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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 as^ a GRagTmSFiIS FERDINAND SCHIVEREA Grace magnified. AND BIBLE READINGS BY FERDINAND SCHIVEREA, WITH BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. " According to my earnest expectation and nty hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death ; for to m* to live is Christ, and to die is gain."— VniL. i: 20-2i. Toronto, Canada: S. R. BRIGGS Toronto Willard Tract Depository Cor. Ycnge and Temperance Streets). Entered according to the Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred rnd eighty -six, by Samuel Robert Briggs in the office of the Minister of Agri- culture at Ottawa. Hill & Wrir, Printers Toronto. iz'd\r\) CO NTEN TS. PAGE. Introductory Note Biographical Sketch i The Grace OF God. Whatitis, and what it teaches. 17 Hated without a Cause 29 He still Waits 37 Conversion 46 A GREAT conditional PROMISE 53 Something worth Knowing 65 Why so Few are Saved 79 Why Praye?. is not Answered 92 Heaven 100 Growth in Grace 116 Christ our friend 129 Christ our Example > 134 Christ our Mighty One 143 Christ how Precious 148 The Personal Coming Again of the Lord Jesus Christ, i 54 Five Steps of the Drunkard .,. . . 161 ILLUSTRATIONS. Portrait, facing title. A Student in the University of Adversity 7 Securing an Audience 9 The result of a year's work with Dr. Pentecost .... 10 In Danger 11 Doing the work of an Evangelist 12 At work on a Ferry Boat 13 A Practical Sermon 14 The Bible Wagon. 15 ] pu of wc se( Bi( nei of the in hiii tru gif( Jes pre to thrt resi INTRODUCTORY LETTER. BY HON. S. II. ULAKE,*Q.C. I WAS greatly interested in the sketch of the life of Ferdinand Schiverea. I believe it will do good to publish it It is a matter not only of great interest, but also of profit to learn the means God is now using largely for His work, and the mysterious power of the Spirit whereby He seeks out and prepares the workmen that God greatly blesses. Biographical sketches prepared with this object teach many needed lessons. Not the least important one is the weakness of the human instrumentality and the all previ^iiling power of the Spirit working in the vessel emptied, so that it may be used in the Master's service. I gladly commend Mr. Schiverea for his whole-souled earnest unaffected method of presenting the truth. He hides himself behind his Master. His natural gifts have been sanctified. As a young man, awakened by Jesus with the message, " One thing thou lackest," he has presented to our young men most persuasively, the invitation to follow Jesus. We thank God for what He has wrought through His servant. May the same blessing that has resulted from his words follow his Book. a H. BLAKE, Toronto, April i, 1887 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. FERDINAND SCHIVEREA was born in New York in 1852. He is therefore now 35 years of age. His father was . a Spanish Roman Catholic and his mother a Protestant. Ferdinand is the oldest of three sons all of whcm are now serving God through P'erdinand s instrumentality. At a very early age he was christened in the Roman faith by Arch-bishop Hughes but as soon as he reached the age of knowing right from wrong he at once saw the fallacy of the faith he was christened in, and he so learned to dislike it that he would not go in a Roman Church let alone attend a service. His father falling into drinking habits caused him to give up all idea of Church, he would not go himself neither would encourage his children, so his mother had her children sent to a Protestant Sunday School. Thfs Ferdinand attended until he was about nine or ten years of age. By this time his father had so reduced his family through his drinking habits that Ferdinand had to be taken 'from his studies which he, we might say, had just commenced, and sent to help earn a living. Taken from his day-school so early and sent to work, he very so6n got into company that led him to neglect his Sunday School and it was not long before he withdrew from all religious influence with the exception of what he may have been brought under by his mother. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. A few years after he was sent out as a bread winner he be- came d frequenter of the theatre and minstrel shows. It was not long after commencing to frequent these 'places that he got a desire to become like those on the stage. Being bom a mimic, and naturally gifted as a dancer, he at once took to the variety line in the minstrel business, and after some little preparation he appeared before the foot-lights with every evi- dence of succ'^ss, and it was only a few nights before his con- version that he so ably did his part as a mimic and dancer that those who saw him had to admit that he would make his mark in the line of business he was then preparing for. It w'! just at th?t time in his life a great change took place. He was leaving the stage one night and just as he was going out the door he was met by his mother whose face seemed to be lit up with joy and as she met him she exclaimed "Son I have witnessed your performance to-night but I have such good news for you, you are not going to continue in this kind of life, you are not going to follow this kind of a business as a profes- sion, you are going to be converted and preach the gospel be- fore I die." These words coming to him at such a time and in such a way and from his mother in such a place, overpowered him and for a moment he did not know what to say. In the iirst place he was surprised at the words his mother uttered, just as he was leaving the plaoe where only a few moments be- fore he had his audience convulsed with laughter. What did it mean? He did not know what to say in response to his mother, in fact he made no response, but went home in silence, and for some days he watched his mother's actions for he had come to the conclusion that he had so worried her by his careless life that now with other troubles, she had gone in- sane, and the words she had uttered to him a few nights before was clear evidence of it. lie went on the stage some few nights after this, but he could not get over what his mother had said to him about his conversion. One night when he was abovit finishing his work he was taken with something he never had before. He was not altogether sick but he became very sad and despondent and was at the same time di^;usted with the business he had so delighted in, and as he left the hall he on his way home declared to himself that he would not go on the stage again. But he had already applied at one of the BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Opera Houses in Brooklyn for an engagement as a professional performer and now to turn so suddenly from it he did not kiiow what to do. Some little time after this he was walking past the Brooklyn Rink where Moody and Sankey were holding Revival Meetings. He with others was handed a ticket that ad- mitted to the meetings. Out of curiosity he went to the meet- ing but paid no attention to what was said by the preacher or the singer until about the middle of the address when Mr. Moody pointed to where he sat and seemed to apply the rest of the address to him. This made him feel so uncomfortable that he did not know what to do. He tried to get out but was unable for the crowd. He remained until the meeting was over and then when he got a chance he got out and made up his mind that was the last time he would get into such a place. He went home but now with a terrible load of trouble on his heart. He was worried about his mother, fearing she was going insane. He was troubled as to why he had learned to hate the stage so suddenly, and now the preacher said some- thing that worried him more than all the rest, for it was con- cerning his soul. One evening while taking a walk, trying to get rid of some of the awful load that was making him so sad, he was again handed a ticket to the revival meeting. He hesi- tated but finally went to the meeting and at the close came out mad at himself, for he had heard nothing but what added to his already heavy burdened heart. As he was going from the meeting he was met by a kind Christian v> orker who asked him if he would not like to be a Christian. He turned on him in a rage and after insulting him left the place of the meeting only to go home and put in as he often says, six of t!ie worst days and nights any one could put in. All this week his mother noticed his condition and said nothing to him. He did not know what to do; nothing he did gave him comfort, and he went on in this way for about one week, when one night driven by desperation he went to Moody's meetings, but he found when he got there he could not get in. He did not know what to do, he did want to hear that man say something that might help him. Finding that he could not get in the large meeting he went into one of the Churches that was holding inquiry meet- ings,and hehad no sooner taken his seat than he was approached by a Christian worker who asked him if he was inquiring about his soul^s salvation. He did not know what that meant but he ■ « -J ■ ( i 4 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. very soon let th iriend know that he was a very unhappy man and did not know what to do. Knowing by experience just what was the matter, the man opened his Bible and from it he showed Schiverea what was the cause of all his sorr-^w and then the sure and only way to get free from it. Having the thing put so clearly he at once saw that he was a condemned sinner, that sin was the ode cause of his trouble, and that Jesus Christ the Son of God was waiting to deliver him, and so he was led to look away from himself and circumstances and look to Jesus Christ the Saviour of men. He did so and in a few moments he was rejoicing in a knowledge of sins forgiven, and as he often remarks, the burden that left him then was like the removal of ten ton weight. From that moment he was a new man. When he fully realized what had taken place he made his way towards his home. As he entered, his mother who had been reading her Bible had fallen asleep. H. of course had to wake her up to tell her the good news and as with the tears of joy he told what he had done and what he believed the Son of God had done fof his soul the dear old mother said, "Dear son is it not just as I told you some time ago that you would be saved and preach the Gospel before I die and is it not so. I have asked God for this dear child, I have given you to God and he has just done what He said he would do if I would only believe." "Oh, dear mother" he said "I can see now why it was I got such a sud- den dislike for the stage and why I got so sad in the midst of one of my plays. I can see now why 1 was led to Moody's meet- ings, you have been holding me up before God in your arms of faith and no matter how circumstances looked, no matter how I acted, you just held on to God's promises and this is why I am to-night a saved man. God bless you dear mother for your confidence in God for your son." Let me say right here should this not be a lesson to drooping parents; here we have a mother asking God for the conversion of her son who is preparing for the stage, she comes to that place and tells him on the authority of God's Word that he is to be converted and also preach the Gospel before she dies, she asks and then gets her eyes off circumstances and off of her son and fixes them only on her God, and note what follows. Almost instantly he is convicted and in a little while comes to her with the good news of his conversion. How much more prayer would 4, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. be answered if we would just take God at his word and after we have done our part just leave the rest with Him. Yes parents "if thou wouldest believe thou shouldst seethe glory oi God" manifested in the conversion of your children. Half of this mother's Prophecy was fulfilled, now let us see how God fulfilled the rest of it. No sooner had Ferdinand found the Saviour than he wanted his brothers to be saved also. The night he decided for Christ he was met by his brother George in their room, for they roomcl together.. He at once commenced to tell his brother what he had done and we might say it took him all night to do it, for George got very little sleep that night and in the morning made up his mind not to put in another such night, and did'nt know why it vas that any one should go on so over being saved, and as for him he did not want any more of that kind of nonsense. The night following his conversion Ferdinand was about preparing to go up to the meeting when his brother said "I don't care if I go up and see what it is that is getting hold of all you people" and so he went and it was not long before he was on his knees crying out for mercy, and in a little while he too left the meet- ing rejoicing with the same hope his brother had got the night before. No sooner were these two brothers saved, than they wanted to get others saved, and so they at once engaged a rear house and fitted it up -as best they could with what little means they had, and commenced holding meetings. One would go on the side-walk and get the people to go up the alley way and the other would meet them at the alley- way and show them up in the rooms for the meetings. When they got th%ir congregation they then would read as best they could from the Bible and pray and there tell them what God had done for them, and then ask if any in the meet- ing would like to have God save them. This was the commence- ment of his work for his Master. Every night from the night of his conversion unless sickness prevented he might be found in his rear house or at some other meeting telling what God had done, for as remarked, God set him free soul and body and it was impossible for him to keep quiet, he must be doing something for the God that had done so much for him, ana \rhat he enjoyed he wanted others to enjoy : "I could not or I would not keep this good thing to myself." A few days after his conversion a new difficulty came up. 6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. While he was preparing for the stage he worked at the print* ing business on several sporting papers. The work on these previous to his conversion did not bother his mind any but as soon as he got a change of heart he found he could not remaia at such work any longer and so he gave it up and the next day he could be found on the street without work and with a mother and others depending upon hiin for a living. Work was waiting for him however and it was not long before a gentle- man that listened to his testimony, gave him employment in col- lecting money. He had some bills that had been out for several years and other collectors had failed in getting the money and he told him he might go and see what he could do and he would give him 25 cents on every dollar he collected. He knew nothing about collecting, it was something he had never done before, but he did not want to refuse the gentleman, and so he takes the bills and goes with them to his room and lays them before God and asks God if they are honest bills to make those that owed them pay them. So he started out and he pre- sented the first one and asked God to help, at first the man laughed at him and told him he had owed that bill several years and did not intend to pay it,but Schiverea told him the time had come when the bill had ^o be paid and he would call on the morrow for the money. From this one he went to several others and was received in about the same way and told them all about the same thing, and he then went home and again went to praying about it and the next day he went to the men who never intended to pay, and most all of them were waiting with the money for him, and one pnan that had not the money sold his goods at a reduction in order to meet his bill. Having no more work for him in this line and not wanting him to be without employment, the gentleman gave the only opening thai he had just then, it was to go in the basement and pack goods. The work was mean as compared with what he once was engaged in, and the wages were the meanest he bud ever received since he had become a youth. He used to make more in a few hours than he now had to work the whole week for, but he went at it, and done it as good as he knew how. In this basement was a coal cellar. By this time Ferdinand had a great desire for the study of the Bible, he read it when ever he got the chance in the cars, on the ferry boats and at his noon hour, some times when in the basement reading his Bible, he BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. would be interrupted by the other workmen; but not willing to abandon his Bible study, he made up his mind mid the jeers of the men to go in the coal cellar and lock himself in, and there with the aid of the light that came from the coal ahoothewould study his Bible. He would eat his meal in a few moments, and spend his noon hour on his knees with open Bible, imploring God for guidance and know- ledge in th's SCHIVEREA A STUDENT IN THE UNIVERSITY OF way. He spent adversity. near four years in this situation, and in this coal cellar God educated, and prepared, and ordained this man who gives every evidence that his God is with hiir,. He did not have the privi- lege of College Education or even Common School Educaticn, but God sends him to school in a coal cellar, and as one of the papers recently remarked about him : — "There is no mistake more common among the churches than the mistake of supposing that profound learning and ora- torical gifts are indispensable to usefulness in the Christian ministry. Of their value there can be no question, and Paul explicitly and earnestly urges Timothy to study and to seek earnestly the best gifts ; but God can use the weakest and most ignorant instruments, and sometimes He uses them with more effect than those whom men consider better qualified for the service. He "has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise;" "and the weak things to confound the things which are mighty." An instance in point is Ferdinand Schiverea. One day while with his Bible hard at work, he get a sudden impulse to leave all and go and preach the Gospel. 8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. S At first he thought it was the: devil trying to get hirn to work, so many others had been led to leave their work and when they did, they soon got discouraged and went back into the world again, and so he would not listen. By this time he was married and had a wife and child to take care of, and so he kepi right on with his work, anJ doing all the studying he could and attending meetings when ever he could, and he thought this was all God wanted him to do, but the words "go preach" constantly came to him and each day with such greater force he became quite uneasy in mind and so he became alarmed about it, he got so worked up that he went to see some friends and all he consulted seemed to think as he did. They said, you have no education, you have no means, you have a wife and child, of course God don't want you to leave your work. So he mads up his mind, God wanted him to remain at his work and he tried to dismiss all ideas of leaving his work but he could not dismiss the words that rang out in his very soul, "go 11 reach, 50 preach." He fought with this unseen power, and with this voice that was speaking so forcibly and constantly to him up until the middle of one of the worst winters we have had, and it was at this time that he yielded to the pleadings that was constantly with him, and so made up his mind it must be God, and he come to the conclusion to give up all, and, go and let God do what He wanted with him. He went to his employer, and told him what he intended to do, and although he tried all he could to remove the idea he could not have any effect, for his mind was made up. He did however get him not to give up altogether, but for a while to try it on the half plan that is to work for him half-a-day, and then to work for God the other half, but this did not work for he had no freedom in his preaching, and so he made up his mind to let nothing interfere with him and God's work, and so he gave up all, and when he did he felt so free that he often remarked "he went up like a baloon which had all of the cords cut that held it to earth, and the joy that filled his soul was beyond what he received at the time of his conversion." A Methodist Church had asked him previous to leaving his position, to work with them for a little while, and the first meeting he held was very thinly attended. This of course was calculated to diicourage him, but he was not going to be without a congregation, and so the next night he commenced his work ■iMMiSiS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH."' on the streets and in a'few mom2nfs after he had sung one or two'hymns and prayed, he had a large congregation of people who very seldom went inside of Church doors. After he had talked to them as best he could, he invited them into the !r::?^^g>^^->— *l^ .r-ryjpa^- Methodist Church which ^'^ ^'4* /\^i^ ^^'/vi^^^^^^ ^^^ willing to open its doors /'^%IX,S*|j^R\'' ■'* ^ to his congregation. It was ^ .. 3 ^A^«^>r: vs*a. ' „'■ not jQ^g before the Church was crowded to the doors. At one of these meetings, perhaps the first, the minis- ter asked him what he ex- j ected for his services. He did not know, it had never entered his mind about money up to this time, he said "I have no terms, and I would not dare to put a price on my service, all I know that God has sent me, and I will trust Him to take care ot me and mine." The minister said his congrega- tion would not let me work for them in that way, and to give hini half of the AN was SCHIVEREA SECURING AUDIENCE. what they proposed to do collection. This was against his will for he did not want to have money mentioned in his meetings, but this was the ciistom of the Church, and if he was to stay he must comply, and so did and went to work, and the first col- lection after this conversation, the collection amounted to thirty cents and Shiverea got half of it. This was something else to try his faith, but neither the cold outside, nor the 15 cents as his part of the collection discouraged him, but he went right on, preaching regard- less of weather, every afternoon on the streets at 3 o'clock, and every evening at 7 o'clock, and both services followed up by a meeting indoors. He remained in the field for about three months, and just about his closing meeting, Rev. Geo. F. Pentecost heard of him, and came out to see him, and when he found out that he could procure him, he at once sent ! 10 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. '& ■ v ./ him to work in one of the worst parts of the City of Brooklyn^ in fact it was so bad that the missionary showed the place on the map as the black spot of the city. Here Mr. Pentecost had commenced a work some time before, and now he and Schiverea went to work and the result was in a very little while the revolu- tionising of that part of the city, and a commodious building was erected to house those who had deci- ded for Jesus Christ, and be- fore Schiverea left that field oflaborhesaw the dark part of that city be- come one of the brightest the result of i he first year's work spots. He re- with dr. pentecost. roained with Mr. Pentecost for about 14 months, and during that time he preached constantly every night for one year besides h's visitations among those he wanted to hear the Gospel. It was at these meetings he came near losing his life. In the midst of one of his street meetings, a Roman Catholic father whose two daughters had decided for Christ in the meet- ings, put a tevolver to his head, and swore that he would kill him, and no doubt he would have done it if it had not been that God had something more for Schiverea to do. From this field he went to Philadelphia where God used him in a work that will go on through eternity. From Phila- delphia he went to Cincinnatti where a marvelous work of grace was accomplished, from Cincinnatti he went to Chicago where a gracious God used his servant, and then he went to Canada where he has been kept busy for the past four years. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. IS 1 mi^ CidAnS and we have but to ask those with whom he worked as to the good accomplished by him. While he reaches the non-church goers as very few men can^ yet God ha» used him in some cf the greatest vic- tories in the Churches. Ii> fact he ha» been a great blessing to many of the Churches and ministers in the land. The following is what one of SCHIVEREA IN DANGER. the bcst learn- ed men in the ministry says after being connected in a month'». union work with him : — schiverea's success. . Mr. Ferdinand Schiverea, the Brooklyn Evangelist, has been conducting evangelistic services in Peterborough with astonish' ing energy and success. Up to the present, from records kept, between 400 and 500 persons have signified their intention to* lead a new life. Not only have sinners been converted fronn the error of their ways, but fire has been kindled under apathetic church members, vigorously arousing them- from> their easy-going condition of Laodicean placidity, and convert' ing them from mere drones in the ecclesiastic hive to more or less active workers. And it is not improbable, that in earnest straightforwardness of effort, in pointed and practical presenta' tion of truth, the ministers may even have learned a lesson. He is a simple, uncultured man, — ignorant, even, in the way of scholarly attainments, but he possesses a wonderful verbal knowledge of Holy Scripture, an intensity of earnestness and a plain, pointed, direct way of presenting truth, that carries con^ viction to the hearts of the masses. Thoughtful hearers may be inclined to shrug shoulders at some of his logical conclusions. 12 [biographical sketch but the average hearer cannot parry the incisive directness of thrusts at their bosom sins. He is not a theologian, but a practical preacher ; while the former may theorize eloquently of the dynamic forces involved in causitig the penetration of a block of wood by a nail, Schiverea, without circumlocution, hits the nail of truth on the head and sends it home. At any rate he reaches the hearts of the masses, and inspires them with his own immense earnestness. He is an indefatigable worker, conducting four services every day for weeks at a stretch. He be- comes excitedly earnest in a manner that must re-act powerfully on his physical forces. Whatever differences of opinion may be held as to his methods, no one can deny his thorough honesty of purpose, nor gainsay the great good he is accomplishing." Schiverea does not know much about Books, but he does know and love his Bible, and this after all is what is needed. SCHIVEREA DOING THE WORK OF AN EVANGELIST. AVhat we want is to reach the Lost. Beside his knowledge of the AVord of God, he also has another power which no doubt is a great help to him in his work and that is the power of adapta- iion. If his pulpit is a dry-goods box and his congregation is BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH* ly the unreached masses, he can get down to them in such a way that it is not long before he finds an avenue open for the re- ception of the Truth he is preaching to them. If his pulpit should be in a Church, and he has before him the refined Church going class, God uses him in a way which soons let them see just what they are and who they are. He can adapt him- self to any class, or to any case. Another power he has and is so wonderfully noticed in his meetings, is his confidence in God. He has a faith that cannot easily be shaken. He not only believes there is a God, but he believes God for all He is, and just takes Him at His word and goes ahead. From the outset of his Christian career Schiverea has been a indefatigable worker. He is always happily busy about his Master's busi- ness. It mat- ters not where or when an opportunity comes he is ready to em- brace it. On one occasion he entered in- to conversa- tion with an aged man on a ferry-boat, and and so earn- estly did he plead and so effectively did SCHIVEREA AT WORK ON A FERRY BOAT. Qq^J bJesg his appeal, that there and then the aged sinner was brought to his knees,and Schiverea knelt with him and prayed for his salvation On another occasion, being appealed to in the street for chari- ty by a man evidently destitute and hungry, Schiverea turned in- to a bakery and bought the man several loaves. While the poor fellow satisfied his hunger, Schiverea talked to him of the Bread of Life, and eventually induced the man to put down the loaves and kneel down on the street and beg for mercy on his soul Two portions of Scriptures he often quotes are Phil. 4: 13 and «4 BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCH. 4: 19, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." "My God shall supply all your needs according to His iriches in glory by Christ Jesus." He claims that if we have Jesus Christ as our Saviour at Paul had Him, •we can claim just ^hat Paul did through Him, and if we do not get what Paul •did, it is our own fault and not God's. The things we need are for us, and God is ready to give them to us, and now what Cod is waiting for, is for us to have enough con- one of schiverea's practical sermons. iidence in Him, to come and get just what we need. Mr. Schiverea's labors in Canada have been abundantly blessed. His first visit was during the sessions of the Believer's Meeting for Bible Study held at Niagara in 1883. A member .of the Toronto Y. M. C. A. invited him to spend a Lord's Day in Toronto, and to address the meetings of Young Men. He consented, and the officers of the Association were so im- pressed with his earnestness that he was invited to return in November and conduct a series of meetings. He consented, and great blessing resulted. Since that time Canada has been the principle field of labor, and in many Cities and Towns are to be found hundreds who have been led to a knowledge of the truth through his ministrations. Several of the Churches (especially Presbyterians) have from time to time opened their 4oors to him, and in every instance the addition to the mem- bership has been large, and the increased spirituality of those already members has resulted in a continuance of the work long after the Evangelist had left the field. To know' Schiverea is to love him. He is a humble fdlower of the Lord. He is ever ready to receive either correction of BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. >s •errors into which through lack of education he may have fallen, or to receive teaching in Divine truths from the lips of those longer in the Master s service. His humility, his unwavering faith in God, his intense earnestness, and his senial man- ner make him beloved whereever he goes, and it may be truly said of him as it is written of his blessed Master that as the years roll by, he increases in wisdom, * * * and in &vor with God and man. Schiverea has just introduced into his work a feature which has been wonderfully used among the non-church going classes in England, that is a Bible Wagon. This he uses when the THE BIBLE WAGON. weather permits, among the masses, and preaches the Gospel to them, giving away Christian literature and Bibles to those who have none, and then invites them to his meetings at night. This method he uses mainly in the summer months, and no doubt much good has been done by it. Surely all will say after they read the life, conversion, and the way this man was prepared and sent to preach the Gospel, that we have made no mistake in calling this little volume "Grace Magnified." « r— — »ii'«;.i THE GRACE OF GOD. WHAT IT IS, AND WHAT IT TEACHES. " 2^ grace of God that hringeth salvation hath u '^peartd to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present morld; looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God (**d our Saviour Jeaus Christ, who gave Hint' self for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works" — Titus 2: 11-14. THE word " Grace" is a word ot only five letters, yet it is the greatest .word in the Bible. None other in the Word of God has such meaning as the word "Grace." How many both unsaved and saved use this word yet do not know the meaning of it. It was years after my conver- sion ere I knew the meaning of it. Now, what is Grace? Well, when you use it in connection with man, it does not amount to a great deal, but when you use it in connection with God, and want to know what the grace of God is, that is some- thing different. Now the grace of God means to me — for I do believe it is only as we apply it personally that we are able to define it — to me it means undeserved kindness to the meanest thing God ever let live, Ferdinand Schiverea; and I get a perfect exhibition of it on the Cross when I look on God's only be^ t6 GRAtE MAGNlH^kEt). I gotten Son. There He proves His kindness to me and all other sinners, in giving His only begotten Son to die, that we through His death might have everlasting life. God putting His dear Son under the curse of the law, and He taking upon Himself that curse that we might be delivered from under it. " But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident : for, the just shall live by faith, and the law is not of faith : but, the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us : for it is written. Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.* Gal. 3 : 11- 13. I often wondered why it was that with all the rest of the suffer- ings of the Son ol God, He should have to suffer the forsaking of the Father. Oh ! I can see now why it was. It was God's grace. God's grace shown to me. God's Son was bearing your sins and mine, and God being holy could not look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. He could not look upon His Son because He had sin on Him. Now do not misunderstand me, I did not say sin in Him, but sin on Him. And for that reason God could not look on His Son. He was looking to us hell-deserving and hell-bound sinners. We who had forfeited every claim. We who had sold our birth- right. We that could only merit His wrath. His judgment. And now we hear Him say as His dear Son cries out with the last pang of pain, which breaks the heartstrings and ends His awful sufferings, "// is finished*' "I so loved you thiat I gave my only begotten Son to die for you, and if you will only believe on Him thou shalt not perish but have everlasting life." This is grace unadulterated, and God turning from His pure spotless Son to recognize such polluted creatures as we are, and offering us a complete pardon of all sin, and a place in heaven. Why? you ask. Let nic answer, just because we did not deserve it. How many will tell us it was a strange thing for God to let sin come into the world al all. Well I am here to ^ ORACE MAOMlMBt). 19 t tell you som-Hhing more strange. And that is, that God let His pure spotless, sinless Son come into the world to bear the d/unf of it t Can you tell me why He let Him do it ? Neither can I. This is one of the mysteries of God. But there is one tiling I can tell you, He did come, and He finished the work of re- demption, and to-night He is in this meeting Tering to all who will accept it, salvation from the curse. Oii yes, it was the grace of God that brought salvation, and thank God it is for all men. I have often had poor trembling unsaved ones in my meet- ing, say to me these words ; "Oh, I am a sinner and want a Saviour, but J am not deserving of pardon, or peace, or heaven." T have put this question to them, and will put it to all in this meeting who are troubled about the same thing. Tell me who is worthy ? Those men or women who are worthy of anything else than eternal damnation, let them rise. I want to see them. Why don't you rise ? I will tell you why. That man or woman is not alive. Listen to what God says to us all : " Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law : that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight : for by the law is the know- ledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the pro- phets. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe : for there is no difference. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.'" Rom. 3: iy-23. "Bu*^ God com- mendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sin- ners, Christ died for us Much more then, being now justi- fied by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when wc were enemies, we were reconciled to God by 1 1 i 11 u 36 &RACE IIAOMIFIKD. the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Rom. 5 : 8-10. Who dare say the> are deserving after this. No flesh is deserving of His favour, for all have sinned and become His enemies, and He wants us to believe this and come in this condition to Him, and in no other way. Oh this is grace ! wonderful grace ! None but God could have such grace. Loving the unlovely, even His enemies ; and even dying iOt them. Oh sinner can you not see that your salvation is all of grace and nothing of ^'(^tfrj^^. Let us see what the Grace of God teaches us after we have been saved by it. In the first place we see it teaches us fo live oy it. "Teach- ing us that; denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly, in this present world." Titus 2: 12. We cannot be saved by grace, and not live by it. Just as soon as we receive it as our Saviour, it becomes our Teacher. It not only brings salvation to our never dying souls, but it also brings deliverance from the power of sin in this world. We are supposed from the moment of our con- version to commence a Life that will deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, a Life that will be consistent to the will of God that will have nothing in it but what God's benediction can be pronounced on. "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." Col. 3: 17. When I hear people talking about the loving grace erf" God, and in their lives show no evidence of the keeping grace of God, I come to the conclusion at once that they are deluded, and are as yet strangers to God's grace, either as to the saving of the soul or body. " Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. But be ye GRACE MAGNIPIRD. tl (I doen of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass : For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth .^erein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his deed." James 1:21-25. It makes us live different in the world, and this is just the place that we do want to live right. Thousands of people that do not read their Bibles, will read us, who claim to have been saved by grace. How many you will hear exclaim, I want to go to heaven ! Well let nae tell you, God don't want you to go there yet. He wants to use you down in this wicked world. He wants to work through you, and if your lives are not godly and right before men, how can God uqc you ? Some will tell us, we cannot live godly and right in this world. All who say this put a limit to God's grace. Is it possible that God would ask it of us, if it was impossible ? Could it be reasonable to do such a thing? No, if God asks us to live soberly and righteously and godly, he will give us grace to do it. I asked a dear lad at one of my meetings to decide for Christ, and he told me he could not, as he had been taught to play cards by his parents at home, and because they were church people, they surely would not do it if it was wrong, and he had an idea, that if he should decide for Christ he would have to stop card playing, and his parents would not like it. He was away from theia now, and among strangers, with that awful mania for card playing. And now that he could not always get parlours to play in, he could always find the sample room of the wine house open to him, and no doubt by this time that dear lad, like thousands of others, who have been taught card and chance playing in their homes, will very sqoQ end, in a miserable ^mbler's ruin. Qh how maaiy parents 1.1 , U ts ORACB MAQNIPIID. will have to answer for the ruin of their children. How many who instead of living godly and right before their children have done just the opposite, and through this their children will be lost. A mother told me, when she was led to see the awful danger as a Christian woman, to be teaching her children card playing, "I could not see the danger of it before, but now I can see how I can be the instrument in the hands of Satan in destroying my children, and from this night I will destroy all my cards, and will learn from this cat, to live as God's grace will lead m», before my children." Oh let me say to you who* are calling yourselves Christians, follow that mother's example and God will bless you for it. And if you don't you will surely rue it both in this world and the next. Some will tell us they have acquired appetites, such as rum drinking and tobacco using, and so on, and can't give it up. Now, why don't you be honest ? It is not that you " can't," but you " won't." For if you did really want to give these cursed things up, God's grace would do it for you in a moment, but you have learnt to love them, and you hate to part with them. Oh, what an awful thing it is to see a gin barrel Chris- tian, and a Christian making everything around him smell of tobacco. And let me say just here, I do not believe like some of my brethren, that a man who drinks strong drink should stop, but a tobacco user is all right, as it is no harm to use tobacco. I contend a tobacco drunkard is just as bad in a sense as a rum drunkard, for they are twin brothers, they both disgrace, debase, and ruin body and mind, and eternally damn the soul. Others will tell us that they have such a desire to play cards, but as they do not go to the extreme, they see no harm in it. Now you know there is a simple game that many church-goers play, we call it progressive euchre. "Let me tell you, all of you so-called Christians, that have no higher ambition t^n to pla;^ cards, jom have i\ot et^ou^h of the reli^on of \ •ORACB MAGNIFIED. 83 Jesus Christ to keep you out of hell, and you are surely euchred by the devil, and are making progress towards hell as fast as you can. What is more ruinous to young people than this card playing in the parlors of so-called Chr;w(ian parents ? Making gamblers out of their children, and out of the children of others. Again how many who call themselves Christians approve of dancing. How much of this is going on in religious circles. Parlor dancing, ball-room dancing. You who apprc .c of it, tell me what is dancing ; and what does it lead to ? Dancing is the setting of the gratification of the worst form of lust to music. Nature never intended that the opposite sex should come in such close contact together as to allow the male to put his arms around the waist of the female, and then to whirl around a ball-room until every drop of blood is set on fire. I say this has, and always will, lead to disaster of the worst kind. Oh, some will say, "We do not believe in ball-room dancing, but what harm is there in a private dancing party, and things done * i moderation ? " Tell me what leads to the ball-room ? First, your little parlor parties, then your private social dancing, and then your ball-room dancing, and then moral destruction, and then eternal ruin. Out of every hundred girls in the United States that go to ruin a large proportion go there from this cursed dancing, and the Christian that wil encourage it, will have a great deal to answer for. Others will say I have such a bad temper I cannot get along at home with my family. Oh what a sad sight to see a home, supposed to be a Christian one and see the heads of it quarrelling all the time. Perhaps both have a bad temper. Perhaps it is only one. But to see a wife and hus- band wrangling is awful. Perhaps it is church time and the husband is about to get ready, and when he goes to put on his shirt, he finds that a button is off. Instantly it is thrown on tliie Qoor, with. ^ "what k\nd of a wife have I got^ can't keep ] '<■ •4 GRACE MAONiriBD. buttons on my shirt. She's got nothing to do and yet can't do that much for me. Oh I do wish I had never married such a wife." The wife comes into his presence to help him get ready, when she is confronted with a religious tiger. How can I help you ? What is the matter ? Why are you so put out ? Why the shirt on tb** floor? What is the difficulty ? Oh can't you see, no buttons on my shirt just when I want to go to church. Oh, dear husband, I am so sorry, but I have had so much on my mind that I have forgotten to see to that shirt, but dear, the others are all right. You know little Willie has been sick, and Johnny and Fanny had to have some clothes made to go to school in, and little Nellie's and Mary's dresses had to be seen to, and then I have had the house work to do, and altogether I have had my hands full. Do for- give me, and I will try and see it does not happen again. All this is said, with only the response of an ugly, sulky face and very harsh words, and is listened to by a lot of frightened children. The preparations is Anally made, and without a kiss of reconciliation, or even a kind look, away he goes to church, and is met at the church door by sister so-and-so. How do you do brother ? Glad to see you at chutch. Is the Lord precious to you ? And is all at hom^ well and happy ? Oh, yes, thank you. The Lord iu very piccious to us all. Will your wife be at the meeting tc-night ? No, I think not, she don't feel very well. He takes good care not to tell why she is not with him, and why she don't feel well. Now the man that will leave his home in that state of affairs, I just tell you he would not get much blessing at the meeting. A smile for sister so-and-so, but a miserable frown for his dear hard work- ing little wife. God deliver Us from such celigion as that; if you have not enough of grace to help your wife bear the bur- den of the day you have very little. What kind of children do you think you will raise, when they witness in some of the so-called Christian homes, scenes like this? Yes,^ GRACE MAGNIFIED. *5 i brethren and sisters, grace teaches us how to live godly and right in our homes. Again, we want to live right in business. How often we for- get to carry our religion into our business. You say it is not wise to carry your business into religious matters So do I, but I contend it is no more than right that we should carry our religion into our business. Oh, some of the meanest things are done by Christians in business. We should always try to give one hundred cents to the dollar, and thirty-six inches to the yard. And in general, deal with men as you would have them deal with you. I have to confess that some of the mean- est business transactions I have ever known have been made by Christian men. Here is a poor woman come to buy a piece of gingham, and she asks, " Does this wash " ? "Oh yes,*' but he forgets to say that the colour will wash out. Here is a man that wants a pair of good boots, and is led to inquire, "Will these boots last well"? "Oh yes," but don't tell him the only way to make them last is never to put them, on. I had a dear friend that went to a Christian man, a head man in the Church. He was a tailor, and my friend got him to make him a suit of clothes. He had not much money, and wanted to get a suit of clothes as good as the money would allow. He got the clothes, as the brother said, at half the value of the cloth before it was made up, and when he got the clothes on him he found he had never been so swindled. Here was a man cheating his own brother in Christ, and a poor brother at that. I know Christians who can do this without any check of conscience. I tell you this is not what grace teaches. Let us be godly and right. Let us stop all this mean work in business. I tell you, you can get along in business, and have as much money in the end, if you will only take Qod in partnership yjt$\ you^ 111 GRACE MAONIFIBD. It will be a blessing to your business, and I'm certain to some of your poor customers. Another thing that grace teaches is, "to look for that blessed hope and the speedy appearing of the gr^at God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ " Oh, how this is neglected. The coming again of our dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He tells us so plainly in John 14: i, 3, " Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am there ye may be also." He has gone to prepare a place for us, and when all things are ready He is coming again to take us with Him. I do not know why this important matter is so neglect- ed. Why should we shun this blessed truth ? There is noth- ing the Bible speaks upon so explicitly as this. Yet how little of it is preached. We see so clearly how the grace of God teaches us that Jesus Christ, the same who went away, is to come in like manner, and we as Christians should ever be ready and looking for His glorious appearing. If we could get this once, friends, on our minds, that He is coming and may come at any moment, it would cause us to be more careful how we live in the world, in our home, and in our business. Another thing grace teaches, js how to work for God. "Who gave himseK for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zeal- ous of good works," Titus a: 14. If there is anything God's word teaches, it is service for God. We cannot be real Christians and not work. " But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead ? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar ? Seest thou how faith wrought with works, and by works was faith made perfect 1" James 2: 20-26. For si^i^vicQ i(s the first thing that is asKed of us after Qi;^r conversion. I ORACB MAONiriED. •7 <* Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto your souls," Matt. 1 1: 39. We see that at once God wants us to goto work with Him, and that everything necessary God is willing to give us. Oh what good a working Christian can do, and how much harm a lazy Christian can do. We see that grace teaches us to be ualous of good wot ks. Note four reasons why we should be zealous : First : — Because God wants us to go to work with Him. "We, then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain," 2 Cor. 6: i. God works in co-partnership with human instrumentalities. Second ; — We should be zealous because of the great re- sponsibility that rests upon us from the moment of our conver- sion. We have two great responsibilities. One is taken off us when we decide for Christ, and that is the responsibility ot sin. But there is a responsibility put on us when the other is taken off— that is the responsibility of service. " So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel ; therefore thou shalt hear the word of my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die ; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniqui- ty, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul," Ezekiel 33: 7-9. Oh yes, we will be held responsible for all neglected opportunities. Oh may God wake us up to our responsibility as never before. Third : — We should be zealous because of the rapid progress with which the unsaved are going to hell. Thousands every hour, and if we do not do our part to day with them^ to-morrow they may be beyond the re^ch of mercy. ORACB MAONtrfED. Fourth: — We should be zealous because our re ward depends upon out zeal. "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever." Dan. 12: 3. It is only those that shine in this world, will shine in the next Eternal life is a gift, but our reward de- pends upon our faithfulness. "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble ; Every man's work shall be made mani- fest : for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall sufier loss ; but he himself shall be saved ; yet so as by fire." i Cor. 3: 1 1- 15. And now, dear hearer, as I have shown you what God's grace is, and what it teaches let me appeal to you not to receive it in vain. " We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain." 2 Cor. 6: i. For one thing is certain, you will not leave this meeting as you came into it. God's grace is either a savour unto life or a savour unto death. I HATRED WITHOUT A CAUSE. " ITtey hated me without a cause" — ^John 15: 45. IT is awful, and yet how true, that our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was hated by so many while on earth; and what makes it still worse, He was hated by those that had no cause for hating Him. There was not one who ill-treated him could find any fault in Him. And as it was then so is it now. The hatred still exists. He was hated while on earth, and is hated now that He is in heaven. We have thousands of the same class with us to-day. The only difference between the class we have to-day is, that they are more intense in their hatred than they were w^en our dear Lord was on earth. I am certain that people prove by their /ejectmg His love and mercy, and continuing in sin, that if they had the Son of God, as the Jews had, they would have put Him to death long ago. Oh yes, unsaved one, you prove your hatred towards the Son of God as you sit in this meeting without Him as your Saviour. Let us look at some of the reasons why the Son of God was hated. First. We see that He showed up sin wherever sin was. He exposed it, and did not do as is done to-day by so many, "judge a man by his coat," or a woman by her dress. He went beneath the coat and dress. He got down into the heart 30 OftACB MAOHlPlEb. and just brought up what was there and let them see it. And for this reason He was hated. Listen to what He said to some who pretended to be such good people : " O generation of vii)ers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things ? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things ; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things," Matt. 12: 34, 35. " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites 1 for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Even so ye also appear outwardly righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity," Mat^, 23: 25, 28, Our dear Lord was not taken up with the outward appear- ance but the inward appearance of men ; and when He told them it was more necessary to get the heart right than anything else, they got angry at Him. Is that not, why so many learn to hate this blessed Book of books, simply because it gives in it a perfect picture of your depraved hearts. Let us look at some of you who sit in those seats. To look at you from the outside, most of you are just faultless. Your dress is faultless, your manners are faultless ; you are free from open and gross sins ; you are pleasing and engaging and entertaining in your ways : and yet, I believe, that if God should take all that is in your hearts and put it on your foreheads, you women would have your hair down on your foreheads even longer than some of you have it now, and you men would pull your hr .s down on your ears at once, even though it is in church. Ain't that so ? Come row, ^be honest. Would your hearts bear inspection by the scanning eye of the Lord Jesus Christ ? Oh, should we get angry at the one that tells us of our danger ! Should we not rather get down on our knees and thank Him for talking plainly to us? We arc told that the heart is desperately wicked and I GRACE MAGNIFIED. 3» deceitful above all things, and if we will not heed God's warning concerning it, it will bring us to hell. A missionary on one of the Islands wanted very much to get on the right side of a race of people that inhabited the Island, so he got some litile trinkets to give them, and among the things he gave away was some looking-glasses. A woman of the tribe got hold of one of these glasses, and finally got it up to her face, and in a moment she dashed the glass to the ground, and smashed it to atoms under her feet, and then wanted to kill the missionary for giving her such a thing. What was the difficulty ? Why she got a perfect glimpse of her ugly features and it made her mad. Is not this the case with every unsaved one in this meeting ? When God has given us a look at ourselves, we get mad at God for it. Oh, should we not take heed to His warning rather than get angry ? Anotlier reason why Jesus was hated was, because Ife told the truth. He just told all those He came in contact with their real condition, no ma' ler what it was. He did not call things by wrong names, or cover up the truths to spare the feelings. Listen how He spake to Nicodemus, that self- righteous Pharisee, who came to Him at night. He approach- ed Jesus with a lot of eulogy and praise. "Rabbi we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these things except God be with him." He had no idea as He approached Jesus as teacher, that he was to be taught a les- son he had never learnt, and one he should never forget. "J<^sus answered and said unto him : Verily, verily I say unto you except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Jesus told him the plain truth. What the result was I am not here to say. But I am here to tell you this, that what Jesus said to this man, He says to all in this meeting. " Ye must be horn again, " if you ever expect to get to heaven. He tells you as He did those Pharisees that all your righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and instead of your rij^hteuusncbs recommend* 1 3a GRACE MAGNIFIED. ing you to God, it only so much more condemns you, before God. God will not accept your righteousness, or morality, or good resolutions, And may I go further and say, God will not accept your religious services, or evc listen to yoiir prayers. Hear what He says in Isa. i : io-i6, " Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom ; and give ear unto the law of our God, ye people o'i Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multi- tude of your sacrifices unto me? saith. the Lord ' I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts ; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts ? Bring no more vain oblations, incense is an abomination unto me: the, new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with ; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth : they are a trouble unto me ; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear : your hands are full of blood." This is what God said to that religious people. Of course this would make t.iem mad, and no doubt some m this meetmg will get angry too, but let me tell you, it is the truth nevertheless, for God says so. A lady attending one of my meetings got quite angry with me for telling her just what God said about her. She was a loving woman, but shunned the idea of coming to the Lord Jesus Christ as her Saviour, She could not believe it was necessary for her to ask God to save her. She was good enough already, she was much better than many she knew, she went to church and attended to its duties, and could see no reason why she should do anything more, and when I told her that ar far as heaven was concerned she would come as far .hort of it as the careless prodigal, she got quite put out. Yet it was the truth. Of course as far as sin is concerned there is a ■ GRACE MAGNIFIED. 33 difference ; but when it comes to the question of guilt there is none. Rom. 2:23. And as God is not dealing now with sin but guilt, there is but one hope for all, and that is in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which has atoned for all sin. "Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law, dishonourest thou God ? For the name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles through you, as it is written. For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law : but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision." Rom. 2 : 23-25. This is the truth, and one thing more is the truth, and that is, if you do not believe this there is no escape from hell. " He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved ; but he that believeth not, shall be damned." Mark 16: 16. Another reason why He was hated w^s, because He was no respecter of persons. He dealt with all alike. It made no difference to Him as to position or station in life. He put all on the same footing, and showed to all alike that there was but one way of being saved, and that was by accepting one common Saviour, and outside of Him there was no hope for any. And how grandly He showed this in His dealing with the lost At one time we see Him looking with pity at the poor lost soul at His feet, whose repenting tears washed His feet, and whose hair dried them, and when done we hear Him say to her, "thy sins are all forgiven, go in peace, and sin no more." At another time we hear Him say to the proud self-righteous Pharisee, "Unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Again we see Him calling the poor blind beggar, who attracted His attention with his pitiful cry, "Thou Son of David have mercy on me," and after having him brought He asks him what He could do for him. He at once grants hisi request, &'^d gives him his sight, and sent him on his way rejoicing. And almost the next moment we hear Him calling to the self-righteous tax-gatherer iij M GRACE MAGNIFIED. who no doubt had his attention drawn to the Son of God by the cries of joy as they went up from the blind beggar who passed him by on his way to his home. Zaccheus no doubt saw so many of this class of people, following the Son of David, and fearing he might ccme in contact with them, he gets up in a tree, so as to steer clear of them, and at the same time get a glimpse of Jesus. But we do not read that he did see Him after all. But we do read that Jesus saw him, and we see also he had all his work for nothing, for when Jesus saw him. He told him to make haste ana come down for to-day He must abide at his house. I do not know how Zaccheus felt when he heard the voice of the Son of God call- ing him to come down. I can see him looking aroand to see if there was anyone that knew him, and then he looks at the rabble following the Son of God, and he says to himself, 'Oh dear me, must I go down among that class of people and be put on the same footing as them. Oh just think of it- He has just opened the eyes of that blind beggar Bartimeus, and all eyes are fixed on him because of that miracle, and now He calls for me. My, my, what will people think about it ? But it is no use, He is calling me, and is saying to-day He must abide at my house, so I will go, for to-morrow may be too late." And down he comes, and makes his way to the Son of God and is saved. No doubt he hated to come down and take the same Saviour that saved a poor blind beggar. But thank God he had to do it in order to meet the Son of God. Jesus is not going to do any tree climbing. The same Saviour that saved the low-toned Bartimeus sinner also saved the high-toned Zaccheus sinner. And both were saved on the same platform, the only difference between them was just this: — The poor miserable sinner cried out to Jesus, but the high-toned sinner Jesus had to cry out to him. The one was brought up from his low condition and the other was brought down from his high position, and both were brought to a level, and dealt with GRACE MAGNIFIED. as alike. You see, my hearer, that Jesus was no respecter of persons. He dealt with all alike. And this was one of the reasons why He was so hated while on earth. I would like to ask a question, and have it answered by all in this meeting who are not saved. Why is it you sit in this meeting unsaved ? Is this not one of the reasons ; you do not want to put you!.-self in the place where God can save you. If God would only save you in your own way, you would have been saved long ago. We should have three classes of Saviours ; one for the mud-gutter sinners, and have him kept to this class exclusively, and another for the middle-class of sinners, and then another Saviour for the upper-ten class of sinners And, then, even if this could be done, there would be another great difficulty. There would have to be three heavens ; for all these classes of sinners would not be happy in the, same heaven. I heard of a lady who ranked in the upper class of society, being asked if she would not accept Christ as her Saviour, and let Him save her instantly. She raised up all the dignity one could have in her position, ar '. said, in a way that caused the Christian friend who usked the question to almost feel as if it would have been better if he had not done so, "Do you tell me that I will have to ask the same Saviour to save me, who would save my servant girl, and^ that we are to go to the same heaven." Then said she : " I will not be saved, for I would not go to the same heaven that my servant girl could go to." Oh, how that woman hated the gospel and the Saviour, and the heaven that puts all on one level, regardless of pos- session, or position, or condition, and says to all alike ^Uhere is no difference" Oh let me ask you here to-night is this what is keeping you from deciding for our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ? Remember, He will save any that will come to Him, but He saves all in the same way. It is said of Wellington that one day while at prayer in the 111 36 GRACE MAGNIFIED. church, a common soldier came in to worship, and when he saw that he was kneeling beside his superior, he under- took to apologize, when Wellington interrupted him with these words: "Never mind what we are away from this place, here we are before one common Lord, and here we are equals." Yes, dear friends, no matter what we may be away from this mercy-seat, but once there we meet one common Saviour for all, and when before Him we are all equals. I have tried to show why Jesus Christ was hated while on earth, and also to show why His blessed Gospel is detested to-day as then. They had no reason, and neither have you. He simply showed up that cursed thing sin, and told the truth about it, and showed to all alike the only refuge from its awful curse and dominion. Some of you perhaps hate me for telling you that you sit here to-night hating Him. Oh, do not call me your enemy because I tell you the truth. But if you have not as yet decided against sin and for Christ, you know you are hating Him. First, by loving that which He hates, and so hated it that He gave His life's blood to cover it. And, again, you prove your hatred by spending your time and tal- ents and ability in entertaining sin. And, again, you show it by continuing to refuse God's offer of salvation. Yes, un- saved one here to-night, you hate the Son of God with- out a cause, for lli^ blessed Gospel brings to you a double hope. "Godliness is profitable to all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come," i Tim. 4: 8. Oh let me beseech you not to hate Him any longer, but c'^me and let Him save you, and learn to love before it shall be eternally too late. ii. HE STILL WAITS. *^ And therefore will tJie Lord wait." Isaiah 30: 19. SO far as securing salvation for man is concerned, God has done all that He can do, and now He has to stop and wait for us. Now, when I say us, I mean every person in this meeting to-night; that so far as securing salvation is con- cerned, God Almighty has done all that He can do, and that now, dear friends, God is waiting for you and for me. Let us then for a few moments look at some of the differ- ent classes of people for whom God has to wait. The first class of people that the Lord has to wait for is the Christian. Almighty God has procured salvation, but although God has procured salvation, although He has done everything necessary for the saving of the souls of men, there is this one thing which God has not done as yet — and I doubt very much if He ever will — that is, dear friends, to save the unconverted directly. All through this precious volume, all through this blessed and holy book, from Genesis to Revela- tion, we see where God Almighty has reached the hearts of men indirectly. He has not reached them directly — He never does. When He wanted to reach the children of Israel, He sent Moses, through whom He worked ; when He wanted to overthrow Jericho, He sent Joshua, through whom He worked; , when He wanted to slay Goliath, He sent David and worked 38 ORACH MAONiyiED. through David ; and when He wanted to root out the Midian- ites, He sent Gideon and worked through him. And now, dear friends, God wants to save souls in this city, and is ready to work through you and me, if we will only let Him. He is waiting for us as Christians to utter these words in the sixth chapter of Isaiah and the eighth verse, "Here am I; send me." Now this is what God is waiting for to night from the Chris- tian. There are thousands of men and women going to hell, because the Christian people do not waken to their great responsibility. " Therefore will the Lord wait." The work can't go en, souls can't be saved, God's glory can't be manifested until the Christian people are ready for God Almighty to use them. See the crowds t>night going down to hell, thousands (tf them going right past this church. Ah, brother ! Ah, sister I let me tell you something, Just as soon as you and I get ear- nest for God — ^just as soon as we get as earnest for God as we have been for the devil, there is going to be something done ; and until we do, dear friends, there will be nothing done. Now there are three reasons why the Christians ought to be willing to respond to God. God says, My Son has been given. His blood has been shed, salvation has been pro- cured, and now I am waiting ; I am waiting for men and women who profess io be my children, I am waiting for them to take the good tidings to the hearts of the unsaved. Brothers and sisters, God has to wait till you are ready to be used by Him. What a wonderful thought that we poor insignificant creatures can tie God Almighty's hands ; that we poor creatures of a moment can prevent our Creator from saving lost and precious souls. Some of the reasons why we should not have God waiting for us. The first is — the honor conferred on us. What an honor for Almighty God to condescend to stoop so low as to take such as you and me, brother and sister, and to go with us GRACE MAGNIFIB]5. 39 to reach the lost. In the nth of Matthew 28th and 29th verses, we have these words, " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." That rest is a gift, that is salvation. What did He say after that ? Because you are saved, go fold your arms and go to sleep ? No. " Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." The very first thing the Lord Jesus Christ says to a person who takes Him as his Saviour, is to go to work. And notice what He says, " Take my yoke upon you." Now notice, here is the Son of God wanting to take one part of the yoke, and you to take the other, and to go to work together What an honor that is. In 2 Corinthians 6: i, we read, "We then as workers together with Him." Dear friends, God is not sending us out to work alone. He is not sending us out in our own wisdom, and understanding, and ability, but God is using such as we are, to work together with Him in reaching the lost. Is not that an honor, to have our Creator condescend to stoop so low as to use us with His Son and have us both go out together in trying to reach the lost? "And therefore will the Lord wait," until you take your part of the yoke, and as soon as you do that, you and God will go off together, and thousands of souls will be led to cry out for mercy. Why is not this place crowded ? Your theatres are crowded, your dance halls are not empty, neither are the billiard and gambling hells. Those places are crowded. The Devil don't have to wait for His people to work for him ; his people are too willing to work, he has every agency in Hell and out of Hell at work for him in this city to-night, working to dash men and women's souls into eternal darkness. Let the Christian people get only half as earnest as the ungodly are, and you will have your seats here as well filled as those of the theatre, ■M ii ! J 1 I 4t GkACE MAGNIPIBb. i ! dance hall or gambler's hell, if you will make up your minds to go at once to work with Christ. We'll have to turn people from the doors of this church for want of room, in a few nights. A man said to me one day when I was standing on the street preaching "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, standing out in the streets this way, talking about God's love." I said "Friend, I am ashamed of myself, I have been ashamed of myself ever since I saw the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. I have been ashamed of myself ever since I have been led to realize what Christ has done for my soul. But there is one thing that I am not ashamed of, and that is to be a co-worker with God, and work with Him at any time and anywhere," Another reason why we should go at once to work for God is because of the great privilege we have. Just think of it. Made instruments by God, to lead precious souls from eternal darkness to eternal light. Now if God estimates the value of a world as below the value of a soul, what must be the value of your privilege ? If angels had this privilege they would be willing to come down from heaven and take the lowest position on earth in order to embrace it. A young man lately converted met me the other evening, with countenance all lit up, and said, "Mr. Schiverea just think of it, God used me the other night in leading a soul to Christ. When I stop to think that I was used in leading another young man to the Christ that saved me, it just filled my heart with joy." Young man, young woman, mother, father, business man, clerk, mechanic, all you who profess to be the children of God, do you want your hearts filled with joy ? Go and do like that young man. There are precious souls all around us, and no matter in what position we may be placed in life, we can find them. And perhaps one word, or one kind act might bring the turning point in that life, and win a soul for heaven. Let us then go GkACfe MAG^flFIEb. 