trifled with him in our continued rejection. 3. It also means that there is just some one point where he will ceaseto work. That point may be here and that day may be now, and so thetext is solemn. A long time ago an old woman tripped and fell from thetop of a stone stairway in Boston as she was coming out of the policestation. They called the patrol and carried her to the hospital andthe doctor examining her said to the nurse, "She will not live morethan a day. " And when the nurse had won her confidence the old womansaid, "I have traveled from California, stopping at every city ofimportance between San Francisco and Boston, visiting two placesalways--the police station and the hospital. My boy went away from meand did not tell me where he was going, so I have sold all my propertyand made this journey to seek him out. Some day, " she said, "he maycome into this hospital, and if he does tell him that there were twowho never gave him up. " When the night came and the doctor standingbeside her said, "It is now but a question of a few minutes, " the nursebent over her to say, "Tell me the names of the two and I will tellyour son if I see him. " With trembling lips and eyes overflowing withtears she said, "Tell him that the two were God and his mother, " andshe was gone. I cannot believe that God has given any of you up. You would not belistening to this message, you certainly would not be reading thesewords if he had. He has not given you up. I beseech you thereforehear him. It would be a sad thing for you to say no to him at the lastand have him take you at your word, and if he has not given you up I ampersuaded that there is some one else in the world deeply concerned foryour soul. THE APPROVAL OF THE SPIRIT TEXT: "_Yea, saith the Spirit. _"--Rev. 14:31. The world has had many notable galleries of art in which we have beenenabled to study the beautiful landscape, to consider deeds of heroismwhich have made the past illustrious, in which we have also read thestories of saintly lives; but surpassing all these is the gallery ofart in which we find the text. Humanly speaking John is the artistwhile he is an exile on the Island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. Thewords he uses and the figures he presents are suggested by hissurroundings, and it would be difficult to imagine anything moreuplifting than the book of Revelation if it be properly studied andunderstood. When John speaks of the Son of Man he describes his voiceas the sound of many waters--undoubtedly suggested by the waves of thesea breaking at his feet. Locked in by the sea on this lonely islandhe gives to us this Revelation for which every Christian shoulddevoutly thank God. His eyes are opened in an unusual way and beforehim as in panoramic vision the past, the present and the future movequickly, and he makes a record of all the things that he beholds. Hisbody is on Patmos but as a matter of fact he seems to be walking thestreets of the heavenly city and gives to us a picture of those thingswhich no mortal eye hath yet beheld. He describes the risen Christ. It is a new picture, for as he beholds him his head and his hair arewhite like wool, as white as snow; and yet it is an old picture hegives, for he is presented as the Lamb that has been slain, with themarks of his suffering still upon him, and these help to make his glorythe greater, and if possible to increase the power and sweetness of theangels' music. He presents to us a revelation of the glorified churchand of the four and twenty elders falling down at the feet of Jesus, casting their crowns before him and giving him all adoration andpraise. He cheers us with a knowledge of the doom of Satan, for in theclosing part of the book he presents him to us as bound, cast into thepit and held as a prisoner for a thousand years, while in every otherpart of the Bible he is seen going about like a raging lion seekingwhom he may devour. He gives to us some conception of the finaljudgment, and the great white throne is lifted up before us; the dead, small and great, stand before God, the books are opened and those whosenames are not found written in the book are cast away from his presenceforever; and then as a climax of the picture we have before us the newheaven and the new earth. Again I say, there is nothing so wonderfulas Revelation if only we have the mind of the Spirit in itsinterpretation. In this text John is speaking of those who die in the Lord and thewhole verse reads as follows: "And I heard a voice from heaven sayingunto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord fromhenceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from theirlabors; and their works do follow them" (Revelation 14:13). Ordinarilythis text has been used only on funeral occasions, but literallyinterpreted the text which stands as the heart of the verse may be readas follows, "Amen, saith the Spirit. " It would seem as if the HolyGhost were giving his assent to the truth which has been spoken. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. " It is like an old timeantiphonal service, when choir answered choir in the house of God; or, to put it in another way, it is one of those remarkable interruptionsseveral instances of which are found in the Scriptures. One is in Hebrews the thirteenth chapter and the eighth verse, "JesusChrist the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. " According to therevision this verse has an added word and reads as follows, "JesusChrist the same yesterday and to-day, _yea_ and forever. " I callspecial attention to the little word "yea. " Somebody has said that itis as if the Apostle were saying that Jesus is the same to-day that hewas yesterday, than which no thought could be more comforting. And itwould seem at the closing part of the verse as if the angels of God hadbroken in upon his message to say, "Yea, and he is forever the same, "which is certainly true. Could anything be more inspiring than to knowthat we have the approval of the Holy Ghost