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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30449 ***
+
+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
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30449 ***