{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_7786/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_7786","id":"gutenberg_7786","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7786","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","God -- Sermons","Jesus Christ -- Sermons","Sermons, English -- 20th century"],"text":"Produced by Charles Aladrondo, Tiffany Vergon, Charles\nBidwell, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE ONE GREAT REALITY\n\nBy\n\nLOUISA CLAYTON\n\nAuthor of \"Heart Lessons\", \"Loving Messages\",\n\"Winning and Warning\", \"Wilderness Lessons\", etc.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\"I AM GOD, AND THERE IS NONE ELSE\"--\nIsa. xiv. 22.\n\n\n\nTHIS BOOK IS DEDICATED\nto all my friends in Rusthall,\nin loving remembrance\nof our happy fellowship in the gospel\nduring the past thirty years,\nwith the earnest prayer\nthat the messages may be stored up\nin their hearts\nand bring forth fruit in their lives\nwhen the voice\nwhich delivered them is still.\n\n3, Somerville Gardens,\nTunbridge Wells.\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\nIn response to the request of an old and esteemed friend I gladly add a\nForeword to the collection of Addresses embodied in this volume.\n\nI do so in recognition of the supreme importance of the great topics that\nhave been chosen, and also in appreciation of the clear and attractive way\nin which the truth is set forth. May the messages find attentive and\nreceptive readers, and be followed by deep and abiding spiritual blessing.\n\nEVAN H. HOPKINS.\n\nWoburn Chase,\nAddlestone, Surrey.\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\nI    GOD, THE GREAT REALITY\n\nII   GOD, OUR FATHER\n\nIII  THE SON OF GOD\n\nIV   THE SPIRIT OF GOD\n\nV    THE VOICE OF GOD\n\nVI   THE HANDS OF GOD\n\nVII  THE WORD OF GOD\n\nVIII HAVE FAITH IN GOD\n\nIX   THE CHURCH OF GOD\n\nX    THE KINGDOM OF GOD\n\n\n\nINDEX OF CONTENTS\n\n\n    ADDRESS I\n\nGOD, THE GREAT REALITY\n\nPersonal knowledge of God, the secret of happiness--Realising His Presence\nin prayer--Illustrations from the telephone and family life--God is our\nFather, Saviour, Comforter--The Living God-knowing all, and controlling\neverything--Illustrations from current events.\n\n\n    ADDRESS II\n\nGOD, OUR FATHER\n\nA Chinese convert--Christ's confidence in the Father--Christ reveals the\nFather--Philip's prayer, \"Show us the Father\"--What God is to us as\nFather--How the minister sang the Doxology in an empty flour barrel--The\nglorious calling of the children of God.\n\n\n    ADDRESS III\n\nTHE SON OF GOD\n\nChrist is the Son of God from Eternity--He is sent to be the Saviour of\nthe world--Three questions answered: Where did He come from? When did He\ncome? Why did He come?--A working-man's experience--The story of the pearl\nnecklace--Christ's work of redemption--Sir James Simpson's dying\ntestimony--Hymn, \"He came and took me by the hand.\"\n\n\n    ADDRESS IV\n\nTHE SPIRIT OF GOD\n\nGod is a Spirit--True spiritual worship--The Spirit of God in Creation and\nSalvation--The New Birth--The work of the Holy Spirit convincing of sin,\nand revealing Christ--Searchlights--The loveliness of Christ--The Holy\nGhost like a Mother--The Comforter.\n\n\n    ADDRESS V\n\nTHE VOICE OF GOD\n\nJacob's ladder, a type of Christ--Jacob brought face to face with\nGod--What it is to hear the Voice of God--God's first call to man in the\nGarden of Eden--A perfect link of communication between God and man--The\nVoice of God speaking in His Word.\n\n\n    ADDRESS VI\n\nTHE HANDS OF GOD\n\nWhy St. John wrote his Gospel--The safety of the believer--God's hands in\nCreation, Providence and Redemption--The \"Scarred Hands\"--The story of a\nbrave shepherd lad--The Hands of Jesus wounded for our transgressions--The\nThree Crosses.\n\n\n    ADDRESS VII\n\nTHE WORD OF GOD\n\nThe Glory of God seen in Nature--The Glory of God revealed in the\nBible--The dying woman and her rich inheritance--God's Word brings wisdom,\nconversion, joy and light to the heart of man--Spurgeon's text in the\nCrystal Palace--A Chinese convert \"behaving the Bible\"--The Torch that\nwill light you home--A neglected Bible.\n\n\n    ADDRESS VIII\n\nHAVE FAITH IN GOD\n\nAbraham the Friend of God--The greatness of his faith--Faith the gate into\nLife--Faith the link between the sinner and the Saviour--A missionary's\nfaith rewarded--Illustrations from the telegraph and electricity--The\nwonders wrought by the touch of faith--Great faith brings Heaven into our\nsouls--The difference between believing and committing.\n\n\n    ADDRESS IX\n\nTHE CHURCH OF GOD\n\nThe Church of God: Past, Present, Future--Its Beginning and Growth--The\nChurch the Body of Christ, a Living Union--The Church the Bride of Christ,\na Loving Relationship--The Glory of this Union--Three Great Surprises--The\nOld Man's Message; Love, Eternal Love--The Four Precious Words--\"Labelled\nand Ready\"--The Glorious Future of the Church of God--The Church will show\nforth God's Grace and Glory in the Ages to come.\n\n\n    ADDRESS X\n\nTHE KINGDOM OF GOD\n\n\"Bringing the King back\"--One King, Jesus, His entrance into\nJerusalem--The Jews rejecting their King--His Kingdom in our hearts--Make\nJesus King--The Cross the Way to the Throne--The dying thief received into\nthe Kingdom--The King's Victory over the Powers of Darkness--The Coming\nKing--The Glory of the Lord revealed--Christ's Reign on\nEarth--Rutherford's testimony--Miss Havergal's Prayer--The Eternal Kingdom.\n\n\n\nADDRESS I\n\nGOD, THE GREAT REALITY\n\nPORTION OF SCRIPTURE--Hebrews xi. 1-6.\n\n\nGod is the one great Reality. Will you close your eyes for a moment and\nsay those words over again very slowly so as to let them burn into your\ninmost heart and soul. The Word of God tells us that \"The Son of God is\ncome and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is\ntrue\": this means that we may personally know Him that is Reality. In the\nwonder of that moment when we first know that God is real and that God is\nnear, then we cry out, \"My God, how wonderful Thou art.\" To have personal\nknowledge of God is the secret of assurance and happiness, and to put real\ntrust in Him changes our whole life, for then we can say, \"I have a\nwonderful God.\"\n\nTo know God is Eternal life; to know Him fully, brings \"life more\nabundantly\"; to know Him with no veil between, is glory--life.\n\nIf you look again at the 6th verse of the 11th chapter of Hebrews you will\nnotice a very clear statement: it says, \"He that cometh to God must\nbelieve that He is,\" or to put it in other words, \"the man who draws near\nto God must believe that there is a God.\"\n\nDo you believe in God? Is He real to you? Here is one test. When you pray\ndo you realise His Presence? Is He so close to you that it is like\nspeaking into His ear?\n\nIt was this text, \"He that cometh to God must believe that He is,\" which\nfirst awakened a worldly gentleman named Brownlow North to think about his\nsoul. God's Spirit showed him that he had never really believed in God and\nthat all his former religion was worthless, \"for without faith it is\nimpossible to please God.\" As soon as he had really learnt to know God, he\ndevoted all his life to preaching the Gospel. He told every one that the\nfirst thing we need is _to believe there is a God_. Many of his friends\nwho were rich and well educated were thus brought to a personal knowledge\nof God for the first time. He that cometh to God must believe that He is\nreally there. Have you ever been conscious of the Presence of the living\nGod? You must make sure that He is near before you can really pray.\n\nWe have an illustration of this in the telephone. You first put the\nspeaking tube to your mouth and then you say \"Are you there?\" In any case\nyou make sure that the person to whom you wish to speak, is listening at\nthe other end. Although you cannot see any one, you know he is holding the\nreceiver so as to hear what you say.\n\nWhen you begin to pray always pause for a moment and remember that you are\nspeaking to God. Do not say a word until the Holy Spirit puts you into\ndirect communication with God. The Psalmist was quite sure that God was\nreally listening to his prayer, for he says, \"I love the Lord because He\nhath heard my voice and my supplications. Because He hath inclined His ear\nunto me therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live.\" [Footnote: Ps.\ncxvi. 1, 2.] And again, \"I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God\nwith my voice, and He gave ear unto me.\" [Footnote: Ps. lxxvii. 1.] It is\nin this way we realise that there is a God, a personal living God.\n\nI asked a Christian man one day if he had prayed about some work which was\noffered to him, and his reply was, \"Yes: I am on the telephone.\" Can you\nsay the same? As soon as you have spoken through the telephone you put the\nreceiver to your ear to listen for the answer. Many people pray without\nexpecting to get an answer. They are like children who knock at a door and\nthen run away before it is opened. The prophet Micah says, \"I will wait\nfor God, my God will answer me.\" [Footnote: Mic. vii. 7.] Yes, he expected\nto get an answer.\n\nThe Lord Jesus says, \"When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when\nthou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret.\"\n[Footnote: St. Matt. vi. 6.] When a child wants to tell his father\nsomething very private he whispers it in his ear. I daresay you have\nnoticed that the telephone at the General Post Office is enclosed in a\nbox, so that no one can overhear what is said. There are many things we\nsay into God's ear which we could not tell to any one else. It makes Him\nvery real to us, if we can say in our inmost hearts, \"O God, Thou art my\nGod, my very own Father.\"\n\nWhen we speak through the telephone we never say useless words, and our\nLord tells us to avoid needless repetitions when we pray, and He adds,\n\"for your Father knows what things you need before ever you ask Him.\" Just\nas an earthly father delights to hear his children's, voices, so our\nheavenly Father loves to hear us speaking to Him, for He says, \"Put Me in\nremembrance, let us plead together.\" [Footnote: Isa. xliii. 26.]\n\nA child's intercourse with his father is quite simple and natural, he\ntalks freely about everything. When you speak to God, is it an effort, or\ndo you look up into His face with confidence and tell Him all? A child\nexpects his father to supply all his wants and to be equal to every\nemergency, but we seem to have lost sight of the Father in heaven who is\npledged to \"supply all our need according to His riches in glory by Christ\nJesus.\" [Footnote: Phil. iv. 13.]\n\nWe must not be disappointed if we do not get all we want, because God's\npromise is to supply what we _need_. We often wish for things which we do\nnot really need.\n\nIf ever you lose sight of _God_, think of the wonderful lesson which Jesus\nteaches when He says, \"If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts\nunto your children,\" and you, fathers, always get the best you can for\nthem, \"how much more\" (wonderful words), \"how much more shall your Father\nwhich is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him.\" [Footnote: St.\nMatt. vii. 11.] Have you ever heard God's voice saying to you, I am your\nFather; love Me, look to Me, trust Me, worship Me: \"Open thy mouth wide\nand I will fill it.\" [Footnote: Ps. lxxxi. 10.]\n\nA godly man who was a servant used to say, \"There is not in the world a\nkind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual\nconversation with God.\" He felt that God was nearer and dearer to him than\nany one else. This is what makes God real to us when we feel that He is\n_near and dear_.\n\n  \"Only to sit and think of God,\n    Oh! what a joy it is!\"\n\nIt is just the same with your children if you are a really good, loving\nfather, they are quite happy if they can sit close to you. Your very\npresence makes a great impression on them, even if you do not say a word.\nIs God's presence so real to you that it makes you control your temper and\nkeeps you from saying unkind things?\n\nA boy may be troublesome sometimes, but he never really doubts his\nfather's love for him. Do you ever doubt God's love? Oh, yes: you say, I\noften murmur. Then this shows that in a sense you have never really known\nGod. People would not speak as they do about God, I mean even Christians\nwould not talk as they do if they really knew God. We often hear people\nsay, \"I hope God will be good to us,\" or, \"I think it very hard God does\nnot answer my prayer.\" This shows they have never personally known Him.\nTheir thoughts about God are so contrary to what they sing. For example,\nhow much do we really mean of that sweet hymn--\n\n  \"Precious thought--my Father knoweth,\n    In His love I rest;\n  For whate'er my Father doeth.\n    Must be always best.\n  Well I know the heart that planneth\n    Nought but good for me;\n  Joy and sorrow interwoven,\n    Love in all I see.\"\n\nDo you ever doubt His wisdom and think you might have been treated better?\nWhen we really know our Father-God, then we see His wisdom even in the\nthings that are against us. We know and we feel that they have all been\nworking together for our good, \"for He knows all.\"\n\nThis Book in my hand is The Word of God. It is a revelation of God, and\nthe glory of God Himself shines in every page. The first word in it is, In\nthe beginning _God_. Perhaps you ask me, \"Who is God?\" I will tell you.\n\"He is my Father.\" But you say, I am so sinful, I am not worthy to be\ncalled His son. That is just what I felt, so sinful, and then He revealed\nHimself to me as my Saviour. Ah! you say, but I am so far off, how can I\nfind my way to Him? And that was just like me till the Holy Spirit led me\nto Him. When God reveals Himself to you as Father, Saviour, Comforter,\nthen you will know that _God_ Himself is dwelling in your heart. Perhaps\nyou ask, Will God really come and dwell in me for I am so unworthy? God\nHimself answers that question; \"Thus saith the high and lofty One that\ninhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy\nplace, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive\nthe spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.\"\n[Footnote: Isa. lvii. 15.] Every one is standing now in view of God and\nEternity.\n\nA very long time ago the question was asked, \"Canst thou by searching find\nout God?\" [Footnote: Job xi. 7.] The only way we can find Him is by our\nspiritual necessities. If your soul needs life, you will find Him. If your\nspirit needs reviving, you will find Him. As this text says, I come \"to\nrevive the heart of the contrite ones.\"\n\nWhen your children talk about their Father, he is a real Person to them;\nthat is what God wants to be to us, a real personal God. He says, \"I will\nbe to them a God.\" [Footnote: Heb. viii. 10.] I know a little boy who\nwhispered to his aunt one night when she was giving him the goodnight\nkiss, \"Oh, Auntie, I sometimes wonder whether there is a God. Are you\nquite sure?\" \"Yes,\" said the aunt very earnestly, \"I am quite sure. You\nsee, I have known Him so long and He is so much to me, I am quite sure.\"\nThe child was satisfied.\n\nIf you will turn again to Psalm cxvi. you will see a wonderful unfolding\nof the secret feelings of David's heart, and as we read it we cannot help\nsaying to ourselves, the man who wrote this experience had very close\ndealings with some One about his soul. Who is this Some One? Do you know?\nPerhaps you think your religion is good enough to take you to heaven when\nyou die, but alas! it begins and ends with the \"Unknown God.\" How\ndifferent to David's experience when he says out of a full heart, \"I love\nthe Lord,\" or as the word means, \"I am full of love,\" and then he tells of\nhis confidence in God; \"I believed, therefore I have spoken,\" as if he had\nsaid, \"God is so real to me now, I must tell others\"; and he adds, \"I will\nwalk before the Lord in the land of the living.\" We can walk with God in\nour daily life just as Enoch did.\n\nA good man said a short time ago, If ever I pass any one in the street\nwith a careworn, anxious face, I long to say to them, \"There is _God_,\"\n\"Have faith in God.\" St. John said, \"We have known and believed the love\nthat God hath to us and in us--God is love.\" [Footnote: 1 John iv. 16.]\nThis is the central fact, the one great reality in life, and when once it\nis grasped there is nothing to compare with it. Why is there so much\nunrest, so much ungodliness, and lawlessness in our midst? We are\nforgetting God. The only remedy is coming back to God.\n\nA poor woman who has been a Christian for many years was telling me about\nher mother's sudden death the week before, and then she added, \"I have\nnever known God as I do now. The future used to look so dark, but now that\nI know Him as the Living God, I can only see _life_. I cannot tell you\nwhat He is to me.\" Her face, which bore traces of her recent sorrow, shone\nwith a new peace and a new joy, which made me rejoice. I was sure that God\nhad revealed Himself to her in her time of need. Those precious words had\ncome true in her case, \"In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said,\nI thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these\nthings from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes; even\nso, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.\" [Footnote: St. Luke x.\n21.]\n\nAre you saying, \"My soul thirsteth for God, for the Living God\"? Then you\nwill have a Personal revelation of God Himself, for that is the only way\nthe life of God can enter into your soul and mine. Are you longing to find\nGod? It is not that we find Him, but that He finds us, making Himself to\nus the great Reality. We may know wonderful things _about_ Him, but that\nis not enough. We must really know Him in our hearts!\n\nThe very longing which you have for this personal revelation of God comes\nfrom the loving Father Himself, and He says, \"I will give them a heart to\nknow Me\": [Footnote: Jer. xxiv. 7.] so we need never think, ah! it is\nbeyond me, for He promises to _give_ us the heart to know Him.\n\nI had a striking instance of this some years ago. A working man who could\nnot read or write told me that he had been converted at our meeting. He\ndied in the Union Infirmary, and I heard afterwards that he had been a\nblessing to many in the ward. He said to me one day, \"I want to tell you\n_what God is to me_.\" In very simple words he described how he could see\nit all plainly. How in the beginning, sin came into the Garden of Eden and\nthen God revealed Himself to the sinner so as to bring him back to\nHimself. Again and again his simple testimony was, I must tell every one\n_what God is to me_. This man had learnt to know God personally through\nhis own need as a sinner, so it is not by earthly education that we find\nGod, but through the Holy Spirit's teaching, and then in the Word He\nreveals Himself more fully.\n\nIt is \"through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord that grace and\npeace are multiplied to us,\" [Footnote: 2 Pet. i. 2.] so if we have not\nmore and more grace and peace coming into our souls it is because we do\nnot really know God.\n\nIt makes all the difference in our life when we can say, God is now my\nliving Father; for it means God in His infinite love has taken my life\ninto His, and by this personal link of love I take His life into mine.\nWhen He assures us that He is the Living God, it means that He lives and\ncares for us. All things, great and small, are under His control. We have\nan illustration of this in the present war. Think of our Navy, scattered\nover seven oceans, yet all under the control of the Commander-in-Chief,\nSir John Jellicoe. Not one vessel can move without his orders, no ship can\nbe attacked without his knowledge; the wireless apparatus is at work night\nand day communicating every detail. It brings Sir John word of any\nsubmarine sighted, or of any movement in all the seas round our country,\nand it carries his orders far and near.\n\nWhen God tells us that He is the living God, we know that He cares for us\nin the same way as a mother cares for her children. We had a touching\nillustration of this about a year ago.\n\nDo you remember how we were thrilled with horror when the Archduke Francis\nFerdinand, heir to the throne of Austria, was shot while driving through\nthe city? He expired in a few minutes, leaving three children. In those\nfew moments he turned to his wife who was seated by his side and said\nthese pathetic words, \"Sophie, live for our children.\" He did not know\nthat she too had been mortally wounded and would be powerless to care for\ntheir orphan children.\n\nIt is because our Father-God is the living God, that He can say to us\nto-day just as He said to the Old Testament saints, \"I am living for you,\ncaring for you, protecting you.\" \"Even to your old age I am He; and even\nto hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made and I will bear, even I will\ncarry and will deliver you.\"  [Footnote: Isa. xlvi. 4.] When He says to\nyou, \"I am God and there is none else,\" [Footnote 2: Isa. xlv. 22.] does\nyour heart answer, Yes: \"Even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art\nGod.\" [Footnote 3: Ps. xc. 2.]\n\n\n\nADDRESS II\n\nGOD OUR FATHER\n\nPORTION OF SCRIPTURE--Matthew vii 24-34.\n\n\nIn the chapter we have just read there is a great deal about our daily\nhome life, and the word \"Father\" is mentioned twelve times, so it shows\nthat God knows all about the everyday work. It is a grand thing when we\nfind this out.\n\nA poor woman in China was converted, and very soon the lady missionary who\nvisited her noticed that now her house was very clean and tidy, and told\nher how glad she was to see it.\n\nThe woman smiled, and said in her own simple way, \"You see my Father God\nand the Lord Jesus are constantly coming in and out, so I like to keep it\nnice.\" She realised the Presence of God.\n\n\"The eyes of the Lord are in every place.\" [Footnote: Prov. xv. 3.]\nIf we do not find God _everywhere_ we practically end by finding\nHim _nowhere_.\n\nA busy Christian mother told me that she begins each day and lives all the\nday long saying in her heart, \"In Thy Presence and by Thy Power.\" We must\nnot only _say_ it, but act upon it as a _reality_, and then it will be our\ndaily experience to be in touch with God.\n\nThere was one word which was very precious to Christ and which was often\non His lips, and that was \"Father.\" You remember how He stood one day at\nthe grave of His friend Lazarus. All the mourners were standing round Him.\nLazarus had been dead four days. It seemed utterly impossible that he\ncould be restored to life again. No one expected it.\n\nWhat did Jesus do? \"Jesus lifted up His eyes and said '_Father_.'\"\n[Footnote: St. John xi. 41.] Those eyes were still wet with tears, for a\nfew verses before we read \"Jesus wept.\" Then He lifted up His eyes and\nsaid \"_Father_\": that was enough. There is _everything_ in that word. It\njust meant, \"I have told Father all about it.\" He knows, He loves, He\ncares, and all things are possible with Him. There is no limit to His\npower and His love.\n\nThen the command was given to those standing near--\"Take ye away the\nstone.\" Was Christ going into the cave? No, the dead man was to _come\nout_. So we have first the wondrous name \"Father,\" and then the loud cry,\n\"Lazarus, come forth,\" and he that was dead came out of the cold grave',\nout of the region of death into the land of the living.\n\nAll through His life on earth our Lord always speaks to God as Father. One\nverse especially brings out the perfect intimacy, the perfect confidence,\nthe perfect love between the Lord Jesus and the Father. Jesus says, \"All\nthings are delivered unto Me of My Father, and no man knoweth the Son but\nthe Father; neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son and he to\nwhomsoever the Son will reveal Him.