of the things we say orthink? There are many representations of the Spirit of God in the Bible. Hislove is presented under the figure of the mother love, as in Genesisthe first chapter and the second verse; "And the earth was withoutform, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And theSpirit of God _moved_ [or brooded] upon the face of the waters. " Inthis text the Spirit broods over the world as the mother bird hoversover her little ones. We see him in the figure of the dove in Matthewthe third chapter and the sixteenth verse: "And Jesus, when he wasbaptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavenswere opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a_dove_, and lighting upon him. " And here we have a revelation of hisgentleness. Again he is presented to us under the figure of the wind, "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty_wind_, and it filled all the house where they were sitting" (Acts2:2). Here we see his power. We catch a vision of him in the fire inActs the second chapter and the third verse, "And there appeared untothem cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them"; andhere we understand his cleansing influence. But here in this text wehave his directing power. It is as if he were giving particularattention to all that John is saying and giving his approval to itbecause it is the truth. Since the day of Pentecost he has occupied anew position. However, he has existed from all eternity. We behold him in his workin the Old Testament Scriptures. But from the day of Pentecost theaffairs of the church have been committed to him, its organization, itsdevelopment, its services, whether it be the preaching, the praying orthe singing. We cannot ignore him, for he has to do with all the workand with the preaching of the word. He convicts of sin. John 6:44, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him:and I will raise him up at the last day. " He applies Christ to theawakened sinner, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, hewill guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; butwhatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew youthings to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, andshall shew it unto you. " He helps to interpret the Word of God becausehe inspired men to write it. It is impossible to get along withouthim. I put no mark of disrespect upon scholarship. I know what it hasaccomplished; it has filled libraries with knowledge which has made theworld rich, it has weighed planets and given us almost a perfectunderstanding of the heavenly bodies. It has estimated the velocity oflight until we have stopped to say, "Such things are too wonderful forus. " It has read the tracings upon obelisks, and made the past an openbook to us, giving us the secrets of men who have been thousands ofyears in their tombs, but I do wish to say that that which comes to usdirectly from the Spirit of God is beyond scholarship. Hear what Paulhas said to us in 1 Corinthians the second chapter and the ninth to thefourteenth verses. "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor earheard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which Godhath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them untous by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deepthings of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save thespirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth noman, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit ofthe world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know thethings that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghostteacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the naturalman receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they arefoolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they arespiritually discerned. " There are certain great truths to which I am sure the Holy Ghost wouldsay a deep amen. I The Bible _is_ the word of God--not simply that it _contains_ the wordof God, but is that very word. Peter tells us where we got our Bible. 2 Peter 1:21, "For the prophecycame not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake asthey were moved by the Holy Ghost. " It is an inspired Book, andinspiration is the inbreathing of God himself. This makes the Bibledifferent from every other book. We cannot study it exactly as westudy others. We may pick it up and say it is just paper, ink andleather, like any other book, but we have missed the power of it if wesay this. We might say, "Jesus is just a man, eating, drinking, sleeping, suffering like a man"; but we have missed his power if we sayonly this, for the Bible is filled with God, and Jesus is God Himself. Jesus said, "Ye must be born again if ye are to enter my Kingdom, " andthis makes the difference in men. Because of this new birth one mansees the things of God to which another would be totally blind, andthis makes the difference in books and leaves the Bible incomparablybeyond all other books. How may we know that the Bible is the word of God? Not simplyscientifically, although the Bible is a scientific book; but not inthis way any more than we could find life in the body by cutting it upwith a knife. The Bible is like a sensitive plant; approach it in thewrong way and it will close its leaves and withhold its fragrance. Come to it reverently and there is no blessing that it cannot bestow. 