{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_33015/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_33015","id":"gutenberg_33015","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33015","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Evangelistic sermons","Evangelistic work","Sermons, American"],"text":"Produced by Keith G. Richardson\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE OVERCOMING LIFE\n\nAND OTHER SERMONS\n\n\nBy D. L. MOODY.\n\n\"_This is the victory that overcometh the, world, even our faith_.\"\n\n\nFLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY\n\nNew York Chicago Toronto\n\n_Publishers of Evangelical Literature_\n\n\n\nCOPYRIGHTED 1896, BY Fleming H. Revell Company.\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\nTHE OVERCOMING LIFE\n\nPART I. THE CHRISTIAN'S WARFARE\n\nPART II. INTERNAL FOES\n\nPART III. EXTERNAL FOES\n\nRESULTS OF TRUE REPENTANCE\n\nTRUE WISDOM\n\n\"COME THOU AND ALL THY HOUSE INTO THE ARK\"\n\nHUMILITY\n\nREST\n\nSEVEN \"I WILLS\" OF CHRIST\n\n\n\nTHE OVERCOMING LIFE.\n\nPART I.\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN'S WARFARE.\n\nI would like to have you open your Bible at the first epistle of John,\nfifth chapter, fourth and fifth verses: \"Whatsoever is born of God\novercometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the\nworld, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he\nthat believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?\"\n\nWhen a battle is fought, all are anxious to know who are the victors.\nIn these verses we are told who is to gain the victory in life. When I\nwas converted I made this mistake: I thought the battle was already\nmine, the victory already won, the crown already in my grasp. I\nthought that old things had passed away, that all things had become\nnew; that my old corrupt nature, the Adam life, was gone. But I found\nout, after serving Christ for a few months, that conversion was only\nlike enlisting in the army, that there was a battle on hand, and that\nif I was to get a crown, I had to work for it and fight for it.\n\nSalvation is a gift, as free as the air we breathe. It is to be\nobtained, like any other gift, without money and without price: there\nare no other terms. \"To him that worketh not, but believeth.\" But on\nthe other hand, if we are to gain a crown, we must work for it. Let me\nquote a few verses in First Corinthians: \"For other foundation can no\nman lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if any man\nbuildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay,\nstubble; each man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall\ndeclare it, because it is revealed in fire: and the fire itself shall\nprove each man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work shall\nabide, which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's\nwork shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be\nsaved; yet so as through fire.\"\n\nWe see clearly from this that we may be saved, but all our works\nburned up. I may have a wretched, miserable voyage through life, with\nno victory, and no reward at the end; saved, yet so as by fire, or as\nJob puts it, \"with the skin of my teeth.\" I believe that a great many\nmen will barely get to heaven as Lot got out of Sodom, burned out,\nnothing left, works and everything else destroyed.\n\nIt is like this: when a man enters the army, he is a member of the\narmy the moment he enlists; he is just as much a member as a man who\nhas been in the army ten or twenty years. But enlisting is one thing,\nand participating in a battle another. Young converts are like those\njust enlisted.\n\nIt is folly for any man to attempt to fight in his own strength. The\nworld, the flesh and the devil are too much for any man. But if we are\nlinked to Christ by faith, and He is formed in us the hope of glory,\nthen we shall get the victory over every enemy. It is believers who\nare the overcomers. \"Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to\ntriumph in Christ.\" Through Him we shall be more than conquerors.\n\nI wouldn't think of talking to unconverted men about overcoming the\nworld, for it is utterly impossible. They might as well try to cut\ndown the American forest with their penknives. But a good many\nChristian people make this mistake: they think the battle is already\nfought and won. They have an idea that all they have to do is to put\nthe oars down in the bottom of the boat, and the current will drift\nthem into the ocean of God's eternal love. But we have to cross the\ncurrent. We have to learn how to watch and fight, and how to overcome.\nThe battle is only just commenced. The Christian life is a conflict\nand a warfare, and the quicker we find it out the better. There is not\na blessing in this world that God has not linked Himself to. All the\ngreat and higher blessings God associates with Himself. When God and\nman work together, then it is that there is going to be victory. We\nare coworkers with Him. You might take a mill, and put it forty feet\nabove a river, and there isn't capital enough in the States to make\nthat river turn the mill; but get it down about forty feet, and away\nit works. We want to keep in mind that if we are going to overcome the\nworld, we have got to work with God. It is His power that makes all\nthe means of grace effectual.\n\nThe story is told that Frederick Douglas, the great slave orator, once\nsaid in a mournful speech when things looked dark for his race:--\n\n\"The white man is against us, governments are against us, the spirit\nof the times is against us. I see no hope for the colored race. I am\nfull of sadness.\"\n\nJust then a poor old colored woman rose in the audience, and said.--\n\n\"Frederick, is God dead?\"\n\nMy friend, it makes a difference when you count God in.\n\nNow many a young believer is discouraged and disheartened when he\nrealizes this warfare. He begins to think that God has forsaken him,\nthat Christianity is not all that it professes to be. But he should\nrather regard it as an encouraging sign. No sooner has a soul escaped\nfrom his snare than the great Adversary takes steps to ensnare it\nagain. He puts forth all his power to recapture his lost prey. The\nfiercest attacks are made on the strongest forts, and the fiercer the\nbattle the young believer is called on to wage, the surer evidence it\nis of the work of the Holy Spirit in his heart. God will not desert\nhim in his time of need, any more than He deserted His people of old\nwhen they were hard pressed by their foes.\n\nThe Only Complete Victor.\n\nThis brings me to the fourth verse of the fourth chapter of the same\nepistle: \"Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them:\nbecause greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.\"\nThe only man that ever conquered this world--was complete victor--was\nJesus Christ. When He shouted on the cross, \"It is finished!\" it was\nthe shout of a conqueror. He had overcome every enemy. He had met sin\nand death. He had met every foe that you and I have got to meet, and\nhad come off victor. Now if I have got the spirit of Christ, if I have\ngot that same life in me, then it is that I have got a power that is\ngreater than any power in the world, and with that same power I\novercome the world.\n\nNotice that everything human in this world fails. Every man, the\nmoment he takes his eye off God, has failed. Every man has been a\nfailure at some period of his life. Abraham failed. Moses failed.\nElijah failed. Take the men that have become so famous and that were\nso mighty--the moment they got their eye off God, they were weak like\nother men; and it is a very singular thing that those men failed on\nthe strongest point in their character. I suppose it was because they\nwere not on the watch. Abraham was noted for his faith, and he failed\nright there--he denied his wife. Moses was noted for his meekness and\nhumility, and he failed right there--he got angry. God kept him out of\nthe promised land because he lost his temper. I know he was called\n\"the servant of God,\" and that he was a mighty man, and had power with\nGod, but humanly speaking, he failed, and was kept out of the promised\nland. Elijah was noted for his power in prayer and for his courage,\nyet he became a coward. He was the boldest man of his day, and stood\nbefore Ahab, and the royal court, and all the prophets of Baal; yet\nwhen he heard that Jezebel had threatened his life, he ran away to the\ndesert, and under a juniper tree prayed that he might die. Peter was\nnoted for his boldness, and a little maid scared him nearly out of his\nwits. As soon as she spoke to him, he began to tremble, and he swore\nthat he didn't know Christ. I have often said to myself that I'd like\nto have been there on the day of Pentecost alongside of that maid when\nshe saw Peter preaching.\n\n\"Why,\" I suppose she said, \"what has come over that man? He was afraid\nof _me_ only a few weeks ago, and now he stands up before all\nJerusalem and charges these very Jews with the murder of Jesus.\"\n\nThe moment he got his eye off the Master he failed; and every man, I\ndon't care who he is--even the strongest--every man that hasn't Christ\nin him, is a failure. John, the beloved disciple, was noted for his\nmeekness; and yet we hear of him wanting to call fire down from heaven\non a little town because it had refused the common hospitalities.\n\nTriumphs of Faith.\n\nNow, how are we to get the victory over all our enemies? Turn to\nGalatians, second chapter, verse twenty: \"I am crucified with Christ;\nnevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life\nwhich I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,\nwho loved me and gave Himself for me.\" We live by faith. We get this\nlife by faith, and become linked to Immanuel--\"God with us.\" If I have\nGod for me, I am going to overcome. How do we gain this mighty power?\nBy faith.\n\nThe next passage I want to call your attention to is Romans, chapter\neleven, verse twenty: \"Because of unbelief they were broken off; and\nthou standest by faith.\" The Jews were cut off on account of their\nunbelief: we were grafted in on account of our belief. So notice: We\nlive by faith, and we stand by faith.\n\nNext: We walk by faith. Second Corinthians, chapter five, verse seven:\n\"For we walk by faith, not by sight.\" The most faulty Christians I\nknow are those who want to walk by sight. They want to see the\nend--how a thing is going to come out. That isn't walking by faith at\nall--that is walking by sight.\n\nI think the characters that best represent this difference are Joseph\nand Jacob. Jacob was a man who walked with God by sight. You remember\nhis vow at Bethel:--\"If God will be with me, and will keep me in this\nway that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,\nso that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the\nLord be my God.\" And you remember how his heart revived when he saw\nthe wagons Joseph sent him from Egypt. He sought after signs. He never\ncould have gone through the temptations and trials that his son Joseph\ndid. Joseph represents a higher type of Christian. He could walk in\nthe dark. He could survive thirteen years of misfortune, in spite of\nhis dreams, and then ascribe it all to the goodness and providence of\nGod.\n\nLot and Abraham are a good illustration Lot turned away from Abraham\nand tented on the plains of Sodom. He got a good stretch of pasture\nland, but he had bad neighbors. He was a weak character and he should\nhave kept with Abraham in order to get strong. A good many men are\njust like that. As long as their mothers are living, or they are\nbolstered up by some godly person, they get along very well; but they\ncan't stand alone. Lot walked by sight; but Abraham walked by faith;\nhe went out in the footsteps of God. \"By faith Abraham, when he was\ncalled to go out into a place which he should after receive for an\ninheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By\nfaith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,\ndwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of\nthe same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations,\nwhose builder and maker is God.\" And again: We fight by faith.\nEphesians, sixth chapter, verse sixteen: \"Above all, taking the shield\nof faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of\nthe wicked.\" Every dart Satan can fire at us we can quench by faith,\nBy faith we can overcome the Evil One. To fear is to have more faith\nin your antagonist than in Christ.\n\nSome of the older people can remember when our war broke out.\nSecretary Seward, who was Lincoln's Secretary of State--a long-headed\nand shrewd politician--prophesied that the war would be over in ninety\ndays; and young men in thousands and hundreds of thousands came\nforward and volunteered to go down to Dixie and whip the South. They\nthought they would be back in ninety days; but the war lasted four\nyears, and cost about half a million of lives. What was the matter?\nWhy, the South was a good deal stronger than the North supposed. Its\nstrength was underestimated.\n\nJesus Christ makes no mistake of that kind. When He enlists a man in\nHis service, He shows him the dark side; He lets him know that he must\nlive a life of self-denial. If a man is not willing to go to heaven by\nthe way of Calvary, he cannot go at all. Many men want a religion in\nwhich there is no cross, but they cannot enter heaven that way. If we\nare to be disciples of Jesus Christ, we must deny ourselves and take\nup our cross and follow Him. So let us sit down and count the cost. Do\nnot think that you will have no battles if you follow the Nazarene,\nbecause many battles are before you. Yet if I had ten thousand lives,\nJesus Christ should have every one of them. Men do not object to a\nbattle if they are confident that they will have victory, and, thank\nGod, every one of us may have the victory if we will.\n\nThe reason why so many Christians fail all through life is just\nthis--they under-estimate the strength of the enemy. My dear friend;\nyou and I have got a terrible enemy to contend with. Don't let Satan\ndeceive you. Unless you are spiritually dead, it means warfare. Nearly\neverything around tends to draw us away from God. We do not step clear\nout of Egypt on to the throne of God. There is the wilderness journey,\nand there are enemies in the land.\n\nDon't let any man or woman think all he or she has to do is to join\nthe church. That will not save you. The question is, are you\novercoming the world, or is the world overcoming you? Are you more\npatient than you were five years ago? Are you more amiable? If you are\nnot, the world is overcoming you, even if you are a church member.\nThat epistle that Paul wrote to Titus says that we are to be sound in\npatience, faith and charity. We have got Christians, a good many of\nthem, that are good in spots, but mighty poor in other spots. Just a\nlittle bit of them seems to be saved, you know. They are not rounded\nout in their characters. It is just because they haven't been taught\nthat they have a terrible foe to overcome.\n\nIf I wanted to find out whether a Man was a Christian, I wouldn't go\nto his minister. I would go and ask his wife. I tell you, we want more\n_home piety_ just now. If a man doesn't treat his wife right, I don't\nwant to hear him talk about Christianity. What is the use of his\ntalking about salvation for the next life, if he has no salvation for\nthis? We want a Christianity that goes into our homes and everyday\nlives. Some men's religion just repels me. They put on a whining voice\nand a sort of a religious tone, and talk so sanctimoniously on Sunday\nthat you would think they were wonderful saints. But on Monday they\nare quite different. They put their religion away with their clothes,\nand you don't see any more of it until the next Sunday. You laugh, but\nlet us look out that we don't belong to that class. My friend, we have\ngot to have a higher type of Christianity, or the Church is gone. It\nis wrong for a man or woman to profess what they don't possess. If you\nare not overcoming temptations, the world is overcoming you. Just get\non your knees and ask God to help you. My dear friends, let us go to\nGod and ask Him to search us. Let us ask Him to wake us up, and let us\nnot think that just because we are church members we are all right. We\nare all wrong if we are not getting victory over sin.\n\n\n\nPART II.\n\nINTERNAL FOES.\n\nNow if we are going to overcome, we must begin inside. God always\nbegins there. An enemy inside the fort is far more dangerous than one\noutside.\n\nScripture teaches that in every believer there are two natures warring\nagainst each other. Paul says in his epistle to the Romans:--\"For we\nknow that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For\nthat which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what\nI hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto\nthe law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin\nthat dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,)\ndwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to\nperform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do\nnot: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I\nwould not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I\nfind then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me.\nFor I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see\nanother law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and\nbringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.\"\nAgain, in the Epistle to the Galatians, he says: \"For the flesh\nlusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and\nthese are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the\nthings that ye would.\"\n\nWhen we are born of God, we get His nature, but He does not\nimmediately take away all the old nature. Each species of animal and\nbird is true to its nature. You can tell the nature of the dove or\ncanary bird. The horse is true to his nature, the cow is true to hers.\nBut a man has two natures, and do not let the world or Satan make you\nthink that the old nature is extinct, because it is not. \"Reckon ye\nyourselves dead\"; but if you were dead, you wouldn't need to reckon\nyourselves dead, would you? The dead self would be dropped out of the\nreckoning. \"I keep my body under\"; if it were dead, Paul wouldn't have\nneeded to keep it under. I am judicially dead, but the old nature is\nalive, and therefore if I don't keep my body under and crucify the\nflesh with its affections, this lower nature will gain the advantage,\nand I shall be in bondage. Many men live all their lives in bondage to\nthe old nature, when they might have liberty if they would only live\nthis overcoming life. The old Adam never dies. It remains corrupt.\n\"From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in\nit; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been\nclosed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.\"\n\nA gentleman in India once got a tiger-cub, and tamed it so that it\nbecame a pet. One day when it had grown up, it tasted blood, and the\nold tiger-nature flashed out, and it had to be killed. So with the old\nnature in the believer. It never dies, though it is subdued: and\nunless he is watchful and prayerful, it will gain the upper hand, and\nrush him into sin. Someone has pointed out that \"I\" is the centre of\nS-I-N. It is the medium through which Satan acts.\n\nAnd so the worst enemy you have to overcome, after all, is _yourself_.\nWhen Capt. T-- became converted in London, he was a great society man.\nAfter he had been a Christian some months, he was asked;\n\n\"What have you found to be your greatest enemy since you began to be a\nChristian?\"\n\nAfter a few minutes of deep thought he said, \"Well, I think it is\nmyself.\"\n\n\"Ah!\" said the lady, \"the King has taken you into His presence, for it\nis only in His presence that we are taught these truths.\"\n\nI have had more trouble with D. L. Moody than with any other man who\nhas crossed my path. If I can only keep him right, I don't have any\ntrouble with other people. A good many have trouble with servants. Did\nyou ever think that the trouble lies with you instead of the servants?\nIf one member of the family is constantly snapping, he will have the\nwhole family snapping. It is true whether you believe it or not. You\nspeak quickly and snappishly to people and they will do the same to\nyou.\n\nAppetite.\n\nNow take _appetite_. That is an enemy inside. How many young men are\nruined by the appetite for strong drink! Many a young man has grown up\nto be a curse to his father and mother, instead of a blessing. Not\nlong ago the body of a young suicide was discovered in one of our\nlarge cities. In his pocket was found a paper on which he had written:\n\"I have done this myself. Don't tell anyone. It is all through drink.\"\nAn intimation of these facts in the public press drew two hundred and\nforty six letters from two hundred and forty six families, each of\nwhom had a prodigal son who, it was feared, might be the suicide.\n\nStrong drink is an enemy, both to body and soul. It is reported that\nSir Andrew Clarke, the celebrated London physician, once made the\nfollowing statement: \"Now let me say that I am speaking solemnly and\ncarefully when I tell you that I am considerably within the mark in\nsaying that within the rounds of my hospital wards today, seven out of\nevery ten that lie there in their beds owe their ill health to\nalcohol. I do not say that seventy in every hundred are drunkards; I\ndo not know that one of them is; but they use alcohol. So soon as a\nman begins to take one drop, then the desire begotten in him becomes a\npart of his nature, and that nature, formed by his acts, inflicts\ncurses inexpressible when handed down to the generations that are to\nfollow him as part and parcel of their being. When I think of this I\nam disposed to give up my profession--to give up everything--and to go\nforth upon a holy crusade to preach to all men, 'Beware of this enemy\nof the race!'\"\n\nIt is the most destructive agency in the world today. It kills more\nthan the bloodiest wars. It is the fruitful parent of crime and\nidleness and poverty and disease. It spoils a man for this world, and\ndamns him for the next. The Word of God has declared it: \"Be not\ndeceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, . . .\nnor _drunkards_ . . . shall inherit the Kingdom of God.\"\n\nHow can we overcome this enemy? Bitter experience proves that man is\nnot powerful enough in his own strength. The only cure for the\naccursed appetite is regeneration--a new life--the power of the risen\nChrist within us. Let a man that is given to strong drink look to God\nfor help, and He will give him victory over his appetite. Jesus Christ\ncame to destroy the works of the devil, and He will take away that\nappetite if you will let Him.\n\nTemper.\n\nThen there is _temper_. I wouldn't give much for a man that hasn't\ntemper. Steel isn't good for anything if it hasn't got temper. But\nwhen temper gets the mastery over me I am its slave, and it is a\nsource of weakness. It may be made a great power for good all through\nmy life, and help me; or it may become my greatest enemy from within,\nand rob me of power. The current in some rivers is so strong as to\nmake them useless for navigation.