\" [Footnote: St. Matt. xi 27.] The last\nwords of this verse are very precious, for they show that not only has the\nSon perfect knowledge of the Father, but He reveals or makes known the\nFather so that you and I may know Him as our Father.\n\nYou remember Philip prayed, \"Lord, show us the Father, that is what we\nwant,\" [Footnote: St. John xiv. 8.] and Christ answered, \"He who has seen\nMe has seen the Father.\" Yes, \"He is the image of the invisible God.\" God\nsaid to Moses, \"Thou canst not see My Face and live for there shall no man\nsee me and live,\" [Footnote: Exod. xxxiii. 20.] and for hundreds of years\nno one saw God. Then came the wondrous gift and the wondrous revelation.\nGod gave His only Begotten Son, and _in Him_ we see the Father. Praise the\nLord! the glorious light has come to us in our darkness. For \"God, who\ncommanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to\ngive the light of the knowledge of the glory of God _in the face of Jesus\nChrist._\" [Footnote: Cor. iv. 6.] The Apostle John says, \"We beheld His\nglory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and\ntruth.\"\n\n\"No man hath seen God at any time,\" [Footnote: St. John i. 18.] and before\nChrist came the verse stopped there; but after He came, then God was fully\nrevealed; so the verse finishes with the words \"the only begotten Son\nwhich is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.\" Will you look\nup now, and say, \"Lord, show _me_ the Father,\" and He will reveal Him to\nyou, because this is what He promises to do. Look at the last line of the\n27th verse of Matthew xi. where Christ says, \"He to whomsoever the Son\nwill reveal Him,\" and without a pause He adds the wonderful invitation,\n\"Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you\nrest.\" It is to the weary and heavy laden that He reveals the Father. He\ninvites them to share the fellowship He has with the Father, the peace and\njoy and rest of knowing the Father.\n\nWhy does He invite the weary ones to come to Him? because He felt in\nHimself such joy in this close fellowship with God, He wanted every one to\nhave it too. He felt that His experience of what the Father was to Him was\nso rich, He longed for them to come and share it, \"I will give you rest.\"\nIt is as if He said, \"I will give you the same rest I have when I am tired\nand hungry and thirsty; the same comfort that I have when I am\nmisunderstood and reviled; the rest, the comfort, the peace I have in My\nFather.\"\n\nWe have the same assurance when the Holy Ghost says in St. Paul's letter\nto the Corinthians, \"Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and\nfrom the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord\nJesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.\"\n[Footnote: 2 Cor. i, 2, 3.]\n\nHow can you and I know what the Lord Jesus found in His Father's love? He\nhas graciously made it known to us in the four Gospels. There the veil is\ndrawn aside and we see how all through His life He was in close fellowship\nwith the Father.\n\nWe can hear the very words which the Son spoke to His Father in the hour\nof deep agony: \"O My Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from Me;\nnevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.\" [Footnote: St. Matt. xxvi.\n39.] The last words on His lips when He was dying on the Cross were,\n\"Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.\" [Footnote: St. Luke xxiii.\n46.] He said to His disciples the last night, \"You will leave Me alone;\nand yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.\" All through His\nlife He spoke of His oneness with the Father and the joy of doing and\nfinishing the work which He gave Him to do.\n\nWe too can have the sense of God's Presence in our souls at all times. A\nChristian woman who was suffering from neuralgia told me that one night\nwhen she could not sleep, a voice seemed to whisper softly to her, \"Like\nas a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him,\nfor He knoweth our frame, He knows all about our poor bodies, for He made\nthem,\" [Footnote: Ps. ciii. 13, 14.] and with those words of comfort in\nher mind she fell into a refreshing sleep.\n\nIf you will turn to the 6th chapter of St. Matthew again you will see in\nthe 8th verse that our Heavenly Father knows about something else. \"He\nknows what things we have need of before we ask Him.\"\n\nThe secret of what it is to have God as our Father, and the sweetness of\nit, comes out in these three homely questions, What shall we eat, what\nshall we drink, what shall we wear? And Christ says, [Footnote: St. Matt,\nvi. 31, 32.] Take no thought, that means, do not be anxious about these\nthings, for your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these\nthings. Yes, if He knows, that is enough, and then we have only to trust\nHim for all.\n\nDo you find your faith failing sometimes? It is one thing to trust God\nwhen the wages are coming in regularly, and quite another thing to trust\nHim when times are bad. It is just _then_ we learn to look less at our\nfaith and more at God's Faithfulness.\n\nA minister once gave a little bit of his experience about this. He said,\n\"It is only as we really take God's promises and plant our feet upon them\nthat we shall find faith abiding in times of testing. The last penny may\nbe gone but GOD is there. I know this to be true.\n\n\"I have often said when preaching, 'It takes real faith in God to be able\nto put your head into an empty flour barrel and sing the doxology.' My\nwife had heard me say this, and one morning she called me to come into the\nkitchen. I said, 'What do you want me for?' She replied, 'I want you to\ncome out here and sing.' I thought this queer, so I went to see what it\nall meant.\n\n\"In the middle of the kitchen was an empty flour barrel that she had just\ndusted out. 'Now, my dear,' she said, 'I have often heard you say one\ncould put his head into an empty flour barrel and sing, \"Praise God from\nWhom all blessings flow,\" if he believed what God says. Now here is your\nchance, practise what you preach.'\n\n\"There was the empty flour barrel staring at me with open mouth, and my\npurse was empty too. I looked for my faith, but could not find it; I\nlooked for a way of escape, but could not find one, for my wife blocked\nthe doorway with the dust brush covered with flour.\n\n\"I said, 'I will put my head in and sing on one condition.'\n\n\"'What's that?' asked my wife.\n\n\"'On condition that you will put your head in and sing too. You know you\npromised to share all my joys and sorrows.'\n\n\"She consented, so we put our heads in and sang the doxology, and we told\nour heavenly Father 'all about our need.' Yes, we had a good time, and\nwhen we got our heads out we were a good bit powdered up, which we took as\na token that there was more flour to follow!\n\n\"Sure enough, though no one knew of our need, the next day a barrel of\nflour was sent. Where it came from or who sent it we never knew, but our\nheavenly Father knew that we had 'need of these things.'\"\n\nDoes not this simple testimony teach us all a lesson? I wonder how many of\nus can say from our hearts--\n\n  Those who trust do not worry;\n  Those who worry do not trust.\n\nWhich are you doing, dear friends? Trusting or worrying? Count on God. He\nnever fails, and He knows just what to do. The moment a difficulty comes,\nlook up and say \"Father,\" and at once the burden will roll off, He will\nundertake all for you.\n\nI had an illustration of this one day when I was going across the Common.\nIt was very windy, and two little girls lost their hats; they were quite\nat their wits' end, till they caught sight of their father in the\ndistance, and at once they called to him, \"Father, father.\" That was\nenough, in a minute he ran to help them.\n\nI have often found great help in looking up again and again during the day\nand just saying \"Father.\" Try it. You, fathers, often say to your\nchildren, \"If you want me just call me.\" That is what our heavenly Father\ntells us to do.\n\nTo know God means not only to trust Him, but also to _treat_ Him as a\nFather. If you will read the 6th chapter of St. Matthew carefully when you\nare at home, you will see that it gives the experience of the child of God\nwith the Father for one whole day. It includes all that we need during the\nday:--food, clothing, forgiveness, victory over temptation, grace to do\nGod's will, and grace in dealing with others.\n\nThis experience is so deep, so real, so entirely something between Father\nand child, that in this chapter we find the words \"_in secret_\" no less\nthan six times. When the little child is looking up into a loving father's\nface and talking to him, it never thinks of those around. \"In secret\"\nmeans a sweet sense of His Presence in the soul and of close communion\nwith Him. \"I write unto you, little children, because you have known the\nFather.\" [Footnote: I St. John ii. 13.]\n\nGod is our Father, because He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: this\nis one of the greatest treasures of Redeeming Grace. All the teaching\nabout God as Father comes from the lips of Jesus, and it is in this way He\nreveals the Father to us; so if we would know Him, we must drink in His\nteaching and watch His life of communion with God. By His life He reveals\nto us the reality of the experience into which He calls us to enter. He\nalso shows us the way. He not only says \"Come to Me,\" but also Come\nthrough Me. \"I am the Way: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.\"\n[Footnote: St. John xiv. 6.] It was by dying for us He opened the Way.\n\"God sent forth His Son to redeem them that were under the law, that we\nmight receive the adoption of sons.\" \"And because ye are sons, God hath\nsent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying, Abba,\nFather.\" [Footnote: Gal. iv. 6, 7] So we are not only received into God's\nfamily, but we have also all the privileges of sonship. We are made \"heirs\nof God, joint heirs with Christ.\"\n\nPerhaps you are thinking of your unworthiness; like the Prodigal Son you\nare ready to say \"Father, I have sinned again and again, I am not worthy\nto be called Thy son.\" God knows just what you are and what you have been,\nand He Himself has asked the question, \"How shall I put you among the\nchildren?\" It is a question which none but the Lord would ever have\nthought of, and it would never have been answered if He Himself had not\nanswered it. It is a wonderful answer: for He says, \"Thou shalt call Me,\nMy Father.\" [Footnote: Jer. iii. 19.] God Himself puts us sinners among\nHis children, and no one else can do it, and He keeps us; for He says,\n\"Thou shalt not turn away from Me.\" How does He do it? By creating a new\nlife in us, we are \"born again.\" The old nature is not improved, but a new\nheart is given. \"A new heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I\nput within you.\" [Footnote: Ezek. xxxvi. 26.]\n\nCan you say, \"God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into my heart,\" and\nnow I can call Him my Father? Being made the children of God by adoption\nand grace, let us enjoy the privileges which are secured to us; let us act\nas loving children should do.\n\nDoes it all seem too good to be true? Trust His Word, \"As many as received\nHim, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that\nbelieve on His Name.\" [Footnote: St. John i. 12]\n\nSome of you remember the joy which thrilled you when you first received\nHim as your Saviour, but perhaps it was not until afterwards that you\nrealised the blessedness of your new position as sons of God.\n\nThe Holy Spirit leads us on step by step. First, He assures us that \"there\nis no condemnation,\" then He sets us free from the bondage of sin and\ndeath. [Footnote: Rom. viii. i, 2.] All is changed now, we feel the\nconfidence of a child who has free access to his father at all times.\nThere are three things which mark the children of God, the spiritual mind,\nthe spiritual walk, and the spiritual talk. \"The Spirit itself beareth\nwitness with our spirits that we are the children of God.\" [Footnote: Rom.\nviii. 16.] We then call out with the consciousness of sonship, \"Father,\nFather.\"\n\nThe witness of the Spirit was given to me soon after my conversion and\nthrilled me with joyful assurance. It came to me when a Christian doctor\nwas telling his children about the way of salvation. He drew a line on the\ncarpet with a stick and said, \"On one side there is DEATH, on the other,\nLIFE,\" and I said to myself, \"I know which side of the line I am on.\" So\nit was by means of this simple remark that I found out that I was really a\nchild of God, and my heart began from that time to cling to God as my\nFather. Every day since then I have experienced the blessedness of\ntrusting Him and knowing Him as my Father. Is this your happy portion? If\nnot, why not?\n\n\n\nADDRESS III\n\nTHE SON OF GOD\n\nPORTION OF SCRIPTURE--St. John i. 1-18, 29-34.\n\n\n\"THIS IS THE SON OF GOD.\" These are the closing words of John the\nBaptist's striking testimony, What a grand message! How it thrills us\nthrough and through! On and on the glorious words ring out, \"_The Son of\nGod is come_.\" Many years after, when the Apostle John was a very old man,\nhe wrote in one of his letters, \"We know that the Son of God is come.\"\n[Footnote: I John v. 20.]\n\nNow look back to the first words of our chapter. \"In the beginning was the\nWord.\" Who is the Word? It is \"the Son of God.\" When was the beginning?\nLong, long ago in Eternity that is past \"the Son of God was the brightness\nof His Father's glory and the express image,\" [Footnote: Heb. i. 3.] or\nexact representation, \"of His Person.\" In His last prayer with His\ndisciples our Lord speaks of \"the glory which He had with the Father\nbefore the world was.\" [Footnote: St. John xvii. 5.]\n\nThe first verse of this Gospel takes us back long before this world was\ncreated. Then we come to the creation in verse 3: \"All things were made by\nHim.\" This is exactly what is said in the first verse of the Bible of\nanother beginning, \"In the beginning God created the heavens and the\nearth.\" Long before this world was created we read of God's dear Son as\n\"the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature.\" All\nthings were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things, the\nEternal Son of God. [Footnote: Col. i. 15-17.]\n\nHe says, \"I was set up from everlasting from the beginning, before ever\nthe earth was. When He appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was\nby Him as one brought up with Him; I was daily His delight, rejoicing\nalways before Him: rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth, and My\ndelights were with the sons of men.\" [Footnote: Gen. i. 26.]\n\nHow wonderful it is to think that in the Eternity that is past, and long\nbefore the world was made, God had two grand purposes. One was to create\nman to be the head of the whole human race. So, when the moment came that\nthe earthly home was ready, then God said, \"Let Us make man in Our image,\nafter Our likeness.\" [Footnote: Prov. viii. 23, 29, 30, 31.]\n\nThe other grand purpose in the Eternal counsel between the Father and His\nSon was to redeem man after he had fallen through sin. The Redeemer is the\nSon of God Himself, so He was foreordained to this work of redemption\nbefore the Creation of the world--\"The Lamb slain from the foundation of\nthe world.\" [Footnote: Rev. xiii. 8.] Hundreds of years rolled on, and\nthen the glorious message from heaven was sounded forth over the plains of\nBethlehem:--\"Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy ... for unto\nyou is born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.\" [Footnote: St.\nLuke ii. 10, 11.]\n\n\nTHE SON OF GOD IS COME\n\n_Where_ did He come from? _When_ did He come? _Why_ did He come? These are\nsome of the questions we must try to answer.\n\nFirst, where did He come from? He came forth from God. He was in the bosom\nof the Father from all Eternity. He said to the disciples, \"I came forth\nfrom the Father and am come into the world.\" [Footnote: St. John xvi. 28.]\n\nWe have read of two beginnings, now we will look at another beginning. In\nthe first chapter of St. Mark's Gospel, and the first verse, we read, \"The\nbeginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.\" Here we have the\nbeginning of all that grand and glorious work of Salvation which is still\nbeing carried on by our Lord at the Father's right hand in heaven.\n\nSo we read of three beginnings, and these three are all of God. There is\none more which is also of God.\n\nIt is the beginning of the life of Christ in the soul. When we read about\n\"the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,\" we know it means the\nbeginning of His life on earth. Have you ever asked whether there has been\na beginning of His life _in your heart_? Is it only what you read about,\nor is it a personal experience in your soul? Alas! many join in singing\nthe chorus, \"What a wonderful Saviour,\" who cannot say, \"He is my own dear\nSaviour.\" They have never been able to say \"My spirit hath rejoiced in God\nmy Saviour.\"\n\nWhat is this personal experience of the life of Christ in the soul? It is\nwhat the Apostle Paul describes  when he says, \"I have been crucified with\nChrist, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ _liveth in me_.\"\n[Footnote: Gal. ii. 20.]\n\n  \"Once far from God and dead in sin,\n    No light my heart could see:\n  But in God's Word the light I found,\n    Now Christ liveth in me.\"\n\nIn writing to the Galatians he says, \"My little children, you for whom I\nam again undergoing, as it were, the pains of child-birth, until Christ is\nfully formed within you\" [Footnote: Gal. iv. 19.] (Weymouth's\ntranslation).\n\nTHE SON OF GOD IS COME.\n\nSecondly, When did He come? \"It was when the fulness of the time was\ncome,\" [Footnote: Gal. iv. 4.] that is when the time was ripe for it.\nGod's clock is never too fast or too slow: so at the exact moment \"when\nthe fulness of time was come God sent forth _His Son_.\" Still and always\nHis Son, but now \"made of a woman,\" \"God, manifest in the flesh\"--the\nGod-man.\n\nTHE SON OF GOD IS COME.\n\nWhat is His Name? God Himself gave the Name. \"Thou shalt call His name\nJesus.\" [Footnote: St. Matt. i. 21.] No other name was to be given: it is\na command, \"_thou shalt_ call His name Jesus, for He shall save\": that is\nwhy He is _come_. \"He is come to seek and to save that which was lost.\"\n\"Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He Himself shall save His people from\ntheir sins.\" He is presented to us as a living personal Saviour. The\npromise is, \"He, _Himself_ shall save.\" It means that He will abide in\neach believing soul for ever. Yes, moment by moment and for ever. He\nabides in us as the Deliverer from all sin. What a glorious promise! Are\nyou living in the reality of it?\n\n  \"Jesus! Name of wondrous love,\n    Human Name of God above.\"\n\nIt is the God-given Name. \"The Name which is above every name.\" Is it\nprecious to you?\n\nTHE SON OF GOD IS COME.\n\nThirdly, Why did He come? The King sends ambassadors to represent him in\nforeign countries, but God sent \"His own dearly loved Son.\" \"For God so\nloved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.\" [Footnote: St. John\niii. 16.] The little word \"_so_\" means love in its unutterable fulness,\nand God is the source of it. Have you ever thanked Him for the unspeakable\ngift of His dear Son? Link the two words together, _God--the world_: it\nmeans God and you: God and me. Then link together _loved_ and _gave_. It\nwill take Eternity to get to the bottom of those two words. Now add that\nother precious text, \"He loved me: He gave Himself for me,\" [Footnote:\nGal. ii. 20.] and you have \"the grace of God bringing salvation.\"\n\nSix times in the Epistles we find the words \"He gave Himself,\" and in I\nPeter ii. 24, it says, \"Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on\nthe tree.\" This is why the Son of God is come, and it is this which makes\nHim so personally real to us when earthly things are fading away.\n\nI knew a working man who had a long, painful illness which lasted three\nyears. I rejoice to say that soon after it began he was converted. He was\nso earnest that his one thought was to tell others what a dear Saviour he\nhad found, and many were led to Christ through his example and testimony.\nHis mother was converted through him and she is now carrying on the\nChristian work which he began. What was it that changed this man? It was\nthe Holy Spirit revealing Christ to him as a living personal Saviour. The\nday before he died he said to his sister, \"I had such a lovely time with\nthe Master this morning in between the pain. Oh! it was like healing balm\nto me and He gave me a little hymn--\n\n  \"'Jesus loves me, He who died\n  Heaven's gate to open wide:\n  He will wash away my sin,\n  Let His little child come in.'\"\n\nHow wonderful that a man nearly 40 years of age should find such comfort\nin a simple little hymn. But it is thus the Lord reveals Himself.\n\nDo you feel that you are like a lost sheep? \"The Son of man is come to\nseek and to save that which was lost.\" [Footnote:  St. Luke xix. 10.]\n\nTHE SON OF GOD IS COME!\n\nIt is a fact, a certainty. A great reality. Nothing can take it from us.\nIt is a living experience in our inmost hearts. \"And we know,\" says the\nApostle John, \"that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an\nunderstanding, that we may know Him that is true; and we are in Him that\nis true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal\nlife.\" [Footnote: I John v. 20.]\n\nThe Son of God is come and God presents Him to us as His Perfect Son and\nour Perfect Saviour. Twice during His earthly ministry there was a voice\nfrom heaven which said, \"This is My beloved Son in whom I am well\npleased\": \"In whom I have perfect delight now and for ever.\" Can you\nreply, \"This is my Beloved Saviour and He is everything to me\"? [Footnote:\nSt. Matt. iii. 17 and xvii. 5.] He is either everything or nothing.\n\nAre you like the merchant in the parable, \"seeking goodly pearls, who when\nhe had found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had and\nbought it\"? Is your heart singing\n\n  \"I've found the pearl of greatest price,\n    My heart doth sing for joy;\n  And sing I must for Christ is mine!\n    Christ shall my song employ!\"\n\nA Chinese convert told one of the missionaries that he happened to take up\na Testament which had been sold to the people of the house by a\ncolporteur, but they could not see the meaning of it, so they laid it on\none side. \"But,\" he went on to say, \"from the moment my eyes lighted upon\nit, I was greatly attracted by it. So I read and kept on reading till the\nmeaning dawned upon me, and then,\" he added with a beaming face, \"I found\nthe Pearl of Great Price.\"\n\nThis reminds me of that strange story of a very valuable pearl necklace\nworth \u00a3117,000 which was lost about a year ago. It was sent by post from\nParis to London when it suddenly disappeared and no one knew what had\nbecome of it. A very large reward was offered to any one who found it.\n\nBut now comes the wonderful part of the story. One morning, a man of the\nname of Horne was on his way to the factory where he was employed when he\nsaw a large match-box lying in the gutter in St. Paul's Road, near London.