1. Accept it by faith and act according to its principles. If Godexists, as we know he does, then talk with him; if Christ is herepresented to us with all his uplifting teachings, then walk with him;if the promises of God are written here, as we know they are, thenpresent them to him expecting him to keep his word. General Booth of the Salvation Army once said in a great meeting whereI was present that we were poor, weak Christians to-day because we werenot living up to our privileges as Christians. He described a youngman who had lost his position and had gone from one degree of povertyto another until at last he was on the verge of starvation. With hiswife and little ones about him he sits in deepest gloom. There is arap at the door and the postman brings a letter which is a message froma former employer who tells him that he has just learned of hisdistress, that he will help him, and that in the meantime he incloseshis check for a sum of money which he hopes may make him comfortable. A check is simply a promise to pay. The young man, says General Booth, looks at it a moment and then begins to rush about the room in greatexcitement. "Poor man, " said his wife, "I knew it would come to this. His mind is giving way. " Then he presents the check to her and says, "I know what I shall do with it. I will frame it and hang it on thewall. " Then again he exclaims, "I shall take it to my friend and havehim set it to music and sing it each day, " and he might do both ofthese and starve to death. What he should have done was to present itfor payment and live off of its proceeds. "We have been framing God'spromises long enough, " said General Booth, "and singing them quite longenough; let us now present them for payment, and we shall know that Godis true. " 2. Live its truth. Whatever God presents as a principle translate intoyour life and then believe that God will transform your living. Itwill support you in trial and it will comfort you in the deepest sorrow. The world was shocked by that great railroad accident which meant thedeath of Mrs. Booth-Tucker, but when in Carnegie Hall CommanderBooth-Tucker stood to speak great words concerning his noble wife hesaid: "I was once talking with a man in Chicago about becoming aChristian and he said to me, 'If God had taken away your beautiful wifeand you were left desolate with your little children would you believein him?' And, " said the Commander before his great New York audience, "if that man is in this audience to-day let me tell him. God has takenmy beautiful wife and I am here surrounded by my children, but I neverbelieved in him more thoroughly and was never more confident of thetruth of his Word. " II Jesus Christ is the Son of God. To this truth I am very sure the HolyGhost will add his amen. In John the fifteenth chapter and thetwenty-sixth verse we read, "But when the Comforter is come, whom Iwill send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, whichproceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. " And if you wouldknow that Jesus Christ is God's Son I would suggest, 1. That you simply test him; try him in heathen lands and tell me ifany other story could thrill and transform as does the story of hislife and death. Dr. Torrey says that whether the story was told inChina or England, whether the story was told in India or Australia, itwas always the same and never was without effect. 2. Try him in your own life. One day in a service in a western city anold woman was wheeled into the church in an invalid's chair. I knew bythe expression of her countenance that she was suffering. When I mether after the service and asked her about her story she said as themost excruciating pain convulsed her body, "I have not been free frompain in twenty years and have scarcely slept a night through all thattime, " and then, brushing the tears from her eyes, and with anexpectant face, she exclaimed, "but if I could tell you all that JesusChrist has been to me in these twenty years I could thrill you throughand through. " 3. If you would know that he is the Son of God just lift him up andbehold him as he draws all men unto him. This is the secret of thepower of great preaching. It made Mr. Moody known whereever theEnglish language is spoken and constituted Mr. Spurgeon one of theworld's greatest preachers. As a matter of fact there is no othertheme which may be presented in the pulpit by the minister with anassurance of the co-operation of the Holy Ghost. There may be timeswhen he may feel obliged to preach concerning philosophy, poetry, artand science, but unless these things lead directly to Christ we have noreason for believing that the Holy Ghost will add his amen to ourmessage, and without this amen the time is almost lost. III The church is the body of Christ. I am persuaded that to this truth hewill give his hearty assent. This is Paul's over and over. Notice thefollowing verses. Acts 2:41, "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized; andthe same day there were added _unto them_ about three thousand souls. "The words "unto them" are in italics, so not in the original, and weask "added to what?" Acts 2: 47, "Praising God, and having favor with all the people. Andthe Lord '_added to the Church_' daily such as should be saved. " Herewe are beginning to get the truth. Acts 5:14, "And believers were the more added _to the Lord_, multitudesboth of men and women. " This is the truth. You will see that Christ is the head, the church is his body and weare, as individual members of the church, just being added to him. Oneday the body will be completed and then the Lord himself will appear. If Christ is the head he must control the body. If his life ishindered and not permitted to flow through every part of it there isconfusion, strife, unrest and loss of power. There are certain things which we must do if we are to be in this worldas he would have us. He must control the preaching. If given an opportunity he will directin the choice of a theme, he will quicken our intellect in thedevelopment of that theme, he will give us an insight into the best wayto present it to our hearers, and putting faith in these preliminaryconditions he will take care of the results. He must also dictate thepraying in a church. There is much of it that is meaningless. It istoo formal, too lifeless, and entirely too general in its character. In Matthew the eighteenth chapter and the nineteenth verse, we read, "Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth astouching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of