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-Project Gutenberg's The Way to God and How to Find It, by Dwight Moody
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: The Way to God and How to Find It
-
-Author: Dwight Moody
-
-Release Date: November 10, 2009 [EBook #30449]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAY TO GOD AND HOW TO FIND IT ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Keith G. Richardson
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-THE WAY TO GOD
-
-AND HOW TO FIND IT
-
-
-By D. L. MOODY
-
-
-Fleming H. Revell Company
-
-
-Chicago New York Toronto
-
-_Publishers of Evangelical Literature_
-
-
-
-
-Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1884,
-
-By F. H. REVELL,
-
-In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
-
-
-
-TO THE READER
-
-
-In this small volume I have endeavored to point out the Way to God.
-
-I have embodied in the little book a considerable part of several
-addresses which have been delivered in different cities, both of
-Great Britain and my own country. God has graciously owned them when
-spoken from the pulpit, and I trust will none the less add his
-blessing now they have been put into the printed page with additional
-matter.
-
-I have called attention first to the Love of God, the source of all
-Gifts of Grace; have then endeavored to present truths to meet the
-special needs of representative classes, answering the question, "How
-man can be just with God," hoping thereby to lead souls to Him who is
-"the Way, the Truth and the Life."
-
-The last chapter is specially addressed to Backsliders--a class,
-alas, far too numerous amongst us.
-
-With the earnest prayer and hope that by the blessing of God on these
-pages the reader may be strengthened, established and settled in the
-faith of Christ,
-
-I am, yours in His service,
-
-D. L. Moody
-
-
-
-CONTENTS.
-
-
-Chapter I. "Love that passeth Knowledge"
-
-Chapter II. The Gateway into the Kingdom
-
-Chapter III. The Two Classes
-
-Chapter IV. Words of Counsel
-
-Chapter V. A Divine Saviour
-
-Chapter VI. Repentance and Restitution
-
-Chapter VII. Assurance of Salvation
-
-Chapter VIII. Christ All and in All
-
-Chapter IX. Backsliding
-
-
-
-THE WAY TO GOD.
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-
-"_LOVE THAT PASSETH KNOWLEDGE_."
-
-
-"To know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge."
-
-(Ephesians iii. 19.)
-
-
-If I could only make men understand the real meaning of the words of
-the apostle John--"God is love," I would take that single text, and
-would go up and down the world proclaiming this glorious truth. If
-you can convince a man that you love him you have won his heart. If
-we really make people believe that God loves them, how we should find
-them crowding into the kingdom of heaven! The trouble is that men
-think God hates them; and so they are all the time running away from
-Him.
-
-We built a church in Chicago some years ago; and were very anxious to
-teach the people the love of God. We thought if we could not preach
-it into their hearts we would try and burn it in; so we put right
-over the pulpit in gas-jets these words--God is Love. A man going
-along the streets one night glanced through the door, and saw the
-text. He was a poor prodigal. As he passed on he thought to himself,
-"God is Love! No! He does not love me; for I am a poor miserable
-sinner." He tried to get rid of the text; but it seemed to stand out
-right before him in letters of fire. He went on a little further;
-then turned round, went back, and went into the meeting. He did not
-hear the sermon; but the words of that short text had got deeply
-lodged in his heart, and that was enough. It is of little account
-what men say if the Word of God only gets an entrance into the
-sinner's heart. He staid after the first meeting was over; and I
-found him there weeping like a child. As I unfolded the Scriptures
-and told him how God had loved him all the time, although he had
-wandered so far away, and how God was waiting to receive him and
-forgive him, the light of the Gospel broke into his mind, and he went
-away rejoicing.
-
-There is nothing in this world that men prize so much us they do
-Love. Show me a person who has no one to care for or love him, and I
-will show you one of the most wretched beings on the face of the
-earth. Why do people commit suicide? Very often it is because this
-thought steals in upon them--that no one loves them; and they would
-rather die than live.
-
-I know of no truth in the whole Bible that ought to come home to us
-with such power and tenderness as that of the Love of God; and there
-is no truth in the Bible that Satan would so much like to blot out.
-For more than six thousand years he has been trying to persuade men
-that God does not love them. He succeeded in making our first parents
-believe this lie; and he too often succeeds with their children.
-
-The idea that God does not love us often comes from false teaching.
-Mothers make a mistake in teaching children that God does not love
-them when they do wrong; but only when they do right. That is not
-taught in Scripture. You do not teach your children that when they do
-wrong you hate them. Their wrong-doing does not change your love to
-hate; if it did, you would change your love a great many times.
-Because your child is fretful, or has committed some act of
-disobedience, you do not cast him out as though he did not belong to
-you! No! he is still your child; and you love him. And if men have
-gone astray from God it does not follow that He hates _them_. It is
-the sin that He hates.
-
-I believe the reason why a great many people think God does not love
-them is because they are measuring God by their own small rule, from
-their own standpoint. We love men as long as we consider them worthy
-of our love; when they are not we cast them off. It is not so with
-God. There is a vast difference between human love and Divine love.
-
-In Ephesians iii. 18, we are told of the breadth, and length, and
-depth, and height, of God's love. Many of us think we know something
-of God's love; but centuries hence we shall admit we have never found
-out much about it. Columbus discovered America; but what did he know
-about its great lakes, rivers, forests, and the Mississippi Valley?
-He died, without knowing much about what he had discovered. So, many
-of us have discovered something of the love of God; but there are
-heights, depths and lengths of it we do not know. That Love is a
-great ocean; and we require to plunge into it before we really know
-anything of it. It is said of a Roman Catholic Archbishop of Paris,
-that when he was thrown into prison and condemned to be shot, a
-little while before he was led out to die, he saw a window in his
-cell in the shape of a cross. Upon the top of the cross he wrote
-"height," at the bottom "depth," and at the end of each arm "length."
-He had experienced the truth conveyed in the hymn--
-
-   "When I survey the wondrous Cross,
-   On which the Prince of Glory died."
-
-When we wish to know the love of God we should go to Calvary. Can we
-look upon that scene, and say God did not love us? That cross speaks
-of the love of God. Greater love never has been taught than that
-which the cross teaches. What prompted God to give up Christ?--what
-prompted Christ to die?--if it were not love? "Greater love hath no
-man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Christ
-laid down His life for His enemies; Christ laid down His life for His
-murderers; Christ laid down His life for them that hated Him; and the
-spirit of the cross, the spirit of Calvary, is love. When they were
-mocking Him and deriding Him, what did He say? "Father, forgive them,
-for they know not what they do." That is love. He did not call down
-fire from heaven to consume them; there was nothing but love in His
-heart.
-
-If you study the Bible you will find that the love of God is
-_unchangeable_. Many who loved you at one time have perhaps grown
-cold in their affection, and turned away from you: it may be that
-their love is changed to hatred. It is not so with God. It is
-recorded of Jesus Christ, just when He was about to be parted from
-His disciples and led away to Calvary, that: "having loved His own
-which were in the world, He loved them unto the end" (John xiii. 1).
-He knew that one of His disciples would betray Him; yet He loved
-Judas. He knew that another disciple would deny Him, and swear that
-he never knew Him; and yet He loved Peter. It was the love which
-Christ had for Peter that broke his heart, and brought him back in
-penitence to the feet of his Lord. For three years Jesus had been
-with the disciples trying to teach them His love, not only by His
-life and words, but by His works. And, on the night of His betrayal,
-He takes a basin of water, girds Himself with a towel, and taking the
-place of a servant, washes their feet; He wanted to convince them of
-His unchanging love.
-
-There is no portion of Scripture I read so often as John xiv; and
-there is none that is more sweet to me. I never tire of reading it.
-Hear what our Lord says, as He pours out His heart to His Disciples:
-"At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and
-I in you. He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is
-that loveth Me: and _he that loveth Me shall be loved by My Father_"
-(xiv. 20,21). Think of the great God who created heaven and earth
-loving you and me! . . . "If a man love Me, he will keep My words;
-and My Father will love him; and We will come unto him, and make Our
-abode with him" (v. 23).
-
-Would to God that our puny minds could grasp this great truth, that
-the Father and the Son so love us that They desire to come and abide
-with us. Not to tarry for a night, but to come and _abide_ in our
-hearts.
-
-We have another passage more wonderful still in John xvii. 23. "I in
-them, and thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that
-the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, _and hast loved them as
-Thou hast loved Me_." I think that is one of the most remarkable
-sayings that ever fell from the lips of Jesus Christ. There is no
-reason why the Father should not love him. He was obedient unto
-death; He never transgressed the Father's law, or turned aside from
-the path of perfect obedience by one hair's breadth. It is very
-different with us; and yet, notwithstanding all our rebellion and
-foolishness, He says that if we are trusting in Christ, the Father
-loves us as He loves the Son. Marvellous love! Wonderful love! That
-God can possibly love us as He loves His own Son seems too good to be
-true. Yet that is the teaching of Jesus Christ.
-
-It is hard to make a sinner believe in this unchangeable love of God.
-When a man has wandered away from God he thinks that God hates him.
-We must make a distinction between sin and the sinner. God loves the
-sinner; but He hates the sin. He hates sin, because it mars human
-life. It is just because God loves the sinner that He hates sin.
-
-God's love is not only unchangeable, but _unfailing_. In Isaiah xlix.
-15, 16 we read: "Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should
-not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget; yet
-will I not forget thee. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of
-My hands; thy walls are continually before Me."
-
-Now the strongest human love that we know of is a _mother's love_.
-Many things will separate a man from his wife. A father may turn his
-back on his child; brothers and sisters may become inveterate
-enemies; husbands may desert their wives; wives, their husbands. But
-a mother's love endures through all. In good repute, in bad repute,
-in the face of the world's condemnation, a mother loves on, and hopes
-that her child may turn from his evil ways and repent. She remembers
-the infant smiles, the merry laugh of childhood, the promise of
-youth; and she can never be brought to think him unworthy. Death
-cannot quench a mother's love; it is stronger than death.
-
-You have seen a mother watching over her sick child. How willingly
-she would take the disease into her own body if she could thus
-relieve her child! Week after week she will keep watch; she will let
-no one else take care of that sick child.
-
-A friend of mine, some time ago, was visiting in a beautiful home
-where he met a number of friends. After they had all gone away,
-having left something behind, he went back to get it. There he found
-the lady of the house, a wealthy lady, sitting behind a poor fellow
-who looked like a tramp. _He was her own son_. Like the prodigal, he
-had wandered far away: yet the mother said, "This is my boy; I love
-him still." Take a mother with nine or ten children, if one goes
-astray, she seems to love that one more than any of the rest.
-
-A leading minister in the state of New York once told me of a father
-who was a very bad character. The mother did all she could to prevent
-the contamination of the boy; but the influence of the father was
-stronger, and he led his son into all kinds of sin until the lad
-became one of the worst of criminals. He committed murder, and was
-put on his trial. All through the trial, the widowed mother (for the
-father had died) sat in the court. When the witnesses testified
-against the boy it seemed to hurt the mother much more than the son.
-When he was found guilty and sentenced to die, every one else feeling
-the justice of the verdict, seemed satisfied at the result. But the
-mother's love never faltered. She begged for a reprieve; but that was
-denied. After the execution she craved for the body; and this also
-was refused. According to custom, it was buried in the prison yard. A
-little while afterwards the mother herself died; but, before she was
-taken away, she expressed a desire to be buried by the side of her
-boy. She was not ashamed of being known as the mother of a murderer.
-
-The story is told of a young woman in Scotland, who left her home,
-and became an outcast in Glasgow. Her mother sought her far and wide,
-but in vain. At last, she caused her picture to be hung upon the
-walls of the Midnight Mission rooms, where abandoned women resorted.
-Many gave the picture a passing glance. One lingered by the picture.
-It is the same dear face that looked down upon her in her childhood.
-She has not forgotten nor cast off her sinning child; or her picture
-would never have been hung upon those walls. The lips seemed to open,
-and whisper, "Come home; I forgive you, and love you still." The poor
-girl sank down overwhelmed with her feelings. She was the prodigal
-daughter. The sight of her mother's face had broken her heart. She
-became truly penitent for her sins, and with a heart full of sorrow
-and shame, returned to her forsaken home; and mother and daughter
-were once more united.
-
-But let me tell you that no mother's love is to be compared with the
-love of God; it does not measure the height of the depth of God's
-love. No mother in this world ever loved her child as God loves you
-and me. Think of the love that God must have had when He gave His Son
-to die for the world. I used to think a good deal more of Christ than
-I did of the Father. Somehow or other I had the idea that God was a
-stern judge; that Christ came between me and God, and appeased the
-anger of God. But after I became a father, and for years had an only
-son, as I looked at my boy I thought of the Father giving His Son to
-die; and it seemed to me as if it required more love for the Father
-to give His Son than for the Son to die. Oh, the love that God must
-have had for the world when He gave His Son to die for it! "God so
-loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
-believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John
-iii. 16). I have never been able to preach from that text. I have
-often thought I would; but it is so high that I can never climb to
-its height; I have just quoted it and passed on. Who can fathom the
-depth of those words: "God so loved the world?" We can never scale
-the heights of His love or fathom its depths. Paul prayed that he
-might know the height, the depth, the length, and the breadth, of the
-love of God; but it was past his finding out. It "passeth knowledge"
-(Eph. iii. 19).
-
-Nothing speaks to us of the love of God, like the cross of Christ.
-Come with me to Calvary, and look upon the Son of God as He hangs
-there. Can you hear that piercing cry from His dying lips: "Father,
-forgive them; for they know not what they do!" and say that He does
-not love you? "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay
-down his life for his friends" (John xv. 13). But Jesus Christ laid
-down His life _for his enemies_.
-
-Another thought is this: He loved us long before we ever thought of
-Him. The idea that he does not love us until we first love Him is not
-to be found in Scripture. In 1 John iv. 10, it is written: "Herein is
-love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son
-to be the propitiation for our sins." He loved us before we ever
-thought of loving Him. You loved your children before they knew
-anything about your love. And so, long before we ever thought of God,
-we were in His thoughts.
-
-What brought the prodigal home? It was the thought that his father
-loved him. Suppose the news had reached him that he was cast off, and
-that his father did not care for him any more, would he have gone
-back? Never! But the thought dawned upon him that his father loved
-him still: so he rose up, and went back to his home. Dear reader, the
-love of the Father ought to bring us back to Him. It was Adam's
-calamity and sin that revealed God's love. When Adam fell God came
-down and dealt in mercy with him. If any one is lost it will not be
-because God does not love him: it will be because he has resisted the
-love of God.
-
-What will make Heaven attractive? Is it the pearly gates or the
-golden streets? No. Heaven will be attractive, because there we shall
-behold Him who loved us so much as to give His only-begotten Son to
-die for us. What makes home attractive? Is it the beautiful furniture
-and stately rooms? No; some homes with all these are like whited
-sepulchres. In Brooklyn a mother was dying; and it was necessary to
-take her child from her, because the little child could not
-understand the nature of the sickness, and disturbed her mother.
-Every night the child sobbed herself to sleep in a neighbor's house,
-because she wanted to go back to her mother's; but the mother grew
-worse, and they could not take the child home. At last the mother
-died; and after her death they thought it best not to let the child
-see her dead mother in her coffin. After the burial the child ran
-into one room crying "Mamma! mamma!" and then into another crying
-"Mamma! mamma!" and so went over the whole house: and when the little
-creature failed to find that loved one she cried to be taken back to
-the neighbors. So what makes heaven attractive is the thought that we
-shall see Christ who has loved us and given Himself for us.
-
-If you ask me why God should love us, I cannot tell. I suppose it is
-because He is a true Father. It is His nature to love; just as it is
-the nature of the sun to shine. He wants you to share in that love.
-Do not let unbelief keep you away from Him. Do not think that,
-because you are a sinner, God does not love you, or care for you. He
-does! He wants to save you and bless you.
-
-"When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
-ungodly" (Rom. v. 6). Is that not enough to convince you that He
-loves you? He would not have died for you if He had not loved you. Is
-your heart so hard that you can brace yourself up against His love,
-and spurn and despise it? You _can_ do it; but it will be at your
-peril.
-
-I can imagine some saying to themselves, "Yes, we believe that God
-loves us, if we love Him; we believe that God loves the pure and the
-holy." Let me say, my friend, not only does God love the pure and the
-holy: He also loves the ungodly. "God commendeth His love toward us,
-in that, _while we were yet sinners_, Christ died for us" (Rom. v.
-8). God sent him to die for the sins of the whole world. If you
-belong to the world, then you have part and lot in this love that has
-been exhibited in the cross of Christ.
-
-There is a passage in Revelation (i. 5.) which I think a great deal
-of--"Unto Him that loved us, and washed us." It might be thought that
-God would first wash us, and then love us. But no, He first loved us.
-About eight years ago the whole country was intensely excited about
-Charlie Ross, a child of four years old, who was stolen. Two men in a
-gig asked him and an elder brother if they wanted some candy. They
-then drove away with the younger boy, leaving the elder one. For many
-years a search has been made in every State and territory. Men have
-been over to Great Britain, France, and Germany, and have hunted in
-vain for the child. The mother still lives in the hope that she will
-see her long lost Charlie. I never remember the whole country to have
-been so much agitated about any event unless it was the assassination
-of President Garfield. Well, suppose the mother of Charlie Ross were
-in some meeting; and that while the preacher was speaking, she
-happened to look down amongst the audience and see her long lost son.
-Suppose that he was poor, dirty and ragged, shoeless and coatless,
-what would she do? Would she wait till he was washed and decently
-clothed before she would acknowledge him? No, she would get off the
-platform at once, rush towards him and take him in her arms. After
-that she would cleanse and clothe him. So it is with God. He loved
-us, and washed us. I can imagine one saying, "If God loves me, why
-does He not make me good?" God wants sons and daughters in heaven; He
-does not want machines or slaves. He could break our stubborn hearts,
-but He wants to draw us towards Himself by the cords of love.
-
-He wanted you to sit down with Him at the marriage supper of the
-Lamb; to wash you, and make you whiter than snow. He wants you to
-walk with Him the crystal pavement of yonder blissful world. He wants
-to adopt you into His family; and to make you a son or a daughter of
-heaven. Will you trample His love under your feet? or will you, this
-hour, give yourself to Him?
-
-When our terrible civil war was going on, a mother received the news
-that her boy had been wounded in the battle of the Wilderness. She
-took the first train, and started for her boy, although the order had
-gone forth from the War Department that no more women should be
-admitted within the lines. But a mother's love knows nothing about
-orders so she managed by tears and entreaties to get through the
-lines to the Wilderness. At last she found the hospital where her boy
-was. Then she went to the doctor and she said: "Will you let me go to
-the ward and nurse my boy?"
-
-The doctor said: "I have just got your boy to sleep; he is in a very
-critical state; and I am afraid if you wake him up the excitement
-will be so great that it will carry him off. You had better wait
-awhile, and remain without until I tell him that you have come, and
-break the news gradually to him." The mother looked into the doctor's
-face and said: "Doctor, supposing my boy does not wake up, and I
-should never see him alive! Let me go and sit down by his side; I
-won't speak to him." "If you will not speak to him you may do so,"
-said the doctor.
-
-She crept to the cot and looked into the face of her boy. How she had
-longed to look at him! How her eyes seemed to be feasting as she
-gazed upon his countenance! When she got near enough she could not
-keep her hands off; she laid that tender, loving hand upon his brow.
-The moment the hand touched the forehead of her boy, he, without
-opening his eyes, cried out: "Mother, you have come!" He knew the
-touch of that loving hand. There was love and sympathy in it.
-
-Ah, sinner, if you feel the loving touch of Jesus you will recognize
-it; it is so full of tenderness. The world may treat you unkindly;
-but Christ never will. You will never have a better Friend in this
-world. What you need is--to come today to Him. Let His loving arm be
-underneath you; let His loving hand be about you; and He will hold
-you with mighty power. He will keep you, and fill that heart of yours
-with His tenderness and love.
-
-I can imagine some of you saying, "How shall I go to Him?" Why, just
-as you would go to your mother. Have you done your mother a great
-injury and a great wrong? If so, you go to her and you say, "Mother,
-I want you to forgive me." Treat Christ in the same way. Go to Him
-to-day and tell Him that you have not loved Him, that you have not
-treated Him right; confess you sins, and see how quickly He will
-bless you.
-
-I am reminded of another incident--that of a boy who had been tried
-by court-martial and ordered to be shot. The hearts of the father and
-mother were broken when they heard the news. In that home was a
-little girl. She had read the life of Abraham Lincoln, and she said:
-"Now, if Abraham Lincoln knew how my father and mother loved their
-boy, he would not let my brother be shot." She wanted her father to
-go to Washington to plead for his boy. But the father said: "No;
-there is no use; the law must take its course. They have refused to
-pardon one or two who have been sentenced by that court-martial, and
-an order has gone forth that the President is not going to interfere
-again; if a man has been sentenced by court-martial he must suffer
-the consequences." That father and mother had not faith to believe
-that their boy might be pardoned.
-
-But the little girl was strong in hope; she got on the train away up
-in Vermont, and started off to Washington. When she reached the White
-House the soldiers refused to let her in; but she told her pitiful
-story, and they allowed her to pass. When she got to the Secretary's
-room, where the President's private secretary was, he refused to
-allow her to enter the private office of the President. But the
-little girl told her story, and it touched the heart of the private
-secretary; so he passed her in. As she went into Abraham Lincoln's
-room, there were United States senators, generals, governors and
-leading politicians, who were there about important business about
-the war; but the President happened to see that child standing at his
-door. He wanted to know what she wanted, and she went right to him
-and told her story in her own language. He was a father, and the
-great tears trickled down Abraham Lincoln's cheeks. He wrote a
-dispatch ard sent it to the army to have that boy sent to Washington
-at once. When he arrived, the President pardoned him, gave him thirty
-days furlough, and sent him home with the little girl to cheer the
-hearts of the father and mother.