4» to our homes, to our places of business, to our neighbours, to our shops, determined to embrace the grand privilege God has given us. How many of us leave our religion in our church ; we put it off, as we do our Sunday suit of clothes. God help us to take it with us from our churches, wttar it the seven days in the week, thirty days in the month, twelve months in the year. For it is only such a Christian I'fe that God will bless. There are two laws, a great many Christians go by. One is, the law of self-preservation. This is kept six days in the week ; the other is the law of self-denial, this is kept on the seventh day, Sunday. Let us have from this moment only one law, and let it be, all my time, and my talent shall be God's. Another reason, my dear friends, why we ought not to have God wait another moment for us, is because of the great re- ward that comes to the faithful in God's service. Daniel 12 : 3, says, It is only they that "turn many to righteousness that shall shine as stars for ever and ever." And in the last chapter of Revelation, we read, " And, behold, I come quickly ; and my reward is with me." There is a day of re- ward coming, and the people who will get that reward are those who have worked for it, and if you expect to shine up yonder you will have to shine down here in this city first. A person said to me, "Schiverea, I don't agree with you on that point, the people would not be satisfied up in heaven if one is to shine brighter than another." I ask you people to answer me this question. The dying thief and Paul the Apostle, both were saved by the same Saviour. The thief went to heaven from the cross. Paul went to heaven after many years of faithful service. Now do you entertain the thought for a moment that the thief enjoys to-night what Paul does ? Of course you say no. Paul is among God's nobility, the thief is among God's poor. In this world we have the privilege of forming capaci- ties, and in the next they shall be filled, whether they be smal], 4* GRACE MAGNIFIED. or large, but wc "shall be satisfied." Just like the man in yonder hut, and the man in yonder mansion, both are satisfied, because both capacities are filled. But change the men, they would be in torment, because of being in capacities neither could fill. It is said of Whitfield, when approached by one of those who opposed Wesley. Did he ever expect to meet Wesley in heaven ? " No," said Whitfield, " he has done so much more service for God than me, and because of that, will be so much nearer God's glory than me, that I won't have a chance to see him." Yes, dear hearer, we get salvation as a gift, but if we expect to be rewarded in that great day, when each man's works shall be tested, we will have to be faithful here, as to our service. " For we are labourers together with God : ye are C ^d's husbandry, ye are God's building. Accordmg to the ^ ^e of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. Every man's work shall be made manifest : for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss : but he himself shall be saved ; yet so as by fire." i Cor. 3: 9-15. Another class that God has to wait for is the back- ilider. 'J'here is no class of people doing so much harm to the cause of Christ as the backslider. Now when I say backslider, I don't mean that class of people who confess conversion to-day and not to-morrow, those who are merely emotionally worked upon — who have at that moment been led to yield to the animal part of min, who Crack MAGNit>i£b. 43 der use uld fill, vho have simply been carried away by the excitement of the mo ment, or been led to trust in the testimony of another. This class of people are not backsliders from God, but merely slid- ers back from feelings, emotion and excitement. This class of people you generally find burst out during a revival or time of excitement and religious interest, and are all right while the excitement lasts, but you generally find them burst- ing up after the revival and excitement is over. When I say backslider I mean a person who has been carefully and intelli gently led to see their sinful state, and been led to a Saviour who has delivered them from it, and been led to realize the forgiving power of a loving God, and been led to enjoy the blessings that come to that soul both temporally and spiritual- ly. And then for that soul to del berately go back again to their wretched sinful state, and turn their back upon a God who so kindly received them, and go back again to sin, as the pig will go back to wallow in the mire. Now, this is what I call a backslider. Now, for a person to do this is no easy matter ; and this is the class of people that God refers to in Jeremiah a: 12, 13, when He calls all heaven to witness this awful fact : " Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; be ye very desolate, saith the Lord: for my people have committed two evils ; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, aad hewed them out cisterns, brok- en cisterns that can hold no water." Backslider, listen to the way that God shews His feelings in reference to what you have done towards Him ; ought this not to cause you to tremble, God calling all heaven to witness your act. He refers you to a double sin you have committed : turned your back on God ; He has not turned His back on you. And by so doing have once more put yourself in the adversary's power, to be an instrument in his hands to damn souls, while you might have been an instrument in God's hands to save them. Listen to the words, backslider : " Can a maid forget 44 GRACE lAAGNiri£D. her ornaments, or a bride her attire ? yet my people have forgotten me days without number. Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love ? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones chy ways. Also in thy skirts is found blood of the souls of (he poor innocents." Jer. 2: 32-34. Oh how can you rest, backslider, when you stop to see where God shows you th*» devil has put you. Now lying across the threshhold of God's mercy only to have poor innocent souls stumble over you into eternal darkness, perhaps these souls being in your own homes, your own acquaintances, in your own circles of society. Yes, thousands of souls are in hell to-night that would be in heavtn, and many more are on their way to hell, who would be on their way to heaven if it wasn't for you, backslider. But in spite of what you have done to God, God still waits to be merciful to you. Listen to Him, "And the Lord said unto me, the backsliding Israel hath justi- fied herself more than treacherous Judah. Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say. Return, thou backslid- ing Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you : for I am merciful saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast trangressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scat- tered thy ways to the stranger under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord. Turn, O backslid- ing children, saith the Lord ; for I am married unto you ; and I will :ake you one of a city, and two of a family, and I \vill bring you to Zion." Jer, 3: 11-14. Oh that you might utter the words of the prodigal in Luke 15: i8, "I will arise and go to my Father," and have God wait no longer for you. Another class God is waiting for, is the man and woman who has thus far rejected God's grace. How God has been waiting for you. For years it may be for you to take that grace He offers and be saved by it. For some of you He has waited five, ten, twenty years, some of you sit here / ORACB MAGNIFIED. 45 with white hair, stooped shoulders, trembling forms. Time, talent, influence all gone, still God waits. Some of you sit here coming up to maturity Let me ask you, How long dc you intend to have God wait young man, young wo- man ? As long as these aged sinners have ? God waits for a reply from you to-night. You have forfeited every claim, there is nothing that you deserve of God but eternal death. Yet God waits, not to damn, not to deal with you as you deserve, but to save, to forgive. Let me ask you unsaved soul to listen to my text. "Therefore will the Lord wait," I am here to tell you. He is waiting to-night, but not to tell you He will wait until to-morrow. Be wise and have Him wait no longer. The same God that declares "I wait to be merci- ful," is the same God that declares, He will not always strive. Gen. 6: 3. " And the Lord said. My Spirit shall not always strive with man." ■■IHI CONVERSION. " Let the wicked forsake his way^ and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God for He will abundantly far- don. — IsA. 55: 7. " : w 1 HOW many there are who hear the word " Conversion," and many use the word " Conversion" and do not know the meaning of it. Now I am here at this time, with the help of God's own word, to show you just what con- version is. To be converted means to be turned about, or to be turned to God. Man has turned his back upon God. Adam commenced it, and every son and daughter of Adam has been doing the same thing ever since. How clearly this is shown in Rom. 10: 18, and you that listen to this awful declaration, do you not have to admit that it is so. Adam had no good reason for disobeying God, for God gave him everything which should have led him to love and obey Him, but he let Satan beguile him, and Satan not only got him to sin, but to make matters worse, he got him to run from God to hide the wrong he had done. And this is just what Satan is doing with many of you who sit in this meeting un- saved. You have made the matter worse. Instead of GRACE MAGNIFIED. 47 running to God for forgiveness, you are running from Him into the hands of the power that will damn you soul and body. Now, what I want to do is to get you converted or turned about, and face a loving and forgiving God Who now stands ready and willing to forgive you freely and fully. Listen to what He says : " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord and He will have niercy upon him, and to our God for He will abundantly pardon," Isa. 55: 7. Now, the first step towards conversion is an earnest desire and intention to forsake sin. You ask me how is a person brought into this state of mind ? Sometimes, and, may I say, generally by a conviction of sin. See Acts 2:27. These men cry out " what must we do," because of being pricked in the heart. The Spirit of God often carries such great conviction of sin that the suffering from it causes men to desire to get free from sin. Again, the preaching of the Gospel brings with it such grand joys that the unsaved make up their minds to have the joys the Gospel offers. I have met so many who have entered Gospel meetings with little or no conviction, and before we have closed our efforts to show the blessings of the Gospel, the tears of joy ran down the cheeks, and I have heard the poor sad hearts cry out, "This is what I want. Is it for me! Is it for me!" Again, many turn to God because of awful fear of the judg- ments of God. How many thousands would never think of leaving their ungodliness if it were not because of what God declares will take place with every soul that leaves this world unconverted. Now, I do not believe in frightening people into heaven. I think it is time for men to stop preaching when they cannot get people converted only as they shake them over bell. But I am certain that all the heaven, and the love, 48 GRACE MAGNinED. and the compassion the Bible contains, and as much more if we Lould get it, would not save some men whom I have met in my meetings. It has only been when we have exhausted ourselves in holding up the dear Son of God in all His beauty and love, that as our last alternative, we have turned to the other side of the picture, and shown the awful- ness of hell, that we have been able to lead them to a desire to be converted. The next step toward conversion is a willingness to accept God's salvation, whatever it may require — being ready to for- sake sin and to do whatever may be necessary. The Word of God absolutely declares we have nothing to do with the giving up of sin in order to be saved, but to be saved positively means the giving up of sin, and obeying the Lord Jesus Christ in whatever He might have us to do. " Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new." 2 Cor. 5: 17. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty." 2 Cor 6: 17, 18. Here we have the out- come of conversion, and if we do not have it, it is a clear evid- ence that we are not converted. Listen to what we read in Rom. 6 : 1-4, " What shall we say then ? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound ? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ? Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death ? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death : that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." How does this strike some of you who are listening to me? If you are converted do you ^ive this evidence. GRACE MAGNIFHED. 49 Another step to conversion is, making up your mind to believe what God declares He wants you to know in order to be saved. How many come to God for salvation, but they come with their own pre-conceived notions as to how they should be saved. And this is why they suffer so much mentally, when, as they tell us, they are seeking the Lord. They come with their own ideas as to how it should be done, or perhaps they meet a friend who is anxious to help them; and they tell them their story, and then they lend them some of their ideas. And they go to God with their ideas instead of their sins^ and commence to make their ideas their Saviour. And they go on for hours and days, and sometimes weeks, and I have known them to go on even for months, and get no light. Why is it? Simply God has not been sought at all. A poor colored woman, who was watching a person in awful agony of mind rolling on the floor, was asked by the pastor if she did not want religion, and after looking at the person who was going through this awful mental strain, was led to say, "I would like to be saved, but I dreds de process." How many thousands are like this poor woman, they want to be saved, but they dread the process. Oh let me tell you there is no process of mental agony, or possibilities of going to the Insane Asylum if we would only come the right way. Here is where all the difficulty comes in. Let your ideas and notions, and friends' advice go, and just come to God, and He will tell you in a few moments how you may be saved, and how you may know. Ah you, who want to be saved for time and eternity just where you are, and as you are, listen to what God says to you from His own dear Word. He tells us we are all depraved. "From the sole 'of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises, and putrifying sores." Isa. i: 6. Guilty. "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth 50 GRACE MAGNIFIED. I i 1 may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God." Rom. 2: 19. Helpless. "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." Acts 4: is. Here we have our first lesson, and now let us see what is the next thing we must learn. That the death of the Son of God was vicarious ; that is, He died in the place of others, A substitutional and divine atone- ment for us. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3: 16. "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in, Him." 2 Cor. 5:21. " All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isa. 53: 6. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Gal. 3 : 13- Although we are guilty, God has shown us enough to let us see just what His dear Son has done for our guilt, and now the next thing for us to know is just simply this : That as we believe God's testimony concerning His Son Jesus Christ, and appropriate what God declares His Son has done for us, we may know that we are saved, forgiven, and eternal life is secured. " He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God, hath made Him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eter- nal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life,- and GRACE MAGNIFIED. 5» that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God" i John S' I0-I3' Now this is the last thing for you to learn, that God de- clares if you will only take His Son and trust Him, your assurance is in God's word. Oh I would rather have 'God's word for my assurance than my feelings, or notions, or the testimony of others. God cannot go back on His word, and so all who simply put their trust in Him can rejoice, because God says we are safe. I have had a great many say to me is there no feeling in this matter of conversion, and I have answered ytSj and no. YeSf if you mean feeling as a reward for obedience, and no if you make feeling your salvation. Let me illustrate it. Some time ago a man gave me a gold watch. He told me that he wanted me to take it as a present. The man offered me the watch, I accepted the gift, and at once it was in my possession. After I realized I was the possessor of a gold watch, the joy came to my heart. Now I contend it was the watch that brought the joy, and not the joy brought the watch. Now the grace of God offers through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ a gift which is eternal life, and we are asked to accept it as a gift, by simple faith, and our acceptance of it givts us the possession of it. How many thousands, instead of taking the gift, cry out " Give me feelings give me feeling." You will never have the joy of sins forgiven, until you accept of Him the forgive- ness. You want to commence to build your house from the chimney, instead of the cellar. Do not look for feeling until you have forever settled the question in your heart as to Jesus Christ being your Saviour. Dear hearer, can you see just what conversion is, that it is a right about face, a turning to God just as you are, and taking Him at His word. ■ t I -I i 5« GRACE MAGNIPIED. My prayer is that many of my hearers may come just as they are, and be converted, and rejoice in a hope of " the life that now is, and that which is to come." as ife A GREAT CONDITIONAL PROMISE. ".Slflt/i/ / not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God.** — John i i: 40. HERE we have a blessed promise on a certain condition. If vre will believe — that is the condition — we shall see the glory of God. Here we have the promise, and it is only as we meet the rendition that we can claim the promise. One reason why thousands of promises are not fulfilled is simply because the conditions are not met. "If thou wouldest believe." Jesus uttered these words to Mary and Martha the sisters of Lazarus, who was now dead some days, They mourned the loss of their dead brother. They had sent for Jesus before he died, but for a wise purpose He delayed His coming, and when He did arrive He found Lazarus dead and buried. And when He enquired as to where they had laid him, they all go to the grave together. And it was there that the Son of God uttered the words of my text, "If thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God" The first thing Jesus taught them was, if they wanted to see their brother rise from the grave, they had something to do in order that it should be accomplished, and He at once tells them to roll away the stone that laid at the grave's I ,1 ' t J I :) i •' T=^ 54 ORAC)£ MAGNIFIED. mouth. Now no doubt if that had been the Lord's work He could have had a legion of angels to come down from heaven and do it for Him. But no, He told them to do that part. He showed them by this command that if they wanted to witness the glory of God in the raising of their brother, they had a part in the matter. That He was going to work in co-opera- tion with them in the raising of him whom their hearts was sorrowing over. God generally works in partnership with human instrumentalities, and seldom alone. He took Mos«s to work with Him in the freeing of the children of Israel. He took Joshua to work with Him in the destroying of Jericho. He took Gideon to work with Him to rout the Midianites. He tock David to work with Hirh to skiy Goliath. And He has taken the apostles and disciples to bear testimony for Him, and to reach the lost and needy. And all through the ages down to the present, God has clearly shown that in His work He is willing to use human instrumentality. You ask me why it is. I do not know. There is one thing I do know, that is. He does do it. And if we are to see the thousands of those dead in trespasses and sins, raised from their wretched state, we as Christians will have to realize at once, that God is going to use us in seeing this brought about. And this is just what God wants at once, men and women who are ready and willing to be used by Him in seeing the dead brought to life. Let us look at some of the stones which it is necessary should be rolled away, in order to see the glory of God. One is, and may I say the worst one, that awful stone of unbelief. I do not know any hindrance so detrimental to Christian work, as that of unbelief. It is the only sin that can damn ' the soul, and it is a sin that gets into the hearts of many of God's children, and when it does get properly fixed in a Chris- ' tian's heart, it shuts up his usefulness for God. It was this sin in the hearts of the sisters of Lazarus that brought out this 6rac£ magnified. 5$ rebuke from our dear Lord, "If thou wouldest believe." Shewing so plainly it was unbelief that might never let her see her dear brother. Is it not astonishing after all God has done for us to show us He is deserving of our confidence, how we Tiesitate and how reluctant we are to believe what God says. How many of us are like Zacharias we read about in the first chapter of Luke. He got tired of being without a child in his home, and he asked God. God sent an angel down to him, to tell him that his prayer was heard. That at the proper time he would be the father of a wonderful child. But he did like many of us have done, and no doubt many of us are doing at this present time, he looked at the circumstances, instead of looking away from everything, right to the God who made him the promise, and just rest there. But no, he lets unbelief come in, and although he asked God, and God answered his prayer according to his desire, he lets unbelief hurl that awful insult in God's face "Whereby shall I know this ?'' God's word was not enough, he wanted His bond. He got it in a way he did not expect. The angel told him if he would not take God s word, he would have to take God's afflic- tion, and from the time of the interview with the angel until the child was born he was dumb. He had God's bond put right on his tongue. I sometimes think the affliction came in this peculiar way, so that he could not pray any more until he got all that miserable unbelief out of him, and I guess he got such a lesson that he had nothing more to do with that sin. Is it not true, that there are thousands of people really God's children, who are constantly praying, and if a prayer was answered it would pretty near frighten them to death. You pray, and when your prayer is answered you are alarmed. I recollect one time in a meeting, when there was a number of brethren praying for an outpouring of the Holy Ghost — while they were praying a thunder-storm came up suddenly, and there was somewhat of lightning, and while they were in the ^ 56 GKACE MAGNIFIED. i midst of the prayer, and got to where they were not going to let God go until they got their prayer answered— I do not know how it was — but the lightning struck the building and it ran around the inside. The brethren who were praying for the Pentecostal power to come thought for sure it had come, and they all got so frightened, myself among the rest, that we all commenced to cry out for fear, and shouting that we were not prepared for what we had asked God for. And now that we thought God had answered our prayer we were more frightened than the sinners we were preaching to. Oh God forgive us for our unbelief. It is the curse that many of us have let in our hearts, and now we find it hard to get it out. I often hear people use these words : " Lord, help my unbe- lief." Now, why do you want God to help it ? Why not ask Him to take it out root and branch, for while you are en- tertaining it, you need not expect to see the glory of God, either in prayer, or in service, or in the raising up of those who are now kept in their dead and wretched state because of unbelief. Another stone we want to get rid of is that miserable stone of prejudice. How many let this stone keep many precious works of Grace from going on. They are prejudiced as to the means that are taken. They have been going on in the old groove and do not want to deviate an inch from it, and when anything is going to be done out of the regular order, you will hear their cry, "Let us do all things decently and in order." Well so do I say, let us be decent and orderly in all things we do for God and lost souls, but will we say because we get a little enthusiastic over the salvation of the lost around us, we have been indecent and disorderly ? Some will say when they see placards on the fences and hand-bills given out on the street cornei announcing Gospel Meetings, and see the Church open every night in the week instead of the one night, ^and seeing great crowds of people singing and praying, and GRAtB MAGNkriEt). 57 how and then hear the cry of a poor lost sinner, who has been let to feel the awfulness of sin. How many will shake their heads and say "undue excitement." I admit such meetings will bring excitement, and no doubt some of it is undue, as you call it, but let me just say we have not got half enough of the right kind of excitement, I tell you it will be just as soon as we get in- terested over the salvation of precious souls, as the politician is over politics, or the business man is over business, or the money man is over making money, that we will see more precious souls saved. What we want is more of the kind of excite- ment that will cause men to enquire what do'^s all this mean, and when they are led to see it means we are anxious for their never dying souls, they will then commence to think about the matter. I remember one night I was just returning home from quite a long run on the road, and was tired, and was longing to get to the bosom of my fhmily. It was about twelve o'clock when I arrived in the depot, and was waiting for the boat I had not been waiting a great while, when a young man ran past me and up the dock, and in a moment more I heard a plunge in the water. I did not know what he was at, at the moment. T was all alone. I saw no one near me, but I could hear now the cry come from the dark water. Help ! help ! help 1 This cry for help caused me to get very much excited, and so I at once went to work to save the young man. In a little while my shouts caused others to come to my assist- ance, and soon we had the young man on the dock and in course of time consciousness was restored, and we had the pleasure of having that young man thank us for saving his life. Now, dear friends, suppose I had not got excited, but had just taken my time, and had not aroused the hearts of others, and went straight to work. Would that young man have been saved? He would have been drowned. Oh Christian friends we have thousands passing by us every day on their way to eternal ruin. Now what they want is that 5« GRACE MAGKlFlEb. Christians go after them in dead earnest. For if litre do not stop them to-day, to-morrow they may be in hell. I heard a story of a dear man of God who was one of those men that wanted everything done in such a way that there would be no excitement, and he was preaching in a build- ing that stood in a bad position, and plank walks had to be laid to it. One morning a man was going to the church and happened to fall oflf the walk, into the ditch. The servant of the minister who saw him fall into the ditch at once went into the church and told the minister, that a man was in the ditch. " Well," says the minister, " How deep is he in." Oh, said the man, "he is up by this time, I guess, to his ankles." '•Well," says the minister, "don't say anything about it until I get through the sermon, for it might cause an excitement." "jBut," says the servant, " it will not do to let him be there until you are through your preaching, for the poor fellow is in head first." You laugh at that, but let me tell you that that is the way many sinners go to hell head first, and if we do not get interested in their salvation we will see less and less of them, for sin is a great power for pulling down. Oh, do not shake your head, and say undue excitement, but let us shake hands and hearts together, and go to work together in reach- ing the lost ones in sin. Another stone we need to get rid of is criticism. Oh how damning this is to Gospel work, in my estimation, and no doubt it is in God's. The meanest person living is that person who only attends a meeting to criticize the preacher and the preaching. I have had them at my meet- ings only to pull me to pieces, and when they have got through with me, there has hatdly been enough to go home. They could tell the colour of my eyes and hair, and on what side it was parted, how tall I am, all about my gestures and my poor sermons. But if you asked them what they knew about the text or the sermon, my, they would look at you. And s: n n t GRACE MAGNIFIED. 55 say "I did not go to hear the sermon, but to criticize the man." I had a man come to me in one of my meetings and take out a book right before me, and take down every mistake, and when I got through, he said he wanted to see me the next day, and so I went to see the gentleman, and he com- menced : " Do you know how many mistakes you made last nfght'' ? I said, I did not. "Well," he said, "you made quite a number. I commenced to put them down, but I got so in* terested in your discourse, and was engaged in the results which followed it, I forgot to put down the mistakes and went to work with the anxious, that were crying all about me." That gentleman afterwards provided me a teacher, and com- menced at once to try and enable me to overcome the many mistakes I made. I recollect on another occasion I had preached with much power, many souls were touched, and no doubt good was done. The day following a gentleman met me in the street, and at once approached me with the remark, that he was at my meetings the day before. " Well, I said, how did you like the meeting"? "The meeting was TOod." This, of course, made me feel very happy, but said hi after a pause, there was one thing that came pretty near spoiling it. I said, what was that ? " Why," he said, " the bad grammar in your sermons." I never knew of the f/iermomefer falling so sudden and so low in such a f'hort time before. All he could think of was the bad grammar, and he was like a great many more critics who are sure not to give me any good grammar, but to leave a wound which takes weeks to heal. Oh how I do pity some dear men of God who are doing the best they can under the circumstances and then to be pulled to pieces, by such mean people. It is not such a hard thing to be thrown into a lion's den and eaten up at once, but I jest tell you, it is awful to be picked to pieces by a lot of little k !l 6o dkACE MAGNlFIBt). puppies. If there was more prayer for the preaching and preacher, and less criticism, much more good would be done. Oh I do pray if any of you are in this meeting, God will get your eyes off the preacher, and your ears open to the preaching, and then no doubt you will get benefited and be a blessing to others. Another stone which we want to have removed, is the stone of excuse. How easy it is for us to make an excuse when asked to do something for God. It seems to be the first thing which comes up in the minds of many of those whom God would use if they would only let Him. Now God has work for us all to do, none need be idle and we cannot do each other's work. We all have a work to do, and we will have to do it, or leave it undone. Some of us will say I hav'nt any time. You should make time. You have time for business, for pleasure, to attend to the things that pertain to this life. We should make it a practice to let God have so much of our time every day. Oh how little time God gets from those who call themselves his children. Say brother, sister, how much time have you given God in His service since you have been saved ? Did you ever stop to think how little time the best of Christians give. Say we are saved at twenty and live until we are sixty- five years of age. Now after we take our sleeping, and busi- ness and other time that must be used in. other things we give God about eight years. Now this is in the case of an honest, persevering Christian. If this is all God gets from an honest Christian what must He get from that Christian who when asked to do something for God, tells Him they have no time. Another excuse is, I am not able to do anything. Listen to what God says to that class in Jer. i: 6, 9, "Then said I, Ah, Lord God 1 behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, say not, I am a child ; for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shall speak. Be not afraid of their faces ; for I am GRACE MAGNIFIED. 6l with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth His hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth." Do w J not see that wbat we are responsible for, is obedience to the will of God, and He will be responsible for all the rest. Yes mother, father, sister, brother, there is work for you all to do, in your various positions in life, and God will give you all things necessary to perform that work if you will only but go, and at it at once. I heard of a lady who was very much exercised about the excuses she used to make when asked to work for God. She could not speak in public and was very retiring in her manner. So she went to see her minister and told him she wanted to do away with her excuses and go to work for God. The min- ister showed her clearly what she could do. He told her to spend some of her money in tracts, and go from house to house, and give the tracts av/ay, and as she got strong in confidence to ask a few questions as to the spiritual welfare of those she visited. She at once got the tracts, and commenced to go from house to house, and she soon got in the way of talking and praying with those she came in contact with, and God used her in doing a great deal of good. Oh God help us to go and do likewise. We want the homes visited of those we do not see in our church. I firmly believe thousands of poor lost souls would come to Christ, if we would go and lead them. Oh may God help us to roll away this stone forever. We must believe tliat until we do our part^ God will not^ or may I say, cannot do His part. It was not until the stone was removed that Jesus called the dead to life, and so it is with us, not until we do our part can we expect to see the glory of God exhibit- ed in the salvation of precious souls. How inany you will hear say, " I am doing the Lord's work." God bless you. God don't want us to do His work, but He does want us to do our own, and we who are anxious to work for souls, will find that 6a GRACE MAGNIFIED. all our time will be taken up in doing our part of the work. Let us never mind God's part, He will attend to that. Let us do our part faithfully. All our prayers and anxious desires are in vain unless we do all we can in helping to remove the stones. A pair of folded arms means no answer to prayer, and no souls saved, and may I say an insult to God. But a pair of working arms mean a speedy answer to prayer, the raising of many precious souls from the dead, and joy in heaven. When those who wanted to see Lazarus raised, did their part, God did His. When Moses did his part, God did His. When Joshua did his part, God did His. When Gideon did his part, God did His. And brother and sister, God is waiting for you, and when you do your part, God will do His, and not before. This is why prayers are not answered. You have prayed and not worked. Go to work with your praying, and see how soon God will answer. We must also heli^e that when we do our part, there is nothing impossible with God. The sisters doubted as to whether their brother could be raised, as he now had been dead for some time, and they even go so far as to say, "^j/ this time he sHnketh** But Jesus told them if they would only believe he would rise again. They said '"it is impossible," but they forgot they were dealing with a God, who "laughs at impossibilities, and cries it shall be done." Oh yes, we see in such a work as this many things which appear to be impossible, but God shows us very clearly that if we will only do our part, though the way seem dark, and looking as Zacharias and the sisters of Lazarus did from the human stand-point it is impossible, yet if we do our part, and look away from circumstances and just put our full trust in our God, we will see the impossibilities turned into possibilities. I recollect how wonderfully this was proven in my own conversion. Some few months previous to my conversion I was on the stage before the "footlights," with my face black- GRACE MAGNIFIED. 