myFather which is in heaven. " It does not mean that if the two shouldagree together as touching any one thing, but agree with him, forwherever you find two in prayer there are three, and wherever there arethree there are four, and the additional one present is the Spirit ofGod waiting to help us in our praying and to present our prayers untothe Father in the name of Jesus Christ. He must inspire the singing of the church. In Ephesians the fifthchapter and the nineteenth verse we read, "Speaking to yourselves inpsalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in yourheart to the Lord. " One reason why there is such a lack of power inmany churches in this country is due to the fact that the singing issimply used as filling for the services. Hymns are used in a haphazardway with little thought as to their bearing upon the theme to bepresented. I am quite persuaded that when the preaching, praying andsinging are all submitted to his control, whatever may be man's opinionof the service, he himself will give to it his hearty amen. IV We are the sons of God. In Romans the eighth chapter the sixteenth andseventeenth verses we read, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with ourspirit, that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs;heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer withhim, that we may be also glorified together. " To this truth he willsay amen. A careful study of the Scriptures will reveal the fact that, 1. We are heirs. If therefore this be true we have but to claim ourbirthright privilege, and there is no weakness in our lives but may beoffset by the strength of his. Whatever Christ has received as thehead of the church he has received in trust for the body and we mayhave our possession in him if we but appropriate it. A man in England died the other day in the poorhouse. He had a littleEnglish farm upon which he could raise no grain and he let it go towaste and died a pauper. His heirs discovered that on this littleEnglish possession there was a copper mine and they are living inluxury to-day in the possession of that which belonged to theirancester [Transcriber's note: ancestor?] all the time but was notappropriated and used by him. 2. Being sons of God, we are not free from trial; but there is this onething to say about our Christian experience: "Our light afflictionswhich are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternalweight of glory, " and God's presence with us in trial is infinitelybetter than his absence from us in the time of prosperity. Our trialsare but the discipline through which we must pass in order that we mayone day be prepared to stand in his presence and do his biddingthroughout eternity. 3. Being sons of God, we are sure one day of glory. The song which hasbeen singing its way around the world in the Torrey-Alexander meetingspresents this thought to us beautifully. "When all my labors and trials are o'er And I am safe on that beautiful shore, Just to be near the dear Lord I adore Will thro' the ages be glory for me. "When by the gift of his infinite grace I am accorded in heaven a place, Just to be there and look on his face Will thro' the ages be glory for me. "Friends will be there I have loved long ago; Joy like a river around me will flow; Yet just a smile from my Savior, I know, Will thro' the ages be glory for me. _Chorus. _ "Oh, that will be glory for me, Glory for me, glory for me, When by his grace I shall look on his face, That will be glory, be glory for me. " Whatever may be our limitations here, they shall be gone there;whatever may be our weakness here, it shall be lost there. Dr. Charles Hodge in his "Lectures on Theology" has given us animaginary picture of Laura Bridgman, the famous deaf-mute. Thecelebrated theologian has described her standing in the presence ofChrist in that great day when we shall all be before Him, when Christshall touch her eyes and say, "Daughter, see, " and there shall sweepthrough her vision all the glories of the sky; when He shall touch herears, which have been so long closed, and say, "Daughter, hear, " andinto her soul shall come all the harmonies of heaven; when he shalltouch her lips, which on earth have never spoken a human word, and say, "Daughter, speak, " and with all the angel choir she will burst into thenew song. What Dr. Hodge has said concerning Laura Bridgman will betrue of us. Our day of limitations will be past, the experiences ofweakness be gone, and we shall be like him, for we shall see him as heis. This, therefore, is a good outline of a creed for us to-day. Webelieve the Bible is the Word of God, we believe that Jesus is the Sonof God, we believe that the Church is the body of Christ, we believethat we are by regeneration the sons of God, and making such astatement we have a right to stop and listen and I am sure we shallhear as from the skies, "Amen, saith the spirit. " A REASONABLE SERVICE TEXT: "_I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, thatye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. _"--Romans 12:1. There is perhaps no chapter in the New Testament, certainly none inthis epistle, with which we are more familiar than this one which isintroduced by the text; and yet, however familiar we may be with thestatements, if we read them carefully and study them honestly they mustalways come to us not only in the nature of an inspiration but alsowith rebuke, especially to those of us who preach. Paul's intellectual ability has never been questioned. Yet, giantthough he was in this respect, he was not ashamed to be pathetic whenhe likens his care for his people to the care of a nurse for herchildren. He is not ashamed to be extravagant when he likens hissorrow and pain at their backsliding to the travail of a woman for herchild. He is not ashamed to be intense when in the ninth chapter andthe first, second and third verses he says, "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For Icould wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, mykinsmen