-
-Do you want to know how to go to Christ? Go just as that little girl
-went to Abraham Lincoln. It may be possible that you have a dark
-story to tell. Tell it all out; keep nothing back. If Abraham Lincoln
-had compassion on that little girl, heard her petition and answered
-it, do you think the Lord Jesus will not hear your prayer? Do, you
-think that Abraham Lincoln, or any man that ever lived on earth, had
-as much compassion as Christ? No! He will be touched when no one else
-will; He will have mercy when no one else will; He will have pity
-when no one else will. If you will go right to Him, confessing your
-sin and your need, He will save you.
-
-A few years ago a man left England and went to America. He was an
-Englishman; but he was naturalized, and so became an American
-citizen. After a few years he felt restless and dissatisfied, and
-went to Cuba; and after he had been in Cuba a little while civil war
-broke out there; it was in 1867; and this man was arrested by the
-Spanish government as a spy. He was tried by court-martial, found
-guilty and ordered to be shot. The whole trial was conducted in the
-Spanish language, and the poor man did not know what was going on.
-When they told him the verdict, that he was found guilty and had been
-condemned to be shot, he sent to the American Consul and the English
-Consul, and laid the whole case before them, proving his innocence
-and claiming protection. They examined the case, and found that this
-man whom the Spanish officers had condemned to be shot was perfectly
-innocent; they went to the Spanish General and said, "Look here, this
-man whom you have condemned to death is an innocent man; he is not
-guilty." But the Spanish General said, "He has been tried by our law;
-he has been found guilty; he must die." There was no electric cable;
-and these men could not consult with their governments.
-
-The morning came on which the man was to be executed. He was brought
-out sitting on his coffin in a cart, and drawn to the place where he
-was to be executed. A grave was dug. They took the coffin out of the
-cart, placed the young man upon it, took the black cap, and were just
-pulling it down over his face. The Spanish soldiers awaited the order
-to fire. But just then the American and English Consuls rode up. The
-English Consul sprang out of the carriage and took the union jack,
-the British flag, and wrapped it around the man, and the American
-Consul wrapped around him the star-spangled banner, and then turning
-to the Spanish officers they said: "Fire upon those flags if you
-dare." They did not dare to fire upon the flags. There were two great
-governments behind those flags. That was the secret of it.
-
-"He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me was
-love. . . . His left hand is under my head, and His right hand doth
-embrace me" (Song Sol. ii. 4, 6). Thank God we can come under the
-banner to-day if we will. Any, poor sinner can come under that banner
-to-day. His banner of love is over us. Blessed Gospel; blessed,
-precious, news. Believe it to-day; receive it into your heart; and
-enter into a new life. Let the love of God be shed abroad in your
-heart by the Holy Ghost to-day: it will drive away darkness; it will
-drive away gloom; it will drive away sin; and peace and joy shall be
-yours.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
-
-_THE GATEWAY INTO THE KINGDOM_.
-
-
-"Except a man be born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God."
-
-(John iii. 3.)
-
-
-There is no portion of the Word of God, perhaps, with which we are
-more familiar than this passage. I suppose if I were to ask those in
-any audience if they believed that Jesus Christ taught the doctrine
-of the New Birth, nine tenths of them would say: "Yes, I believe He
-did."
-
-Now if the words of this text are true they embody one of the most
-solemn questions that can come before us. We can afford to be
-deceived about many things rather than about this one thing. Christ
-makes it very plain. He says, "Except a man be born again, he cannot
-_see_ the Kingdom of God"--much less inherit it. This doctrine of the
-New Birth is therefore the foundation of all our hopes for the world
-to come. It is really the A B C of the Christian religion. My
-experience has been this--that if a man is unsound on this doctrine
-he will be unsound on almost every other fundamental doctrine in the
-Bible. A true understanding of this subject will help a man to solve
-a thousand difficulties that he may meet with in the Word of God.
-Things that before seemed very dark and mysterious will become very
-plain.
-
-The doctrine of the New Birth upsets all false religion--all false
-views about the Bible and about God. A friend of mine once told me
-that in one of his after-meetings, a man came to him with a long list
-of questions written out for him to answer. He said: "If you can
-answer these questions satisfactorily, I have made up my mind to be a
-Christian." "Do you not think," said my friend, "that you had better
-come to Christ first? Then you can look into these questions." The
-man thought that perhaps he had better do so. After he had received
-Christ, he looked again at his list of questions; but then it seemed
-to him as if they had all been answered. Nicodemus came with his
-troubled mind, and Christ said to him, "Ye must be born again." He
-was treated altogether differently from what he expected; but I
-venture to say that was the most blessed night in all his life. To be
-"born again" is the greatest blessing that will ever come to us in
-this world.
-
-Notice how the Scripture puts it. "Except a man be born again," "born
-from above,"[Note: John iii. 3. _Marginal reading_] "born of the
-Spirit." From amongst a number of other passages where we find this
-word "except," I would just name three. "Except ye repent, ye shall
-all likewise perish." (Luke xiii. 3, 5.) "Except ye be converted, and
-become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of
-heaven." (Matt. xviii. 3.) "Except your righteousness shall exceed
-the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case
-enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. v. 20.) They all really
-mean the same thing.
-
-I am so thankful that our Lord spoke of the New Birth to this ruler
-of the Jews, this doctor of the law, rather than to the woman at the
-well of Samaria, or to Matthew the publican, or to Zaccheus. If He
-had reserved his teaching on this great matter for these three, or
-such as these, people would have said: "Oh yes, these publicans and
-harlots need to be converted: but I am an upright man; I do not need
-to be converted." I suppose Nicodemus was one of the best specimens
-of the people of Jerusalem: there was nothing on record against him.
-
-I think it is scarcely necessary for me to prove that we need to be
-born again before we are meet for heaven. I venture to say that there
-is no candid man but would say he is not fit for the kingdom of God,
-until he is born of another Spirit. The Bible teaches us that man by
-nature is lost and guilty, and our experience confirms this. We know
-also that the best and holiest man, if he turn away from God, will
-very soon fall into sin.
-
-Now, let me say what Regeneration is not. It is not going to church.
-Very often I see people, and ask them if they are Christians. "Yes,
-of course I am; at least, I think I am: I go to church every Sunday."
-Ah, but this is not Regeneration. Others say, "I am trying to do what
-is right--am I not a Christian? Is not that a new birth?" No. What
-has that to do with being born again? There is yet another
-class--those who have "turned over a new leaf," and think they are
-regenerated. No; forming a new resolution is not being born again.
-
-Nor will being baptized do you any good. Yet you hear people say,
-"Why, I have been baptized; and I was born again when I was
-baptized." They believe that because they were baptized into the
-church, they were baptized into the Kingdom of God. I tell you that
-it is utterly impossible. You may be baptized into the church, and
-yet not be baptized into the Son of God. Baptism is all right in its
-place. God forbid that I should say anything against it. But if you
-put that in the place of Regeneration--in the place of the New Birth--it
-is a terrible mistake. You cannot be baptized into the Kingdom of
-God. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God."
-If any one reading this rests his hopes on anything else--on any
-other foundation--I pray that God may sweep it away.
-
-Another class say, "I go to the Lord's Supper; I partake uniformly of
-the Sacrament." Blessed ordinance! Jesus hath said that as often as
-ye do it ye commemorate His death. Yet, that is not being "born
-again;" that is not passing from death unto life. Jesus says plainly--and
-so plainly that there need not be any mistake about it--"Except
-a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of
-God." What has a sacrament to do with that? What has going to church
-to do with being born again?
-
-Another man comes up and says, "I say my prayers regularly." Still I
-say that is not being born of the Spirit. It is a very solemn
-question, then, that comes up before us; and oh! that every reader
-would ask himself earnestly and faithfully: "Have I been born again?
-Have I been born of the Spirit? Have I passed from death unto life?"
-
-There is a class of men who say that special religious meetings are
-very good for a certain class of people. They would be very good if
-you could get the drunkard there, or get the gambler there, or get
-other vicious people there--that would do a great deal of good. But
-"we do not need to be converted." To whom did Christ utter these
-words of wisdom? To Nicodemus. Who was Nicodemus? Was he a drunkard,
-a gambler, or a thief? No! No doubt he was one of the very best men
-in Jerusalem. He was an honorable Councillor; he belonged to the
-Sanhedrim; he held a very high position; he was an orthodox man; he
-was one of the very soundest men. And yet what did Christ say to him?
-"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
-
-But I can imagine some one saying, "What am I to do? I cannot create
-life. I certainly cannot save myself." You certainly cannot; and we
-do not claim that you can. We tell you it is utterly impossible to
-make a man better without Christ; but that is what men are trying to
-do. They are trying to patch up this "old Adam" nature. There must be
-a new creation. Regeneration is a new creation; and if it is a new
-creation it must be the work of God. In the first chapter of Genesis
-man does not appear. There is no one there but God. Man is not there
-to take part. When God created the earth He was alone. When Christ
-redeemed the world He was alone.
-
-"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of
-the Spirit is spirit." (John iii. 6.) The Ethiopian cannot change his
-skin, and the leopard cannot change his spots. You might as well try
-to make yourselves pure and holy without the help of God. It would be
-just as easy for you to do that as for the black man to wash himself
-white. A man might just as well try to leap over the moon as to serve
-God in the flesh. Therefore, "that which is born of the flesh is
-flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
-
-Now God tells us in this chapter how we are to get into His kingdom.
-We are not to work our way in--not but that salvation is worth
-working for. We admit all that. If there were rivers and mountains in
-the way, it would be well worth while to swim those rivers, and climb
-those mountains. There is no doubt that salvation is worth all that
-effort; but we do not obtain it by our works. It is "to him that
-worketh not, but believeth" (Rom. iv. 5). We work because we are
-saved; we do not work to be saved. We work from the cross; but not
-towards it. It is written, "Work out your own salvation with fear and
-trembling" (Phil. ii. 12). Why, you must have your salvation before
-you can work it out. Suppose I say to my little boy, "I want you to
-spend that hundred dollars carefully." "Well," he says, "let me have
-the hundred dollars; and I will be careful how I spend it." I
-remember when I first left home and went to Boston; I had spent all
-my money, and I went to the post-office three times a day. I knew
-there was only one mail a day from home; but I thought by some
-possibility there might be a letter for me. At last I received a
-letter from my little sister; and oh, how glad I was to get it. She
-had heard that there were a great many pick-pockets in Boston, and a
-large part of that letter was to urge me to be very careful not to
-let anybody pick my pocket. Now I required to have something in my
-pocket before I could have it picked. So you must have salvation
-before you can work it out.
-
-When Christ cried out on Calvary, "It is finished!" He meant what He
-said. All that men have to do now is just to accept of the work of
-Jesus Christ. There is no hope for man or woman so long as they are
-trying to work out salvation for themselves. I can imagine there are
-some people who will say, as Nicodemus possibly did, "This is a very
-mysterious thing." I see the scowl on that Pharisee's brow as he
-says, "How can these things be?" It sounds very strange to his ear.
-"Born again; born of the Spirit! How can these things be?" A great
-many people say, "You must reason it out; but if you do not reason it
-out, do not ask us to believe it." I can imagine a great many people
-saying that. When you ask me to reason it out, I tell you frankly I
-cannot do it. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest
-the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it
-goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." (John 8.) I do
-not understand everything about the wind. You ask me to reason it
-out. I cannot. It may blow due north here, and a hundred miles away
-due south. I may go up a few hundred feet, and find it blowing in an
-entirely opposite direction from what it is down here. You ask me to
-explain these currents of wind; but suppose that, because I cannot
-explain them, and do not understand them, I were to take my stand and
-assert, "Oh, there is no such thing as wind." I can imagine some
-little girl saying, "I know more about it than that man does; often
-have I heard the wind, and felt it blowing against my face;" and she
-might say, "Did not the wind blow my umbrella out of my hands the
-other day? and did I not see it blow a man's hat off in the street?
-Have I not seen it blow the trees in the forest, and the growing corn
-in the country?"
-
-You might just as well tell me that there is no such thing as wind,
-as tell me there is no such thing as a man being born of the Spirit.
-I have felt the spirit of God working in my heart, just as really and
-as truly as I have felt the wind blowing in my face. I cannot reason
-it out. There are a great many things I cannot reason out, but which
-I believe. I never could reason out the creation. I can see the
-world, but I cannot tell how God made it out of nothing. But almost
-every man will admit there was a creative power.
-
-There are a great many things that I cannot explain and cannot reason
-out, and yet that I believe. I heard a commercial traveler say that
-he had heard that the ministry and religion of Jesus Christ were
-matters of revelation and not of investigation. "When it pleased God
-to reveal His Son in Me," says Paul (Gal. i, 15, 16). There was a
-party of young men together, going up the country; and on their
-journey they made up their minds not to believe anything they could
-not reason out. An old man heard them; and presently he said, "I
-heard you say you would not believe anything you could not reason
-out." "Yes," they said, "that is so." "Well," he said, "coming down
-on the train to-day, I noticed some geese, some sheep, some swine,
-and some cattle all eating grass. Can you tell me by what process
-that same grass was turned into hair, feathers, bristles and wool? Do
-you believe it is a fact?" "Oh yes," they said, "we cannot help
-believing that, though we fail to understand it." "Well," said the
-old man, "I cannot help believing in Jesus Christ." And I cannot help
-believing in the regeneration of man, when I see men who have been
-reclaimed, when I see men who have been reformed. Have not some of
-the very worst men been regenerated--been picked up out of the pit,
-and had their feet set upon the Rock, and a new song put in their
-mouths? Their tongues were cursing and blaspheming; and now are
-occupied in praising God. Old things have passed away, and all things
-have become new. They are not reformed only, but regenerated--new men
-in Christ Jesus.
-
-Down there in the dark alleys of one of our great cities is a poor
-drunkard. I think if you want to get near hell, you should go to a
-poor drunkard's home. Go to the house of that poor miserable
-drunkard. Is there anything more like hell on earth? See the want and
-distress that reign there. But hark! A footstep is heard at the door,
-and the children run and hide themselves. The patient wife waits to
-meet the man. He has been her torment. Many a time she has borne
-about the marks of his blows for weeks. Many a time that strong right
-hand has been brought down on her defenseless head. And now she waits
-expecting to hear his oaths and suffer his brutal treatment. He comes
-in and says to her: "I have been to the meeting; and I heard there
-that if I will I can be converted. I believe that God is able to save
-me." Go down to that house again in a few weeks: and what a change!
-As you approach you hear some one singing. It is not the song of a
-reveller, but the strains of that good old hymn, "Rock of Ages." The
-children are no longer afraid of the man, but cluster around his
-knee. His wife is near him, her face lit up with a happy glow. Is not
-that a picture of Regeneration? I can take you to many such homes,
-made happy by the regenerating power of the religion of Christ. What
-men want is the power to overcome temptation, the power to lead a
-right life.
-
-The only way to get into the kingdom of God is to be "born" into it.
-The law of this country requires that the President should be born in
-the country. When foreigners come to our shores they have no right to
-complain against such a law, which forbids them from ever becoming
-Presidents. Now, has not God a right to make a law that all those who
-become heirs of eternal life must be "born" into His kingdom?
-
-An unregenerated man would rather be in hell than in heaven. Take a
-man whose heart is full of corruption and wickedness, and place him
-in heaven among the pure, the holy and the redeemed; and he would not
-want to stay there. Certainly, if we are to be happy in heaven we
-must begin to make a heaven here on earth. Heaven is a prepared place
-for a prepared people. If a gambler or a blasphemer were taken out of
-the streets of New York and placed on the crystal pavement of heaven
-and under the shadow of the tree of life, he would say, "I do not
-want to stay here." If men were taken to heaven just as they are by
-nature, without having their hearts regenerated, there would be
-another rebellion in heaven. Heaven is filled with a company of those
-who have been twice born.
-
-In the 14th and 15th verses of this chapter we read "As Moses lifted
-up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
-lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
-have eternal life." "WHOSOEVER." Mark that! Let me tell you who are
-unsaved what God has done for you. He has done everything that He
-could do toward your salvation. You need not wait for God to do
-anything more. In one place he asks the question, what more could he
-have done (Isaiah v. 4). He sent His prophets, and they killed them;
-then He sent His beloved Son, and they murdered Him. Now He has sent
-the Holy Spirit to convince us of sin, and to show how we are to be
-saved.
-
-In this chapter we are told how men are to be saved, namely, by Him
-who was lifted up on the cross. Just as Moses lifted up the brazen
-serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, "that
-whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."
-Some men complain and say that it is very unreasonable that they
-should be held responsible for the sin of a man six thousand years
-ago. It was not long ago that a man was talking to me about this
-injustice, as he called it. If a man thinks he is going to answer God
-in that way, I tell you it will not do him any good. If you are lost,
-it will not be on account of Adam's sin.
-
-Let me illustrate this; and perhaps you will be better able to
-understand it. Suppose I am dying of consumption, which I inherited
-from my father or mother. I did not get the disease by any fault of
-my own, by any neglect of my health; I inherited it, let us suppose.
-A friend happens to come along: he looks at me, and says: "Moody, you
-are in a consumption." I reply, "I know it very well; I do not want
-any one to tell me that." "But," he says, "there is a remedy." "But,
-sir, I do not believe it. I have tried the leading physicians in this
-country and in Europe; and they tell me there is no hope." "But you
-know me, Moody; you have known me for years." "Yes, sir." "Do you
-think, then, I would tell you a falsehood?" "No." "Well, ten years
-ago I was as far gone. I was given up by the physicians to die; but I
-took this medicine and it cured me. I am perfectly well: look at me."
-I say that it is "a very strange case." "Yes, it may be strange; but
-it is a fact. This medicine cured me: take this medicine, and it will
-cure you. Although it has cost me a great deal, it shall not cost you
-anything. Do not make light of it, I beg of you." "Well," I say, "I
-should like to believe you; but this is contrary to my reason."
-
-Hearing this, my friend goes away and returns with another friend,
-and that one testifies to the same thing. I am still disbelieving; so
-he goes away, and brings in another friend, and another, and another,
-and another; and they all testify to the same thing. They say they
-were as bad as myself; that they took the same medicine that has been
-offered to me; and that it has cured them. My friend then hands me
-the medicine. I dash it to the ground; I do not believe in its saving
-power; I die. The reason is then that I spurned the remedy. So, if
-you perish, it will not be because Adam fell; but because you spurned
-the remedy offered to save you. You will choose darkness rather than
-light. "How then shall ye escape, if ye neglect so great salvation?"
-There is no hope for you if you neglect the remedy. It does no good
-to look at the wound. If we had been in the Israelitish camp and had
-been bitten by one of the fiery serpents, it would have done us no
-good to look at the wound. Looking at the wound will never save any
-one. What you must do is to look at the Remedy--look away to Him who
-hath power to save you from your sin.
-
-Behold the camp of the Israelites; look at the scene that is pictured
-to your eyes! Many are dying because they neglect the remedy that is
-offered. In that arid desert is many a short and tiny grave; many a
-child has been bitten by the fiery serpents. Fathers and mothers are
-bearing away their children. Over yonder they are just burying a
-mother; a loved mother is about to be laid in the earth. All the
-family, weeping, gather around the beloved form. You hear the
-mournful cries; you see the bitter tears. The father is being borne
-away to his last resting place. There is wailing going up all over
-the camp. Tears are pouring down for thousands who have passed away;
-thousands more are dying; and the plague is raging from one end of
-the camp to the other.
-
-I see in one tent an Israelitish mother bending over the form of a
-beloved boy just coming into the bloom of life, just budding into
-manhood. She is wiping away the sweat of death that is gathering upon
-his brow. Yet a little while, and his eyes are fixed and glassy, for
-life is ebbing fast away. The mother's heart-strings are torn and
-bleeding. All at once she hears a noise in the camp. A great shout
-goes up. What does it mean? She goes to the door of the tent. "What
-is the noise in the camp?" she asks those passing by. And some one
-says: "Why, my good woman, have you not heard the good news that has
-come into the camp?" "No," says the woman, "Good news! What is it?"
-"Why, have you not heard about it? God has provided a remedy." "What!
-for the bitten Israelites? Oh, tell me what the remedy is!" "Why, God
-has instructed Moses to make a brazen serpent, and to put it on a
-pole in the middle of the camp; and He has declared that whosoever
-looks upon it shall live. The shout that you hear is the shout of the
-people when they see the serpent lifted up." The mother goes back
-into the tent, and she says: "My boy, I have good news to tell you.
-You need not die! My boy, my boy, I have come with good tidings; you
-can live!" He is already getting stupefied; he is so weak he cannot
-walk to the door of the tent. She puts her strong arms under him and
-lifts him up. "Look yonder; look right there under the hill!" But the
-boy does not see anything; he says--"I do not see anything; what is
-it, mother?" And she says: "Keep looking, and you will see it." At
-last he catches a glimpse of the glistening serpent; and lo, he is
-well! And thus it is with many a young convert. Some men say, "Oh, we
-do not believe in sudden conversions." How long did it take to cure
-that boy? How long did it take to cure those serpent-bitten
-Israelites? It was just a look; and they were well.
-
-That Hebrew boy is a young convert. I can fancy that I see him now
-calling on all those who were with him to praise God. He sees another
-young man bitten as he was; and he runs up to him and tells him,
-"You, need not die." "Oh," the young man replies, "I cannot live; it
-is not possible. There is not a physician in Israel who can cure me."
-He does not know that he need not die. "Why, have you not heard the
-news? God has provided a remedy." "What remedy?" "Why, God has told
-Moses to lift up a brazen serpent, and has said that none of those
-who look upon that serpent shall die." I can just imagine the young
-man. He may be what you call an intellectual young man. He says to
-the young convert "You do not think I am going to believe anything
-like that? If the physicians in Israel cannot cure me, how do you
-think that an old brass serpent on a pole is going to cure me?" "Why,
-sir, I was as bad as yourself!" "You do not say so!" "Yes, I do."