\n\nSomeone has said that a preacher will never miss the people when he\nspeaks of temper. It is astonishing how little mastery even professing\nChristians have over it. A friend of mine in England was out visiting,\nand while sitting in the parlor, heard an awful noise in the hall. He\nasked what it meant, and was told that it was only the doctor throwing\nhis boots downstairs because they were not properly blacked. \"Many\nChristians,\" said an old divine, \"who bore the loss of a child or of\nall their property with the most heroic Christian fortitude, are\nentirely vanquished by the breaking of a dish or the blunders of a\nservant.\"\n\nI have had people say to me, \"Mr. Moody, how can I get control of my\ntemper?\"\n\nIf you really want to get control, I will tell you how, but you won't\nlike the medicine. Treat it as a sin and confess it. People look upon\nit as a sort of a misfortune, and one lady told me she inherited it\nfrom her father and mother. Supposing she did. That is no excuse for\nher.\n\nWhen you get angry again and speak unkindly to a person, and when you\nrealize it, go and ask that person to forgive you. You won't get mad\nwith that person for the next twenty-four hours. You might do it in\nabout forty eight hours, but go the second time, and after you have\ndone it about half-a-dozen times, you will get out of the business,\nbecause it makes the old flesh burn.\n\nA lady said to me once, \"I have got so in the habit of exaggerating\nthat my friends accuse me of exaggerating so that they don't\nunderstand me.\"\n\nShe said, \"Can you help me? What can I do to overcome it?\"\n\n\"Well,\" I said, \"the next time you catch yourself lying, go right to\nthat party and say you have lied, and tell him you are sorry. Say it\nis a lie; stamp it out, root and branch; that is what you want to do.\"\n\n\"Oh,\" she said, \"I wouldn't like to call it _lying_.\" But that is what\nit was.\n\nChristianity isn't worth a snap of your finger if it doesn't\nstraighten out your character. I have got tired of all mere gush and\nsentiment. If people can't tell when you are telling the truth, there\nis something radically wrong, and you had better straighten it out\nright away. Now, are you ready to do it? Bring yourself to it whether\nyou want to or not. Do you find someone who has been offended by\nsomething you have done? Go right to them and tell them you are sorry.\nYou say you are not to blame. Never mind, go right to them, and tell\nthem you are sorry. I have had to do it a good many times. An\nimpulsive man like myself has to do it often, but I sleep all the\nsweeter at night when I get things straightened out. Confession never\nfails to bring a blessing. I have sometimes had to get off the\nplatform and go down and ask a man's forgiveness before I could go on\npreaching. A Christian man ought to be a gentleman every time; but if\nhe is not, and he finds he has wounded or hurt someone, he ought to go\nand straighten it out at once. You know there are a great many people\nwho want just Christianity enough to make them respectable. They don't\nthink about this overcoming life that gets the victory all the time.\nThey have their blue days and their cross days, and the children say,\n\n\"Mother is cross to-day, and you will have to be very careful.\"\n\nWe don't want any of these touchy blue days; these ups and downs. If\nwe are overcoming, that is the effect our life is going to have on\nothers, they will have confidence in our Christianity. The reason that\nmany a man has no power, is that there is some cursed sin covered up.\nThere will not be a drop of dew until that sin is brought to light.\nGet right inside. Then we can go out like giants and conquer the world\nif everything is right within.\n\nPaul says that we are to be sound in faith, in patience, and in love.\nIf a man is unsound in his faith, the clergy take the ecclesiastical\nsword and cut him off at once. But he may be ever so unsound in\ncharity, in patience, and nothing is said about that. We must be sound\nin faith, in love, and in patience if we are to be true to God.\n\nHow delightful it is to meet a man who can control his temper! It is\nsaid of Wilberforce that a friend once found him in the greatest\nagitation, looking for a dispatch he had mislaid, for which one of the\nroyal family was waiting. Just then, as if to make it still more\ntrying, a disturbance was heard in the nursery.\n\n\"Now,\" thought the friend, \"surely his temper will give way.\"\n\nThe thought had hardly passed through his mind when Wilberforce turned\nto him and said:\n\n\"What a blessing it is to hear those dear children! Only think what a\nrelief, among other hurries, to hear their voices and know they are\nwell.\"\n\nCovetousness.\n\nTake the sin of _covetousness_. There is more said in the Bible\nagainst it than against drunkenness. I must get it out of me--destroy\nit, root and branch--and not let it have dominion over me. We think\nthat a man who gets drunk is a horrid monster, but a covetous man will\noften be received into the church, and put into office, who is as vile\nand black in the sight of God as any drunkard.\n\nThe most dangerous thing about this sin is that it is not generally\nregarded as very heinous. Of course we all have a contempt for misers,\nbut all covetous men are not misers. Another thing to be noted about\nit is that it fastens upon the old rather than upon the young.\n\nLet us see what the Bible says about covetousness:--\n\n\"Mortify therefore your members . . . covetousness, which is\nidolatry.\"\n\n\"No covetous man hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of God.\"\n\n\"They that will be (that is, desire to be) rich fall into temptation\nand a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men\nin destruction and perdition.\n\nFor the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some\ncoveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves\nthrough with many sorrows.\"\n\n\"The wicked blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth.\"\n\nCovetousness enticed Lot into Sodom. It caused the destruction of\nAchan and all his house. It was the iniquity of Balaam. It was the sin\nof Samuel's sons. It left Gehazi a leper. It sent the rich young ruler\naway sorrowful. It led Judas to sell his Master and Lord. It brought\nabout the death of Ananias and Sapphira. It was the blot in the\ncharacter of Felix. What victims it has had in all ages!\n\nDo you say: \"How am I going to check covetousness?\"\n\nWell,--I don't think there is any difficulty about that. If you find\nyourself getting very covetous--very miserly--wanting to get\neverything you can into your possession--just begin to scatter. Just\nsay to covetousness that you will strangle it, and rid it out of your\ndisposition.\n\nA wealthy farmer in New York state, who had been a noted miser, a very\nselfish man, was converted. Soon after his conversion a poor man came\nto him one day to ask for help. He had been burned out, and had no\nprovisions. This young convert thought he would be liberal and give\nhim a ham from his smoke house. He started toward the smoke-house, and\non the way the tempter said,\n\n\"Give him the smallest one you have.\"\n\nHe struggled all the way as to whether he would give a large or a\nsmall one. In order to overcome his selfishness, he took down the\nbiggest ham and gave it to the man.\n\nThe tempter said, \"You are a fool.\"\n\nBut he replied, \"If you don't keep still, I will give him every ham I\nhave in the smoke-house.\"\n\nIf you find that you are selfish, give something. Determine to\novercome that spirit of selfishness, and to keep your body under, no\nmatter what it may cost.\n\nMr. Durant told me he was engaged by Goodyear to defend the rubber\npatent, and he was to have half of the money that came from the\npatent, if he succeeded. One day he woke up to find that he was a rich\nman, and he said that the greatest struggle of his life then took\nplace as to whether he would let money be his master, or he be master\nof money, whether he would be its slave, or make it a slave to him. At\nlast he got the victory, and that is how Wellesley College was built.\n\nAre You Jealous, Envious?\n\nGo and do a good turn for that person of whom you are jealous. That is\nthe way to cure jealousy; it will kill it. Jealousy is a devil, it is\na horrid monster. The poets imagined that Envy dwelt in a dark cave,\nbeing pale and thin, looking asquint, never rejoicing except in the\nmisfortune of others, and hurting himself continually.\n\nThere is a fable of an eagle which could outfly another, and the other\ndidn't like it. The latter saw a sportsman one day, and said to him,\n\n\"I wish you would bring down that eagle.\"\n\nThe sportsman replied that he would if he only had some feathers to\nput into the arrow. So the eagle pulled one out of his wing. The arrow\nwas shot, but didn't quite reach the rival eagle; it was flying too\nhigh. The envious eagle pulled out more feathers, and kept pulling\nthem out until he lost so many that he couldn't fly, and then the\nsportsman turned around and killed him. My friend, if you are jealous,\nthe only man you can hurt is yourself.\n\nThere were two business men--merchants--and there was great rivalry\nbetween them, a great deal of bitter feeling. One of them was\nconverted. He went to his minister and said,\n\n\"I am still jealous of that man, and I do not know how to overcome\nit.\"\n\n\"Well,\" he said, \"if a man comes into your store to buy goods, and you\ncannot supply him, just send him over to your neighbor.\"\n\nHe said he wouldn't like to do that.\n\n\"Well,\" the minister said, \"you do it and you will kill jealousy.\"\n\nHe said he would, and when a customer came into his store for goods\nwhich he did not have, he would tell him to go across the street to\nhis neighbor's. By and by the other began to send his customers over\nto this man's store, and the breach was healed.\n\nPride.\n\nThen there is _pride_. This is another of those sins which the Bible\nso strongly condemns, but which the world hardly reckons as a sin at\nall. \"An high look and a proud heart is sin.\" \"Everyone that is proud\nin heart is an abomination to the Lord; though hand join in hand, he\nshall not be unpunished.\" Christ included pride among those evil\nthings which, proceeding out of the heart of a man, defile him.\n\nPeople have an idea that it is just the wealthy who are proud. But go\ndown on some of the back streets, and you will find that some of the\nvery poorest are as proud as the richest. It is the heart, you know.\nPeople that haven't any money are just as proud as those that have. We\nhave got to crush it out. It is an enemy. You needn't be proud of your\nface, for there is not one but that after ten days in the grave the\nworms would be eating your body. There is nothing to be proud of--is\nthere? Let us ask God to deliver us from pride.\n\nYou can't fold your arms and say, \"Lord, take it out of me\"; but just\ngo and work with Him.\n\nMortify your pride by cultivating humility. \"Put on, therefore,\" says\nPaul, \"as the elect of God, holy and beloved, . . . humbleness of\nmind.\" \"Be clothed with humility,\" says Peter. \"Blessed are the poor\nin spirit.\"\n\n\n\nPART III.\n\nEXTERNAL FOES.\n\nWhat are our enemies without? What does James say? \"Know ye not that\nthe friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore\nwill be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.\" And John? \"Love\nnot the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man\nlove the world, the love of the Father is not in him.\"\n\nNow, people want to know what is _the world_. When you talk with them\nthey say:\n\n\"Well, when you say 'the world,' what do you mean?\"\n\nHere we have the answer in the next verse: \"For all that is in the\nworld, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride\nof life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world\npasseth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God\nabideth forever.\"\n\n\"The world\" does not mean nature around us. God nowhere tells us that\nthe material world is an enemy to be overcome. On the contrary, we\nread: \"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world,\nand they that dwell therein.\" \"The heavens declare the glory of God;\nand the firmament sheweth His handywork.\"\n\nIt means \"human life and society as far as alienated from God, through\nbeing centered on material aims and objects, and thus opposed to God's\nSpirit and kingdom.\" Christ said: \"If the world hate you, ye know that\nit hated Me before it hated you . . . the world hath hated them\nbecause they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.\"\nLove of the world means the forgetfulness of the eternal future by\nreason of love for passing things.\n\nHow can the world be overcome? Not by education, not by experience;\nonly by faith. \"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even\nour faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth\nthat Jesus is the Son of God?\"\n\nWorldly Habits and Fashions.\n\nFor one thing we must fight _worldly habits and fashions_. We must\noften go against the customs of the world. I have great respect for a\nman who can stand up for what he believes is right against all the\nworld. He who can stand alone is a hero.\n\nSuppose it is the custom for young men to do certain things you\nwouldn't like your mother to know of--things that your mother taught\nyou are wrong. You may have to stand up alone among all your\ncompanions.\n\nThey will say: \"You can't get away from your mother, eh? Tied to your\nmother's apron strings!\"\n\nBut just you say: \"Yes! I have some respect for my mother. She taught\nme what is right, and she is the best friend I have. I believe that is\nwrong, and I am going to stand for the right.\" If you have to stand\nalone, _stand_. Enoch did it, and Joseph, and Elisha, and Paul. God\nhas kept such men in all ages.\n\nSomeone says: \"I move in society where they have wine parties. I know\nit is rather a dangerous thing because my son is apt to follow me. But\nI can stop just where I want to; perhaps my son hasn't got the same\npower as I have, and he may go over the dam. But it is the custom in\nthe society where I move.\"\n\nOnce I got into a place where I had to get up and leave. I was invited\ninto a home, and they had a late supper, and there were seven kinds of\nliquor on the table. I am ashamed to say they were Christian people. A\ndeacon urged a young lady to drink until her face flushed. I rose from\nthe table and went out; I felt that it was no place for me. They\nconsidered me very rude. That was going against custom; that was\nentering a protest against such an infernal thing. Let us go against\ncustom, when it leads astray.\n\nI was told in a southern college, some years ago, that no man was\nconsidered a first class gentleman who did not drink. Of course it is\nnot so now.\n\nPleasure.\n\nAnother enemy is _worldly pleasure_. A great many people are just\ndrowned in pleasure. They have no time for any meditation at all. Many\na man has been lost to society, and lost to his family, by giving\nhimself up to the god of pleasure. God wants His children to be happy,\nbut in a way that will help and not hinder them.\n\nA lady came to me once and said: \"Mr. Moody, I wish you would tell me\nhow I can become a Christian.\" The tears were rolling down her cheeks,\nand she was in a very favorable mood; \"but,\" she said, \"I don't want\nto be one of your kind.\"\n\n\"Well,\" I asked, \"have I got any peculiar kind? What is the matter\nwith my Christianity?\"\n\n\"Well,\" she said, \"my father was a doctor, and had a large practice,\nand he used to get so tired that he used to take us to the theater.\nThere was a large family of girls, and we had tickets for the theaters\nthree or four times a week. I suppose we were there a good deal\noftener than we were in church. I am married to a lawyer, and he has a\nlarge practice. He gets so tired that he takes us out to the theater,\"\nand she said, \"I am far better acquainted with the theater and theater\npeople than with the church and church people, and I don't want to\ngive up the theater.\"\n\n\"Well,\" I said, \"did you ever hear me say anything about theaters?\nThere have been reporters here every day for all the different papers,\nand they are giving my sermons verbatim in one paper. Have you ever\nseen anything in the sermons against the theaters?\"\n\nShe said, \"No.\"\n\n\"Well,\" I said, \"I have seen you in the audience every afternoon for\nseveral weeks and have you heard me say anything against theaters?\"\n\nNo, she hadn't.\n\n\"Well,\" I said, \"what made you bring them up?\" \"Why, I supposed you\ndidn't believe in theaters.\" \"What made you think that?\"\n\n\"Why,\" she said, \"Do you ever go?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Why don't you go?\"\n\n\"Because I have got something better. I would sooner go out into the\nstreet and eat dirt than do some of the things I used to do before I\nbecame a Christian.\"\n\n\"Why!\" she said, \"I don't understand.\"\n\n\"Never mind,\" I said. \"When Jesus Christ has the pre-eminence, you\nwill understand it all. He didn't come down here and say we shouldn't\ngo here and we shouldn't go there, and lay down a lot of rules; but He\nlaid down great principles. Now, He says if you love Him you will take\ndelight in pleasing Him.\" And I began to preach Christ to her. The\ntears started again. She said:\n\n\"I tell you, Mr. Moody, that sermon on the indwelling Christ yesterday\nafternoon just broke my heart. I admire Him, and I want to be a\nChristian, but I don't want to give up the theaters.\"\n\nI said, \"Please don't mention them again. I don't want to talk about\ntheaters. I want to talk to you about Christ.\" So I took my Bible, and\nI read to her about Christ.\n\nBut she said again, \"Mr. Moody, can I go to the theater if I become a\nChristian?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" I said, \"you can go to the theater just as much as you like if\nyou are a real, true Christian, and can go with His blessing.\"\n\n\"Well,\" she said, \"I am glad you are not so narrow-minded as some.\"\n\nShe felt quite relieved to think that she could go to the theaters and\nbe a Christian. But I said,\n\n\"If you can go to the theater for the glory of God, keep on going;\nonly be sure that you go for the glory of God. If you are a Christian\nyou will be glad to do whatever will please Him.\"\n\nI really think she became a Christian that day. The burden had gone,\nthere was joy; but just as she was leaving me at the door, she said,\n\n\"I am not going to give up the theater.\"\n\nIn a few days she came back to me and said, \"Mr. Moody, I understand\nall about that theater business now. I went the other night. There was\na large party at our house, and my husband wanted us to go, and we\nwent; but when the curtain lifted, everything looked so different. I\nsaid to my husband, 'This is no place for me; this is horrible. I am\nnot going to stay here, I am going home.' He said, 'Don't make a fool\nof yourself. Everyone has heard that you have been converted in the\nMoody meetings, and if you go out, it will be all through fashionable\nsociety, I beg of you don't make a fool of yourself by getting up and\ngoing out.' But I said, 'I have been making a fool of myself all of my\nlife.'\"\n\nNow, the theater hadn't changed, but she had got something better and\nshe was going to overcome the world. \"They that are after the flesh do\nmind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the\nthings of the Spirit.\" When Christ has the first place in your heart\nyou are going to get victory. Just do whatever you know will please\nHim. The great objection I have to these things is that they get the\nmastery, and become a hindrance to spiritual growth.\n\nBusiness.\n\nIt may be that we have got to overcome in _business_. Perhaps it is\nbusiness morning, noon and night, and Sundays, too. When a man will\ndrive like Jehu all the week and like a snail on Sunday, isn't there\nsomething wrong with him? Now, business is legitimate; and a man is\nnot, I think, a good citizen that will not go out and earn his bread\nby the sweat of his brow; and he ought to be a good business man, and\nwhatever he does, do thoroughly. At the same time, if he lays his\nwhole heart on his business, and makes a god of it, and thinks more of\nit than anything else, then the world has come in. It may be very\nlegitimate in its place--like fire, which, in its place, is one of the\nbest friends of man; out of place, is one of the worst enemies of\nman;--like water, which we cannot live without; and yet, when not in\nplace, it becomes an enemy.\n\nSo my friends, that is the question for you and me to settle. Now look\nat yourself. Are you getting the victory? Are you growing more even in\nyour disposition? are you getting mastery over the world and the\nflesh?\n\nAnd bear this in mind: Every temptation you overcome makes you\nstronger to overcome others, while every temptation that defeats you\nmakes you weaker. You can become weaker and weaker, or you can become\nstronger and stronger. Sin takes the pith out of your sinews, but\nvirtue makes you stronger. How many men have been overcome by some\nlittle thing! Turn a moment to the Song of Solomon, the second\nchapter, fifteenth verse: \"Take us the foxes, the little foxes that\nspoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.\" A great many\npeople seem to think these little things--getting out of patience,\nusing little deceits, telling white lies (as they call them), and when\nsomebody calls on you sending word by the servant you are not at\nhome--all these are little things. Sometimes you can brace yourself up\nagainst a great temptation; and almost before you know it you fall\nbefore some little thing. A great many men are overcome by a little\n_persecution_.\n\nPersecution.\n\nDo you know, I don't think we have enough persecution now-a-days. Some\npeople say we have persecution that is just as hard to bear as in the\nDark Ages. Anyway, I think it would be a good thing if we had a little\nof the old fashioned kind just now. It would bring out the strongest\ncharacters, and make us all healthier. I have heard men get up in\nprayer-meeting, and say they were going to make a few remarks, and\nthen keep on till you would think they were going to talk all week. If\nwe had a little persecution, people of that kind wouldn't talk so\nmuch. Spurgeon used to say some Christians would make good martyrs;\nthey would burn well, they are so dry. If there were a few stakes for\nburning Christians, I think it would take all the piety out of some\nmen. I admit they haven't got much; but then if they are not willing\nto suffer a little persecution for Christ, they are not fit to be His\ndisciples. We are told: \"All that will live godly in Christ Jesus\nshall suffer persecution.\" Make up your mind to this: If the world has\nnothing to say against you, Jesus Christ will have nothing to say for\nyou.