according to the flesh. " We must also be impressed with the fact that he was not at all afraidof public criticism. He not only sat at Gamaliel's feet but the greatlawmaker might well have taken his place at his feet, and yet he says, "I am willing to be counted a fool if only I may win men to Christ. "He is not bound by custom. He not only preaches in the synagogue andin the places set apart for the churches of the early days, but he goesabout from house to house entreating people to come to Christ. He isnot ashamed to weep, for he sends his messages to the people andexclaims, "I tell you these things weeping"; and here in this text heis strikingly unusual, for he is not a preacher speaking with dignity, nor an Apostle commending obedience, but a loving friend beseeching inthe most pathetic way the yielding of themselves to Christ. There are two things to remember about Paul in the study of such asubject. First: He was a Jew and he knew all about offerings. Sacrifices werenot forms to him and a living sacrifice was not a meaninglessexpression. He had been present on the great day of Atonement when thescapegoat bore away the sins of the people. He had heard the chimes ofthe bells on the high priest's robe as he moved to and fro before theentrance to the holy of holies, and he had waited with breathlesssilence for him to come forth giving evidence in his coming of the factthat Israel could once more approach Jehovah. The text to him wasthrobbing with holy memories and was full of significance. Second: He received his instructions concerning these things of God, not from men, for when he writes to the Galatians he says: "But Icertify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is notafter man, for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ" (Galatians 1:11-12). And so, since he is a heaven-taught man, we must listen while he speaks andgive heed to his entreaties. I _The context_. We shall not appreciate this striking text unless wetake into account its setting. The first chapters of Romans present to us a black cloud indeed, forwhen the first sentences are spoken we shudder because of theirintensity. We read in the twenty-fourth verse that God gave the people_up_ to uncleanness; in the twenty-sixth verse that he gave them _up_to vile affections, but in the twenty-eighth verse that he gave them_over_ to a reprobate mind. With this awful condition of affairs westart; and yet for fear that the man who counts himself a moralistmight read these verses and feel that they did not apply to him, Paulwrites in the third chapter and the twenty-second verse these words, "Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, untoall and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference. " Butwhen the cloud is the blackest the rays of light begin to appear, andthey are rays of light from heaven; looking on the one side at mysteryand catching a vision on the other side of grace, Paul exclaims, "Ibeseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye presentyour bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which isyour reasonable service" (Romans 12:1). The word mercy is of frequent occurrence in the Bible. "Fromeverlasting to everlasting is God's mercy, " we read. This gives ussome idea of duration. "New every morning and fresh every evening arehis mercies. " This reveals to us the fact that they are unchanging. "He is a God of mercy. " This is his character. "Let the wickedforsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him returnunto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him. " This is the invitationof God given to all the world! But Paul is not speaking of mercy ingeneral; he goes on in his masterful argument outlining the doctrinesof grace and on the strength of that he uses the text. First: We are justified. The fifth chapter and the first verse, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through ourLord Jesus Christ. " In justification our sins are pardoned and we areaccepted as righteous because of the righteousness of Christ, which isimputed unto us and received by faith alone. And yet to him thisdefinition in every day language means that, being justified, we standbefore God as if we never had sinned. No wonder that in the light ofsuch a doctrine Paul could say, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, bythe mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service" (Romans12:1). Second: _We are kept safe_. Romans 5:10, "For if, when we wereenemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. " Literally theclosing part of this verse is, "We are kept safe in his life. " A childin its mother's arms could not be so secure as we in his life. Underneath us are the everlasting arms and around about us the suremercies of God. Third: _We are baptized into his death_. "Know ye not that so many ofus as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?"(Romans 6:3). "The wages of sin is death. " This is God's irrevocablestatement, but Christ died for our sins and Paul's argument here isthat we died with him, so the demands of the law have been met and weare to go free. No wonder Paul could say, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a livingsacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. " Fourth: _We are alive unto God_. Romans 6:11, "Likewise reckon ye alsoyourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through JesusChrist our Lord. " Not only are we justified and kept safe andcrucified with him and buried with him but in the plan of God we arerisen with him. What a wonderful mercy this is! Fifth: _We have deliverance from the self life_. The seventh chapterof Romans is just the cry of a breaking heart and reaches its climax inthe twenty-fourth verse, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliverme from the body of this death?" But the deliverance is in the eighthchapter, especially in the second verse, "For the law of the Spirit oflife