63 ened v»ilh cork, and my dancing clothes on, and going through my performance. I had the audience in laughter ; but there was one in that audience that did not laugh, and that was my mother. I was surprised when she met me after the play, as I never knew her to come to a place where 1 was dancing be- fore, and as she approached me I saw a peculiar look on her face. I did not know what it meant. She called me on one side, and with a face just beaming with joy, she told me with such wonderful confidence that I was not going to go on in that kind of life — that I would never end my days on the. stage, but that I was going to be converted and preach the Gospel before she died. I did not know what she meant. I first thought that perhaps my ungodly life had turned her mind and that she was going insane, and I did not know what to say, or what to do, or how to act. I said nothing to her about it, but was a little more carefrl not to give her any more trouble. Some months after that I was on the stage, and I never felt so uowncast in my life. If I had murdered some one I could not have felt more condemned. I left the stage that night, determined to have nothing more to do with it, and a few nights after that I was led into one of Mr. Moody's meetings, and after a week of hard struggling I decided for Christ ; and one year before my mother died I was preaching the Gospel. Now, I do believe what sent my mother to where I was danc- ing, and to tell me what she did, and for conviction to take hold of me as it did, and my now preaching the Gospel, was, because my mother got to where she made up her mind to prove God. She was going to do as far as she could, her part, and she did do it ; and although I was, like Lazarus, pretty far gone, she took God at His word, and looking away from cir- cumstances, just believed, and, thank God, she did see the glory of God manifested in her son's conversion. Ah mothers, should not this encourage you ? Oh Chris- tians, should this not send you forth to do your part? I '.■Wl iii H II] ' If •I !i mm «4 GRACE MAGNIFIE1X Do you want to see the glory of God manifested in your Church, in your homes and in your neighbors' homes in the community where you live ? Then go to work and do your part in pulling away the stones, and then come to God with that confidence which will give to you the manifestation of the glory of God. And, dear hearer, let us believe we shall see God's glory manifested in apparent impossibilities simply because we have believed. a SOMETHING WORTH KNOWING. " Let him know^ that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from deaths and shall hide a multitude of sins" James 5 • 20. IN the text quoted we have several things wrapped up in one. This is the first thing that we see. "Let him know that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way." "The error of his way." It don't say error in speculation ; there are thousands of men in T oronto who are very careful to make no error in regard to speculation, but who are still in the way of error. There are men to-night so careful in regard to speculation that there is nothing done by them but what is done in the most careful manner, and yet those men are as far from heaven as the most careless creature on earth is. Careful, shrewd in regard to business matters, having every wire at work whereby they can accumulate the things of this world, heaping up riches, adding' to bank accounts, fixing themselves all up for this world, but, my Godl how careless they are about fixing up for the next. Look at that man yonder. He is dying. He has been a careful, shrewd man ; there has been no error in regard to his specu- lations in life ; everything that he has done has been carried out in such a way that now he is about to say good bye to all, m ; i ^ » 66 GRACE MAGirrFIED. there can be regrets as far as the things of this life are con- cerned. But notice I the man is crying t What is the matter ? His servant comes up and says, "What is the matter"? What reason have you to cry ? Haven't you been careful in reference to the things of this life ? Haven't you been shrewd ; haven't you always done just the thing that has been necessary to do in order to bring you all that you possess ; why do you cry ? Come, stop your crying, wipe away your tears. See 1 here is a great bag of gold, all yours. Still crying. See ! here is more gold This is all yours. Still crying. 3ee I here are houses, and lands, and business reputation all yours." Still the tears flow. What is the matter? The man has been careful of the things of this life, but now that he is about to leave it, God Almighty sends these awful words down into the very deepest recess of his heart, "What will it profit you if you gain the whole world, and lose your own soul ? " I think of that man that Jesus Christ speaks about in the par- able. How careful he is to avoid making an error. He looks out on his great harvest fields and he says, " All mine. See what possessions I have; why, my bams won't hold all that the fields are producing. I know what I'll do." What, get on his knees and thank God for it ? That was not his thought. Give a portion of it to the poor ? That was his last thought. What will he do ? "I will pull down my barns and build greater, I will just gather in the harvest and I will say to my soul, eat, drink and be merry, for thou hast abundance laid up for many years." And in the midst of this man's exultation God lets him realize his great error, when He cries out with thundering bursts from heaven : " Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." My God, men, to-night, if you sit in this congregation without God and without hope, if you have got your mind and your affections fixed and centered on the things of time, if your only ambition is accumulating for this world, stop ! listen to what God calls you. "Thou fool." 1,1 OkACE itAOKtrito. 61 And suppose God should come and say, 'This night thy soul is required of thee/' what would be the consequence? No, friends, it is not error in speculation, nor is it educational error our text speaks about. There are lots of men and women in Toronto to-night who have been blessed with great educa- tional privileges, and now they are clothed with a grand education. I was deprived of one, and have been endeavor- ing to scratch up one going through this world trying to win souls for Jesus Christ, but I want to say the grandest thing a man or woman can have in this world is a good education. Mothers, try to give it to your boys, fathers, do the same; yet it would be better for some people in Toronto if they had been born idiots, and had never known anything, than to have so much education as to get their minds above what God knows. I was preaching one night where there were several educated men and women, and one man said : " Does that man think that we men in the nine- teenth century are going to believe that simple statement — ^we men who have learned so much, who have such wonderful educations — we who have all the education which this nineteenth century offers to men ? That might have been well enough for people in the first century, but we men with such great educational privileges, we are not going to be victimized by believing any such words as those." Ah friends, let me tell you there are thousands of men and women to-night who possess a great education so far as this world is concerned, but who yet know nothing of the things of the next world. Look at Nicodemus. Wasn't he an educated man ? It wasn't educational error with hint. He had a wonderful education; and yet when the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Ye must be bom again," this wonderfully educated man was led to exclaim, "How can this be?" Ignorant of the world that is to come, but knowing too much to take the Lord Jesus Christ at His word. There is a story ii h I I 6ft GkAtE MACNlPlEb. told of a poor ferryman who people across from one shore One day he was rowing one of and he knew that the poor was engaged in rowing of a river to the other, these smart men across, fellow was a child of God, but this wonderfully educated man thought that he would have some fun with the poor fellow, so be said to him, " Sam, do you know anything about etymology ?" •" Etymology 1" said the poor fellow, " what's that ? No, I don't know anything about etymology." " Well, then," said the man, " that is a quarter of your life gone. Do you know anything about astrology ?" " No," says the poor fellow, " I don't know anything about astrology. Who is he ? I haven't heard anything about him." Says the man, " Then there is half of your life gone." The poor fellow was badly frightened, and kept on rowing as hard as he could, and by-and-by, being flurried and not looking over his shoulder to see where he was going, his boat hit upon a rock, and both of them were upset into the water. When they came up the poor ferryman struck out for the shore, and looking behind him saw the other man struggling in the water, so he called out to him, " Say, do you know anything about swimming?" " No," said the smart man, half choked with water and going down for the last time. " Then," said the ferryman, ''all your life's gone." I want to tell you, my friends, we may know a good deal about etymol- ogy and astrology and all the rest of the knowledge this world can give, but if we don't know that we have been born again, we will go to hell, with all our education. I would rather to- night be in heaven knowing nothing but my A B C's, than in hell, understanding all that could be taught in the greatest university. A man said to me one time, "Surely you don't believe that Bible, do you ?" "Yes," I said, " I do. ' "Well," wonder you do ; you are ignorant enough to ba- ng. Do you know anything about science?" > you know anything about atmospheric influ- **r GRACE MAQNIFIKa 69 ences ?" «• No, I don't know the first thing." Said he, " If you did you would never believe that Bible. Do you believe all that about Elijah going up to heaven in a chariot ?" I said "Yes, I do, because God says so." "Why," he says, "don't you know the higher you get up the colder the air is — that it would be impossible for a man to go up that way ? Why, he would be frozen." That poor man forgot that Elijah went up in a chariot of fire. A man said to me one time, "You don't believe the whale swallowed Jonah, do you ? Why the throat of a whale isn't bigger than a man's iist. If you understood something you would see that it wasn't possible." But, friends, the God that could make a world, could make a fish's throat big enough to swallow a man. My friends, I would believe that Jonah swallowed the whale if God told me so. Friends, it isn't a matter of educational error ; there are lots of men in this city to night, and women too, who are faultless as far as education is concerned but who are still in the way of error, still in the way that leads to eternal ruin. It is not culture, dear friends, either. There are lots of men and women in this city who, if you look at them from their outward appear- ance, so far as culture and refinement is concerned are fault- less, in whom there is no error. I look into this congregation to night from the first seat downwards, and as from this plat- form I look at you, so far as culture and refinement are con- cerned, I can find no fault ; there has been no error in refer- ence to culture, or in reference to refinement, nor yet in reference to freedom from open and gross sins ; but friends, — don't be offended with me, — you know if I am telling the truth or not, and don't consider me your enemy because I tell you the truth ; would not this be true, would not this take place to-night if God Almighty should go to work and take all the sins that are in our hearts, take them out of our hearts and write them on our foreheads wouldn't some of you women pull your bair over your foreh^ds even longer than you do now? OfUCB MAONIFIID. Wouldn't you men put your hats on in church and pull thei| over your ean? We have a God here dealing with ui who goes deeper than the outward, deeper than that silk dreti of that broadcloth coat ; we are dealing with a God that goes down to the heart and sees the error that is there. We can Ax up all right outside, but, my God, people, what about the inside ? Not a great while ago I came home from a meet- ing — I work hard to try and make people believe I am after their souls — and I came home tired, and I came home and my dear, sweet little wife had a nice, great, big, blushing apple for me, one side nice rosy red, and the other yellow, and I said "I'm going to sit down and enjoy that apple." I just took a knife and was thinking won't I have a time, and almost envying my wife the look she gave as if to say I should like to have some of that, but I cut it in halves and to my disgust it was rotten to the core. All right outside, no error outside, it was a refined cultured apple, but it was rotten inside. I tell you to night there is no error so far as fixing up outwardly is concerned, but, my God, man, woman, how would you stand before God when he cut away down into that heart of yours ? "Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way," not from the error of refinement or education or speculation ; we may have speculation, we may have culture, we may have refinement, we may have education and still, dear friends, have no hope of anything better than eternal damnation. I made a remark about this one night in a meet- ing, and a lady bounced up and said "I don't like what you said." It's astonishing how the devil gets hold of some people; that woman jumped about like a jumping jack ; says she, "I don't like what you said. You shouldn't talk to me like that." Of course she didn't "Well, now," I said to the woman, '♦what's tlie matter ?" She says, "I don't like you telling me I'm in error," and I said "I think God shows you so." With that «hQ went home as mad as coul4 bo. The next morowg t I OltACE MAONiriBD. 71 I at eight o'clock a knock came to my door, and I heard thii woman's voice at the door, and I made up my mind that the had come to give me a second dose, and I said to my wife "I won't go and see that woman, you go and see her.'* I didn't want to meet her. My wife went down and saw her, and she said "I don't want to see you, I want to see your husband," and I said to myself "You won't see me." I thought to my- self, has that woman become possessed of a devil ; but she kept on "I must see your husband. I am a cultured, refined lady, an educated lady, and I went home last night and the thought of possessing all these grand qualities and still being in the way that led to hell was more than I could stand ; I found out it wasn't the man that said to me I was in error, but God's word that declared it. I tried to shut my eyes, but I could not, and I paced my floor till three o'clock this morning, and then I fell on my knees and asked God for Jesus Christ's sake to save me, and I waited till a respectable hour to come and thank your husband for having been so honest." When I heard that I soon opened the door and went down, and said "Let us pray." The last time I was in this city at one of my meetings a lady jumped out of the chair and sayjs "I won't go there any more." Ah, friends, let me tell you something. When you are that way inc.;ried don't forget that the devil has a mortgage on you, and if I were you I would be careful not to let him foreclose it. Friends, we are not simply in the way of error, but we are making progress in it. We live in an age of progress ; we are to-day either making progress to heaven or progress to hell. Those gray hairs, those stooped shoulders, tell us too clearly whether you are standing still or not, those wrinkles, those thin hands tell some of you people whether you are standing still or not, and as you are making progress in reference to age, so are you making progress in reference to eternity. There is not a person in this hoi^se tc-night standing still, it would bsi im^ U 1^ 7a GRACE MAGNIFIED. possible for us to stand still. Some are in the way of error and making rapid progress in that way. I would have you stop for a moment and ask your heart what way you are in, and if you are making progress in it. Listen to this in the first Psalm, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." Will you tell me, friends, if that is not making progress, walking with the ungodly, stand- ing in the place of sin, sitting in the seat of the scornful ? What makes infideb? What makes sceptics ? What makes atheists? Were they born such? No ; it is progressing in sin that makes them such. A person never reached the seat of the scornful without passing through some mighty religious exercise, no man ev^r got to be a sceptic, an atheist or an infidel with- out first having a tremendous fight with the power of God. Progress in sin, progress away from God'is what makes atheists and infidels. Listen to what Solomon says, "We that are often reproved, are cut oflf suddenly." When persons often hear about the gospel of grace, if it doesn't save them it hardens their hearts. I would rather to-night go to Africa and preach the g ^pel to the heathen among the jungles there, than to the thousands of people who have heard the gospel so much in Toronto ; there is more hope for the heathen in Africa than for thousands of people in Toronto who have rejected and rejected and rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, until now they sit in this congregation, as Paul says, with " seared consciences." What does that mean, friends ? You take a hot iron and put it on to a piece of flesh, and the first time it gives great pain Let that fiesh heal up, and then again put the iron on that identical flesh and the pain will be felt less. It is so with our consciences. Let the conviction of the Holy Ghost come to a man or a wo- man's heart and there make its impress, and let them disregard that conviction and continue in sin and it has the same effect ^ the searing of the hot iron on the fiesh, that conscience be- GRACE MAGNIFIED. 73 comes calloused. Why do some people sit here to-night fifty, sixty, perhaps seventy years old in sin, and now without any spiritual desire, yet they once wept as they heard the story of sin and a Saviour ? I will tell you why, and why there is very little hope for your conversion, if any at all. It is because your soul sinned in spite of the light, and now your conscience is becoming so seared that the Holy Ghost can't bring conviction to your hearts. Do you recollect the first lie you ever told, the awful pain it p;ave you? Do you recollect the first oath you took, the first harsh word you ever uttered to your mother, the first mean transaction you ever engaged in? Do you recollect the first glass of liquor you ever took? That first lie cost a whole night of sorrow ; that oath caused you hours of pain ; that harsh act cost you perhaps a whole week of sorrow. How that mean transaction in business filled your heart with sorrow; how that first glass of liquor bothered you all night, though yc u might deceive your mother or your wijfe. But now you ;-aki lie, and not be troubled about it; you can blaspheme, and there is no conviction ; you can speak the harsh word to mother, wife, father or child, and no conviction, now you can drink many glasses of that awful curse, and no conviction. Isn't this clear evidence that we are making progress in sin, and the more progress we make the less possibility there is of our ever being saved ? Think of it ; the more progress we make the less possibility of our ever being saved, A gentleman said to me, " Why do you lasist upon having people decide to-night? Why do you insist upon having people come to the Lord Jesus Christ to-night, why insist upon having people declare Christ as their Saviour at the present time ? Why not wait?" Friends, I am sent to-night to preach to you the message of God, and God help me to preach to-night as if it was my last address to anybody. May be to-morrow night I will be in eternity, and you too, but whetl^i^i we are or not, there is one thing certain^ no xntu^ *: T4 GRACE MAGNinSD. or woman will leave this congregation as they have entered it; you will leave it, friends, either souls saved by the holy power of God's word, or you will leave it people with hearts hardened by deliberation and determination to decide against God and His love. I have spoken to men and women in meetings, and I have watched the tears that ran down their cheeks as they came up from the broken heart, and I have said to the man, "Decide to-night," and to the woman, "Decide tonight, that tear means conviction, that tear means God at the heart. It means that Christ wants to save you." And they have said to me, "No sir, not to-night," and I trembled to meet them again ; and the very same people I have met again who once had the tear in their eye, and they now have the laugh of scorn upon their face. The Gospel that might have been a savour unto life, for them has become a savour unto death. Yes, men and women, we make progress in sin. You who are not saved to-night it will be less possible to save to-mor- row night, and still less possible the next night, and perhaps after that it will not be possible at all — there will be no chance of your ever being saved. " Now, Mr. Schiverea, you are not getting to that place ^vhere you believe souls may be damned and yet live?" I am getting there. God Almighty Himself declares that there is a time when people will so deliberately make progress in sin that He says He will let them alone and give thim up. The antediluvians, dear friends, were pleaded with by God for many years ; but listen to what He says in the sixth chapter of Genesis : " And the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh ; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.*' God says that in reference to the antediluvian race with whom He had pleaded and pleaded and pleaded, the time came when God said, " My spirit shall no longer strive." Now, from the time that the Spirijt of God s^oke tQ thg ajitj^djluvian race», No%h w»s told, to GRACE MAGNIFIED. 75 build an ark, and Noah was a great many years in building that ark, and during all that time there was not an antediluvian saved. And when the ark was finished God could only say to Noah and his family, "Enter in thou." So we see that there is a possibility o.' people so continuing in sin, continuing in the way of error, that the Spirit of God at last leaves them, and their fate is sealed forever, though we might live for one hundred and twenty years. Notice what the text says, " Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and hide a multi- tude of sins." " Save a soul from death." The sinner is in the wrong way; the sinner is making pro- gress in the wrong way, and what does God say is the end of it ? It is death. Don't make a mistake, friends. It means the soul, not the body. Some people think that the way of error only leads to the death of the body. A man once said to me, "Don't talk to me about a hell hereafter, I have one right here on earth." That is true. Our trangressions make a hell for us in this world, and our rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ will put us in hell in the next. The body will have a hell in this world; if you don't believe it, ask the drunkard, ask the y.etch behind the prison bar, ask the people in the garrets and slums of your city if they don't get a hell from being in the way of error. Friends, we have got something within that must Hve for ever and ever. " Ah, but we don't believe in hell." I don't care whether you do or not. I know modern philosophy is trying to do away with the devil and hell, and byand by perhaps will be trying to do away with the Lord Je« us Christ. I'm not going to trust to modern philoso- phy ; I am going to believe what God's word says. When I was in Cincinnati, I was stopping for a few days' rest, and Ingersollwas preaching there en "Orthodoxy," "The mistakes Qf Mp_seSj" and one or two ot,her things. He started with his. !1H 76 GRACE MAGNIFIED. meetings at fifty cents for the tickets. I had been in Cincin- nati before him and had got the hearts of the people, and at my meetings we had audiences of 2,500 or 2,800 people, and though he started his tickets at fifty cents he was glad enough to let people in for nothing before he got through. After his lecturing was over, and my meetings were finished, I was going by the cars up the Ohio River to a country place where I might be alone with my God and get some much needed rest. On the way some young men looked in the car, and one of them said, "Hello! there's that Brooklyn fellow that has been preaching. Let's see what he says about hell. So they stepped up, and one of them says, Mr. IngersoU says there's no hell, and you say there is.*' *'No I don't," said I. "I said that God declares that there is a hell, and he that continues in the way of error goes there." " Oh, that's all very well," said they, "but we don't believe that." "Well," said I, "I've come to the conclusion that I'm not going down there to find out — I'm not going to run any risk. You can if you like. Will you run the risk ?" "Oh no," said they, "I guess we won't." I tell you, dear friends, I'm not going to run the risk. God tells me that the man or woman in the way of er- ror is going to end up in death ; that is what God says : and for that reason I am going to take God at His word, even should I have to stand alone. God bless His precious word ; it is that which has brought me out of the worst kind of dark- ness, and thank God it has brought me out of the way of error. To-night I can rejoice and say that the Lord Jesus Christ has put me in the right way, bless His holy name. There is one more thought in reference to our text. ' Let him know that he that converteth." "He that converteth." Thank God that though the sinner may be in the way of error, or making rapid progress in the way that leideth the soul to hell, the text declares, "Let him know, that he which con- y^rtetlx." Tliank God, the sinner may be converted. WIu^ CkACE MAGNlimb. 77 is the meaning of conversion ? It means this, that the un- converted man or woman's back is turned to God and their faces are turned towards eternal darkness. Now, to be con- verted just means "Right about face," that is what it means : your back to death — your back to hell — your back to eternal darkness, and your face to God — your face towards the loving and infinite Saviour, towards that hoir.e forever in that blessed place prepared for the righteous. Conversion means, friends, "Turn about — face about;" and if you will ask God to help you He will turn you around instantly. In the 55th of Isaiah he says "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts ; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him ; and to our God, for he will abun- dantly pardon." I hear some dear fellows upon the corner when I am going home each night ; and they say there is too much preaching about "believe, believe," and not enough about repentance- What is repentance? It is simply this, a change of mind. Your mind is enmity against God; it is fixed on sin, and entertaining sin; and repentance is a change of that mind, when you come to God and love him. The giving up of sin is the outcome of a change of mind. That is what repentance is. The night I came to the Lord Jesus Christ the devil said to me 'Why, you can't be saved ; you have got a stock of most wicked things. You have learned to live so these last twenty-two years, and until you stop this God won't save you." Then I said, "I will never be saved," but, thank God, when I couldn't raise a hand towards having myself liberated from the power of sin I could raise a cry. It was this, "God be merciful to me a sinner," and instantly' the power of God broke the shackles of sin, and to-night I am free. I said "I won't go to hell ; I won't put that poor mother in her grave ; I won't wreck this noble physique and spend this intelligence and time and opportunity and the influence that comes out from a young man in sin any longer. I won't 1; : it I .J ii! ■ if '■ r i 3f 7S GRACE MAGNIFIED. go to hell, but I will ask God for mercy," and when I cried to God and my mind turned about, I left my sins behind me and faced the loving God who was waiting to receive me. Conversion means a breaking the shackles that bind us down to sin and shame and restoring us to liberty. Liberty is a grand thing. I have often said that if there was no hereafter it is best in this world to be a Christian man. Do you know, I would preach the gospel if my pay was but bread and water ; I would preach it because I love to speak about the power that can set men free. The powers, the lusts, the appetites and propensities once had me down and were master of the situation, but, thank God, from the moment of my conversion they have been put down, and God is master of the situation now. Now, dear hearer, you that are in the way of error, will you not to-night change that mind of yours that has been at enmity with God so long, and has caused you to remain in the way of error until this present time ? Will you not use it to-night in determining against sin ? by so doing change your attitude to- wards God, which means " Conversion." He is waiting to receive you, will you not come to Him before it shall be eternally too late. I #.. WHY SO FEW ARE SAVED. " And his disciples asked him^ sayings What might this parable bet And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but toothers in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the way side are tJiey that hear ; then cometh tlie devilf and takeih away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with Joy ; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and tichcs and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word^ keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience .'^ Luke 8 : 9-15. WHATEVER else this parable may teach us, there is one thing it shows very clearly on its surface, and that is, that only one-fourth of the preaching of the word of God brings forth fruit. And do we understand by this, Ite 11 M 4 li ?l \\ i 8o t;lElACE MAGNIFIED. that only one-fourth that listen to the preaching are blessed by it. Now, is not this something alarming, and is it not proved to us at such meetings as this ? Do we not see that it matters not what the preacher may be, no matter what power the preaching may be accompanied with, how comparatively few are saved at such meetings ? Do we as a general thing see one-fourth who attend the meetings blessed by the word of God? The testimony from all preachers, pastors, evangelists, from our dear Lord down to the present time is, that not more than one out of every hundred that listen to the Gospel are saved by it. Now why is it ? Whose fault is it ? Let us see if we can find out the reason. For surely there must be some reason for so few being saved. Let us see if it is God's fault. No, for God's grace brought salvation to all men. In God's economy of grace He took in every son and daughter of Adam. None were excluded, all were included. We hear a great deal now a-days about election and fore-ordination. Well, I am not going to question God's sovereignty, but what my business is, is to attend to man's responsibility. So far as God is concerned His part is done, now man is responsible for doing his part. " For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in Him should not perish, but have ever- lasting life." John 3: 16. "For the grace of God that bring- eth salvation hath appeared to all men." Titus 3:11. This clearly shows us that it is not God s fault if all are not saved. Again, it is not the fault of the Son of God ; for we clearly see that He accomplished a work that redeemed every one of us from the curse of the law, which was broken by us all. "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident : CKACE MAGNIFIED. ft] for, the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith ; but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us : for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree," Gal. 3: 10-13. "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace," Eph. i: 7. "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself : by him, I say, whether they be things in the earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled, in the body of his death, to present you holy and unblameable and irreproveable in his sight," Col. i: 20-22. When Jesus finished the work which the Father had given Him, a work was then accomplished which procured salvation for every man. " All we like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own way ; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all," Isa. 53: 6. The Son of God has taken the iniquity of us all and borne them in our stead : so, if we are lost, it is not because of our iniquity. We see therefore that it is not the fault of the Son of God if souls are not saved. Again, it is not the fault of the. Holy Spirit ; for ever since the Son of God went to the right hand of the Father, the Holy Spirit has been down in this world doing the work of convicting of sin : and no one who has reached the age of knowing right from wrong, can say that they have not in some way and at some time felt the power of the Holy Spirit con- vincing and reproving of sin. None of us has ever done any- thing wrong but we have been led to realize it was wrong, and that is a clear evidence of the work o* the Holy Spirit. Of course, it has come to some in greater power than to others. Soma have felt it, like Felix did unde- tlie reasoning of Paul] 1 GRACE MAGNIFIEb. I 1 and been led to tremble, and others may not have felt it so powerfully : but all have been led to feel the work of the Holy Spirit in some way or other. Again, it is not for the want of the Bible. Bibles are as numerous as our sins. You can get the Bible in almost all languages, in most all parts of the world, and at a price so low, that one who has but little money can buy, and if he has no money he can get one free. It is not for want of Gospel preaching, for we expect all who live in civilized lands can find good, solid. Gospel preach- ing. No matter where you go in our land, you will find the singing and preaching of the blessed Gospel. Never before in the history of our land has there been so mucb Gospel preaching. Now if the fault is not in God, or in His Son, or in the work of the Holy Spirit, or from want of Bibles, or Gospel preaching, where can we find the fault ? Let us look at the words of the Son of God, and see if He will show us just where the difficulty is. Now what we are going to listen to is from One who makes no mistakes, and let Him tell us. And the first reason why so few are saved He tells us is because of a PERSONAL DEVIL. "Then Cometh the devil." Luke 8: 12. I know that modern philosophy has done away with a personal devil. But the question now arises, have we to do with the Son of God or modern philosophy ? Must we be led to believe God or the modern philosopher? Now we clearly see from the mouth of Jesus Christ that there is a personal devil, and that he is about constantly to do a work among those who are where the word of God is preached. Why you say, you don't mean to say that the devil goes to religious gather- mgs ? That is just what I mean to say, and God's own word will prove it in Job i: 6. "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them." Is this not enough to con- vince us that the devil goes to church, and when he sees a 6liAck ikAoMtlrkfeb. ^possibility of losing some of the souls he wants to bring to hell, he will bring all the powers in hell and out of it, to pre- vent that soul from deciding for the word of God. Yes, he is in this meeting to night, he has proved his presence in the past meetings, and no doubt he will prove his presence here to- night and be at the heart of every unsaved one, and if you will wait until I invite you to decide for Christ and pardon and heaven, you will see if what I say is not so. How may we know that he is so near ? I will toll you. Have you not at times felt when listening to the blessed Gospel being preached, that you would like to be saved by it ? and perhaps just at the ^moment when you have almost made up your mind to yield to the striving of the Holy Spirit, you have had a voice come to you with these words, "Now do not decide for Christ to-night, you have time enough yet. Why do you want to become a Christian so soon, you are so young yet." Or perhaps you have been one whom he has caused to neglect the matter so many years, and now he comes to you and tells you that it is "no use for you to undertake to become a Christian. You have put the matter off too long." And to others of you he might come in this way. "Why do you not want to become a Christian ? You have done nothing very bad. It is only those that have done vile sins, that need a Saviour. But a moralist like you has no need of being saved." And perhaps right next to you, there may be a poor fellow who has done some very bad things and he will tell him, "You need not ask God to save you for you are too bad." Just like the devil. He will either tell you it is too early or too late, or you are too good, or too bad. Now watch for him to-night. Again, he will come to you in this way. Getting into your companions and associates, and using them to prevent you deciding for Christ. He will get them to sneer or jeer at you, or to have them threaten you with the ridicule of friends when you leave the place of worship. How many young :i 'H . » it-f V!, IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) '^ //- .v-^,^ ^s h 1.0 lS!