\nHe picked it up and put it in his pocket. Presently he went into a\npublic-house to have a glass of beer and there he met two of his mates. He\ntook the match-box out of his pocket, pushed it open, and seeing it was\nfilled with what he thought were white beads or marbles, he said to them,\n\"What do you think of these, I've just picked them up?\" \"Oh! they're no\ngood,\" replied one of the men, \"throw them away.\" However, Horne decided\nto take them to the Police Station. The officers looked at them and said\nthey were worth nothing, but gave him a receipt for them.\n\nOn their way to the factory they turned into another public-house for a\ndrink, and while there Horne found one of the marbles loose in his coat\npocket. \"Oh!\" he said, \"I've got one of them left.\" Holding it up in his\nfingers, he looked round and asked, \"Will any one give me a penny for it?\"\nBut no one would have it.\n\nIn another public-house where they stopped, he offered the pearl for a\nglass of beer, but no one accepted the offer. The pearl which was worth\nmany hundreds of pounds was despised by one and all. Then Horne offered it\nfor a packet of cigarettes, but again it was handed back with the remark,\n\"That's no good to me.\" So one of his friends suggested that he should\ncrush it under the heel of his boot as it was no good.\n\nLater on when some one asked him what he had done with it he said he had\nthrown it away.\n\nIt is a wonderful story and quite true. \"Oh!\" you say, \"what a thousand\npities, if that man Horne had only known its value, it would have made him\na rich man in one day.\"\n\nAre you not surprised that none of these men ever thought of finding out\nthe real value of that pearl? But is it not stranger still that scarcely\nany one ever stops to inquire who Jesus Christ really is, and the meaning\nof His death on the Cross? You listened just now with astonishment to the\nquestions and answers about this valuable pearl, and yet the same\nquestions are being asked every day about another Pearl, God's Pearl of\ngreat price, and people are treating it with the same indifference. How\nthe angels must look on and wonder!\n\nThere are two questions which you have to answer now. First, What think ye\nof Christ, whose Son is He? Can you say, \"He is the Son of God\"? Think of\nthe Glory of His Person: it is \"the glory of the only begotten of the\nFather.\" Think of His Divine Mission: sent by God to be the Saviour now\nand the Judge by and by. Think of Him as God's great Gift to a perishing\nworld. Have you received Him?\n\nThe other question which you have to answer is, \"What shall I do with\nJesus?\" Remember God hath given to us Eternal Life and this life is in His\nSon. \"He who has the Son has life, and he who has not the Son of God has\nnot life.\" [Footnote: I John v. 12.] Jesus is pleading with you, saying,\n\"Ye will not come,\" that means, you are unwilling to come to Me \"that you\nmay have Life.\" [Footnote: St. John v. 40.] By and by you will have to\nface another question, \"What will He do with me?\"\n\n\"The Son of God is come.\" It is God Himself who presents Him to us:\n\"Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.\" [Footnote:\nSt. John i. 29.] He is the One whom God Himself has provided and set\napart: and \"now He has appeared once for all to put away sin by the\nsacrifice of Himself.\" [Footnote: Heb. ix. 26.] There on Calvary's\nCross before the eyes of crowds of people \"who came together to see that\nsight,\" He is set forth as the spotless Son of God who was made an\noffering for sin. He it is \"whom God now sets forth to us as a\npropitiation.\" [Footnote: Rom. iii. 25.] He it is, and no other, whom God\nsets forth as a Mercy seat, the Blood-sprinkled Mercy Seat. God's eye\nrests on Christ and His finished work, and because it is a full, perfect\nand sufficient satisfaction for all our sins, \"God sets Him forth in order\nto demonstrate His righteousness that He may be shown to be righteous\nHimself and the giver of righteousness to those who believe in Jesus.\" Oh,\nwhat a comfort it is to me to know that He is always there standing before\nGod as the Righteous One, and therefore when God looks at me in all my\nunworthiness He does not see me, He only sees His dear Son.\n\nWhen that godly physician Sir James Simpson was dying, the minister who\nwas by his bedside asked if he had any doubts. He looked up and said, \"I\nhave no doubts; when I stand before God I shall just _hold up Christ to\nGod.\"_\n\nThis is why Jesus is come, and this is why Jesus died, that the believing\nsoul may hold Him up to God as \"the One who has been made unto us wisdom,\nrighteousness, sanctification and redemption,\" [Footnote: I Cor. i. 30.]\nand it is all God's doing, from first to last. I love to say to myself,--\n\n  \"I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all,\n   But Jesus Christ is my all in all.\"\n\nOur salvation depends on believing God's Word, that He has accepted our\nSurety. When God raised Him from the dead, it was a proof that all the\nclaims of His holiness and justice had been fully met and satisfied.\nThe debt is paid because Jesus paid it all. He gave Himself as a\nransom--the redemption price for all.\n\nSo now God sets Him forth in all His untold preciousness and proclaims the\nglorious message, \"_Deliver him_, that poor helpless sinner, from going\ndown into the pit. I have found a ransom.\" [Footnote: Job xxxiii. 24.]\n\nWhat was the price to be paid? \"The Son of man is come to give His life a\nransom for many.\" \"We are redeemed, not with silver and gold, but with the\nprecious blood of Christ.\" Who can tell how precious? \"More precious far\nthan gold.\" Think what it _cost_ the Father: He gave His only Son. \"Having\nyet one son, His well-beloved, He said, I will send Him.\"\n\nThink what it cost the Son of God. Think of His agony in the garden, and\nthen the hiding of His Father's face, and last of all the pouring out His\nsoul unto death on the cross. Our redemption is doubly precious, not only\nbecause of the price paid, but because of the Divine and Holy One who paid\nit, the Lord of glory, even the Son of God Himself, \"Which things even the\n_angels_ desire to look into.\" [Footnote: 1 Pet. i. 12.] They long to see\ninto the depths of this wondrous redeeming love.\n\nCan you sing this chorus from your heart--\n\n  \"Precious, precious,\n   Precious is my Lord to me;\n   Precious, precious,\n   Everything in Him I see.\"\n\nThink of what we have been rescued from! Christ has redeemed us from sin,\nand death and hell.\n\nThink of the cost of this great salvation, and then ask yourself, how much\nis it worth to me? We shall only be able to answer that question when we\nare safe home in the glory. Then we shall be looking back on death,\nlooking back on the Judgment of the great White Throne, as never having\ncome into it: looking back on the old world which has passed away.\n\n  \"When this passing world is done,\n   When has sunk yon glorious sun,\n   When I go to Christ in glory,\n   Looking o'er life's finished story;\n   Then, Lord, shall I fully know\n   Not till then--how much I owe.\"\n\nThink of the last plague which God sent upon Egypt. It was not till the\nmidnight cry, that exceeding great and bitter cry had resounded through\nthe land of Egypt showing that the destroying angel had entered the houses\nof the Egyptians, leaving death and desolation there; it was not till _the\njudgment had actually come_ that the Israelites realised the delivering\npower of the blood which they had sprinkled on their doorposts. Think of\ntheir wonder and of their thankfulness. They had believed and obeyed\nbefore, but _now_ their hearts are filled with gratitude and praise. If\nyou have really cast yourself and all your sins on Christ, then you too\nwill join in the new song, saying, \"Thou art worthy, for Thou wast slain\nand hast redeemed us to God by Thy Blood.\" [Footnote: Rev. v. 9.]\n\nTo _receive_ Christ now into our hearts by faith is to be born of God:\n[Footnote: St. John. i. 12, 13.] spiritual life is imparted to the\nbeliever.\n\nTo _feed_ upon Christ day by day is to live by Him: [Footnote: St. John\nvi. 57.] this is the evidence of life in the believer.\n\nTo see Christ by and by and to be like Him, is life perfected in glory.\n[Footnote: 1 John iii. 2.]\n\nDear fellow sinners, let me entreat you most earnestly in the light of an\nEternity that is coming, and as you value your precious, never-dying\nsouls, do not trifle with God's unspeakable Gift. \"How shall we escape if\nwe neglect so great salvation?\" [Footnote: Heb. ii. 3.] No one either in\nheaven or upon earth can answer that question. If the lost in hell could\nspeak to us they would tell us that there is _no_ escape.\n\nTHE SON OF GOD IS COME,\n\nand oh! the wonder of it all, \"He came to where I was.\"\nThe words of this beautiful hymn describe it--\n\n  \"I looked and there was none to help,\n     'No man' could meet my case:\n   A weary, world-worn heart was mine,\n     Without a resting place.\n   Then One drew near, the Christ of God,\n     With pitying eyes He scanned,\n   Jesus came to me where I was,\n     And took me by the hand.\n\n  \"He led me first to Calvary's mount,\n     And, oh! what sight it gave!\n   The agony, the life out-poured,\n     It cost Him there to save.\n  My heart fell broken at His feet,\n    Who could such love withstand?\n  The love that came to where I was,\n    And took me by the hand.\n\n \"He lifted me upon a rock,\n    Round me His light He shed;\n  He poured His peace into my heart,\n    He healed, He held, He fed.\n  Ah! then I knew that holy One,\n    The whole could understand.\n  The One who came to where I was,\n    And took me by the hand.\n\n \"And since that day, through all the days,\n    His love my way has planned:\n  He comes to bless me where I am,\n    He takes me by the hand.\n  This glorious One is all to me,\n    He shall my life command,\n  The Christ who came to where I was,\n    And took me by the hand.\"\n\n\n\nADDRESS IV\n\nTHE SPIRIT OF GOD\n\nPORTION OF SCRIPTURE--St. John iv. 1-26\n\n\nGod is a Spirit. Look at this poor woman standing at the well and let us\ntry and realise what a wonderful revelation it was which Christ made known\nto her soul about God. He told her that God is Father, that God is\nSaviour, and that God is Spirit; three Persons but one God.\n\nThe Lord opened her heart and she grasped this wondrous truth.\n\nChrist said to her, \"God the Father is seeking you, He is longing for you\nto come to Him.\" Then He let her feel and see that He is the Saviour.\n\nWas it not wonderful that she was the first to tell the good news that He\nis \"the Saviour of the world\"? [Footnote: St. John iv. 42.]\n\nChrist said to her, \"God is a Spirit,\" and she found that no one else but\nGod could touch her heart.\n\nUntil the Spirit of God comes into our hearts, we cannot really know God\npersonally or have communion with Him. \"Now we have received, not the\nspirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know\nthe things that are freely given to us of God.\" [Footnote: 1 Cor. ii. 12.]\n\nAlthough our hearts are so sinful the Holy Spirit is longing to come in.\nHe found an entrance into the heart of this poor woman whose life was a\nwreck with its four great failures. Every life is a failure in God's\nsight, but we must never despair of any one, for \"with God all things are\npossible,\" and as long as life lasts there is hope for the sinner.\n\n\"The Lord opened her heart,\" she heard and believed, and went home to tell\nothers what a dear Saviour she had found. It was the beginning of a\nrevival at Sychar, and every revival begins in the same way, God is\nrevealed by His Spirit and men realise the nearness of God.\n\nUntil a man really finds out what God is, there can be no true spiritual\nworship. This is the truth Jesus came to make known to us when He says,\n\"God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and\nin truth,\" for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. Yes, the Father\nis seeking us, yearning for us to come close to Him and to respond to His\nlove for us. When our Lord tells us that we must worship in spirit, He\nmeans that it is the spirit in man which responds to the Spirit of God. Do\nyou offer Him your heart's devotion and praise, or is it only lip-worship?\n\nTrue spiritual worship does not depend on forms or ceremonies or on any\nspecial place or time. I felt the point of this when a railwayman said to\nme, \"We can be in touch with God all the day long.\"\n\nGod is a Spirit, just as \"God is Light.\" [Footnote: 1 John i. 5.]\nAnd there are no limitations as to where He works or His ways and time of\nworking.\n\nThe Holy Spirit reveals to us far more about God than we ever imagined.\nThe Bible says, \"Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered\ninto the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that\nlove Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.\"\n[Footnote: 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10.]\n\nUntil the Holy Spirit opens our blind eyes to see spiritual things we\ncannot understand them. It is not the words of man's wisdom which can\nexplain them, we need to use spiritual words for spiritual truths, so we\ncan only speak as the Holy Spirit teaches us what to say. \"The natural man\nreceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness\nunto him,\" [Footnote: 1 Cor. ii. 14.] he does not grasp the meaning of\nthem.\n\nIt is because God is a Spirit that he meets our spiritual need when we\nfeel altogether helpless and hopeless in ourselves, for He says, \"I will\nput My Spirit within you.\" [Footnote: Ezek. xxxvi. 27.] God begins in the\nvery centre of our being, in our innermost hearts. God makes Himself known\nto us as God, through our spiritual necessities.\n\nThe Presence of the Holy Spirit is a personal thing in each one who\nreceives Him. There is only one way by which we can receive the Holy\nSpirit, and that is by faith. The Holy Ghost has been given. Will you ask\nyourself, Have I received Him? If not, why not?\n\nWhen God puts His Spirit into our hearts He abides with us for ever. He\nnever leaves us. Even when we grieve Him by our coldness of heart, He does\nnot leave us.\n\nIt is God who begins the work of grace in our hearts. The Book which\nreveals to us what God is, opens with the words, \"In the Beginning,\n_God_.\" [Footnote: Gen. i. 1.] God is the Beginner of all things, not only\nof the creation of the world, but of the new creation in our souls. This\nBook unfolds to us how God begins and finishes the great work of\nredemption and salvation.\n\nWe find another marvellous beginning which is also unfolded in this Book.\n\"The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.\" [Footnote: 1 Gen.\ni. 2.] It is a remarkable word; it means the Spirit of God brooded on the\nface of the waters. In Genesis we read, \"The Spirit of God was brooding,\"\nand in the Gospels we find the Spirit of God compared to a dove. The word\n\"brooding\" is a figure of the mother dove brooding over her nest and\ncherishing her young. The first time the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the\nOld Testament is in this verse, and the first emblem of the Holy Spirit in\nthe New Testament is in the 3rd chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, where it\nsays that, after our Lord had been baptized, \"The heavens were opened unto\nHim, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon\nHim.\" [Footnote: St. Matt. iii. 16.]\n\nFirst let us look at the background of the picture. We see darkness and\ndesolation, death and ruin. Then we see the Spirit of God, the Dove of\npeace, brooding over it all, and bringing light and life, love and peace\nout of the confusion.\n\nSo the two thoughts which are here brought to our minds are Motherhood and\nPeace. If you look carefully into the Word of God you will see how the\nthought of Motherhood is brought before us in many ways in connection with\nthe Person and Work of the Holy Spirit.\n\nWhen Christ is speaking of the New Birth, He says we are \"born of the\nSpirit.\" [Footnote: St. John iii. 6.] Again, when the cry of the new-born\nsoul is spoken of, we are told how it comes; for Paul says, \"God hath sent\nforth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.\"\n[Footnote: Gal. iv. 6] Again there is the beautiful expression, \"The\nSpirit of Adoption.\" \"We have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we\ncry Abba, Father.\" [Footnote: Rom. viii. 15.] \"Abba\" means \"dear Father.\"\n\nWhen God would reveal His heart of love to us He says, \"As one whom his\nmother comforteth, so will I comfort you.\" [Footnote: Isa. lxvi. 13.]\nThink of a mother busy with her work, and her little one playing on the\nfloor. Presently there is a cry, it has fallen down, and in a moment the\nmother is by its side to soothe it. But there is something sweeter still.\nEven if nothing befall the child the mother is near by to help it over\nevery difficulty and to respond to every look and sign. Even so our God\nwho is to us our Mother Comforter, says, \"Before they call I will answer,\nand while they are yet speaking I will hear.\"  [Footnote: Isa. lxv. 24]\n\nThe little child always turns to its mother for comfort in every trouble.\nThere is one thing which we notice in every home, that is, the mother's\ntender love and constant care for her little one. Night and day her child\nis her one thought. So the Lord says of His people, \"I the Lord do keep\nit, lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.\" [Footnote: Isa.\nxxvii. 3.] Every child of God can say--\n\n\"Moment by moment I'm kept in His love.\"\n\nDoes the child need the mother's constant, watchful care? Yes, because\neverything around is like a new world to the little one, it is all a new\nexperience. The mother gives herself up so entirely to the child that it\ndepends on her for everything. In the same way when the soul is born again\nit is brought into a new relation to God, it has entered into a new\nexperience and the Holy Spirit becomes to it just what the mother is to\nthe child and much more.\n\nJust as the mother trains the little one to take the first steps in\nwalking and holds it up, so it is the Holy Spirit who teaches us how to\nwalk and to please God. The little hand is slipped into mother's hand to\nbe led and held up. \"As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the\nsons of God.\" [Footnote: Rom. viii. 14.]\n\nThe mother keeps the child close to her, so the Holy Spirit is the\nComforter to us, by our side, for the word \"Comforter\" means, The one whom\nwe call to our side to help us. Just as the mother tells her child what to\nsay when it wants anything, so He helps us when we pray, \"for we know not\nwhat we should pray for as we ought.\" [Footnote: Rom. viii. 26.]\n\n\"The Comforter is come.\" When did He come? On the day of Pentecost, for it\nwas _then_ that the Holy Spirit was poured out, and He has been with us\never since.\n\nLet those words ring in your heart and in your life, \"The Comforter is\ncome.\" [Footnote: St. John xv. 26.] There is a beautiful hymn which\nillustrates the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. It\nbegins with the words--\n\n \"Spirit Divine! attend our prayers,\n  And make our hearts Thy home.\"\n\nThen four things are mentioned which show forth God's power in Nature.\nLight, fire, dew, wind. In the Bible they are all used as symbols of the\nPresence and Power of the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of men.\n\nIn Nature we know that human power is small compared with the power of\nlight, fire, wind, and water. Have we learnt to depend only on the Power\nof the Holy Ghost? God's Voice is ever saying to us now, oh! that we may\nlisten, \"Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.\"\n[Footnote: Zech. iv. 6.] Just as all the marvels of the natural world are\nperfectly carried out by God's wisdom and power, so He has given the Holy\nSpirit to make Him perfectly known as a living Presence, a living Power\nand Reality in our hearts and lives.\n\nIn the second verse of the hymn we find the words--\n\n \"Come as the Light--to us reveal\n  Our emptiness and woe.\"\n\nWe know what the light does when it shines into a room, It reveals or\nshows up any dust we had not noticed before. So when the light of God\nshines into our hearts it reveals what we never saw before.\n\nHave you ever watched the battleships on a dark night, anchored a little\nway off from the coast? Suddenly the bright dazzling searchlights are sent\nout from the ship. They seem to sweep over the ocean with their sparkling\nlight and then to wrap you round, as you stand there on the shore. The\nsight fills you with wonder; you feel as if the eyes of all on board ship\ncan see you.\n\nIt is the same when the Holy Spirit shines into our hearts; it is almost\noverwhelming; we can only cry, \"Woe is me, for I am undone.\"\n[Footnote: Isa. vi. 5.] We stand condemned under the searching eye of God.\nAll our self-righteous excuses are swept away. We can no longer take\nrefuge in the fact that we are as good as others and a great deal better\nthan some of our neighbours. The dazzling light of God's Presence has\nsearched us through and through and turned us inside out. Is this\nsearching necessary for every one? Yes, for it is the only way we can\nlearn to know the evil of our hearts.\n\nSometimes the light of the Holy Spirit comes to us in a quiet moment and\nshows us what we never saw before. Sometimes it comes like a flash. It\nflashed out on the road when Saul of Tarsus was on his way to Damascus.\nHe described it when he was being tried before King Agrippa, \"At midday, O\nKing, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the\nsun, shining round about me. And I fell to the ground and I heard a voice\nsaying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he tells us also\nthat he could not see for the glory of that light.\" [Footnote: Acts xxvi.\n13, xxii 17.] Whenever the light comes it is a revelation, a moment never\nto be forgotten: Darkness conceals, light reveals.\n\nThe Spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters, and God said, \"Let\nthere be light and there was light.\" [Footnote: Gen. i. 3.]\n\nThe Holy Spirit not only shows us what we are, but He shows Christ to us;\nthen we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. \"For God, who\ncommanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to\ngive the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus\nChrist.\" [Footnote: 2 Cor. iv. 6.] Yes, God's glory is radiant on the face\nof Christ and the Holy Spirit reveals it. He delights to show us His\nbeauty and His loveliness and thus to glorify Him. He makes Him a reality\nin our souls--\"a living bright Reality.\" If you have not seen Him as\n\"altogether lovely\" it is not because the Holy Spirit is not willing to\nshow Him to you, but because you turn away and will not look.\n\nHow good it is of God to send the Holy Spirit into this world on purpose\nto reveal these things to us. We should never see them but for Him. \"The\nnatural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he\nknow them because they are spiritually discerned.\" [Footnote: I Cor. ii.\n14.] What is the natural man? It is what we are by nature before the\nSpirit of God gives us a new life. When it says \"He receiveth not the\nthings of the Spirit of God,\" it means that he has no power to receive\nthem. He is groping in the dark, loving the darkness rather than the\nlight.\n\nA poor woman who had led a careless worldly life, sent me this message\nwhen she was dying, \"Tell her the little prayer she taught me has been\nanswered. She will understand. Tell her God has shown me myself and\nHe has shown me Himself, so I am going to be with Him.\"\n\nThe little prayer which she had learnt from my lips was this--\"Lord, show\nme myself; Lord, show me Thyself.\" How I thanked God that He used it for\nthe saving of her soul.