in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. "What a mercy this is! Sixth: _For those of us who believe there is no condemnation_. Romans8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are inChrist Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. "Judgment is past because he has been judged. We have nothing to dowith the great white throne; Christ as our substitute has met sin'spenalty and paid our debts. What a mercy this is! No wonder Paul isthrilled with the thought of it. Seventh: _No separation_. Romans 8:38-39, "For I am persuaded, thatneither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anyother creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. " So that for time we are safe andour eternity is sure. Was there ever such a catalogue of mercies? Inthe light of all this the Apostle exclaims, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a livingsacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service"(Romans 12:1). It is a good thing to study Paul's "_therefores_. " He is a logician ofthe highest type. In Romans 5:1, there is the "_therefore of justification_. " In Romans the eighth chapter and the first verse there is the"_therefore of no condemnation_. " In Romans the twelfth chapter and the first verse there is the"_therefore of consecration_, " and this as a matter of fact is theoutline of the Epistle. II _Present your bodies_. This means the entire yielding of one's self toChrist. It corresponds to the Old Testament presentation of the burntoffering all of which was consumed. Back in the Old Testament timesfor fourteen years there had been no song in the temple, for it wasfilled with rubbish and uncleanness, but the rubbish was put away andthe uncleanness vanished, the burnt offering was presented and the songof the Lord began again. If you have lost your song and have beendeprived of the harmony of heaven then present your bodies a livingsacrifice. There is a threefold division in man's nature. _The Spirit_, where God abides if we are his children. This is likethe holy of holies. _The Soul_, which is the abode of the man himself. _The Body_, which is the outer court. When Christ was crucified the veil of the temple was rent in twain andthe whole was like one great compartment. I cannot but think that ifwe should come to the place of complete consecration, the acceptance inour lives of what was purchased for us when he was crucified, for usthe veil of the temple would be rent in twain and not only would Godabide in our spirits but he would suffuse our whole nature, look withour eyes, and speak with our lips. This must have been what Paul meantwhen he said, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. " III _A living sacrifice_. That is in contrast with the dead offering ofthe Old Testament sacrifice. Suppose for a moment that it would havebeen possible for an offering to have been presented in the OldTestament times and then after that for it to have lived again; it isinconceivable that this offering would have been put to any unholy use. I have many times tried to imagine the surprise of the son of the widowof Nain and the daughter of Jairus after their being raised from thedead. They certainly could not have lived selfish, sinful lives again, and I am sure that Lazarus when once he had been in the grave and wasraised at the voice of the Master could never again have been worldlyand unclean. But let it not be forgotten that we are a risen people;we were crucified with Christ, we died with Christ, we were buried withChrist, we have risen with Christ! How then ought we to live? In one of our western cities a minister told me recently of a young manwho had graduated at a school for stammerers and came to see him oneday. Keeping time with his fingers in the use of his words he saidslowly: "I--want--to--speak--to--you. " Without following his method of speechthrough I will quote what he said: "I have for a long time wanted to bea Christian and was ashamed to attempt to speak when it was soimperfectly done, but now I have graduated and I have the control inpart at least of my speech, and I have come to you to-day to make myconfession, for the first use I make of my voice must be the confessionof him who loved me and gave himself for me. " IV _Your reasonable service_. It is a reasonable service, First: Because God uses human instrumentality and he needs you, and itis therefore a reasonable demand to make, for we should place ourselvesabsolutely at his disposal. In the guest book of a friend I saw recently a few lines written by Dr. John Willis Baer in which he said, quoting from another: "God gave himself for us. "God gave himself to us. "God wants to give himself through us. " But if our lives are inconsistent and our hearts are unclean he cannotdo it. If we have not yielded ourselves altogether God himself islimited. Second: It is a reasonable request to make because of what God has donefor us. One of the distinguished ministers of the Presbyterian Church told usthe other day in a conference in a western city that a little boy whohad been operated upon by Dr. Lorenz said as soon as he came out fromunder the anesthetic, "It will be a long time before my mother hearsthe last of this doctor"; and then, said my friend, "I thought of anincident in my own life of a poor German boy whose feet were twistedout of shape, whose mother was poor and could not have him operatedupon, and I determined to bring him to a great doctor and ask him totake him in charge. The operation was over and was a great success. When the plaster cast had been taken off from his feet my friend saidhe went to take him home. He called his attention to the hospital andthe boy admired it, but he said, 'I like the doctor best. ' He spoke ofthe nurses and the boy was slightly interested, but said, 'They arenothing compared to the doctor. ' He called his attention to theperfect equipment of the hospital and he was unmoved except as againand again he referred to the doctor. They reached the Missouri townand stepped