^i I.I 125 1^ 1^ 112.2 ' 140 11.25 11.4 2.0 1.6 r ^• >r 7 /^ Photographic Sdeaces Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. U580 (716)872-4903 4^ 1 »4 'dkAGk MAdNinEDb men and women would to-night be true foiloWeks oi the tx>rd Jesus Christ if it were not for the influence that has been brought to bear upon thtm by their devil-possessed companions and associates. I once asked a young man, who was weeping under deep conviction, to decide for Christ; he referred me to a Une young woman at his side and said, "If she will, I will." At once I approached the young woman, and she at once showed she heard, and gave me such a look, that would mean that she would not I then said to the young man, 'your friend will not, but never mind, you do." " No," he said, " I think a great deal of that young woman and we are engaged to be mar- ried, and if I should decide for Christ she might break off the • engagement, and so I won't be a Christian." Poor soft head. I pity him after he got that young woman, for a woman that could be used by the devil to prevent a young man deciding for Christ would only make a hell instead of a home for him after she got him. On another occasion I went to a young woman who was crying in my meeting, and asked her if she would not decide for Christ. She said she would like to, and at once referred me to a young man who sat at her side, to ask him if he would not decide for Christ ; and he told me he was an infidel and would not think of such a thing. I warned that young woman of that man whom the devil was using to prevent her deciding for Christ*, and told her he would be no friend to her, but she would not believe me, but left the meet- ing crying. About five months after that night her mother came to my home and told me the man had married her, and commenced to ill-treat her, and that he had left her, and she had written now — a poor broken-hearted girl— for her mother to ple&^'% let her come home — no doubt to die. Oh yes, young man or woman, you that sit in these seats to* night listening to this simple message, look out for that one who sits at your side. No matter whether it be male or fe- GRACE MAONiriBD. 85 male^ if you see them doing the f^rst thing to prevent you deciding Uie matter about that never-dying soul, make up your mind at once, that it is the devil trying in this way to prevent you receiving the word and being saved by it. Another way the devil will come, is by telling you that a Christian life is such a sad life, and that once it is embraced you have to '«ay good-by to all that might make you happy ; and perhaps^ when he is telling you this, he will refer you to some poor half-saved, dyspeptic, so-called Christian, with a long, grave face, one look at which is^ enough to frighten all desire to become a Christian away. " There," he will say, " se^ that is a specimen of a Christian. Fow, do you want a face on you like that ?" Or, perhaps he will refer you to a Christian that can be found constantly at the theatre or the card party, or some place where pleasures of sin abound, and he will say, "Now, that man, that woman profess to be a Christian, and see, they can't get enough pleasure out of the Christian life, and they have to come to me and borrow some." I will admit we have such so-called Christians, but, dear friends, they are not fit samples for you to go by. Men and women who are really saved by the power of God, lose their long face, and do not have to go back to the devil to borrow some of his pleasure. I can say, if I ever had a long face, it was when I had God's wrath upon me and dare not look up to heaven. When I was a poor condemned, hell-bound sinner, then I did not know what it was to have a happy heart, clear conscience, or a happy life, or a bright face ; but, thank God, from the moment I decided for Jesus, pardon and heaven, I then entered into a life that made me happy, and I have been happy ever since ; and the pleasure I get from God's right hand gives me all I want, without hav'ng to go to the devil. No ; he is a liar : the religion of Jesus Christ is not a sad, melancholy thing, but is a blessed, joyful and happy Ufe^ " '^'he ranso^ned of tl;i,e I/>rd, sh^U re^un^ s^nd come tp ' ^ GRACE MAONinHD. ZiOn ifith songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: iJbiey shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away," Isr- 35: 10 Another way in which we can tell if the devil is near us is when we think about d^iding, he will tell us to be careful not to do anything rashly, for it would be awful to decide and then go back. We by so doing would bring 'reproach on the cause of Christ, and we would be worse than ever before. Many have been kept just here, afraid if they did decide od through faith unto salva- tion ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Peter i: 5. "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and pre- sent you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceed- ing joy." Jude 24. Oh yes, dear hearer, do not worry about the keeping, God will take care of that You make sure that you have the saving part done to-night, and God will take care of to-morrow. For eleven years I have let Him keep me and He has never failed, and I thank God, He har always been ready to forgive when I have confessed my wrong. " But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Cturist Qil Sq^ cl^aoji^tti un from all sin." x John z: jf. ** My litU^ GRACE MAGNIFIED. 87 children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." i John 2: i. Another reason, the parable shows us, why so few are saved, is, because of the lack of soil there is in the heart, t«^ enter> tain the word. It grows just a little but soons falls away. How many we see at such meetings as these seemingly decide for what they have listened to with joy, but we see them to-day and they are gone to-morrow. They are all right until some- thing comes up to cross them, or tempt them, and away they go. It is generally estimated that fifty per cent of those who profess conversion zt revival meetings are of this dass. Now why is it that such a percentage should fall away and bring no fruit to perfection ? They have no mind of their own in the time of excitement, when the emotions are on fire, and the animal part of the nature is fully awakened. They are ap- proached on the subject, and are led to accept anything that is offered them, no matter what it is. Oh how many are led astray, instead of being led to Chris^ just because they have no mind of their own. I have seen many powerfully couvicted of sin, but no pre- paration of miAd, and perhaps just when they felt the worst, some one has approached them with these words, " Dear fel- low, are you sad because of sin ?" " Yes, yes, yes, I am." " Well, that is a good place to be ; now, won't you try and do better after this ?" " Yes, indeed I will." And he is left with a mere good resolution for his hope. Others cannot be led to trust in anything else than their feelings. You go to them and say, « Did you hear the word of God ?" "Oh yes, I did hear it, and now I am so happy. Yes, I am, I am." "Well, you are all right." And so he is while the excitement lasts, but when that is over, and temptations have comCi he then finds out that all is wrong. A;Q0ther will be approached in this wa^, '*Well ;|rou seeui tp 88 GRACE MAGNIFIED. be broken up because of sin. Do you want to be saved?" "Yes, I must be saved, or I will die." "Well, before you can be saved you must repent." And the soul is led to believe he must get free Arom the power of sin, that he must live without it, and then when he reaches this point he can come to God and God will save him. And the poor fellow commences, ind finds the battle so hard that he gets tired df the many defeats he is receiving, and gives up discouraged, and we hear no more of him. And no doubt he had listened to the blessed Gospel with joy, and wanted it, and no doubt if dealt with in the^ proper way, would have been saved. . Now, I believe in resolutions and feelings, and repentance, just as much as any other one who is trying to lead precious souls to Jesus Christ, I believe in a person resolving too, and having such a resolve, that he is not going to let any power either in hell or out of it prevent him from deciding. I believe in repentance : that is, such a change of mind that we will not keep going on hating God and loving sin, but having changed our minds, we are going to love God and hate sin, and because we have repented, or changed our minds, we will now change our attitude, and where we once were with our backs towards God and our hearts wrap- ped up in sin, and our face towards hell, we have now our face towards God, our back towards the things we once loved, and having repentance we come to God for forgiveness. I do believe in feeling, but not as a Saviour. If I understand my Bible, it teaches me faith first, and feeling after. I have resolved and repented and changed my mind, and now come to God through the shedding of the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and I accept His only begotten Son as my Saviour and then God's own word is my assurance of sins forgiven and my name written in heaven. " Neither is there salvation in any other : for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4: i?. That is wha^ GRACE MAGNIFIED. «5 brings the joy, the happy feeling. The feeling is not my hope, it is the outcome of my trust in Christ Oh yes, why so few are saved is because so many are deceived in the moment of excitement, aad this is just why so many do not last long enough to join a church. They are trusting in their good resolutions, or in their feelings or in their repentance, and for a while they last, but having no root in the time of temptation they fall away. Another reason the parable tells us yrbv so few are saved, is, because of the fhoms the seed falls among. What are these thorns? We see they are cares, riches and pleasures of this life. How tru^ this is. Are there not many who are beyond the reach of mercy to-night, and how many now, that will be, if not very careful, and no doubt some in this very meeting who can say that this is so. The cares, and riches and pleasures of this life have prevented many and will prevent many more from being saved. How careful we are of our business, of our homes, of our dress, of our education, of everything that pertains to this life. Now I say it would be absolutely wrong to neglect our business, or our homes, or our appearance, or our opportunities to make life good and happy. But when we get so careful about these, that we put all our time in them, and have no time for the preparation of the soul to meet its God, then I say it is just as absolutely wrong. I have met men that could spend the seven days of the week in business, so careful were they not to let it su£fer, and yet you ask them about their souls and they would get insult- ed. I have met parents who could only think of fixing their homes to make them attractive, and I say that was right, but go to these same parents and ask them if they have ever prayed with their children, and if they ever thought about an- other home they should prepare for, and they would at once eet indicant. Qh how careful we arq about the things of thijl .^J I 90 ORACB MAGNIFIED. life. We can have but a few years at the most, and how careless we are about the eternity we are fast approaching. Pleasures of this lifel How they have prevented many thousands from being saved. The card party, the ball-room, the concert room, the society wine gathering, the theatre, all these are the pleasures of this life. But let us not forget that these pleasures jf sin result in both death to body and soul. Oh how the Son of God could see why so few would be saved. The devil's attractions have more fascinations than God's, and the pleasures and sins that will satisfy the carnal mind and the wicked heart will be patronised, but the pleasures that will give comfort to the immortal soul is not needed. What are all the pleasures that we let prevent us from being saved? Nothing more than avenues to hell. Thousands that are in hell have found this out, and thousands more will if they don't give them up. Riches of this life I Having riches is a grand thing, but not if we get to a place where we will have them at any cost, or in any way. How many started out making money law- fully, but it was not long before the desire for great gain caused them to carry on any kind of business, in any kind of a way, so as to get riches. Men have sold their character, principle, reputation and some have gone so far as to sell their body and even their soul for riches. Have we any of this class here to-night ? Listen to what God says to you, "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your gar- ments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it wee fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold the hire of the labourers who have reaped your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth, and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ^s oi tl^ ^r4 of Sa,baoth. X^ have lived in pleasure 0^ OKACI MAGNIFIED. 9« the earth, and been wanton, you have nourished your hearts as in the day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you." James 5: 1-6. Oh may God cause these words to burn down into the hearts of any who are in danger of letting the riches of this world cause them to lose their never dying souls, for "what will it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own coul ?" The parable shows us that one fourth of them that hear the word are saved by it. Now who are the saved? Jesus tells us it is those that have made up their minds to be honest with themselves, not to let anything prevent them get- ting their souls saved, who have set their faces like flint to everything, and have resolved to let nothing come between them and God. They have heard the blessed gospel, it has been just the thing they have wanted, and now what they are determined, is to have it understood. It is those that have made up their minds to keep the word of God. They are not going to trust in anything but on what God says He has done for them. Oh I do wish that we may see many in this meeting who will make up their minds to be counted not with those who will be lost after all, but will be among those that will receive the word of God in good and honest hearts and be saved. " «^HY PRAYER B^T ANSWERED. and again, because U.eCo^2'°i**™''J««"ofp»m useless p«yi„g. '"« "^ ""e and «,e anxiety s^nH^' do pray. But tbi, is whaa want m^" ^ '^^^ "''en we should tell ; that we should seTTh f"" '"''« our praye« janitor, a very earnest man whTTv'" ^ "^ "et by the meetings were to coZ2:t^:tZ^: 7'°"^ '"'' '^ The preacher asked what had ,1,- ^"'='' "as renovated do with the meetings, -m^ I'^T ""S of the chu^t ekACk ikA&NkrkBb. ^3 church, that we have an idea, that they did not go any further than the sky-h'ght, and there they have stuck. And before your prayers can get a chance to get up to heaven we must get all the old ones out of the way." Dear friends, I do not know about prayers sticking in the sky-light, but after all there is a great deal In what the janitor said. I am afraid a good deal of prayer does not get as high as the sky-light, and may I say, not as high as some of our heads. Why is it ? Why so much praying and so few answers ? Here we have a question that God alone can answer. Oh that He may answer in such a way, that we will from this moment see the difficulties and have them removed, and then we shall have our prayers answered, instead of unanswered. Let us look at some of the reasons why prayer is not answer* ed. First : We see a worldly spirit will prevent answers to pray- er. "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteress- es, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God ? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." James i : 3, 4. How much of this spirit rests in the hearts of those who want prayei answered. God shows us clearly that it is this worldly spirit that prevents prayer being answered. We as the children of God are strictly charged to keep free from the world and fr jm the things that the world offers, for the very best it can offer is only vanity, and this is a vexation to God, and if you will do the things that is going to vex God, we need not expect to have Him hear us in prayer. You can't go to the theatres and parties and balls and con> certs ; you can't spend all your time in fixing up in dress, so as to appear just so in the world ; you can't spend your money extravagantly in gratifying appetites and lusts; you cWk't spend six days in the week reading novels and worldN u «^kAck kAom^iftft. '8. We see dearjy we have tok. '*'""8'«J'-" « Cor. 6: „ we "e .o have Ool ,„,Zi:^ ^^^^'^^ *»» .he woiid J^ Another ,«,„„ „h P *»^^"- 'he entertaining of .ome .S " ".rr""' "• ''e«>.« of "y heart, the Lord will noH^, « „ "' 'eg««l iniqui,. i„ "e going to entertain .i n"^**' ,"' !"• «= •»• If we going to indulge in th>t „i.-T "" ""' hear u.. ir " ' ofGodtoflow.'^ri'^ ;f„«'ir' *''« "oo-of hrc »R »f.ra, prayeri,*eo.^ : n'^rl:!"' ""' "" *eep .*" t tSr> """"""" '"'"""o^ For prayer «„„ ."^J »ee that .t was when David conned k^'."'^-'^' I'«1m we "Ok upon it, then, God haSt ""••»<» «"ned hi. Chnstian. have sec;*! .i„, !^h ""' "'«'' »' "» » k»ow what they are. But l« '"*" ''"ends do „« •eeing eye^ d^™ f^l '^'e I^l' '"«« *«' G^". I and knows just what they are a^rf^ '***"*' °^our hearts •hey are confessed and donTa^l'lr r"!' "'■ ^^^l «vt?l' '"'^'P^yeroft^^^^'^f ""-•^O'nin.tion to way of the wicked is an ahn«,- "* ' ^'« delight Th- ^ve* hin. that foUo^et^^ 'I?- -<"he I.^ but^ -wouid not have e;^frn r, S^ t? '■'""-' "^'-S «nl«.^I secret things are expo^'fL^"' °"' """S » «(«. "e need not expect God to^ " """"^ »e»t of Go* • Hear the word of okACB MAoKkrtib. §^ ^Of no, *n«wered. • »«panite, and I will lall be my =>'. 6; ,;, e world if •cause of 'quity in if we we are he Son Bp shut » heart aim we led lifs us as t> not l'« aJI- learts, ! untij f ear >o to Tlie t he leart 'ked but 9. ich ire, >d, oi t^e Lord, ye rulers of Sodom ; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multi- tude of your sacrifices unto me ? saith the Lord : I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts ; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts ? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth : they are a trouble unto me, I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth youi* hands, I will hide mine eyes from you : yea, when ye make your prayers I will not hear : your hands are full of blood." Isa. i: 10-15. "Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that It cannot hear : But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongues hath muttered perverseness." Isa- 59: 1-3. Is this not enough to convince us that while we entertain sin, there will be no awswer to prayer. But thank God just as soon as we confess our sins, God is willing to forgive us, and then to hear our prayer. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." i John i: 9. Another reason why we do not get answers to our prayers IS, because of lack of confidence in God. "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord." James x: 6, 7. "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and I ( 98 GkAC& ItfAGNIPmb^ that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seeic him" Heb xi: 6. We pray but do not believe when we pray that God is list- ening to us, and waiting to give us the blessing we ask. A great many have asked me, if it is necessary for us to go the second time to God in prayer for anything. I say it is neces- sary if you do rot have the proper confidence in God when you ask Him the first time; go on until you do get confidence in God, or in other words until you get to where you will be- lieve that C^od tells the ^ruth. When He tells us, that when we pray, He will hear us, that ought to sat:sfy us. But some- times ye get to a place where we believe that God must be importuned like that poor widow had to importune that un- just judge of whom we read in the i8th chapter of Luke. We have neither an unjust God, neither do we come to Him to avenge us of our enemies. Our God is not unjust, but just and merciful and compassionate, ready and willing to do all He can for us, if we only take Him at His word. We have to do it in order to get saved. Why do we hesitate to take Him at His word in regard to our prayers also. How many of us are where an old woman got to, I once heard of. She had a large tree before the door, and she wanted to have it removed, but was too poor to get it cut dcivn. One day thinking how she might have it removed, a friend met her, and after hearing what her difficulty was, he told her to ask God to remove the tree. That we were told in the Bible that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed, we could ask yonder mountain to be removed. And why didn't she if she had faith, ask God to remove the tree for her. That night she did ask God to take the tree away. The first thing she did next morning was to go and see if the tree had been removed. And as she opened the blind and saw the tree she said "just as lexpecttd the tree is there yet." So it is with many of us in our prayers. We ask God for blessings, and then if ^t ORACB MAGNIPIBD. 9) iA him'' d is list- ! ask. A to go the is neces- od when }nfidence [ will be- lat when ut some- must be that un- ke. We Him to but just do all Ve have to take I once md she : it cut oved, a ^as, he re told Jed, we didn't That t thing been ie she many len if God should give them to us, in answer to prayer, we only re- ceive them with great surprise. Another reason why prayer is unanswered is because of the want of definiteness in prayer. How oft times we come to God with a thousand and one things, and not one definite thing. Now we cannot tire God, no matter how often we sup- plicate the throne of mercy, but God does want definiteness when we do come. We should come with one thing at a time to God. I have listened to people pray all round the world, and when they have got hoipe, they have left the mercy seat with nothing definite before God. And immediate blessings that should have been answered at once have been entirely forgotten. We should before we approach God get something definite in mind and come to God with that one definite thing. The Syro-phoenecian woman prayed only for her daughter. The rich ruler only for his child. The blind beggar only for his sight. The poor lepers only to be cleansed. The dying thief only to be saved. And in each case because of the de- finiteness of the prayer it was answered at once. God does not care how much we ask Him for if we only ask definitely. Come to Him one hundred times a day, but when you do come let it be for something you want definitely. Another reason why so many prayers are not answered is, because of a lack of service that should accompany ourpiayers. I believe we have a great deal to do with the answering of pur prayers. God is not going to answer our prayers — I now speak to Christians — if we will not do all that lies in our power to help have them answered. How often we see people praying for more faith; they get on their knees and have an idea that it is going to come to them in the shape of an express package. I tell you neither grace or faith is going to come to us in that way. God is a God of economy, and he is not going to give us more faith or grace to waste. It is only as we go to work and put ourselves in a i*; I? 98 GRACE MAGmnVD. place where ik ^ need more faith or grace to accomplish die work that we are about to do that we need to ask for more. How many are asking for more faith when they do lot use what they have. When Jesus fed the hungry multitude He said to the dis- ciples "gather up the fragments that none be lost" Is this not a lesson of economy taught us by the dear Lord Himself? Then let it teach us, that if we want more faith or grace, let us use what we have. How many have an idea that to simply ask God to save a soul is all that is required, and not so much as say a word to the soul we are anxious about. We must go to them and talk to them, do all we can for them in trying to lead them into the light, and then after we have done all we can with tb<^m, we can come and pray for them. Yes, "faith without works is dead," the one without the other is not much good. Let us do what we can in order to have our prayers answered, and then let us put the rest in God's hands and just trust Him. Another difficulty in answer to grayer, is, that we often pray, having a desire to have the honour conferred on us, rather than to glorify God. In our prayers there should be but one object, that God might be glorified in the answer. "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye .^hall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit ; so shall ye be my disciples." John 15 : 7, 8. God has to withhold many blessings from us just for this one reason. We get exalted, because of the answer to our prayer, and we at once let those know with whom we come in contact, that it is not glory be to God, but, glory be to us. I have known some who have )been wonderfully blest as pastors and evangelists, and when they found they possessed some gift that was going to make them something more than their fellowmen, it was quite a hard thing at times to contend GRACE MAGNiriBIX 99 with t'leir advice and ways. Looking down upon those that had not been so wonderfully blest, and even going so far as to slight their brother in Christ. And they have gone on, and God has had to strip them of the blessing in order to keep them down in their place. There are hundreds of preachers and evangelists that once had power with God and man who are now powerless. I hear a great deal now-a-days about so many things done by faith, and the person that has the wonderful amount of faith is worshipped instead of the Lord God. Although there is no such thing as faith having any virtue. If anything is done God does it, and for that reason He should have all the praise and the honour. Faith is simply that which couples us to the power that does the work. We should remember and be very careful not to get ourselves in that place, where we rob God of the glory, for if we do, God will withhold the blessing from us. Dear friends, I hope we will see in these few hints just why our prayers, are not answered, and how they may be answered at once if we will just get these truths down into our hearts, and be led by them. HEAVEN. **Nbtwithsfaftiiing in this rejoice not^ thai the spirits are sub- feet unto you; but rather rejoice^ because your nanus are written in heaven." Luke io : 20. THERE is no one thing the Bible speaks so much about as "Heaven." Nearly five hundred times it is men- tioned, not in a mere speculative way, but as a place, just a3 much as this city is a place. That it is inhabited just like any other inhabited place. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people, and there is as much said about it as anything else in the Bible. Yet is it not astonishing how little we hear about Heaven. It is very seldom preached about, and very seldom spoken of, that is as a real inhabited place. Now we must get this into our minds once and forever, if we ever expect to get to Heaven. We must believe in it just as much as we do in the atonement, or reconciliation, or in the work of redemption, or in any other doctrine the Bible teaches. For if we are not going to believe in Heaven we need not undertake to believe anything else in the Bible. We must believe all the Bible or none, and we must believe about Heaven or we cannot believe about the blood or anything else the Bible speaks of, for we must believe God just as much about one thing as another. fitLkdB, MAG^^fiBb. it>\ l^ow I am not here to tell you just where Heaven is, or how far we are from it, but I'm here to have you listen to what God says as to where Heaven is, and as to how far it is from us to night. In Acts a : ii, we see that after the Son of God finished His work, and after bidding His disciples good-bye He went up into Heaven. Now we see it must be up yonder somewhere, how far up I do not know, or how far up the Son of God went; but He went up into Heaven. "But wiil God indeed dwell on the earth 1 Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee ; how much less this house that I have builded ) Then hear thou in Heaven and do and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to brii^g his way upon his head ; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness. Then hear thou in heaveo and forgive che sins of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers. Then hear thou in heaven and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and giv^, rain upon thy land which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance. Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest ; (for thou, even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men) ; Hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for, that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel. Then hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause," I Kings 8: 27, 32, 34, 36, 39, 43, 45. It can't be very far, can it, when God can hear our prayers and answer them too, from Heaven. I tell you that this gives me great comfort to know, that however feeble my prayer may be, if it i? a prayer from the heart, God hears it Did you ever stop to think of that brother and sister, that before you get any ahswel K i i ihi dRXtE )^AGi^ll^V£t>. to your prayers, they must go up into Heaven ? Oh how this should cause us to think more and more of Heaven, be- cause every time we pray we are talking with God in Heaven. Again we see Heaven can't be very far off for we read in Acts 7 : 55, 56, "But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, look- ed steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing en the right hand of God, and said. Behold I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." Showing that Stephen was allowed by God to look through the doors of heaven before he got there. Oh is this not comforting to us as Christians, that the dying souls be* fore they leave this world have the privilege of looking into hea- ven. I come to the conclusion that heaven can't be far from us, for if a dying saint can look into heaven it must be pretty near. How many worry about dying. Oh this should take away all the worry. One thing certain it teaches me, and that is, if I will only live right I will die right. We should be. more care- ful how we live, the dying part will take care of itself. Stephen looked up into heaven. I do not think that Stephen felt so much of those awful blows from those stones after all, he was no doubt so taken up with what he saw in heaven that he for- got all about them. How often have we seen the saints of God, whom we would think to be in the worst of pain, yet they have smi- ling faces, and tell us all pain is gone. What has put that smile on that face? What has given such great patience in such hours of agony ? Why is it we have heard no complaint ? I will tell you, they have got into heaven before they have left this world. Have you ever watched a friend when dying, and as their lips were moving, you ask them who they were talking to. It has not been to you, but see, when the lips move a sweet smile covers the countenance. You wonder what it all means. Oh here we have the secret, the dying saint is doing what i^kAt:E Magnified. 103 Stephen did. No doubt talking to the Son of God at the right hand of the Father in heaven. A dying woman had been led to believe that there was a cold stream for her to cross, before she could get into heaven. As she approached the end she gave a cry of joy, and exclaimed, "This is no cold stream, but an open heaven for me.'' My dear mother when she was coming to the end of life, was asked if there was any fear of death, when she exclaim- ed, " I'm trusting in Him who died for me." And just a little while before she passed away she could say "lift me up." I was away and did not see her die, but was home a little while after her death, a sweet smile was on.her face, and the minister who preached the funeral sermon, when he looked upon the smiling face, said she looked more like a woman that was a- bout to be married than to be buried. Yes, I do believe just before she went into heaven, she got a glimpse of it. What was it that caused her to utter the words "lift me up," and put that smile upon her face, that remained long after she had gone ? Oh I tell you this brings great comfort Co my heart. Perhaps some of you have witnessed just such scenes, and has it not made you feel as if the dying day ought to be a day that we should long for, instead of dreading. Now that we have seen about where Heaven is, let us look again to God's word as to who and what are in heaven, AND WHO AND WHAT ARE NOT IN HEAVEN. In Rev. 21: 27 we see that there is no sin, "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie ; but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." Now ever since Adam fell, we have had sin in this world, and we will have it until it is cleansed by fire. And while we are in it, •we will have to contend with it, and also suffer the conse- quences of it But thank God there will be an end 10 it, for, it can't get into heaven, and as we see that sin cannot get into \ J M bHACfi kAGl^I^k^. j ll heaven, it should cause those who are sinners to feel very much alarmed, for if we so love sin that we will not let it go in order to be saved, we will have to let it go in order to get into heaven, for we can't take our sin into heaven. But there is a place we can take our sin, and one sure place our sins will take us and that is to Mi. How many we meet who will tell us that they have so enter- tained sin, that now they hate to give it up. .Well don't forget . what God says about the matter. You have got to do the one thing or the other, either give up sin, or the hope of ever get- ting into heaven. The only ones that will get into heaven will be those who have accepted the Son of God and, have had all sin put away and their names placed in the book of life. Because of no sin, there will be no more pain. "Neither shall there be any more pain." Rev 21:4. How much of it we have to endure in this world. I do not believe there is one who is exempt from pain. For sin brings disease, which racks the body with pain. Some of us are always suffering. There are thousands of these diseases that our bodies have to contend with, and just when we get free from one, we have to meet an- other. We may boast of our health to-day, and perhaps to- morrow we may fall victims to one of these terrible enemies of the human nature. But there is one grand thought, we will have none of it in heaven, for we read " there will be no more pain." There is another kind of pain which sin brings, and that is heart-break pain. How many have got heart-break in this city to-night. Mothers whose hearts are broken about their child- ren. They are not good children, but disobedient; they have wandered from the proper way. How many young men and women are breaking their parents' hearts just because of disobedience. Oh wandering boy, if you could only feel the pain that you are giving that dear praying mother of yours, I tell you, you would not go on any longer in the way you have Vkkt)i itXohinkb. m been going to long. You could, if you would only watch the face of that fond parent, you could see how the face shows the suffering of that heart which is breaking because of you. Yes, dear parents, you, no doubt many of you, have pain that none knows about but you and God, but «^ won't be forever, the time will come when that wandering child will bring the last pang, and then you will be at rest from pain. My own dear mother used to say to me, "My dear boy, if you could know what mother is suffering for you, and if you are not very care- ful the time will come, when you will shed tears of blood for these pains you give my poor broken heart now." Oh I teH you it has come home to me since. Oh what I would give to- night if I could only recall the heart pains I gave that dearest friend I had on earth, but it is too late now. Some of you wives that have ungodly husbands, no doubt have some of this heart pain. I have just come from a home where the husband is given up to the accursed cup. I saw three little children half starved, and pretty near naked. I saw a noble woman at the wash tub, washing a few things no doubt to bring bread unto the mouths of those little children. I saw a little stove, a few broken pieces of furniture and no carpet, but poverty, misery and the worst kind of sadness. And while the women was telling me that she had just given her husband money to go to the rum shop, because he threatened to strike her if she did n«t, he came in with eyes all on fire with the effects of drink he had just taken. I reasoned with him, and under- took to pray with him, but of no use. Rum was master of the man, and he would have his drink no matter what it cost. Oh yes, this is one of so many thousands of such poor women who know just what pain of heart is. Of if there is any man of that kind in this meeting, may God let him see what pain he is giving. Never mind, dear woman, put the matter in God's hands, the time will come when those awful pains will be removed. Per- .