-"That is the most astonishing thing I ever heard," says the young
-man: "I wish you would explain the philosophy of it." "I cannot. I
-only know that I looked at that serpent, and I was cured: that did
-it. I just looked; that is all. My mother told me the reports that
-were being heard through the camp; and I just believed what my mother
-said, and I am perfectly well." "Well, I do not believe you were
-bitten as badly as I have been." The young man pulls up his sleeve.
-"Look there! That mark shows where I was bitten; and I tell you I was
-worse than you are." "Well, if I understood the philosophy of it I
-would look and get well." "Let your philosophy go: _look and live_."
-"But, sir, you ask me to do an unreasonable thing. If God had said,
-Take the brass and rub it into the wound, there might be something in
-the brass that would cure the bite. Young man, explain the philosophy
-of it." I have often seen people before me who have talked in that
-way. But the young man calls in another, and takes him into the tent,
-and says: "Just tell him how the Lord saved you;" and he tells just
-the same story; and he calls in others, and they all say the same
-thing.
-
-The young man says it is a very strange thing. "If the Lord had told
-Moses to go and get some herbs, or roots, and stew them, and take the
-decoction as a medicine, there would be something in that. But it is
-so contrary to nature to do such a thing as look at the serpent, that
-I cannot do it." At length his mother, who has been out in the camp,
-comes in, and she says, "My boy, I have just the best news in the
-world for you. I was in the camp, and I saw hundreds who were very
-far gone, and they are all perfectly well now." The young man says:
-"I should like to get well; it is a very painful thought to die; I
-want to go into the promised land, and it is terrible to die here in
-this wilderness; but the fact is--I do not understand the remedy. It
-does not appeal to my reason. I cannot believe that I can get well in
-a moment." And the young man dies in consequence of his own unbelief.
-
-God provided a remedy for this bitten Israelite--"Look and live!" And
-there is eternal life for every poor sinner, Look, and you can be
-saved, my reader, this very hour. God has provided a remedy; and it
-is offered to all. The trouble is, a great many people are looking at
-the pole. Do not look at the pole; that is the church. You need not
-look at the church; the church is all right, but the church cannot
-save you. Look beyond the pole. Look at the Crucified One. Look to
-Calvary. Bear in mind, sinner, that Jesus died for all. You need not
-look at ministers; they are just God's chosen instruments to hold up
-the Remedy, to hold up Christ. And so, my friends, take your eyes off
-from men; take your eyes off from the church. Lift them up to Jesus;
-who took away the sin of the world, and there will be life for you
-from this hour.
-
-Thank God, we do not require an education to teach us how to look.
-That little girl, that little boy, only four years old, who cannot
-read, can look. When the father is coming home, the mother says to
-her little boy, "Look! look! look!" and the little child learns to
-look long before he is a year old. And that is the way to be saved.
-It is to look at the Lamb of God "who taketh away the sin of the
-world;" and there is life this moment for every one who is willing to
-look.
-
-Some men say, "I wish I knew how to be saved." Just take God at His
-word and trust His Son this very day--this very hour--this very
-moment. He will save you, if you will trust Him. I imagine I hear
-some one saying, "I do not feel the bite as much as I wish I did. I
-know I am a sinner, and all that; but I do not feel the bite enough."
-How much does God want you to feel it?
-
-When I was in Belfast I knew a doctor who had a friend, a leading
-surgeon there; and he told me that the surgeon's custom was, before
-performing any operation, to say to the patient, "Take a good look at
-the wound, and then fix your eyes on me; and do not take them off
-till I get through." I thought at the time that was a good
-illustration. Sinner, take a good look at your wound; and then fix
-your eyes on Christ, and do not take them off. It is better to look
-at the Remedy than at the wound. See what a poor wretched sinner you
-are; and then look at the Lamb of God who "taketh away the sin of the
-world." He died for the ungodly and the sinner. Say "I will take
-Him!" And may God help you to lift your eye to the Man on Calvary.
-And as the Israelites looked upon the serpent and were healed, so may
-you look and live.
-
-After the battle of Pittsburgh Landing I was in a hospital at
-Murfreesbro. In the middle of the night I was aroused and told that a
-man in one of the wards wanted to see me. I went to him and he called
-me "chaplain"--I was not the chaplain--and said he wanted me to help
-him die. And I said, "I would take you right up in my arms and carry
-you into the kingdom of God if I could; but I cannot do it: I cannot
-help you die!" And he said, "Who can?" I said, "The Lord Jesus Christ
-can--He came for that purpose." He shook his head, and said, "He
-cannot save me; I have sinned all my life." And I said, "But He came
-to save sinners." I thought of his mother in the north, and I was
-sure that she was anxious that he should die in peace; so I resolved
-I would stay with him. I prayed two or three times, and repeated all
-the promises I could; for it was evident that in a few hours he would
-be gone. I said I wanted to read him a conversation that Christ had
-with a man who was anxious about his soul. I turned to the third
-chapter of John. His eyes were riveted on me; and when I came to the
-14th and 15th verses--the passage before us--he caught up the words,
-"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
-Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not
-perish, but have eternal life." He stopped me and said, "Is that
-there?" I said "Yes." He asked me to read it again; and I did so. He
-leant his elbows on the cot and clasping his hands together, said,
-"That's good; won't you read it again?" I read it the third time; and
-then went on with the rest of the chapter. When I had finished, his
-eyes were closed, his hands were folded, and there was a smile on his
-face. Oh, how it was lit up! What change had come over it! I saw his
-lips quivering, and leaning over him I heard in a faint whisper, "As
-Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son
-of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not
-perish, but have eternal life." He opened his eyes and said, "That's
-enough; don't read any more." He lingered a few hours, pillowing his
-head on those two verses; and then went up in one of Christ's
-chariots, to take his seat in the kingdom of God.
-
-Christ said to Nicodemus: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see
-the kingdom of God." You may see many countries; but there is one
-country--the land of Beulah, which John Bunyan saw in vision--you
-shall never behold, unless you are born again--regenerated by Christ.
-You can look abroad and see many beautiful trees; but the tree of
-life, you shall never behold, unless your eyes are made clear by
-faith in the Saviour. You may see the beautiful rivers of the earth--you
-may ride upon their bosoms; but bear in mind that your eye will
-never rest upon the river which bursts out from the Throne of God and
-flows through the upper Kingdom, unless you are born again. God has
-said it; and not man. You will never see the kingdom of God except
-you are born again. You may see the kings and lords of the earth; but
-the King of kings and Lord of lords you will never see except you are
-born again. When you are in London you may go to the Tower and see
-the crown of England, which is worth thousands of dollars, and is
-guarded there by soldiers; but bear in mind that your eye will never
-rest upon the crown of life except you are born again.
-
-You may hear the songs of Zion which are sung here; but one song--that
-of Moses and the Lamb--the uncircumcised ear shall never hear;
-its melody will only gladden the ear of those who have been born
-again. You may look upon the beautiful mansions of earth, but bear in
-mind the mansions which Christ has gone to prepare you shall never
-see unless you are born again. It is God who says it. You may see ten
-thousand beautiful things in this world; but the city that Abraham
-caught a glimpse of--and from that time became a pilgrim and
-sojourner--you shall never see unless you are born again (Heb. xi. 8,
-10-16). You may often be invited to marriage feasts here; but you
-will never attend the marriage supper of the Lamb except you are born
-again. It is God who says it, dear friend. You may be looking on the
-face of your sainted mother to-night, and feel that she is praying
-for you; but the time will come when you shall never see her more
-unless you are born again.
-
-The reader may be a young man or a young lady who has recently stood
-by the bedside of a dying mother; and she may have said, "Be sure and
-meet me in heaven," and you made the promise. Ah! you shall never see
-her more, except you are born again. I believe Jesus of Nazareth,
-sooner than those infidels who say you do not need to be born again.
-Parents, if you hope to see your children who have gone before, you
-must be born of the Spirit. Possibly you are a father or a mother who
-has recently borne a loved one to the grave; and how dark your home
-seems! Never more will you see your child, unless you are born again.
-If you wish to be re-united to your loved one, you must be born
-again. I may be addressing a father or a mother who has a loved one
-up yonder. If you could hear that loved one's voice, it would say,
-"Come this way." Have you a sainted friend up yonder? Young man or
-young lady, have you not a mother in the world of light? If you could
-hear her speak, would not she say, "Come this way, my son,"--"Come
-this way, my daughter?" If you would ever see her more you must be
-born again.
-
-We all have an Elder Brother there. Nearly nineteen hundred years ago
-He crossed over, and from the heavenly shores He is calling you to
-heaven. Let us turn our backs upon the world. Let us give a deaf ear
-to the world. Let us look to Jesus on the Cross and be saved. Then we
-shall one day see the King in His beauty, and we shall go no more
-out.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-
-_THE TWO CLASSES_.
-
-
-"Two men went up into the temple to pray."--Luke xvii. 10.
-
-
-I now want to speak of two classes: First, those who do not feel
-their need of a Saviour who have not been convinced of sin by the
-Spirit; and Second, those who are convinced of sin and cry, "What
-must I do to be saved?"
-
-All inquirers can be ranged under two heads: they have either the
-spirit of the Pharisee, or the spirit of the publican. If a man
-having the spirit of the Pharisee comes into an after-meeting, I know
-of no better portion of Scripture to meet his case than Romans iii.
-10: "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is
-none that understandeth; there is none that seeketh after God." Paul
-is here speaking of the natural man. "They are all gone out of the
-way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth
-good, no, not one." And in the 17th verse and those which follow, we
-have "And the way of peace have they not known; there is no fear of
-God before their eyes. Now we know what things soever the law saith,
-it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be
-stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God."
-
-Then observe the last clause of verse 22: "For there is no
-difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
-Not part of the human family--but _all_--"have sinned, and come short
-of the glory of God." Another verse which has been very much used to
-convict men of their sin is 1 John i. 8: "If we say that we have no
-sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
-
-I remember that on one occasion we were holding meetings in an
-eastern city of forty thousand inhabitants; and a lady came and asked
-us to pray for her husband, whom she purposed bringing into the after
-meeting. I have traveled a good deal and met many pharisaical men;
-but this man was so clad in self-righteousness that you could not get
-the point of the needle of conviction in anywhere. I said to his
-wife: "I am glad to see your faith; but we cannot get near him; he is
-the most self-righteous man I ever saw." She said: "You must! My
-heart will break if these meetings end without his conversion." She
-persisted in bringing him; and I got almost tired of the sight of
-him.
-
-But towards the close of our meetings of thirty days, he came up to
-me and put his trembling hand on my shoulder. The place in which the
-meetings were held was rather cold, and there was an adjoining room
-in which only the gas had been lighted; and he said to me, "Can't you
-come in here for a few minutes?" I thought that he was shaking from
-cold, and I did not particularly wish to go where it was colder. But
-he said: "I am the worst man in the State of Vermont. I want you to
-pray for me." I thought he had committed a murder, or some other
-awful crime; and I asked: "Is there any one sin that particularly
-troubles you?" And he said: "My whole life has been a sin. I have
-been a conceited, self-righteous Pharisee. I want you to pray for
-me." He was under deep conviction. Man could not have produced this
-result; but the Spirit had. About two o'clock in the morning light
-broke in upon his soul: and he went up and down the business street
-of the city and told what God had done for him; and has been a most
-active Christian ever since.
-
-There are four other passages in dealing with inquirers, which were
-used by Christ Himself. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a
-man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John iii. 3.)
-
-In Luke xiii. 3, we read: "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise
-perish."
-
-In Matthew xviii., when the disciples came to Jesus to know who was
-to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, we are told that He took
-a little child and set him in the midst and said, "Verily I say unto
-you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall
-not enter the kingdom of heaven" (xviii. 1-3).
-
-There is another important "Except" in Matthew v. 20: "Except your
-righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and
-Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven."
-
-A man must be made meet before he will want to go into the kingdom of
-God. I would rather go into the kingdom with the younger brother than
-stay outside with the elder. Heaven would be hell to such an one. An
-elder brother who could not rejoice at his younger brother's return
-would not be "fit" for the kingdom of God. It is a solemn thing to
-contemplate; but the curtain drops and leaves him outside, and the
-younger brother within. To him the language of the Saviour under
-other circumstances seems appropriate: "Verily I say unto you, That
-the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you"
-(Matt. xxi. 31).
-
-A lady once came to me and wanted a favor for her daughter. She said:
-"You must remember I do not sympathize with you in your doctrine." I
-asked: "What is your trouble?" She said: "I think your abuse of the
-elder brother is horrible. I think he is a noble character." I said
-that I was willing to hear her defend him; but that it was a solemn
-thing to take up such a position; and that the elder brother needed
-to be converted as much as the younger. When people talk of being
-moral it is well to get them to take a good look at the old man
-pleading with his boy who would not go in.
-
-But we will pass on now to the other class with which we have to
-deal. It is composed of those who are convinced of sin and from whom
-the cry comes as from the Philippian jailer, "What must I do to be
-saved?" To those who utter this penitential cry there is no necessity
-to administer the law. It is well to bring them straight to the
-Scripture: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
-saved." (Acts xvi. 31). Many will meet you with a scowl and say, "I
-don't know what it is to believe;" and though it is the law of heaven
-that they must believe, in order to be saved--yet they ask for
-something besides that. We are to tell them what, and where, and how,
-to believe.
-
-In John iii. 35 and 36 we read: "The Father loveth the Son, and hath
-given all things into His hand. He that believeth on the Son hath
-everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see
-life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."
-
-Now this looks reasonable. Man lost life by unbelief--by not
-believing God's word; and we got life back again by believing--by
-taking God at His word. In other words we get up where Adam fell
-down. He stumbled and fell over the stone of unbelief; and we are
-lifted up and stand upright by believing. When people say they cannot
-believe, show them chapter and verse, and hold them right to this one
-thing: "Has God ever broken His promise for these six thousand
-years?" The devil and men have been trying all the time and have not
-succeeded in showing that He has broken a single promise; and there
-would be a jubilee in hell to-day if one word that He has spoken
-could be broken. If a man says that he cannot believe it is well to
-press him on that one thing.
-
-I can believe God better to-day than I can my own heart. "The heart
-is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know
-it?" (Jer. xxii. 9). I can believe God better than I can myself. If
-you want to know the way of Life, believe that Jesus Christ is a
-personal Saviour; cut away from all doctrines and creeds, and come
-right to the heart of the Son of God. If you have been feeding on dry
-doctrine there is not much growth on that kind of food. Doctrines are
-to the soul what the streets which lead to the house of a friend who
-has invited me to dinner are to the body. They will lead me there if
-I take the right one; but if I remain in the streets my hunger will
-never be satisfied. Feeding on doctrines is like trying to live on
-dry husks; and lean indeed must the soul remain which partakes not of
-the Bread sent down from heaven.
-
-Some ask: "How am I to get my heart warmed?" It is by believing. You
-do not get power to love and serve God until you believe.
-
-The apostle John says "If we receive the witness of men, the witness
-of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He hath
-testified of His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the
-witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar;
-because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And
-this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this
-life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath
-not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John v. 9).
-
-Human affairs would come to a standstill if we did not take the
-testimony of men. How should we get on in the ordinary intercourse of
-life, and how would commerce get on, if we disregarded men's
-testimony? Things social and commercial would come to a dead-lock
-within forty-eight hours! This is the drift of the apostle's argument
-here. "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is
-greater." God has borne witness to Jesus Christ. And if man can
-believe his fellow men who are frequently telling untruths and whom
-we are constantly finding unfaithful, why should we not take God at
-His word and believe His testimony?
-
-Faith is a belief in testimony. It is not a leap in the dark, as some
-tell us. That would be no faith at all. God does not ask any man to
-believe without giving him something to believe. You might as well
-ask a man to see without eyes; to hear without ears; and to walk
-without feet--as to bid him believe without giving him something to
-believe.
-
-When I started for California I procured a guide-book. This told me,
-that after leaving the State of Illinois, I should cross the
-Mississippi, and then the Missouri; get into Nebraska; then over the
-Rocky Mountains to the Mormon settlement at Salt Lake City, and by
-the way of the Sierra Nevada into San Francisco. I found the guide
-book all right as I went along; and I should have been a miserable
-sceptic if, having proved it to be correct three-fourths of the way,
-I had said that I would not believe it for the remainder of the
-journey.
-
-Suppose a man, in directing me to the Post Office, gives me ten
-landmarks; and that, in my progress there, I find nine of them to be
-as he told me; I should have good reason to believe that I was coming
-to the Post Office.
-
-And if, by believing, I get a new life, and a hope, a peace, a joy,
-and a rest to my soul, that I never had before; if I get self-control,
-and find that I have a power to resist evil and to do good,
-I have pretty good proof that I am in the right road to the "city
-which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." And if
-things have taken place, and are now taking place, as recorded in
-God's Word, I have good reason to conclude that what yet remains will
-be fulfilled. And yet people talk of doubting. There can be no true
-faith where there is fear. Faith is to take God at His word,
-unconditionally. There cannot be true peace where there is fear.
-"Perfect love casteth out fear." How wretched a wife would be if she
-doubted her husband! and how miserable a mother would feel if after
-her boy had gone away from home she had reason, from his neglect, to
-question that son's devotion! True love never has a doubt.
-
-There are three things indispensable to faith--knowledge, assent, and
-appropriation.
-
-We must know God. "And this is life eternal, that they might _know_
-Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John
-xvii. 3). Then we must not only give our assent to what we know; but
-we must lay hold of the truth. If a man simply give his assent to the
-plan of salvation, it will not save him: he must accept Christ as his
-Saviour. He must receive and appropriate Him.
-
-Some say they cannot tell how a man's life can be affected by his
-belief. But let some one cry out that some building in which we
-happen to be sitting, is on fire; and see how soon we should act on
-our belief and get out. We are all the time influenced by what we
-believe. We cannot help it. And let a man believe the record that God
-has given of Christ, and it will very quickly affect his whole life.
-
-Take John v. 24. There is enough truth in that one verse for every
-soul to rest upon for salvation. It does not admit the shadow of a
-doubt. "Verily, verily"--which means truly, truly--"I say unto you,
-He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me,
-hath--_hath_--everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation;
-but is passed from death unto life."
-
-Now if a person really hears the word of Jesus and believes with the
-heart on God who sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world, and
-lays hold of and appropriates this great salvation, there is no fear
-of judgment. He will not be looking forward with dread to the Great
-White Throne; for we read in 1 John iv. 17: "Herein is our love made
-perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as
-He is, so are we in this world."
-
-If we believe, there is for us no condemnation, no judgment. That is
-behind us, and passed; and we shall have boldness in the day of
-judgment.
-
-I remember reading of a man who was on trial for his life. He had
-friends with influence; and they procured a pardon for him from the
-king on condition that he was to go through the trial, and be
-condemned. He went into court with the pardon in his pocket. The
-feeling ran very high against him, and the judge said that the court
-was shocked that he was so much unconcerned. But, when the sentence
-was pronounced, he pulled out the pardon, presented it, and walked
-out a free man. He has been pardoned; and so have we. Then let death
-come, we have nought to fear. All the grave-diggers in the world
-cannot dig a grave large enough and deep enough to hold eternal life;
-all the coffin makers in the world cannot make a coffin large enough
-and tight enough to hold eternal life. Death has had his hand on
-Christ once, but never again.
-
-Jesus said: "I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth
-in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth
-and believeth in Me shall never die" (John xi. 25, 26). And in the
-Apocalypse we read that the risen Saviour said to John, "I am He that
-liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore" (Rev i.
-18). Death cannot touch Him again.
-
-We get life by believing. In fact we get more than Adam lost; for the
-redeemed child of God is heir to a richer and more glorious
-inheritance than Adam in Paradise could ever have conceived; yea, and
-that inheritance endures forever--it is inalienable.
-
-I would much rather have my life hid with Christ in God than have
-lived in Paradise; for Adam might have sinned and fallen after being
-there ten thousand years. But the believer is safer, if these things
-become real to him. Let us make them a fact, and not a fiction. God
-has said it; and that is enough. Let us trust Him even where we
-cannot trace Him. Let the same confidence animate us that was in
-little Maggie as related in the following simple but touching
-incident which I read in the _Bible Treasury_:--
-
-"I had been absent from home for some days, and was wondering, as I
-again draw near the homestead, if my little Maggie, just able to sit
-alone, would remember me. To test her memory, I stationed myself
-where I could see her, but could not be seen by her, and called her
-name in the familiar tone, 'Maggie!' She dropped her playthings,
-glanced around the room, and then looked down upon her toys. Again I
-repeated her name, 'Maggie!' when she once more surveyed the room;
-but, not seeing her _father's_ face, she looked very sad, and slowly
-resumed her employment. Once more I called, 'Maggie!' when, dropping
-her playthings, and bursting into tears, she stretched out her arms
-in the direction whence the sound proceeded, knowing that, though she
-could not see him, her father _must be there_, for she knew his
-voice."
-
-Now, we have power to see and to hear, and we have power to believe.
-It is all folly for the inquirers to take the ground that they cannot
-believe. They can, if they will. But the trouble with most people is
-that they have connected feeling with believing. Now Feeling has
-nothing whatever to do with Believing. The Bible does not say--He
-that feeleth, or he that feeleth and believeth, hath everlasting
-life. Nothing of the kind. I cannot control my feelings. If I could,
-I should never feel ill, or have a headache or toothache. I should be
-well all the while. But I can believe God; and if we get our feet on
-that rock, let doubts and fears come and the waves surge around us,
-the anchor will hold.
-
-Some people are all the time looking at their faith. Faith is the
-hand that takes the blessing. I heard this illustration of a beggar.
-Suppose you were to meet a man in the street whom you had known for
-years as being accustomed to beg; and you offered him some money, and
-he were to say to you: "I thank you; I don't want your money: I am
-not a beggar." "How is that?" "Last night a man put a thousand
-dollars into my hands." "He did! How did you know it was good money?"
-"I took it to the bank and deposited it and have got a bank book."