\n\nWhen the Holy Spirit convinces us of sin and of our need of a Saviour, He\ndoes not leave us there. He draws aside the veil and reveals to us the\nsecret love of God. When our eyes have been opened to know that God is\n_Light_, then we find out that God is _Love_. How did this love of God\nshow itself? God sent His Son, \"In this was manifested the love of God\ntowards us because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that\nwe might live through Him.\" [Footnote: 1 John iv. 9.] It is not only the\nLove of God made known and shining out in the Gift of His Son, but we are\ntold that \"God commendeth His love towards us.\"  [Footnote: Rom. v. 8.]\nHow does God commend His love? He sets together His love for His Son and\nHis love for the sinner, and His love for the sinner is so great that\nHe gave His Son to die for us. Thus the words \"God commendeth His love\"\nmake it quite clear that \"God loves the sinner with a love which gives its\nbest, gives everything, keeping nothing back, and gives to everybody.\"\n\n  \"Oh, the love that gave Jesus to die,\n    The love that gave Jesus to die,\n  Praise God it is mine this love so Divine--\n    The love that gave Jesus to die.\"\n\n\"God commendeth His love towards us in that, when we were yet sinners,\" it\nmakes no difference _who_ we are or _what_ we have been, the Holy Spirit\nfixes our thoughts on that little word \"yet.\" The text says, \"When we were\nyet sinners, still far off, still lost and undone, Christ died for us\"; so\nthe Blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, \"cleanseth us from all sin.\"\n[Footnote: I John i. 7.] When we feel that sin is really a burden then the\nHoly Spirit points us to the little word \"all.\" Then He applies the\nprecious Blood to our guilty consciences, assuring us by the Word that the\nBlood of Jesus Christ does cleanse from all sin so that not a single stain\nis left. It is a perfect cleanser, there is nothing it cannot do. Then the\nHoly Spirit shows us that God has provided a perfect covering for us in\nthe Robe of Christ's Righteousness.\n\nIt is thus that the Comforter, who is the Spirit of Truth, leading into\nall truth, shows us the meaning of Christ's redeeming work and enables us\nto understand it and to appropriate it. When we do this it is indeed a\nblessed experience.\n\nA young man whom I know described it as follows: \"I heard the voice of God\nsaying to me, 'Who told thee that thou wast naked?' [Footnote: Gen. iii.\n11.] I am sure that it was the work of the Holy Spirit showing me my utter\nhelplessness and leading me to seek the covering of Christ's\nRighteousness. I feel I am exactly suited to Jesus as He is exactly suited\nto me, for I am just the one who needs His fulness, and He is the only one\nthat can supply my emptiness.\"\n\nI praised God for this clear testimony, and I have seen again and again\never since I began to work for the Lord many years ago, that the Holy\nSpirit delights to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ as \"a full Saviour for\nempty sinners.\"\n\nThe Gospel of St. John tells us very plainly that the Holy Ghost was sent,\nnot only to make us see the meaning of Christ's finished work, but also to\nprepare our hearts to receive it in all its fulness.\n\nHow does the Holy Spirit prepare our hearts? First, He opens our hearts,\nawakens in us a sense of our need and sinfulness, then, when He has opened\nour hearts, He breathes into them a new life; He creates a longing for\nGod. We feel within us a burning desire to know God. We catch eagerly at\neverything we hear about God, This is quite a new experience; we used to\ngo on year after year not troubling about it in the very least. What is\nthis new experience, this seeking after God? It is what the Bible calls\n\"Repentance.\" The word means \"Change of mind.\" Again and again the Apostle\nPaul urged upon both Jews and Greeks the necessity of \"repentance towards\nGod and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.\" [Footnote: Acts xx. 21.]\n\nA few days ago I received a touching letter from a young friend telling me\nhow God's Spirit had led her to repentance. She wrote, \"When I was a\nlittle girl and began to seek the Lord, I was very much troubled because\nI could not feel sorry enough for my sins. I wanted a real repentance to\ncome to the Lord with. I thought repentance meant crying over one's sins a\ngreat deal, and I could not feel sorry enough to cry as I wanted to. I\nused to keep praying, 'Give me a real repentance.' Many times I dreamed I\nhad this deep repentance and could cry over my sins, and I have awakened\nwith my face really bathed in tears, but oh, how disappointing it was to\nfind it only a dream and I had not got what I wanted after all. I went on\nlike this until I was twenty, when the Lord spoke these words with great\npower to my soul, 'The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.' The\nvoice seemed audible and I turned to see if anybody had spoken to me. I\nwas able to weep enough then, but they were tears of joy and gratitude,\nand I well remember saying aloud, 'O Lord, why me, why one so sinful as I\nam?' I now see that repentance means 'a change of mind' and not a flood of\ntears. Had I known this when a child it would have saved me years of\ntoiling and praying for repentance.\"\n\nDear friends, perhaps some of you are trying to get right with God. Look\nat the text which gave such peace to this seeking one. It begins with this\nquestion, \"Despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and\nlongsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to\nrepentance?\" [Footnote: Rom. ii. 4.]\n\nWe little know that all the time we are working and toiling we are really\ndespising, turning away from the riches of His goodness. The word \"riches\"\nshows how abundant His goodness is; therefore we are \"without excuse.\"\n\nGod's forbearance in delaying punishment, and His longsuffering in\npatiently waiting, show that His purpose in thus dealing with us is to\nlead us to repentance, which is not merely grief for sin, but a thorough\ninward change.\n\nSo we now know what we did not know before, that it is \"the goodness of\nGod that leads us to repentance.\"\n\nYes, we find now that instead of working our way, back to God, He is there\nclose to us, with open arms to receive us, stretching out His loving Hand\nto save us. We find that instead of trying to gain God's favour by our\nprayers and good works, God's Righteousness is there for us all ready and\nprovided for us. We find that we are accepted in His dear Son not for any\ngood thing we have done, but simply by faith in Jesus. All this is shown\nto us by the Holy Spirit, and without Him we could not have seen it.\n\nWe were speaking just now about repentance. Have you ever noticed that\nwhen our Lord began preaching the Gospel, the first word He said was\n\"Repent.\" [Footnote: St. Matt. iv. 17.] Why did He call to the crowds so\nearnestly to repent? Again and again that word keeps ringing out. He\nwanted to make them see that He condemned the way they were living and\ntheir religious professions. It was a call to stop and think, as if He\nsaid to them, \"You have lost your way, you are on the wrong road, stop and\nturn round.\"\n\nFirst He points to the right road. He proclaims that the Kingdom of God is\ncome. Then He says to them, But before you can enter in you must repent.\nThe people recognised the meaning of the call; they knew that if they\nobeyed the whole course of their lives would have to be changed, because\nhaving lost the true centre of life, they were simply _drifting_. The man\nwho is living without God is like a ship drifting on the wide ocean\nwithout a pilot or chart or compass. For three years He pleaded with them\ntenderly and lovingly, and at last they gave their final answer to His\nmessage. They said, \"We will not submit to the Divine government, we will\nnot have this Man to reign over us,\" [Footnote: St. Luke xix. 14.] _and so\nthey crucified Him_.\n\nWhen we have been led by the Holy Spirit to repentance we see sin, and we\nsee ourselves in a new light. As soon as we really know God we cannot help\nbeing sorry for our sin. We begin to long for a Saviour, a Mediator, and\nit is then that the Holy Spirit points us to Jesus. Repentance, or change\nof mind, is the first step, and then follows conversion--a change of heart\nand life. The word conversion means \"turning round.\" Jesus says,\n\"Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter\ninto the Kingdom of Heaven.\" [Footnote: St. Matt. xviii. 3.]\n\nThink of God's two great gifts; first, the Gift of His only begotten Son,\nthen the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Have you received them? Perhaps you ask,\n\"How can I know?\" If you have received the Holy Spirit there will be joy\nand peace in your heart, and the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in your\ndaily life.\n\n\"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye\nmay abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.\" [Footnote: Rom.\nxv. 13.]\n\n\"And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost.\"\n[Footnote: Acts xiii. 52.] They were filled again and again, more and more\nfilled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.\n\nYou, too, may have a Spirit-filled life. God says to you now, and He is\nsaying it every day and every hour, \"_Be filled with the Spirit._\"\n[Footnote: Eph. v. 18.]\n\nRemember there are different degrees in the Christian life. First, there\nis Everlasting Life for all who seek it. Only ask Me, Jesus said to the\nwoman of Samaria, and I will give you _living_ water. Then he leads her on\na step further. \"It shall be in you a well of water.\" It will be an\nabundant life, a joyous, satisfying life. Afterwards He tells us that it\nwill be a life \"overflowing for others.\" [Footnote: St. John vii. 38, 39.]\nThis is to be the experience of all believers now through the Holy Spirit.\nLastly, the crowning of it all is still to come and we shall drink of \"the\npure river of the Water of Life.\" [Footnote: Rev. xxi. 1.]\nThat will be the fulness of life through all Eternity.\n\n\n\nADDRESS V\n\nTHE VOICE OF GOD\n\nPORTION OF SCRIPTURE--Genesis xxviii. 10-22.\n\n\nJacob is leaving home for the first time, to take a long journey of 450\nmiles. He is quite alone and he feels very lonely when he lies down the\nfirst night in a barren place, with a stone for his pillow. Jacob was like\nsome of us, he had heard about God ever since he was a child, but God was\nnot real to him because he had never had any personal dealings with Him.\n\nThat night he had a wonderful dream, and it made a great difference to his\nwhole life. The ladder which he saw in his dream was to show him that\nthere was a gulf between him and God: and the gulf was caused by his sins.\nIt also showed the necessity for some means of communication to be\nprovided for him. Right down to his deep need the ladder came, right up to\nGod Himself the ladder reached. It was set up on earth and it reached to\nheaven to make him understand that the gulf had been bridged over, so that\nnow, constant, free communication was possible between his soul and God.\nThe ladder which Jacob saw in his dream is mentioned again in St. John's\nGospel. Jesus said to Nathaniel, \"Because I said unto thee I saw thee\nunder the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than\nthese. And He saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye\nshall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon\nthe Son of man.\" [Footnote: St. John i. 50, 51.]\n\nThe Lord Jesus had been revealing Himself to Nathaniel and this\nconversation took place near Bethel, so that the reference to Jacob's\nladder was very forcible and the wonderful type was made clear.\n\nWhen Jesus said that heaven would be opened, He meant not only opened just\nonce, but _remaining open_; so that ever since Christ ascended into heaven\nwe have lived and are still living under an \"open heaven,\" which means\nfree intercourse between God and man, because Christ Himself is the\nLadder. It also means He is the one and only means of communication\nbetween the sinner and God. It is \"through Him we have access by one\nSpirit unto the Father.\" [Footnote: Eph. ii. 18.] All that we know of God\ncomes to us through Him, and all the grace we receive from God comes\nthrough Him. So Jacob's ladder is as real to us now as it was to him then,\nfor it connects the seen with the unseen. It is possible for us now to\nhave Christ's Presence with us always and everywhere, for He says Lo, I am\nwith you alway. [Footnote: Matt. xxviii. 20.]\n\nBut there was something more wonderful for Jacob to see even than the\nladder. \"The LORD stood above the ladder.\" It was the first time in his\nlife he had realised the Presence of God. He had lived over forty years\nwithout realising that God was close to him. When he awoke from his dream\nhe said, \"Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not.\" He never\nforgot it, just as we never forget the time and place where we are\nconverted. One hundred years after that night, when he was a very old man,\nhe mentioned it to his son. He said to Joseph, \"God Almighty appeared unto\nme at Luz and blessed me.\" [Footnote: Gen. xlviii. 3.]\n\nBut what impressed him deeply was that _there_ in that lonely place, many\nmiles away from any human being, he heard the Voice of God speaking to\nhim. It was then that a new life began in his soul, for God told him that\nfrom that moment He would be with him _everywhere_, blessing him and\nprotecting him from all danger, and it was then Jacob began to trust God\nas his _God_.\n\nSo we see how God's glory and God's grace were shining down from the top\nof the ladder into poor Jacob's heart. Jacob was face to face with God for\nthe first time, and he began to tremble with fear. If only you could\nrealise that God is now, at this very moment, straight in front of you,\nyou would fall down on your face before Him, and you would cry to Him as\nJob did, \"I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye\nseeth Thee; wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.\"\n[Footnote: Job xlii. 5, 6.]\n\nIt is at this moment that we realise for the first time our need of a\nsubstitute, just as Job did, for he said, \"He is not a man as I am that I\nshould answer Him, neither is there any daysman betwixt us that can lay\nHis hand upon us both.\" [Footnote: Job ix. 33.] How Job would have\nrejoiced in the glorious revelation which Christ has brought to us. \"There\nis one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,\nWho gave Himself a ransom for all.\" [Footnote: 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6.] He is not\nonly the Mediator laying His hand upon us both, but He _gave Himself_,\nthat is, He gave His life as a _ransom_. The ransom price was His own\nprecious blood, for the life is in the blood. It is the Blood of God's own\ndear Son which makes an atonement for the soul.\n\nThe sentence passed on you and me and on every sinner is the sentence of\ndeath, for death is the penalty for sin. We are all under the sentence of\ndeath, but the glorious message is sent God has found a Substitute.\n\n  \"He bore on the tree the sentence for me,\n  And now both the Surety and sinner are free.\"\n\nYou and I now have what Job longed for so earnestly. The Daysman is the\nSon of God Himself, \"Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation,\" that\nis an atoning sacrifice, \"through faith in His Blood.\" [Footnote: Rom.\niii. 25.]\n\nAt first Jacob trembled with fear, but after he had heard the loving words\nwhich God spoke to him from the top of that wonderful ladder, then he\nbegan to realise that he was no longer alone in that lonely place. He\nsaid, \"This is the house of God, this is the gate of heaven.\" Earth had\nfaded from his sight and he was surrounded by heavenly realities. And so\nit is now, the veil is very thin which separates earth from heaven, the\ntemporal from the Eternal.\n\nIt was _God's Voice_ which woke him up spiritually. God revealed Himself\nas the personal God to Jacob. We can recognise a friend by his voice even\nif we do not see him. So it is the Voice more than anything else which\nmakes the presence of any one real to us. We have an illustration of this\nin the pictures of the gramophone in which we see a dog listening for the\nmaster's voice. The sheep knows the shepherd's voice; the child is quick\nin recognizing its mother's voice; why do we turn a deaf ear to God's\nVoice? How tenderly He pleads with us, saying, \"But My people would not\nhearken to My Voice.\" [Footnote: Ps. lxxxxi. 11.]\n\nGod wants to be very real and very personal to each one of us, so He says,\n\"Unto you, O men, I call, and My Voice is to the sons of man.\" [Footnote:\nProv. viii. 4.]\n\nGod has been calling us from the very beginning. Far back in the 3rd\nchapter of Genesis, when Adam was hiding among the trees of the garden, it\nwas God's Voice which called him out with the searching question, Where\nart thou? It was as if He said, \"Adam, I want you.\" He is the seeking God\nstill. It was God's Voice that reminded Adam of the holy, happy friendship\nnow broken by sin. Before sin came into the world Adam never listened to\nany other voice, and now when God is yearning to bring us to Himself, He\nsays, \"Listen.\" That word Listen, or Hearken, comes again and again in the\nBible. We find it very often in Isaiah and Jeremiah. When God is pleading\nwith the sinner, that is the word He uses more than any other. In Psalm\nlxxxi., where God tells us how grieved He is by our waywardness, He says,\n\"Oh that My people had listened or hearkened unto Me.\" And in Deuteronomy\nxxviii. 45, He tells them that their troubles have been sent because they\nwould not hearken to the Voice of the Lord their God.\n\nI think God has chosen this special way of calling us by His Voice,\nbecause it is what we can all understand--it is so simple and so homely.\nWhen a boy is disobedient the father calls him, then he talks to him and\npleads with him. The father's voice touches the boy's heart. How wonderful\nit is that God's Voice can reach us, however far off we may be. You have\nsometimes been to an Open-Air Service, and you have heard the speaker's\nvoice a good way off, but now it has been discovered that any one's voice\ncan travel through the air and be heard above 300 miles away by means of a\nnew apparatus called the wireless telephone.\n\nSome time ago a gentleman living in England put a special receiver to his\near and he actually heard a man speaking in France, more than 300 miles\naway.\n\nA year or two ago when the _Titanic_ went down among the icebergs, you\nremember how the wireless telegraph sent messages to other ships calling\nfor help. This was done by special letters, flashed across the ocean, such\nas C.Q.D. (come quick, danger) or when the ship was sinking S.O.S. (save\nour souls).\n\nBut wonderful as this is, how much more wonderful it is to discover a way\nby which any one's voice can be heard miles and miles away. Very likely as\ntime goes on and the wireless telephone is more used, you will be able to\nspeak to your father or son far away in Australia or Canada, so that they\nwill not only hear your voice distinctly, but they will answer back, and\nyou will hear their voices just as if you were sitting together again at\nhome. What a wonderful thing it will be to have this close link with them!\n\nIt is the same as the link which Jacob felt when he heard God's voice\nspeaking; it seemed to bring God quite close to him and to make God so\nreal, that he started again on his journey cheered and encouraged; for we\nread in the first verse of the next chapter, \"Then Jacob went on his\njourney,\" and in the margin it says he lifted up his feet, showing his\nheart was lightened of its burden: when the heart is heavy, our feet drag.\nBut he made a fresh start: and if only God's Voice reaches your heart now,\nyou will go on your way rejoicing;  it will be like making a fresh start.\n\nAgain and again we read of God talking to those who were willing to hear\nHis Voice. For example, \"The LORD talked with Moses face to face as a man\nspeaketh unto his friend,\" [Footnote: Exod. xxxiii. 9, 11.] and at Mount\nSinai \"Moses spake and God answered him by a Voice.\"\n\nNot only is the link of communication perfect between God and man, but the\nway in which we can use it and be put in touch with God is so simple: it\nis by faith--that is all.\n\nWe have another illustration of this when we think of the wireless\nmessages. The world's greatest wireless station is in a little village\ncalled Nassau, in Germany. A short time ago a message was sent to a place\nfar, far away over the ocean, 6,500 miles away. How was it started? Only\nby touching a key in the machine. That touch releases the lightning which\ncarries a message for thousands of miles over vast continents and across\nthe boundless sea.\n\nOnly a touch--is it not like the touch of faith? But we must not forget\nthat when the message has reached its destination, when these waves of\nsound talk across the world, the ear at the other end must be prepared to\nhear the call.\n\nThere is the hearing of faith, as well as the touch of faith. The hearing\nmeans not only listening, but being willing to obey the voice. I have been\ntold that when a message is to be sent by wireless telephone, the other\nwaves of sound must be quite still before the person receiving the message\ncan hear it. The speaker has to wait till the vibrations settle down,\nthere must be perfect stillness, and then the voice is heard. How\nimportant it is to shut out all other sounds so that our hearts may be\nstill enough to hear God speak. We must listen with an obedient heart. Do\nyou remember how one Sunday was set apart not long ago to make collections\nfor the blind. At midnight on Saturday, a royal message was sent forth\nwhich encircled the whole world. It was King George's \"God speed\" to the\nappeal for the blind. It was flashed from the wireless station on a lonely\ncliff in Cornwall to another station in America, and it went over the\nseven oceans of the world. It was received by forty-five ships in the\nAtlantic. They were all warned it was coming and they were expecting it.\nThe White Star liner _Baltic_, 810 miles away, heard it, and it travelled\non to India, and it was caught up there 1,500 miles away.\n\nThis reminds me of another royal message from the King of kings which is\nalso encircling the world and telling the good news wherever man is\nwilling to hear it. \"He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit\nsaith unto the Churches.\" [Footnote: Rev. ii. 7.] How the solemn call\nrings out, and rings on: To-day, To-day! How it sounds in our ears with\nstartling urgency, and it is the Holy Ghost who says it, \"To-day, if you\nwill hear His Voice, harden not your heart.\" [Footnote: Heb. iii. 7.]\nWhen we are careless and indifferent to what God's Voice is saying to us\nthen we are hardening our hearts.\n\nPerhaps in days gone by you once listened to God's Voice. Why did you give\nup listening? \"Ah!\" you reply, \"other voices came and drowned that still\nsmall Voice, and the voice of the Evil One poisoned my mind.\"\n\nLet me ask you one more question, Has God's Voice ever stopped calling?\nNo, God is still calling. Oh, that now at this very moment you may be able\nto say, \"The Voice of God has reached my heart.\" If any of you turn a deaf\near to God's Voice, remember the time is coming when \"all who are in the\ngraves shall hear His Voice and shall come forth\"; [Footnote: St. John. v.\n25.] and to you it will be a coming forth to judgment and condemnation.\n\nHow does God speak to us now? We can hear the Voice of God speaking in His\nWord. When any portion of Scripture is specially impressed on our minds it\nshows that God is speaking to us. A young man who had been seeking God\nvery earnestly said one day, \"While reading the Word, I felt certain that\nGod had really spoken to my soul, that He had actually said to me, Live!