\n\nThe most glorious triumphs of the Church have been won in times of\npersecution. The early church was persecuted for about three hundred\nyears after the crucifixion, and they were years of growth and\nprogress. But then, as Saint Augustine has said, the cross passed from\nthe scene of public executions to the diadem of the Caesars, and the\ndown-grade movement began. When the Church has joined hands with the\nState, it has invariably retrograded in spirituality and\neffectiveness; but the opposition of the State has only served to\npurify it of all dross. It was persecution that gave Scotland to\nPresbyterianism. It was persecution that gave this country to civil\nand religious freedom.\n\nHow are we to overcome in time of persecution? Hear the words of\nChrist: \"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer:\nI have overcome the world.\" Paul could testify that though persecuted,\nhe was never forsaken; that the Lord stood by him, and strengthened\nhim, and delivered him out of all his persecutions and afflictions.\n\nA great many shrink from the Christian life because they will be\n_sneered at_. And then, sometimes when persecution won't bring a man\ndown, _flattery_ will. Foolish persons often come up to a man after he\nhas preached and flatter him. Sometimes ladies do that. Perhaps they\nwill say to some worker in the church: \"You talk a great deal better\nthan so-and-so\"; and he becomes proud, and begins to strut around as\nif he was the most important person in the town. I tell you, we have a\nwily devil to contend with. If he can't overcome you with opposition,\nhe will try flattery or ambition; and if that doesn't serve his\npurpose, perhaps there will come some affliction or disappointment,\nand he will overcome in way. But remember that anyone that has got\nChrist to help him can overcome every foe, and overcome them singly or\ncollectively. Let them come. If we have got Christ within us, we will\noverthrow them all. Remember what Christ is able to do. In all the\nages men have stood in greater temptations than you and I will ever\nhave to meet.\n\nNow, there is one more thing on this line: I have either got to\novercome the world, or the world is going to overcome me. I have\neither got to conquer sin in me--or sin about me--and get it under my\nfeet, or it is going to conquer me. A good many people are satisfied\nwith one or two victories, and think that is all. I tell you, my dear\nfriends, we have got to do something more than that. It is a battle\nall the time. We have this to encourage us: we are assured of victory\nat the end. We are promised a glorious triumph.\n\nEight \"Overcomes.\"\n\nLet me give you the eight \"overcomes\" of Revelation.\n\nThe first is: \"_To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree\nof life_.\" He shall have a right to the tree of life. When Adam fell,\nhe lost that right. God turned him out of Eden lest he should eat of\nthe tree of life and live as he was forever. Perhaps He just took that\ntree and transplanted it to the Garden above; and through the second\nAdam we are to have the right to eat of it.\n\nSecond: \"_He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death_.\"\nDeath has no terrors for him, it cannot touch him. Why? Because Christ\ntasted death for every man. Hence he is on resurrection ground. Death\nmay take this body, but that is all. This is only the house I live in.\nWe need have no fear of death if we overcome.\n\nThird: \"_To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden\nmanna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name\nwritten, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it_.\" If I\novercome God will feed me with bread that the world knows nothing\nabout, and give me a new name.\n\nFourth: \"_He that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to\nhim will I give power over the nations_.\" Think of it! What a thing to\nhave; power over the nations! A man that is able to rule himself is\nthe man that God can trust with power. Only a man who can govern\nhimself is fit to govern other men. I have an idea that we are down\nhere in training, that God is just polishing us for some higher\nservice. I don't know where the kingdoms are, but it we are to be\nkings and priests we must have kingdoms to reign over.\n\nFifth: \"_He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white\nraiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but\nI will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels_.\" He\nshall present us to the Father in white garments, without spot or\nwrinkle. Every fault and stain shall be taken out, and we be made\nperfect. He that overcomes will not be a stranger in heaven.\n\nSixth: \"_Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My\nGod; and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name\nof My God and the name of the city of My God, which is New Jerusalem,\nwhich cometh down out of heaven from My God: and I will write upon him\nMy new name_.\" Think of it! No more backsliding, no more wanderings\nover the dark mountains of sin, but forever with the King, and He\nsays, \"I will write upon him the name of My God.\" He is going to put\nHis name upon us. Isn't it grand? Isn't it worth fighting for? It is\nsaid when Mahomet came in sight of Damascus and found that they had\nall left the city, he said: \"If they won't fight for this city what\nwill they fight for?\" If men won't fight here for all this reward,\nwhat will they fight for?\n\nSeventh: \"_To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My\nthrone, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His\nthrone_.\" My heart has often melted as I have looked at that. The Lord\nof Glory coming down and saying: \"I will grant to you to sit on My\nthrone, even as I sit on My Father's throne, if you will just\novercome.\" Isn't it worth a struggle? How many will fight for a crown\nthat is going to fade away! Yet we are to be placed above the angels,\nabove the archangels, above the seraphim, above the cherubim, away up,\nupon the throne with Himself, and there we shall be forever with Him.\nMay God put strength into every one of us to fight the battle of life,\nso that we may sit with Him on His throne. When Frederick of Germany\nwas dying, his own son would not have been allowed to sit with him on\nthe throne, nor to have let anyone else sit there with him. Yet we are\ntold that we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ, and that we are to sit\nwith Him in glory!\n\nAnd now, the last I like best of all: \"_He that overcometh shall\ninherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son_.\"\nMy dear friends, isn't that a high calling? I used to have my\nSabbath-school children sing--\"I want to be an angel\": but I have not\ndone so for years. We shall be above angels: we shall be sons of God.\nJust see what a kingdom we shall come into: we shall inherit all\nthings! Do you ask me how much I am worth? I don't know. The\nRothschilds cannot compute their wealth. They don't know how many\nmillions they own. That is my condition--I haven't the slightest idea\nhow much I am worth. God has no poor children. If we overcome we shall\ninherit all things.\n\nOh, my dear friends, what an inheritance! Let us then get the victory,\nthrough Jesus Christ our Lord and Master.\n\n\n\nRESULTS OF TRUE REPENTANCE.\n\nI want to call your attention to what true repentance leads to. I am\nnot addressing the unconverted only, because I am one of those who\nbelieve that there is a good deal of repentance to be done by the\nChurch before much good will be accomplished in the world. I firmly\nbelieve that the low standard of Christian living is keeping a good\nmany in the world and in their sins. When the ungodly see that\nChristian people do not repent, you cannot expect them to repent and\nturn away from their sins. I have repented ten thousand times more\nsince I knew Christ than ever before; and I think most Christians have\nsome things to repent of.\n\nSo now I want to preach to Christians as well as to the unconverted;\nto myself as well as to one who has never accepted Christ as his\nSavior.\n\nThere are five things that flow out of true repentance:\n\n1. Conviction.\n\n2. Contrition.\n\n3. Confession of sin.\n\n4. Conversion.\n\n5. Confession of Jesus Christ before the world.\n\n1. Conviction.\n\nWhen a man is not deeply convicted of sin, it is a pretty sure sign\nthat he has not truly repented. Experience has taught me that men who\nhave very slight conviction of sin, sooner or later lapse back into\ntheir old life. For the last few years I have been a good deal more\nanxious for a deep and true work in professing converts than I have\nfor great numbers. If a man professes to be converted without\nrealizing the heinousness of his sins, he is likely to be one of those\nstony ground hearers who don't amount to anything. The first breath of\nopposition, the first wave of persecution or ridicule, will suck them\nback into the world again.\n\nI believe we are making a woeful mistake in taking so many people into\nthe Church who have never been truly convicted of sin. Sin is just as\nblack in a man's heart to-day as it ever was. I sometimes think it is\nblacker. For the more light a man has, the greater his responsibility,\nand therefore the greater need of deep conviction.\n\nWilliam Dawson once told this story to illustrate how humble the soul\nmust be before it can find peace.\n\nHe said that at a revival meeting, a little lad who was used to\nMethodist ways, went home to his mother and said,\n\n\"Mother, John So-and-so is under conviction and seeking for peace, but\nhe will not find it to-night, mother.\"\n\n\"Why, William?\" said she.\n\n\"Because he is only down on one knee, mother, and he will never get\npeace until he is down on both knees.\"\n\nUntil conviction of sin brings us down on both knees, until we are\ncompletely humbled, until we have no hope in ourselves left, we cannot\nfind the Savior.\n\nThere are three things that lead to conviction: (1) Conscience; (2)\nthe Word of God; (3) the Holy Spirit. All three are used by God.\n\nLong before we had any Word, God dealt with men through the\nconscience. That is what made Adam and Eve hide themselves from the\npresence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the Garden of Eden. That\nis what convicted Joseph's brethren when they said: \"We are verily\nguilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul\nwhen he besought us and we would not hear. Therefore,\" said they (and\nremember, over twenty years had passed away since they had sold him\ninto captivity), \"therefore is this distress come upon us.\" That is\nwhat we must use with our children before they are old enough to\nunderstand about the Word and the Spirit of God. This is what accuses\nor excuses the heathen.\n\nConscience is \"a divinely implanted faculty in man, telling him that\nhe ought to do right.\" Someone has said that it was born when Adam and\nEve ate of the forbidden fruit, when their eyes were opened and they\n\"knew good and evil.\" It passes judgment, without being invited, upon\nour thoughts, words, and actions, approving or condemning according as\nit judges them to be right or wrong. A man cannot violate his\nconscience without being self-condemned.\n\nBut conscience is not a safe guide, because very often it will not\ntell you a thing is wrong until you have done it. It needs\nilluminating by God because it partakes of our fallen nature. Many a\nperson does things that are wrong without being condemned by\nconscience. Paul said: \"I verily thought with myself that I ought to\ndo many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.\" Conscience\nitself needs to be educated.\n\nAgain, conscience is too often like an alarm clock, which awakens and\narouses at first, but after a time the man becomes used to it, and it\nloses its effect. Conscience can be smothered. I think we make a\nmistake in not preaching more to the conscience.\n\nHence, in due time, conscience was superseded by the law of God, which\nin time was fulfilled in Christ.\n\nIn this Christian land, where men have Bibles, these are the agency by\nwhich God produces conviction. The old Book tells you what is right\nand wrong before you commit sin, and what you need is to learn and\nappropriate its teachings, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.\nConscience compared with the Bible is as a rushlight compared with the\nsun in the heavens.\n\nSee how the truth convicted those Jews on the day of Pentecost. Peter,\nfilled with the Holy Ghost, preached that \"God hath made this same\nJesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.\" \"Now when they\nheard this, they were _pricked in their heart_, and said unto Peter\nand to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?\"\n\nThen, thirdly, the Holy Ghost convicts. I once heard the late Dr. A.\nJ. Gordon expound that passage--\"And when He (the Comforter) is come,\nHe will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment;\nof sin because they believe not on Me,\"--as follows:--\n\n\"Some commentators say there was no real conviction of sin in the\nworld until the Holy Ghost came. I think that foreign missionaries\nwill say that that is not true, that a heathen who never heard of\nChrist may have a tremendous conviction of sin. For notice that God\ngave conscience first, and gave the Comforter afterward. Conscience\nbears witness to the law, the Comforter bears witness to Christ.\nConscience brings legal conviction, the Comforter brings evangelical\nconviction. Conscience brings conviction unto condemnation, and the\nComforter brings conviction unto justification. 'He shall convince the\nworld of sin, because they believe not on Me.' That is the sin about\nwhich He convinces. It does not say that He convinces men of sin,\nbecause they have stolen or lied or committed adultery; but the Holy\nGhost is to convince men of sin because they have not believed on\nJesus Christ. The coming of Jesus Christ into the world made a sin\npossible that was not possible before. Light reveals darkness; it\ntakes whiteness to bring conviction concerning blackness. There are\nnegroes in Central Africa who never dreamed that they were black until\nthey saw the face of a white man; and there are a great many people in\nthis world that never knew they were sinful until they saw the face of\nJesus Christ in all its purity.\n\nJesus Christ now stands between us and the law. He has fulfilled the\nlaw for us. He has settled all claims of the law, and now whatever\nclaim it had upon us has been transferred to Him, so that it is no\nlonger the _sin_ question, but the _Son_ question, that confronts us.\nAnd, therefore, you notice that the first thing Peter does when he\nbegins to preach after the Holy Ghost has been sent down is about\nChrist: 'Him being delivered by the determinate counsel of God, ye\nhave taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.' It doesn't\nsay a word about any other kind of sin. That is the sin that runs all\nthrough Peter's teaching, and as he preached, the Holy Ghost came down\nand convicted them, and they cried out, 'What shall we do to be\nsaved?'\n\nWell, but we had no part in crucifying Christ; therefore, what is our\nsin? It is the same sin in another form. They were convicted of\ncrucifying Christ; we are convicted because we have not believed on\nChrist crucified. They were convicted because they had despised and\nrejected God's Son. The Holy Ghost convicts us because we have not\nbelieved in the Despised and Rejected One. It is really the same sin\nin both cases--the sin of unbelief in Christ.\"\n\nSome of the most powerful meetings I have ever been in were those in\nwhich there came a sort of hush over the people, and it seemed as if\nan unseen power gripped their consciences. I remember a man coming to\none meeting, and the moment he entered, he felt that God was there.\nThere came an awe upon him, and that very hour he was convicted and\nconverted.\n\n2. Contrition.\n\nThe next thing is contrition, deep Godly sorrow and humiliation of\nheart because of sin. If there is not true contrition, a man will turn\nright back into the old sin. That is the trouble with many Christians.\n\nA man may get angry, and if there is not much contrition, the next day\nhe will get angry again. A daughter may say mean, cutting things to\nher mother, and then her conscience troubles her, and she says:\n\n\"Mother, I am sorry: forgive me.\"\n\nBut soon there is another outburst of temper, because the contrition\nis not deep and real. A husband speaks sharp words to his wife, and\nthen to ease his conscience, he goes and buys her a bouquet of\nflowers. He will not go like a man and say he has done wrong.\n\nWhat God wants is contrition, and if there is not contrition, there is\nnot full repentance. \"The Lord is nigh to the broken of heart, and\nsaveth such as be contrite of spirit.\" \"A broken and a contrite heart,\nO God, Thou wilt not despise.\" Many sinners are sorry for their sins,\nsorry that they cannot continue in sin; but they repent only with\nhearts that are not broken. I don't think we know how to repent\nnow-a-days. We need some John the Baptist, wandering through the land,\ncrying: \"Repent! repent!\"\n\n3. Confession of Sin.\n\nIf we have true contrition, that will lead us to confess our sins. I\nbelieve that nine-tenths of the trouble in our Christian life comes\nfrom failing to do this. We try to hide and cover up our sins; there\nis very little confession of them. Someone has said: \"Unconfessed sin\nin the soul is like a bullet in the body.\"\n\nIf you have no power, it may be there is some sin that needs to be\nconfessed, something in your life that needs straightening out. There\nis no amount of psalm-singing, no amount of attending religious\nmeetings, no amount of praying or reading your Bible that is going to\ncover up anything of that kind. It must be confessed, and if I am too\nproud to confess, I need expect no mercy from God and no answers to my\nprayers. The Bible says: \"He that covereth his sins shall not\nprosper.\" He may be a man in the pulpit, a priest behind the altar, a\nking on the throne; I don't care who he is. Man has been trying it for\nsix thousand years. Adam tried it, and failed. Moses tried it when he\nburied the Egyptian whom he killed, but he failed. \"Be sure your sin\nwill find you out.\" You cannot bury your sin so deep but it will have\na resurrection by and by, if it has not been blotted out by the Son of\nGod. What man has failed to do for six thousand years, you and I had\nbetter give up trying to do.\n\nThere are three ways of confessing sin. All sin is against God, and\nmust be confessed to Him. There are some sins I need never confess to\nanyone on earth. If the sin has been between myself and God, I may\nconfess it alone in my closet: I need not whisper it in the ear of any\nmortal. \"Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before Thee.\"\n\"Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy\nsight.\"\n\nBut if I have done some man a wrong, and he knows that I have wronged\nhim, I must confess that sin not only to God but also to that man. If\nI have too much pride to confess it to him, I need not come to God. I\nmay pray, and I may weep, but it will do no good. First confess to\nthat man, and then go to God and see how quickly He will hear you, and\nsend peace. \"If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there\nrememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy\ngift before the altar, and go thy ways. First be reconciled to thy\nbrother, and then come and offer thy gift.\" That is the Scripture way.\n\nThen there is another class of sins that must be confessed publicly.\nSuppose I have been known as a blasphemer, a drunkard, or a reprobate.\nIf I repent of my sins, I owe the public a confession. The confession\nshould be as public as the transgression. Many a person will say some\nmean thing about another in the presence of others, and then try to\npatch it up by going to that person alone. The confession should be\nmade so that all who heard the transgression can hear it.\n\nWe are good at confessing other people's sins, but if it is true\nrepentance, we shall have as much as we can do to look after our own.\nWhen a man or woman gets a good look into God's looking glass, he is\nnot finding fault with other people: he has as much as he can do at\nhome.\n\n\"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our\nsins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\" Thank God for the\nGospel! Church member, if there is any sin in your life, make up your\nmind that you will confess it, and be forgiven. Do not have any cloud\nbetween you and God. Be able to read your title clear to the mansion\nChrist has gone to prepare for you.\n\n4. Conversion.\n\nConfession leads to true conversion, and there is no conversion at all\nuntil these three steps have been taken.\n\nNow the word \"conversion\" means two things. We say a man is\n\"converted\" when he is born again. But it also has a different meaning\nin the Bible. Peter said: \"Repent, and be converted.\" The Revised\nVersion reads: \"Repent, and _turn_.\" Paul said that he was not\ndisobedient unto the heavenly vision, but began to preach to Jews and\nGentiles that they should repent and _turn_ to God. Some old divine\nhas said: \"Every man is born with his back to God. Repentance is a\nchange of one's course. It is right about face.\"\n\nSin is a turning away from God. As someone has said, it is _aversion_\nfrom God and _conversion_ to the world: and true repentance means\nconversion to God and aversion from the world. When there is true\ncontrition, the heart is broken _for_ sin; when there is true\nconversion, the heart is broken _from_ sin. We leave the old life, we\nare translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of\nlight. Wonderful, isn't it?\n\nUnless our repentance includes this conversion, it is not worth much.\nIf a man continues in sin, it is proof of an idle profession. It is\nlike pumping away continually at the ship's pumps, without stopping\nthe leaks. Solomon said:--\"If they pray, and confess thy name, and\nturn from their sin . . .\" Prayer and confession would be of no avail\nwhile they continued in sin. Let us heed God's call; let us forsake\nthe old wicked way; let us return unto the Lord, and He will have\nmercy upon us; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.\n\nIf you have never turned to God, turn now. I have no sympathy with the\nidea that it takes six months, or six weeks, or six hours to be\nconverted. It doesn't take you very long to turn around, does it? If\nyou know you are wrong, then turn right about.\n\n5. Confession of Christ.\n\nIf you are converted, the next step is confess it openly. Listen: \"If\nthou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and shalt\nbelieve in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou\nshalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,\nand with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.\"\n\nConfession of Christ is the culmination of the work of true\nrepentance. We owe it to the world, to our fellow-Christians, to\nourselves. He died to redeem us, and shall we be ashamed or afraid to\nconfess Him? Religion as an abstraction, as a doctrine, has little\ninterest for the world, but what people can say from personal\nexperience always has weight.