-"How did you get this gift?" "I asked for alms; and after the
-gentleman talked with me he took out a thousand dollars in money and
-put it in my hand." "How do you know that he put it in the right
-hand?" "What do I care about which hand; so that I have got the
-money." Many people are always thinking whether the faith by which
-they lay hold of Christ is the right kind--but what is far more
-essential is to see that we have the right kind of Christ.
-
-Faith is the eye of the soul; and who would ever think of taking out
-an eye to see if it were the right kind so long as the sight was
-perfect? It is not my taste, but it is what I taste, that satisfies
-my appetite. So, dear friends, it is taking God at His Word that is
-the means of our salvation. The truth cannot be made too simple.
-
-There is a man living in the city of New York who has a home on the
-Hudson River. His daughter and her family went to spend the winter
-with him: and in the course of the season the scarlet fever broke
-out. One little girl was put in quarantine, to be kept separate from
-the rest. Every morning the old grandfather used to go and bid his
-grandchild, "Goodbye," before going to his business. On one of these
-occasions the little thing took the old man by the hand, and, leading
-him to a corner of the room, without saying a word she pointed to the
-floor where she had arranged some small crackers so they would spell
-out, "Grandpa, I want a box of paints." He said nothing. On his
-return home he hung up his overcoat and went to the room as usual:
-when his little grandchild, without looking to see if her wish had
-been complied with, took him into the same corner, where he saw
-spelled out in the same way, "Grandpa, I thank you for the box of
-paints." The old man would not have missed gratifying the child for
-anything. That was faith.
-
-Faith is taking God at His Word; and those people who want some token
-are always getting into trouble. We want to come to this: God says
-it--let us believe it.
-
-But some say, Faith is the gift of God. So is the air; but you have
-to breathe it. So is bread; but you have to eat it. So is water; but
-you have to drink it. Some are wanting a miraculous kind of feeling.
-That is not faith. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word
-of God" (Rom. x. 17). That is whence faith comes. It is not for me to
-sit down and wait for faith to come stealing over me with a strange
-sensation; but it is for me to take God at His Word. And you cannot
-believe, unless you have something to believe. So take the Word as it
-is written, and appropriate it, and lay hold of it.
-
-In John vi. 47, 48 we read: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
-believeth on Me hath everlasting life. I am that Bread of life."
-There is the bread right at hand. Partake of it. I might have
-thousands of loaves within my home, and as many hungry men in
-waiting. They might assent to the fact that the bread was there; but
-unless they each took a loaf and commenced eating, their hunger would
-not be satisfied. So Christ is the Bread of heaven; and as the body
-feeds on natural food, so the soul must feed on Christ.
-
-If a drowning man sees a rope thrown out to rescue him he must lay
-hold of it; and in order to do so he must let go everything else. If
-a man is sick he must take the medicine--for simply looking at it
-will not cure him. A knowledge of Christ will not help the inquirer,
-unless he believes in Him, and takes hold of Him, as his only hope.
-The bitten Israelites might have believed that the serpent was lifted
-up; but unless they had looked they would not have lived (Num. xxi.
-6-9).
-
-I believe that a certain line of steamers will convey me across the
-ocean, because I have tried it: but this will not help another man
-who may want to go, unless he acts upon my knowledge. So a knowledge
-of Christ does not help us unless we act upon it. That is what it is
-to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to act on what we believe.
-As a man steps on board a steamer to cross the Atlantic, so we must
-take Christ and make a commitment of our souls to Him; and He has
-promised to keep all who put their trust in Him. To believe on the
-Lord Jesus Christ, is simply to take Him at His word.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
-
-_WORDS OF COUNSEL_.
-
-
-"A bruised reed shall He not break."--Isaiah xlii. 3; Matt. xii. 20.
-
-
-It is dangerous for those who are seeking salvation to lean upon the
-experience of other people. Many are waiting for a repetition of the
-experience of their grandfather or grandmother. I had a friend who
-was converted in a field; and he thinks the whole town ought to go
-down into that meadow and be converted. Another was converted under a
-bridge; and he thinks that if any enquirer were to go there he would
-find the Lord. The best thing for the anxious is to go right to the
-Word of God. If there are any persons in the world to whom the Word
-ought to be very precious it is those who are asking how to be saved.
-
-For instance a man may say, "I have no strength." Let him turn to
-Romans v. 6. "For when we were yet without strength, in due time
-Christ died for the ungodly." It is because we have no strength that
-we need Christ. He has come to give strength to the weak.
-
-Another may say, "I cannot see." Christ says, "I am the Light of the
-world" (John viii. 12). He came, not only to give light, but "to open
-the blind eyes" (Isa. xlii. 7).
-
-Another may say, "I do not think a man can be saved all at once." A
-person holding that view was in the Enquiry-room one night; and I
-drew his attention to Romans vi. 23. "The wages of sin is death; but
-the _gift_ of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." How
-long does it take to accept a gift? There must be a moment when you
-have it not, and another when you have it--a moment when it is
-another's, and the next when it is yours. It does not take six months
-to get eternal life. It may however in some cases be like the mustard
-seed, very small at the commencement. Some people are converted so
-gradually that, like the morning light, it is impossible to tell when
-the dawn began; while, with others, it is like the flashing of a
-meteor, and the truth bursts upon them suddenly.
-
-I would not go across the street to prove when I was converted; but
-what is important is for me to know that I really have been.
-
-It may be that a child has been so carefully trained that it is
-impossible to tell when the new birth began; but there must have been
-a moment when the change took place, and when he became a partaker of
-the Divine nature.
-
-Some people do not believe in sudden conversion. But I will challenge
-any one to show a conversion in the New Testament that was not
-instantaneous. "As Jesus passed by He saw Levi, the son of Alpheus,
-sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, 'Follow Me': and
-he arose and followed Him" (Matt. ix. 9). Nothing could be more
-sudden than that.
-
-Zaccheus, the publican, sought to see Jesus; and because he was
-little of stature he climbed up a tree. When Jesus came to the place
-He looked up and saw him, and said, "Zaccheus, make haste, and come
-down" (Luke xix. 5). His conversion must have taken place somewhere
-between the branch and the ground. We are told that he received Jesus
-joyfully, and said, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the
-poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation,
-I restore him fourfold" (Luke xix. 8). Very few in these days could
-say that in proof of their conversion.
-
-The whole house of Cornelius was converted suddenly; for so Peter
-preached Christ to him and his company the Holy Ghost fell on them,
-and they were baptized. (Acts x.)
-
-On the day of Pentecost three thousand gladly received the Word. They
-were not only converted, but they were baptized the same day. (Acts
-ii.)
-
-And when Philip talked to the eunuch, as they went on their way, the
-eunuch said to Philip, "See, here is water: what doth hinder me to be
-baptized?" Nothing hindered. And Philip said, "If thou believest with
-all thine heart, thou mayest." And they both went down into the
-water; and the man of great authority under Candace, the queen of the
-Ethiopians, was baptized, and went on his way rejoicing. (Acts viii.
-26-38.) You will find all through Scripture that conversions were
-sudden and instantaneous.
-
-A man has been in the habit of stealing money from his employer.
-Suppose he has taken $1,000 in twelve months; should we tell him to
-take $500 the next year, and less the next year, and the next, until
-in five years the sum taken would be only $50? That would be upon the
-same principle as gradual conversion.
-
-If such a person were brought before the court and pardoned, because
-he could not change his mode of life all at once, it would be
-considered a very strange proceeding.
-
-But the Bible says, "Let him that stole steal no more" (Eph. iv. 28).
-It is "right about face!" Suppose a person is in the habit of cursing
-one hundred times a day: should we advise him not to utter more than
-ninety oaths the following day, and eighty the next day; so that in
-the course of time he would get rid of the habit? The Saviour says,
-"Swear not at all." (Matt. v. 34.)
-
-Suppose another man is in the habit of getting drunk and beating his
-wife twice a month; if he only did so once a month, and then only
-once in six months, that would be, upon the same ground, as
-reasonable as gradual conversion. Suppose Ananias had been sent to
-Paul, when he was on his way to Damascus breathing out threatenings
-and slaughter against the disciples, and casting them into prison, to
-tell him not to kill so many as he intended; and to let enmity die
-out of his heart gradually, but not all at once. Suppose he had been
-told that it would not do to stop breathing out threatenings and
-slaughter, and to commence preaching Christ all at once, because the
-philosophers would say that the change was so sudden it would not
-hold out; this would be the same kind of reasoning as is used by
-those who do not believe in instantaneous conversion.
-
-Then another class say that they are afraid that they will not hold
-out. This is a numerous and very hopeful class. I like to see a man
-distrust himself. It is a good thing to get such to look to God, and
-to remember that it is not he who holds God, but that it is God who
-holds him. Some want to get hold of Christ; but the thing is to get
-Christ to take hold of you in answer to prayer. Let such read Psalm
-cxxi.; "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh
-my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
-He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will
-not slumber. Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor
-sleep. The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord is thy shade upon thy right
-hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The
-Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul.
-The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in, from this
-time forth, and even for evermore."
-
-Some one calls that the traveler's psalm. It is a beautiful psalm for
-those of us who are pilgrims through this world; and one with which
-we should be well acquainted.
-
-God can do what He has done before. He kept Joseph in Egypt; Moses
-before Pharaoh; Daniel in Babylon; and enabled Elijah to stand before
-Ahab in that dark day. And I am so thankful that these I have
-mentioned were men of like passions with ourselves. It was God who
-made them so great. What man wants is to look to God. Real true faith
-is man's weakness leaning on God's strength. When man has no
-strength, if he leans on God he becomes powerful. The trouble is that
-we have too much strength and confidence in ourselves.
-
-Again in Hebrews vi. 17, 18: "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to
-show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel,
-confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things, in which it was
-impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who
-have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which
-hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and
-which entereth into that within the vail; whither the Forerunner is
-for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the
-order of Melchisedec."
-
-Now these are precious verses to those who are afraid of falling, who
-fear that they will not hold out. It is God's work to hold. It is the
-Shepherd's business to keep the sheep. Who ever heard of the sheep
-going to bring back the shepherd? People have an idea that they have
-to keep themselves and Christ too. It is a false idea. It is the work
-of the Shepherd to look after them, and to take care of those who
-trust Him. And He has promised to do it. I once heard that when a sea
-captain was dying he said, "Glory to God; the anchor holds." He
-trusted in Christ. His anchor had taken hold of the solid rock. An
-Irishman said, on one occasion, that "he trembled; but the Rock never
-did." We want to get sure footing.
-
-In 2 Timothy i. 12 Paul says: "I know whom I have believed, and am
-persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto
-Him against that day." That was Paul's persuasion.
-
-During the late war of the rebellion, one of the chaplains, going
-through the hospitals, came to a man who was dying. Finding that he
-was a Christian, he asked to what persuasion he belonged, and was
-told "Paul's persuasion." "Is he a Methodist?" he asked; for the
-Methodists all claim Paul. "No." "Is he a Presbyterian?" for the
-Presbyterians lay special claim to Paul. "No," was the answer. "Does
-he belong to the Episcopal Church?" for all the Episcopalian brethren
-contend that they have a claim to the Chief Apostle. "No," he was not
-an Episcopalian. "Then, to what persuasion does he belong?" "I am
-persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto
-Him against that day." It is a grand persuasion; and it gave the
-dying soldier rest in a dying hour.
-
-Let those who fear that they will not hold out turn to the 24th verse
-of the Epistle of Jude: "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from
-falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His
-glory with exceeding joy."
-
-Then look at Isaiah xli. 10: "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be
-not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will
-help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My
-righteousness."
-
-Then see verse 13: "For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand,
-saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee."
-
-Now if God has got hold of my right hand in His, cannot He hold me
-and keep me? Has not God the power to keep? The great God who made
-heaven and earth can keep a poor sinner like you and like me if we
-trust Him. To refrain from feeling confidence in God for fear of
-falling--would be like a man who refused a pardon, for fear that he
-should get into prison again; or a drowning man who refused to be
-rescued, for fear of falling into the water again.
-
-Many men look forth at the Christian life, and fear that they will
-not have sufficient strength to hold out to the end. They forget the
-promise that "as thy days, thy strength" (Deut. xxxiii. 25). It
-reminds me of the pendulum to the clock which grew disheartened at
-the thought of having to travel so many thousands of miles; but when
-it reflected that the distance was to be accomplished by "tick, tick,
-tick," it took fresh courage to go its daily journey. So it is the
-special privilege of the Christian to commit himself to the keeping
-of his heavenly Father and to trust Him day by day. It is a
-comforting thing to know that the Lord will not begin the good work
-without also finishing it.
-
-There are two kinds of sceptics--one class with honest difficulties;
-and another class who delight only in discussion. I used to think
-that this latter class would always be a thorn in my flesh; but they
-do not prick me now. I expect to find them right along the journey.
-Men of this stamp used to hang around Christ to entangle Him in His
-talk. They come into our meetings to hold a discussion. To all such I
-would commend Paul's advice to Timothy: "But foolish and unlearned
-questions avoid; knowing that they do gender strifes." (2 Tim. ii.
-23.) Unlearned questions: Many young converts make a woful mistake.
-They think they are to defend the whole Bible. I knew very little of
-the Bible when I was first converted; and I thought that I had to
-defend it from beginning to end against all comers; but a Boston
-infidel got hold of me, floored all my arguments at once, and
-discouraged me. But I have got over that now. There are many things
-in the Word of God that I do not profess to understand.
-
-When I am asked what I do with them. I say, "I don't do anything."
-
-"How do you explain them?" "I don't explain them."
-
-"What do you do with them?" "Why, I believe them."
-
-And when I am told, "I would not believe anything that I do not
-understand," I simply reply that I do.
-
-There are many things which were dark and mysterious five years ago,
-on which I have since had a flood of light; and I expect to be
-finding out something fresh about God throughout eternity. I make a
-point of not discussing disputed passages of Scripture. An old divine
-has said that some people, if they want to eat fish, commence by
-picking the bones. I leave such things till I have light on them. I
-am not bound to explain what I do not comprehend. "The secret things
-belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed
-belong unto us, and to our children, for ever" (Deut. xxii. 29); and
-these I take, and eat, and feed upon, in order to get spiritual
-strength.
-
-Than there is a little sound advice in Titus iii. 9. "But avoid
-foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings
-about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain."
-
-But now here comes an honest sceptic. With him I would deal as
-tenderly as a mother with her sick child. I have no sympathy with
-those people who, because a man is sceptical, cast him off and will
-have nothing to do with him.
-
-I was in an Inquiry-meeting, some time ago, and I handed over to a
-Christian lady, whom I had known some time, one who was sceptical. On
-looking round soon after I noticed the enquirer marching out of the
-hall. I asked, "Why have you let her go?" "Oh, she is a sceptic!" was
-the reply. I ran to the door and got her to stop, and introduced her
-to another Christian worker who spent over an hour in conversation
-and prayer with her. He visited her and her husband; and, in the
-course of a week, that intelligent lady cast off her scepticism and
-came out an active Christian. It took time, tact, and prayer; but if
-a person of this class is honest we ought to deal with such an one as
-the Master would have us.
-
-Here are a few passages for doubting enquirers:
-
-"If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether
-it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" (John vii. 17). If a man
-is not willing to do the will of God he will not know the doctrine.
-There is no class of sceptics who are ignorant of the fact that God
-desires them to give up sin; and if a man is willing to turn from sin
-and take the light and thank Him for what He does give, and not
-expect to have light on the whole Bible all at once, he will get more
-light day by day; make progress step by step; and be led right out of
-darkness into the clear light of heaven.
-
-In Daniel xii. 10 we are told: "Many shall be purified, and made
-white, and tried: but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the
-wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand."
-
-Now God will never reveal His secrets to His enemies. Never! And if a
-man persists in living in sin he will not know the doctrines of God.
-
-"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show
-them His covenant" (Ps. xxv. 14).
-
-And in John xv. 15 we read: "Henceforth I call you not servants; for
-the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you
-friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made
-known unto you." When you become friends of Christ you will know His
-secrets. The Lord said, "Shall I hide from Abraham the things which I
-do?" (Gen. xviii. 17).
-
-Now those who resemble God are the most likely to understand God. If
-a man is not willing to turn from sin he will not know God's will,
-nor will God reveal His secrets to him. But if a man is willing to
-turn from sin he will be surprised to see how the light will come in!
-
-I remember one night when the Bible was the driest and darkest book
-in the universe to me. The next day it became entirely different. I
-thought I had the key to it. I had been born of the Spirit. But
-before I knew anything of the mind of God I had to give up my sin. I
-believe God meets every soul on the spot of self-surrender; and when
-they are willing to let Him guide and lead. The trouble with many
-sceptics is their self-conceit. They know more than the Almighty! and
-they do not come in a teachable spirit. But the moment a man comes in
-a receptive spirit he is blessed; for "If any of you lack wisdom, let
-him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not;
-and it shall be given him" (James i. 5).
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
-
-_A DIVINE SAVIOUR_.
-
-
-"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."
-
-(Matthew xvi. 1; John vi. 69.)
-
-
-We meet with a certain class of Enquirers who do not believe in the
-Divinity of Christ. There are many passages that will give light on
-this subject.
-
-In 1 Corinthians xv. 47, we are told: "The first man is of the earth
-earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven."
-
-In 1 John v. 20: "We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given
-us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true; and we are in
-Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God,
-and eternal life."
-
-Again in John xvii. 3: "And this is life eternal, that they might
-know Thee, the only true God; and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent."
-
-And then, in Mark xiv. 60: "The high priest stood up in the midst,
-and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest Thou nothing? What is it which
-these witness against thee? But He held His peace, and answered
-nothing. Again the high priest asked Him, and said unto Him, Art Thou
-the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am: and ye
-shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and
-coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his
-clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard
-the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned Him to be guilty
-of death."
-
-Now what brought me to believe in the Divinity of Christ was this: I
-did not know where to place Christ, or what to do with Him, if He
-were not divine. When I was a boy I thought that He was a good man
-like Moses, Joseph, or Abraham. I even thought that He was the best
-man who had ever lived on the earth. But I found that Christ had a
-higher claim. He claimed to be God-Man, to be divine; to have come
-from heaven. He said: "Before Abraham was I am" (John viii. 58). I
-could not understand this; and I was driven to the conclusion--and I
-challenge any candid man to deny the inference, or meet the
-argument--that Jesus Christ is either an impostor or deceiver, or He
-is the God-Man--God manifest in the flesh. And for these reasons. The
-first commandment is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me" (Exod.
-xx. 2). Look at the millions throughout Christendom who worship Jesus
-Christ as God. If Christ be not God this is idolatry. We are all
-guilty of breaking the first commandment if Jesus Christ were mere
-man--if He were a created being, and not what He claims to be.
-
-Some people, who do not admit His divinity, say that He was the best
-man who ever lived; but if He were not Divine, for that very reason
-He ought not to be reckoned a good man, for He laid claim to an honor
-and dignity to which these very people declare He had no right or
-title. That would rank Him as a deceiver.
-
-Others say that He thought He was divine, but that He was deceived.
-As if Jesus Christ were carried away by a delusion and deception, and
-thought that He was more than He was! I could not conceive of a lower
-idea of Jesus Christ than that. This would not only make Him out an
-impostor; but that He was out of His mind, and that He did not know
-who He was, or where He came from. Now if Jesus Christ was not what
-He claimed to be, the Saviour of the world; and if He did not come
-from heaven, He was a gross deceiver.
-
-But how can any one read the life of Jesus Christ and make Him out a
-deceiver? A man has generally some motive for being an impostor. What
-was Christ's motive? He knew that the course He was pursuing would
-conduct Him to the cross; that His name would be cast out as vile;
-and that many of His followers would be called upon to lay down their
-lives for His sake. Nearly every one of the apostles were martyrs;
-and they were considered as off-scouring and refuse in the midst of
-the people. If a man is an impostor, he has a motive at the back of
-his hypocrisy. But what was Christ's object? The record is that "He
-went about doing good." This is not the work of an impostor. Do not
-let the enemy of your soul deceive you.
-
-In John v. 21 we read: "For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and
-quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. For the
-Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
-that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He
-that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent
-Him."
-
-Now notice: by the Jewish law if a man were a blasphemer he was to be
-put to death; and supposing Christ to be merely human if this be not
-blasphemy I do not know where you will find it. "He that honoureth
-not the Son, honoureth not the Father." That is downright blasphemy
-if Christ be not divine. If Moses, or Elijah, or Elisha, or any other
-mortal had said, "You must honour me as you honor God;" and had put
-himself on a level with God, it would have been downright blasphemy.
-
-The Jews put Christ to death because they said that He was not what
-He claimed to be. It was on that testimony He was put under oath. The
-high priest said: "I adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us
-whether Thou be the Christ, the Son of God" (Matt. xxvi. 63). And
-when the Jews came round Him and said, "How long dost Thou make us to
-doubt? If Thou be the Christ tell us plainly." Jesus said, "I and My
-Father are one." Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.
-(John x. 24-33.) They said they did not want to hear more, for that
-was blasphemy. It was for declaring Himself to be the Son of God that
-He was condemned and put to death. (Matt. xxvi. 63-66).
-
-Now if Jesus Christ were mere man the Jews did right, according to
-their law, in putting Him to death. In Leviticus xxiv. 16, we read:
-"And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put
-to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well
-the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the
-name of the Lord, shall be put to death."
-
-This law obliged them to put to death every one who blasphemed. It
-was making the statement that He was divine that cost Him His life;
-and by the Mosaic law He ought to have suffered the death penalty. In
-John xvi. 15, Christ says, "All things that the Father hath are Mine:
-therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto
-you." How could He be merely a good man and use language as that?
-
-No doubt has ever entered my mind on the point since I was converted.
-
-A notorious sinner was once asked how he could prove the divinity of
-Christ. His answer was, "Why, He has saved me; and that is a pretty
-good proof, is it not?"