■:. !i| 4! lob OkhCE ikACNl^rikb. haps by *he conversion of your husband, or perhaps by the sweet messenger that will be sent by God to take you out of all your pain, and put in a place where there will be no more pain forever. Because of no sin, there will be no pain, and no sorrow^ and there will be no death. "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain : for the former things are passed away." Rev. 31:4. How much of these we have to go through in this world. The letting in of sin, let in also death, and death has had its own way ever since. I look over this large congregatior* ti-night and I do not know that I can say that there is one in this congregation that has not in some way felt the effects of this terrible mon- ster, who is no respecter of persons or places. He visits the king on his throne, and the rich in his mansion, he visits the poor in his cot, he neglects to visit none, but makes sure to call. Can't you all no matter what position in life you are placed in, say, this is so ? Over yonder I see a young wife dressed in deep mourning, over yonder a young husband whose home has just been visited by the enemy, and a dear w'fe is gone. Over yonder a mother has lost her darling boy, it has been taken from her bosom. Oh how heartless death has been. Baby is gone, the trundle-bed has been put away, the little high-chair is gone from its place at the table, the lit ^e shoes and stockings are put in a place so that they can be easily reached when we want to give vent to our feelings. Again I see so many boys and girls that have been led to kiss the lips for the last time that taught them how to pray, the hands that were put on their heads with the "God bless you my child" is now laid motionless at the side, no more to move in this world. Oh yes, the chair at the head of the table is gone, the fond parent is not, for God has taken mother. Then as a young man said when he was ed to look on his dear mother's face tRXCK kAOMiy^Eb. 137 for the last time, he was led to exclaim "Mother is gone and who will pray for me now?" Oh let me tell you who still have praying parents be careful how you treat them, for when they a'-e gone you will miss them. Yes, we iiave death in our land, and he is on our track and no doubt he will make us a vibit sonrietime. But, thank God, there will be no death in heaven. We will have no graveyards there, no doctors there, no need of undertakers. I had a man sent me a whole set of Swedenborgian works, and in some it refers to business going on in the next world as in thi?. Well, I know of some businesses that would very soon be bankrupt, that of doctors and undertakers. No crape on the door there. Oh yes we have it in this world, but only in this, thank God. Because of no death there will be no tears. "God shall wipe all tears from their eyes." Rev. 31:4. Praise God for this 1 No tears I no tears ! Do you hear this? I want you all to hear this. No tears. Some of you no doubt have been shedding many of them to-day. But listen! in heaven there will be no tears. This world is so permeated with sin that the very air we breathe brings tears. No one could live in this world without shedding tears. Sickness — suffering — dis- appointments — death, all these bring tears. Why the Son of God himself could not live in this world without shedding tears. He wept just like you and me. He could not help it, neither can we. We cry and cry, and if you did not let the tears come, when bowed down with grief, you would die with a broken heart. We have to give vent, let the tears come, and while you are in this world you will have to let them come. It will not be very long ; if you will only take the Son of God as your Saviour, the time will come when you will cry the last time, then go to a place where God himself will wipe away aU tears forever. We read in Rev. 5: 4, that John wept much) but he wai. ko6 6ftACS )kA6t«intt. very loon led to see that he must stop, as heaven was no ptacft for tears. Oh you who have not decided for Christ as yet, what do you get out of this world ? I say tears, plenty of tears, and yet you will not decide for a place where there will be none. Let me tell you I believe there will be lots of tears in hell, and many who cease from them here, only cease to commence afresh in hell to shed tears through an endless eternity. Let us see in the next place who will not be in heaven. "And behold one came and said unto him. Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life ? And he said unto him, why callest thou me good ? there is none good but one, that is, God : but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, which? Jesus said. Thou shalt do no murder ; Thou shalt not commit adultery ; Thou shalt not steal ; Thou shalt not bear false witness ; Honour thy father and thy mother ; and. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man said unto Him, all these things have I kept from my youth up ; what lack I yet ? Jesus said unto him. If thou wilt be perfect go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven : and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful : for he had great possessions." Matt 19 : 16-28. Here we see that this young formalist was right up to the very threshhold of heaven, and so near was he, that he had a personal interview with the Son of God himself, and he was such a perfect specimen of formalism that the Son of God seemed to like him, and yet when it came to him to accept the one thing needful — for. Jesus told him Just one thing he lacked — rather than obey and get the needful thing, he turned his steps from the very threshhold of God's mercy, and Jesus Christ speaks of him as a soul eternally lost Yes, formalist, if you are in this meeting let me tell you, all the formalism you can QtACt MAONintD. 109 get wIU only bring you up to the gatet of heaven but cannot get you in. Another cUm that will not be in heaven arc the si^f-tight- «oiu. "Woe unto you, icribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but with- in they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites 1 for ye are like unto whited sepul- chres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites 1 because yei build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" Matt 23: 2S-33i John 3: 5-7 Here we see people with no fault with them so far as self-righteousness was con- cerned, and yet they knew nothing about the new birth, with- out which it was impossible, Jesus says, to get into heaven. How many of this class we have in this world to-day, self- righteous and unsaved. Oh let me tell you if you ever expect to get into heaven yo!i will have to let your righteous- ness go, and just throw yourself un the righteousness of the Son of God. No way of getting into heaven but by the way opened up by the blood Jesus showed this very clearly to Nicodemus, and God wants to show the same thing to all in this meeting to-night. * And having made peace through the blood of the cross, by him to reconcile all things unto him- no GRACE MAGNIPlQlk idf; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you that were sometime alienated and en- emies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he recon- ciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight," Col i : 30-22. Another class that will not be in heaven is mere churchgoers. How many have an idea that because they go to church, get their names on the church book, attend the services and ord- inances that they are all right. This is the kind of people the Son of God referred to in Matt, ii : 22. "But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you." These people were faithful church c,oers, and yet see what the Son of God says unto them ? And this is what will be said to many who are mere church goers. I have preached to thou- sands of people wh ) have been in the church, and may I say in all positions in the church, who knew nothing about an ex- perimental knowledge of sin forgiven. Yes this is true, and some within tho hearing of my voice, that have been in the church so long, and got so used to a mere empty profession, that the preaching of the gospel to them is like throwing water on a duck's back, it runs o£f and has no effect. I would rather preach to the Hottentot in the jungles of Africa who has never listened to the blessed gospel than to some church members who have become gospel hardened. Oh, are you in this meeting, and do not know that the Son of God is your Saviour, do not know that every sin is gone under the blood, do not know that your name is written in heaven ? Then let me tell you, you ought to be alarmed, and have this all im- portant matter attended to before it be eternally too late. Another class that will not be in heaven is the hypocrite. " Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell," Matt. 23: 33. We have them in the QRACI MAONiniD. Ill Church and will have them until the «dd. Jesus said He had His hands full of them , and I tell you He did not shirk from telling them just what He thought of them. He let them know, just as He does to-night, that none of them, though they might get in the Church, would get into heaven. What is a hypocrite ? Well, I will give you ray definition. A hypocrite is the devil's Christian. He gets them as near the real thing as possible, but they are like counterfeit money, you will always find them out when you go to pass them. We will have to admit that some are so carefully got i j) that they de- ceive the very best judge, but there is one that they cannot deceive, and that is the Son of God. Those that pretend to be and are not, can only deceive man but will not be able to deceive God So, hypocrite, ii you are here to-night, listen to ' what God tells you. I asked a man once who had his eye on a hypocrite that, was in the Church, if he would not be a Christian, and he said *' No, there were too many hypocrites in the Church." "Do you hate them, friend ?" " Of course I do ; and that is the reason why I do not join the Church." "Oh butj friend, you do not hate them, and I will prove it. Now, see^ God says all hypocrites will go to hell, and if you really did hate them, you would decide to have the Son of God as your Saviour, so that you would not go to hell and have to spend eternity with them. I would much rather be a real child of God, and put up with them a little while in this world, than not be saved and have them for my next door neighbors forever in hell." Let us now look at who will bb in heaven. First, we see that God the Father will be there. "And he said unto them, when ye pray say, Our Father which art in heaven," Luke ii: 2. The first thing Jesus taught the disciples to say IS* iheir prayer was "Our Father which art in heaven." What a thought that God Almighty is our Father, and that He is in heaven, and that when we get there He will be 'iij tl» OltACK IIAQNiriBtk. there to welcome us. Ought this not to make our hearts re- joice to have such hope in view oi seeing Him, whom no man could see and live. Yet we shall see Him, for we shall go to the same place where He is. How many unsaved we hear using this prayer, and calling God their Father. Oh, I tell you it is not right. God is not their Father ; He is their Creator : but it is only when we have been adopted into the family of God through the blood, that we can call God our Father or have any hope of seeing Him. " And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into yotur hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son ; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." Gai. 4: 6, 7. And until you accept Jesus Christ as your Savi- our, you must have the devil as your father " O full of all subtilty, and all mischief, thou child of the devil." Acts 13- 10. Again, Jesus will be in heaven. ' For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of water," Rev. 7:17. " And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it : for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof," Rev ai: 23 What a grand thought— our dear Lord is there waiting for us. Stephen the first martyr saw Him thus just before he left this world. How many we hear talking about the golden streets, the river of life, and the tree that bears so many different kinds of fruit, and about the angelic choir — all these are grand and no doubt will be great for all to look upon, but what after all would heaven be if the Son of God was not there ? Why, it might be a heaven to the angels, but certainly it could not be to the redeemed. A man was once asked in reference to par- adise, "Suppose it did not mean heaven, but that it meant hell r " Hell I hell I" exclaimed the man. "How could heU be hell with Christ in it ?" And what would heaven be with* GRACE MAGNIFIED. "3 out Him. Yes, that is it, dear friend — heaven would not be heaven without the Son of God in it ; and what joy it brings to our hearts when we think He is there waiting for us to come, so that we can be forever with Him. A pair of saints that were almost ripe enough t. be gathered into God's garner, were one day talking together about heaven, and, said the dear old wife, " I suppose, John, if you should be spared to see me go first, you would of course want to see mf; first when you arrived there ?" " No, dear wife, you and I have been together for many years, but when I get to heaven, I shall want to spend the first hundred years look- ing up into the face of Him who loved me and gave Himself for me, and after that I will go looking for you I" Yes, Jesus will be there, and we shall see Him as He is. Again, little children will be there. "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones ; for I say unto you : That in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." Matt. i8: lo. Listen to that parents, you that have had to let the little ones go. How often we have been led to say, "I have lost my child." No, no, no, I say you have not lost it. It has only been taken from this world of sorrow, and care, and trouble, to a land that is free from it all. Oh should it not bring great joy to all the hearis of parents that are Christians to-night, and what sorrow it ought to bring to the hearts of those who have no hope. I will tell you just one place I do not believe child- ren will be, and that is in hell. So parents, you who are not Christians, and do not intend to be Christians, let nie tell you you will have to go to hell alone, and dear friend you will find it very lonely, when you do not see any dear little children there. I have laid three of them away, I will not say they are lost, that would be an insult to my Father in heaven. It gave me great comfort to knoW; and it still gives me comfort to know that they ?je m heaven waiting for me. It is not a '\ 1T4 GRACE MAGNIFIED. speculation, it is a real thing, God says it, and I'm going to believe just what God says about the matter. My children are in heaven, your children are in heaven, everyone of the dear little lambs are there, and the only way by which you can meet them, is by knowing Jesus Christ as your Saviour. Why is the home so quiet and still ? We hear not the pattering of feet, Is the little one gone, is it not up above, Will you ever that little one meet ? It has just gone before, to lighten the way. That you may more plainly see, In that beautiful land, with its Saviour so dear. It is waiting dear parent for thee. Another class we read of that will be in heaven are the dis- ciples of Jesus. Our text says " Rejoice because your names are written in heaven." Luke lo : 20. Now do not make any mistake. Not going to be^ but is already. Just to think that while they were on earth, they could have those consoling words uttered to them by their dear Lord. "Your names are written in heaven." Some will tell us that it is presumption to say that we can know we will get to heaven until after death. Well what are you going to do with this statement of the Son of God. Yes all who have appropriated what the Son of God has done for them, have their names written in heaven. And you that say, we can't know that we have our names in heaven are just telling God that He lies. "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself : he that believeth not God hath made him a liar : because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son." I John 5:10. If you are ever going to know that your name is written there, it will be right down in this world and no where else, and you that are going to attend to it in the next I want to bid you good-bye, for I do not expect to see you farther than the grave. Yes our names are there, and some GRACE MAGNIFIED. "S of these days we will be there, and then we are to be forever together. Oh what joy awaits us I We are to be forever with those we have been with down in this world. We shall be with them up yonder. "After this I beheld, and, 1o, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all natiuiis, and kindreds, and people and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands : And cried vith a loud voice, saying. Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and woirshipped God. Saying, amen : Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever, amen. And one of the elders answered saying, unto mc, what arc these which are arrayed in white robes ? And whence came they ? And I said unto him. Sir, thou knowest : And he said to me. These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Rev. 7 : 9-14. "Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions : if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.'* John 14 : 1-3. Now in closing let me put just one question to all in the congregation. Will you all be in heaven ? Some of you know you will. You have decided for Christ, your names are in the Lamb's book But some of you have not yet de- cided the matter. Will you do it to-night ! Oh my prayer is that not one in this meeting will leave juntil they know their names are written in heaven. i I GROWTH IN GRACE. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen, z Peter 3: if^. THIS is what we all should do from the moment that we are born again, and this is just what our Heavenly Father wants to see. As it is with the natural life so it is with our spiritual life. We are born into this world by natural birth. We enter it helpless little babes and from this stage we go on to maturity, and then from this to old age. So it is with the spiritual life. We are born aga'in by the water and the spirit and let us not forget that this is just as much a birth, and just as necessary as the birth that brought us into this world. "Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born again ? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?" John 3: 3, 4. No he could not, and even if he could it would not fit him for the Kingdom of God, another birth was necessary, and Jesus shows him this very clearly in the rest of His conversa- tion with him, verse 5, "Jesus answered, verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of the water and spirit, he cannot &K\Ct MAGI^lPIEb. U) fenler the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again." I believe every intelligent reader will see that the Son of God shows us very clearly and plainly also that those who ever expect to get to Heaven must have to start from a new birth, and from the moment of this birth we are expected to go on growing. John in his Epistles shows us this, "I wnce unto you little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you and ye have over- come the wicked one. I have written unto you fathers because ye have known Him that is from the beginning." i John 2: 12-14. Here we see there is as in the natural life a constant growth. We first see thelittle child, then the strong young man, and then the father. John shows us we should grow just as much spiritually as'we do naturally. Now why is it we do not have more of this spiritual growth, why is it we see so many Christ- ian dwarfs. A dwarf is one who is stunted in growth, and nat- urally speaking should be pitied. I never see a dwarf but what my heart goes out in pity for it. I have met parents who have had children that have not properly developed, and oh what sorrow it has brought to the heart of the parent and what sad- ness to the home. I often wonder when I see these dwarfs and knew the sadness they bring to the hearts of their parents and homes, how must our Heavenly Father feel when he looks down from heaven and sees so many of His children nothing but dwarfs. Some of them professing conversion for five, ten, fifteen, twenty years but no growth, nothing but dwarfs. How many so called Christians have been born babes, and live to have many years of experience, but are nothing but babes all through their religious life. They have still to be fed with a spoon, with the weakest kind of food, and have nevei been able to walk alone, but have to be carried about in a spiritual perambulator, I ^1 m M kli 6iiACft UKtimtitt). have often felt sorry for the nurse who has them to take cat6 of. Brother and sister, there is no reason why you should remain in that state, and I tell you it is your own fault that you sit in this meeting nothing but babes, when you might be strong men and women for God. Now that God's word tells us that we should grow in grace I want from the same source to show you how you may grow in grace. God never leaves us in darkness, He does not tell us what should be done and then leave us to find out ourselves how to do it. but with the reason why we should, God shows us how we may. Ifow we may grow in grace. — The first step towards a growth in grace is to connect yourself with some Church. I am not here to tell you what Church or denomination you should join, my work is to get your name on the Lamb's book of life, and join the Church of Jesus Christ. But the Son of God instituted the Church on earth as well as in heaven, and all who have believed on the Son of God and accepted Him as their personal Saviour should at once join some body of believers. In the early period of the Christian Church we bw- just as fast as sinners were converted they joined t le Church. "And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved." Acts 2: 47. Here we see all those who sho'ved determination to be saved, just as soon as they were saved the Lord added them to the Church. We should not join the Church in order to get saved, but we should join the Church because we are saved. I contend it is a very dangerous thing to join a Church unless we are saved, for you get into the Church, your name on the member- ship roll, you settle down upon that and desire nothing. In fact a great many are taught that nothing else is required, and it is not long before you become gospel hardened, and by that time there is very little hope of you ever being saved I would rftther preach to the Hottentots in the wjilds of Airicai than ORACE MAGNI^lEb. no it IS to those who have sat under the preaching of the blessed gospel until their hearts have become hardened by it, and how many of this class we have to-day. We should not join the Church until we are saved, for the Church is only to receive those that have been born again, and to those it is supposed to be a spiritual mother. It is to take the babes in Christ and nurse and care for them, and as it is impossible for a young child to get along without its mother's care so it is impossible for a young Christian to get along without the aid of the Church. We have to admit in a great many instances, the Church has let things come in that have crippled and dwarfed the young child of God rather than to help it to grow in grace, and it just makes our hearts sad to see it, and we would remove these things at once if it was in our power. Yet we believe the very best way to get the Church pure and keep it pure is by getting the Holy Spirit of God in it. We often hear it remarked that the Church would freeze out any young Christian. This might be, but let us also remember that heat can melt ice, and you let a number of young Christians into whose hearts God has put the fire of love, and a good num« ber of them will do as much thawing as the Church can do freezing. So far as my experience as an evangelist goes, the Christian that does not join the Church never amounts to a great deal. Acts 2:42; Eph. 6:18; Col. 4 : a. T^ next step towards a growth in grace is to form a habit of prayer. This is just why we have so little growth among so many of God's children, they do not do enough praying There should be a habit formed of prayer at the time of our conversion, and we should encourage it right through life. The Son of God was One who could not get along without prayer, He commenced to pray when He entered this world, and He never stopped it until He left it His life, we may say, was a life of DrayeTi and if the Son of God could aot get along with* I'l 126 GRACE MAGNIFIED. out prayer I do not see how we can. In Luke i8 : i, we heai Him telling His disciples that men should always pray and not faint, and get weary and stop. Now the Son of God knew just what prayer would do, and how important it was to pray, or he would have never uttered these words, If it was necessary only to pray occasionally He would have said so, if it would do for us to pray in fits and starts, or spasmodically, I be- lieve he would have told us so, if he only wanted us to pray a few moments a day he would not have told us to pray always. If we were to do our pr^^ying in our beds, as many do especially in cold weather. He would have told us so. I do believe when our blessed Lord referred to prayer he meant that as much time and as much care should be spent in prayer as in anything we do. Oh that we could see just what prayer is. I do believe if we could we would then see the importance of it. Prayer is letting the heart-felt wants be made known unto God, and as there are so many things we want which none but God can give, we should be ever in His presence asking for those things we need, and He is so willing to give. "But my God shall supply all your needs ac- cording to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus," Phil. 4: 19. God is ever ready to supply all our needs, and we do not make greater Christian progress because we do not ask God for the things we need whiH in this world. If our children would neglect to pray or in other words not tell us of their needs, how long would we have them ? I am afraid not very long. As a matter of course we expect them to come to us constantly, and when they do not come we get worried about them, we want them. We expect them and for their own good they should come and confide in us their parents. And this is just what our Heavenly Father wants us to do, confide in Him. Come to Him with all our cares, and trials, and troubles, and sorrows, and joys, and our weakness; come to Him with everything and at all times, for He is waiting for you to do this, and it is as wq ffl OftACB MAGNIFIED. ii\ do, we grow in His grace and strength. If Peter had done this instead of going to sleep, he would have never denied his Lord. If there is any one thing the devil likes to see it is a Chris- tian neglecting to pray. Oh that our lives may be lives oi prayer and constant communion with God. Another help to a growth in grace is to love the IVord of Qod, "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." Col. 3 : 16. "Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." Johns: 39. 'But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 3 : 18. Here we have a few of the many passages of Scripture referring to the study of God's word. It is just as necessary to study our Bible as it is to eat our meals, for as we eat our food to keep the natural man alive, so should we love and study our Bible, for it is the food for the spiritual man, and as the neglecting of the temporal food will destroy the natural man, so the neglecting of the word of God, the food for the spiritual man, will dwarf and diminish it. How many tell us that they have no love for the word of God, and that it is an uninteresting book to them. Now why is it ? Should not God's Word be interesting to all who call themselves His children? I can see why the unsaved should not love it, for they have not the love of God in them, but why the Christian does not love the Word of God is something I do not understand. One rea- son why it is not loved by a great many I do believe is because the proper time is not spent in the study of it : it is taken up carelessly, read carelessly, and set aside again without any thought as to what they have read in it. I have often thought if there was as much care and pains taken and attention paid to' the study of the Word of God as there is in the study and read-* ing of other books how soon we would become interested in it. We take up a novel and commence at the beginning and goi right through page after page, chapter after chapter, and wo ;■ I I \ I k2^ GRACIS MAC>)lt!-Il£D. 1 get so interested in the plot, and the romance of it that we can hardly believe that we have reached the end, and the only regret we have as we lay it aside is that it was not much longer. Now how do we read our Bible ? Do we commence and go right through it ? No indeed, not half of us do. We take it up quite often spasmodically, open any where and then read a few verses, and we then put somthing to mark where we left off, and if we should be asked a few moments after what we read and where we read it, we could not answer, unless we referred to the mark. And we wonder why it is we do not get interested in our Bibles, and why we are so diminutive and weak. A few hints as to how we can make God's Word an interest- ing book. In the first place arrange so as to give at least the first hour of every day on our knees alone with God and His word. The first hour finds us rested in mind and body, and it is when the mind and body is rested, that you can take in and understand much easier than when mind and body are tired. I do not want you to understand by this that is the only lime which you should spend in your study ; every available moment should be taken in its study ; but I say this is the best time to get into your mind that which will never leave. I study my Bible on the cars and boats, and, in fact, any where I can get a chance, but the greatest light I have received on the Word of God has been in the early morning hour alone with God. Again, we should commence at the beginning, just the same as we do in other books and go from verse to verse. Perhaps at first you may not understand, but go over and over each verse until you do understand. A great many have an idea that all they need to do is to go through the Bible and somehow God will bless it to their ^ood. This I want to tell you is a false i OkACE MAGNIFlEt). taj idea. Thousands who liavc read their Bibles through and through, know no more than one that has never read one chapter. It is not so much the going through it, as it is the understand- ing tliat which we do read. It would be much better to take a whole lifetime in the study of it, and not get through it once then to go through it a dozen times in a life time, and then at the end of our lives to see we have learned nothing. Going through the Bible is not studying it, and to understand it, we must study it, and in order to study it, we must give ])lenty oi time and much attention to every word, let alone every verse and chapter we read. Again we should read it, not as one great Book, for it is not. It is a Book of many Books. The Bible contains 66 Books, and all bearing on different subjects, and to understand it properly, we should take each book separately and study it in that way. Find out what it treats on and study that one book carefully, until you understand, and then go to another. Again, another way in which you can can get insight into it is by taking it up topically. Take for instance any of the follow- ing: grace, love, atonement, assurance, redemption, pardon, forgiveness. Here we have a few of the many topics the Bible contains. Now with the aid of a concordance, which can be procured for a few shillings, we can trace these topics all through the Word of God and thus make it a very interesting book to us. Again in the study of God's Word, we should have a good teacher, and this our Heavenly Father has procured for us, and sent Him to us, to teach us all we need to know concerning His Word, "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter, that He may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth j whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him, for He dwelUth with you and shall be in you." John 14: 16, i;. SSQ i>4 CkACE MAGNinED. "But the comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the !Pathet will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." John 14 : 26. Now this is the teacher God our Father has sent us, and when we go to the study of God's word we must throw our- selves entirely upon Him. If we do so, as we read He will teach us all things. There are three books which I have found a great help to me in study. First, a large print Bible. Second, a good Con- cordance. Third, a Bible Text Book. These books with much prayer and the aid of the Holy Ghost will very soon make you love your Bibles moie than any other book you have read. "And now bretheren I commend you to God and to the word of his Grace, which is able to build you up." Acts 20 : 32. Anothir help to a growth in grace is to never let a day pass without doing something in the service of God. We should make it a point in our lives that every day will find us doing something for our Lord and Saviour. We cannot all do the same amount of work, neither can we do the same work, but what God requires is that we do what we can. As I have often remarked, I cannot be a Moody or a Talmage, or a Jones, but, thank God, I can be Schiverea. If I can't be great I can do what is given me to do the best I know how, and that is all that God requires. Hew many do not stop to think that God has given t'.U something to do, and we cannot do each other's work ; and what we leave undone u.ust be left undone forever. How many who seem to be satisfied with a life of idleness, wonder why it is they do not make greater progress in the Christian life. Dtar friend, if you are here let me tell you just as long as you remain idle you need not expect to grow only in one way, and that is more and more diminutive each day you Uve« I CllACE MAGNIFIED. I as A few reasons why we should work. First, because our dear Lord commands it from the moment of our conversion. "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Matt, ii: 28, 29. Now this is rest from our sins, or in other words salvation, and just as soon as you get this rest, which is a gift, then he says "Take my yoke upon you and learn ofme^ for lam meek and lo7v- ly in Hearty and ye shall find rest to your souls." Now you see just as soon as you get rest from your sins, He then puts you to work with Him. Yoke means service, and this He wants you to put on from the moment He saves you. Another reason why we should go to work, is because work is in evidence of life, Now you cannot expect a dead man to work, and such were we al', Ephes. 