\n\nI remember some meetings being held in a locality where the tide did\nnot rise very quickly, and bitter and reproachful things were being\nsaid about the work. But one day, one of the most prominent men in the\nplace rose and said:\n\n\"I want it to be known that I am a disciple of Jesus Christ; and if\nthere is any odium to be cast on His cause, I am prepared to take my\nshare of it.\"\n\nIt went through the meeting like an electric current, and a blessing\ncame at once to his own soul and to the souls of others.\n\nMen come to me and say: \"Do you mean to affirm, Mr. Moody, that I've\ngot to make a public confession when I accept Christ; do you mean to\nsay I've got to confess Him in my place of business, and in my family?\nAm I to let the whole world know that I am on His side?\"\n\nThat is precisely what I mean. A great many are willing to accept\nChrist, but they are not willing to publish it, to confess it. A great\nmany are looking at the lions and the bears in the way. Now, my\nfriends, the devil's mountains are only made of smoke. He can throw a\nstraw into your path and make a mountain of it. He says to you: \"You\ncannot confess and pray to your family; why, you'll break down! You\ncannot tell it to your shopmate; he will laugh at you.\" But when you\naccept Christ, you will have power to confess Him.\n\nThere was a young man in the West--it was the West in those days--who\nhad been more or less interested about his soul's salvation. One\nafternoon, in his office, he said:\n\n\"I will accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.\"\n\nHe went home and told his wife (who was a nominal professor of\nreligion) that he had made up his mind to serve Christ; and he added:\n\n\"After supper to-night I am going to take the company into the\ndrawing-room, and erect the family altar.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said his wife, \"you know some of the gentlemen who are coming\nto tea are sceptics, and they are older than you are, and don't you\nthink you had better wait until after they have gone, or else go out\nin the kitchen and have your first prayer with the servants?\"\n\nThe young man thought for a few moments, and then he said:\n\n\"I have asked Jesus Christ into my house for the first time, and I\nshall take Him into the best room, not into the kitchen.\"\n\nSo he called his friends into the drawing room. There was a little\nsneering, but he read and prayed. That man afterwards became Chief\nJustice of the United States Court. Never be ashamed of the Gospel of\nChrist: it is the power of God unto salvation.\n\nA young man enlisted, and was sent to his regiment. The first night he\nwas in the barracks with about fifteen other young men who passed the\ntime playing cards and gambling. Before retiring, he fell on his knees\nand prayed, and they began to curse him and jeer at him and throw\nboots at him.\n\nSo it went on the next night and the next, and finally the young man\nwent and told the chaplain what had taken place, and asked what he\nshould do.\n\n\"Well,\" said the chaplain, \"you are not at home now, and the other men\nhave just as much right in the barracks as you have. It makes them mad\nto hear you pray, and the Lord will hear you just as well if you say\nyour prayers in bed and don't provoke them.\"\n\nFor weeks after the chaplain did not see the young man again, but one\nday he met him, and asked--\n\n\"By the way, did you take my advice?\"\n\n\"I did, for two or three nights.\"\n\n\"How did it work?\"\n\n\"Well,\" said the young man, \"I felt like a whipped hound, and the\nthird night I got out of bed, knelt down and prayed.\"\n\n\"Well,\" asked the chaplain, \"how did that work?\"\n\nThe young soldier answered: \"We have a prayer-meeting there now every\nnight, and three have been converted, and we are praying for the\nrest.\"\n\nOh, friends, I am so tired of weak Christianity. Let us be out and out\nfor Christ; let us give no uncertain sound. If the world wants to call\nus fools, let them do it. It is only a little while; the crowning day\nis coming. Thank God for the privilege we have of confessing Christ.\n\n\n\nTRUE WISDOM.\n\n\"They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and\nthey that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.\"\nDan. 12:3.\n\nThat is the testimony of an old man, and one who had the richest and\ndeepest experience of any man living on the face of the earth at the\ntime. He was taken down to Babylon when a young man; some Bible\nstudents think he was not more than twenty years of age. If anyone had\nsaid, when this young Hebrew was carried away into captivity, that he\nwould outrank all the mighty men of that day--that all the generals\nwho had been victorious in almost every nation at that time were to be\neclipsed by this young slave--probably no one would have believed it.\nYet for five hundred years no man whose life is recorded in history\nshone as did this man. He outshone Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Cyrus,\nDarius, and all the princes and mighty monarchs of his day.\n\nWe are not told when he was converted to a knowledge of the true God,\nbut I think we have good reason to believe that he had been brought\nunder the influence of Jeremiah the prophet. Evidently some earnest,\ngodly man, and no worldly professor, had made a deep impression upon\nhim. Someone had at any rate taught him how he was to serve God.\n\nWe hear people nowadays talking about the hardness of the field where\nthey labor; they say their position is a very peculiar one. Think of\nthe field in which Daniel had to work. He was not only a slave, but he\nwas held captive by a nation that detested the Hebrews. The language\nwas unknown to him. There he was among idolaters; yet he commenced at\nonce to shine. He took his stand for God from the very first, and so\nhe went on through his whole life. He gave the dew of his youth to\nGod, and he continued faithful right on till his pilgrimage was ended.\n\nNotice that all those who have made a deep impression on the world,\nand have shone most brightly have been men who lived in a dark day.\nLook at Joseph; he was sold as a slave into Egypt by the Ishmaelites;\nyet he took his God with him into captivity, as Daniel afterwards did.\nAnd he remained true to the last; he did not give up his faith because\nhe had been taken away from home and placed among idolaters. He stood\nfirm, and God stood by him.\n\nLook at Moses who turned his back upon the gilded palaces of Egypt,\nand identified himself with his despised and down-trodden nation. If a\nman ever had a hard field it was Moses; yet he shone brightly, and\nnever proved unfaithful to his God.\n\nElijah lived in a far darker day than we do. The whole nation was\ngoing over to idolatry. Ahab and his queen, and all the royal court\nwere throwing their influence against the worship of the true God. Yet\nElijah stood firm, and shone brightly in that dark and evil day. How\nhis name stands out on the page of history!\n\nLook at John the Baptist. I used to think I would like to live in the\ndays of the prophets; but I have given up that idea. You may be sure\nthat when a prophet appears on the scene, everything is dark, and the\nprofessing Church of God has gone over to the service of the god of\nthis world. So it was when John the Baptist made his appearance. See\nhow his name shines out to-day! Eighteen centuries have rolled away,\nand yet the fame of that wilderness preacher shines brighter than\never. He was looked down upon in his day and generation, but he has\noutlived all his enemies; his name will be revered and his work\nremembered as long as the Church is on the earth.\n\nTalk about your field being a hard one! See how Paul shone for God as\nhe went out, the first missionary to the heathen, telling them of the\nGod whom he served, and who had sent His Son to die a cruel death in\norder to save the world. Men reviled him and his teachings; they\nlaughed him to scorn when he spoke of the crucified One. But he went\non preaching the Gospel of the Son of God. He was regarded as a poor\ntent-maker by the great and mighty ones of his day; but no one can now\ntell the name of any of his persecutors, or of those who lived at that\ntime, unless their names happen to be associated with his, and they\nwere brought into contact with him.\n\nNow the fact is, all men like to shine. We may as well acknowledge it\nat once. Go into business circles, and see how men struggle to get\ninto the front rank. Everyone wants to outshine his neighbor and to\nstand at the head of his profession. Go into the political world, and\nsee how there is a struggle going on as to who shall be the greatest.\nIf you go into a school, you find that there is a rivalry among the\nboys and girls. They all want to stand at the top of the class. When a\nboy does reach this position and outranks all the rest, the mother is\nvery proud of it. She will manage to tell all the neighbors how\nJohnnie has got on, and what a number of prizes he has gained.\n\nGo into the army and you find the same thing--one trying to outstrip\nthe other; everyone is very anxious to shine and rise above his\ncomrades. Go among the young men in their games, and see how anxious\nthe one is to outdo the other. So we have all that desire in us; we\nlike to shine above our fellows.\n\nAnd yet there are very few who can really shine in the world. Once in\na while one man will outstrip all his competitors. Every four years\nwhat a struggle goes on throughout our country as to who shall be the\nPresident of the United States, the battle raging for six months or a\nyear. Yet only one man can get the prize. There are a good many\nstruggling to get the place, but many are disappointed, because only\none can attain the coveted prize. But in the kingdom of God the very\nleast and the very weakest may shine if they will. Not only can _one_\nobtain the prize, but _all_ may have it if they will.\n\nIt does not say in this passage that the statesmen are going to shine\nas the brightness of the firmament. The statesmen of Babylon are gone;\ntheir very names are forgotten.\n\nIt does not say that the nobility are going to shine. Earth's nobility\nare soon forgotten. John Bunyan, the Bedford tinker, has outlived the\nwhole crowd of those who were the nobility in his day. They lived for\nself, and their memory is blotted out. He lived for God and for souls,\nand his name is as fragrant as ever it was.\n\nWe are not told that the merchants are going to shine. Who can tell\nthe name of any of the millionaires of Daniel's day? They were all\nburied in oblivion a few years after their death. Who were the mighty\nconquerors of that day? But few can tell. It is true that we hear of\nNebuchadnezzar, but probably we should not have known very much about\nhim but of his relations to the prophet Daniel.\n\nHow different with this faithful prophet of the Lord! Twenty five\ncenturies have passed away, and his name shines on, and on, and on,\nbrighter and brighter. And it is going to shine while the Church of\nGod exists. \"They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the\nfirmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars\nforever and ever.\"\n\nHow quickly the glory of this world fades away! Eighty years ago the\ngreat Napoleon almost made the earth to tremble. How he blazed and\nshone as an earthly warrior for a little while! A few years passed and\na little island held that once proud and mighty conqueror; he died a\npoor broken-hearted prisoner. Where is he to-day? Almost forgotten.\nWho in all the world will say that Napoleon lives in their heart's\naffections?\n\nBut look at this despised and hated Hebrew prophet. They wanted to put\nhim into the lions' den because he was too sanctimonious and too\nreligious Yet see how green his memory is to-day! How his name is\nloved and honored for his faithfulness to his God.\n\nMany years ago I was in Paris, at the time of the Great Exhibition.\nNapoleon the Third was then in his glory. Cheer after cheer would rise\nas he drove along the streets of the city. A few short years, and he\nfell from his lofty estate. He died an exile from his country and his\nthrone, and where is his name today? Very few think about him at all,\nand if his name is mentioned it is not with love and esteem. How empty\nand short lived are the glory and the pride of this world! If we are\nwise, we will live for God and eternity; we will get outside of\nourselves, and will care nothing for the honor and glory of this\nworld. In Proverbs we read: \"He that winneth souls is wise.\" If any\nman, woman, or child by a Godly life and example can win one soul to\nGod, their life will not have been a failure. They will have outshone\nall the mighty men of their day, because they will have set a stream\nin motion that will flow on and on forever and ever.\n\nGod has left us down here to shine. We are not here to buy and sell\nand get gain, to accumulate wealth, to acquire worldly position. This\nearth, if we are Christians, is not our home; it is up yonder. God has\nsent us into the world to shine for Him--to light up this dark world.\nChrist came to be the Light of the world, but men put out that light.\nThey took it to Calvary, and blew it out. Before Christ went up on\nhigh, He said to His disciples: \"Ye are the light of the world. Ye are\nmy witnesses. Go forth and carry the Gospel to the perishing nations\nof the earth.\"\n\nSo God has called us to shine, just as much as Daniel was sent into\nBabylon to shine. Let no man or woman say that they cannot shine\nbecause they have not so much influence as some others may have. What\nGod wants you to do is to use the influence you have. Daniel probably\ndid not have much influence down in Babylon at first, but God soon\ngave him more, because he was faithful and used what he had.\n\nRemember a small light will do a good deal when it is in a very dark\nplace. Put one little tallow candle in the middle of a large hall, and\nit will give a good deal of light.\n\nAway out in the prairie regions, when meetings are held at night in\nthe log schoolhouses, the announcement of the meeting is given out in\nthis way:\n\n\"A meeting will be held by early candlelight.\"\n\nThe first man who comes brings a tallowdip with him. It is perhaps all\nhe has; but he brings it, and sets it on the desk. It does not light\nthe building much; but it is better than nothing at all. The next man\nbrings his candle; and the next family bring theirs. By the time the\nhouse is full, there is plenty of light. So if we all shine a little,\nthere will be a good deal of light. That is what God wants us to do.\nIf we cannot all be lighthouses, any one of us can at any rate be a\ntallow candle.\n\nA little light will sometimes do a great deal. The city of Chicago was\nset on fire by a cow kicking over a lamp, and a hundred thousand\npeople were burnt out of house and home. Do not let Satan get the\nadvantage of you, and make you think that because you cannot do any\ngreat thing you cannot do anything at all.\n\nThen we must remember that we are to _let_ our light shine. It does\nnot say, \"_Make_ your light shine.\" You do not have to _make_ light to\nshine; all you have to do is to _let_ it shine.\n\nI remember hearing of a man at sea who was very seasick. If there is a\ntime when a man feels that he cannot do any work for the Lord it is\nthen--in my opinion. While this man was sick, he heard that someone\nhad fallen overboard. He was wondering if he could do anything to help\nto save the man. He laid hold of a light, and held it up to the\nport-hole. The drowning man was saved. When this man got over his\nattack of sickness, he went on deck one day and was talking with the\nman who was rescued. The saved man gave this testimony. He said he had\ngone down the second time, and was just going down again for the last\ntime, when he put out his hand. Just then, he said, someone held a\nlight at the port-hole, and the light fell on it. A sailor caught him\nby the hand and pulled him into the lifeboat.\n\nIt seemed a small thing to do to hold up the light; yet it saved the\nman's life. If you cannot do some great thing you can hold the light\nfor some poor, perishing drunkard, who may be won to Christ and\ndelivered from destruction. Let us take the torch of salvation and go\ninto the dark homes, and hold up Christ to the people as the Savior of\nthe world. If the perishing masses are to be reached, we must lay our\nlives right alongside theirs, and pray with them and labor for them. I\nwould not give much for a man's Christianity if he is saved himself\nand is not willing to try and save others. It seems to me the basest\ningratitude if we do not reach out the hand to others who are down in\nthe same pit from which we were delivered. Who is able to reach and\nhelp drinking men like those who have themselves been slaves to the\nintoxicating cup? Will you not go out this very day and seek to rescue\nthese men? If we were all to do what we can, we should soon empty the\ndrinking saloons.\n\nI remember reading of a blind man who was found sitting at the corner\nof a street in a great city with a lantern beside him. Someone went up\nto him and asked what he had the lantern there for, seeing that he was\nblind, and the light was the same to him as the darkness. The blind\nman replied:\n\n\"I have it so that no one may stumble over me.\"\n\nDear friends, let us think of that. Where one man reads the Bible, a\nhundred read you and me. That is what Paul meant when he said we were\nto be living epistles of Christ, known and read of all men. I would\nnot give much for all that can be done by sermons, if we do not preach\nChrist by our lives. If we do not commend the Gospel to people by our\nholy walk and conversation, we shall not win them to Christ. Some\nlittle act of kindness will perhaps do more to influence them than any\nnumber of long sermons.\n\nA vessel was caught in a storm on Lake Erie, and they were trying to\nmake for the harbor of Cleveland. At the entrance of that port they\nhad what are called the upper lights and the lower lights. Away back\non the bluffs were the upper lights burning brightly enough; but when\nthey came near the harbor they could not see the lights showing the\nentrance to it. The pilot said he thought they had better get back on\nthe lake again. The Captain said he was sure they would go down if\nthey went back, and he urged the pilot to do what he could to gain the\nharbor. The pilot said there was very little hope of making the\nharbor, as he had nothing to guide him as to how he should steer the\nship. They tried all they could to get her in. She rode on the top of\nthe waves, and then into the trough of the sea, and at last they found\nthemselves stranded on the beach, where the vessel was dashed to\npieces. Someone had neglected the lower lights, and they had gone out.\n\nLet us take warning. God keeps the upper lights burning as brightly as\never, but He has left us down here to keep the lower lights burning.\nWe are to represent Him here, as Christ represents us up yonder. I\nsometimes think if we had as poor a representative in the courts above\nas God has down here on earth, we would have a pretty poor chance of\nheaven. Let us have our loins girt and our lights brightly burning, so\nthat others may see the way and not walk in darkness.\n\nSpeaking of a lighthouse reminds me of what I heard about a man in the\nState of Minnesota, who, some years ago, was caught in a fearful\nstorm. That State is cursed with storms which come sweeping down so\nsuddenly in the winter time that escape is difficult. The snow will\nfall and the wind will beat it into the face of the traveler so that\nhe cannot see two feet ahead. Many a man has been lost on the prairies\nwhen he has got caught in one of those storms.\n\nThis man was caught and was almost on the point of giving up, when he\nsaw a little light in a log house. He managed to get there, and found\na shelter from the fury of the tempest. He is now a wealthy man. As\nsoon as he was able, he bought the farm, and built a beautiful house\non the spot where the log building stood. On the top of a tower he put\na revolving light, and every night when there comes a storm he lights\nit up in the hope that it may be the means of saving someone else.\n\nThat is true gratitude, and that is what God wants us to do. If He has\nrescued us and brought us up out of the horrible pit, let us be always\nlooking to see if there is not someone else whom we can help to save.\n\nI remember hearing of two men who had charge of a revolving light in a\nlighthouse on a rock-bound and stormy coast. Somehow the machinery\nwent wrong, and the light did not revolve. They were so afraid that\nthose at sea should mistake it for some other light, that they worked\nall the night through to keep the light moving round.\n\nLet us keep our lights in the proper place, so that the world may see\nthat the religion of Christ is not a sham but a reality. It is said\nthat in the Grecian sports they had one game where the men ran with\nlights. They lit a torch at the altar, and ran a certain distance;\nsometimes they were on horseback. If a man came in with his light\nstill burning, he received a prize; if his light had gone out, he lost\nthe prize.\n\nHow many there are who, in their old age, have lost their light and\ntheir joy! They were once burning and shining lights in the family, in\nthe Sunday-school, and in the Church. But something has come in\nbetween them and God--the world or self--and their light has gone out.\nReader, if you are one who has had this experience, may God help you\nto come back to the altar of the Savior's love and light up your torch\nanew, so that you can go out into the lanes and alleys, and let the\nlight of the Gospel shine in these dark homes.\n\nAs I have already said, if we only lead one soul to Jesus Christ we\nmay set a stream in motion that will flow on when we are dead and\ngone. Away up the mountain side there is a little spring; it seems so\nsmall that an ox might drink it up at a draught. By and by it becomes\na rivulet; other rivulets run into it. Before long it is a large\nbrook, and then it becomes a broad river sweeping onward to the sea.\nOn its banks are cities, towns and villages, where many thousands\nlive. Vegetation flourishes on every side, and commerce is carried\ndown its stately bosom to distant lands.\n\nSo if you turn one to Christ, that one may turn a hundred; they may\nturn a thousand, and so the stream, small at first, goes on broadening\nand deepening as it rolls toward eternity.\n\nIn the book of Revelation we read: \"I heard a voice from heaven saying\nunto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from\nhenceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their\nlabors; and their works do follow them.\"\n\nThere are many mentioned in the Scriptures of whom we read that they\nlived so many years and then they died. The cradle and the grave are\nbrought close together; they lived and they died, and that is all we\nknow about them. So in these days you could write on the tombstone of\na great many professing Christians that they were born on such a day\nand they died on such a day; there is nothing whatever between.