\"\nYes, that young man was right, for that is just what God has said to us,\nbut it makes all the difference whether we each one receive it as if God\nis really saying it to us personally. Luther felt this, for he used to\nsay, \"When I open the Bible it talks to me.\"\n\nWhy is the Bible like no other book? Because it is the revelation of God\nHimself. The glory of God shines in its pages. In life and in death the\nonly source of comfort is a Personal God. Our great need is to have\nGod personally near, _near and dear_. Never rest till you can look up into\nHis Face with confidence and say, \"Thou art near, O Lord.\" [Footnote: Ps.\ncxix. 151.]\n\nHe is saying to you now, \"Seek ye my Face.\" [Footnote: Ps. xxvii. 8.]\nWhat answer will you give? Will you say to God now, \"Thy Face, Lord, will\nI seek.\" When we seek His Face, then we see \"the glory of God in the face\nof Jesus Christ.\" [Footnote: 2 Cor. iv. 6.] How grand it all is, and yet\nhow simple!\n\nLet me say one word of loving appeal to any who have never really sought\nthe Lord. How is it that you say your prayers and yet you do not expect to\nget an answer direct from God? Because, like Jacob, you have never\nbelieved there is a God. You have not got hold of the first truth which\nthe Bible teaches us, _God is_; \"He that cometh to God must believe that\nHE IS.\" [Footnote: Heb. xi. 6.] When you pray, He must be as real to you\nas if you saw Him standing by hearing and answering you. Until our eyes\nare opened to see that death and judgment, heaven and hell, are great\nrealities we do not really cry to God, and when we do we find out that we\nhave never realised there is a God. Think of what God offers to you.\nForgiveness, life and glory. Would you neglect getting these priceless\ngifts if you believed they were the real offers of a real Person? \"What\nmeanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God.\" [Footnote: Jonah i.\n6.]\n\n\n\nADDRESS VI\n\nTHE HANDS OF GOD\n\nPORTION OF SCRIPTURE--St. John xx. 19-31.\n\n\nWhy has this Gospel been written? The last verse of this chapter tells us.\n\"It has been written that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son\nof God, and that believing we may have life through His Name.\"\n\nIn the Old Testament when \"The Name\" is mentioned it meant the unveiling\nof the grace and glory and power of God. So we read men called upon \"The\nName\"--and in the New Testament when the Divine glory of Christ is\ndescribed we find the same expression, \"His Name.\" It means His nature and\nHis character.\n\nIn the verse which we have just read, the wonderful truth shines out that\nit is through His Name, through all that He is, and all He has done, that\nwe have _life_. So Christ Himself declares, \"My sheep hear My Voice and I\nknow them and they follow Me, and I give unto them Eternal life, and they\nshall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My Hand. My\nFather, which gave them Me, is greater than all, and no man is able to\npluck them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one.\"\n[Footnote: St. John x. 27-30.]\n\nChrist first speaks of His own hand and then of His Father's hand, so\nthere are two hands which hold us fast and keep us safe, now and for ever.\n\nLet us look at what is said about the Hands of God in the Bible.\n\nThink of God's Hands in creation. The Psalmist says, \"Of old hast Thou\nlaid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy\nhands.\" [Footnote: Psa. cii. 25.] \"The sea is His and He made it: and His\nhands formed the dry land.\" [Footnote: Ps. xcv. 5.]\n\nThink of His strong Hands in Providence, as Moses said, \"Thy right hand, O\nLORD, is become glorious in power.\" [Footnote: Exod. xv. 6.]\n\nNehemiah speaks again and again of \"the good hand of my God upon me,\"\n[Footnote: Neh. ii. 8.] when he tells us of all God's loving help and\nguidance in the difficult work he had undertaken.\n\nThink again of God's loving Hands in grace, healing the broken in heart\nand binding up their wounds. How safe David felt when he said, \"Thy right\nhand upholdeth me.\" [Footnote: Ps. lxiii. 8.] He shows his confidence in\nGod when he prays, \"Hold Thou me up and I shall be safe.\" [Footnote: Ps.\ncxix. 117.] When your child wants you to hold him up he slips his little\nhand in yours, doesn't he? Have you ever put your weak hand into God's\nstrong loving Hand so as to let Him do the holding up?\n\nThe saints in olden times felt God's Hand in everything, over-ruling,\nplanning, guiding, and Jesus assures us of the perfect safety and\neverlasting security of the believer, for He says, \"No one, either man or\ndevil, can pluck them out of My hand, nor shall any man be able to pluck\nthem out of My Father's hand;\" [Footnote: St. John x. 28, 29.] so there\nare two Divine Hands holding us fast.\n\nThink once more of the hands of God: not only strong hands to help and to\nheal, but _redeeming_ hands, mighty to save; hands that have been in the\nfire to pluck us out of the burning; hands that have laid hold of the\nenemy and have overcome him; hands that have unlocked the gates of a new\nlife that we may enter in.\n\nNot long ago a little girl was caressing her dear old nurse, and when she\ncaught sight of the deep scars in her hands she asked, \"How did you get\nthese scars?\" The nurse looked at her very tenderly and then she said,\n\"When you were a baby, a fire broke out one night when you were asleep in\nyour cot. I plunged my hands into the flames and lifted you out.\" The\nchild's eyes were full of tears as she looked at the dear scarred hands,\nthe hands that had been wounded to save her.\n\nThose scarred hands remind me of another story. One day, about thirty\nyears ago, some children were playing on a mountain in France, and their\nmerry peals of laughter attracted the notice of a shepherd lad who was\ntaking care of the sheep a little way off. Suddenly a wolf foaming at the\nmouth came in sight. He saw it run madly down the mountain towards the\nchildren. Without a moment's hesitation he rushed forward, seized the\nwolf, and grappled with it. After a fierce struggle he managed to bind a\nleather strap around its mouth, and then he killed it, but not before the\nwolf, which was raving mad, had bitten him severely in the hand. This\noccurred just at the time when Pasteur, the famous Paris doctor, had\ndiscovered a remedy for hydrophobia. Without delay the shepherd lad who\nhad saved the lives of the children at such a cost was taken to Paris and\nwas cured. Hundreds of patients are sent to the Pasteur Institute at Paris\nand when they ring the bell, the door is opened by an elderly man with a\nscar on his hand. He was once the shepherd lad who rescued the children\nfrom the raving wolf, and the deep scars are from its bite. Inside the\nhall there is a statue representing him in the terrible struggle with the\nwolf.\n\nThink of the wounded hands of the Son of God. Do you ask Where? How? Why?\nWhere were they wounded? On Calvary's Cross. How? \"They pierced My hands\nand My feet.\" [Footnote: Ps. xxii. 16.] This is the wonder of it, \"He was\nwounded for our transgressions.\" Look at the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, and\nthere you will see Jesus as the Suffering Substitute. Seven times in that\nchapter it is distinctly mentioned that all His suffering was because He\nwas bearing our sins. Notice in verse 5 it says, \"He was wounded for our\ntransgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.\" Then in verse 6, \"The\nLord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.\" In verse 8, \"For the\ntransgression of My people was He stricken,\" or the stroke was upon Him.\nHe stood between the stroke of Divine Justice and the sinner and received\nthe blow Himself. In verse 10, \"Thou shalt make His soul an offering for\nsin;\" verse 11, \"He shall bear their iniquities;\" verse 12, \"He bare the\nsin of many.\" Jesus was the Suffering Substitute because He was the\nSin-bearer. See how in His death He was identified with the sinner. For\nin verse 12 we read, \"He was numbered with the transgressors.\"\n\nIn the Gospels we are told that there were two thieves crucified with Him,\non either side one and Jesus in the midst. I once saw a coloured\nillustration of the three crosses on Calvary. One cross was painted black,\nthe other was white, and the middle one was red. Now if we look at those\nthree crosses on Calvary from the Divine standpoint, it seems as if one\ncross which was black at first is now white. It is the cross of the\npenitent thief; all his sins have been transferred to the Sin-bearer, so\nnow there is not one sin on him; he has been washed \"whiter than snow.\"\nThe cross of the impenitent thief is black, and remains black, for he dies\nwith all his sins on him and goes into the blackness of darkness for ever.\nThe middle cross is red: Jesus the Holy One has no sin in Him, but the sin\nof the whole world is _on_ Him, because He is the atoning sacrifice for\nsin.\n\n  \"O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head,\n     Our load was laid on Thee.\n   Thou stoodest in the sinner's stead,\n     Didst bear all ill for me.\n   A victim led, Thy blood was shed,\n     Now there's no load for me.\"\n\nIn the writings of an American Evangelist we meet with this quaint\nillustration, \"God uses bright red to get pure white out of dead black.\"\nIt is just the same truth as we have seen shining out from the three\ncrosses. There we see Jesus \"in the midst,\" the God-appointed\nSacrifice for sin, and we see the penitent thief washed whiter than snow\nin the precious Blood. We see Jesus again \"in the midst,\" three days\nafter. It is in the Upper Room at Jerusalem, on Easter Sunday. The\ndisciples who were like scattered sheep have gathered together there once\nmore, though still trembling with fear. \"Then came Jesus and stood in the\nmidst and said unto them, Peace be unto you.\" [Footnote: St. John xx. 19.]\n\nIt was the first time He had spoken to them since the night when He was\nbetrayed when they had forsaken Him and had run away. He might have met\nthem with a reproof, but He knows all about our poor hearts, so He meets\nthem with a smile and the sweet greeting, \"Peace be unto you.\" And He says\nit to them _all_, even to Peter who had denied his Lord, and to the others\nwho had forsaken Him. Yes, He has only one greeting for them one and all,\nand that is \"Peace.\"\n\nThen a pause, and after the pause there came a revelation--\"He showed them\nHis hands and His side.\" Why did He show them the nail prints in His hands\nand the deep wound in His side? It was to reveal to them the wondrous\ntruth that He Himself is our Peace, and that the Peace which He gives is\nthe Peace which He has Himself made through the Blood of His\nCross. [Footnote: Col. i. 20.]\n\n  \"Through Christ on the Cross peace was made,\n  My debt by His death was all paid;\n  No otter foundation is laid,\n  For peace the gift of God's love.\"\n\nHe showed them His hands and His side, because He wants them to understand\nthat these sacred scars tell us of His wondrous love and of the infinite\ncost of Redemption. Let us lift up our hearts and say--\n\n  \"Oh, make me understand it,\n   Help me to take it in,\n\n  \"What it meant to Thee the Holy One\n   To bear away my sin.\"\n\nWe find from St. John's Gospel that Thomas, one of the twelve, was not\namong them when Jesus came, so the rest of the disciples told him, \"We\nhave seen the Lord.\" He replied, \"Unless I see in His hands the wound made\nby the nails, and put my finger into the wound, and put my hand into His\nside, I will never believe it.\" So when a week later Jesus says to Thomas,\n\"Reach hither thy finger and behold (or feel) My hands, and reach hither\nthy hand and thrust it into My side,\" [Footnote: St. John xx. 27.] it\nshows how our Lord made these scars the very test of his faith, and it is\nthe same now.\n\nIn St. Luke's Gospel we read that He said, \"Behold My hands and My feet.\"\nWhen He showed them the marks of His sufferings for them, it was as if He\nsaid, \"Here is the guarantee of your pardon and peace.\" We cannot have\npeace until we have pardon; many seek peace instead of taking pardon\nfirst. When He showed them His hands, and His feet, and His side, it was\nas if He said, \"You need cleansing from all sin; here are the marks of the\ncleansing Blood. You need the touch of healing power, and here is the Hand\nthat will give it to you. You want companionship in your daily life.\nHere are the feet that will travel with you, you never walk alone.\" What\nwonderful tenderness and love! If ever you feel depressed or ready to\ndoubt God's love, remember how \"He showed them His hands and His side,\"\nthat they might see those sacred scars. And we read in the next verse,\n\"Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.\" Yes, \"they were\nfilled with joy at seeing the Master.\" You will remember how troubled\nThomas had been before this, but now the sight of the wounded hands took\naway all his doubts and fears. It was then that his faith rose higher than\nthat of any of the others, for he exclaimed with adoration and worship,\n\"My Lord, and my God!\" If ever you wander away or your heart grows cold\nand careless, think of those words, \"He showed them His hands and His\nside,\" and remember He is still the same in the glory.\n\nWhen the beloved Apostle John looked through the open door into heaven, he\nsaw Him standing there in the midst of the throne with the nail prints in\nHis hands and feet, \"a Lamb as it had been slain.\" [Footnote: Rev. v. 6.]\nWhat a sight!\n\n  \"Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood\n     Shall never lose its power,\n   Till all the ransomed Church of God\n     Be saved to sin no more.\"\n\nBut _why_ did He show them the wounds in His hands and side? To make it\nplain that He bore all the penalty of sin. Some speak about sin as if it\nwere only a mistake, but God says sin is guilt, and that all are guilty,\nfor all have sinned. We have offended against God's holy law, and if any\none breaks the law he brings upon himself the penalty. God says, \"The soul\nthat sinneth, it shall die;\" [Footnote: Ezek. xviii. 20.] so the penalty\nwe deserve is death, everlasting punishment. The penalty must be paid by\nsome one. God's justice demands it.\n\nGod is not willing that any should perish; He loves the sinner, though He\nhates the sin. Still the penalty must be paid, so He found out a way; His\nown dear Son must take the sinner's place and suffer the full penalty\ninstead, the death-penalty.\n\nPerhaps you wonder, how can the death of One atone for the sin of the\nmany? A lad once asked his father this question. The father made no reply\nbut took him into the garden. Then he dug up a spadeful of earth with a\nnumber of worms in it, and turning to the boy he asked him, \"Now which is\nof most value, your life or that of one worm, or even a thousand worms?\"\n\"Mine,\" said the boy. \"Now\" said the father, \"you can see how the life and\ndeath of the Divine Saviour is _sufficient satisfaction to God_ for the\nsins of the whole world.\"\n\nOh! the wonder of it all. We see God, the Holy God, the just God, the\nrighteous God--we see man, guilty, condemned, sinful. Then we see the Son\nof God Who knew no sin, _made_ sin for us, [Footnote: 2 Cor. v. 21.] so\nthat all the requirements of God's holiness and justice are fully met.\n\nIt was on the Cross, in that hour of darkness and agony when He cried, \"My\nGod, My God, _why_ hast Thou forsaken Me,\" that He was _made_ sin for us.\nNow we see the meaning of the wounded Hands, the broken Heart of God.\n\n\"If I were God,\" the cynic said, \"this sinning, suffering world would\nbreak my heart.\" But what if God's heart _was_ broken? Do we not read in\nthe 69th Psalm, \"Reproach hath broken my heart? [Footnote: Ps. lxix. 20.]\"\nThe last night before He died He went to the garden of Gethsemane. Only\nthree of His disciples followed Him into the place where He knelt down to\npray, and even these three fell asleep. He was left alone. He says, \"I\nlooked for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but\nI found none.\" It was then the agony began which ended on the\nCross in a broken heart.\n\nIt was then He prayed saying, \"Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup\nfrom Me, and there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening\nHim.\" [Footnote: St. Luke xxii. 42, 43.]\n\nHis prayer was heard and the victory was won over the adversary, for it\nmust be on the Cross and in no other way that the Atonement could be made.\n\"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for\nus, for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.\"\n[Footnote: Gal. iii. 13.] \"Who His own self bare our sins in His own body\non the tree.\" [Footnote: I Pet. ii. 24.]\n\nIt was there on the Cross that He said, \"It is finished; and He bowed His\nHead and died.\" We should not have known that He died of a broken heart if\none little circumstance had not taken place. The Holy Spirit has shown us\nthat this circumstance was foretold in the Scriptures and was all part of\nGod's purpose in our redemption. The soldiers had orders to break the legs\nof those who had been crucified, so as to hasten their death, and remove\ntheir bodies without delay; but when they came to Jesus and saw that He\nwas dead already, they brake not His legs; but one of the soldiers pierced\nHis side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. \"This was a proof\nthat He had died of a broken heart.\" [Footnote: John xix. 34.]\n\n  \"He died of a broken heart for you,\n     He died of a broken heart,\n   Oh! wondrous love for you, for me,\n     He died of a broken heart.\"\n\nWhen we remember that the pouring out of the blood followed on the\nbreaking of the body, then we see the meaning of the precious words spoken\nby our Lord during the Last Supper. We read that, \"He took bread, and when\nHe had given thanks, He brake it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My Body\nwhich is broken for you.' [Footnote: I Cor. xi. 24.] And He took the cup\nand said, 'This is My Blood of the New Testament which is shed for many.'\"\n[Footnote: St. Mark xiv. 24.]\n\nWhy did He die? Why was His blood poured out? The Apostle Paul answers\nthat question when He says, \"God was in Christ reconciling the world unto\nHimself.\" In that one sentence we have the Message of the Cross! We see\nGod's purpose behind it all.\n\nTwo wonderful truths lie hidden in that glorious message. The first is,\nthat \"Christ _died_ to put away sin,\" because sin is the thing and the\nonly thing which comes between us and God. The good news which Christ\nbrings to us is that God Himself has taken the first step in this work of\nreconciliation. Oh! how wonderful it is that it is our sins which have\nbrought out all the anguish and love of God's heart. Yes, our sins grieved\nHim so much He could not rest till He had devised a plan by which they\ncould \"all be blotted out,\" once for all.\n\nDear friends, whenever your sins are a burden, say these words over and\nover in your heart, \"God was in Christ reconciling me to Himself.\"\n[Footnote: 2 Cor. v. 19.] This alone would have been wonderful, but there\nis something more in the good news, and that is \"God is beseeching you to\nbe reconciled to Him.\" Have you ever grasped that truth?\n\nI remember hearing of a great lawyer who was moved to shed tears, and when\na fellow-lawyer asked him why he was in trouble he replied, \"I see now\nwhat I never saw before. Yes, I see that God is _beseeching_ me to be\nreconciled to Him. I always thought it was for me to beseech God.\"\n\nMany think as this lawyer did that the sinner must first come to God. No,\nit is God Who comes to us entreating us to return to Him. He is always\nsending us messages of love, and the moment we turn to Him and trust Him\nHe gives us a full free pardon.\n\nDear fellow-sinners, \"we pray you now in Christ's stead,\" and because of\nHis great love in dying for you, \"Be reconciled to God.\" God is now\nwilling; are you willing? Do say \"Yes.\" Will you say it now very solemnly\nin your heart to God?\n\n\n\nADDRESS VII\n\nTHE WORD OF GOD\n\nPORTION OF SCRIPTURE--Psalm xix.\n\n\nThis Psalm is full of the glory of God. It tells us first of the Glory of\nGod shining in this beautiful world which He has made, and then it shows\nus the glory of God shining in the Scriptures, in this Book which lies\nopen before us.\n\nThe first verse bursts forth with the triumphant note, \"The heavens\ndeclare the glory of God.\" Everything in earth and sky shows forth His\nwisdom, His power and His love.\n\nThen it gives us a wonderful picture of the sunrise and compares it to \"a\nbridegroom coming out of his chamber.\" You have seen the first streaks of\nlight in the early morning, and then you have watched the onward course of\nthe sun till it is high up in the sky at mid-day, full of power,\n\"rejoicing as a strong man to run a race.\"\n\nBut Nature, with all its secrets, Nature with all its wonders and\ntreasures, is only part of God's revelation of Himself; the other part is\nto be found in His Word.\n\nSo the Psalmist passes from the glorious sun in the heavens to the glory\nshining in the Word of God. The glory we see in God's works is only an\nillustration of the glory shining in this Book. After giving the wonderful\ndescription of the rising sun, he goes on to point out that there is not a\nsingle spot in the whole world where the sun does not shine, and that its\nlight and heat can be felt by everything. Then he shows us that it is just\nthe same with the Word of God. It is God's message to every one, but it is\nonly when it finds an entrance into man's heart that it gives light.\n[Footnote: Ps. cxix. 130.]\n\nIf you draw down the blind the sun cannot shine into your room; so the\nHoly Spirit must open our hearts for the light of His Word to enter in,\notherwise it will be to us the same as any other book.\n\n  \"Is it dark without you, darker still within?\n      Clear the darkened windows,\n      Open wide the door;\n      Let the blessed sunshine in.\"\n\nHow can we know that the Bible is the Word of God? A gentleman, who was an\nunbeliever, stopped one day to speak to Molly, the old woman who kept a\nflower stall near the station. He noticed she was reading her Bible, so he\nasked her why she read it. \"Because it is the Word of God.\" \"How do you\nknow?\" \"Because it cheers and warms my heart. I am just as sure it is\nGod's own Word as I am that it is the sun shining up there.\" This simple\ntestimony was the means of convincing him and he thanked her for it.\n\nWe have heard how the sun shines over the whole world, but is it not\nwonderful that every little drop of water can reflect the whole of its\nlight? In every sunbeam there are seven colours, and when you look up at\nthe rainbow you see all the seven in one drop of rain. This is only an\nillustration of the wonders of God's grace. If you are a child of God the\nwhole of God's grace enters your heart, so you have grace to speak, grace\nto pray, grace to be loving and patient, grace for everything. The whole\nof God's life and light and love are for you as if there were no one else\nin the world. It is the same with all the precious truths of God's Word:\nthey are _all_ yours. A minister who wanted to know how many promises\nthere are in the Bible searched all through the Book and he counted nearly\nfive thousand. Had you any idea that there are as many as five thousand\nprecious promises for the believer in God's Word? Have you claimed them?\n\nA Christian woman who was very ill asked her daughter to read the 8th\nchapter of the Epistle to the Romans. When she had finished the mother\nsaid, \"That's mine, it's _all_ mine.