2: i, "you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins," but if we have been quickened or made a- live we must show some evidences of that life. Listen to James 2: 17-20, "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone. Yea a man may say, thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faich without works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well : the devils also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, oh vain man, that faith without works is deadT* Now we see that for us to call ourselves Christians and not to prove it in our work, we deceive ourselves. "Be ye doers of the word and not hearers, thereby deceiving your own selves." James i: 22, Another reason we should work, is that it is only those that work can expect any blessing. "Give and it shall be given into you good measure pressed down, shaken together and running over shall men give unto you. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." Luke 6: 38. il 126 GRACE MAGNIPIBII. It is just as we become a blessing to others, that we may ex- pect our Saviour to bless us and He don't forget to tell us we shall have good measure. Another reason we should be workers '*' heeause everything we do that is going to benefit others, will also benefit our dear Lord and Saviour. Listen to what He tells us in Matt. 25 : 34-40. "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand. Come, ye ble;5sed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre- pared for you from the foundation of the world : for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me in : naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, say- ing. Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed t^iee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink ? when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in ? or naked, and clothed thee f or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee ? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto thee, inas- much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Dear brother and sister are not these reasons enough to cause us all to go to work at whatever our hands finds to do. And what we do let us do it well, for by so doing we give clear evidence that we are not only quickened with newness of life but that we are anxious to grow in grace. AnotJier step towards a gtih in grace, is to never do any- thing upon which you cannot ask Gods blessing. "And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by Him." Col. 3: 17. There are many things we do, we would not do if we would stop and just ask ourselves, can I ask God's blessing UDoa what I am nQw about to do. '<:^- GRACE MAGNIFIED. 127 God's blessing, blessing, A good many have asked me " Is it right to go to the Ball and the Party and the Theatre." Can I drink and use tobacco, and play cards ? I have told them what I will repeat her«;. If you can get down on your knees and ask God's blessing on going to these places, and using these things, and God says it is all right, I will not interfere. This is why there is so little growth with so many, they do not ask God's blessing on all they do, and I am certain if they did, they would very soon leave off a great many things that they do at present. I am certain that I used to do many things before I asked that since I have commenced to ask God's I would rather lose my right arm than do those same things over again "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." Col. 3: 1-3. If we are really born of God, v/e will try to do those things that we would want to do if we were in Heaven. "Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the lather, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Rom. 6: 4. Another help to a growth in gtace is to let our Lord and Saviour alone be our example. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." John ic: 27. "Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children." Eph. 5:1. This is just why so many young Christians go astray, they do not follow the one that saved them; but they get a following some Christians so-called, and are very soon led to do things that is not right, and away they go. Now, if we would keep out of all difficulty, and go right on growing in grace we must take but One for our example, and as we follow Him, we will never .go astray. I would follow no man only as he follows the h If ^:l| xaS GRACB MAGNIFIED. Lord Jesus, and when I would see Him go out of the way one inch, I will follow Him no longer. You say "Brother and Sister so and so choses this, and goes here and there." I know they do, and go to many places, and do many things not right, but it is not to say if they do wrong, you should do it, and neither will you do it, if you will just follow Jesus and just go where He goes, and do just what He tells. Oh that you may listen to these words of warning which may keep from Backsliding, and go on in the Christian life, willing rather to die than to bring a reproach upon the cause of Christ. I do pray that all who have listened to these few hints as to h<"w to grow in grace, will profit by them, and may grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. CHRIST OUR FRIEND. "2'^ Son of man came eating and drinking^ and th^ say^ Behold a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber^ a friend of publi- cans and sinners** Matt, ii: 19. HOW many there are who are satisfied with a mere in- tellectual or theoretical Christ, and care nothing about knowing a personal Saviour. Now if we are to get any gcod from the Son of God either as a Saviour or Friend we mus^ know Him personally. There is but one thing this blessed book shows me as the remedy for sin, and, that is, the precious blood of the Son of God. All through it refers to this, in fact, I can see nothing else in it but the blessed atonement, and in order to see this and to enjoy the study of this Book, I must know Christ as my personal Saviour. And thank God I can see a personal Saviour, I may say, on every page of it. In fact the only reason why I do study the Bible is to get better acquainted with my blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." John 5: 39. And as the Scriptures have revealed to me a living and personal Christ, I want with the help of God to have you sec Him as a Personal Saviour also. {y i ■A ,^l !|l 130 GRACE MAGNIFIED. I i Our first reading will be to see Jesus Christ as the sinner's friend. The Son of God was accused of many things, He was not guilty of; but one thing of which He was accused by His enemies was true, and that was, He was a friend of Publicans and Sinners. "The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners." Matt, ii: 19. This the Son of God surely proved Himself to be. ist, In His life. He came from Holiness, and Heavenly happiness and riches, and took upon Him our humanity. He was born among us in poverty, sorrow, and where sin abounded. He was raised up with, and lived amongst us, and went among sinful men in order to relieve and help where it was possible. At one time we see Him feeding the hungry multitudes; at another we see Him healing the broken heart of the poor bereaved widow ; at another time we see Him having compassion upon a poor blind beggar who hails Him with his pitiful cry Now we see Him cleansing the poor leper who is driven by his awful con- dition to run to Him for help. Listen to the words He utters to the sinner who takes her place at His feet and cries for mercy. "Go in peace, thy sins are all forgiven thee." Oh yes, all through His life we see how He proved Himself the Friend of Sinners. Surely He did fulfil His mission, which was prophesied of Him by Isaiah and which He read to the people in the Synagogue, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliver- ance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to et at liberty them that are bruised." Luke 4: 18. Surely the prophecy was fulfilled before He left this earth. Again He proves a Friend to Sinners in His death. He did not die for the religious, for the good, for His friends, but bRACB MAGNIFIED. I3t Ibr His enemies, for sinners. Isaiah in the fifty-third chapter tells us what He was to do when He came, and He did it. Rom. 5: 6, id; Gal. 3: 13; £ph. 2: i, 9. Yes Jesus surely shows us in His death that He loved sinners; for it was for them and them alone that He died. Again He proved His love for sinners In His Resurrection. Almost the first thing He does after coming up from the grave, is to go after the sinner, And we might say the last message He left, was, to have the gospel brought to the lost. "And He said unto them. Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16: 15. And now that He is at the right hand of the Father, He is constantly proving Himself a Friend to sinners, for none come to Him, but He receives them, and forgives them their sins. He is not only a Friend that saves, but a Friend that STICKETH CLOSER THAN A BROTHER. "A man that hath friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." Prov. 18: 24. How many will give us to understand that it depends upon us, whether we retain this Friend. We must stick to Him in order to have Him as a Friend. I have met so many that tell me that one reason why they have not decided for Christ is, because they did not think they could hold out. Oh it is not our holding out, but His sticking taus, that saves. We do not have to hold on to Him, but just simply yield to His holding to us. He has promised never to leave us. "Lo, I am with you alway even unto the end of the world." Matt.28:2o. Again we find Him a FRIEND THAT LOVETH AT ALL TIMES. "A friend loveth at all times." Prov. 17:17. This is some' thing we very seldom find, a friend that will love at all timeSf but this is what Jesus does. We cannot find a place in the whole Bible where it says Jesus does not love us, no matlet 11 \i t$i ORACft MAONIFIBD. whether we love Him or not "Herein is love, not that wfc loved God; but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." i John 4: 10. How many will tell us we have got to love Him, just in order to have Him love us. But we see He loves us when we do not love Him. "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Rom. 5: 8. Yes He loves us at all times, and the only thing He hates is our sins, and He so hated them, that He died to do away with them. And it is as we put our trust in Him, as our Sin Bearer that we will then know something about His dear love. Some will ask — "after we do take Him as our Saviour, will He still love us ?" Ves, yes I say He loves at all times. He don't want us to sin, and if we do we can't have communion with Him. But He tells us in i John 1:17, that if we confess our sins, He will forgive us. Again He is A FAITHFUL FRIEND, Prov. ay: 6. Now a faithful friend will not see us doing any wrong without telling us about it, no matter if it does wound us. It is much better to have our wrongs shown to us by a friend than to have those wounds covered over with the kisses of deceitfulnesfi. How often we hear Christians complaiving because of what they are passing through. They have needed the chastening rod, and our faithful friend, in love has to lay it on. "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten,'' Rev. 3: 19. "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." Heb. 12: II. Again He is A FRIEND THAT GIVES US HEARTY COUNSEL. "Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart; so doth the sweet* ness of a man's friend by hearty counsel." Prov. 37: 9. How many thousands go astray, right on this line, just for the want of Kood and cheerful counsel. "Blessed is the man that GRACE MAGNIFIED. «33 walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly." Psa. i: z. How many walk in the counsel of the ungodly and the result is, the unfi;odly walk them right down the path of ruin and right down to hell. But thank God we have a friend in Jesus, who will give us the right kind of counsel, and is ever willing to give it to us if we will only come to ^im for it. Oh let us come to Him with our heart-troubles, and our home-troubles, and our business-troubles, and He will tell us the very best thing to do under the circumstances. Again we see He is a FRIEND THAT MAKT:S US LIKE HIMSELF. ''Iron sharpeneth iron ; so a man shaipeneth the countenance of his friend." Prov. 27:17. ' We may come to Him all covered with ^he rust and dulness of sin, but it requires but a little while in His presence when we find Him getting the rust all off, and we soon reflect His image. See how soon He changes us. We know what we were. Some of us drank, and some lied and blasphemed, and showed our tempers, and we were unkind in our homes, but now see the great change. How true it is "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation." As my dear mother said when I put my trust in this dear friend. "My old bad boy is gone, and God has given me a new boy instead." Yes it is not long after Christ o.ets in us before He shines through us. "And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel." Acts 6: 15. We can aU have just what Stephen had, all we have got to do is to accept Christ as our Saviour and then keep in company with God just like Enoch did, and we will show in our lives and examples and faces that all the rust of sin is be gone forever. We read that David's singers all resembled the king, and it was because they were always in his presence ; and so should we as Christians resemble our King and Lord and this can be don^ if we will but keep \t\ ^is presenc^. ♦ s It .V CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE. " If we say we have fellowship with Him^ and walk in dark- nesSf we lie, and do not the truth** i John i : 6, WE are supposed from the moment of our conversion, or the moment we accept the Son of God as our Saviour, to take Him as our example, and in fact this is one of the evidences of our trust in Him. " If we say we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth," i John i : 6. His sheep hear His voice and follow Him. We cannot be His sheep until we know that we have accepted Him as our Shepherd, and once we know this we can but follow Him. Of course we believe that there are some Christians, like some silly sheep, that will go astray, but they know nothing of the blessings that come to those who have taken Christ, not only as their Saviour, but as their Example, and follow Him withersoever He goes. " He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself to walk, even as He walked." i John 2: 6. Again, we see that it is only as we follow Him that we can know anything about fellowship. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christy His Son^ cl^^uiseth us from all ^in." I John I : ^. GRACE MAGNIFIED. '3$ Let us look at some of the things we should imitate Him IN HIS DEVOTION TO HIS FATHEil. " And He said unto them how is it that >-e sought Me ? Wist ye not that I must be about my Fathei's business ? " Luke 2: 49. He commenced to show His devotion when but a child, and continued to do so all His life, and did not stop showing it until His life was poured out in His devotion on the cross. " I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do." John 1 7 : 4. " When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finifihed." John 10 : 30. He commenced when He commenced His life, and ended His devotion when His life ended? And this is just what we should do as God's children, commence to show our devotion to our Heavenly Father from the time of our conversion. The very first thing we are told to do, is, to serve Him. "Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me." Matt. 11 : 28, 29. First, we take pardon, and then we take the yoke. And as the Apostle shows us in (Rom. 12 : i) ''I beseech you therefore, breth* ren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a livtng sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." We should give our bodies to God in order that He may use them in His service, we should do this on the start-out of our Christian life, and continue so to do until God calls us hence. "Who gave Himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works." Titus 2: 14. " And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." 2 Cor. 9 : 8. Oh, should we not be willing to give God our bodies, and talents, and time in His service, for did He not give all H^ biad ioi us ? J •msn l$fi GRACE MAGNIFIED. IN HIS OBEDIENCE. "And He that sent me is with me : the Father hath not left me alone ; for I do always those things that please Him." John 8: 29. The Son of God was very careful not to disobey His Father, so we hear Him say, "I do always the things that please Him." Is this not obedience in its very essence ? He did not part of the time do the things that please Himself, and the other things that pleased His Father, but a/ways did a// things that pleased His Father. And this is just what all Christians should do. "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him." Col. 3: 17. But how sad it is to know it is just what so many do not do, How many things we do, when if we would only stop and ask ourselves, "Is this obe* ' my Heavenly Father," and wait for His smile to rest upon »*, we would no more do it than die. Whatever we do in thought, or word, or deed, should be done with only one object in view, and that is, will this please my Father. How many have come to me asking, is there any harm in doing this or that ? I have said to them, as I intend to say to all such enquirers: go get on year knees and ask God will it please 'Him. Tell Him you do not want to disobey Him, and you come to Him for advice in the matter, and if He tells you that it is all right, then do it, no matter what it is, and rest as- sured He has a way in which He will let you know whether He will be pleased or not. Now do not make a mistake right here, do not go to your friends or to your own heart, for they might be pleased in having you do the very things that would displease your Heavenly Father. IN HIS SUBMISSION. "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." John 6: 38. "Then said he, Lo, 1 come to do thy will, O God.*' Heb. 10: 9. Jesus did not ^om to do His own will, but bis Father's who sent Him, ^n^ ORACB MAONtPIED. «37 all through his life He proved it. And even in Gethsemane when anticipating Calvary He cries '*If it be possible" to have the awful cup to pass from him, but then we also hear him cry out "Net my will, but thine be done." When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, one thing he did not forget to mention in that prayer, and that was, that their will should be lost in God's will, and how many of us who have learned that prayer, and have been saying it for years — "Tky will be done" and go.right from God's presence in prayer, and in our very action say, let my will be done. If we would only have God's will done instead of our own, how much broken communion and sad experience we would save. "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his ser- vants ye are to whom ye obey : whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness." Rom. 6: i6. IN HIS COMPASSION. *'But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compas- sion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd." Matt. 9: 36. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because, he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the broken- hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." Luke 4; 18. The Son of God was full of compassion, in fact this was his mission in a sense, as we see in the above. He was constantly going about doing good. Where compassion was needed and would be accepted, he was there to give it. He had compassion on the hungry multitude. When he saw them hungry and like sheep without a Shepherd he was moved with compassion. Oh yes the hungry and sad, and broken- hearted. He could not pass them by, His compassion would not let Him. See how He showed it with that poor broken- hearted widow of Nain, when He raised her dead son. Again wf see it as lie opens the eyes of that poor blind hecgtur, I MMM i '38 GRACE MAGNIFIED. ■%i IP i Again we see it, as He cleanses the poor unclean leper. Oh no 1 no matter the condition^ the piace^ the person^ He passed none by. He could not, His compassion would not let Him. Christian friends we should follow our d^ar Lord's example, we should be filled wlih compassion^ and go out and do good when and where we can, for there is much we all can do, if we will. And let me tell you this is the very essence of true religion. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit th 3 fatherless and widows in their afflic- tions, and to keep Himseh unspotted from the world." James 1:27. "If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?-' James 2: 15, 16. One thing that should cause us not to be selfish, and should send us on errands of compassion, is, be- cause, as we do it unto one of the least of our fellow creatures we do it unto God. "Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand. Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world : For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me in : Naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and ye visited me : I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying. Lord when saw ye thee an hungred, and fed thee ? or thirsty, and gave thee drink ? When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in ? or naked, and clothed thee ? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee ? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me." Matt. 25: 34-40. Again we see, it is only as we give blessing to others that we can expect blessing from our Heavenly Father, "Give and it be given unto you ; ^ood measure, pressed down, and GRACE MAGNIFIED. »39 shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." Luke 6: 38. How lauch deformity we see among Christians. Some are without arms. — ^They have never helped anyone over the rug- ged places in life. Some are without feet^ — They have never gone an inch out of their way to serve others. Some are with- out voice. — Have never said even a kind word to cheer one that is cast down. Some are deaf. — They have never listened to the cry of the suffering. Others are without hearts. — They do not know what sympathy and generous feeling is. What an ap- pearance a number of such crippled Chriitians must make in the light of heaven. Oh that we might be saved from being such. IN :i\% HUMILITY. " And after that He potreth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded." John 13:5. Just to think of it. The Son of God who could have had Seraphim and Cheru- bim to be His servants, taking the place of servant, and such a low place as a servant, even to washing the disciples feet. Let me ask, are we willing to wash each others feet ? Oh how much easier it is to have our feet washed by others, than to have us do the washing. To be masters we would /z^^/*, but the servant's place we would ignore. Oh, how many, if they have not said lliis in words, have said it in actions. Oh that we would only be willing to follow our dear Lord in His humility, for if we do the time will come when we shall be ex- alted. " For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Luke 14 : 11. "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." i Peter 5 : 6. [in HIS PATIENCE. " Then said Jesus, Father forgive them, they know not what \hey 4o." Luke ty. 34. No matter d for- r there- id into ore we s Christ r, even e have e shall his that n might n. For s, thank aversion thfe way a glory, ig abun< or us. ng, and )ry with (ower of I in the because from fall- saves us a start in ourselves, ive to do iply trust "Behold I: for the word Je- hovah means the Jesus name for God, and so we see if we have Jesus for the salvation of our souls, we will have Him to keep us from falling, and we can trust and not be afraid. How many so<:alled Christians will give us to understand by their constantly being converted, that it is absolutely ne- cessary to fall away from God at least once a year. Every re- ligious excitement will see them coming forward to be con- verted and they generally last just about as long as the excite- ment lasts. Poor things, backsliding has become chronic with them. This class gives the unsaved the idea that one cannot live the Christian life even if they did enter it. Oh how this gives the lie to our dear, loving and able Saviour. Does He not tell us He will not let us fall, and if we will only let Him, He will prove it to us. Nowhere do we see in God's Word, where He lets any fall that put their trust in Him. It is only as we take ourselves out of His care and protection that we fall, and not until then, and we need never &11 nor back- slide if we will only trust Him. "For my people have commit- ted two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." Jer. 2: 13. ABLE TO SUBDUE ALL THINGS UNTO HIMSELF. "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto himself." Phil. 3:21. Nothing is impossible with God, and if we only give Him full possession of us, He will put those things that once had us brought into subjection to them, under the power that is stronger than they are. Yes thank God, all of the old nature can be brought into subjection to.the new, if we will only let the man Christ Jesus have His own way about it How many complain about their bad temper^ mean disposit- ionSf wicked propensities^ awful habits and terribk lusts, these things have got mastery of the situation, and show their au- '^i ji 3 %i i'^ 146 ORACE MAONinBD, thority and men have to bow down in slavery and misery and wretchedness. Now let me ask, if Jesus is able to subdue all things unto Himself, why do we put up with these things? We need not, if we will only believe that God's word is true, and just exercise our faith in connection with it, Oh you who are enduring the agony of the apostle in Rom. 7: 18-25 see how Paul realized the terrible power he had to deal with, and it almost drove him mad, but at last he sees the remedy not in himself, but in Jesus Christ. Yes Jesus can, and has, and will subdue all things unto Himself. ABLE TO DELIVER US WHEN TEMPTED. "For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." Heb. 2: 18. This is one thing we never expect to be delivered from in the pre- sent body. The Son of God was tempted until He breathed His last, but yet without yielding, and so will we. We are not contending with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers in the air, and just so long as we have to breathe the atmosphere that is tainted with sin, we will be tempted. Now the sin is not, as some would have us believe, in the temptation, but in the yielding to it, and this we need not do, unless we want to, for Jesus was tempted just as we are, and now He knows just how to feel for us, and will deliver us, if we will only call upon Him in the time of need. We notice every time the Son of God was tempted. He referred to the Word of God. It was His strength in the time of need, and so we have the same sword to wield if we will only use it, and we shall have the victory every time. How many will give us to understand that at times we must yield. God's word gives us no license for yielding. Daniel's friends got the right idea. When they were so tempted, they just looked to the Lord, and was satisfied it would be all right. "If it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, ORACB MAONIFIKD. HI iry and due all B? We e, and NliO are jwPaul almost liimself, subdue , he is ;. This ;he pre- )reathed i are not ies and the the ■ in the not do, are, and us, if we ce every Word of we have we shall re must Daniel's they just t. "Ifit rom the nehand, King." Dan. 3: 17. 'There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man ; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted abov ^ that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make away to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." i Cor. 10 : 13. ABLB TO PREPARE US FOR EVERY GOOD WORK. "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." 2 Cor. 9: 8. God don't like lazy Christians. All through the New Testament, we see works connected with salvation. Now do not misunderstand me, I do not say works in order to get salvation, but works because we have salvation. Salvation — "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Works — 29 verse. "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me." Matt. 1 1: 28, 29. "For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." Titus 2: 1 1. We are not to work /o the Cross, but we are surely told to yrorli/rom the Cross, and not only should we work, but we should abound in every good work. In Luke 14 : 21. we are told to "go quickly." "And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the word of reconciliation. To wit that God was in Christ, re- conciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconcili- ation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as tliough God did beseech you by us j we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye re- conciled to God." 2 Cor. 5: 1 8-20. We have the word of recon- ciliation committed unto us, and if we do not bring it to others then they will not get it, for God uses no other means. Oh that we may be able to give good proof of our ambassadorship at the last day. CHRIST HOW PRECIOUS. " Unto you therefore that believe He isprecicus." i Pet. 2 : 7. WE have but to know our blessed Lord personally to realize how precious He is, for He has many ways in which He comes to us to show just how precious He is to the believer. A PRECIOUS SAVIOUR. " Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with cor- ruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the pre- cious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." I Pet. i: 18,19. "Neither is there salva- tion in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12. Of course the soul who still holds up the arms of rebellion against Him, and who is trampling under foot His love, can- not see how precious He is as a Saviour, but we who have come to Him, and have learned to love Him, can see why He is so precious. Just to think of it, nothing less than His precious blood could procure for us an eternal hope. Oh ! yes, it was God giving the greatest thing He had for the QRACfe MAGMllrmb. MP meanest thing He created when He gave His Son to die for us. All the blood on Jewish altars could not procure foi us what the blood of the Son of God procured. Precious, because it was the blood of heavenly royalty. Precious, be- cause nothing else could procure our salvation. Precious, be- cause it not only procures salvation, but Justification. Precious, because it not only procures salvation and jus- tification, but pardon, and peace, and heaven. Precious, not only because of all this, but because it makes us sin polluted and hell-deserving sinners, one with Him and with the Father." Eph. 1:7. " For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell. And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself: by Him I say, whether they be things on earth, or things in heaven. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight." Col. i: 19-22. " And if children then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." Rom. 8:17. Is it any wonder that He is precious to the believer. Oh, how few of us can real- ize how precious a Saviour we have. Again, let us look at Him as precious to us IN TIME OF TROUBLE. Psa. 27: 5; 37: 39; 9: 9- We all know something about trouble. None of us are ex- empt from it, all of us have our share, from the king to the peasant, the rich and the poor, the great and the small, black and white, all alike have their measure of trouble. But having to admit that all do have their share of trouble, there is one thing that all have not got in the time of trouble and that is a precious Saviour, one who is willing and able to de- liver when in trouble. Npt that H^ will not deliver all ihaA tso OftACft MAONIVIED. will come to Him, but thousands will not come to Him, and they have to bear it all alone, " In the time of trouble He ska/l hide me in His pavilion." We who know Him as a per- sonal Saviour have but to run to Him, and we have this as- surance, that He will hide us. No, perhaps, or guesses, but sAa// hide us. And then again, he hides us in his pavilion or tent. We all know that a tent is something used for transitory pur- poses. It can be pitched and taken up in a very little time, it is not for permanency. And so we see that we have this dear Saviour following us all through the journey of life with His pavilion, so that we can always have it to run to in time of trouble. " God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble." Psa 46 : i. ** He shall deliver thee in six troubles ; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee." Job 5 : 19. And He has promised not to leave us, so we have nothing to fear. We will have plenty of trouble to meet during our journey through life, but we have but to take it all to Jesus, and He will attend to it for us. I have proved this precious Saviour on this line. Not long after my conversion, the dearest and best friend I had on earth was taken from me, and that was my mother. Oh I I do not know what I would have done if I had not had Jesus to go to. It was not long after that, when I lost my only child. This coming so soon after my other trouble, I did not know what to do, I was almost crazy, and just in my extremity I I heard these blessed words : " Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee." Oh I I tell you I did call, and thanked God. I did find comfort in His promise. A few years after that I was blessed with two more small chil- dren, and both of them were taken away. I was almost dis- tracted, and I am certain I could not have borne up under this load of trouble if I had not had Him to trust in who declared that He would deliver met and be did^ bless GRACE MAONiriBD. iS« His dear name. Yes, I have proved Ilim in time of sorrow, and sickness, and poverty, and in all cases He has delivered me, And this is one reason why He is so precious to me at tltis time. Oh you that do not have Him to go to in the time of trouble, how do you get through at all.. " Let us therefore come boldly to a throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Heb. 4:16. PRECIOUS IN TIME OF DEATH. This life does not last forever, the time comes to all alike, when we have to bid good-bye to the things of time, and go to try the realities of an eternity. We may be infidel^ sceptic^ scoffer^ rejecter^ dispistr of this precious Saviour, but one thing we all know and that is, the day comes when we have to meet that awful leveller, that terrible enemy death, and though we may reject and dispise the precious Son of God, this enemy we can neither evade or reject. When he comes we have to meet him and go with him no matter who we are or what we are. And it is as death comes to us, we either tremble or rejoice, Of course I do not believe there are many who would like to stay in this world as long as they can, yet I do believe some do rejoice when the time comes for them to leave it, and I believe those who can rejoice, are those who are sweetly resting in a precious Saviour, for if the Son of God is ever precious it is when we come to leave the world, and we do see in this blessed word, that He is precious to us at that time. "Yea, though I walkthrough the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil : for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." Psa. 23 : 4. Notice we have not got to climb a mountain, but go down a valley. It is much easier to go down a valley than up a mountain. One of the most pleasant places the shepherd can bring his sheep into is a valley, for there they find every- thing to make them happy. »!;» dkACE I^AGN^I^kEb. 1^ Notice again that we walk. You have to carry a dead sheep, but a living one can walk. The grave is not death, but life to the Christian. Again notice that we walk through. We are not to be left there, but we go right straight through. The grave is not the receptable for the Christian. It could not hold our Saviour,neither can it hold any who put their trust in Him. ''Oh death where is thy sting ? Oh grave, where is thy victory ? The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the law." i Cor. 15: 55. 