\n\nBut there is one thing you cannot bury with a good man; his influence\nstill lives. They have not buried Daniel yet: his influence is as\ngreat today as it ever was. Do you tell me that Joseph is dead? His\ninfluence still lives and will continue to live on and on. You may\nbury the frail tenement of clay that a good man lives in, but you\ncannot get rid of his influence and example. Paul was never more\npowerful than he is to-day.\n\nDo you tell me that John Howard, who went into so many of the dark\nprisons in Europe, is dead? Is Henry Martyn, or Wilberforce, or John\nBunyan dead? Go into the Southern States, and there you will find\nmillions of men and women who once were slaves. Mention to any of them\nthe name of Wilberforce, and see how quickly the eye will light up. He\nlived for something else besides himself, and his memory will never\ndie out of the hearts of those for whom he lived and labored.\n\nIs Wesley or Whitefield dead? The names of those great evangelists\nwere never more honored than they are now. Is John Knox dead? You can\ngo to any part of Scotland today, and feel the power of his influence.\n\nI will tell you who are dead. The enemies of these servants of\nGod--those who persecuted them and told lies about them. But the men\nthemselves have outlived all the lies that were uttered concerning\nthem. Not only that; they will shine in another world. How true are\nthe words of the old Book: \"They that be wise shall shine as the\nbrightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness\nas the stars forever and ever.\"\n\nLet us go on turning as many as we can to righteousness. Let us be\ndead to the world, to its lies, its pleasures, and its ambitions. Let\nus live for God, continually going forth to win souls for Him.\n\nLet me quote a few words by Dr. Chalmers: \"Thousands of men breathe,\nmove and live, pass off the stage of life, and are heard no more--Why?\nThey do not partake of good in the world, and none were blessed by\nthem; none could point to them as the means of their redemption; not a\nline they wrote, not a word they spoke could be recalled; and so they\nperished; their light went out in darkness, and they were not\nremembered more than insects of yesterday. Will you thus live and die,\nO man immortal? Live for something. Do good, and leave behind you a\nmonument of virtue that the storms of time can never destroy. Write\nyour name in kindness, love and mercy, on the hearts of the thousands\nyou come in contact with year by year; you will never be forgotten.\nNo, your name, your deeds will be as legible on the hearts you leave\nbehind as the stars on the brow of evening. Good deeds will shine as\nthe stars of heaven.\"\n\n\n\n\"COME THOU AND ALL THY HOUSE INTO THE ARK.\"\n\nI want to call your attention to a text that you will find in the\nseventh chapter of Genesis, first verse. When God speaks, you and I\ncan afford to listen. It is not man speaking now, but it is God. \"The\nLord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark.\"\n\nPerhaps some sceptic is reading this, and perhaps some church member\nwill join with him and say,\n\n\"I hope Mr. Moody is not going to preach about the ark. I thought that\nwas given up by all intelligent people.\"\n\nBut I want to say that I haven't given it up. When I do, I am going to\ngive up the whole Bible. There is hardly any portion of the Old\nTestament Scripture but that the Son of God set His seal to it when He\nwas down here in the world.\n\nMen say, \"I don't believe in the story of the flood.\"\n\nChrist connected His own return to this world with that flood: \"And as\nit was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son\nof man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given\nin marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the\nflood came, and destroyed them all.\"\n\nI believe the story of the flood just as much as I do the third\nchapter of John. I pity any man that is picking the old Book to\npieces. The moment that we give up any one of these things, we touch\nthe deity of the Son of God. I have noticed that when a man does begin\nto pick the Bible to pieces, it doesn't take him long to tear it all\nto pieces. What is the use of being five years about what you can do\nin five minutes?\n\nA Solemn Message.\n\nOne hundred and twenty years before God spake the words of my text,\nNoah had received the most awful communication that ever came from\nheaven to earth. No man up to that time, and I think no man since, has\never received such a communication. God said that on account of the\nwickedness of the world He was going to destroy the world by water. We\ncan have no idea of the extent and character of that antediluvian\nwickedness. The Bible piles one expression on another, in its effort\nto emphasize it. \"God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the\nearth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was\nonly evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man\non the earth, and it grieved him at His heart. . . . The earth also\nwas corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And\nGod looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh\nhad corrupted his way upon the earth.\" Men lived five hundred years\nand more then, and they had time to mature in their sins.\n\nHow the Message was Received.\n\nFor one hundred and twenty years God strove with those antediluvians.\nHe never smites without warning, and they had their warning. Every\ntime Noah drove a nail into the ark it was a warning to them. Every\nsound of the hammer echoed, \"I believe in God.\" If they had repented\nand cried as they did at Nineveh, I believe God would have heard their\ncry and spared them. But there was no cry for mercy. I have no doubt\nbut that they ridiculed the idea that God was going to destroy the\nworld. I have no doubt but that there were atheists who said there was\nnot any God anyhow. I got hold of one of them some time ago. I said,\n\n\"How do you account for the formation of the world?\"\n\n\"Oh! force and matter work together, and by chance the world was\ncreated.\"\n\nI said, \"It is a singular thing that your tongue isn't on the top of\nyour head if force and matter just threw it together in that manner.\"\n\nIf I should take out my watch and say that force and matter worked\ntogether, and out came the watch, you would say I was a lunatic of the\nfirst order. Wouldn't you? And yet they say that this old world was\nmade by chance! \"It threw itself together!\"\n\nI met a man in Scotland, and he took the ground that there was no God.\nI asked him,\n\n\"How do you account for creation, for all these rocks?\" (They have a\ngreat many rocks in Scotland.)\n\n\"Why!\" he said, \"any school boy could account for that.\"\n\n\"Well, how was the first rock made?\"\n\n\"Out of sand.\"\n\n\"How was the first sand made?\"\n\n\"Out of rock.\"\n\nYou see he had it all arranged so nicely. Sand and rock, rock and\nsand. I have no doubt but that Noah had these men to contend with.\n\nThen there was a class called agnostics, and there are a good many of\ntheir grandchildren, alive to-day. Then there was another class who\nsaid they believed there was a God; they couldn't make themselves\nbelieve that the world happened by chance; but God was too merciful to\npunish sin. He was so full of compassion and love that He couldn't\npunish sin. The drunkard, the harlot, the gambler, the murderer, the\nthief and the libertine would all share alike with the saints at the\nend. Supposing the governor of your state was so tender-hearted that\nhe could not bear to have a man suffer, could not bear to see a man\nput in jail, and he should go and set all the prisoners free. How long\nwould he be governor? You would have him out of office before the sun\nset. These very men that talk about God's mercy, would be the first to\nraise a cry against a governor who would not have a man put in prison\nwhen he had done wrong.\n\nThen another class took the ground that God could not destroy the\nworld anyway. They might have a great flood which would rise up to the\nmeadowlands and lowlands, but all it would be necessary to do would be\nto go up on the hills and mountains. That would be a hundred times\nbetter than Noah's ark. Or if it should come to that, they could build\nrafts, which would be a good deal better than that ark. They had never\nseen such an ugly looking thing. It was about five hundred feet long,\nand about eighty feet wide, and fifty feet high. It had three stories,\nand only one small window.\n\nAnd then, I suppose there was a large class who took the ground that\nNoah must be wrong because he was in such a minority. That is a great\nargument now, you know. Noah was greatly in the minority. But he went\non working.\n\nIf they had saloons then, and I don't doubt but that they had, for we\nread that there was \"violence in the land,\" and wherever you have\nalcohol you have violence. We read also that Noah planted a vineyard\nand fell into the sin of intemperance. He was a righteous man, and if\nhe did that, what must the others have done? Well, if they had\nsaloons, no doubt they sang ribald songs about Noah and his ark, and\nif they had theaters they likely acted it out, and mothers took their\nchildren to see it.\n\nAnd if they had the press in those days, every now and then there\nwould appear a skit about \"Noah and his folly.\" Reporters would come\nand interview him, and if they had an Associated Press, every few days\na dispatch would be sent out telling how the work on the ark was\nprogressing.\n\nAnd perhaps they had excursions, and offered as an inducement that\npeople could go through the ark. And if Noah happened to be around\nthey would nudge each other and say:\n\n\"That's Noah. Don't you think there is a strange look in his eye?\"\n\nAs a Scotchman would say, they thought him a little daft. Thank God a\nman can afford to be mad. A mad man thinks everyone else mad but\nhimself A drunkard does not call himself mad when he is drinking up\nall his means. Those men who stand and deal out death and damnation to\nmen are not called mad; but a man is called mad when he gets into the\nark, and is saved for time and eternity. And I expect if the word\ncrank was in use, they called Noah \"an old crank.\"\n\nAnd so all manner of sport was made of Noah and his ark. And the\nbusiness men went on buying and selling, while Noah went on preaching\nand toiling. They perhaps had some astronomers, and they were gazing\nup at the stars, and saying, \"Don't you be concerned. There is no sign\nof a coming storm in the heavens. We are very wise men, and if there\nwas a storm coming, we should read it in the heavens.\" And they had\ngeologists digging away, and they said, \"There is no sign in the\nearth.\" Even the carpenters who helped build the ark might have made\nfun of him, but they were like lots of people at the present day, who\nwill help build a church, and perhaps give money for its support, but\nwill never enter it themselves.\n\nWell, things went on as usual. Little lambs skipped on the hillsides\neach spring. Men sought after wealth, and if they had leases, I expect\nthey ran for longer periods than ours do. We think ninety-nine years a\nlong time, but I don't doubt but that theirs ran for nine hundred and\nninety nine years. And when they came to sign a lease they would say\nwith a twinkle in their eyes:\n\n\"Why, this old Noah says the world is coming to an end in one hundred\nand twenty years, and it's twenty years since he started the story.\nBut I guess I will sign the lease and risk it.\"\n\nSomeone has said that Noah must have been deaf, or he could not have\nstood the jeers and sneers of his countrymen. But if he was deaf to\nthe voice of men, he heard the voice of God when He told him to build\nthe ark.\n\nI can imagine one hundred years have rolled away, and the work on the\nark ceases. Men say, \"What has he stopped work for?\" He has gone on a\npreaching tour, to tell the people of the coming storm--that God is\ngoing to sweep every man from the face of the earth unless he is in\nthe ark. But he cannot get a man to believe him except his own family.\nSome of the old men have passed away, and they died saying: \"Noah is\nwrong.\" Poor Noah! He must have had a hard time of it. I don't think I\nshould have had the grace to work for one hundred and twenty years\nwithout a convert. But he just toiled on, believing the word of God.\n\nAnd now the hundred and twenty years are up. In the spring of the year\nNoah did not plant anything, for he knew the flood was coming, and the\npeople say: \"Every year before he has planted, but this year he thinks\nthe world is going to be destroyed, and he hasn't planted anything.\"\n\nMoving in.\n\nBut I can imagine one beautiful morning, not a cloud to be seen, Noah\nhas got his communication. He has heard the voice that he heard one\nhundred and twenty years before--the same old voice. Perhaps there had\nbeen silence for one hundred and twenty years. But the voice rang\nthrough his soul once again, \"Noah, come thou and all thy house into\nthe ark.\"\n\nThe word \"come\" occurs about nineteen hundred times in the Bible, it\nis said, and this is the first time. It meant salvation. You can see\nNoah and all his family moving into the ark. They are bringing the\nhousehold furniture.\n\nSome of his neighbors say, \"Noah, what is your hurry? you will have\nplenty of time to get into that old ark. What is your hurry? There are\nno windows and you cannot look out to see when the storm is coming.\"\nBut he heard the voice and obeyed.\n\nSome of his relatives might have said, \"What are you going to do with\nthe old homestead?\"\n\nNoah says, \"I don't want it. The storm is coming.\" He tells them the\nday of grace is closing, that worldly wealth is of no value, and that\nthe ark is the only place of safety. We must bear in mind that these\nrailroads that we think so much of, will soon go down; they only run\nfor time, not for eternity. The heavens will be on fire, and then what\nwill property, honor, and position in society be worth?\n\nThe first thing that alarms them is, they rise one morning, and lo!\nthe heavens are filled with the fowls of the air. They are flying into\nthe ark, two by two. They come from the desert; they come from the\nmountain; they come from all parts of the world. They are going into\nthe ark. It must have been a strange sight. I can hear the people cry,\n\"Great God! what is the meaning of this?\" And they look down on the\nearth; and, with great alarm and surprise, they see little insects\ncreeping up two by two, coming from all parts of the world. Then\nbehold! there come cattle and beasts, two by two. The neighbors cry\nout, \"What does this mean?\" They run to their statesmen and wise men,\nwho have told them there was no sign of a coming storm, and ask them\nwhy it is that those birds, animals, and creeping things go toward the\nark, as if guided by some unseen hand.\n\n\"Well,\" the statesmen and wise men say, \"We cannot explain it; but\ngive yourselves no trouble; God is not going to destroy the world.\nBusiness was never better than it is now. Do you think if God was\ngoing to destroy the world, He would let us go on so prosperously as\nHe has? There is no sign of a coming storm. What has made these\ncreeping insects and these wild beasts of the forest go into the ark,\nwe do not know. We cannot understand it; it is very strange. But there\nis no sign of anything going to happen. The stars are bright, and the\nsun shines as bright as ever it did. Everything moves on as it has\nbeen moving for all time past. You can hear the children playing in\nthe street. You can hear the voice of the bride and bridegroom in the\nland, and all is merry as ever.\"\n\nI imagine the alarm passed away, and they fell into their regular\ncourses. Noah comes out and says: \"The door is going to be shut. Come\nin. God is going to destroy the world. See the animals, how they have\ncome up. The communication has come to them direct from heaven.\" But\nthe people only mocked on.\n\nDo you know, when the hundred and twenty years were up, God gave the\nworld seven days' grace? Did you ever notice that? If there had been a\ncry during those seven days, I believe it would have been heard. But\nthere was none.\n\nAt length the last day had come, the last hour, the last minute, ay!\nthe last second. God Almighty came down and shut the door of that ark.\nNo angel, no man, but God Himself shut that door, and when once the\nmaster of the house has risen and shut to the door, the doom of the\nworld is sealed; and the doom of that old world was forever sealed.\nThe sun had gone down upon the glory of that old world for the last\ntime. You can hear away off in the distance the mutterings of the\nstorm. You can hear the thunder rolling. The lightning begins to\nflash, and the old world reels. The storm bursts upon them, and that\nold ark of Noah's would have been worth more than the whole world to\nthem.\n\nI want to say to any scoffer who reads this, that you can laugh at the\nBible, you can scoff at your mother's God, you can laugh at ministers\nand Christians, but the hour is coming when one promise in that old\nBook will be worth more to you than ten thousand worlds like this.\n\nThe windows of heaven are opened and the fountains of the great deep\nare broken up. The waters come bubbling up, and the sea bursts its\nbounds and leaps over its walls. The rivers begin to swell. The people\nliving in the lowlands flee to the mountains and highlands. They flee\nup the hillsides. And there is a wail going up:\n\n\"Noah! Noah! Noah! Let us in.\"\n\nThey leave their homes and come to the ark now. They pound on the ark.\nHear them cry:\n\n\"Noah! Let us in. Noah! Have mercy on us.\"\n\n\"I am your nephew.\"\n\n\"I am your niece.\"\n\n\"I am your uncle.\"\n\nAh, there is a voice inside, saying: \"I would like to let you in; but\nGod has shut the door, and I cannot open it!\"\n\nGod shut that door! When the door is shut, there is no hope. Their cry\nfor mercy was too late; their day of grace was closed. Their last hour\nhad come. God had plead with them; God had invited them to come in;\nbut they had mocked at the invitation. They scoffed and ridiculed the\nidea of a deluge. Now it is too late.\n\nGod did not permit anyone to survive to tell us how they perished.\nWhen Job lost his family, there came a messenger to him: but there\ncame no messenger from the antediluvians; not even Noah himself could\nsee the world perish. If he could, he would have seen men and women\nand children dashing against that ark; the waves rising higher and\nhigher, while those outside were perishing, dying in unbelief. Some\nthink to escape by climbing the trees, and think the storm will soon\ngo down; but it rains on, day and night, for forty days and forty\nnights, and they are swept away as the waves dash against them. The\nstatesmen and astronomers and great men call for mercy; but it is too\nlate. They had disobeyed the God of mercy. He had called, and they\nrefused. He had plead with them, but they had laughed and mocked. But\nnow the time is come for judgment instead of mercy.\n\nJudgment.\n\nThe time is coming again when God will deal in judgment with the\nworld. It is but a little while; we know not when, but it is sure to\ncome. God's word has gone forth that this world shall be rolled\ntogether like a scroll, and shall be on fire. What then will become of\nyour soul? It is a loving call, \"Now come, thou and all thy house,\ninto the ark.\" Twenty four hours before the rain began to fall, Noah's\nark, if it had been sold at auction, would not have brought as much as\nit would be worth for kindling wood. But twenty four hours after the\nrain began to fall, Noah's ark was worth more than all the world.\nThere was not then a man living but would have given all he was worth\nfor a seat in the ark. You may turn away and laugh.\n\n\"I believe in Christ!\" you say; \"I would rather be without Him than\nhave Him.\"\n\nBut bear in mind, the time is coming when Christ will be worth more to\nyou than ten thousand worlds like this. Bear in mind that He is\noffered to you now. This is a day of grace; it is a day of mercy. You\nwill find, if you read your Bible carefully, that God always precedes\njudgment with grace. Grace is a forerunner of judgment. He called\nthese men in the days of Noah in love. They would have been saved if\nthey had repented in those one hundred and twenty years. When Christ\ncame to plead with the people in Jerusalem, it was their day of grace;\nbut they mocked and laughed at Him. He said: \"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,\nthou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto\nthee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a\nhen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!\" Forty\nyears afterward, thousands of the people begged that their lives might\nbe spared; and eleven hundred thousand perished in that city.\n\nIn 1857 a revival swept over this country in the east and on to the\nwestern cities, clear over to the Pacific coast. It was God calling\nthe nation to Himself. Half a million people united with the Church at\nthat time. Then the war broke out. We were baptized with the Holy\nGhost in 1857, and in 1861 we were baptized in blood. It was a call of\nmercy, preceding judgment.\n\nAre Your Children Safe?\n\nThe text which I have selected has a special application to Christian\npeople and to parents. This command of the Scripture was given to Noah\nnot only for his own safety, but that of his household, and the\nquestion which I put to each father and mother is this: \"Are your\nchildren in the ark of God?\" You may scoff at it, but it is a very\nimportant question. Are all your children in? Are all your\ngrandchildren in? Don't rest day or night until you get your children\nin. I believe my children have fifty temptations where I had one. I am\none of those who believe that in the great cities there is a snare set\nupon the corner of every street for our sons and daughters; and I\ndon't believe it is our business to spend our time in accumulating\nbonds and stocks. Have I done all I can to get my children in? That is\nit.\n\nNow, let me ask another question: What would have been Noah's feelings\nif, when God called him into the ark, his children would not have gone\nwith him? If he had lived such a false life that his children had no\nfaith in his word, what would have been his feelings? He would have\nsaid: \"There is my poor boy on the mountain. Would to God I had died\nin his place! I would rather have perished than had him perish.\" David\ncried over his son: \"Oh, my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would\nGod I had died for thee!\" Noah loved his children, and they had\nconfidence in him.\n\nSomeone sent me a paper a number of years ago, containing an article\nthat was marked. Its title was: \"Are all the children in?\" An old wife\nlay dying. She was nearly one hundred years of age, and the husband\nwho had taken the journey with her, sat by her side. She was just\nbreathing faintly, but suddenly she revived, opened her eyes, and\nsaid:\n\n\"Why! it is dark.\"\n\n\"Yes, Janet, it is dark.\"\n\n\"Is it night?\"\n\n\"Oh, yes! it is midnight.\"\n\n\"Are all the children in?