out of the station together, and the old German mother waswaiting to receive him. She did not look at her boy's face nor at hishands but she fell on her knees and looked at his feet and then saidsobbing, 'It is just like any other boy's foot. ' Taken into her arms, the minister said all the boy kept saying to her over and over was, 'Mother, you ought to know the doctor that made me walk. '" Then my friend said, "There is not one of us for whom Jesus Christ hasnot done ten thousand times more for us than the doctor did for thisboy, and we have never spoken for him, we have not yielded ourselves tohim. " It must have been with some such spirit as this that the Apostlesaid, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, thatye present your bodies a living sacrifice, which is your reasonableservice" (Romans 12:1). THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LIFE TEXT: "_My beloved is mine, and I am his. _"--Sol. Song 2:16. "_I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine. _"--Sol. Song 6:3. "_I am my beloved's and his desire is toward me. _"--Sol. Song 7:10. These three texts should be read together, and the significant changefound in each text as the thought unfolds should be studied carefully. They remind one of three mountain peaks one rising higher than theother until the third is lifted into the very heavens. Indeed, if oneshould live in the spirit of this third text he would enjoy what Paulhas described as a life in the heavenly places, and his picture ofChrist would be surpassingly beautiful. At the same time the threetexts give us a complete picture of a true Christian life. The firsttext may be regeneration, the second text consecration, and the thirdtext sanctification. The Jews counted this Book, the Song of Solomon, as exceedingly sacred. They hid it away until the child had come to maturity before he wasallowed to read it, and it was to them the holy of holies of the OldTestament Scripture. These texts are also like the division of theancient tabernacle. There was first of all the outer court where thealtar of sacrifice was to be found--and this must be constantly kept inmind, for no one can say "my beloved is mine" until he has passed thealtar of sacrifice. It is only by faith in Jesus Christ that we areadopted into the membership of the family of God. The second division was the holy place, where was found the laver. Here the priests made themselves clean, and they could not minister inthe presence of Jehovah until they had been made clean from all earthlydefilement. This second text gives us the same thought, for here thewriter changes the order exactly and says, "I am my beloved, " insteadof saying, "My beloved is mine. " This is consecration and theconsecration of a clean life. God will not accept or use that which isunclean, and it is only as we come to the place where we allow him tohave full control of our lives that we realize we are his. The third division of the tabernacle was the holy of holies, where thehigh priest made his way once a year that he might stand in thepresence of Jehovah. In this third text, where the writer says, "I ammy beloved's, and his desire is towards me, " we have come to the placein our experience where if his desire for us controls our living we arein the holy of holies indeed; where we can see him and enjoy hispresence. I "_My beloved is mine. _" This is regeneration. A minister oncepreaching to his congregation said, "Let every one say Jesus, " and fromall over the congregation there came the music of his name. "Now, "said the minister, "Let all those who can, say 'my Jesus, '" and theresponse was not so hearty. A line ran through the congregationseparating husband from wife and parents from children. It is only byfaith in Christ and by the operation of the grace of God that we canexperience this first text. Two things are true concerning this point. First: He wants to make better all that we have. Whatever may be ournatural characteristics, he can make all that we have more beautiful. One day in Colorado I wanted to make a journey to the summit of Pike'sPeak, only to find that throughout the entire day the train waschartered. I was turning away in despair when a railroad man said, "Why do you not go up at three o'clock to-morrow morning, for then, " hesaid, "you can see the sun rise, and the sight is beautiful. " So thenext morning we started. Just as I was going on the train a railroadman said, "When you come to the sharp turn in the way as you go up, look over in the Cripple Creek district and you will see a sight neverto be forgotten. " We climbed higher and higher, leaving the darknessat the foot of the mountain, until at last we came to the placeindicated and I looked away, only to be intensely disappointed. Thesight was almost commonplace. As we pursued the journey upward finallywe came to another place, where I heard some one give an exclamation ofdelight. As I looked in the same direction there was a marveloustransformation. I could see before me a mountain which looked like awhite-robed priest and another like a choir of angels and still anotherlike a golden ladder reaching up into the skies, and all because thesun had risen upon the same scenery which a moment ago wasuninteresting. If Christ could only thus take possession of our livesand become our Savior the transformation would be quite as great. Second: He is ours to exercise in our behalf all that he is as Prophet, Priest and King. His office of Prophet relates to the past, his officeof King to the future when he shall be crowned King of kings and Lordof lords, but his office as Priest is now being fulfilled and he is mygreat High Priest to intercede for me with God and make explanation forall my weakness. Adelaide Proctor has given us the story of a young girl who was in aconvent in France, whose special work it was to attend the portal andkeep the altar clean. The war swept over France, the battle raged nearthe convent, many of the soldiers were killed and a number