\" How rich she was! Only think of it\nand it is an _Eternal_ inheritance, for the chapter begins with \"no\ncondemnation\" and ends with \"no separation.\"\n\nIf you will look at verses 7 and 8 of our Psalm, you will see four things\nwhich the Word of God does. \"It converts the soul, makes wise the simple,\nrejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes.\" Let us think of these four\nthings.\n\nFirst: \"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.\" The law here\nmeans the whole covenant of Jehovah.\n\nYou remember how, when God appeared to Abraham, that Abraham fell on his\nface, feeling his utter weakness and nothingness, and then God talked with\nhim. When a man is laid low in the dust then God can talk to him. And God\nsaid to Abraham, \"I will make my covenant between Me and thee.\" [Footnote:\nGen. xvii. 2.] A covenant is a promise made under solemn conditions, and\nit is God's covenant of grace which converts the soul. Such a promise as\nwe have in Ezekiel: \"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit\nwill I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your\nflesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh: And I will put my Spirit\nwithin you.\" [Footnote: Ezek. xxxvi. 26.] God says \"I will\" five times in\nthose few lines, because He wants us to understand that in giving this\npromise He undertakes to do in us and for us what we can never do for\nourselves.\n\nThis reminds me of a young woman who was troubled because, although she\nwas longing to be saved, yet she felt her heart was so hard. One Sunday\nthe minister took this verse as the text for his sermon. When he gave it\nout it seemed to her as if a voice was speaking these words close to her,\nright into her ear, \"I will give you an heart of flesh.\" It came like a\nmessage direct from God. She was so deeply touched she could not listen to\nthe sermon, and after it was over she went into the fields to find a quiet\nplace that she might look at the words again in her Bible. She is now a\nvery bright earnest Christian.\n\nIt is through the Word that God speaks to our hearts, and when the Holy\nSpirit makes it a living Word and quickens us to receive it with faith,\nthen we are converted. If you are not saved, take your Bible and read it\nprayerfully, and you will find in it just what you want. Remember the\nletter of Scripture is of no use unless we experience its power and enjoy\nits sweetness.\n\nA young clergyman was converted through a very strange text. He was so\nmuch depressed he thought of committing suicide, and then his eye fell on\nthat verse in Ecclesiastes, \"A living dog is better than a dead lion.\"\n[Footnote: Eccles. ix. 4.] The words brought fresh hope to him. He said to\nhimself, One thing is certain and that is, I am still a _living_ man, and\nhe was then led to seek Christ as the Way, the Truth and the _Life_.\n\nIt is wonderful to think of the many different ways in which God sends His\nWord home to our hearts. Spurgeon gives an instance of this. He was asked\nto visit a dying man who told him about his conversion. He said, \"Some\nyears ago I was at work in the Crystal Palace. God's Spirit was striving\nwith me and I felt the burden of sin. It seemed to follow me wherever I\nwent. Suddenly a voice said to me distinctly, 'Behold he Lamb of God which\ntaketh away the sin of the world.' [Footnote: St. John i. 29.] No one was\nnear me, and I thought the message had come straight from God. I then saw\nclearly that Christ had died to save me, and ever since I have had joy and\npeace in believing.\"\n\nSpurgeon listened to the dying man's testimony with deep interest, and he\nremembered that on that very day he had gone to the Crystal Palace to test\nhis voice in the transept before speaking at a People's service which was\nto be held there, and had used that very text, \"Behold the Lamb of God\nwhich taketh away the sin of the world.\"\n\nLet us thank God that His Word is _perfect_ in converting he soul.\n\n\"The testimony of the Lord is _sure_, making wise the simple.\" It is well\nknown that very often a man who is no scholar, but who is taught of God,\nis able to see deep truths which learned men fail to understand. Every\ntime you read your Bible look up and say, \"Lord, open Thou mine eyes that\nI may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.\" [Footnote: Ps. cxix. 18.]\n\nDo not feel discouraged because you do not understand t all. There are\nmany things which earthly fathers tell their children which they do not\nunderstand till they are grown up, but still they love to get father's\nletters, and the Bible is our heavenly Father's letter to us. Do you value\nit?\n\nIn the 8th verse of the 19th Psalm it says, \"The statutes of the LORD are\nright, rejoicing the heart.\" I have seen many careworn faces lit up with\njoy when reading the Word. One man especially, who had a great deal of\ntrouble and opposition in his home life, used to give his testimony at the\nMeeting. Opening his Bible in the 5th chapter of the Gospel of St. John he\nwould read the 24th verse, \"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that\nheareth My word and believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting life\nand shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.\"\n\nThen he would tell us with a beaming face that it was his song of\nassurance, for, as he said, there are three links, \"He that _heareth_,\n_believeth_, _hath_--and 'hath' means 'got it,' and I've got everlasting\nlife. Jesus says it and I know it's true.\" He is now in the glory, and\nmaybe he is telling the angels about it.\n\nIf we had no Bible we should have no certainty that our sins are forgiven.\nA little girl named Molly said to her aunt who was teaching her about\nJesus, \"How can I be sure that my sins are forgiven?\" \"Because God says\nso,\" [Footnote: i John i. 9.] was the reply, and then she repeated the\ntext, \"If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our\nsins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\"\n\nMany say, \"I believe in the forgiveness of sins,\" and yet they still carry\nabout the burden of their sins. They see clearly how God can forgive sin,\nbut they cannot realise that it is their own sins which are forgiven. This\nwas the case with Luther. He tells us how, when he was distressed because\nof his sins, a friend pointed out to him that he would not have real peace\nunless he claimed God's forgiveness for his _own _sins. It was like a new\nlight flashing into his soul; he saw his mistake and looking up with a\nbeaming face, he said, \"I see it now--it is not other people's sins, it is\n_my_ sins which are all forgiven!\"\n\nWe must not estimate sin and forgiveness by our own standard. When we have\ngiven way to sin again and again we feel ashamed to ask God's forgiveness\nso often but the wonder of it all is that God meets this very feeling of\nshame with the words, \"My thoughts are not your thoughts\"; and then He\nadds, \"For I will abundantly pardon,\" [Footnote: 2 Isa. lv. 7, 8.] which\nmeans, I will repeatedly pardon. God's thoughts of sin and His thoughts\nabout forgiveness are far higher than ours. Sometimes I feel quite\noverwhelmed when I think of how great His forgiving love has been to me.\n\nLook again at our Psalm, verse 7, \"The testimony of the Lord is _sure_,\nmaking wise the simple.\" The word Testimony means an assurance or a\npromise from God to the individual soul, and David had such confidence in\nGod he is quite sure He will not disappoint him or fail to keep His word.\nSo he says, \"The testimony, or promise, of God is _sure_.\" It is this\ncertainty which makes David so happy.\n\nHe seems to be overflowing with joy, for he says, \"Thy testimonies also\nare my delight and my counsellors,\" [Footnote: Ps. cxix. 24.] and again,\n\"I love Thy testimonies.\" \"Thy testimonies are wonderful, therefore doth\nmy soul keep them. Thy testimonies that Thou hast commanded are righteous\nand very faithful.\" [Footnote: Ps. cxix. 119, 129, 138.]\n\nThe word \"Testimony\" means also what God has commanded us to believe and\nalso to practise.\n\nA native convert in China said the other day, \"I began by reading the\nBible, but now I am _behaving_ it.\" This is what David means when he says,\n\"My soul hath kept Thy testimonies, and I love them exceedingly.\"\n[Footnote: Ps. cxix. 167.]\n\nThe question was once asked at a meeting, \"Can you point to any text in\nthe Word of God which makes you sure you are saved and safe?\" \"I can,\"\nsaid one of the company, in a quiet firm voice. \"It is John iii. 36,\nHe that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.\"\n\nWe have many bed-rock texts and that is one, as the beautiful old hymn\nsays--\n\n  \"How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,\n   Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word.\"\n\nI was summoned late one evening to see a dying man who had been brought to\nChrist through my Bible Class. When I entered his room he looked up and\nsaid with a smile, \"I sent for you because I want to tell you that I am\nquite safe, quite sure and quite satisfied. I am quite safe because Jesus\ndied for me. I am quite sure because I have His Word for it. I am quite\nsatisfied because I am going to be with Him in the glory.\"\n\nThe Word of God was written that we _might_ believe; to believe is to\nknow, and to be quite certain. The word \"believe\" comes from an old root\nmeaning \"to live by.\" \"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every\nword that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.\" [Footnote: St. Matt. iv.\n4.] Put your finger down on one of the many precious assurances which God\nhas given us in His Word, of the certainty of complete forgiveness and\nacceptance, and then look up into His face with loving gratitude.\n\nGod's pardon and acceptance are absolute and eternal; nothing can ever\nalter them. God wants us to know it and to live in the joy of it. Trusting\nHis Word gives us safety, certainty and enjoyment.\n\nIf any sin comes into your mind and troubles you, dear child of God, do\nnot carry it about with you, tell Father about it at once; confess it to\nHim and remember that you are under the cleansing Blood. \"The Blood of\nJesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin.\" [Footnote: 1 John i.\n7.] It has not only cleansed us once for all, but it is cleansing us now\nat the present moment.\n\nIt is important to remember that the whole purpose of the Bible is to give\nglory to God. It is the Everlasting Word of the Everlasting God. \"The word\nof our God shall stand for ever.\" [Footnote: Isa. xl. 8.] Make the word of\nGod _everything_. Receive its statements by faith as revelations of simple\ncertainties. Find out how happy you are. \"Happy is that people that is in\nsuch a case, yea, happy is that people whose God is Lord.\" [Footnote: Ps.\ncxliv. 15.]\n\nIf we are walking with God in our daily life we need a light to show us\nthe way. David knew well what it was to go along rough roads on dark\nnights, so he says, \"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my\npath.\" [Footnote: Ps. cxix. 105.]\n\nDid you ever hear about Moody's torch? One night Moody had to return home\nthrough a dark wood after one of his meetings, and the path was winding\nand rough, so a friend offered him a torch. Moody declined taking it,\nsaying, \"Thank you, but it is too small.\"\n\n\"It will light you home,\" said the man.\n\n\"But the wind may blow it out.\"\n\n\"It will light you home.\"\n\n\"But if it should rain?\"\n\n\"It will light you home.\"\n\nAt last Moody started, taking the torch with him, and he said afterwards,\n\"In spite of all my fears, it gave abundant light on my path all the way\nhome.\"\n\nEvery promise in the Word of God is like Moody's torch, and if we will\ntake it and use it, we shall find as he did, that it will light us all the\nway to our Eternal Home. The Bible is the Book of light placed by our\nMaster in the hand of faith that we may see clearly how to walk and to\nplease God and how to deal wisely and kindly with those around us. It\ncontains plain directions about everything in our daily life.\n\nThe Bible is a Revelation of God Himself. It is a direct communication\nfrom Him to us. There are four things made known to us in the Word which\nare of priceless value--\n\n1. It proclaims a full, free salvation through faith in Christ. \"To you is\nthe Message of this Salvation sent.\"\n\n2. It opens out to you the riches of grace and invites you to take them\nfreely--freely--freely.\n\n3. It opens \"the door of faith\" wide to the weakest sinner and even to\nyou.\n\n4. It gives a new life within, which transforms the soul and makes us new\ncreatures in Christ Jesus.\n\nOur Lord says, \"The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they\nare life.\" [Footnote: St. John vi, 63.] Can you say, \"Thy Word hath\nquickened me\"? [Footnote: Ps. cxix. 50.]\n\nDo not be satisfied with reading a chapter here and there. Read straight\nthrough. Why? Because the Bible has a beginning and an ending like any\nother book. It begins with the story of a friendship between God and man:\nwe see man very happy in this friendship. Then something happens; you will\nfind it in the third chapter of Genesis. Some one has come in between them\nand the friendship is broken. Still God is looking for His friend and\ncalling him, \"Where are you?\" The answer comes from under the shadow of\nthe trees. \"I heard Thy voice and I was afraid and hid myself.\"\n\nNow we come to the last words at the end of the Book, and we hear the same\nVoice saying, \"I am coming back again very soon.\" It is the Voice of the\nsame Friend, no longer sad but glad. \"The darkness has all passed\naway and the true Light is shining,\" [Footnote: I John ii. 8.] and will\nshine for ever: yes, it is sunshine all around, everlasting sunshine.\n\nWhere is the Bible? Do you keep your Bible where you can take it up\nwhenever you have a few spare moments? Is it ready at hand so that you can\nread it before you go to bed at night? Do the children speak of it as\n\"Mother's book\"? Do you turn to it for strength and comfort? Is it a\n_living_ book to you?\n\nOne of the most solemn things which God says to His rebellious people in\nolden times is that \"they were casting His Words behind their backs.\" We\nare doing the same thing if the Bible is laid aside on the shelf, or put\ninto the front room and allowed to remain unopened week after week. There\ncan be no blessing in your home and in your life while you neglect the\nWord of God. It is this very word of God which will judge you at the last\nday.\n\nListen to Christ's solemn warning: \"He that rejecteth Me and receiveth not\nMy words hath one that judgeth him,\" which means you will not be left\nwithout a Judge. It is not a matter of small importance whether you read\nthe Bible or not: it is a matter of life or death. A neglected Bible shows\nyou are living without God; a neglected Bible shows you are living for\nthis world only; a neglected Bible shows that your soul is dying of\nstarvation; a neglected Bible means that though you may _think_ you can\nget on very well without it, Jesus _says_, \"The Word that I have spoken\nthe same will judge him in the last day.\" [Footnote: St. John xii. 48.]\n\nThe Bible is God's Message to this present generation. Sometimes people\nwant to lay it on one side as an old book which is out of date. It is the\nmost up-to-date book in the world. It not only tells us of what is going\non at the present moment, but about what will happen in the future. We see\npictures in the daily papers of what people were doing yesterday and what\nthey looked like, but in the Bible we have portraits true to life not only\nof what we are outwardly, but of the thoughts of our hearts. \"The Word of\nGod is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword: it can\ndiscern the secret thoughts and purposes of the heart.\" [Footnote: Heb.\niv. 12.] We hear a great deal about the X-rays which show what is going on\ninside the body, but this is nothing compared to the Word of God which\npenetrates deep down into our inmost feelings and brings them to light. It\nis better to be searched and cleansed now, than to go on in the old way\nand then to stand before the great White Throne by and by, condemned to\neverlasting punishment.\n\nLet us pray with David, \"Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and\nknow my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in\nthe way Everlasting. Amen.\" [Footnote: Ps. cxxxix, 23, 24.]\n\n\n\nADDRESS VIII\n\nHAVE FAITH IN GOD\n\nPORTION OF SCRIPTURE--Romans iv.\n\n\nThere is one man set before us in this chapter as the man who had faith in\nGod. The one thing which marks him more than any other is his faith. The\nman lived nearly 4,000 years ago, and yet he is still a vivid personality;\nhe lives on in our thoughts and memories as the man who trusted God. His\nname is still reverenced all over the world, even among people of\ndifferent religions, as \"The Friend of God.\"\n\n\"The God of Glory appeared to Abraham,\" and from that moment Abraham's\nfaith fastens on what God is. The attractive power of Jehovah drew him\nfrom his home, his relations and his country, and with every fresh\nrevelation of God, Abraham's faith grasped more of God and clung to Him\nwith a firmer hold. God's word was all he had to go by; whatever God said\nwas enough for him; whatever God told him to do, he did it, because, to\n_trust God_ means to obey Him. He had God with him at every step.\n\nIf ever there was a clear-sighted man, that man was Abraham, for trust in\nGod enlightens our understanding. He was a man with a far sight. He saw\nwhat no other man then living saw. He saw that the day was coming when God\nwould send His Son to be the Saviour of the world. How do we know this?\nBecause Christ said, \"Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and\nwas glad.\" [Footnote: St. John viii. 56.] He saw far on into the future,\nfarther than any other man then living. He saw the golden City, the holy\nCity, \"whose builder and maker is God.\" [Footnote: Heb, xi. 10.] Yes, the\neye of faith not only sees God, it sees also what \"God has prepared for\nthose who love Him.\"\n\nGod was very real to that man. Abraham trusted God because he knew Him\npersonally. Faith is the act of the soul which looks wholly away from\n_self_, whether it be righteous self or sinful self, and looks to God\nonly, in complete submission and confidence.\n\nIt was because Abraham trusted Him that God stamped the man as His\nfriend--Abraham My friend. On and on through all these hundreds of years\nhe has been called \"the Friend of God.\" In the book of Chronicles, in\nIsaiah and in the Epistle of James it is mentioned again, \"He was called\nthe Friend of God.\"\n\nWhat is friendship? It is two hearts trusting in each other. Abraham\ntrusted God, and God trusted Abraham. God put such confidence in him that\nHe let him know that He was going to destroy the cities of the plain.\nThe LORD said, \"Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?\"\n[Footnote: Gen. xviii. 17.]\n\nMutual trust is at the root of all friendship. Where there is a lack of\nmutual confidence in the home life or in commercial life it spells ruin.\nThe great question for each one in life is, What is my relation to God? Is\nit trusting God, or is it doubting God?\n\n\"Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.\"\n[Footnote: Rom. iv. 3.] What is righteousness? It means to be right with\nGod, and the moment we trust God's Word we are made righteous, and we\nbecome righteous.\n\nWe read in Acts that after their first missionary tour. Paul and Barnabas\nreported in detail all that God had done, and how He had opened the door\nof faith unto the Gentiles. [Footnote: Acts xiv. 27.] So faith is the\ngate of life by which the Gentiles were entering in.\n\nHere was a new fact proving that faith was the gate of the Lord into which\nthe righteous should enter; [Footnote: Ps. cxviii. 20.] righteous\n_because_ believing. Faith is the door by which God comes into our hearts.\nFaith is only the door, nothing in itself, but it is called \"precious\nfaith\" because of all the life and joy and riches of grace and glory which\nit lets in.\n\nAbraham is not only presented to us in the Word of God as the Friend of\nGod, but also as a pattern for all believers, and we are told to take him\nas our model, \"to walk in his steps,\" to trust God and to find in God's\nwondrous friendship all that he found. God has been teaching us ever\nsince, through the simplicity of the faith of this man. The most\nremarkable point in his faith is this, he grasped as no one else had done\nthat God is God because He can quicken the dead. [Footnote: Rom. iv. 17.]\nHe can give life to the dead because He Himself is the Source of life. He\ncalls \"those things which are not as though they were\" because He is the\nCreator of all things. This applies not only to the body but to the soul.\nYour confidence in God began when your soul, which was \"dead in sin,\" was\nquickened into a new life. When we ourselves have experienced this\nquickening it gives us such faith in praying for those we love, knowing\nthat God alone can quicken dead souls.\n\nAbraham was \"strong in faith\"; even when God promised him a son, although\nit seemed impossible, \"he staggered not at the promise of God through\nunbelief,\" being \"fully persuaded\" that God was able to do it. To be\n\"strong in faith\" is to feel our utter helplessness and to rely on God's\npower only; to be \"strong in faith\" is to grasp God's promise and not to\nlet anything make us doubt it.\n\nWe have an illustration of this strong faith in the case of the first\nmissionary who went out to China a hundred years ago. The captain of the\nship in which he sailed was an atheist, and one day he said to him with a\nsneer, \"You don't suppose, do you, that you are going to convert those\nChinese?\" \"No,\" said the missionary, \"but I believe _God_ is going to do\nit.\" Did God fail him? No. His faith was rewarded, and at the present time\nthere are a quarter of a million Chinese believers who meet in fellowship\nat the Lord's Table.\n\nWhat is faith? It is the link between me and God. The link between my\nemptiness and God's fulness. The link between me, the sinner and Jesus,\nthe Saviour. Is there this link between you and God? Is the link on? Faith\nis the spiritual link, the one and only means by which a man can have\ndealings with God, realise God and walk with God. It is a living link\nbetween God and the soul, a living union. The word \"faith\" comes from an\nold word which means to _bind_. When I say \"I _believe_ God,\" it means\nthat \"I am His and He is mine for ever and for ever.\" It is trusting in\nHis love, not a mere cold belief in His power. It is grasping His\npromises, because they are precious promises. It is the whole heart and\nmind going out and up to God. David says: \"Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up\nmy soul; O my God, I trust in Thee,\" [Footnote: Ps. xxv, 1, 2, 5] This\nbrings perfect rest. \"Thou art the God of my salvation, on Thee do I wait\nall the day.\" Do we make it a habit to be constantly referring to God\nabout everything? We learn first, that _God_ is, and then our faith feeds\nupon _what_ God is. His faithfulness and His lovingkindness are seen in\nall His dealings with us.\n\nFaith has to do with unseen realities, for faith is the evidence, or proof\nof things not seen; [Footnote: Heb. xi. 1.] it makes them as real as if we\ncould see them, and brings them near.\n\nSo we may say faith is like the telegraph wire which connects two places\nhowever far apart they may be.