\"\n\nThere was that old mother living life over again. Her youngest child\nhad been in the grave twenty years, but she was traveling back into\nthe old days, and she fell asleep in Christ asking, \"Are all the\nchildren in?\"\n\nDear friend, are they all in? Put the question to yourself now. Is\nJohn in? Is James in? Or is he immersed in business and pleasure? Is\nhe living a double and dishonest life? Say! where is your boy, mother?\nWhere is your son, your daughter? Is it well with your children? Can\nyou say it is?\n\nAfter being superintendent of a Sunday school in Chicago for a number\nof years, a school of over a thousand members, children that came from\ngodless homes, having mothers and fathers working against me, taking\nthe children off on excursions on Sunday, and doing all they could to\nbreak up the work I was trying to do, I used to think that if I should\never stand before an audience I would speak to no one but parents;\nthat would be my chief business. It is an old saying--\"Get the lamb,\nand you will get the sheep.\" I gave that up years ago. Give me the\nsheep, and then I will have someone to nurse the lamb; but get a lamb\nand convert him, and if he has a godless father and mother, you will\nhave little chance with that child. What we want is godly homes. The\nhome was established long before the Church.\n\nI have no sympathy with the idea that our children have to grow up\nbefore they are converted. Once I saw a lady with three daughters at\nher side, and I stepped up to her and asked her if she was a\nChristian.\n\n\"Yes, sir.\"\n\nThen I asked the oldest daughter if she was a Christian. The chin\nbegan to quiver, and the tears came into her eyes, and she said,\n\n\"I wish I was.\"\n\nThe mother looked very angrily at me and said, \"I don't want you to\nspeak to my children on that subject. They don't understand.\" And in\ngreat rage she took them all away from me. One daughter was fourteen\nyears old, one twelve, and the other ten, but they were not old enough\nto be talked to about religion. Let them drift into the world and\nplunge into worldly amusements, and then see how hard it is to reach\nthem. Many a mother is mourning to-day because her boy has gone beyond\nher reach, and will not allow her to pray with him. She may pray _for_\nhim, but he will not let her pray or talk _with_ him. In those early\ndays when his mind was tender and young, she might have led him to\nChrist. Bring them in. \"Suffer the little children to come unto Me.\"\nIs there a prayerless father reading this? May God let the arrow go\ndown into your soul! Make up your mind that, God helping you, you will\nget the children in. God's order is to the father first, but if he\nisn't true to his duty, then the mother should be true, and save the\nchildren from the wreck. Now is the time to do it while you have them\nunder your roof. Exert your parental influence over them.\n\nI never speak to parents but I think of two fathers, one of whom lived\non the banks of the Mississippi, the other in New York. The first one\ndevoted all his time to amassing wealth. He had a son to whom he was\nmuch attached, and one day the boy was brought home badly injured. The\nfather was informed that the boy could live but a short time, and he\nbroke the news to his son as gently as possible.\n\n\"You say I cannot live, father? O! then pray for my soul,\" said the\nboy.\n\nIn all those years that father had never said a prayer for that boy,\nand he told him he couldn't. Shortly after, the boy died. That father\nhas said since that he would give all that he possessed if he could\ncall that boy back only to offer one short prayer for him.\n\nThe other father had a boy who had been sick some time, and he came\nhome one day and found his wife weeping. She said:\n\n\"I cannot help but believe that this is going to prove fatal.\"\n\nThe man started, and said: \"If you think so, I wish you would tell\nhim.\"\n\nBut the mother could not tell her boy. The father went to the sick\nroom, and he saw that death was feeling for the cords of life, and he\nsaid:\n\n\"My son, do you know you are not going to live?\"\n\nThe little fellow looked up and said: \"No; is this death that I feel\nstealing over me? Will I die to-day?\"\n\n\"Yes, my son, you cannot live the day out.\"\n\nAnd the little fellow smiled and said: \"Well, father, I shall be with\nJesus tonight, shan't I?\"\n\n\"Yes, you will spend the night with the Lord,\" and the father broke\ndown and wept.\n\nThe little fellow saw the tears, and said: \"Don't weep for me. I will\ngo to Jesus and tell Him that ever since I can remember you have\nprayed for me.\"\n\nI have three children, and if God should take them from me, I would\nrather have them take such a message home to Him than to have the\nwealth of the whole world. Oh! would to God I could say something to\nstir you, fathers and mothers, to get your children into the ark.\n\n\n\nHUMILITY.\n\n\"Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.\"--Matthew 11:29.\n\nThere is no harder lesson to learn than the lesson of humility. It is\nnot taught in the schools of men, only in the school of Christ. It is\nthe rarest of all the gifts. Very rarely do we find a man or woman who\nis following closely the footsteps of the Master in meekness and in\nhumility. I believe that it is the hardest lesson which Jesus Christ\nhad to teach His disciples while He was here upon earth. It almost\nlooked at first as though He had failed to teach it to the twelve men\nwho had been with Him almost constantly for three years.\n\nI believe that if we are humble enough we shall be sure to get a great\nblessing. After all, I think that more depends upon us than upon the\nLord, because He is always ready to give a blessing and give it\nfreely, but we are not always in a position to receive it. He always\nblesses the humble, and, if we can get down in the dust before Him, no\none will go away disappointed. It was Mary at the feet of Jesus, who\nhad chosen the \"better part.\"\n\nDid you ever notice the reason Christ gave for learning of Him? He\nmight have said: \"Learn of me, because I am the most advanced thinker\nof the age. I have performed miracles that no man else has performed.\nI have shown my supernatural power in a thousand ways.\" But no: the\nreason He gave was that He was \"meek, and lowly in heart.\"\n\nWe read of the three men in Scripture whose faces shone, and all three\nwere noted for their meekness and humility. We are told that the face\nof Christ shone at His transfiguration; Moses, after he had been in\nthe mount for forty days, came down from his communion with God with a\nshining face; and when Stephen stood before the Sanhedrim on the day\nof his death, his face was lighted up with glory. If our faces are to\nshine we must get into the valley of humility; we must go down in the\ndust before God.\n\nBunyan says that it is hard to get down into the valley of\nhumiliation, the descent into it is steep and rugged; but that it is\nvery fruitful and fertile and beautiful when once we get there. I\nthink that no one will dispute that; almost every man, even the\nungodly, admires meekness.\n\nSomeone asked Augustine, what was the first of the religious graces,\nand he said, \"Humility.\" They asked him what was the second, and he\nreplied, \"Humility.\" They asked him the third, and he said,\n\"Humility.\" I think that if we are humble, we have all the graces.\n\nSome years ago I saw what is called a sensitive plant. I happened to\nbreathe on it, and suddenly it drooped its head; I touched it, and it\nwithered away. Humility is as sensitive as that; it cannot safely be\nbrought out on exhibition. A man who is flattering himself that he is\nhumble and is walking close to the Master, is self-deceived. It\nconsists not in thinking meanly of ourselves, but in not thinking of\nourselves at all. Moses wist not that his face shone. If humility\nspeaks of itself, it is gone.\n\nSomeone has said that the grass is an illustration of this lowly\ngrace. It was created for the lowliest service. Cut it, and it springs\nup again. The cattle feed upon it, and yet how beautiful it is.\n\nThe showers fall upon the mountain peaks, and very often leave them\nbarren because they rush down into the meadows and valleys and make\nthe lowly places fertile. If a man is proud and lifted up, rivers of\ngrace may flow over him and yet leave him barren and unfruitful, while\nthey bring blessing to the man who has been brought low by the grace\nof God.\n\nA man can counterfeit love, he can counterfeit faith, he can\ncounterfeit hope and all the other graces, but it is very difficult to\ncounterfeit humility. You soon detect mock humility. They have a\nsaying in the East among the Arabs, that as the tares and the wheat\ngrow they show which God has blessed. The ears that God has blessed\nbow their heads and acknowledge every grain, and the more fruitful\nthey are the lower their heads are bowed. The tares which God has sent\nas a curse, lift up their heads erect, high above the wheat, but they\nare only fruitful of evil. I have a pear tree on my farm which is very\nbeautiful; it appears to be one of the most beautiful trees on my\nplace. Every branch seems to be reaching up to the light and stands\nalmost like a wax candle, but I never get any fruit from it. I have\nanother tree, which was so full of fruit last year that the branches\nalmost touched the ground. If we only get down low enough, my friends,\nGod will use every one of us to His glory.\n\n\"As the lark that soars the highest builds her nest the lowest; as the\nnightingale that sings so sweetly, sings in the shade when all things\nrest; as the branches that are most laden with fruit, bend lowest; as\nthe ship most laden, sinks deepest in the water;--so the holiest\nChristians are the humblest.\"\n\nThe _London Times_ some years ago told the story of a petition that\nwas being circulated for signatures. It was a time of great\nexcitement, and this petition was intended to have great influence in\nthe House of Lords; but there was one word left out. Instead of\nreading, \"We humbly beseech thee,\" it read, \"We beseech thee.\" So it\nwas ruled out. My friends, if we want to make an appeal to the God of\nHeaven, we must humble ourselves; and if we do humble ourselves before\nthe Lord, we shall not be disappointed.\n\nAs I have been studying some Bible characters that illustrate\nhumility, I have been ashamed of myself. If you have any regard for\nme, pray that I may have humility. When I put my life beside the life\nof some of these men, I say, Shame on the Christianity of the present\nday. If you want to get a good idea of yourself, look at some of the\nBible characters that have been clothed with meekness and humility,\nand see what a contrast is your position before God and man.\n\nOne of the meekest characters in history was John the Baptist. You\nremember when they sent a deputation to him and asked if he was Elias,\nor this prophet, or that prophet, he said, \"No.\" Now he might have\nsaid some very flattering things of himself. He might have said:\n\n\"I am the son of the old priest Zacharias. Haven't you heard of my\nfame as a preacher? I have baptized more people probably, than any man\nliving. The world has never seen a preacher like myself.\"\n\nI honestly believe that in the present day most men standing in his\nposition would do that. On the railroad train, some time ago, I heard\na man talking so loud that all the people in the car could hear him.\nHe said that he had baptized more people than any man in his\ndenomination. He told how many thousand miles he had traveled, how\nmany sermons he had preached, how many open-air services he had held,\nand this and that, until I was so ashamed that I had to hide my head.\nThis is the age of boasting. It is the day of the great \"I.\"\n\nMy attention was recently called to the fact that in all the Psalms\nyou cannot find any place where David refers to his victory over the\ngiant, Goliath. If it had been in the present day, there would have\nbeen a volume written about it at once; I don't know how many poems\nthere would be telling of the great things that this man had done. He\nwould have been in demand as a lecturer, and would have added a title\nto his name: G. G. K.,--Great Giant Killer. That is how it is to-day:\ngreat evangelists, great preachers, great theologians, great bishops.\n\n\"John,\" they asked, \"who are you?\"\n\n\"I am nobody. I am to be heard, not to be seen. I am only a voice.\"\n\nHe hadn't a word to say about himself. I once heard a little bird\nfaintly singing close by me,--at last it got clear out of sight, and\nthen its notes were still sweeter. The higher it flew the sweeter\nsounded its notes. If we can only get self out of sight and learn of\nHim who was meek and lowly in heart we shall be lifted up into\nheavenly places.\n\nMark tells us, in the first chapter and seventh verse, that John came\nand preached saying, \"There cometh one mightier than I after me, the\nlatchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.\"\nThink of that; and bear in mind that Christ was looked upon as a\ndeceiver, a village carpenter, and yet here is John, the son of the\nold priest, who had a much higher position in the sight of men than\nthat of Jesus. Great crowds were coming to hear him, and even Herod\nattended his meetings.\n\nWhen his disciples came and told John that Christ was beginning to\ndraw crowds, he nobly answered: \"A man can receive nothing, except it\nbe given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I\nam not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him. He that hath the\nbride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which\nstandeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the\nbridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must\nincrease, but I must decrease.\"\n\nIt is easy to read that, but it is hard for us to live in the power of\nit. It is very hard for us to be ready to decrease, to grow smaller\nand smaller, that Christ may increase. The morning star fades away\nwhen the sun rises.\n\n\"He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is\nearthly, and speaketh of the earth: He that cometh from heaven is\nabove all, and what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth; and no\nman receiveth His testimony. He that hath received His testimony hath\nset to his seal that God is true. For He whom God hath sent speaketh\nthe words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.\"\n\nLet us now turn the light upon ourselves. Have we been decreasing of\nlate? Do we think less of ourselves and of our position than we did a\nyear ago? Are we seeking to obtain some position of dignity? Are we\nwanting to hold on to some title, and are we offended because we are\nnot treated with the courtesy that we think is due us? Some time ago I\nheard a man in the pulpit say that he should take offence if he was\nnot addressed by his title. My dear friend, are you going to take that\nposition that you must have a title, and that you must have every\nletter addressed with that title or you will be offended? John did not\nwant any title, and when we are right with God, we shall not be caring\nabout titles. In one of his early epistles Paul calls himself the\n\"least of all the apostles.\" Later on he claims to be \"less than the\nleast of all saints,\" and again, just before his death, humbly\ndeclares that he is the \"chief of sinners.\" Notice how he seems to\nhave grown smaller and smaller in his own estimation. So it was with\nJohn. And I do hope and pray that as the days go by we may feel like\nhiding ourselves, and let God have all the honor and glory.\n\n\"When I look back upon my own religious experience,\" says Andrew\nMurray, \"or round upon the Church of Christ in the world, I stand\namazed at the thought of how little humility is sought after as the\ndistinguishing feature of the discipleship of Jesus. In preaching and\nliving, in the daily intercourse of the home and social life, in the\nmore special fellowship with Christians, in the direction and\nperformance of work for Christ--alas! how much proof there is that\nhumility is not esteemed the cardinal virtue, the only root from which\nthe graces can grow, the one indispensable condition of true\nfellowship with Jesus.\"\n\nSee what Christ says about John. \"He was a burning and shining light.\"\nChrist gave him the honor that belonged to him. If you take a humble\nposition, Christ will see it. If you want God to help you, then take a\nlow position.\n\nI am afraid that if we had been in John's place, many of us would have\nsaid: \"What did Christ say,--I am a burning and shining light?\" Then\nwe would have had that recommendation put in the newspapers, and would\nhave sent them to our friends, with that part marked in blue pencil.\nSometimes I get a letter just full of clippings from the newspapers,\nstating that this man is more eloquent than Gough, etc. And the man\nwants me to get him some church. Do you think that a man who has such\neloquence would be looking for a church? No, they would all be looking\nfor him.\n\nMy dear friends, isn't it humiliating? Sometimes I think it is a\nwonder that any man is converted these days. Let another praise you.\nDon't be around praising yourself. If we want God to lift us up, let\nus get down. The lower we get, the higher God will lift us. It is\nChrist's eulogy of John, \"Greater than any man born of woman.\"\n\nThere is a story told of Carey, the great missionary, that he was\ninvited by the Governor-general of India to go to a dinner party at\nwhich were some military officers belonging to the aristocracy, and\nwho looked down upon missionaries with scorn and contempt.\n\nOne of these officers said at the table: \"I believe that Carey was a\nshoemaker, wasn't he, before he took up the profession of a\nmissionary?\"\n\nMr. Carey spoke up and said: \"Oh no, I was only a cobbler. I could\nmend shoes, and wasn't ashamed of it.\"\n\nThe one prominent virtue of Christ, next to His obedience, is His\nhumility; and even His obedience grew out of His humility. Being in\nthe form of God, He counted it not a thing to be grasped to be on an\nequality with God, but He emptied Himself, taking the form of a\nbond-servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in\nfashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death,\nyea, the death of the cross. In His lowly birth, His submission to His\nearthly parents, His seclusion during thirty years, His consorting\nwith the poor and despised, His entire submission and dependence upon\nHis Father, this virtue that was consummated in His death on the\ncross, shines out.\n\nOne day Jesus was on His way to Capernaum, and was talking about His\ncoming death and suffering, and about His resurrection, and He heard\nquite a heated discussion going on behind Him. When He came into the\nhouse at Capernaum, He turned to His disciples, and said:\n\n\"What was all that discussion about?\"\n\nI see John look at James, and Peter at Andrew,--and they all looked\nashamed. \"Who shall be the greater?\" That discussion has wrecked party\nafter party, one society after another--\"Who shall be the greatest?\"\n\nThe way Christ took to teach them humility was by putting a little\nchild in their midst and saying: \"If you want to be great, take that\nlittle child for an example, and he who wants to be the greatest, let\nhim be servant of all.\"\n\nTo me, one of the saddest things in all the life of Jesus Christ was\nthe fact that just before His crucifixion, His disciples should have\nbeen striving to see who should be the greatest, that night He\ninstituted the Supper, and they ate the Passover together. It was His\nlast night on earth, and they never saw Him so sorrowful before. He\nknew Judas was going to sell Him for thirty pieces of silver. He knew\nthat Peter would deny Him. And yet, in addition to this, when going\ninto the very shadow of the cross, there arose this strife as to who\nshould be the greatest. He took a towel and girded Himself like a\nslave, and He took a basin of water and stooped and washed their feet.\nThat was another object lesson of humility. He said, \"Ye call me Lord,\nand ye do well. If you want to be great in my Kingdom, be servant of\nall. If you serve, you shall be great.\"\n\nWhen the Holy Ghost came, and those men were filled, from that time on\nmark the difference: Matthew takes up his pen to write, and he keeps\nMatthew out of sight. He tells what Peter and Andrew did, but he calls\nhimself Matthew \"the publican.\" He tells how they left all to follow\nChrist, but does not mention the feast he gave. Jerome says that\nMark's gospel is to be regarded as memoirs of Peter's discourses, and\nto have been published by his authority. Yet here we constantly find\nthat damaging things are mentioned about Peter, and things to his\ncredit are not referred to. Mark's gospel omits all allusion to\nPeter's faith in venturing on the sea, but goes into detail about the\nstory of his fall and denial of our Lord. Peter put himself down, and\nlifted others up.\n\nIf the Gospel of Luke had been written to-day, it would be signed by\nthe great Dr. Luke, and you would have his photograph as a\nfrontispiece. But you can't find Luke's name; he keeps out of sight.\nHe wrote two books, and his name is not to be found in either. John\ncovers himself always under the expression--\"the disciple whom Jesus\nloved.\" None of the four men whom history and tradition assert to be\nthe authors of the gospels, lay claim to the authorship in their\nwritings. Dear man of God, I would that I had the same spirit, that I\ncould just get out of sight,--hide myself.\n\nMy dear friends, I believe our only hope is to be filled with the\nSpirit of Christ. May God fill us, so that we shall be filled with\nmeekness and humility. Let us take the hymn, \"O, to be nothing,\nnothing,\" and make it the language of our hearts. It breathes the\nspirit of Him who said: \"The Son can do _nothing_ of Himself!\"\n\n   Oh to be nothing, nothing!\n      Only to lie at His feet,\n   A broken and emptied vessel,\n      For the Master's use made meet.\n   Emptied, that He might fill me\n      As forth to His service I go;\n   Broken, that so unhindered,\n      His life through me might flow.\n\n\n\nREST.\n\nSome years ago a gentleman came to me and asked me which I thought was\nthe most precious promise of all those that Christ left. I took some\ntime to look them over, but I gave it up. I found that I could not\nanswer the question. It is like a man with a large family of children,\nhe cannot tell which he likes best; he loves them all. But if not the\nbest, this is one of the sweetest promises of all: \"_Come unto Me, all\nye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my\nyoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and\nye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and My burden\nis light_.\"\n\nThere are a good many people who think the promises are not going to\nbe fulfilled. There are some that you do see fulfilled, and you cannot\nhelp but believe they are true. Now remember that all the promises are\nnot given without conditions. Some are given with, and others without,\nconditions attached to them. For instance, it says, \"If I regard\niniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.