injured. These were borne into the hospital that they might be nursed back tostrength, and one of them was given to this young girl. Her nursingwas successful, but he tempted her to leave the convent. They madetheir way to Paris, where she lost everything that makes life worthliving. Then, just a wreck of her former self, she came back again todie within the sound of the convent bell. She touched the portal andinstantly it was opened, not by a girl such as she had been but by awoman such as she might have been--true and noble. She bore her in herarms to her old cell, nursed her back again to a semblance of her oldstrength, and then she slipped into her old place to answer the portaland keep the altar clean, and not a nun in all the convent ever knewthat she had sinned. This is Christ's ministry in our behalf at thistime. Making up for my weakness, answering for my defects, he is myHigh Priest. II "_I am my beloved's. _" This is really better than the first text, because if he is mine, and faith is like a hand of the soul, then faithmay grow weary and the result would be sad; if I am his and he holds methen that is different. In John the tenth chapter, the twenty-eighthto the thirtieth verses, we have a picture of the true sheepfold and ofthe place where the child of God may rest, held in the hand of God andof his dear son. "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shallnever perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Myfather, which gave them unto me, is greater than all; and no man isable to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. "What a joy it is to know that we are his! First: His by redemption, for we are redeemed not with corruptiblethings such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. "Ye are not your own but ye are bought with a price. " Second: We are his because God gave us to him; in his wonderfulintercessory prayer Jesus said, "Thou gavest them to me, " and again, "Ye are not our own. " Third: We are his because again and again we have said so with ourlips. How true the text is, then, in the light of the Scripture! Ifthis is true then what is consecration? It is not giving Godsomething, for how could we give him that which is already his own?Consecration is simply taking our hands off and letting him have hisway with us in everything. The late George Macgregor used to tell the story of one of the bishopsof the Church of England, who had an invalid wife and who never couldsurrender beyond a certain point. He was unwilling to say that hewould give up his wife, for God might call him to some mission he couldnot perform, and she had been the constant object of his care. But atlast he won the victory and rose from his knees to say to his friendthat the surrender should be complete, and then they went into the roomof his invalid wife to tell her. With a sweet smile upon her face shesaid, "I have reached the same decision and you can go to the ends ofthe earth if need be. " That night the old bishop's wife died and whenthey went across the hall to tell the bishop there was no answer totheir knock. When they entered the door they found the bishop witheyes closed, hands folded and heart still. He, too, had gone. God didnot want to separate them. He wanted them to be united, their willssurrendered to him and then he would send them in the same chariot upinto heaven. III "_I am my beloved's, and his desire is towards me. _" If we would knowGod's desire for us we have only to study the Scriptures, and if weshould fulfill his desires we would have an experience of heaven uponearth. First: It is his desire that we should be holy. Ephesians 1:4, "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of theworld, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. "Holiness in not sinlessness, it is to the spiritual nature what healthis to the physical life. In other words, God desires that we should bespiritually healthy, and this we cannot be with secret sins in ourlives. Second: It is his desire that we should be sanctified. 1 Thessalonians4:3, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that yeshould abstain from fornication. " Sanctification is not sinlessness, it is separation. It is absolutelyuseless to think of pleasing God if we are in touch with the world inany way, for since the days of the crucifixion it has been against him. Third: It is his desire that we should present ourselves unto him inthe sense above suggested--namely, that we should take our hands offfrom ourselves and allow him to direct and to control his ownpossession. Romans 12:1-2, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by themercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be notconformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of yourmind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. " Romans 6:13, "Neither yield ye your members asinstruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instrumentsof righteousness unto God. " In these expressions the tense of the verbindicates that the action is to be definite and that it is to be onceand for all. He has certain desires for us also expressed in theseventeenth chapter of John. First: He desires that we should have joy. Joy is better thanhappiness; happiness depends upon our surroundings and circumstances, joy has nothing to do with these but rather is the result of centeringour affections upon him. Second: He desires that we should be one with him. By this I am surehe means that we should be one in our thought of sin, one in our desirefor holiness, one in our efforts to reach the unsaved, and one in ourlonging in all things to be pure and true and good. Third: He desires to make us the object of his love. In thisseventeenth chapter of John he tells us that the same love which he hadfor his son he has for those of us who are in his Son. Thank God forthis. If he must open the windows of heaven to speak forth his lovefor that Son and then has the same for us, oh, what joy it is to be aChristian!