-
-An infidel on one occasion said to me, "I have been studying the life
-of John the Baptist, Mr. Moody. Why don't you preach him? He was a
-greater character than Christ. You would do a greater work." I said
-to him, "My friend, you preach John the Baptist; and I will follow
-you and preach Christ: and we will see who will do the most good."
-"You will do the most good," he said, "because the people are so
-superstitious." Ah! John was beheaded; and his disciples begged his
-body and buried it: but Christ has risen from the dead; He has
-"ascended on high; He has led captivity captive; and received gifts
-for men." (Ps. lxviii. 18.)
-
-Our Christ lives. Many people have not found out that Christ has
-risen from the grave. They worship a dead Saviour, like Mary, who
-said, "They have taken away my Lord; and I know not where they have
-laid Him." (John xx. 13.) That is the trouble with those who doubt
-the divinity of our Lord.
-
-Then look at Matthew xviii. 20. "Where two or three are gathered
-together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." "There am I."
-Well now, if He is a mere man, how can He be there? All these are
-strong passages.
-
-Again in Matthew xxviii. 18. "And Jesus came and spake unto them,
-saying, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." Could He
-be a mere man and talk in that way? "All power is given unto Me in
-heaven and in earth!"
-
-Then again in Matthew xxviii. 20. "Teaching them to observe all
-things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway,
-even unto the end of the world." If He were mere man, how could He be
-with us? Yet He says, "I am with you away, even unto the end of the
-world!"
-
-Then again in Mark ii. 7. "Why doth this Man thus speak blasphemies?
-who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus
-perceived in His Spirit that they reasoned within themselves, He said
-unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it
-easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or
-to say, Arise and take up thy bed and walk?"
-
-Some men will meet you and say, "Did not Elisha also raise the dead?"
-Notice that in the rare instances in which men have raised the dead,
-they did it by the power of God. They called on God to do it. But
-when Christ was on earth He did not call upon the Father to bring the
-dead to life, When He went to the house of Jairus He said, "Damsel, I
-say unto thee, Arise." (Mark v. 41.)
-
-He had power to impart life. When they were carrying the young man
-out of Nain He had compassion on the widowed mother and came and
-touched the bier and said, "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise." (Luke
-vii. 14.)
-
-He spake; and the dead arose.
-
-And when He raised Lazarus He called with a loud voice, "Lazarus,
-come forth!" (John xi. 43.) And Lazarus heard, and came forth.
-
-Some one has said, It was a good thing that Lazarus was mentioned by
-name, or all the dead within the sound of Christ's voice would
-immediately have risen.
-
-In John v. 25, Jesus says: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour
-is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
-of God; and they that hear shall live." What blasphemy would this
-have been, had He not been divine! The proof is overwhelming, if you
-will but examine the Word of God.
-
-And then another thing--no good man except Jesus Christ has ever
-allowed anybody to worship him. When this was done He never rebuked
-the worshiper. In John ix. 38, we read that when the blind man was
-found by Christ he said, "Lord, I believe. And he worshiped Him." The
-Lord did not rebuke him.
-
-Then again, Revelation xxii. 6, runs thus: "And he said unto me,
-These things are faithful and true; and the Lord God of the holy
-prophets sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which
-must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that
-keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. And I John saw
-these things and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell
-down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these
-things. Then saith He unto me, See thou do it not; for I am thy
-fellow-servant and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which
-keep the sayings of this book, _worship God_."
-
-We see here that even that angel would not allow John to worship him.
-Even an angel from heaven! And if Gabriel came down here from the
-presence of God it would be a sin to worship him, or any seraph, or
-any cherub, or Michael, or any archangel.
-
-"Worship God!" And if Jesus Christ were not God manifest in the flesh
-we are guilty of idolatry in worshiping Him. In Matthew xiv. 33, we
-read: "Then they that were in the ship came and _worshiped_ Him,
-saying, Of a truth Thou art the Son of God." He did not rebuke them.
-
-And in Matthew viii. 2, we also read: "And, behold, there came a
-leper and _worshiped_ Him, saying, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst
-make me clean."
-
-In Matthew xv. 25: "Then came she, and _worshiped_ Him, saying, Lord,
-help me!"
-
-There are many other passages; but I give these as sufficient in my
-opinion to prove beyond any doubt the Divinity of our Lord.
-
-In the 14th chapter of Acts we are told the heathen at Lystra came
-with garlands and would have done sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas
-because they had cured an impotent man; but the evangelists rent
-their clothes and told these Lystrans that they were but men, and not
-to be worshipped; as if it were a great sin. And if Jesus Christ is a
-mere man, we are all guilty of a great sin in worshipping Him.
-
-But if He is, as we believe, the only-begotten and well-beloved Son
-of God, let us yield to His claims upon us; let us rest on His
-all-atoning work, and go forth to serve Him all the days of our life.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI.
-
-
-_REPENTANCE AND RESTITUTION_.
-
-
-"God commandeth all men everywhere to repent."--Acts xvii. 30.
-
-
-Repentance is one of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible. Yet I
-believe it is one of those truths that many people little understand
-at the present day. There are more people to-day in the mist and
-darkness about Repentance, Regeneration, the Atonement, and such-like
-fundamental truths, than perhaps on any other doctrines. Yet from our
-earliest years we have heard about them. If I were to ask for a
-definition of Repentance, a great many would give a very strange and
-false idea of it.
-
-A man is not prepared to believe or to receive the Gospel, unless he
-is ready to repent of his sins and turn from them. Until John the
-Baptist met Christ, he had but one text, "Repent ye; for the kingdom
-of heaven is at hand" (Matt. iii. 2). But if he had continued to say
-this, and had stopped there without pointing the people to Christ the
-Lamb of God, he would not have accomplished much.
-
-When Christ came, He took up the same wilderness cry, "Repent; for
-the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. iv. 17). And when our Lord
-sent out His disciples, it was with the same message, "that men
-should repent" (Mark vi. 12). After He had been glorified, and when
-the Holy Ghost came down, we find Peter on the day of Pentecost
-raising the same cry, "Repent!" It was this preaching--Repent, and
-believe the Gospel--that wrought such marvellous results then. (Acts
-ii. 38-47). And we find that, when Paul went to Athens, he uttered
-the same cry, "_Now_ God commandeth _all men, everywhere_, to repent"
-(Acts xvii. 30).
-
-Before I speak of what Repentance _is_, let me briefly say what it
-_is not_. Repentance is not _fear_. Many people have confounded the
-two. They think they have to be alarmed and terrified; and they are
-waiting for some kind of fear to come down upon them. But multitudes
-become alarmed who do not really repent. You have heard of men at sea
-during a terrible storm. Perhaps they have been very profane men; but
-when the danger came they suddenly grew quiet, and began to cry to
-God for mercy. Yet you would not say they repented. When the storm
-had passed away, they went on swearing the same as before. You might
-think that the king of Egypt repented when God sent the terrible
-plagues upon him and his land. But it was not repentance at all. The
-moment God's hand was removed Pharaoh's heart was harder than ever.
-He did not turn from a single sin; he was the same man. So that there
-was no true repentance there.
-
-Often, when death comes into a family, it looks as if the event would
-be sanctified to the conversion of all who are in the house. Yet in
-six months' time all may be forgotten. Some who read this have
-perhaps passed through that experience. When God's hand was heavy
-upon them it looked as if they were going to repent; but the trial
-has been removed--and lo and behold, the impression has all gone.
-
-Then again, Repentance is not _feeling_. I find a great many people
-are waiting for a certain kind of feeling to come. They would like to
-turn to God; but think they cannot do it until this feeling comes.
-When I was in Baltimore I used to preach every Sunday in the
-Penitentiary to nine hundred convicts. There was hardly a man there
-who did not feel miserable enough: they had plenty of feeling. For
-the first week or ten days of their imprisonment many of them cried
-half the time. Yet, when they were released, most of them would go
-right back to their old ways. The truth was, that they felt very bad
-because they had got caught; that was all. So you have seen a man in
-the time of trial show a good deal of feeling: but very often it is
-only because he has got into trouble; not because he has committed
-sin, or because his conscience tells him he has done evil in the
-sight of God. It seems as if the trial were going to result in true
-repentance; but the feeling too often passes away.
-
-Once again, Repentance is not _fasting and afflicting the body_. A
-man may fast for weeks and months and years, and yet not repent of
-one sin. Neither is it _remorse_. Judas had terrible remorse--enough
-to make him go and hang himself; but that was not repentance. I
-believe if he had gone to his Lord, fallen on his face, and confessed
-his sin, he would have been forgiven. Instead of this he went to the
-priests, and then put an end to his life. A man may do all sorts of
-penance--but there is no true repentance in that. Put that down in
-your mind. You cannot meet the claims of God by offering the fruit of
-your body for the sin of your soul. Away with such a delusion!
-
-Repentance is not _conviction of sin_. That may sound strange to
-some. I have seen men under such deep conviction of sin that they
-could not sleep at night; they could not enjoy a single meal. They
-went on for months in this state; and yet they were not converted;
-they did not truly repent. Do not confound conviction of sin with
-Repentance.
-
-Neither is _praying_--Repentance. That too may sound strange. Many
-people, when they become anxious about their soul's salvation, say,
-"I will pray, and read the Bible;" and they think that will bring
-about the desired effect. But it will not do it. You may read the
-Bible and cry to God a great deal, and yet never repent. Many people
-cry loudly to God, and yet do not repent.
-
-Another thing: it is not _breaking off some one sin_. A great many
-people make that mistake. A man who has been a drunkard signs the
-pledge, and stops drinking. Breaking off one sin is not Repentance.
-Forsaking one vice is like breaking off one limb of a tree, when the
-whole tree has to come down. A profane man stops swearing; very good:
-but if he does not break off _from every sin_ it is not Repentance--it
-is not the work of God in the soul. When God works He hews down
-the whole tree. He wants to have a man turn from every sin. Supposing
-I am in a vessel out at sea, and I find the ship leaks in three or
-four places. I may go and stop up one hole; yet down goes the vessel.
-Or suppose I am wounded in three or four places, and I get a remedy
-for one wound: if the other two or three wounds are neglected, my
-life will soon be gone. True Repentance is not merely breaking off
-this or that particular sin.
-
-Well then, you will ask, what is Repentance? I will give you a good
-definition: it is "right about face!" In the Irish language the word
-"Repentance" means even more than "right about face!" It implies that
-a man who has been walking in one direction has not only faced about,
-but is actually walking in an exactly contrary direction. "Turn ye,
-turn ye; for why will ye die?" A man may have little feeling or much
-feeling; but if he does not turn away from sin, God will not have
-mercy on him. Repentance has also been described as "a change of
-mind." For instance, there is the parable told by Christ: "A certain
-man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work
-to-day in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not" (Matt. xxi.
-28, 29). After he had said "I will not" he thought over it, and
-changed his mind. Perhaps he may have said to himself, "I did not
-speak very respectfully to my father. He asked me to go and work, and
-I told him I would not go. I think I was wrong." But suppose he had
-only said this, and still had not gone, he would not have repented.
-He was not only convinced that he was wrong; but he went off into the
-fields, hoeing, or mowing or whatever it was. That is Christ's
-definition of repentance. If a man says, "By the grace of God I will
-forsake my sin, and do His will," that is Repentance--a turning right
-about.
-
-Some one has said, man is born with his face turned away from God.
-When he truly repents he is turned right around towards God; he
-leaves his old life.
-
-Can a man at once repent? Certainly he can. It does not take a long
-while to turn around. It does not take a man six months to change his
-mind. There was a vessel that went down some time ago on the
-Newfoundland coast. As she was bearing towards the shore, there was a
-moment when the captain could have given orders to reverse the
-engines and turn back. If the engines had been reversed then, the
-ship would have been saved. But there was a moment when it was too
-late. So there is a moment, I believe, in every man's life when he
-can halt and say, "By the grace of God I will go no further towards
-death and ruin. I repent of my sins and turn from them." You may say
-you have not got feeling enough; but if you are convinced that you
-are on the wrong road, turn right about, and say, "I will no longer
-go on in the way of rebellion and sin as I have done."
-
-Just then, when you are willing to turn towards God, salvation may be
-yours.
-
-I find that every case of conversion recorded in the Bible was
-instantaneous. Repentance and faith came very suddenly. The moment a
-man made up his mind, God gave him the power. God does not ask any
-man to do what he has not the power to do. He would not command "all
-men everywhere to repent" (Acts xvii. 30) if they were not able to do
-so. Man has no one to blame but himself if he does not repent and
-believe the Gospel. One of the leading ministers of the Gospel in
-Ohio wrote me a letter some time ago describing his conversion; it
-very forcibly illustrates this point of instantaneous decision. He
-said:
-
-"I was nineteen years old, and was reading law with a Christian
-lawyer in Vermont. One afternoon when he was away from home, his good
-wife said to me as I came into the house, 'I want you to go to
-class-meeting with me to-night and become a Christian, so that you can
-conduct family worship while my husband is away.' 'Well, I'll do it,'
-I said, without any thought. When I came into the house again she
-asked me if I was honest in what I had said. I replied, 'Yes, so far
-as going to meeting with you is concerned; that is only courteous.'
-
-"I went with her to the class-meeting, as I had often done before.
-About a dozen persons were present in a little school-house. The
-leader had spoken to all in the room but myself and two others. He
-was speaking to the person next me, when the thought occurred to me:
-he will ask me if I have anything to say. I said to myself: I have
-decided to be a Christian sometime; why not begin now? In less time
-than a minute after these thoughts had passed through my mind he
-said, speaking to me familiarly--for he knew me very well--'Brother
-Charles, have you anything to say?' I replied, with perfect coolness,
-'Yes, sir. I have just decided, within the last thirty seconds, that
-I will begin a Christian life, and would like to have you pray for
-me.'
-
-"My coolness staggered him; I think he almost doubted my sincerity.
-He said very little, but passed on and spoke to the other two. After
-a few general remarks, he turned to me and said, 'Brother Charles,
-will you close the meeting with prayer?' He knew I had never prayed
-in public. Up to this moment I had no feeling. It was purely a
-business transaction. My first thought was: I cannot pray, and I will
-ask him to excuse me. My second was: I have said I will begin a
-Christian life; and this is a part of it. So I said, 'Let us pray.'
-And somewhere between the time I started to kneel and the time my
-knees struck the floor the Lord converted my soul.
-
-"The first words I said were, 'Glory to God!' What I said after that
-I do not know, and it does not matter, for my soul was too full to
-say much but Glory! From that hour the devil has never dared to
-challenge my conversion. To Christ be all the praise."
-
-Many people are waiting, they cannot exactly tell for what, but for
-some sort of miraculous feeling to come stealing over them--some
-mysterious kind of faith. I was speaking to a man some years ago, and
-he always had one answer to give me. For five years I tried to win
-him to Christ, and every year he said, "It has not 'struck me' yet."
-"Man, what do you mean? What has not struck you?" "Well," he said, "I
-am not going to become a Christian until it strikes me; and it has
-not struck me yet. I do not see it in the way you see it." "But don't
-you know you are a sinner?" "Yes, I know I am a sinner." "Well, don't
-you know that God wants to have mercy on you--that there is
-forgiveness with God? He wants you to repent and come to Him." "Yes,
-I know that; but--it has not struck me yet." He always fell back on
-that. Poor man! he went down to his grave in a state of indecision.
-Sixty long years God gave him to repent; and all he had to say at the
-end of those years was that it "had not struck him yet."
-
-Is any reader waiting for some strange feeling--you do not know what?
-Nowhere in the Bible is a man told to wait; God is commanding you now
-to repent.
-
-Do you think God can forgive a man when he does not want to be
-forgiven? Would he be happy if God forgave him in this state of mind?
-Why, if a man went into the kingdom of God without repentance, heaven
-would be hell to him. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared
-people. If your boy has done wrong, and will not repent, you cannot
-forgive him. You would be doing him an injustice. Suppose he goes to
-your desk, and steals $10, and squanders it. When you come home your
-servant tells you what your boy has done. You ask if it is true, and
-he denies it. But at last you have certain proof. Even when he finds
-he cannot deny it any longer, he will not confess the sin, but says
-he will do it again the first chance he gets. Would you say to him,
-"Well, I forgive you," and leave the matter there? No! Yet people
-say that God is going to save all men, whether they repent or
-not--drunkards, thieves, harlots, whoremongers, it makes no difference.
-"God is so merciful," they say. Dear friend, do not be deceived by
-the god of this world. Where there is true repentance and a turning
-from sin unto God, He will meet and bless you; but He never blesses
-until there is sincere repentance.
-
-David made a woful mistake in this respect with his rebellious son,
-Absalom. He could not have done his son a greater injustice than to
-forgive him when his heart was unchanged. There could be no true
-reconciliation between them when there was no repentance. But God
-does not make these mistakes. David got into trouble on account of
-his error of judgment. His son soon drove his father from the throne.
-
-Speaking on repentance, Dr. Brooks, of St. Louis, well remarks:
-"Repentance, strictly speaking, means a 'change of mind or purpose;'
-consequently it is the judgment which the sinner pronounces upon
-himself, in view of the love of God displayed in the death of Christ,
-connected with the abandonment of all confidence in himself and with
-trust in the only Saviour of sinners. Saving repentance and saving
-faith always go together; and you need not be worried about
-repentance if you will believe."
-
-"Some people are no sure that they have 'repented enough.' If you
-mean by this that you must repent in order to incline God to be
-merciful to you, the sooner you give over such repentance the better.
-God is already merciful, as He has fully shown at the Cross of
-Calvary; and it is a grievous dishonor to His heart of love if you
-think that your tears and anguish will move Him, not knowing that
-'the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.' It is not your
-badness, therefore, but His goodness that leads to repentance; hence
-the true way to repent is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 'who
-was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our
-justification.'"
-
-Another thing. If there is true repentance it will bring forth fruit.
-If we have done wrong to any one we should never ask God to forgive
-us, until we are willing to make restitution. If I have done any man
-a great injustice and can make it good, I need not ask God to forgive
-me until I am willing to make it good. Suppose I have taken something
-that does not belong to me. I have no right to expect forgiveness
-until I make restitution.
-
-I remember preaching in one of our large cities, when a fine-looking
-man came up to me at the close. He was in great distress of mind.
-"The fact is," he said, "I am a defaulter. I have taken money that
-belonged to my employers. How can I become a Christian without
-restoring it?" "Have you got the money?" He told me he had not got it
-all. He had taken about $1,500, and he still had about $900. He said
-"Could I not take that money and go into business, and make enough to
-pay them back?" I told him that was a delusion of Satan; that he
-could not expect to prosper on stolen money; that he should restore
-all he had, and go and ask his employers to have mercy upon him and
-forgive him. "But they will put me in prison," he said: "cannot you
-give me any help?" "No, you must restore the money before you can
-expect to get any help from God." "It is pretty hard," he said. "Yes.
-it is hard; but the great mistake was in doing the wrong at first."
-
-His burden became so heavy that it got to be insupportable. He handed
-me the money--950 dollars and some cents--and asked me to take it
-back to his employers. The next evening the two employers and myself
-met in a side room of the church. I laid the money down, and informed
-them it was from one of their _employes_. I told them the story, and
-said he wanted mercy from them, not justice. The tears trickled down
-the cheeks of these two men, and they said, "Forgive him! Yes, we
-will be glad to forgive him." I went down stairs and brought him up.
-After he had confessed his guilt and been forgiven, we all got down
-on our knees and had a blessed prayer-meeting. God met us and blessed
-us there.
-
-There was a friend of mine who some time ago had come to Christ and
-wished to consecrate himself and his wealth to God. He had formerly
-had transactions with the government, and had taken advantage of
-them. This thing came up when he was converted, and his conscience
-troubled him. He said, "I want to consecrate my wealth, but it seems
-as if God will not take it." He had a terrible struggle; his
-conscience kept rising up and smiting him. At last he drew a check
-for $1,500 and sent it to the United States Treasury. He told me he
-received such a blessing when he had done it. That was bringing forth
-"fruits meet for repentance." I believe a great many men are crying
-to God for light; and they are not getting it because they are not
-honest.
-
-I was once preaching, and a man came to me who was only thirty-two
-years old, but whose hair was very grey. He said, "I want you to
-notice that my hair is grey, and I am only thirty-two years old. For
-twelve years I have carried a great burden." "Well," I said, "what is
-it?" He looked around as if afraid some one would hear him. "Well,"
-he answered, "my father died and left my mother with the county
-newspaper, and left her only that: that was all she had. After he
-died the paper begun to waste away; and I saw my mother was fast
-sinking into a state of need. The building and the paper were insured
-for a thousand dollars, and when I was twenty years old I set fire to
-the building, and obtained the thousand dollars, and gave it to my
-mother. For twelve years that sin has been haunting me. I have tried
-to drown it by indulgence in pleasure and sin; I have cursed God; I
-have gone into infidelity; I have tried to make out that the Bible is
-not true; I have done everything I could: but all these years I have
-been tormented." I said, "There is a way out of that." He inquired
-"How?" I said, "Make restitution. Let us sit down and calculate the
-interest, and then you pay the Company the money." It would have done
-you good to see that man's face light up when he found there was
-mercy for him. He said he would be glad to pay back the money and
-interest if he could only be forgiven.
-
-There are men to-day who are in darkness and bondage because they are
-not willing to turn from their sins and confess them; and I do not
-know how a man can hope to be forgiven if he is not willing to
-confess his sins.
-
-Bear in mind that _now_ is the only day of mercy you will ever have.
-You can repent now, and have the awful record blotted out. God waits
-to forgive you; He is seeking to bring you to Himself. But I think
-the Bible teaches clearly that there is _no repentance after this
-life_. There are some who tell you of the possibility of repentance
-in the grave; but I do not find that in Scripture. I have looked my
-Bible over very carefully, and I cannot find that a man will have
-another opportunity of being saved.
-
-_Why should he ask for any more time?_ You have time enough to repent
-now. You can turn from your sins this moment if you will. God says:
-"I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth; wherefore turn,
-and live ye" (Ezek. xviii. 32).