\" Now, I need not pray\nas long as I am cherishing some known sin. He will not hear me, much\nless answer me. The Lord says in the eighty fourth Psalm, \"No good\nthing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.\" If I am not\nwalking uprightly I have no claims under the promise. Again, some of\nthe promises were made to certain individuals or nations. For\ninstance, God said that He would make Abraham's seed to multiply as\nthe stars of heaven: but that is not a promise for you or me. Some\npromises were made to the Jews, and do not apply to the Gentiles.\n\nThen there are promises without conditions. He promised Adam and Eve\nthat the world should have a Savior, and there was no power in earth\nor perdition that could keep Christ from coming at the appointed time.\nWhen Christ left the world, He said He would send us the Holy Ghost.\nHe had only been gone ten days when the Holy Ghost came. And so you\ncan run right through the Scriptures, and you will find that some of\nthe promises are with, and some without, conditions; and if we don't\ncomply with the conditions we cannot expect them to be fulfilled.\n\nI believe it will be the experience of every man and woman on the face\nof the earth, I believe that everyone will be obliged to testify in\nthe evening of life, that if they have complied with the condition,\nthe Lord has fulfilled His word to the letter. Joshua, the old Hebrew\nhero, was an illustration. After having tested God forty years in the\nEgyptian brick-kilns, forty years in the desert, and thirty years in\nthe Promised Land, his dying testimony was: \"Not one thing hath failed\nof all the good things which the Lord promised.\" I believe you could\nheave the ocean easier than break one of God's promises. So when we\ncome to a promise like the one we have before us now, I want you to\nbear in mind that there is no discount upon it. \"Come unto Me, all ye\nthat labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.\"\n\nPerhaps you say: \"I hope Mr. Moody is not going to preach on this old\ntext.\" Yes: I am. When I take up an album, it does not interest me if\nall the photographs are new; but if I know any of the faces. I stop at\nonce. So with these old, well-known texts. They have quenched our\nthirst before, but the water is still bubbling up--we cannot drink it\ndry.\n\nIf you probe the human heart, you will find a want, and that want is\nrest. The cry of the world to day is, \"Where can rest be found?\" Why\nare theaters and places of amusement crowded at night? What is the\nsecret of Sunday driving, of the saloons and brothels? Some think they\nare going to get it in pleasure, others think they are going to get it\nin wealth, and others in literature. They are seeking and finding no\nrest.\n\nWhere Can Rest be Found?\n\nIf I wanted to find a person who had rest I would not go among the\nvery wealthy. The man that we read of in the twelfth chapter of Luke,\nthought he was going to get rest by multiplying his goods, but he was\ndisappointed. \"Soul, take thine ease.\" I venture to say that there is\nnot a person in this wide world who has tried to find rest in that way\nand found it.\n\nMoney cannot buy it. Many a millionaire would gladly give millions if\nhe could purchase it as he does his stocks and shares. God has made\nthe soul a little too large for this world. Roll the whole world in,\nand still there is room. There is care in getting wealth, and more\ncare in keeping it.\n\nNor would I go among the pleasure seekers. They have a few hours'\nenjoyment, but the next day there is enough sorrow to counterbalance\nit. They may drink the cup of pleasure to-day, but the cup of pain\ncomes on to-morrow.\n\nTo find rest I would never go among the politicians, or among the\nso-called great. Congress is the last place on earth that I would go.\nIn the Lower House they want to go to the Senate; in the Senate they\nwant to go to the Cabinet; and then they want to go to the White\nHouse; and rest has never been found there. Nor would I go among the\nhalls of learning. \"Much study is a weariness to the flesh.\" I would\nnot go among the upper ten, the \"bon-ton,\" for they are constantly\nchasing after fashion. Have you not noticed their troubled faces on\nour streets? And the face is index to the soul. They have no hopeful\nlook. Their worship of pleasure is slavery. Solomon tried pleasure,\nand found bitter disappointment, and down the ages has come the bitter\ncry, \"All is vanity.\"\n\nNow, there is no rest in sin. The wicked know nothing about it. The\nScriptures tell us the wicked \"are like the troubled sea that cannot\nrest.\" You have, perhaps been on the sea when there is a calm, when\nthe water is as clear as crystal, and it seemed as if the sea were at\nrest. But if you looked you would see that the waves came in, and that\nthe calm was only on the surface. Man, like the sea, has no rest. He\nhas had no rest since Adam fell, and there is none for him until he\nreturns to God again, and the light of Christ shines into his heart.\n\nRest cannot be found in the world, and thank God the world cannot take\nit from the believing heart! Sin is the cause of all this unrest. It\nbrought toil and labor and misery into the world.\n\nNow for something positive. I would go successfully to someone who has\nheard the sweet voice of Jesus, and has laid his burden down at the\ncross. There is rest, sweet rest. Thousands could certify to this\nblessed fact. They could say, and truthfully:\n\n   I heard the voice of Jesus say,\n      \"Come unto me and rest.\n   Lay down, thou weary one, lay down,\n      Thy head upon my breast.\"\n   I came to Jesus as I was,\n      Weary and worn and sad.\n   I found in Him a resting-place,\n      And He hath made me glad.\n\nAmong all his writings St. Augustine has nothing sweeter than this:\n\"Thou hast made us for Thyself, O God, and our heart is restless till\nit rests in Thee.\"\n\nDo you know that for four thousand years no prophet or priest or\npatriarch ever stood up and uttered a text like this? It would be\nblasphemy for Moses to have uttered a text like it. Do you think he\nhad rest when he was teasing the Lord to let him go into the Promised\nLand? Do you think Elijah could have uttered such a text as this,\nwhen, under the juniper-tree, he prayed that he might die? And this is\none of the strongest proofs that Jesus Christ was not only man, but\nGod. He was God-Man, and this is Heaven's proclamation, \"Come unto Me,\nand I will give you rest\". He brought it down from heaven with Him.\n\nNow, if this text was not true, don't you think it would have been\nfound out by this time? I believe it as much as I believe in my\nexistence. Why? Because I not only find it in the Book, but in my own\nexperience. The \"I wills\" of Christ have never been broken, and never\ncan be.\n\nI thank God for the word \"give\" in that passage. He doesn't sell it.\nSome of us are so poor that we could not buy it if it was for sale.\nThank God, we can get it for nothing.\n\nI like to have a text like this, because it takes us all in. \"Come\nunto me all ye that labor.\" That doesn't mean a select few--refined\nladies and cultured men. It doesn't mean good people only. It applies\nto saint and sinner. Hospitals are for the sick, not for healthy\npeople. Do you think that Christ would shut the door in anyone's face,\nand say, \"I did not mean _all_; I only meant certain ones\"? If you\ncannot come as a saint, come as a sinner. Only come!\n\nA lady told me once that she was so hard-hearted she couldn't come.\n\n\"Well,\" I said, \"my good woman, it doesn't say all ye soft-hearted\npeople come. Black hearts, vile hearts, hard hearts, soft hearts, all\nhearts come. Who can soften your hard heart but Himself?\"\n\nThe harder the heart, the more need you have to come. If my watch\nstops I don't take it to a drug store or to a blacksmith's shop, but\nto the watchmaker's, to have it repaired. So if the heart gets out of\norder take it to its keeper, Christ, to have it set right. If you can\nprove that you are a sinner, you are entitled to the promise. Get all\nthe benefit you can out of it.\n\nNow, there are a good many believers who think this text applies only\nto sinners; It is just the thing for them too. What do we see to-day?\nThe Church, Christian people, all loaded down with cares and troubles.\n\"Come unto me all ye that labor.\" All! I believe that includes the\nChristian whose heart is burdened with some great sorrow. The Lord\nwants you to come.\n\nChrist the Burden-Bearer.\n\nIt says in another place, \"Casting all your care upon Him, for He\ncareth for you.\" We would have a victorious Church if we could get\nChristian people to realize that. But they have never made the\ndiscovery. They agree that Christ is the sin-bearer, but they do not\nrealize that He is also the burden-bearer. \"Surely He hath borne our\ngriefs and carried our sorrows.\" It is the privilege of every child of\nGod to walk in unclouded sunlight.\n\nSome people go back into the past and rake up all the troubles they\never had, and then they look into the future and anticipate that they\nwill have still more trouble, and they go reeling and staggering all\nthrough life. They give you the cold chills every time they meet you.\nThey put on a whining voice, and tell you what \"a hard time they have\nhad.\" I believe they embalm them, and bring out the mummy on every\nopportunity. The Lord says, \"Cast all your care on Me. I want to carry\nyour burdens and your troubles.\" What we want is a joyful Church, and\nwe are not going to convert the world until we have it. We want to get\nthis long-faced Christianity off the face of the earth.\n\nTake these people that have some great burden, and let them come into\na meeting. If you can get their attention upon the singing or\npreaching, they will say, \"Oh, wasn't it grand! I forgot all my\ncares.\" And they just drop their bundle at the end of the pew. But the\nmoment the benediction is pronounced they grab the bundle again. You\nlaugh, but you do it yourself. Cast your care on Him.\n\nSometimes they go into their closet and close their door, and they get\nso carried away and lifted up that they forget their trouble; but they\njust take it up again the moment they get off their knees. Leave your\nsorrow now; cast all your care upon Him. If you cannot come to Christ\nas a saint, come as a sinner. But if you are a saint with some trouble\nor care, bring it to Him. Saint and sinner, come! He wants you all.\nDon't let Satan deceive you into believing that you cannot come if you\nwill. Christ says, \"Ye will not come unto Me.\" With the command comes\nthe power.\n\nA man in one of our meetings in Europe said he would like to come, but\nhe was chained, and couldn't come.\n\nA Scotchman said to him, \"Ay, man, why don't you come chain and all?\"\n\nHe said, \"I never thought of that.\"\n\nAre you cross and peevish, and do you make things unpleasant at home?\nMy friend, come to Christ and ask Him to help you. Whatever the sin\nis, bring it to Him.\n\nWhat Does it Mean to Come?\n\nPerhaps you say, \"Mr. Moody, I wish you would tell us what it is to\ncome.\" I have given up trying to explain it. I always feel like the\ncolored minister who said he was going to _confound_, instead of\n_expound_, the chapter.\n\nThe best definition is just--come. The more you try to explain it, the\nmore you are mystified. About the first thing a mother teaches her\nchild is to look. She takes the baby to the window, and says, \"Look,\nbaby, papa is coming!\" Then she teaches the child to come. She props\nit up against a chair, and says, \"Come!\" and by and by the little\nthing pushes the chair along towards mamma. That's coming. You don't\nneed to go to college to learn how. You don't need any minister to\ntell you what it is. Now will you come to Christ? He said, \"Him that\ncometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.\"\n\nWhen we have such a promise as this, let us cling to it, and never\ngive it up. Christ is not mocking us. He wants us to come with all our\nsins and backslidings, and throw ourselves upon His bosom. It is our\nsins God wants, not our tears only. They alone do no good. And we\ncannot come through resolutions. Action is necessary. How many times\nat church have we said, \"I will turn over a new leaf,\" but the Monday\nleaf is worse than the Saturday leaf.\n\nThe way to heaven is straight as a rule, but it is the way of the\ncross. Don't try to get around it. Shall I tell you what the \"yoke\"\nreferred to in the text is? It is the cross which Christians must\nbear. The only way by which you can find rest in this dark world is by\ntaking up the yoke of Christ. I do not know what it may include in\nyour case, beyond taking up your Christian duties, acknowledging\nChrist and acting as becomes one of His disciples. Perhaps it may be\nto erect a gamily altar; or to tell a godless husband that you have\nmade up your mind to serve God; or to tell your parents that you want\nto be a Christian. Follow the will of God, and happiness and peace and\nrest will come. The way of obedience is always the way of blessing.\n\nI was preaching in Chicago to a hall full of women one Sunday\nafternoon, and after the meeting was over a lady came to me and said\nshe wanted to talk to me. She said she would accept Christ, and after\nsome conversation she went home. I looked for her for a whole week,\nbut didn't see her until the following Sunday afternoon. She came and\nsat down right in front of me, and her face had such a sad expression.\nShe seemed to have entered into the misery, instead of the joy, of the\nLord.\n\nAfter the meeting was over I went to her and asked her what the\ntrouble was.\n\nShe said: \"Oh, Mr. Moody, this has been the most miserable week of my\nlife.\"\n\nI asked her if there was anyone with whom she had had trouble and whom\nshe could not forgive.\n\nShe said: \"No, not that I know of.\"\n\n\"Well, did you tell your friends about having found the Savior?\"\n\n\"Indeed I didn't, I have been all the week trying to keep it from\nthem.\"\n\n\"Well,\" I said, \"that is the reason why you have no peace.\"\n\nShe wanted to take the crown, but did not want the cross. My friends,\nyou must go by the way of Calvary. If you ever get rest, you must get\nit at the foot of the cross.\n\n\"Why,\" she said, \"if I should go home and tell my infidel husband that\nI had found Christ I don't know what he would do. I think he would\nturn me out.\"\n\n\"Well,\" I said, \"go out.\"\n\nShe went away, promising that she would tell him, timid and pale, but\nshe did not want another wretched week. She was bound to have peace.\n\nThe next night I gave a lecture to men only, and in the hall there\nwere eight thousand men and one solitary woman. When I got through and\nwent into the inquiry meeting, I found this lady with her husband. She\nintroduced him to me (he was a doctor, and a very influential man) and\nsaid:\n\n\"He wants to become a Christian.\"\n\nI took my Bible and told him all about Christ, and he accepted Him. I\nsaid to her after it was all over:\n\n\"It turned out quite differently from what you expected, didn't it?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" she replied, \"I was never so scared in my life. I expected he\nwould do something dreadful, but it has turned out so well.\"\n\nShe took God's way, and got rest.\n\nI want to say to young ladies, perhaps you have a godless father or\nmother, a sceptical brother, who is going down through drink, and\nperhaps there is no one who can reach them but you. How many times a\ngodly, pure young lady has taken the light into some darkened home!\nMany a home might be lit up with the Gospel if the mothers and\ndaughters would only speak the word.\n\nThe last time Mr. Sankey and myself were in Edinburgh, there were a\nfather, two sisters and a brother, who used every morning to take the\nmorning paper and pick my sermon to pieces. They were indignant to\nthink that the Edinburgh people should be carried away with such\npreaching. One day one of the sisters was going by the hall, and she\nthought she would drop in and see what class of people went there. She\nhappened to take a seat by a godly lady, who said to her:\n\n\"I hope you are interested in this work.\"\n\nShe tossed her head and said: \"Indeed I am not. I am disgusted with\neverything I have seen and heard.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said the lady, \"perhaps you came prejudiced.\"\n\n\"Yes, and the meeting has not removed any of it, but has rather\nincreased it.\"\n\n\"I have received a great deal of good from them.\"\n\n\"There is nothing here for me. I don't see how an intellectual person\ncan be interested.\"\n\nTo make a long story short, she got the lady to promise to come back.\nWhen the meeting broke up, just a little of the prejudice had worn\naway. She promised to come back again the next day, and then she\nattended three or four more meetings, and became quite interested. She\nsaid nothing to her family, until finally the burden became too heavy,\nand she told them. They laughed at her, and made her the butt of their\nridicule.\n\nOne day the two sisters were together, and the other said: \"Now what\nhave you got at those meetings that you didn't have in the first\nplace?\"\n\n\"I have a peace that I never knew of before. I am at peace with God,\nmyself and all the world.\" Did you ever have a little war of your own\nwith your neighbors, in your own family? And she said: \"I have\nself-control. You know, sister, if you had said half the mean things\nbefore I was converted that you have said since, I would have been\nangry and answered back, but if you remember correctly, I haven't\nanswered once since I have been converted.\"\n\nThe sister said: \"You certainly have something that I have not.\" The\nother told her it was for her too, and she brought the sister to the\nmeetings, where she found peace.\n\nLike Martha and Mary, they had a brother, but he was a member of the\nUniversity of Edinburgh. He be converted? He go to these meetings? It\nmight do for women, but not for him. One night they came home and told\nhim that a chum of his own, a member of the University, had stood up\nand confessed Christ, and when he sat down his brother got up and\nconfessed; and so with the third one.\n\nWhen the young man heard it, he said: \"Do you mean to tell me that he\nhas been converted?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Well,\" he said, \"there must be something in it.\"\n\nHe put on his hat, and coat, and went to see his friend Black. Black\ngot him down to the meetings, and he was converted.\n\nWe went through to Glasgow, and had not been there six weeks when news\ncame that that young man had been stricken down and died. When he was\ndying he called his father to his bedside and said:\n\n\"Wasn't it a good thing that my sisters went to those meetings? Won't\nyou meet me in heaven, father?\"\n\n\"Yes, my son, I am so glad you are a Christian; that is the only\ncomfort that I have in losing you. I will become a Christian, and will\nmeet you again.\"\n\nI tell this to encourage some sister to go home and carry the message\nof salvation. It may be that your brother may be taken away in a few\nmonths. My dear friends, are we not living in solemn days? Isn't it\ntime for us to get our friends into the Kingdom of God? Come, wife,\nwon't you tell your husband? Come, sister, won't you tell your\nbrother? Won't you take up your cross now? The blessing of God will\nrest on your soul if you will.\n\nI was in Wales once, and a lady told me this little story: An English\nfriend of hers, a mother, had a child that was sick. At first they\nconsidered there was no danger, until one day the doctor came in and\nsaid that the symptoms were very unfavorable. He took the mother out\nof the room, and told her that the child could not live. It came like\na thunderbolt. After the doctor had gone the mother went into the room\nwhere the child lay and began to talk to the child and tried to divert\nits mind.\n\n\"Darling, do you know you will soon hear the music of heaven? You will\nhear a sweeter song than you have ever heard on earth. You will hear\nthem sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. You are very fond of music.\nWon't it be sweet, darling?\"\n\nAnd the little tired, sick child turned its head away, and said, \"Oh\nmamma, I am so tired and so sick that I think it would make me worse\nto hear all that music.\"\n\n\"Well,\" the mother said, \"you will soon see Jesus, You will see the\nseraphim and cherubim and the streets all paved with gold\"; and she\nwent on picturing heaven as it is described in Revelation.\n\nThe little tired child again turned its head away, and said, \"Oh\nmamma, I am so tired that I think it would make me worse to see all\nthose beautiful things!\"\n\nAt last the mother took the child up in her arms, and pressed her to\nher loving heart. And the little sick one whispered:\n\n\"Oh mamma, that is what I want. If Jesus will only take me in His arms\nand let me rest!\"\n\nDear friend, are you not tired and weary of sin? Are you not weary of\nthe turmoil of life? You can end rest on the bosom of the Son of God.\n\n\n\nSEVEN \"I WILLS\" OF CHRIST.\n\nA man when he says \"I will,\" may not mean much. We very often say \"I\nwill,\" when we don't mean to fulfil what we say; but when we come to\nthe \"I will\" of Christ, He means to fulfil it. Everything He has\npromised to do, He is able and willing to accomplish; and He is going\nto do it. I cannot find any passage in Scripture in which He says \"I\nwill\" do this, or \"I will\" do that, but it will be done.\n\n1. The \"I Will\" of Salvation.\n\nThe first \"I will\" to which I want to direct your attention, is to be\nfound in John's gospel, sixth chapter and thirty-seventh verse: \"_Him\nthat cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out._\"\n\nI imagine someone will say, \"Well, if I was what I ought to be, I\nwould come; but when my mind goes over the past record of my life, it\nis too dark. I am not fit to come.\"\n\nYou must bear in mind that Jesus Christ came to save not good people,\nnot the upright and just, but sinners like you and me, who have gone\nastray, and sinned and come short of the glory of God. Listen to this\n\"I will\"--it goes right into the heart--\"Him that cometh unto Me, I\nwill in no wise cast out.\" Surely that is broad enough--is it not? I\ndon't care who the man or woman is; I don't care what their trials,\nwhat their troubles, what their sorrows, or what their sins are, if\nthey will only come straight to the Master, He will not cast them out.\nCome then, poor sinner; come just as you are, and take Him at His\nword.\n\nHe is so anxious to save sinners, He will take everyone who comes. He\nwill take those who are so full of sin that they are despised by all\nwho know them, who have been rejected by their fathers and mothers,\nwho have been cast off by the wives of their bosoms. He will take\nthose who have sunk so low that upon them no eye of pity is cast. His\noccupation is to hear and save. That is what He left heaven and came\ninto the world for; that is what He left the throne of God for--to\nsave sinners. \"The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which\nwas lost.\" He did not come to condemn the world but that the world\nthrough Him might be saved.