\n\nWe had an illustration of this not long ago. Our Queen Mary was in her\nsitting-room in Buckingham Palace. A hospital was to be opened in Canada\n4,000 miles off, and she was asked to perform the ceremony. When the\nsignal was given that all was ready, the Queen pressed a little ivory\nbutton and in two seconds the door of the hospital, which was held by an\nelectric wire, opened, and in fifteen seconds the signal was flashed back\nthat the hospital was open. So in about half a minute the signal went\nthere and back over a space of 8,000 miles. How wonderful! and yet greater\nspiritual wonders are happening every day and many times in the day, if\nonly we have faith in God and let Him work in us and through us.\n\nI will give you another illustration how the simple touch of faith links\nus with God's power. A few years ago some rocks blocked the entrance into\nthe river St. Lawrence, so that the ships could not go up the river to\nQuebec. It was decided that the mass of solid rock must be removed. How\nwas it done? In the presence of a large crowd a little child stepped\nforward and touched an electric button and the whole mass of rock was\nblown up by dynamite and the passage cleared.\n\nFaith has done great wonders in times past, and it can still do wonders,\nif only we make use of God's Almighty power. But the rule is, \"According\nto your faith so be it unto you.\"\n\nI will give you an illustration. When I want light in my room I touch the\nelectric button and the room is filled with light. The moment I press the\nbutton I expect the light will come, and I am surprised if it fails. Why?\nTouching the electric button is like the touch of faith; it brings us into\ncontact with the source of light. Faith brings me into contact with God\nHimself, for He is the source of life and light. God has ordained that\nfaith shall be a power as real and as uniform in its working as light or\nheat or electricity. Everything about them is a mystery which we do not\nfully understand, but all the same they are real to us and we use them.\nAlthough we do not understand them, yet we prove again and again that they\nsupply us with new life and energy simply by a touch. Even a child can\ntouch. Faith places all God's fulness at our disposal, but it is only\naccording to our faith that we receive it.\n\nI know a poor woman who went through a time of great anxiety about her\nlittle girl who was ill. One day a Christian friend called to see her and\nshe told her all about her trouble. When she had finished the friend said\nto her very tenderly, \"You have forgotten one little word of five\nletters.\" \"What is it? Do tell me,\" she exclaimed, looking puzzled. Then\nthe friend, pointing on her five fingers, said slowly, _f-a-i-t-h_. The\ndark cloud cleared away and she was able to look up into God's face again\nand to trust Him.\n\nSo when Christ says, \"Have faith in God,\" it is a command to hold fast to\nGod. It means trust God about everything, great and small; nothing is too\nsmall. Trust Him to save you, and to keep you. Trust Him in every\ndifficulty and in every duty.\n\n\"Little faith will bring your souls to heaven, but great faith will bring\nheaven to your souls.\"\n\nWhen Christ said to Peter and the others, \"Have faith in God,\" He said it\nvery earnestly and with a ring of deep conviction in His voice. He knew in\nHimself what dependence on God means in the earthly life. Day by day He\nshowed what it is to have simple trust in God. When He said, \"Have faith\nin God,\" He said it very solemnly, because He was speaking on behalf of\nHis Father.\n\nHe had come to reveal Him, so He says, \"I do nothing of Myself, but as My\nFather hath taught Me I speak these things.\" He had already said, \"He that\nbelieveth on Me hath everlasting life,\" and now He adds, \"Have faith in\nGod.\" Yes, He claims our confidence, our full confidence, not a\nhalf-hearted trust.\n\nOur Lord saw men seeking other objects of trust, so He says, \"Take hold of\nGod, hold fast to God, have faith in God and never let it go.\"\n\nThe world's great need is faith in God. God's own character demands it.\nThe Scriptures make Him known and reveal Him as altogether trustworthy,\nsuch an One as invites our entire confidence. To have faith in God means\nleaning on Him, letting Him bear the whole weight. There is a great\ndifference between believing and committing. Many say they believe, but\nthey are not willing to commit themselves to Him.\n\nA few years ago there was a man named Blondin who performed wonderful\nfeats at the Crystal Palace. Once he walked on a tight rope stretched\nacross the centre of the Palace at a height of 150 feet. Another time a\nrope was stretched at a great height over a shipbuilder's yard, and he not\nonly walked steadily across, but he carried a man on his back. A large\ncrowd gazed at him in wonder and awe, and great was their relief when both\nBlondin and his burden reached the ground in safety.\n\nAmong the eager upturned faces in the crowd there was a lad about eleven\nyears of age. When Blondin came down he went up to the lad and said to\nhim, \"You saw me carry that big man across, do you believe I could take\nyou?\" \"Of course you could,\" replied the boy; \"why, he was a big man, and\nI am only a little chap.\" \"Well, then, jump up, my lad,\" said Blondin, and\nhe stooped down for the boy to climb up on his back. But although the boy\nsaid he believed Blondin was able to carry him across, he was not willing\nto trust himself, and so, just saying, \"No, thank you,\" he was off like a\nshot and ran as fast as he could till he was lost in the crowd. Though he\nsaid he believed, when it came to the point he did not commit himself, and\nthat is all the difference, between believing _in_ Christ and believing\n_on_ Him.\n\nFaith in God means really committing ourselves into His hands and rolling\nour burdens on Him.\n\nIf we withhold our confidence it shows that we do not really believe that\nGod is what the Bible says He is. The reason there is so much unrest and\nungodliness is because we have lost sight of God. It is not because the\nBible is out of date as some say, or that the Gospel has lost its power;\nit is still as ever, \"the power of God unto salvation,\" but we are\nlimiting God.\n\nIt is just the same now as in olden times when the children of Israel\nlimited the Holy One of Israel, and we read how this lack of confidence\ngrieved God all through those forty years in the wilderness. Yea, they\nspake against God, they said, \"Can God furnish a table in the wilderness;\ncan God give bread also; can He provide flesh for His people?\" [Footnote:\nPs. lxxviii. 19, 20.] Unbelief asks, \"_Can He?_\" Faith says, \"_He can._\"\nDear friends, let me ask you to stop and ask yourself, Where do you put\nthat little word \"can\"? Are you constantly thinking to yourself, Can God?\nor are you saying in your heart and meaning it too, \"_God can_\"! We limit\nGod's power to save, by asking, _Can_ God? The hindrance is the same as in\nolden times when Jeremiah felt that because of the unbelief of the people\n\"the Lord was as a mighty man that cannot save.\" [Footnote: Jer. xiv; 9.]\n\nYou have prayed many years perhaps for the conversion of some one near and\ndear to you, but are you limiting God because you doubt His power to do\nit? A poor man who gave way to drink said sadly, \"I have broken the pledge\nagain and again\"; then pointing to his pledge card he said, \"But now I\nhave written a text on it, Isaiah xli. 13: 'For I the Lord thy God will\nhold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee.'\" Then\nlooking up he said simply, \"Maybe, Him and me will do it together.\"\n\nIs it victory over temptation you long for? Look up to Him and say, \"I\ncan't, but God can.\" Is it grace you need for some special trial? Say,\n\"God is able to make all grace abound towards me, for He tells us in His\nWord that He is able to do 'exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think\naccording to the power that is working in us.'\" [Footnote: Eph. iii. 20.]\nThe world's great sin is not trusting God. \"Thus said the LORD, Cursed be\nthe man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart\ndeparteth from the Lord.\" [Footnote: Jer. xvii. 5.] Yet in times of\ndifficulty or danger how apt we are to lean on the arm of flesh.\n\nDuring the present European war I was much impressed by the words of one\nof our soldiers who writes from the front: \"After all that is being done\nthere still remains one supreme necessity without which neither arms or\nmunitions can be decisive, namely, the spiritual outlook of the whole\nnation. When I returned home after ten months in Flanders, I was amazed at\nthe lack of spirituality of the people as a whole. The simple faith and\ndependence upon God which characterised our country in her past struggles\nseem lost to sight. 'They trusted in Thee and Thou didst deliver them'\nimplied no disregard for military efficiency; it was the real and vital\naccompaniment to armed force. Can it be that the hellishness of battle,\nthe wearing down of the spirit induced by trench warfare, moments of utter\nloneliness which every soldier has to bear, strike right at the soul and\nenable him to realise the nearness of the spiritual world? 'Prayer is the\nfoundation of all grace' were the words of a dying soldier who had\ndeliberately returned to the area of poisonous gas and had brought back\nthe machine gun on his shoulders. Some of us have realised what individual\nprayer at home has done for us, but we should all like to feel that the\nwhole nation is also testing the value of spiritual power.\"\n\nWe read in God's Word that \"The children of Judah prevailed, because they\nrelied upon the Lord God\"; [Footnote: 2 Chron. xiii. 18.] and when King\nAsa was defeated the prophet said to him, \"Because thou hast relied on the\nKing of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host\nof the King of Syria escaped out of thine hand.\" [Footnote: 2 Chron. xvi.\n7.]\n\nTo have faith in God we must put God first in everything. He must be first\nwhen we awake in the morning. How blessed it is to be able to feel, \"When\nI awake I am still with Thee.\" A working man said to me once, \"I make\nmyself happy in God the first thing in the morning.\" David says, \"In the\nmorning will I direct my prayer unto Thee and will look up.\" [Footnote:\nPs. v. 3.] \"When I awake I am still with Thee.\" [Footnote: Ps. cxxxix.\n18.]\n\n\"In my morning prayer,\" said a Christian man, \"instead of thinking of my\nown needs first, I like to think of the fulness there is in Christ for\nme.\" Let us resolve to put \"God _first_,\" even if we have only time for\none text of Scripture. \"God _first_,\" even if it is only a minute or two\nfor prayer. A Christian said once, \"I must see the face of God before I\nsee the face of man.\" The manna was gathered early every morning. Another\nsaid, \"Unless I meet with God first, I cannot meet the difficulties of the\nday in a prepared spirit.\" If you put \"God first,\" you will find this will\nmake all the difference as to how you do your work and how you deal with\nothers. \"Little is much if God is in it.\"\n\nTo have faith in God is to trust Him _only_. David says, \"My soul, wait\nthou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him.\" [Footnote: Ps. lxii.\n5.] Is it so with you? If so, what for, and for how much? First find out\nfrom His Word that God is able and willing to do what you need; then trust\nHim to do it. \"Trust in Him at all times\" it says again in that beautiful\nPsalm. [Footnote: Ps. lxii. 8.]\n\n\"I have been looking into my Bible,\" said a working man, \"and I find a\ngreat many men trusted God, and whatever they trusted God for, they always\ngot it; He never failed them, and it is the same now.\"\n\nYou have all heard of Florence Nightingale and her life of devotion in\nnursing the sick. She was asked to tell the secret of her earnest\nChristian life, and after a pause she said, \"I have kept nothing back from\nGod.\" Faith in God is unreserved confidence, telling Him all and keeping\nnothing back. But before we can do this as a daily habit we must\ndefinitely commit ourselves and all we have into God's hands.\n\nIt says in Isaiah xliv. 5, \"One shall say, I am the Lord's.\" I have a mark\nin my Bible which I made many years ago by the side of these words. I put\nthe date and then I wrote these words: \"He gave Himself for me and I give\nmyself to Him. He takes me and I take Him.\" Ever since then it has been my\ndelight to tell others how simple it all is. It is the sinner taking the\nSaviour and the Saviour taking the sinner.\n\nAre you asking, What must I do? First believe what God says about you in\nHis Word. He says, that you are guilty, lost, ruined. Then He presents\nChrist to us as the Saviour and calls on us to believe what He says about\nHim. \"He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he hath not\nbelieved the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record that\nGod hath given to us eternal life and this life is in His Son.\" [Footnote:\nI John v. 10, 11.]\n\n\"Have faith in God.\" Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of\nGod, and \"faith is the gift of God.\" And the wonder of it all is that God\nsays to the weak ones like poor Jacob, \"I have chosen thee and not cast\nthee away,\" and He never will, for \"_God keeps all His failures_,\" not\nlike man who throws his failures on one side as worthless.\n\n  Oh! to trust Him then more fully,\n    Just to simply trust.\n\nThen instead of \"limiting the Holy One of Israel\" we shall be singing at\nthe top of our voices, \"The LORD hath done great things for us whereof we\nare glad.\" [Footnote: Ps. cxxvi. 3.] So then let us \"trust in the Lord for\never, for in the Lord Jehovah is Everlasting Strength.\" [Footnote: Isa.\nxxvi. 4.]\n\n\n\nADDRESS IX\n\nTHE CHURCH OF GOD\n\nPORTION OF SCRIPTURE--Ephesians v. 22-33.\n\n\n\"Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it.\" [Footnote: Eph. v.\n25.] Two precious truths shine out in these words. He _loved_, He _gave_.\nHe not only gave Himself for the Church when He died on the Cross, but He\nis still sanctifying and cleansing it, and by and by when He comes again\n\"He will present it unto Himself a glorious Church.\" [Footnote: Eph. v.\n27.]\n\nSo we have the history of the Church in the past, in the present, and in\nthe future. We look back to the past and we see Christ giving Himself,\nthat is, laying down His life on the Cross; but we must also look far, far\nback into the past Eternity to find out another precious truth. (Perhaps\nyou have never thought about it.) It is, that the Church was in God's\nthoughts from the very beginning! The Son of God was in the bosom of the\nFather \"in the beginning\"; and it was then--before the world was created,\nthat God chose us in Him and gave us to Him. [Footnote: Eph. i. 4.]\nNow we see why \"Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it.\"\n\nWhat is the Church? The word \"Church\" means \"called out,\" so the Church\nembraces all who have been \"called out\" during the present age to form the\n\"Body of Christ.\" In the Old Testament we find that the Jews were God's\nchosen people, [Footnote: Exod. vi. 7.] so they had all the privileges,\nbut in later times, the Jews rejected the Gospel of the grace of God, and\nthen God graciously visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people to\nbe called by His Name. [Footnote: Acts xv. 14.]\n\nWhen did this special \"_calling out_\" begin? Nearly 1900 years ago on the\nDay of Pentecost, and it has been going on ever since, and when the number\nof \"the called-out ones\" has been completed, then \"The Lord Himself shall\ndescend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and\nwith the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we\nwhich are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the\nclouds to meet the Lord in the air.\" [Footnote: I Thess. iv. 16, 17.]\n\nEach of those three words, \"_chosen_,\" \"_called out_,\" and \"_caught up_,\"\nleads us on to something more. We were chosen in Him to be holy;\n[Footnote: Eph. i. 4.] we are called out to be the Body of Christ now, and\nby and by we shall be caught up to meet the Bridegroom and to be with Him\nfor ever. If you are a child of God, you can say with holy wonder, \"God\nhas done all this for me.\"\n\nThe Church was formed out of a little company of 120 men and women who\nwere gathered together praying in the Upper Room at Jerusalem. [Footnote:\nActs i. 14, 15.] Suddenly they heard a wonderful sound and saw a heavenly\nvision, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost; and before the day\nwas over that little company increased to the number of 3,000 souls. How\nmany does it number now? No one knows, but it is a \"multitude which no man\ncan number.\" [Footnote: Rev. vii. 9.] Some are already in glory, some are\nstill on earth, but it matters not where they are, they belong to the\n\"whole family\" of God \"in heaven and in earth.\" [Footnote: Eph. iii. 15.]\n\nOn the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, His special\nwork was to create a new thing--it was then that the Church of God was\nformed into one Body by the Holy Spirit, \"For, as the body is one and hath\nmany members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one\nbody, so also is Christ.\" [Footnote: I Cor. xii. 12, 27.] \"Now ye are the\nBody of Christ and members in particular,\" that is, individually, for\nevery saved soul is a member.\n\nThe Church is a living body united to Jesus Christ, for He is the living\nHead of the Body. He needs His Church just as much as His Church needs\nHim. It is the Holy Spirit who unites us to the risen and glorified Christ\nWho is the Head, and then He unites us to one another in Him. It is a\n_living_ union, because we pass through death into the resurrection life\nof Christ, for by \"One Spirit we are all baptized into One Body, and we\nhave all been made to drink into that One Spirit.\" [Footnote: I Cor. xii.\n13.] The Holy Ghost sustains the life of the Church. In Him we live and\nmove and have our being. As the bird lives in the air, as the flower lives\nin the sunshine, so we live in the Spirit, and when we drink in His\nfulness there is growth and fruitfulness.\n\nHave we ever felt this need of drinking into that One Spirit? Everything\nconnected with the true Church of Christ must be spiritual, it is this\nwhich is being lost sight of in the present day, and it is the reason why\nthere is so little power and so few conversions.\n\nHave you ever tried to understand why the Church is called \"the Body of\nChrist\"? Think first about your own body. It is the only part of your real\nself that can be seen. I cannot see your heart or your thoughts, but\nI know what your thoughts are by your words, and what you feel by the look\nof joy or sorrow in your face, and by the way you go about.\n\nIt is by your body that your real personality is made known to others;\nwhat you really are would never be seen unless your body made it known. In\nthe same way the Church is the Body in order to make Christ known in the\nworld. He is hidden from our view, He is unseen, but He manifests Himself\nand shines out through us, and He sends us to carry His messages and to do\nHis Will.\n\nThis was the earnest desire of the Apostle Paul when he said that he was\nwilling that the old self should be taken away so that \"the _life_ also of\nJesus might be made manifest in our body.\" [Footnote: 2 Cor. iv. 10, 11.]\n\nThis is what the Church is here on earth for, to make the unseen Christ\nknown. Just as every drop of water reflects the light, so every member of\nthe Church, however weak and small, can reflect His love.\n\nIs His compassion for sinners beaming in your eye? Is His purity seen in\nyour daily life? Do you judge things from His standpoint?\n\nI remember when some one was telling me why she loved a Christian worker\nwhom we both knew, she added, \"I love her for what I see of Christ in\nher.\"\n\nThink of Christ exalted in Heaven far above all things, and remember He is\nthere not for Himself, but for _you_. \"He is Head over all things to His\nBody, the Church.\" [Footnote: Eph. i. 22, 23.]\n\nIt is wonderful to think of this union with Christ, that we are His Body\nand He is the Head; but there is another wonder quite as great, it is that\nHe is the Bridegroom and the Church is the Bride. When we speak of the\nChurch as the Body of Christ, it is a living union, _life_ is the one\nthought brought out; when we speak of Christ as the Bridegroom it is\n_love_ which is the chief point. It brings out the affection, tenderness\nand nearness of the Bridegroom. \"So ought men to love their wives as their\nown bodies, He that loveth His wife loveth Himself.\" [Footnote: Eph. v.\n28-30.]\n\nWe have nothing so wonderful in the Old Testament. Think of the depths out\nof which we have come, and the heights to which we are raised. \"He raiseth\nup the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill\nto set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory.\"\n[Footnote: 1 Sam. ii. 8.] Think of the sinner lifted out of all his\nbondage and ruin to be the Bride of the Lamb! There is nothing higher that\nGod can give than this. This will be our glorious position by and by when\nthe Bridegroom comes to take us to our Heavenly Home, for His parting\nwords were, \"I will come again and receive you unto Myself.\" [Footnote:\nSt. John xiv. 3.]\n\nThere will be three great surprises on the day that He comes again. These\nsurprises have been kept secret, but on that day the glorious secrets will\nall be made known.\n\nThe first surprise will be when we shall see all the saints who have died\nin Christ called back from the unseen world and clothed with their new,\nglorified bodies. What a joyful meeting it will be.\n\nThe next surprise will be that we who are still living on earth when\nChrist comes will be changed, we shall not die, we shall escape from the\nhand of death. \"It is appointed unto men once to die,\" but \"Christ was\nonce offered to bear the sin of many,\" [Footnote: Heb. ix. 27, 28.] and\nwhen He comes the saints who are living will be changed \"in a moment, in\nthe twinkling of an eye.\" [Footnote: 1 Cor. xv. 52.] You know how long it\ntakes for you to shut your eye and open it--it will not take longer than\nthat for the change to be made. Three great changes will take place--our\n_bodies_ will be changed, no more sin, or pain, or weariness; our _minds_\nwill be changed. \"We shall _know_\" then what we cannot know now, we shall\nsee all as God sees it, we shall know the love of Christ and we shall love\nHim as He deserves to be loved, and best of all \"we shall be like Him for\nwe shall see Him as He is.\"\n\nThe third surprise will be that our _circumstances_ will also be changed;\nwe shall be no longer on the earth, for as soon as the great change takes\nplace we shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. He will then look\ninto our life work, and He will say to His faithful ones who have been\ntrue-hearted and loyal: \"Well done, good and faithful servant.\" [Footnote:\nSt. Matt. xxv. 21.] Then the heavens will resound with the Hallelujah\nchorus, \"Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to Him, for the\nmarriage of the Lamb is come and His wife hath made herself ready.\"\n[Footnote: Rev. xix. 7.]\n\nBut the glory will be only then beginning, it will be \"_glory upon\nglory_.\" Remember there are two stages in Christ's Coming; He will come\n_for_ His saints, and then He will come down to earth _with_ His saints.\nAs it is written: \"Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His\nsaints.\" [Footnote: Jude 14.] \"When Christ, who is our Life, shall appear,\nthen shall ye also appear with Him in glory.\" [Footnote: Col. iii. 4.]\nWe shall come _with_ Him when He comes to reign on the earth.\n\nBut there is something still grander than the glorious position of having\na place with Him on His throne. We look on and on into the Eternity that\nis coming (and it is a wonderful outlook) and what do we find? It is that\nwe are wanted for the ages to come to show forth, and to be living\npersonal illustrations \"of the riches of God's grace.