-
-Christ said, He "came not to call the righteous, but sinners to
-repentance." Are you a sinner? Then the call to repent is addressed
-to you. Take your place in the dust at the Saviour's feet, and
-acknowledge your guilt. Say, like the publican of old, "God be
-merciful to me a sinner!" and see how quickly He will pardon and
-bless you. He will even justify you and reckon you as righteous, by
-virtue of the righteousness of Him who bore your sins in His own body
-on the Cross.
-
-There are some perhaps who think themselves righteous; and that,
-therefore, there is no need for them to repent and believe the
-Gospel. They are like the Pharisee in the parable, who thanked God
-that he was not as other men--"extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or
-even as this publican;" and who went on to say, "I fast twice a week;
-I give tithes of all I possess." What is the judgment about such
-self-righteous persons? "I tell you this man [the poor, contrite,
-repenting publican] went down to his house justified rather than the
-other" (Luke xviii. 11-14). "There is none righteous; no, not one."
-"All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. iii. 10,
-23). Let no one say _he_ does not need to repent. Let each one take
-his true place--that of a sinner; then God will lift him up to the
-place of forgiveness and justification. "Whosoever exalteth himself
-shall be abased: and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Luke
-xiv. 11).
-
-Wherever God sees true repentance in the heart He meets that soul.
-
-I was in Colorado, preaching the gospel some time ago, and I heard
-something that touched my heart very much. The governor of the State
-was passing through the prison, and in one cell he found a boy who
-had his window full of flowers, that seemed to have been watched with
-very tender care. The governor looked at the prisoner, and then at
-the flowers, and asked whose they were, "These are my flowers," said
-the poor convict. "Are you fond of flowers?" "Yes, sir." "How long
-have you been here?" He told him so many years: he was in for a long
-sentence. The governor was surprised to find him so fond of the
-flowers, and he said, "Can you tell me why you like these flowers so
-much?" With much emotion he replied, "While my mother was alive she
-thought a good deal of flowers; and when I came here I thought if I
-had these they would remind me of mother." The governor was so
-pleased that he said, "Well, young man, if you think so much of your
-mother I think you will appreciate your liberty," and he pardoned him
-then and there.
-
-When God finds that beautiful flower of true repentance springing up
-in a man's heart, then salvation comes to that man.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII.
-
-
-_ASSURANCE OF SALVATION_.
-
-
-"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the
-Son of God; that ye may knew that ye have eternal life, and that ye
-may believe on the name of the Son of God."
-
-(1 John v. 13. )
-
-
-There are two classes who ought not to have Assurance. First: those
-who are in the Church, but who are not converted, having never been
-born of the Spirit. Second: those not willing to do God's will; who
-are not ready to take the place that God has mapped out for them, but
-want to fill some other place.
-
-Some one will ask "Have all God's people Assurance?" No; I think a
-good many of God's dear people have no Assurance; but it is the
-privilege of every child of God to have beyond doubt a knowledge of
-his own salvation. No man is fit for God's service who is filled with
-doubts. If a man is not sure of his own salvation, how can he help
-any one else into the kingdom of God? If I seem in danger of drowning
-and do not know whether I shall ever reach the shore, I cannot assist
-another. I must first get on the solid rock myself; and then I can
-lend my brother a helping hand. If being myself blind I were to tell
-another blind man how to get sight, he might reply, "First get healed
-yourself; and then you can tell me." I recently met with a young man
-who was a Christian: but he had not attained to victory over sin. He
-was in terrible darkness. Such an one is not fit to work for God,
-because he has besetting sins; and he has not the victory over his
-doubts, because he has not the victory over his sins.
-
-None will have time or heart to work for God, who are not assured as
-to their own salvation. They have as much as they can attend to; and
-being themselves burdened with doubts, they cannot help others to
-carry their burdens. There is no rest, joy, or peace--no liberty, nor
-power--where doubts and uncertainty exist.
-
-Now it seems as if there are three wiles of Satan against which we
-ought to be on our guard. In the first place he moves all his kingdom
-to keep us away from Christ; then he devotes himself to get us into
-"Doubting Castle:" but if we have, in spite of him, a clear ringing
-witness for the Son of God, he will do all he can to blacken our
-characters and belie our testimony.
-
-Some seem to think that it is presumption not to have doubts; but
-doubt is very dishonoring to God. If any one were to say that they
-had known a person for thirty years and yet doubted him, it would not
-be very creditable; and when we have known God for ten, twenty or
-thirty years does it not reflect on His veracity to doubt Him.
-
-Could Paul and the early Christians and martyrs have gone through
-what they did if they had been filled with doubts, and had not known
-whether they were going to heaven or to perdition after they had been
-burned at the stake? They must have had Assurance.
-
-Mr. Spurgeon says: "I never heard of a stork that when it met with a
-fir tree demurred as to its right to build its nest there; and I
-never heard of a coney yet that questioned whether it had a permit to
-run into the rock. Why, these creatures would soon perish if they
-were always doubting and fearing as to whether they had a right to
-use providential provisions.
-
-"The stork says to himself, 'Ah, here is a fir tree:' he consults
-with his mate, 'Will this do for the nest in which we may rear our
-young?' 'Aye,' says she; and they gather the materials, and arrange
-them. There is never any deliberation, 'May we build here?' but they
-bring their sticks and make their nest.
-
-"The wild goat on the crag does not say, 'Have I a right here?' No,
-he must be somewhere: and there is a crag which exactly suits him;
-and he springs upon it.
-
-"Yet, though these dumb creatures know the provision of their God,
-the sinner does not recognize the provision of his Saviour. He
-quibbles and questions, 'May I?' and am 'I am afraid it is not for
-me;' and 'I think it cannot be meant for me;' and 'I am afraid it is
-too good to be true.'
-
-"And yet nobody ever said to the stork, 'Whosoever buildeth on this
-fir tree shall never have his nest pulled down.' No inspired word has
-ever said to the coney, 'Whosoever runs into this rock cleft shall
-never be driven out of it.' If it had been so it would make assurance
-doubly sure."
-
-"And yet here is Christ provided for sinners, just the sort of a
-Saviour sinners need; and the encouragement is added, 'Him that
-cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out;' 'Whosoever will, let him
-take the water of life freely.'"
-
-Now let us come to the Word. John tells us in his Gospel what Christ
-did for us on earth. In his Epistle He tells us what He is doing for
-us in heaven as our Advocate. In his Gospel there are only two
-chapters in which the word "believe" does not occur. With these two
-exceptions, every chapter in John is "Believe! _Believe!!_
-Believe!!!" He tells us in xx. 31, "But these are written, that ye
-might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that,
-believing, ye might have life through His name." That is the purpose
-for which he wrote the Gospel--"that we might believe that Jesus is
-the Christ, the Son of God: and that, believing, we might have life
-through His name" (John xx. 31).
-
-Turn to 1 John v. 13, he there tells us why he wrote this Epistle:
-"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the
-Son of God." Notice to whom he writes it "You that believe on the
-name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life,
-and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." There are
-only five short chapters in this first Epistle, and the word "know"
-occurs over forty times. It is "_Know!_ Know!! KNOW!!!" The Key to it
-is Know! and all through the Epistle there rings out the
-refrain--"that we might know that we have eternal life."
-
-I went twelve hundred miles down the Mississippi in the spring some
-years ago; and every evening, just as the sun went down, you might
-have seen men, and sometimes women, riding up to the banks of the
-river on either side on mules or horses, and sometimes coming on
-foot, for the purpose of lighting up the Government lights; and all
-down that mighty river there were landmarks which guided the pilots
-in their dangerous navigation. Now God has given us lights or
-landmarks to tell us whether we are His children or not; and what we
-need to do is to examine the tokens He has given us.
-
-In the third chapter of John's first Epistle there are five things
-worth knowing.
-
-In the fifth verse we read the first: "And ye _know_ that He was
-manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin." Not what I
-have done, but what HE has done. Has He failed in His mission? Is He
-not able to do what He came for? Did ever any heaven-sent man fail
-yet? and could God's own Son fail? He was manifested to take away our
-sins.
-
-Again, in the nineteenth verse, the second thing worth knowing: "And
-hereby _we know_ that we are of the truth, and shall _assure_ our
-hearts before Him." We know that we are of the truth. And if the
-truth make us free, we shall be free indeed. "If the Son therefore
-shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John viii. 36.)
-
-The third thing worth knowing is in the fourteenth verse, "_We know_
-that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the
-brethren." The natural man does not like godly people, nor does he
-care to be in their company. "He that loveth not his brother abideth
-in death." He has no spiritual life.
-
-The fourth thing worth knowing we find in verse twenty-four: "And he
-that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And
-hereby _we know_ that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath
-given us." We can tell what kind of Spirit we have if we possess the
-Spirit of Christ--a Christ-like spirit--not the same in degree, but
-the same in kind. If I am meek, gentle, and forgiving; if I have a
-spirit filled with peace and joy; if I am long-suffering and gentle,
-like the Son of God--that is a test: and in that way we are to tell
-whether we have eternal life or not.
-
-The fifth thing worth knowing, and the best of all, is "Beloved,
-_now_." Notice the word "Now." It does not say when you come to die.
-"Beloved, _now_ are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear
-what we shall be: but _we know_ that, when He shall appear; we shall
-be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (v. 2).
-
-But some will say, "Well, I believe all that; but then I have sinned
-since I became a Christian." Is there a man or a woman on the face of
-the earth who has not sinned since becoming a Christian? Not one!
-There never has been, and never will be, a soul on this earth who has
-not sinned, or who will not sin, at some time of their Christian
-experience. But God has made provision for believers' sins. _We_ are
-not to make provision for them; but God has. Bear that in mind.
-
-Turn to 1 John ii. 1: "My little children, these things write I unto
-you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with
-the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." He is here writing to the
-righteous. "If any man sin, _we_"--John put himself in--"we have an
-Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." What an
-Advocate! He attends to our interests at the very best place--the
-throne of God. He said, "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is
-expedient for you that I go away" (John xvi. 7). He went away to
-become our High Priest, and also our Advocate. He has had some hard
-cases to plead; but he has never lost one: and if you entrust your
-immortal interests to Him, He will "present you faultless before the
-presence of His glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24).
-
-The past sins of Christians are all forgiven as soon as they are
-confessed; and they are never to be mentioned. That is a question
-which is not to be opened up again. If our sins have been put away,
-that is the end of them. They are not to be remembered; and God will
-not mention them any more. This is very plain. Suppose I have a son
-who, while I am from home, does wrong. When I go home he throws his
-arms around my neck and says, "Papa, I did what you told me not to
-do. I am very sorry. Do forgive me." I say: "Yes, my son," and kiss
-him. He wipes away his tears, and goes off rejoicing.
-
-But the next day he says: "Papa, I wish you would forgive me for the
-wrong I did yesterday." I should say: "Why, my son, that thing is
-settled; and I don't want it mentioned again." "But I wish you would
-forgive me: it would help me to hear you say, 'I forgive you.'" Would
-that be honoring me? Would it not grieve me to have my boy doubt me?
-But to gratify him I say again, "I forgive you, my son."
-
-And if, the next day, he were again to bring up that old sin, and ask
-forgiveness, would not that grieve me to the heart? And so, my dear
-reader, if God has forgiven us, never let us mention the past. Let us
-forget those things which are behind, and reach forth unto those
-which are before, and press toward the mark for the prize of the high
-calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let the sins of the past go; for "If
-we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
-and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John i. 9).
-
-And let me say that this principle is recognized in courts of
-justice. A case came up in the courts of a country--I won't say
-where--in which a man had had trouble with his wife; but he forgave
-her, and then afterwards brought her into court. And, when it was
-known that he had forgiven her, the judge said that the thing was
-settled. The judge recognized the soundness of the principle, that if
-a sin were once forgiven there was an end of it. And do you think the
-Judge of all the earth will forgive you and me, and open the question
-again? Our sins are gone for time and eternity, if God forgives: and
-what we have to do is to confess and forsake our sins.
-
-Again in 2 Corinthians xiii. 5: "Examine yourselves whether ye be in
-the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how
-that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" Now examine
-yourselves. Try your religion. Put it to the test. Can you forgive an
-enemy? That is a good way to know if you are a child of God. Can you
-forgive an injury, or take an affront, as Christ did? Can you be
-censured for doing well, and not murmur? Can you be misjudged and
-misrepresented, and yet keep a Christ-like spirit?
-
-Another good test is to read Galatians v., and notice the fruits of
-the Spirit; and see if you have them. "The fruit of the Spirit is
-love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
-meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." If I have the
-fruits of the Spirit I must have the Spirit. I could not have the
-fruits without the Spirit any more than there could be an orange
-without the tree. And Christ says "Ye shall know them by their
-fruits;" "for the tree is known by his fruits." Make the tree good,
-and the fruit will be good. The only way to get the fruit is to have
-the Spirit. That is the way to examine ourselves whether we are the
-children of God.
-
-Then there is another very striking passage. In Romans viii. 9, Paul
-says: "Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of
-His." That ought to settle the question, even though one may have
-gone through all the external forms that are considered necessary by
-some to constitute a member of a Church. Read Paul's life, and put
-yours alongside of it. If your life resembles his, it is a proof that
-you are born again--that you are a new creature in Christ Jesus.
-
-But although you may be born again, it will require time to become a
-full-grown Christian. Justification is instantaneous; but
-sanctification is a life-work. We are to grow in wisdom. Peter says
-"Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
-Christ" (2 Pet. iii. 18); and in the first chapter of his Second
-Epistle, "Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to
-knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience
-godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly
-kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound they make
-you that ye shall neither be barron nor unfruitful in the knowledge
-of our Lord Jesus Christ." So that we are to add grace to grace. A
-tree may be perfect in its first year of growth; but it does not
-attain its maturity. So with the Christian: he may be a true child of
-God, but not a matured Christian. The eighth of Romans is very
-important, and we should be very familiar with it. In the fourteenth
-verse the apostle says: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God
-they are the sons of God." Just as the soldier is led by his captain,
-the pupil by his teacher, or the traveller by his guide; so the Holy
-Spirit will be the guide of every true child of God.
-
-Then let me call your attention to another fact. All Paul's teaching
-in nearly every Epistle rings out the doctrine of assurance. He says
-in 2 Corinthians v. 1: "For we _know_ that if our earthly house of
-this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house
-not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." He had a title to the
-mansions above, and he says--_I know it_. He was not living in
-uncertainty. He said: "I have a desire to depart and be with Christ"
-(Phil. i. 23); and if he had been uncertain he would not have said
-that. Then in Colossians iii. 4, he says: "When Christ, who is our
-life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." I
-am told that Dr. Watts' tombstone bears this same passage of
-Scripture. There is no doubt there.
-
-Then turn to Colossians i. 12: "Giving thanks unto the Father, which
-hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
-light; who _hath_ delivered us from the power of darkness, and _hath_
-translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son."
-
-Three _haths_: "hath made us meet;" "hath delivered us;" and "hath
-translated us." It does not say that He is going to make us meet;
-that He is going to deliver; that He is going to translate.
-
-Then again in verse 14th: "In whom we have redemption through His
-blood, even the forgiveness of sins." We are either forgiven or we
-are not, we should not give ourselves any rest until we get into the
-kingdom of God; nor until we can each look up and say, "I know that
-if my earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, I have a
-building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens"
-(2 Cor. v. 1).
-
-Look at Romans viii. 32: "He that spared not His own Son, but
-delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely
-give us all things?" If He gave us His Son, will He not give us the
-certainty that He is ours. I have heard this illustration. There was
-a man who owed $10,000, and would have been made a bankrupt, but a
-friend came forward and paid the sum. It was found afterwards that he
-owed a few dollars more; but he did not for a moment entertain a
-doubt that, as his friend had paid the larger amount, he would also
-pay the smaller. And we have high warrant for saying that if God has
-given us His Son He will with Him also freely give us all things; and
-if we want to realize our salvation beyond controversy He will not
-leave us in darkness.
-
-Again in the 33d verse: "Who shall lay anything to the charge of
-God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
-is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at
-the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall
-separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress,
-or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is
-written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are
-accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
-more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded
-that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
-powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
-depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the
-love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
-
-That has the right ring in it. There is Assurance for you. "I Know."
-Do you think that the God who has justified me will condemn me? That
-is quite an absurdity. God is going to save us so that neither men,
-angels, nor devils, can bring any charge against us or Him. He will
-have the work complete.
-
-Job lived in a darker day than we do; but we read in Job xix. 25: "I
-_know_ that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand in the latter
-day upon the earth."
-
-The same confidence breathes through Paul's last words to Timothy:
-"For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am
-not ashamed; for I _know_ whom I have believed, and am persuaded that
-He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that
-day." It is not a matter of doubt, but of knowledge. "I know." "I am
-persuaded." The word "Hope," is not used in the Scripture to express
-doubt. It is used in regard to the second coming of Christ, or to the
-resurrection of the body. We do not say that we "hope" we are
-Christians. I do not say that I "hope" I am an American, or that I
-"hope" I am a married man. These are settled things. I may say that I
-"hope" to go back to my home, or I hope to attend such a meeting. I
-do not say that I "hope" to come to this country, for I am here. And
-so, if we are born of God we know it; and He will not leave us in
-darkness if we search the Scriptures.
-
-Christ taught this doctrine to His seventy disciples when they
-returned elated with their success, saying, "Lord, even the devils
-are subject unto us through Thy name." The Lord seemed to check them,
-and said that He would give them something to rejoice in.
-"Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject
-unto you; but rather rejoice because your names are written in
-heaven." (Luke x. 20.)
-
-It is the privilege of every one of us to know, beyond a doubt, that
-our salvation is sure. Then we can work for others. But if we are
-doubtful of our own salvation, we are not fit for the service of God.
-
-Another passage is John v. 24: "Verily, verily I say unto you: He
-that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath
-everlasting life, and shall not come into '_judgment_,'" (the new
-translation has it so), "but is passed from death unto life."
-
-Some people say that you never can tell till you are before the great
-white throne of Judgment whether you are saved or not. Why, my dear
-friend, if your life is hid with Christ in God, you are not coming
-into judgment for your sins. We may come into judgment for reward.
-This is clearly taught where the lord reckoned with the servant to
-whom five talents had been given, and who brought other five talents
-saying, "Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents; behold, I have
-gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well
-done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a
-few things; I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into
-the joy of thy lord." (Matt. xxv. 20, 21.) We shall be judged for our
-stewardship. That is one thing; but salvation--eternal life--is
-another.
-
-Will God demand payment twice of the debt which Christ has paid for
-us? If Christ bear my sins in His own body on the tree, am I to
-answer for them as well?
-
-Isaiah tells us that, "He was wounded for our transgressions; He was
-bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon
-Him: and with His stripes we are healed." In Romans iv. 25, we read:
-He "was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our
-justification." Let us believe, and get the benefit of His finished
-work.
-
-Then again in John x. 9: "I am the door: by Me if any man enter in he
-shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." That is
-the promise. Then the 27th verse, "My sheep hear my voice; and I know
-them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal life; and they
-shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
-My father which gave them is greater than all; and no man is able to
-pluck them out of my Father's hand." Think of that! The Father, the
-Son, and the Holy Ghost, are pledged to keep us. You see that it is
-not only the Father, not only the Son, but the three persons of the
-Triune God.
-
-Now, a great many people want some token outside of God's word. That
-habit always brings doubt. If I made a promise to meet a man at a
-certain hour and place to-morrow, and he were to ask me for my watch
-as a token of my sincerity, it would be a slur on my truthfulness. We
-must not question what God has said: He has made statement after
-statement, and multiplied figure upon figure. Christ says: "I am the
-door; by Me if any man enter in he shall be saved." "I am the Good
-Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine." "I am the light
-of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but
-shall have the light of life." "I am the truth;" receive Me, and you
-will have the truth; for I am the embodiment of truth. Do you want to
-know the way? "I am the way:" follow Me, and I will lead you into the
-kingdom. Are you hungering after righteousness? "I am the Bread of
-life:" if you eat of Me you shall never hunger. "I am the Water of
-life:" if you drink of this water it shall be within you "a well of
-water springing up unto everlasting life." "I am the resurrection and
-the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he
-live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die."
-(John xi. 25, 26.)
-
-Let me remind you where our doubts come from. A good many of God's
-dear people never get beyond knowing themselves servants. He calls us
-"friends." If you go into a house you will soon see the difference
-between the servant and the son. The son walks at perfect liberty all
-over the house; he is at home. But the servant takes a subordinate
-place. What we want is to get beyond servants. We ought to realize
-our standing with God as sons and daughters. He will not "un-child"
-His children. God has not only adopted us, but we are His by birth:
-we have been born into His kingdom. My little boy was as much mine
-when he was a day old as now that he is fourteen. He was _my son_;
-although it did not appear what he would be when he attained manhood.
-He is mine; although he may have to undergo probation under tutors
-and governors. The children of God are not perfect; but we are
-perfectly His children.
-
-Another origin of doubts is looking at ourselves. If you want to be
-wretched and miserable, filled with doubts from morning till night,
-look at yourselves. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind
-is stayed on Thee." (Isa. xxvi. 3.) Many of God's dear children are
-robbed of joy because they keep looking at themselves.
-
-Some one has said: "There are three ways to look. If you want to be
-wretched, look within; if you wish to be distracted, look around; but
-if you would have peace, look up." Peter looked away from Christ, and
-he immediately began to sink. The Master said to him: "O thou of
-little faith! Wherefore didst thou doubt?" (Matt. xiv. 31.) He had
-God's eternal word, which was sure footing, and better than either
-marble, granite or iron; but the moment he took his eyes off Christ
-down he went. Those who look around cannot see how unstable and
-dishonoring is their walk. We want to look straight at the "Author
-and Finisher of our faith."