\n\nA wild and prodigal young man, who was running a headlong career to\nruin came into one of our meetings in Chicago. The Spirit of God got\nhold of him. Whilst I was conversing with him, and endeavoring to\nbring him to Christ, I quoted this verse to him.\n\nI asked him: \"Do you believe Christ said that?\"\n\n\"I suppose He did.\"\n\n\"Suppose He did! do you believe it?\"\n\n\"I hope so.\"\n\n\"Hope so! do you believe it? You do your work, and the Lord will do\nHis. Just come as you are, and throw yourself upon His bosom, and He\nwill not cast you out.\"\n\nThis man thought it was too simple and easy.\n\nAt last light seemed to break in upon him, and he seemed to find\ncomfort from it. It was past midnight before he got down on his knees,\nbut down he went, and was converted. I said:\n\n\"Now, don't think you are going to get out of the devil's territory\nwithout trouble. The devil will come to you to-morrow morning, and say\nit was all feeling; that you only imagined you were accepted by God.\nWhen he does, don't fight him with your own opinions, but fight him\nwith John 6:37: 'Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.'\nLet that be the 'sword of the Spirit.'\"\n\nI don't believe that any man ever starts to go to Christ, but the\ndevil strives somehow or other to meet him and trip him up. And even\nafter he has come to Christ, the devil tries to assail him with\ndoubts, and make him believe there is something wrong in it.\n\nThe struggle came sooner than I thought in this man's case. When he\nwas on his way home the devil assailed him. He used this text, but the\ndevil put this thought into his mind: \"How do you know Christ ever\nsaid that after all? Perhaps the translators made a mistake.\"\n\nInto darkness he went again. He was in trouble till about two in the\nmorning. At last he came to this conclusion. Said he:\n\n\"I will believe it anyway; and when I get to heaven, if it isn't true,\nI will just tell the Lord _I_ didn't make the mistake--the translators\nmade it.\"\n\nThe kings and princes of this world, when they issue invitations, call\nround them the rich, the mighty and powerful, the honorable and the\nwise; but the Lord, when He was on earth; called round Him the vilest\nof the vile. That was the principal fault the people found with Him.\nThose self-righteous Pharisees were not going to associate with\nharlots and publicans. The principal charge against Him was: \"This man\nreceiveth sinners and eateth with them.\" Who would have such a man\naround him as John Bunyan in his time? He, a Bedford tinker, couldn't\nget inside one of the princely castles. I was very much amused when I\nwas over on the other side. They had erected a monument to John\nBunyan, and it was unveiled by lords and dukes and great men. While he\nwas on earth, they would not have allowed him inside the walls of\ntheir castles. Yet he was made one of the mightiest instruments in the\nspread of the Gospel. No book that has ever been written comes so near\nthe Bible as John Bunyan's \"Pilgrim's Progress.\" And he was a poor\nBedford tinker. So it is with God. He picks up some poor, lost tramp,\nand makes him an instrument to turn hundreds and thousands to Christ.\n\nGeorge Whitefield, standing in his tabernacle in London, and with a\nmultitude gathered about him, cried out: \"The Lord Jesus will save the\ndevil's castaways!\"\n\nTwo poor abandoned wretches standing outside in the street, heard him,\nas his silvery voice rang out on the air. Looking into each other's\nfaces, they said: \"That must mean you and me.\" They wept and rejoiced.\nThey drew near and looked in at the door, at the face of the earnest\nmessenger, the tears streaming from his eyes as he plead with the\npeople to give their hearts to God. One of them wrote him a little\nnote and sent it to him.\n\nLater that day, as he sat at the table of Lady Huntington, who was his\nspecial friend, someone present said:\n\n\"Mr. Whitefield, did you not go a little too far to-day when you said\nthat the Lord would save the devil's castaways?\"\n\nTaking the note from his pocket he gave it to the lady, and said:\n\"Will you read that note aloud?\"\n\nShe read: \"Mr. Whitefield: Two poor lost women stood outside your\ntabernacle to-day, and heard you say that the Lord would save the\ndevil's castaways. We seized upon that as our last hope, and we write\nyou this to tell you that we rejoice now in believing in Him, and from\nthis good hour we shall endeavor to serve Him, who has done so much\nfor us.\"\n\n2. The \"I Will\" of Cleansing.\n\nThe next \"I will\" is found in Luke, fifth chapter. We read of a leper\nwho came to Christ, and said: \"Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me\nclean.\" The Lord touched him, saying, \"_I will: be thou clean_\"; and\nimmediately the leprosy left him.\n\nNow if any man or woman full of the leprosy of sin read this, if you\nwill but go to the Master and tell all your case to Him, He will speak\nto you as He did to that poor leper and say. \"I will: be thou clean,\"\nand the leprosy of your sins will flee away from you. It is the Lord,\nand the Lord alone, who can forgive sins. If you say to Him, \"Lord, I\nam full of sin; Thou canst make me clean\"; \"Lord, I have a terrible\ntemper; Thou canst make me clean\"; \"Lord, I have a deceitful heart.\nCleanse me, O Lord; give me a new heart. O Lord, give me the power to\novercome the flesh, and the snares of the devil!\"; \"Lord, I am full of\nunclean habits\"; if you come to Him with a sincere spirit, you will\nhear the voice, \"I will; be thou clean.\" It will be done. Do you think\nthat the God who created the world out of nothing, who by a breath put\nlife into the world--do you think that if He says, \"Thou shalt be\nclean,\" you will not?\n\nNow, you can make a wonderful exchange to-day. You can have health in\nthe place of sickness; you can get rid of everything that is vile and\nhateful in the sight of God. The Son of God comes down, and says, \"I\nwill take away your leprosy, and give you health in its stead. I will\ntake away that terrible disease that is ruining your body and soul,\nand give you my righteousness in its stead. I will clothe you with the\ngarments of salvation.\"\n\nIs it not wonderful? That's what He means when He says--_I will_. Oh,\nlay hold of this \"I will!\"\n\n3. The \"I Will\" of Confession.\n\nNow turn to Matthew, tenth chapter, thirty-second verse: \"_Whosoever\ntherefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before\nmy Father which is in heaven_.\" There's the \"I will\" of confession.\n\nNow, that's the next thing that takes place after a man is saved. When\nwe have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, the next thing is to get\nour mouths opened. We have to confess Christ here in this dark world,\nand tell His love to others. We are not to be ashamed of the Son of\nGod.\n\nA man thinks it a great honor when he has achieved a victory that\ncauses his name to be mentioned in the English Parliament, or in the\npresence of the Queen and her court. How excited we used to be during\nthe war, when some general did something extraordinary, and someone\ngot up in Congress to confess his exploits; how the papers used to\ntalk about it! In China, we read, the highest ambition of the\nsuccessful soldier is to have his name written in the palace or temple\nof Confucius. But just think of having your name mentioned in the\nkingdom of heaven by the Prince of Glory, by the Son of God, because\nyou confess Him here on earth! You confess Him here; He will confess\nyou yonder.\n\nIf you wish to be brought into the clear light of liberty, you must\ntake your stand on Christ's side. I have known many Christians go\ngroping about in darkness, and never get into the clear light of the\nkingdom, because they were ashamed to confess the Son of God. We are\nliving in a day when men want a religion without the cross. They want\nthe crown, but not the cross. But if we are to be disciples of Jesus\nChrist, we have to take up our crosses _daily_--not once a year, or on\nthe Sabbath, but daily. And if we take up our crosses and follow Him,\nwe shall be blessed in the very act.\n\nI remember a man in New York who used to come and pray with me. He had\nhis cross. He was afraid to confess Christ. It seemed that down at the\nbottom of his trunk he had a Bible. He wanted to get it out and read\nit to the companion with whom he lived, but he was ashamed to do it.\nFor a whole week that was his cross; and after he had carried the\nburden that long, and after a terrible struggle, he made up his mind.\nHe said, \"I will take my Bible out tonight and read it.\" He took it\nout, and soon he heard the footsteps of his mate coming upstairs.\n\nHis first impulse was to put it away again, but then he thought he\nwould not--he would face his companion with it. His mate came in, and\nseeing him at his Bible, said,\n\n\"John, are you interested in these things?\" \"Yes,\" he replied.\n\n\"How long has this been, then?\" asked his companion.\n\n\"Exactly a week,\" he answered; \"for a whole week I have tried to get\nout my Bible to read to you, but I have never done so till now.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said his friend, \"it is a strange thing. _I was converted on\nthe some night_, and I too was ashamed to take my Bible out.\"\n\nYou are ashamed to take your Bible out and say, \"I have lived a\ngodless life for all these years, but I will commence now to live a\nlife of righteousness.\" You are ashamed to open your Bible and read\nthat blessed Psalm, \"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.\" You\nare ashamed to be seen on your knees. No man can be a disciple of\nJesus Christ without bearing His cross. A great many people want to\nknow how it is Jesus Christ has so few disciples, whilst Mahomet has\nso many. The reason is that Mahomet gives no cross to bear. There are\nso few men who will come out to take their stand.\n\nI was struck during the American war with the fact that there were so\nmany men who could go to the cannon's mouth without trembling, but who\nhad not courage to take up their Bibles to read them at night. They\nwere ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God\nunto salvation. \"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him\nwill I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever\nshall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which\nis in heaven.\"\n\n4. The \"I Will\" of Service.\n\nThe next _I will_ is the \"I will\" of service.\n\nThere are a good many Christians who have been quickened and aroused\nto say, \"I want to do some service for Christ.\"\n\nWell, Christ says, \"_Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men_.\"\n\nThere is no Christian who cannot help to bring someone to the Savior.\nChrist says, \"And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me\";\nand our business is just to lift up Christ.\n\nOur Lord said, \"Follow Me, Peter, and I will make you a fisher of\nmen\"; and Peter simply obeyed Him, and there, on that day of\nPentecost, we see the result. Peter had a good haul on the day of\nPentecost. I doubt if he ever caught so many fish in one day as he did\nmen on that day. It would have broken every net they had on board, if\nthey had had to drag up three thousand fishes.\n\nI read some time ago of a man who took passage in a stage coach. There\nwere first, second and third-class passengers. But when he looked into\nthe coach, he saw all the passengers sitting together without\ndistinction. He could not understand it till by-and-by they came to a\nhill, and the coach stopped, and the driver called out, \"First-class\npassengers keep their seats, second-class passengers get out and walk,\nthird class passengers get behind and push.\" Now in the Church we have\nno room for first-class passengers--people who think that salvation\nmeans an easy ride all the way to heaven. We have no room for second\nclass passengers--people who are carried most of the time, and who,\nwhen they must work out their own salvation, go trudging on giving\nnever a thought to helping their fellows along. All church members\nought to be third class passengers--ready to dismount and push all\ntogether, and push with a will. That was John Wesley's definition of a\nchurch--\"All at it, and always at it.\" Every Christian ought to be a\nworker. He need not be a preacher, he need not be an evangelist, to be\nuseful. He may be useful in business. See what power an employer has,\nif he likes! How he could labor with his employees, and in his\nbusiness relations! Often a man can be far more useful in a business\nsphere than he could in another.\n\nThere is one reason, and a great reason, why so many do not succeed. I\nhave been asked by a great many good men, \"Why is it we don't have any\nresults? We work hard, pray hard, and preach hard, and yet the success\ndoes not come.\" I will tell you. It is because they spend all their\ntime mending their nets. No wonder they never catch anything.\n\nThe great matter is to hold inquiry meetings, and thus pull the net\nin, and see if you have caught anything. If you are always mending and\nsetting the net, you won't catch many fish. Whoever heard of a man\ngoing out to fish, and setting his net, and then letting it stop\nthere, and never pulling it in? Everybody would laugh at the man's\nfolly.\n\nA minister in England came to me one day, and said, \"I wish you would\ntell me why we ministers don't succeed better than we do.\"\n\nI brought before him this idea of pulling in the net, and I said, \"You\nought to pull in your nets. There are many ministers in Manchester who\ncan preach much better than I can, but I pull in the net.\"\n\nMany people have objections to inquiry meetings, but I urged upon him\nthe importance of them, and the minister said,\n\n\"I never did pull in my net, but I will try next Sunday.\"\n\nHe did so, and eight persons, anxious inquirers, went into his study.\nThe next Sunday he came down to see me, and said he had never had such\na Sunday in his life. He had met with marvelous blessing. The next\ntime he drew the net there were forty, and when he came to see me\nlater, he said to me joyfully,\n\n\"Moody, I have had eight hundred conversions this last year! It is a\ngreat mistake I did not begin earlier to pull in the net.\"\n\nSo, my friends, if you want to catch men, just pull in the net. If you\nonly catch one, it will be something. It may be a little child, but I\nhave known a little child to convert a whole family. You don't know\nwhat is in that little dull-headed boy in the inquiry-room; he may\nbecome a Martin Luther, a reformer that shall make the world\ntremble--you cannot tell. God uses the weak things of this world to\nconfound the mighty. God's promise is as good as a bank note--\"I\npromise to pay So-and-So,\" and here is one of Christ's promissory\nnotes--\"If you follow Me, I will make you fishers of men.\" Will you\nnot lay hold of the promise, and trust it, and follow Him now?\n\nIf a man preaches the Gospel, and preaches it faithfully, he ought to\nexpect results then and there. I believe it is the privilege of God's\nchildren to reap the fruit of their labor three hundred and sixty five\ndays in the year.\n\n\"Well, but,\" say some, \"is there not a sowing time as well as\nharvest?\"\n\nYes, it is true, there is; but then, you can sow with one hand, and\nreap with the other. What would you think of a farmer who went on\nsowing all the year round, and never thought of reaping? I repeat it,\nwe want to sow with one hand, and reap with the other; and if we look\nfor the fruit of our labors, we shall see it. \"I, if I be lifted up,\nwill draw all men unto Me.\" We must lift Christ up, and then seek men\nout, and bring them to Him.\n\nYou must use the right kind of bait. A good many don't do this, and\nthen they wonder they are not successful. You see them getting up all\nkinds of entertainments with which to try and catch men. They go the\nwrong way to work. This perishing world wants Christ, and Him\ncrucified. There's a void in every man's bosom that wants filling up,\nand if we only approach him with the right kind of bait, we shall\ncatch him. This poor world needs a Savior; and if we are going to be\nsuccessful in catching men, we must preach Christ crucified--not His\nlife only but His death. And if we are only faithful in doing this, we\nshall succeed. And why? Because there is His promise: \"If you follow\nMe, I will make you fishers of men.\" That promise holds just as good\nto you and me as it did to His disciples, and is as true now as it was\nin their time.\n\nThink of Paul up yonder. People are going up every day and every hour,\nmen and women who have been brought to Christ through his writings. He\nset streams in motion that have flowed on for more than a thousand\nyears. I can imagine men going up there, and saying, \"Paul, I thank\nyou for writing that letter to the Ephesians; I found Christ in that.\"\n\"Paul, I thank you for writing that epistle to the Corinthians.\"\n\"Paul, I found Christ in that epistle to the Philippians.\" \"I thank\nyou, Paul, for that epistle to the Galatians; I found Christ in that.\"\nAnd so, I suppose, they are going up still, thanking Paul all the\nwhile for what he had done. Ah, when Paul was put in prison he did not\nfold his hands and sit down in idleness! No, he began to write; and\nhis epistles have come down through the long ages of time, and brought\nthousands on thousands to a knowledge of Christ crucified. Yes, Christ\nsaid to Paul, \"I will make you a fisher of men if you will follow Me,\"\nand he has been fishing for souls ever since. The devil thought he had\ndone a very wise thing when he got Paul into prison, but he was very\nmuch mistaken; he overdid it for once. I have no doubt Paul has\nthanked God ever since for that Philippian gaol, and his stripes and\nimprisonment there. I am sure the world has made more by it than we\nshall ever know till we get to heaven.\n\n5. The \"I Will\" of Comfort.\n\nThe next \"I will\" is in John, fourteenth chapter, verse eighteen: \"_I\nwill not leave you comfortless_.\"\n\nTo me it is a sweet thought that Christ has not left us alone in this\ndark wilderness here below. Although He has gone up on high, and taken\nHis seat by the Father's throne, He has not left us comfortless. The\nbetter translation is, \"I will not leave you _orphans_.\" He did not\nleave Joseph when they cast him into prison. \"God was with him.\" When\nDaniel was cast into the den of lions, they had to put the Almighty in\nwith him. They were so bound together that they could not be\nseparated, and so God went down into the den of lions with Daniel.\n\nIf we have got Christ with us, we can do all things. Do not let us be\nthinking how weak we are. Let us lift up our eyes to Him, and think of\nHim as our Elder Brother, who has all power given to Him in heaven and\non earth. He says: \"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the\nworld.\" Some of our children and friends leave us, and it is a very\nsad hour. But, thank God, the believer and Christ shall never be\nseparated! He is with us here, and we shall be with Him in person by\nand by, and shall see Him in His beauty. But not only is He with us,\nbut He has sent us the Holy Ghost. Let us honor the Holy Ghost by\nacknowledging that He is here in our midst. He has power to give sight\nto the blind, liberty to the captive, and to open the ears of the deaf\nthat they may hear the glorious words of the Gospel.\n\n6. The \"I Will\" of Resurrection.\n\nThen there is another _I will_ in John, sixth chapter, verse forty; it\noccurs four times in the chapter: \"_I will raise him up at the last\nday_.\"\n\nI rejoice to think that I have a Savior who has power over death. My\nblessed Master holds the keys him, and I got more comfort out of that\npromise \"I will raise him up at the last day,\" than anything else in\nthe Bible. How it cheered me! How it lighted up my path! And as I went\ninto the room and looked upon the lovely face of that brother, how\nthat passage ran through my soul: \"Thy brother shall rise again.\" I\nsaid, \"Thank God for that promise.\" It was worth more than the world\nto me.\n\nWhen we laid him in the grave, it seemed as if I could hear the voice\nof Jesus Christ saying, \"Thy brother shall rise again.\" Blessed\npromise of the resurrection! Blessed \"I will!\" \"I will raise him up at\nthe last day.\"\n\n7. The \"I Will\" of Glory.\n\nNow the next _I will_ is in John, seventeenth chapter, twenty-fourth\nverse: \"_Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be\nwith Me where I am_.\"\n\nThis was in His last prayer in the guest-chamber, on the last night\nbefore He was crucified and died that terrible death on Calvary. Many\na believer's countenance begins to light up at the thought that he\nshall see the King in His beauty by and by. Yes; there is a glorious\nday before us in the future. Some think that on the first day we are\nconverted we have got everything. To be sure, we get salvation for the\npast and peace for the present; but then there is the glory for the\nfuture in store. That's what kept Paul rejoicing. He said, \"These\nlight afflictions, these few stripes, these few brickbats and stones\nthat they throw at me--why, the glory that is beyond excels them so\nmuch that I count them as nothing, nothing at all, so that I may win\nChrist.\" And so, when things go against us, let us cheer up; let us\nremember that the night will soon pass away, and the morning dawn upon\nus. Death never comes there. It is banished from that heavenly land.\nSickness, and pain, and sorrow, come not there to mar that grand and\nglorious home where we shall be by and by with the Master. God's\nfamily will be all together there. Glorious future, my friends! Yes,\nglorious day! and it may be a great deal nearer than many of us think.\nDuring these few days we are here let us stand steadfast and firm, and\nby and by we shall be in the unbroken circle in yon world of light,\nand have the King in our midst.\n\n\n\nTHE RED LIBRARY\n\n16MO, CLOTH, EACH NET. 30 CTS.\n\nWeighed and Wanting.\n\nMen of the Bible.\n\nBible Characters.\n\nSelect Sermons.\n\nMoody's Anecdotes.\n\nThe Overcoming Life.\n\nThe Way to God.\n\nThoughts for the Quiet Hour.\n\nMoody's Latest Sermons\n\nShort Talks by D. L. Moody.\n\nPleasure and Profit in Bible Study.\n\nSowing and Reaping.\n\nHeaven.\n\nMoody's Stories.\n\nTo the Work!\n\nSovereign Grace.\n\nPrevailing Prayer.\n\nSecret Power.\n\n_The above eighteen volumes are all by D. L. Moody, and are published\nas \"The Moody Library,\" in boxed set, net, $5.40_.\n\nThe True Estimate of Life.\n\n   By G. Campbell Morgan.\n\nAll of Grace.\n\n   By C. H. Spurgeon.\n\nAccording to Promise.\n\n   BY C. H. Spurgeon.\n\nJohn Ploughman's Talks.\n\n   By C. H. Spurgeon.\n\nJohn Ploughman's Pictures.\n\n   By C. H. Spurgeon.\n\nGood Tidings.\n\nRecitation Poems.\n\nThe Way of Life.\n\nTales of Adventure from the Old Book.\n\nResurrection.\n\nSelect Poems for the Silent Hour.\n\nUp from Sin.\n\nThe Revival of a Dead Church.\n\n\n\nFleming H. Revell Company\n\nCHICAGO NEW YORK TORONTO\n\nPUBLISHERS OF EVANGELICAL LITERATURE","title":"The Overcoming Life, and Other Sermons","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":35147}