\" It is not only that\nwe shall be saved and glorified, but that God will use us personally to\nshow forth all His love. The grace of God is the love which flowed down to\nus in our great need, when we were dead in sins, slaves to sin and Satan\nand deserving nothing but God's wrath.\n\nIt is we ourselves who are wanted for the ages to come for \"the praise of\nHis glory.\" The expression \"_the riches_ of God's grace\" [Footnote: Eph.\ni. 7.] meets our personal need, but there is something else that will\nshine forth, it is called \"_the glory_ of God's grace.\" [Footnote: Eph. i.\n6.] All that God prepares for us is worthy of His greatness and power. The\ninheritance which He has in store and the beautiful Home above will be\nworthy of God Himself, all that is in it and around it surpassing\neverything that we can imagine in its glory and beauty will be worthy of\nGod Himself. It is only as our eyes are spiritually enlightened that we\ncan get a glimpse of \"the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the\nsaints.\" [Footnote: Eph. i. 18.]\n\nThe words of this old hymn describe what it will be like--\n\n  \"I go on my way rejoicing,\n    Though weary the wilderness road--\n  I go on my way rejoicing\n    In hope of the glory of God.\n\n  \"Then no more in the earthen vessel\n    The treasure of God shall be,\n  But in full and unclouded beauty,\n    O Lord, wilt Thou shine through me.\n\n  \"All, all in Thy new creation\n    The glory of God shall see;\n  And the lamp for that light eternal\n    The Bride of the Lamb shall be.\n\n  \"A golden lamp in the heavens,\n    That all may see and adore\n  The Lamb who was slain and who liveth,\n    Who liveth for evermore.\n\n  \"So I go on my way rejoicing\n    That the heavens and earth shall see\n  His grace, and His glory and beauty,\n    In the depth of His love to me.\"\n\nOur mission throughout eternity is to make known the love and wisdom of\nGod that He may not only be all, but in all. He is in us now, but we want\nHim to be in all, and it will be through us that God will let the whole\nuniverse be so filled with the glorious knowledge of His love and wisdom\nthat these words will at last be fulfilled--\"God ... all and in all.\"\n[Footnote: I Cor. xv. 28.]\n\nWe are passing through wars and convulsions and revolutions hitherto\nunknown, but a glorious future is awaiting us, and one thing is certain,\nthat nothing can \"separate us from the love of God which is in Christ\nJesus our Lord.\" [Footnote: Rom. viii. 39.] That is our security.\n\nIt is also certain that it is not in the power of the devil to destroy the\nChurch of God, for we are wanted in the ages to come. It is the Church\nwhich is to be the glory of Christ to all Eternity.\n\nWe are also wanted _now_ in a very special way. Men's hearts are failing\nthem for fear, they need strong, calm, prayerful helpers in this time of\nperplexity. Who can speak a word of cheer and encouragement? Who can point\nthem to the Rock of Ages which cannot be moved? Who can inspire them with\nfaith and hope? Only the one who has himself made God his Refuge. It is in\ntimes of trouble that the worldly man turns for help and sympathy to the\nbeliever. It is through us that God would work out His purpose of grace\nand love to the world.\n\nA young man who had met with a bitter disappointment went to an aged\nChristian and poured out his trouble. After hearing his sad story, his\nfriend said in a calm, tender voice, \"God knows all about it, there is no\nsuch thing as chance in the world.\" \"What is there then?\" asked the young\nman eagerly. \"There is _love_, Eternal _love_,\" was the answer.\n\nThe reason why the believer is kept in perfect peace is because he looks\nbeyond all the tumult of battle, the bitter strife and terrible bloodshed\nto the time when God will gather together all things in Christ, for He is\nto be Head over all.\n\nLOVE, ETERNAL LOVE.\n\nNever for a moment shall that love cease to bless us and shield us.\nWhatever may happen to our bodies nothing can touch the eternal life\nwithin.\n\nDo you feel anxious to know whether you will have a share in the glory? I\nwill tell you how you may know. You remember Christian had a roll given\nhim by Evangelist which he was to give in at the Celestial Gate. When you\nfirst come to Jesus as a poor sinner the Holy Spirit gives you four\nprecious words written as it were in a roll for you to hide in your heart\nuntil the moment when Jesus comes and you are caught up to meet Him in the\nair. Take your Bible and you will find there four precious words which God\nhas written for you to rest upon, and which will never fail you.\n\n1. REDEEMED. [Footnote: Pet. i. 18, 19] \"Bought with a price,\" and the\nprice was the life-blood of God's dear Son, so we belong to the Church of\nChrist which He has \"purchased with His own blood.\" [Footnote: Acts xx.\n28]\n\n2. SEALED. [Footnote: Eph. i. 13] The Seal is God's mark upon us showing\nto men and angels and devils that we are His \"purchased possession\"; that\nwe belong to Him, spirit, soul and body absolutely, and for ever, for\nGod's solid foundation stands unmoved, bearing this inscription, \"The Lord\nknoweth them that are His.\" [Footnote: 2 Tim. ii. 19]\n\nA Christian doctor who had been in the Crimean War and in China, was very\nparticular when going on a journey to have all his luggage \"_labelled and\nready_.\" In his last illness he turned to a friend and said with a smile,\n\"_I am labelled and ready_\"! and then he gave this beautiful testimony:\n\"There is only one thing that makes me quite ready and quite sure of\nHeaven, it is that my sins are forgiven by trusting in the Blood of Jesus.\nNothing that we can do can save us, it is what He did. He alone can give\nus peace with God.\"\n\n3. KEPT. [Footnote: 1 Pet. i. 5] A young Christian told a friend that he\nwas afraid as to whether he would be able to live the life. The friend\nlooked at him, and said, with a ringing voice of assurance, \"He is able to\nkeep you from falling.\" [Footnote: Jude 24] He then saw that he was no\nlonger in his own keeping, but in _God's_ keeping, and that the keeping\nwould be up to the last moment, and be so complete that he would be handed\nover without the smallest defect to stand in \"the presence of His glory\nwith exceeding joy.\"\n\n4. GLORIFIED. [Footnote: Rom. viii. 30] This is the last and grandest of\nthe four precious words which God has given to strengthen our hearts, and\nit is the crown of all. What shall we say? No words can express what it\nwill be, it will surpass our highest expectations. But we know that it\nwill be fulness of life, fulness of joy, fulness of love, and all our\ndeepest longings satisfied, all our highest hopes fulfilled, and it will\nbe for ever and for ever!\n\nLet us hold fast God's sure word of promise, \"The Lord will give grace and\nglory.\" [Footnote: Ps. lxxxiv. 11] Let us lift up our hearts in praise and\nthanksgiving to Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all\nthat we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, UNTO HIM\nIS THE GLORY IN THE CHURCH, THROUGHOUT ALL AGES, TO ALL ETERNITY, WORLD\nWITHOUT END. AMEN. [Footnote: Eph. iii. 20, 21]\n\n\n\nADDRESS X\n\nTHE KINGDOM OF GOD\n\nPORTION OF SCRIPTURE--St. Matthew xxi. 1-17, and\nRevelation xi. 15-18.\n\n\nNow, therefore, why speak ye not a word of bringing the King back?\n[Footnote: 2 Sam. xix. 10] This question was asked a long time ago. You\nremember how David was driven from his throne. His son Absalom rebelled\nagainst him and he had to leave the country; but Absalom is now dead, the\nrebellion is at an end, and still David is an exile. At last some of the\npeople talk it over together and inquire of one another, \"Why say ye not a\nword, or why are ye silent about bringing back the King?\" So they sent\nword to the King and Judah went to meet him.\n\nI was reminded of this Old Testament story when a correspondent wrote in\nthe spring of this year as follows: \"I have spent two days in what is left\nof Belgium, and I find that the dream of the Belgians is to see the King\nride back into Brussels. Men and women, old and young, talk and plan and\nhave visions of the time when the King comes Home.\"\n\nIt is touching to think how these people, in spite of all their\nmisfortunes, still love their brave King and cling to the hope of having\nhim once more among them in his rightful place on the throne and then\ntheir ruined towns and homes will be restored.\n\nIt makes me think of another King, our Lord Jesus, who entered the City of\nJerusalem amidst the cheers and acclamations of a large crowd, and how the\nwords came true: \"Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold thy King cometh\nunto thee.\" [Footnote: St. Matt. xxi. 5] And now they cry, \"Hosanna\"--He\nis come, He is come! and the children's voices ring out with praise. But\nthis proclaiming Him as King aroused the enmity of some of the rulers and\nthey stirred up the people against Him. Here was the opportunity, the\ngolden opportunity, for accepting or rejecting the Son of God. They had\nlistened to His teaching, they brought their sick to Him for healing, they\nappreciated the benefits of His ministry, but they refused to submit to\nHis authority, so they were determined to silence His Voice. Sin shows\nitself in the rebellion of the _will_ against God, and so they lost the\nopportunity, and instead of accepting Him, they crucified their King.\n\nThe words are still true: \"Behold, thy King cometh,\" He comes to set up\nthe Kingdom of God in our hearts, so the opportunity is given to you now\nto accept Him as your King.\n\nWe listen to the good news about peace and forgiveness, but are we willing\nto make Jesus King in our hearts? Here is the great test, it is here that\nthe opposition of man's _will_ begins to show itself, because if He is to\nbe our Lord and Master He claims all we are and all we have. He must be\nLord of _all_ or He is not Lord at all; nothing less will do. There is no\nreal union with Him by faith until we say in our hearts, \"My Lord, and my\nGod.\" [Footnote: St. John xx. 28.] It is impossible to accept Christ as our\nSaviour without also yielding to Him as King, and proclaiming Him as King.\n\nA young friend of mine has these three simple words, \"Make Jesus King,\" in\na frame hanging on the wall of her room. She told me they were the means\nof leading her to decide for Christ.\n\nNothing but the power of the Holy Spirit can enable us to yield to Him as\nour Lord and Master. \"No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the\nHoly Ghost.\" [Footnote: 1 Cor. xii. 3.] This is the central fact--\"JESUS IS\nLORD.\" \"For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He\nmight be Lord both of the dead and living.\" [Footnote: Rom. xiv. 9]\n\nIt is the Holy Spirit who first reveals Christ to your heart and enables\nyou to say, \"Thou art my Lord,\" [Footnote: Ps. xvi. 2] and then He gives\nyou grace to love and obey Him as your Master. So, whether you look\nbackward to the moment when your sins were all blotted out, \"_He is\nLord_\"; or whether you look at your present life with all its\nshortcomings, \"_He is Lord_\"; or whether you look forward to the end,\nwaiting for His Coming, _He is Lord_. \"Can you say truly--\n\n  \"He cleansed my heart from all its sin,\n    What a wonderful Saviour!\n  And now He reigns and rules within,\n    What a wonderful Saviour!\"\n\nWe have seen our Lord proclaimed King at Jerusalem and accepting the\ntitle. Although rejected and crucified, His every word and action was\nkingly up to the last moment of His earthly life. He spoke openly of His\nKingdom to Pilate, for when Pilate asked Him, \"Art Thou a King then?\"\n[Footnote: St. John xviii. 37] He answered, \"I am.\" The purple robe, the\ncrown of thorns, the sceptre, though offered in mockery, were all kingly,\nfor the superscription over the Cross, THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE\nJEWS, [Footnote: St. Matt. xxvii. 37] was true. The Cross was the way to\nthe Throne. \"I beheld, and lo in the midst of the Throne stood a\nLamb, as it had been slain.\" [Footnote: Rev. v. 6]\n\nIn that dark, dark hour of Christ's agony on the Cross, there was only one\nman who recognised Christ as King, and that was the dying thief. It was a\nvery real cry that broke from his lips in his utter need--\"Lord, remember\nme when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom.\" [Footnote: St. Luke xxiii. 42] It\nwas wonderful faith. Can you think of any other as wonderful? He\nrecognised Christ as King--not a dying King leaving His throne--but a\nvictorious King about to enter His Kingdom. The penitent thief saw even\nmore than this, he saw that it was a Kingdom of souls rescued from sin's\nbondage and slavery; not a Kingdom of the great ones of earth, but for\noutcasts such as he was, so he cried, \"Take me as I am and give me a place\nin the Kingdom.\"\n\nBut the answer to the cry was as wonderful as the cry itself--\"To-day\nshalt thou be with Me in Paradise.\" When the King said \"With Me,\" He\nmeant, \"I am passing from darkness into Everlasting Light. Come with Me. I\nhave broken the chains of sin, I am setting the prisoners free. Come with\nMe.\" From that moment the penitent thief was identified with Christ in His\ndeath and in His Risen Life. Is this true of you?\n\nWhen earth rejected the King, not only was Heaven opened to receive Him,\nbut a triumphant reception awaited Him. Heaven resounded with the joyful\nchorus of the angelic hosts--\"Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye\nlift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in\"!\n[Footnote: Ps. xxiv. 7.]\n\nSo for nineteen hundred years the heavens have received Him, but once\nagain the everlasting doors will open, and the Son of Man will come in\n\"the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.\" [Footnote: St. Matt.\nxxiv. 30.]\n\nWhat has been going on during all these years? Kingdoms and world powers\nhave risen up one after another, but all have failed to give what the\nworld really needs, \"A King to reign in righteousness.\" [Footnote: Isa.\nxxxii. 1.] God is still saying, \"Why do the heathen rage and the people\nimagine a vain thing?\" [Footnote: Ps. ii. 1.] But in spite of man's\nrebellion and forgetfulness of God, God's purpose will stand firm, \"Yet\nhave I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion.\" [Footnote: Ps. ii. 6.]\nGod's purpose is to have all power placed in the hands of One Man, and\nthat is Christ. What will be the final winding up of Earth's suffering and\nstruggles? The veil will be drawn aside and\n\n  \"The Glory of the LORD will be revealed.\" [Footnote: Isa. xl. 5.]\n\nIt is the glory of the Personal Presence of the Son of God. When? Where?\nHow? will the glory be seen.\n\nLook back into the Garden of Eden. God gave man control over all, but he\nlistened to another voice and then he lost control. The question was\nraised, \"Who was to rule, Satan or God?\"\n\nBy and by another veil will be drawn aside and we shall see how the unseen\npowers of darkness have been at work behind all the wars and sin and\nrebellion of this poor world. \"An enemy hath done this.\" [Footnote: St.\nMatt. xiii. 28.] It is the devil who blinds the eyes, hardens the hearts,\nand deadens the conscience of mankind. But we must not lose heart or think\nthat Satan is getting the upper hand. The Word of God enables us not only\nto trace some of his plots and schemes, but it shows us _why_ God has been\nso long silent and _when_ God intends to break that silence. [Footnote:\nSee Ps. 1] The victory is sure, but whose victory? The Victory of the Son\nof God.\n\nBut first the Jews must return to their own land, and then \"the kings of\nthe earth and of the whole world\" will be gathered to the battle of the\ngreat Day of God Almighty. All these nations will fight against the Jews\nat Jerusalem in the place called Armageddon. It is really a desperate\nattempt of the devil who is sending forth these nations to make war with\nthe Lamb. Jerusalem will be taken, and when the enemy is rejoicing over\nthe victory and the destruction of the Jews seems certain, then suddenly\nthey see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and\ngreat glory, [Footnote: St. Matt. xxiv. 30] \"the armies\" which are \"in\nHeaven\" following Him. [Footnote: Rev. xix. 14]\n\nThen shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, and His feet\nshall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, [Footnote: Zech. xiv. 3,\n4] and \"every eye shall see Him.\" [Footnote: Rev. i. 7] The armies of the\nenemy will be destroyed and God's people will be delivered. In this\nmarvellous way the Lamb shall overcome, for \"He is Lord of lords and King\nof kings and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.\"\n[Footnote: Rev. xvii. 14]\n\nIt will not only be the deliverance of the Jews from their enemies, but\nthe wonder of that great day will be that at last their eyes will be\nopened to see Him as the Messiah, so they will be converted and restored.\nThe Lord says, \"I will pour upon them the spirit of grace and of\nsupplication and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced.\"\n[Footnote: Zech. xii. 10.]\n\nWhat an overwhelming sight! The same Jesus whom they despised and rejected\nis come down from heaven to deliver them, but they only think of Him as\nthe One whom they have pierced. The glory which meets their eye at that\nmoment is the glory of the love and compassion of the Crucified One. The\nresult of looking is mourning. They get such a view of their sin against\nHis love that they are filled with godly sorrow. When the eye of faith is\nturned to Jesus then the tears flow. Oh, how perfectly will all Satan's\nevil influence in man's heart be destroyed in the presence of Jesus.\n\n\"In that Day we have seen what has taken place at the beginning of that\nday, and now before it closes a fountain will be opened to the house of\nDavid and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.\"\n[Footnote: Zech. xiii. 1.] With the opening of that fountain there is\ngrace given to _use_ it, for God says, \"I will pour upon them the spirit\nof grace.\" Many see the fountain now who never use it!\n\nPrecious fountain, of all things most precious to poor sinners such as you\nand me. No one but God's dear Son, and nothing but His atoning death on\nCalvary, could open that fountain. The fountain is still flowing--has it\ncleansed you?\n\nThen the Kingdom of God is set up on earth. Who can tell the good news so\nwell as these restored and converted ones?\n\nThe question is sometimes asked, Has the Gospel lost its power? Is\nChristianity a failure? No. The Gospel will yet be preached throughout the\nwhole world. Who will be the preachers? Converted Jews, [Footnote: Isa.\nlxi. 6] \"a mighty angel, [Footnote: Rev. xiv. 6] and glorified saints, for\nthey shall be priests of God.\" [Footnote: Rev. xx. 6]\n\nWhat will be the result of their preaching? There will be a world-wide\nrevival. \"The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the\nwaters cover the sea.\" [Footnote: Hab. ii. 14]\n\nWhen Christ comes to us now, it is to rule in the hearts of His people,\nbut _then_ He will reign over a believing world without opposition, for\nSatan will be bound and Christ will take the Kingdom which is His by\nredemption, and His glory will be seen on Mount Zion. \"Out of Zion, the\nperfection of beauty, God hath shined.\" [Footnote: Ps. 1. 2]\n\nAnd the seventh angel sounded and there were great voices in heaven\nsaying: \"The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord\nand of His Christ and He shall reign for ever and ever.\" [Footnote: Rev.\nxi. 15]\n\nAfter reigning on earth for a thousand years there will be the Judgment of\n\"the Great White Throne,\" [Footnote: Rev. xx. 11-15] when all those who\nhad no part in the first resurrection will be raised, and all whose names\nare not \"written in the Book of Life\" will be \"cast into the lake of\nfire.\"\n\n\"This is the second death.\"\n\nHas your name been entered in the Book of Life?\n\nOne more glorious Vision of the Kingdom is unfolded\nbefore us, and the glory grows brighter and brighter,\nfor it is \"THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM.\"\n\n\"I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first\nearth were passed away and there was no more sea.... And He that sat upon\nthe throne said, Behold I make all things new....\" [Footnote: Rev. xxi. 1,\n5] \"And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the\nLamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him; and they shall see\nHis face and His name shall be in their foreheads.\n\n\"And there shall be no night there: and they need no candle, neither light\nof the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for\never and ever.\" [Footnote: Rev. xxii. 3-5] How wonderful that God should\npromise us an abundant entrance into His Everlasting Kingdom. [Footnote: 2\nPet. i. 11] What does an abundant entrance mean? It means that we shall\nnot, as it were, just creep into heaven by a side door, but that we shall\nhave a grand welcome from the glorified ones there and from the Lord\nHimself, all the doors, as it were, being thrown wide open to receive us.\nAre we preparing for it? A mother who was dying called her little daughter\nwho was ten years old to her bedside and said tenderly, \"I want you to\nlearn this little prayer, 'O God, prepare me for all Thou art preparing\nfor me.'\" And the prayer was answered, for that little girl was Frances\nRidley Havergal, who lived a consecrated life, and passed away singing\nabout the Lord whom she loved.\n\nI must give you some words spoken by that holy man Samuel Rutherford who\nwas persecuted and put into prison for Christ's sake. \"I wonder many\ntimes,\" he said, \"that ever a child of God should have a sad heart\nconsidering what the Lord is preparing for him. When we get Home above and\nenter into possession of our Brother's fair Kingdom, it will be like one\nstep from prison to glory.\" These words came true, for soon after this he\nreceived notice to appear before his judges in court, but before the day\nof the trial came he died. So it was literally one step for him from\nprison to glory. His own account of it is given in the following lines----\n\n \"They've summoned me before them,\n    Thither I may not come;\n  My King says, Come up hither,\n    My Lord says, Welcome Home.\"\n\nWhat will it all be like? No words of ours can describe it, but God\nHimself tells us what He will be to us and what He will do for us in the\nEternal Kingdom.\n\n\"And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of\nGod is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His\npeople, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.\" [Footnote:\nRev. xxi. 3-4]\n\n\"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no\nmore death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more\npain, for the former things are passed away.\"\n\nThe Crown of it all is that \"God Himself shall be with them and be their\nGod.\" [Footnote: 1 Cor. xv. 28] All creatures will say, \"God is everything\nto me,\" for GOD will be \"All in All.\"'\n\nWe have traced out some of the wonderful truths which God has revealed to\nus about Himself. \"This is Life Eternal that they might know Thee, the\nonly True God and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.\" [Footnote: St. John\nxvii. 3]\n\nApart from God, all is death and ruin for ever; to _know_ God, to _trust_\nGod, to _love_ God is Eternal Life.\n\nThe great question is, What is God to me? Can you say--\"O GOD, THOU ART MY\nGOD\"?","title":"The one great reality","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":35771}