-
-When I was a boy I could only make a straight track in the snow, by
-keeping my eyes fixed upon a tree or some object before me. The
-moment I took my eye off the mark set in front of me, I walked
-crooked. It is only when we look fixedly on Christ that we find
-perfect peace. After He rose from the dead He showed His disciples
-His hands and His feet. (Luke xxiv. 40.) That was the ground of their
-peace. If you want to scatter your doubts, look at the blood; and if
-you want to increase your doubts, look at yourself. You will get
-doubts enough for years by being occupied with yourself for a few
-days.
-
-Then again: look at what He is, and at what He has done; not at what
-you are, and what you have done. That is the way to get peace and
-rest.
-
-Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring the emancipation of
-three millions of slaves. On a certain day their chains were to fall
-off, and they were to be free. The proclamation was put up on the
-trees and fences wherever the Northern Army marched. A good many
-slaves could not read: but others read the proclamation, and most of
-them believed it; and on a certain day a glad shout went up, "We are
-free!" Some did not believe it, and stayed with their old masters;
-but it did not alter the fact that they were free. Christ, the
-Captain of our salvation, has proclaimed freedom to all who have
-faith in Him. Let us take Him at His word. Their feelings would not
-have made the slaves free. The power must come from the outside.
-Looking at ourselves will not make us free, but it is looking to
-Christ with the eye of faith.
-
-Bishop Ryle has strikingly said: "Faith is the root, and Assurance
-the flower." Doubtless you can never have the flower without the
-root; but it is no less certain you may have the root, and not the
-flower.
-
-"Faith is that poor trembling woman who came behind Jesus in the
-press, and touched the hem of His garment. (Mark v. 27.) Assurance is
-Stephen standing calmly in the midst of his murderers, and saying, 'I
-see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand
-of God'" (Acts vii. 56).
-
-"Faith is the penitent thief, crying, 'Lord, remember me' (Luke xxiii.
-42). Assurance is Job sitting in the dust, covered with sores, and
-saying, 'I know that my Redeemer liveth;' 'Though He slay me, yet
-will I trust in Him'" (Job xix. 25; xiii. 15).
-
-"Faith is Peter's drowning cry, as he began to sink, 'Lord, save me!'
-(Matt. xxiv. 30). Assurance is that same Peter declaring before the
-Council, in after-times, 'This is the stone which was set at nought
-of you builders, which is become the head of the corner: neither is
-there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under
-heaven given among men whereby we must be saved'" (Acts iv. 11, 12).
-
-"Faith is the anxious, trembling voice, 'Lord, I believe; help Thou
-mine unbelief!' (Mark ix. 24). Assurance is the confident challenge,
-'Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who is he that
-condemneth?'" (Rom. viii. 33, 34).
-
-Faith is Saul praying in the house of Judas at Damascus, sorrowful,
-blind, and alone. (Acts ix. 11.) Assurance is Paul, the aged
-prisoner, looking calmly into the grave, and saying, 'I know whom I
-have believed.' 'There is a crown laid up for me' (2 Tim. i. 12; iv.
-8).
-
-"Faith is Life. How great the blessing! Who can tell the gulf between
-life and death? And yet life may be weak, sickly, unhealthy, painful,
-trying, anxious, worn, burdensome, joyless, smileless, to the very
-end.
-
-"Assurance is _more than life_. It is health, strength, power, vigor,
-activity, energy, manliness, beauty."
-
-A minister once pronounced the benediction in this way: "The heart of
-God to make us welcome; the blood of Christ to make us clean, and the
-Holy Spirit to make us certain." The security of the believer is the
-result of the operation of the Spirit of God.
-
-Another writer says: "I have seen shrubs and trees grow out of the
-rocks, and overhang fearful precipices, roaring cataracts, and deep
-running waters; but they maintained their position, and threw out
-their foliage and branches as much as if they had been in the midst
-of a dense forest." It was their hold on the rock that made them
-secure; and the influences of nature that sustained their life. So
-believers are oftentimes exposed to the most horrible dangers in
-their journey to heaven; but, so long as they are "rooted and
-grounded" in the Rock of Ages, they are perfectly secure. Their hold
-of Him is their guarantee; and the blessings of His grace give them
-life and sustain them in life. And as the tree must die, or the rock
-fall, before a dissolution can be effected between _them_, so either
-the believer must lose his spiritual life, or the Rock must crumble,
-ere their union can be dissolved.
-
-Speaking of the Lord Jesus, Isaiah says: "I will fasten Him as a nail
-in a sure place; and He shall be for a glorious throne to His
-Father's house: and they shall hang upon Him all the glory of His
-father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small
-quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of
-flagons" (xxii. 23, 24).
-
-There is one nail, fastened in a sure place; and on it hang all the
-flagons and all the cups. "Oh," says one little cup, "I am so small
-and so black, suppose I were to drop!" "Oh," says a flagon, "there is
-no fear of you; but I am so heavy, so very weighty, suppose I were to
-drop!" And a little cup says, "Oh, if I were only like the gold cup
-there, I should never fear falling." But the gold cup answers, "It is
-not because I am a gold cup that I keep up; but because I hang upon
-the nail." If the nail gives way we all come down, gold cups, china
-cups, pewter cups, and all; but as long as the nail keeps up, all
-that hang on Him hang safely.
-
-I once read these words on a tombstone: "Born, died, kept." Let us
-pray God to keep us in perfect peace, and assured of salvation.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII.
-
-
-_CHRIST ALL AND IN ALL_.
-
-
-(Colossians iii. 11.)
-
-
-Christ is _all_ to us that we make Him to be. I want to emphasize
-that word "all." Some men make Him to be "a root out of a dry
-ground," "without form or comeliness." He is nothing to them; they do
-not want Him. Some Christians have a very small Saviour, for they are
-not willing to receive Him fully, and let Him do great and mighty
-things for them. Others have a mighty Saviour, because they make Him
-to be great and mighty.
-
-If we would know what Christ wants to be to us, we must first of all
-know Him as our Saviour from sin. When the angel came down from
-heaven to proclaim that He was to be born into the world, you
-remember he gave His name, "He shall be called Jesus, for He shall
-save His people from their sins." Have we been delivered from sin? He
-did not come to save us _in_ our sins, but _from_ our sins. Now,
-there are three ways of knowing a man. Some men you know only by
-hearsay; others you merely know by having been once introduced to
-them, you know them very slightly; other again you know by having
-been acquainted with them for years, you know them intimately. So I
-believe there are three classes of people to-day in the Christian
-Church and out of it: those who know Christ only by reading or by
-hearsay, those who have a historical Christ; those who have a slight
-personal acquaintance with Him; and, those who thirst, as Paul did,
-to "know Him and the power of His resurrection." The more we know of
-Christ the more we shall love Him, and the better we shall serve Him.
-
-Let us look at Him as He hangs upon the Cross, and see how He has put
-away sin. He was manifested that He might take away our sins; and if
-we really know Him we must first of all see Him as our Saviour from
-sin. You remember how the angels said to the shepherds on the plains
-of Bethlehem, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which
-shall be to all people: for unto you is born this day, in the city of
-David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." (Luke ii. 10, 11.) Then
-if you go clear back to Isaiah, seven hundred years before Christ's
-birth, you will find these words: "I, even I, am the Lord; and beside
-me there is no Saviour" (xliii. 11).
-
-Again, in the First Epistle of John (iv. 14) we read: "We have seen,
-and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the
-world." All the heathen religions, we read, teach men to work their
-way up to God; but the religion of Jesus Christ is God coming down to
-men to save them, to lift them up out of the pit of sin. In Luke xix.
-10, we read that Christ Himself told the people what He had come for:
-"The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." So
-we start from the Cross, not from the cradle. Christ has opened up a
-new and living way to the Father; He has taken all the stumbling-blocks
-out of the way, so that every man who accepts of Christ as his
-Saviour can have salvation.
-
-But Christ is not only a Saviour. I might save a man from drowning
-and rescue him from an untimely grave; but I might probably not be
-able to do any more for him. Christ is something more than a Saviour.
-When the children of Israel were placed behind the blood, that blood
-was their salvation; but they would still have heard the crack of the
-slave-driver's whip if they had not been delivered from the Egyptian
-yoke of bondage: then it was that God delivered them from the hand of
-the king of Egypt. I have little sympathy with the idea that God
-comes down to save us, and then leaves us in prison, the slaves of
-our besetting sins. No; He has come to deliver us, and to give us
-victory over our evil tempers, our passions, and our lusts. Are you a
-professed Christian but one who is a slave to some besetting sin? If
-you want to get victory over that temper or that lust, go on to know
-Christ more intimately. He brings deliverance for the past, the
-present, and the future. "Who delivered; who doth deliver; who will
-yet deliver." (2 Cor. i. 10.)
-
-How often, like the children of Israel when they came to the Red Sea,
-have we become discouraged because everything looked dark before us,
-behind us, and around us, and we knew not which way to turn. Like
-Peter we have said, "To whom shall we go?" But God has appeared for
-our deliverance. He has brought us through the Red Sea right out into
-the wilderness, and opened up the way into the Promised Land. But
-Christ is not only our Deliverer; He is our Redeemer. That is
-something more than being our Saviour. He has brought us back. "Ye
-have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without
-money." (Isaiah lii. 3.) "We were not redeemed with corruptible
-things, as silver and gold." (1 Peter i. 18.) If gold could have
-redeemed us, could He not have created ten thousand worlds full of
-gold?
-
-When God had redeemed the children of Israel from the bondage of
-Egypt, and brought them through the Red Sea, they struck out for the
-wilderness; and then God became to them their Way. I am so thankful
-the Lord has not left us in darkness as to the right way. There is no
-living man who has been groping in the darkness but may know the way.
-"I am the Way," says Christ. If we follow Christ we shall be in the
-right way, and have the right doctrine. Who could lead the children
-of Israel through the wilderness like the Almighty God Himself? He
-knew the pitfalls and dangers of the way, and guided the people
-through all their wilderness journey right into the promised land. It
-is true that if it had not been for their accursed unbelief they
-might have crossed into the land at Kadesh Barnea, and taken
-possession of it, but they desired something besides God's word; so
-they were turned back, and had to wander in the desert for forty
-years. I believe there are thousands of God's children wandering in
-the wilderness still. The Lord has delivered them from the hand of
-the Egyptian, and would at once take them through the wilderness
-right into the Promised Land, if they were only willing to follow
-Christ. Christ has been down here, and has made the rough places
-smooth, and the dark places light, and the crooked places straight.
-If we will only be led by Him, and will follow Him, all will be
-peace, and joy, and rest.
-
-In the frontier, when a man goes out hunting he takes a hatchet with
-him, and cuts off pieces from the bark of the trees as he goes along
-through the forest: this is called "blazing the way." He does it that
-he may know the way back, as there is no pathway through these thick
-forests. Christ has come down to this earth; He has "blazed the Way:"
-and now that He has gone up on high, if we will but follow him, we
-shall be kept in the right path. I will tell you how you may know if
-you are following Christ or not. If some one has slandered you, or
-misjudged you, do you treat them as your master would have done? If
-you do not bear these things in a loving and forgiving spirit, all
-the churches and ministers in the world cannot make you right. "If
-any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." (Romans
-viii. 9.) "If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature: old
-things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Cor.
-v. 17.)
-
-Christ is not only our way; He is the Light upon the way. He says, "I
-am the Light of the world." (John viii. 12; ix. 5; xii. 46.) He goes
-on to say, "He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but
-shall have the light of life." It is impossible for any man or woman
-who is following Christ to walk in darkness. If your soul is in the
-darkness, groping around in the fog and mist of earth, let me tell
-you it is because you have got away from the true light. There is
-nothing but light that will dispel darkness. So let those who are
-walking in spiritual darkness admit Christ into their hearts: He is
-the Light. I call to mind a picture of which I used at one time to
-think a good deal; but now I have come to look more closely, I would
-not put it up in my house except I turned the face to the wall. It
-represents Christ as standing at a door, knocking, and having a big
-lantern in His hand. Why, you might as well hang up a lantern to the
-sun as put one into Christ's hand. He is the Sun of Righteousness;
-and it is our privilege to walk in the light of an unclouded sun.
-
-Many people are hunting after light, and peace, and joy. We are
-nowhere told to seek after these things. If we admit Christ into our
-hearts these will all come of themselves. I remember, when a boy, I
-used to try in vain to catch my shadow. One day I was walking with my
-face to the sun; and as I happened to look around I saw that my
-shadow was following me. The faster I went the faster my shadow
-followed; I could not get away from it. So when our faces are
-directed to the Sun of Righteousness, the peace and joy are sure to
-come. A man said to me some time ago, "Moody, how do you feel?" It
-was so long since I had thought about my feelings I had to stop and
-consider awhile, in order to find out. Some Christians are all the
-time thinking about their feelings; and because they do not feel just
-right they think their joy is all gone. If we keep our faces towards
-Christ, and are occupied with Him, we shall be lifted out of the
-darkness and the trouble that may have gathered round our path.
-
-I remember being in a meeting after the war of the great rebellion
-broke out. The war had been going on for about six months. The army
-of the North had been defeated at Bull Run, in fact, we had nothing
-but defeat, and it looked as though the republic was going to pieces.
-So we were much cast down and discouraged. At this meeting every
-speaker for awhile seemed as if he had hung his harp upon the willow;
-and it was one of the gloomiest meetings I ever attended. Finally an
-old man with beautiful white hair got up to speak, and his face
-literally shone. "Young men," he said "you do not talk like sons of
-the King. Though it is dark just here, remember it is light somewhere
-else." Then he went on to say that if it were dark all over the
-world, it was light up around the Throne.
-
-He told us he had come from the east, where a friend had described to
-him how he had been up a mountain to spend the night and see the sun
-rise. As the party were climbing up the mountain, and before they had
-reached the summit, a storm came on. This friend said to the guide,
-"I will give this up; take me back." The guide smiled, and replied,
-"I think we shall get above the storm soon." On they went; and it was
-not long before they got up to where it was as calm as any summer
-evening. Down in the valley a terrible storm raged; they could hear
-the thunder rolling, and see the lightning's flash; but all was
-serene on the mountain top. "And so, my young friends," continued the
-old man, "though all is dark around you, come a little higher and the
-darkness will flee away." Often when I have been inclined to get
-discouraged, I have thought of what he said. Now if you are down in
-the valley amidst the thick fog and the darkness, get a little
-higher; get nearer to Christ, and know more of Him.
-
-You remember the Bible says, that when Christ expired on the cross,
-the light of the world was put out. God sent His Son to be the light
-of the world; but men did not love the light because it reproved them
-of their sins. When they were about to put out this light, what did
-Christ say to His disciples? "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me." (Acts
-i. 8.) He has gone up yonder to intercede for us; but He wants us to
-shine for Him down here. "Ye are the light of the world." (Matt. v.
-14.) So our work is to shine; not to blow our own trumpet so that
-people may look at us. What we want to do is to show forth Christ. If
-we have any light at all it is borrowed light. Some one said to a
-young Christian: "Converted! it is all moonshine!" Said he: "I thank
-you for the illustration; the moon borrows its light from the sun;
-and we borrow ours from the Sun of Righteousness." If we are
-Christ's, we are here to shine for Him: by and by he will call us
-home to our reward.
-
-I remember hearing of a blind man who sat by the wayside with a
-lantern near him. When he was asked what he had a lantern for, as he
-could not see the light, he said it was that people should not
-stumble ever him. I believe more people stumble over the
-inconsistencies of professed Christians than from any other cause.
-What is doing more harm to the cause of Christ than all the
-scepticism in the world is this cold, dead formalism, this conformity
-to the world, this professing what we do not possess. The eyes of the
-world are upon us. I think it was George Fox who said every Quaker
-ought to light up the country for ten miles around him. If we were
-all brightly shining for the Master, those about us would soon be
-reached, and there would be a shout of praise going to heaven.
-
-People say: "I want to know what is the truth." Listen: "I am the
-truth," says Christ. (John xiv. 5.) If you want to know what the
-truth is, get acquainted with Christ. People also complain that they
-have not life. Many are trying to give themselves spiritual life. You
-may galvanize yourselves and put electricity into yourselves, so to
-speak; but the effect will not last very long. Christ alone is the
-author of life. If you would have real spiritual life, get to know
-Christ. Many try to stir up spiritual life by going to meetings. That
-may be well enough; but it will be of no use, unless they get into
-contact with the living Christ. Then their spiritual life will not be
-a spasmodic thing, but will be perpetual; flowing on and on, and
-bringing forth fruit to God.
-
-Then Christ is our Keeper. A great many young disciples are afraid
-they will not hold out. "He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber
-nor sleep." (Psalm cxxi. 4.) It is the work of Christ to keep us; and
-if He keeps us there will be no danger of our falling. I suppose if
-Queen Victoria had to take care of the Crown of England, some thief
-might attempt to get access to it; but it is put away in the Tower of
-London, and guarded night and day by soldiers. The whole English army
-would, if necessary, be called out to protect it. And we have no
-strength in ourselves. We are no match for Satan; he has had six
-thousand years' experience. But then we remember that the One who
-neither slumbers nor sleeps is our keeper. In Isaiah xli. 10, we
-read, "Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am
-thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will
-uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness." In Jude also,
-verse 24, we are told that He is "able to keep us from falling." "We
-have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." (1
-John ii. 1.)
-
-But Christ is something more. He is our Shepherd. It is the work of
-the shepherd to care for the sheep, to feed them and protect them. "I
-am the Good Shepherd;" "My sheep hear My voice." "I lay down My life
-for the sheep." In that wonderful tenth chapter of John, Christ uses
-the personal pronoun no less than twenty-eight times, in declaring
-what He is and what He will do. In verse 28 He says, "They shall
-never perish; neither shall any [_man_] pluck them out of My hand."
-But notice the word "man" is in italics. See how the verse really
-reads: "Neither shall any pluck them out of My hand"--no devil or man
-shall be able to do it. In another place the Scripture declares,
-"Your life is hid with Christ in God." (Col. iii. 3.) How safe and
-how secure!
-
-Christ says, "My sheep hear My voice . . . and they follow Me." (John
-x. 27.) A gentleman in the East heard of a shepherd who could call
-all his sheep to him by name. He went and asked if this was true. The
-shepherd took him to the pasture where they were, and called one of
-them by some name. One sheep looked up and answered the call, while
-the others went on feeding and paid no attention. In the same way he
-called about a dozen of the sheep around him. The stranger said, "How
-do you know one from the other? They all look perfectly alike."
-"Well," said he, "you see that sheep toes in a little; that other one
-has a squint; one has a little piece of wool off; another has a black
-spot; and another has a piece out of its ear." The man knew all his
-sheep by their failings, for he had not a perfect one in the whole
-flock. I suppose our Shepherd knows us in the same way.
-
-An Eastern shepherd was once telling a gentleman that his sheep knew
-his voice, and that no stranger could deceive them. The gentleman
-thought he would like to put the statement to the test. So he put on
-the shepherd's frock and turban, and took his staff and went to the
-flock. He disguised his voice, and tried to speak as much like the
-shepherd as he could; but he could not get a single sheep in the
-flock to follow him. He asked the shepherd if his sheep never
-followed a stranger. He was obliged to admit that if a sheep got
-sickly it would follow any one. So it is with a good many professed
-Christians; when they get sickly and weak in the faith, they will
-follow any teacher that comes along; but when the soul is in health,
-a man will not be carried away by errors and heresies. He will know
-whether the "voice" speaks the truth or not. He can soon tell that,
-if he is really in communion with God. When God sends a true
-messenger his words will find a ready response in the Christian
-heart.
-
-Christ is a tender Shepherd. You may some time think He has not been
-a very tender Shepherd to you; you are passing under the rod. It is
-written, "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son
-whom He receiveth." (Heb. xii. 6.) That you are passing under the rod
-is no proof that Christ does not love you. A friend of mine lost all
-his children. No man could ever have loved his family more; but the
-scarlet fever took one by one away; and so the whole four or five,
-one after another, died. The poor stricken parents went over to great
-Britain, and wandered from one place to another, there and on the
-continent. At length they found their way to Syria. One day they saw
-an Eastern shepherd come down to a stream, and call his flock to
-cross. The sheep came down to the brink, and looked at the water; but
-they seemed to shrink from it, and he could not get them to respond
-to his call. He then took a little lamb, put it under one arm; he
-took another lamb and put it under the other arm, and thus passed
-into the stream. The old sheep no longer stood looking at the water:
-they plunged in after the shepherd; and in a few minutes the whole
-flock was on the other side; and he led them away to newer and
-fresher pastures. The bereaved father and mother, as they looked on
-the scene, felt that it taught them a lesson. They no longer murmured
-because the Great Shepherd had taken their lambs one by one into
-yonder world; and they began to look up and look forward to the time
-when they would follow the loved ones they had lost. If you have
-loved ones gone before, remember that your Shepherd is calling you to
-"set your affection on things above." (Col. iii. 2.) Let us be
-faithful to Him, and follow Him, while we remain in this world. And
-if you have not taken Him for your Shepherd, do so this very day.
-
-Christ is not only all these things that I have mentioned: He is also
-our Mediator, our Sanctifier, our Justifier; in fact, it would take
-volumes to tell what He desires to be to every individual soul. While
-looking through some papers I once read this wonderful description of
-Christ. I do not know where it originally came from; but it was so
-fresh to my soul that I should like to give it to you:--
-
-"Christ is our Way; we walk in Him. He is our Truth; we embrace Him.
-He is our Life; we live in Him. He is our Lord; we choose Him to rule
-over us. He is our Master; we serve Him. He is our Teacher,
-instructing us in the way of salvation. He is our Prophet, pointing
-out the future. He is our Priest, having atoned for us. He is our
-Advocate, ever living to make intercession for us. He is our Saviour,
-saving to the uttermost. He is our Root; we grow from Him. He is our
-Bread; we feed upon Him. He is our Shepherd, leading us into green
-pastures. He is our true Vine; we abide in Him. He is the Water of
-Life; we slake our thirst from Him. He is the fairest among ten
-thousand: we admire Him above all others. He is 'the brightness of
-the Father's glory, and the express image of His person;' we strive
-to reflect His likeness. He is the upholder of all things; we rest
-upon Him. He is our wisdom; we are guided by Him. He is our
-Righteousness; we cast all our imperfections upon Him. He is our
-Sanctification; we draw all our power for holy life from Him. He is
-our Redemption, redeeming us from all iniquity. He is our Healer,
-curing all our diseases. He is our Friend, relieving us in all our
-necessities. He is our Brother, cheering us in our difficulties."