56- Notice again it is the shadow of death. The sting of death is gone, it has been put in our Saviour's bosom, and we have but the shadow to contend with. Two things about a shadow. First, A shadow cannot exist without light, and so our precious Saviour lightens up the valley, with the presence of His glory, and that is how we see the shadow. And again a shadow can do no harm. And so that which our precious Saviour conquered before He arose from the grave can do us no harm. Notice again we have the rod and the staff. This bothered me for some time. I used to wonder what they was doing there. The rod we know is for chastising and the staff is to rest on. And we see we have both of them to comfort us at the end of life. What does it mean ? Just this. How often we find when some of God's dear children come to enter the valley, they are met by the adversary, who will try and make it unpleas- ant for them, by filling them with doubts and fears. Now the Shepherd is there with the Rod to whip off the devil with his delusions, and by so doing give his sheep comfort in their dying hours. And the Staff is tor them to rest on, so the journey will be a pleasant one. How after we see some of God's dearest children get quite disturbed when reaching the end. Doubts will come up just at the last, and they are afinid after all they will be lost,and then we just refer them to the precious promises^ find it drives off the doubts and fears, and they die happy. 5kACE MAGNIFIED. tSi Kctice once more that the Shepherd goes alt ihe way with the sheep* Through the valley, and don't leave them until He puts them in the heavenly fold. PRECIOUS TO us IN HEAVEN. "Let not your hearts be troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions : if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be also." John 14: i, 3. Is this not enough to make us love our precious Saviour. Precious to us in life. Precious to us in death, and after death we see He is to be precious to us in Heaven. "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple : and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters : and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." Rev. 7: 15-17. Yes we wi !" be with Him in heaven and then He will be even more precious than ever be- fore. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him as He is." I John 3: 3. We see Him now as through a glass darkly but then shall see Him face to face. Surely all we that believe on Him can call Him precious Saviour, precious Shepherd, precious Lord and Master. Ill THE PERSONAL COMING AGAIN OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing oj the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ^* PERHAPS no subject in the Word of God is so seldom dwelt upon as the present one, and yet there is none so much mentioned or more important in the Word of God. Out of the two hundred and thirty chapters in the New Testa- ment the Coming again of the Son of God is mentioned three and twenty times. The Bible is not more explicit concerning the first coming, than it is of the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And just as sure as all the prophecy was fulfill- ed concerning his first coming, so we will see the prophecy concerning his Second Coming fulfilled. For what God says will surely be done. AS TO THE CERTAINTY OF HIS COMINO. We will refer you only to a few of the many passages. Luke 36: 46; Matt. 24: 50; Matt. 25: 6 13. Any careful reader will surely see in the above Scripture enough to convince them of the Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that it does not refer to his first coming as a Saviour of sinners. GRACE MAGNIFIED. ^55 - HOW HE IS TO COME. **Ve men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? tb's same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in 1 e manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Acts i: ii. We see that He is to come in the same way as he went. Not in a spiritual form, or as an angel, as some would have us believe, but we see that He is to come literally just as He went away. He went away in His resurrected body and the last thing His disciples were told was that He would come in like manner. WHAT HE IS COMING FOR. First we see that He is coming for the Church. "Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking good- ly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all he had, and bought it." Matt. 13: 45. In reading this parable I used to think that the Lord Jesus Christ was the Pearl and I was the merchant man. But when I have stopped to consider that I had nothing but my sins to purchase the great pearl with, and that I am bankrupt and un- done, I cannot see how I can be the merchant man. And again I see that the gift of God is eternal life. "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life." Rom. 6: 23. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not by works, lest any man should boast" Eph. 2: 8, 9. And surely if in any way I try to purchase a gift, I cease to make it a gift. Of course we do read in that blessed chapter of Isiah 55: i, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price." But we notice it is without M^n^and without pria. Again we read "buy the truth and sell it not," but we see cleaily that this is to the Christian, one who has already accep- ted the Son of God as their Saviour. NOk the sinner cannot >56 6ttACB KlAGKl)PlEb. purchase what Jesus Christ the Son of God purchased by his precious blood. "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold'; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." Salvati§n is for all He is the purchaser and not the Church. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3: i6. Ne:;^rly nineteen hundred years ago He came down into this world, (the field) and paid the price for the pearl (the Church — ^the body of believers) which the Holy Ghost is gathering out of the world at the present time, and when He comes again, that is what He is coming for. The following scripture shows this very clearly. "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Gal. 2: 20. "Take heed there- fore unto yourselves, and to the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood," Acts 20: 28. Second. He is coming to judge the saints. This is not a matter of heaven or hell, but of rewards. "And behold, I come quickly ; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22 : 12. "Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God ; ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, ana another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, or precious stones, wood, hay, stubble : every man's work shall be made GRACE MAGNIFIED. 157 by his re not utwith ish and ser and le gave should nto this Church ring out s again, e shows theless I :h I now ho loved ;d there- >ly Ghost irhich he i is not a ehold, I ery man 'Now he ^ery man )ur. For jsbandry, )d which laid the very man )undation ist. Now rfffecious be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be re* vealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built there- upon, he shall receive a reward. If any man'« work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved so as by fire." i Cor. 3 : 8 15. "For we must all appear before the Judgment Leat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad." 2 Cor. 5:10. When our dear Lord comes to take the Church home, we, the individual be- lievers, who constitute the Church, will be rewarded according to our Faithfulness in Service. Accepting the Son of God as our personal Saviour will get us into heaven, but doing His blessed will during His absence will give us our reward at that day. I Tim. 4: 7. Dan. 12 : 3. If we expect to wear the crown Paul speaks about, we will have to work for it. If we ex^ ect to shine in heaven, we will have to be shining down in this sin darkened world. Third. He is coming to raise the dead saints and give them new bodies, and change those that may be alive at that time. "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. Por this we say unto you by the word <5f the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch- angel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." i Thess. 4 : 14-18. "Behold I shew you a mystery ; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead 158 ORACB MAGNimD. 1!^ shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incomiption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. O death where i<; thy sting ? O grave, where is tb^- victory ?" x Cor. 15 : 51-55. This is a blessed thought, not as some would have that the saint will know nothing about being with the Lord until the resurrection, but we see that the spirit of the saint is with Him now and when He comes they will be with Him, and then their bodies will be brought up from the the grave and made incorruptible. We will have bodies just like His. For we are to be like him. "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God, therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are wt: ihe sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see Him as he is." i John 3:1.2 And the corruptible bodies that some will be wearing at that time will be changed and we will all be caught up together to be forever with Him. What a thought, all go up together ! A great many have asked me if we shall know each other in heaven. Well I know that the body which the Son of God had, and went up to heaven in, was a body that recognized and was recognizable, and we are to have bodies like His, for we are to be like Him. Now if Jesus was known and knew, this gives me to understand we shall also. I expect to know my mother and children and all others that have died in Jesus. "For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face; now I know in part, butthen shall I know even as rilso I amknown." i Cor. 13:12. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matt. 5 : 14, 16, GRACE MAGVIPIED. «S9 For almust ve put Ditality, Death ing? O is is a int will rection, 3w and r bodies uptible. ike him. ed upon "ore the Beloved, ar what we shall Si 1' 2 I at that ether to ether ! other in jod had, and was we are to gives me )therand r now we [ know in )r. 13:12. see your heaven," AS TO WHEN HE WILL COME. • The definite time no one knows, not even the angels in heaven. One thing we do know and that is we are told to watch for His coming. Matt. 24 : 43, 44 ; Matt. 35 : 13; Mark 13: 33, 37. We see that He may come at any moment, and will come in a time when thousands will not be looking for Him. Let us be sure we have Him as our Saviour, and then as it lies in our power do His blessed will ; it will then make no difference to us when He will come, but it will make a difference to the backslider and careless. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE WE SHOULD BE DURING HIS ABSENCE. JFSrst A zealous people. "And He called His servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, o-^cupy till I come." Luke 19 : 13. "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Titus s : 14. A people constantly doing the Master's will, working every day, as if it was pur last. Doing what we have to do for Him as if we would never have another chance to do anything for Him. Second. A people entirely separated from the world. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conform- ed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and accept- able, and perfect will of God." Rom. 12: I, 3. "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness and unrighteousness ? and what communion hath light with darkness ? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said. I will dwell in them and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them and be i6o GRACS MAGNIFIED. ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye ■hall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." a Cor. 6: 14-18. We should be so separated from the world that we should have nothing in it that would call our attention from the Com- ing of our blessed Lord. How many are so wrapped up in the pleasures and vanities and riches of this world, that if our dear Lord did come, they would have to be pulled out of it. It was so with Lot, he lost all he had in Sodom and would have been lost too, had he been left to himself, such was his love for it. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, aud the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." i John a: 15-18. Tliird. An expecting people. "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Titus a: 13. We should ever be in readiness.and expecting our dear Lord's coming. A dear little girl whose papa had left home on a journey, was told by him when he started that he did not know when he would return, but for her to be watching for him. And so every day she would be found at the railway station to meet every train, expecting her papa. Several days she was there but he did not come, but neverthe- less she was there dressed in her clean clothes and very pretty, and one day she was rewarded by seeing papa get o£f the train, and at once he took her up in his arms and kissed her more than ever. So should we be waiting and expecting our dear Lord and Saviour. We should keep ourselves clean and pure. He mighi not come to-day or to-morrow, but He will come and we should be expecting Him. .1 I < FIVE STEPS OF THE DRUNKARD. "IVoe unto him that givetk his neighbour drink, that putfeth t'u dottle to him, and maketh him drunken also." — Habakkuk 2: 15. "IVine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise" — Proverbs 20: i. SO, here, in the scripture read, we hear the woe God puts on the rumseller, and a warning to us all against touching the cursed stuff; In my piesent discourse I will, by God's help, show why a woe, and even a curse, should be put on the rumseller, and also try to show that the one who will take even the glass of wine is not wise. There are two ways of stopping this awful curse, which is mak- ing such sad work among the human family. The one way is for us to get to that place where we as Christians will vote as we pray, and get at the root of the matter, which is at the head of our government, and until we can touch this awful curse there, we will have to go ^rith the help of God and do all we can to show men the danger of this evil, and also to prevent those that as yet have not commenced to drink, and tiy to get those that have fallen victims, to get free from it. I am not here to-night to touch this thing on the political side of 1 [^s loa ORACB MAOMiriBD. the question, but to try iind show the strong, degrading, demoralizing influences, strong drink will have on those whc have anything to do with it. No man becomes a drunkard at once, there are steps that lead downward, and it is to these steps that I want to call your attention at this time. L^TAe First Glass. The first step of the drunkard is the first glass. No one ever became a drunkard until the first glass was taken. I contend that the first glass is the worst ; let the first never be taken and there will be no chance for the second. It is like the point of a wedge ; let room be made for the point, and it will make room for the rest of the wedge ; let the devil get the fii'st glass taken, and it will not be long before he will drive into his victim an appetite that will drive the victim into a drunkard's grave and to a drunk- ard's hell. It is astonishing how many ways are devised by the devil to get the first glass taken ; and as the first glass is the worst, it would be well for us to look at some of these ways ; and if I am talking to any who have not as yet taken the first glass, oh how I do pray that they may be guarded against these ways that may lead to the first glass ! The sideboard. Is it not a sad fact that thousands, some of whom are now filling drunkards' graves, and others living debased drunkards' lives, received their first glass taken from the sideboard, from the hand of a parent ? You ask them why they have that dangerous thing in their homes. They will tell you that it is fashionable. Let me say to those who have the sideboard because it is fashionable, do you realize that it is also fashionable to become vagabonds, prostitutes, thieves, drunkards, mothers' heart breakers, wife abusers, children-neglectors, subjects for insane asylums, inebriate homes, prison cells, and the hangman's gallows. Here you have the outcome of your sideboard-drinking. I say those OftACB MAONiriED. ««j who advocate sideboard drinking, and are tolerating the same to be in their homes, are only tolerating a serpent that will give the sting of death to their children, and this will only be brought to the heart of that parent that handed to them the glass of wine from the side-board, when they rise up in eternity to curse them for ever bringing them into the world only to have them die drunkards. You will say, how are we to entertain if we do not have wine for our visitors ? Let me tell you, if your visitors only come for the wine they get, the less they come the better. "Oh but," you say, "they do not come for the wine." Well, if they don't, they won't be disappointed if they do not get it I have heard of young men and women that have taken wine in the social gathering, that have got quite light-headed and been led to their homes by policemen. I had a lady in one of my meetings who told me how she got her first glass of wine from a lady friend, and from that glass she went down, down, down, until now she was a mere wreck both morally and physically. The money her husband gave her she spent in strong drink. Oh how much of this is going on among the upper classes of people in our cities. I say the sideboard is an instrument of the devil, in getting through parents, the first glass into their own children and the diildren of others. Another way the first glass is taken is by the brandies and wines in your cooking. Others who will not tolerate the side- board have something that is just as dangerous, and that is brandies and wines in their cooking. How many children get the first taste of brandy or wine in the sauce that is put on Uie pudding or in the pieces of mincepie 1 How many have formed the liking for wine and brandy who got it in this way and are now victims to the awful curse. I contend that it is as possible to become a drunkard thxougjhyoux wine sauce and your brsjidy and hardcidec »*4 OttACB IIAONtriBtt. mincepies as it is if the wine or brandy were taken clear : the only difference is, one is a sugar-coated way of taking the first glass and the other is not ; but there is no difference as far as the danger is concerned. Look at that child over yonder — it is crying for more sauce, more sauce. Why does it not eat the pudding but eat the sauce ? Why, I will tell you. You have brandy in tl * sauce, and the child likes the taste of it. Why is it that th . plate has been handed the second time for a piece of mince- pie ? Why, it has brandy in it, and because of the brandy the secon'l piece has been asked for. How many get their first taste of wine or brandy, or hard cider, in the cooking either in their own home or at the homes of friends. Liquor in cooking has done as much, in a sense in making drunkards as the open bar ; and is it not so that many who have gone to the drunkard's grave from the bar-rooms, got the first taste of strong drink. I say away with your wine and brandy and hard cider in your cooking, and if you can't eat pie or pudding without these cursed stuffs in them, leave off eating pie or pudding altogether. Better for you to do that than for you to go on with your brandy cooking, and by so doing lead others to a drunkard's grave and hell. Another way in which the first glass of strong drink is taken is in society. How many never know the taste of strong drink until they enter society. As the young man said, after he had accepted the first glass of wine in society, " You know when you enter society you must do as society does." I say good society is a blessing to all who enter it. It helps to form character, and bring out principle, and in many ways good society is a blessing. But, on the other hand, bad society is a curse. See that young man who has just left his home to come to a strange place to earn a living. The kiss of a loving sister is ttill upon his lips ; the warning of the dear old mother OOA* ORACK MAGNIFIED. »«$ cerning bad company and the dangers of a large city is still in his mind. In course of time he meets with young men, who form his acquaintance. He is invited by them to spend his evenings where they go. They are having a little dancing, and of course a little wine is in order, and the wine is offered to him ; at once he refuses. He thinks of what sister said concerning the company he should keep, and to be very care* ful concerning touching the wine-glass; he thinks of tlic mother's advice concerning the danger of the first glass, and he trembles as his companions urge him to take the first glass. What would my mother and sister say if I should take this wine ? Oh, they are not with you, and they will never find it out. You want to be a man ; you don't want to be always fastened to your mother's apron-string. Come, you will take a glass and be one of us. Surely you are not so weak-minded that you cannot take just a little wine without letting it lead you to more. The young man is too proud to be called weak- minded and he takes the first glass of wine. This is all that is needed ; and it is not long before this young ,man is what thousands of young men are, victims to the power of strong drink. Oh, how many thousands of young men, and young women too, have taken their first glass of wine in this way, and it has been their destnction. Oh, let me persuade ai^y who have not as yet touched the first glass to shun the company, the society, the entertainment that would lead io the wine glass ; it only means your ruin. Another way in which the Hrst glass is taken is by the doctor's prescription. How many are made victims of this awful curse of strong drink just througii the doctor prescribing wine or brandy I I say that the doctor who will prescribe strong drink to his patient is no friend to him, and I believe I have good reasons for saying so. I had a little boy, two years of age, who was taken sick. I sent for the 4pc^C!{^. A°>on^ oth^r things he prescribed a Uttlo brandy^ i66 GRACE MAGNIFIED. I got brandy because the doctor prescribed it. Not long after I gave the brandy to my child it commenced to sink rapidly. I went to the doctor and told him of my child's condition. He would not come with me to see the child, but told me to go home, and stop giving it all medicines and just give the brandy. I did as he told me ; and, after having spasms for some little time, my child died, under the influence and ihrough the effects of the brandy ordered by that doctor. I lay the death of my child at the door of that doctor, and no doubt I am but one of many thousands that can do the same thing. Some time ago my wife had a cancer removed from her. Before the operation took place the surgeon asked me for a little brandy or whiskey to give her. I told him I did not want her to have any ; and when he saw that I was determined, he a: once prescribed something in place of whiskey, and it answered the very same purpose and without endangering my dear wife's future happiness. Now I want to know why that doctor did not prescribe the simple remedy in the first plac"? Why did he ask for whiskey the very first thing ? I con.v-nd that God did not intend that we should receive alcoholic stimulants ; and if they were less used by the doctors there would be fewer deaths and less danger of the patients becoming drunkards after their recovery. One thing I have noticed ; — most of the doctors who prescribe whiskey, brandy, or wine, to their patients offer a remedy worse than the disease. What astonishes me is that most of the physicians that pre- scribe strong drink to their patients are themselves under the power of it. I asked a doctor ones, why it was that so often whiskey or brandy was the first thing prescribed. He said, one reason why with others was that patients as a general thing liked it Another way: the first glass is taken at the the communion. I mi^ confess that tl^^ wpjr&t ^n4 strongest wii^e I h»v% GRACE MAGNIFIED. t67 ever tasted was at the communion-rail, at the celebration of the Lord's Supper. I do not believe that when Our Lord instituted this ordinance that He meant it should be an in- strument in the hands of the adversary of men's souls, for him to use for destruction of both soul and body. I do not believe that we are to give to God's children fermented wine, whichr means death to those who take it. Is is an emblem of the blood of our Blessed Lord, which is life to all who will accept it. I know of some of the grandest cases of conver- sion from drunkenness who went biick to the very gutter just through receiving fermented wine at the Communion. I do believe our Blessed Lord would rather have the ordinance done away with, than have it a place where the reformed drunkards are driven back to their cups, and where those who have never tasted wine get their first glass. I say away with your fermented wine, man's greatest enemy, at so sacred a place as the Lord's table. God does not want His sacred orv''ii\ance to be a channel through which hell might b« filled with drunkards. How many who advocate fermented wine at the Lord's Supper, will tell us that nothing but fermented wine was used in Christ's time. I do not see where they get their authority. Surely not from the word of God. The Lord's Supper was always celebrated during the feast of the Passover, and at that time everything that had leaven in it, or any liquor that had passed through the process of fermentation, had to be put aw*.y and not even touched. And, again, we do not read in all the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, where the word wine is used in connection with the Lord's Supper, for it is always the fruit of the vine. Now, why do those who hold that fermented wine is the only proper wine to have on such a blessed occasion, say that God will protect it at such a place as that. I do not read ^ywhere that God has promised to protect such an awfi^ s^ URACE MAGNIFIED. ourse. And I do not dare even touch it at the Lord's Table. Oh| some have said, if you are too weak to take it there, you have not much strength. Well, if I haven't got strength enough to touch it at the Lord's Table, thank God I have strength enough to leave it alone altogether. We have looked at some of the ways in which the first glass is taken ; and now let us look at the second step of the drunkard, which is in the glasses, which the first glass leads to. The first glass always leads to more. I have heard of men who took a glass and no more, but this has only lasted for a little while; the time came when these men dropped out the worn NO, and their cry has been ever since, more, more, until they have dropped into a drunkard's grave. Of course, there are a great many who do believe in taking even the glasses, and say there is no danger in it — ^there is no harm in moderate drinking. I would 'Ike to ask those who believe in moderate drinking, who it is that fill up the ranks as the debased diunkard falls out of them into the grave and hell ? Is it the man who has never touched the awful stuff, or is it the man who has taken his first glass and has now got to the glasses or moderate drinking ? You know it is the moderate drinker who taken the place of the debased drunk- ard, and thousands of moderate drinkers are now waiting to fill up the place of the debased drunkard as he falls out. I say there is no such thing as moderate drinking. Why not give things their proper names ? It is moderate drunkenness. Every man who takes his glasses is a drunkard, and I can prove it. If we had no moderate drinkers there would be no debased drunkards. Strong drink has aii eating power about it, something like a cancer. It gets hold of the system, and it goes on gradually until it makes its way into the very life of its victim. We commence with the glass and it leads tu the glasses, and we become a moderate drinker, and it is not long before it fetches you up. I know of several who remained moderatt 4rink(urf for some time but finally they went down. ORACB MAGNIFIED. 169 Let us look at the results of taking the glasses or moderate drinking, which leads to the third s'ep of the drunkard, which is the gutter. First the glass, then the glasses, and then the gutter, which is the third step of the drunkard. You laugh at the word gutter. .7ell, laugh on, but that does not alter the fact. You know as well as I do that the gutter has been the receptacle of a good many who have fall- en victims to this awful curse. Yes, you say, the weak-mind- ed and those who have no will of their own. I will admit this ; but will you tell me what makes weak minds — what places men in the condition of having no will of their own. I will tell you — strong drink. Look for a moment at some of the greatest minds we have a record of — for instance, that giant mind of Webster. Where will you find one like it ? yet you see what strong drink did for that wonderful mind. In the case of r y own dear father, one of the leading business men of his time, who spoke several languages fluently, pos- sessing a mind and will such as few men are blessed with ; yet that man had both mind and will robbed from him by strong drink, and he was brought down from his high position to the very gutter, and from the gutter to the potters' field. Yes, I say strong drink will weaken the strongest mind and will take from its victim the strongest will and land him in the gutter. Thousands of strong minds and strong wills have taken the third step of the drunkard, which is to the gutter, and thousands mere will go there if they do not at once shake off the viper. A rum seller who was saved at one of my meetings, told me, that when he was keeping a large liquor saloon in Philadelphia, he had Among his customers a very rich and refined lady. When she came to his place he would have his coloured servant meet her at the carriage. She came with a coachman and footman, and die had her wine and brand/ brought to her on a silver tray, and a silver goblet. This is the way she commence^ IfO ORACB MAGNIFIED. and he said before he left that city the same woman would come to his place in rags and drain his beer barrels. Ain't that a coming down I I knew a young man who lived on the Brooklyn Heights, connected with one of the best families. Educated in lang- uages and music, and a perfect gentleman. He took his first glass in society at the age of about nineteen, and at the age of twenty-three I saw that same young man sitting in a mud- gutter trying to eat a piece of crust ; almost naked of clothes and intelligence almost gone, and by this time he had been in delirium tremens several times. Think of that young men. I knew that young man, and have drank with him when he started and just think how I found him a few years after my conversion. Yes, you know just as well as I do that the greatest, the noblest, the strongest in reference to mind and will, have come to the very Idwest, just through strong drink. The gutter calls our attention to the next step of the drunk- ard, and that is the drunkard's grave. Here we have the next step of the drunkard. Did you ever visit a drunkard's burial- ground? Well, just go to the Potters'-field, and there you will see the drunkards* graves. There you will see trenches, about fifteen feet long and twelve feet deep, deep enough and long enough to put at least fifty bodies, which are put in rough pine boxes, stained red. How do they come ? Look, here comes a wagon-load ! Let us inquire as they unload. See ! The first face we see is that of a young woman, and a pretty face, and young, too. Where was the woman found?— In the river. The same old story ; — led by a cursed villain to take a glass of wine ; and she knows no more until she wakes up only to see her ruin. So, ashamed of her condition, she leaves her home, and in a strange city commences a life which she soon tires of; and now, discouraged, virtue, friends, and hope gone, she seeks rest from her wretched life by the jump into the river. She is picked up and taken to the mor^e. No one knows her j^ nq ORACB MAONinED. 171 one wants to know her ; and she is brought here, and laid in the drunkard's grave, and forgotten. See, there is another ! This time a young man ; but look how black his face is, and there is an awfiil black mark round his neckl Wliere did he come from? — From the gallows. This young man was led to take the first glass ; it led too thee glasses ; and one night, while under the influence of strong drink, his brain crazed, he takes the life of one of his fellow- men, and now he has been hanged for it ; and as no one cares about the body from the gallows, it is brought to its resting- place with the rest of the victims of strong drink. See, here comes another ! Why. this man's brain is running out ! What could have happened him ? He got on a spree ; and while drunk, he picks up his child and dashes its little life out ; then gels his wife, and with the round of a broken chair murders her ; then ends the awful tragedy by blowing his own brains out ! Some friends are kind enough to bury the murdered wife and child ; but we find him in the Potters'- field, along with the rest of the drunkards. We could spend hours looking at these victims, but it is so awful we have to turn away. Oh, some of you say all drunkards do not come to such an end. I will admit that, but let me tell you it is not the drunkard's fault if they don't. All we have to do is to look into our daily papers to see if what I say is true. This has been the way thousands have ended up. Perhaps it may be possible that some will have a friend left to give them a respectable burial. But as a general thing this is the way a drunkard ends his miserable career. Oh, I te'l you rum is no respecter of persons or places, and if it can get you in its power you have nothing to say as to where you shall live, or how you shall die, or where you shall lay. The drunkard's grave and what then ? the drunharcts eternity. "X^ 4ruDkar4 \x^ otie u^pr^ step after t;hflit into the |i;rave«an<| lya GRACE MAONIFIBD. Some will tell us the last >the I i that is, into eternity, grave ; but God says, " After death the judgment" Where is the drunkard to go who has died in his sins ? If God tells the truth, to hell. — "No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God." Listen to that lost soul in hell, who is crying, in the midst of his torment, for water to cool his parched tongue, but is denied it ! If this not proof that there is a hell, and that souls who go there are led to realize their condition ? And as the man cries for water, so will the drunkard want his rum and cry for it ; and what will add to his torment will be a wanting of that which has damned his body and soul, without being able to get it. A drunkard has a threefold hell to endure. His life in this world is a hell, perhaps he don't feel it in the start out, but it is not long before he realises it. When the appetites become master, he becomes the poor willing servant to this tyrannical master, he then soon realises whether he has a hell or not. Then he has another hell awaiting hita here- after, and that awful appetite that caused him to sell his soul, has followed him to hell, and what will make his torments just double, will be the want of strong drink when he can't get it. And then the eternal burnings of the fire that never goes out. Oh I do want to ask all in this meeting who indulge in this cursed stuff, What hope does it give you of this life, or the one that is to cornel The question now arises. Is there any hope for the drunk- ard ? and if so what is it 1 Yes thank God there is hope for the drunkard, but only one, and that is not in good resolutions, or of signing a piece of paper, or in swearing off, all these may be good enough in their place, but I am here to tell you there is but one hope, and that is in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the power of God's grace. This is the only power that can save from the awful power of strong drink, and I do pray God that you may come just as you are, and Ic; Him do with you what ^e 4^4 with the man that Uvi4