-
-Here is another beautiful extract: it is from Gotthold:
-
-"For my part, my soul is like a hungry and thirsty child; and I need
-His love and consolation for my refreshment. I am a wandering and
-lost sheep; and I need Him as a good and faithful shepherd. My soul
-is like a frightened dove pursued by the hawk; and I need His wounds
-for a refuge. I am a feeble vine; and I need His cross to lay hold
-of, and to wind myself about. I am a sinner; and I need His
-righteousness. I am naked and bare; and I need His holiness and
-innocence for a covering. I am ignorant; and I need His teaching:
-simple and foolish; and I need the guidance of His Holy Spirit. In no
-situation, and at no time, can I do without Him. Do I pray? He must
-prompt, and intercede for me. Am I arraigned by Satan at the Divine
-tribunal? He must be my Advocate. Am I in affliction? He must be my
-Helper. Am I persecuted by the world? He must defend me. When I am
-forsaken, He must be my Support; when I am dying, my life: when
-mouldering in the grave, my Resurrection. Well, then, I will rather
-part with all the world, and all that it contains, than with Thee, my
-Saviour. And, God be thanked! I know that Thou, too, art neither able
-nor willing to do without me. Thou art rich; and I am poor. Thou hast
-abundance; and I am needy. Thou hast righteousness; and I sins. Thou
-hast wine and oil; and I wounds. Thou hast cordials and refreshments;
-and I hunger and thirst.
-
-Use me then, my Saviour, for whatever purpose, and in whatever way,
-Thou mayest require. Here is my poor heart, an empty vessel; fill it
-with Thy grace. Here is my sinful and troubled soul; quicken and
-refresh it with Thy love. Take my heart for Thine abode; my mouth to
-spread the glory of Thy name; my love and all my powers, for the
-advancement of Thy believing people; and never suffer the
-steadfastness and confidence of my faith to abate--that so at all
-times I may be enabled from the heart to say. 'Jesus needs me, and I
-Him; and so we suit each other.'"
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX.
-
-
-_BACKSLIDING_.
-
-
-"I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely: for Mine
-anger is turned away."--Hosea xiv. 4.
-
-
-There are two kinds of backsliders. Some have never been converted:
-they have gone through the form of joining a Christian community and
-claim to be backsliders; but they never have, if I may use the
-expression, "slid forward." They may talk of backsliding; but they
-have never really been born again. They need to be treated
-differently from real back-sliders--those who have been born of the
-incorruptible seed, but who have turned aside. We want to bring the
-latter back the same road by which they left their first love.
-
-Turn to Psalm lxxxv. 5. There you read: "Wilt Thou be angry with us
-for ever? wilt Thou draw out Thine anger to all generations? wilt
-Thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee? Show
-us Thy mercy, O Lord; and grant us Thy salvation." Now look again:
-"_I will hear what God the Lord will speak:_ for He will speak peace
-unto His people, and to His saints; but let them not turn again to
-folly" (_verse_ 8).
-
-There is nothing that will do back-sliders so much good as to come in
-contact with the Word of God; and for them the Old Testament is as
-full of help as the New. The book of Jeremiah has some wonderful
-passages for wanderers. What we want to do is to get back-sliders to
-hear what God the Lord will say.
-
-Look for a moment at Jeremiah vi. 10. "To whom shall I speak, and
-give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised,
-and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the Lord is unto them a
-reproach; they have no delight in it." That is the condition of
-back-sliders. They have no delight whatever in the word of God. But we
-want to bring them back, and let God get their ear. Read from the
-14th verse: "They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of My
-people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. Were
-they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not
-at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall
-among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be
-cast down, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways,
-and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk
-therein; and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We
-will not walk therein. Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken
-to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken."
-
-That was the condition of the Jews when they had backslidden. They
-had turned away from the old paths. And that is the condition of
-backsliders. They have got away from the good old book. Adam and Eve
-fell by not hearkening to the word of God. They did not believe God's
-word; but they believed the tempter. That is the way backsliders
-fall--by turning away from the word of God.
-
-In Jeremiah ii. we find God pleading with them as a father would
-plead with a son. "Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your
-fathers found in Me, that they are gone from Me, and have walked
-after vanity, and are become vain? . . . Wherefore I will yet plead
-with you, saith the Lord; and with your children's children will I
-plead . . . For my people have committed two evils: they have
-forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, and hewed them out
-cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water."
-
-Now there is one thing to which we wish to call the attention of
-backsliders; and that is, that the Lord never forsook them; but that
-they forsook Him! The Lord never left them; but they left Him! And
-this, too, without any cause! He says, "What iniquity have your
-fathers found in Me, that they are gone far from Me?" Is not God the
-same to-day as when you came to Him first? Has God changed? Men are
-apt to think that God has changed; but the fault is with them.
-Backslider, I would ask you, "What iniquity is there in God, that you
-have left Him and gone far from Him?" You have, He says, hewed out to
-yourselves broken cisterns that hold no water. The world cannot
-satisfy the new nature. No earthly well can satisfy the soul that has
-become a partaker of the heavenly nature. Honor, wealth and the
-pleasures of this world will not satisfy those who, having tasted the
-water of life, have gone astray, seeking refreshment at the world's
-fountains. Earthly wells will get dry. They cannot quench spiritual
-thirst.
-
-Again in the 32d verse: "Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride
-her attire? yet My people have forgotten Me, days without number."
-That is the charge which God brings against the backslider. They
-"have forgotten Me, days without number."
-
-I have often startled young ladies when I have said to them, "My
-friend, you think more of your ear-rings than of the Lord." The reply
-has been, "No, I do not." But when I have asked, "Would you not be
-troubled if you lost one; and would you not set about seeking for
-it?" the answer has been, "Well, yes, I think I should." But though
-they had turned from the Lord, it did not give them any trouble; nor
-did they seek after Him that they might find Him.
-
-How many once in fellowship and in daily communion with the Lord now
-think more of their dresses and ornaments than of their precious
-souls! Love does not like to be forgotten. Mothers would have broken
-hearts if their children left them and never wrote a word or sent any
-memento of their affection; and God pleads over backsliders as a
-parent over loved ones who have gone astray. He tries to woo them
-back. He asks: "What have I done that you should have forsaken Me?"
-
-The most tender and loving words to be found in the whole of the
-Bible are from Jehovah to those who have left Him without a cause.
-Jer. ii. 19.
-
-Hear how He argues with such: (Jer. xi. 19.) "Thine own wickedness
-shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee; know,
-therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou
-hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that My fear is not in thee,
-saith the Lord God of hosts."
-
-I do not exaggerate when I say that I have seen hundreds of
-backsliders come back; and I have asked them if they have not found
-it an evil and a bitter thing to leave the Lord. You cannot find a
-real backslider, who has known the Lord, but will admit that it is an
-evil and a bitter thing to turn away from Him; and I do not know of
-any one verse more used to bring back wanderers than that very one.
-May it bring you back if you have wandered into the far country.
-
-Look at Lot. Did not he find it an evil and a bitter thing? He was
-twenty years in Sodom, and never made a convert. He got on well in
-the sight of the world. Men would have told you that he was one of
-the most influential and worthy men in all Sodom. But alas! alas! he
-ruined his family. And it is a pitiful sight to see that old
-backslider going through the streets of Sodom at midnight, after he
-has warned his children, and they have turned a deaf ear.
-
-I have never known a man and his wife backslide, without its proving
-utter ruin to their children. They will make a mockery of religion
-and will deride their parents: "Thine own wickedness shall correct
-thee; and thy backsliding shall reprove thee!" Did not David find it
-so? Mark him, crying, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom!
-would God I had died for thee; O Absalom, my son, my son!" I think it
-was the ruin, rather than the death of his son that caused this
-anguish.
-
-I remember being engaged in conversation some years ago, till past
-midnight, with an old man. He had been for years wandering on the
-barren mountains of sin. That night he wanted to get back. We prayed,
-and prayed, and prayed, till light broke in upon him; and he went
-away rejoicing. The next night he sat in front of me when I was
-preaching, and I think that I never saw any one look so sad and
-wretched in all my life. He followed me into the enquiry-room. "What
-is the trouble?" I asked. "Is your eye off the Saviour? Have your
-doubts come back?" "No; it is not that," he said. "I did not go to
-business, but spent all this day in visiting my children. They are
-all married and in this city. I went from house to house, but there
-was not one but mocked me. It is the darkest day of my life. I have
-awoke up to what I have done. I have taken my children into the
-world; and now I cannot get them out." The Lord had restored unto him
-the joy of His salvation; yet there was the bitter consequence of his
-transgression. You can run through your experience; and you can find
-just such instances repeated again and again. Many who came to your
-city years ago serving God, in their prosperity have forgotten Him:
-and where are their sons and daughters? Show me the father and mother
-who have deserted the Lord and gone back to the beggarly elements of
-the world; and I am mistaken if their children are not on the high
-road to ruin.
-
-As we desire to be faithful we warn these backsliders. It is a sign
-of love to warn of danger. We may be looked upon as enemies for a
-while; but the truest friends are those who lift up the voice of
-warning. Israel had no truer friend than Moses. In Jeremiah God gave
-His people a weeping prophet to bring them back to Him; but they cast
-off God. They forgot the God who brought them out of Egypt, and who
-led them through the desert into the promised land. In their
-prosperity they forget Him and turned away. The Lord had told them
-what would happen. (Deut. xxviii.) And see what did happen. The
-king who make light of the word of God was taken captive by
-Nebuchadnezzar, and his children brought up in front of him and every
-one slain: his eyes were put out of his head; and he was bound in
-fetters of brass and cast into a dungeon in Babylon. (2 Kings xxv.
-7.) That is the way he reaped what he had sown. Surely it is an evil
-and a bitter thing to backslide, but the Lord would win you back with
-the message of His Work.
-
-In Jeremiah viii. 5, we read: "Why then is this people of Jerusalem
-slidden by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit; _They
-refuse to return_." That is what the Lord brings against them. "They
-refuse to return." "I hearkened and heard; but they spake not aright:
-no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done?
-Every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.
-Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the
-turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their
-coming; but My people know not the judgment of the Lord."
-
-Now look: "I hearkened and heard; but they spake not aright." No
-family altar! No reading the Bible! No closet devotion! God stoops to
-hear; but His people have turned away! If there be a penitent
-backslider, one who is anxious for pardon and restoration, you will
-find no words more tender than are to be found in Jeremiah iii. 12:
-"Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou
-backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause Mine anger
-to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not
-keep anger forever." Now notice: "Only acknowledge thine iniquity,
-that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast
-scattered thy ways to the stranger under every green tree, and ye
-have not obeyed My voice, saith the Lord. Turn, O backsliding
-children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you"--think of God
-coming and saying, "_I am married unto you!_--and I will take you one
-of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion."
-
-"Only acknowledge thine iniquity." How many times have I held that
-passage up to a backslider! "Acknowledge" it; and God says I will
-forgive you. I remember a man asking, "Who said that? Is that there?"
-And I held up to him the passage, "Only acknowledge thine iniquity;"
-and the man went down on his knees, and cried, "My God, I have
-sinned"; and the Lord restored him there and then. If you have
-wandered, He wants you to come back.
-
-He says in another place, "O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O
-Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning
-cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away" (Hosea vi. 4). His
-compassion and His love is wonderful!
-
-In Jeremiah iii. 22; "Return, ye backsliding children, and I will
-heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto Thee; Thou art the Lord
-our God." He just puts words into the mouth of the backslider. Only
-come; and, if you will come, He will receive you graciously and love
-you freely.
-
-In Hosea xiv. 1, 2, 4: "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for
-thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to
-the Lord (He puts words into your mouth): say unto Him, Take away all
-iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we render the calves of
-our lips . . . I will heal their backsliding, I will love them
-freely, for Mine auger is turned away from him." Just observe that,
-Turn! _Turn!!_ Turn!!! rings all through these passages.
-
-Now, if you have wandered, remember that you left Him, and not He
-you. You have to get out of the backslider's pit just in the same way
-you got in. And if you take the same road as when you left the Master
-you will find Him now, just where you are.
-
-If we were to treat Christ as any earthly friend we should never
-leave Him; and there would never be a backslider. If I were in a town
-for a single week I should not think of going away without shaking
-hands with the friends I had made, and saying "Good bye" to them. I
-should be justly blamed if I took the train and left without saying a
-word to any one. The cry would be, "What's the matter?" But did you
-ever hear of a backslider bidding the Lord Jesus Christ "Good bye";
-going into his closet and saying "Lord Jesus, I have known Thee ten,
-twenty, or thirty years: but I am tired of Thy service; Thy yoke is
-not easy, nor Thy burden light; so I am going back to the world, to
-the flesh-pots of Egypt. Good bye, Lord Jesus! Farewell"? Did you
-ever hear that? No; you never did, and you never will. I tell you, if
-you get into the closet and shut out the world and hold communion
-with the Master you cannot leave Him. The language of your heart will
-be, "To whom shall we go," but unto Thee? "Thou hast the words of
-eternal life" (John vi. 68). You could not go back to the world if
-you treated Him in that way. But you left Him and ran away. You have
-forgotten Him days without number. Come back to-day; just as you are!
-Make up your mind that you will not rest until God has restored unto
-you the joy of His salvation.
-
-A gentleman in Cornwall once met a Christian in the street whom he
-knew to be a backslider. He went up to him, and said: "Tell me, is
-there not some estrangement between you and the Lord Jesus?" The man
-hung his head, and said, "Yes." "Well," said the gentleman, "what has
-He done to you?" The answer to which was a flood of tears.
-
-In Revelation ii. 4, 5, we read: "Nevertheless I have somewhat
-against thee, because thou hast left the first love. Remember
-therefore from whence thou art fallen; and repent, and do the first
-works: or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy
-candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." I want to guard
-you against a mistake which some people make with regard to "doing
-the first works." Many think that they are to have the same
-experience over again, That has kept thousands for months without
-peace; because they have been waiting for a renewal of their first
-experience. You will never have the same experience as when you first
-came to the Lord. God never repeats himself. No two people of all
-earth's millions look alike or think alike. You may say that you
-cannot tell two people apart; but when you get well acquainted with
-them you can very quickly distinguish differences. So, no one person
-will have the same experience a second time. If God will restore His
-joy to your soul let Him do it in His way. Do not mark out a way for
-God to bless you. Do not expect the same experience that you had two
-or twenty years ago. You will have a fresh experience, and God will
-deal with you in His own way. If you confess your sins and tell Him
-that you have wandered from the path of His commandments He will
-restore unto you the joy of His salvation.
-
-I want to call your attention to the manner in which Peter fell; and
-I think that nearly all fall pretty much in the same way. I want to
-lift up a warning note to those who have not fallen. "Let him that
-thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. x. 12). Twenty-five
-years ago--and for the first five years after I was converted--I
-used to think that if I were able to stand for twenty years I need
-fear no fall. But the nearer you get to the Cross the fiercer the
-battle. Satan aims high. He went amongst the twelve; and singled out
-the Treasurer--Judas Iscariot, and the Chief Apostle--Peter. Most men
-who have fallen have done so on the strongest side of their
-character. I am told that the only side upon which Edinburgh Castle
-was successfully assailed was where the rocks were steepest, and
-where the garrison thought themselves secure. If any man thinks that
-he is strong enough to resist the devil at any one point he needs
-special watch there, for the tempter comes that way.
-
-Abraham stands, as it were, at the head of the family of faith; and
-the children of faith may be said to trace their descent to Abraham:
-and yet down in Egypt he denied his wife. (Gen. xii.) Moses was noted
-for his meekness; and yet he was kept out of the promised land
-because of one hasty act and speech, when he was told by the Lord to
-speak to the rock so that the congregation and their beasts should
-have water to drink. "Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water
-out of this rock?" (Num. xx. 10).
-
-Elijah was remarkable for his boldness: and yet he went off a day's
-journey into the wilderness like a coward and hid himself under a
-juniper tree, requesting for himself that he might die, because of a
-message he received from a woman. (1 Kings xix.) Let us be careful.
-No matter who the man is--he may be in the pulpit--but if he gets
-self-conceited he will be sure to fall. We who are followers of
-Christ need constantly to pray to be made humble, and kept humble.
-God made Moses' face so to shine that other men could see it; but
-Moses himself wist not that his face shone, and the more holy in
-heart a man is the more manifest to the outer world will be his daily
-life and conversation. Some people talk of how humble they are; but
-if they have true humility there will be no necessity for them to
-publish it. It is not needful. A lighthouse does not have a drum
-beaten or a trumpet-blown in order to proclaim the proximity of a
-lighthouse: it is its own witness. And so if we have the true light
-in us it will show itself. It is not those who make the most noise
-who have the most piety. There is a brook, or a little "burn" as the
-Scotch call it, not far from where I live; and after a heavy rain you
-can hear the rush of its waters a long way off: but let there come a
-few days of pleasant weather, and the brook becomes almost silent.
-But there is a river near my house, the flow of which I never heard
-in my life, as it pours on in its deep and majestic course the year
-round. We should have so much of the love of God within us that its
-presence shall be evident without our loud proclamation of the fact.
-
-The first step in Peter's downfall was his self-confidence. The Lord
-warned him. The Lord said: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired
-to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for
-thee, that thy faith fail not" (Luke xxii. 31, 32). But Peter said:
-"I am ready to go with Thee, both into prison and to death." "Though
-all shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended."
-(Matt. xxvi. 23.) "James and John, and the others, may leave You; but
-You can count on me!" But the Lord warned him: "I tell thee, Peter,
-the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny
-that thou knowest Me." (Luke xxii. 24.)
-
-Though the Lord rebuked him, Peter said he was ready to follow Him to
-death. That boasting is too often a forerunner of downfall. Let us
-walk humbly and softly. We have a great tempter; and, in an unguarded
-hour, we may stumble and fall and bring a scandal on Christ.
-
-The next step in Peter's downfall was that he went to sleep. If Satan
-can rock the Church to sleep he does his work through God's own
-people. Instead of Peter watching one short hour in Gethsemane, he
-fell asleep, and the Lord asked him, "What, could ye not watch with
-Me one hour?" (Matt. xxvi. 40.) The next thing was that he fought in
-the energy of the flesh. The Lord rebuked him again and said, "They
-that take the sword shall perish with the sword." (Matt. xxvi. 52.)
-Jesus had to undo what Peter had done. The next thing, he "followed
-afar off." Step by step he gets away. It is a sad thing when a child
-of God follows afar off. When you see him associating with worldly
-friends, and throwing his influence on the wrong side, he is
-following afar off; and it will not be long before disgrace will be
-brought upon the old family name, and Jesus Christ will be wounded in
-the house of his friends. The man, by his example, will cause others
-to stumble and fall.
-
-The next thing--Peter is familiar and friendly with the enemies of
-Christ. A damsel says to this bold Peter: "Thou also wast with this
-Jesus of Galilee." But he denied before them all, saying, "I know not
-what thou sayest." And when he was gone out into the porch another
-maid saw him and said unto them that were there, "This fellow was
-also with Jesus of Nazareth." And again he denied with an oath. "I do
-not know the Man." Another hour passed; and yet he did not realize
-his position; when another confidently affirmed that he was a
-Galilean, for his speech betrayed him. And he was angry and began to
-curse and to swear, and again denied his Master: and the cock crew.
-(Matt. xxvi. 69-74.)
-
-He commences away up on the pinacle of self-conceit, and goes down
-step by step until he breaks out into cursing, and swears that he
-never knew his Lord.
-
-The Master might have turned and said to him, "Is it true, Peter,
-that you have forgotten Me so soon? Do you not remember when your
-wife's mother lay sick of a fever that I rebuked the disease and it
-left her? Do you not call to mind your astonishment at the draught of
-fishes so that you exclaimed, 'Depart from me; for I am a sinful man,
-O Lord?' Do you remember when in answer to your cry, 'Lord, save me,
-or I perish,' I stretched out My hand and kept you from drowning in
-the water? Have you forgotten when, on the Mount of Transfiguration,
-with James and John, you said to Me, 'Lord, it is good to be here:
-let us make three tabernacles?' Have you forgotten being with Me at
-the supper-table, and in Gethsemane? Is it true that you have
-forgotten Me so soon?" The Lord might have upbraided him with
-questions such as these: but He did nothing of the kind. He cast one
-look on Peter: and there was so much love in it that it broke that
-bold disciple's heart: and he went out and wept bitterly.
-
-And after Christ rose from the dead see how tenderly He dealt with
-the erring disciple. The angel at the sepulchre says, "Tell His
-disciples, _and Peter_." (Mark xvi. 7.) The Lord did not forget
-Peter, though Peter had denied Him thrice; so He caused this kindly
-special message to be conveyed to the repentant disciple. What a
-tender and loving Saviour we have!
-
-Friend, if you are one of the wanderers, let the loving look of the
-Master win you back; and let Him restore you to the joy of His
-salvation.
-
-Before closing, let me say that I trust God will restore some
-backslider reading these pages, who may in the future become a useful
-member of society and a bright ornament of the Church. We should
-never have had the thirty-second Psalm if David had not been
-restored: "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin
-is covered"; or that beautiful fifty-first Psalm which was written by
-the restored backslider. Nor should we have had that wonderful sermon
-on the day of Pentecost when three thousand were converted--preached
-by another restored backslider.
-
-May God restore other backsliders and make them a thousand times more
-used for His glory than they ever were before.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's The Way to God and How to Find It, by Dwight Moody
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