CHAPTER 1 — “Love that Passeth Knowledge”.

CHAPTER 2 — Christ All and In All CHAPTER 3 — The Gateway into the Kingdom CHAPTER 4 — The Two Classes CHAPTER 5 — Words of Counsel CHAPTER 6 — A Divine Savior CHAPTER 7 — Repentance and Restitution CHAPTER 8 — Assurance of Salvation CHAPTER 9 — Backsliding CHAPTER - “LOVE THAT PASSETH KNOWLEDGE”. “And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.” (Ephesians 3:19.) IF I could only make men understand the real meaning of the words of the apostle John — “GOD IS LOVE,” I would take that single text, and would go up and down the world proclaiming this glorious truth. If you can convince a man that you love him you have won his heart. If we could really make people believe that God loves them, how we should find them crowding into the kingdom of heaven! The trouble is that men think God hates them; and so they are all the time running away from Him.

We built a church in Chicago some years ago; and we were very anxious to teach the people the love of God. We thought if we could not preach it into their hearts we would try and burn it in; so we put right over the pulpit in gas-jets these words —GOD IS LOVE. A man going along the streets one night glanced through the door, and saw the text. He was a poor prodigal. As he passed on he thought to himself, “‘God is Love!’

No! He does not love me; for I am a poor miserable sinner.” He tried to get rid of the text; but it seemed to stand out right before him in letters of fire.

He went on a little further; then turned round, went back, and went into the meeting, tie did not hear the sermon; but the words of that short text had got deeply lodged in his heart, and that was enough. It is of little account what men say if the Word of God only gets an entrance into the sinner’s heart. He stayed after the first meeting was over; and I found him there weeping like a child. As I unfolded the Scriptures and told him how God had loved him all the time, although he had wandered so far a way, and how God was waiting to receive him and forgive him, the light of the Gospel broke into his mind, and he went away rejoicing.

There is nothing in this world that men prize so much as they do Love.

Show me a person who has no one to care for or love him, and I will show you one of the most wretched beings on the face of the earth. Why do people commit suicide? Very often it is because this thought steals in upon them — that no one loves them; and they would rather die than live.

I know of no truth in the whole Bible that ought to come home to us with such power and tenderness as that of the Love of God; and there is no truth in the Bible that Satan would so much like to blot out. For more than six thousand years he has been trying to persuade men that God does not love them. tie succeeded in making car first parents believe this He; and he too often succeeds with their children.

The idea that God does not love us often comes from false teaching.

Mothers make a mistake in reaching children that God does not love them When they do wrong; but only when they do right. That is not taught in Scripture. You do not teach your children that when they do wrong you hate them. Their wrong-doing does not change your love to hate; if it did, you would change your love a great many times. Because your child is fretful, or has committed some act of disobedience, you do not cast him out as though he did not belong to you! No! he is still your child; and you love him. And if men have gone astray from God it does not follow that He hates them. It is the sin that He hates.

I believe the reason why a great many people think God does not love them is because they are measuring God by their own small rule, from their own standpoint. We love men as long as we consider them worthy of our love; when they are not we cast them off. It is not so with God. There is a vast difference between human love and Divine love.

In Ephesians 3:18, we are told of the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, of God’s love. Many of us think we know something of God’s love; but centuries hence we shall admit we have never found out much about it. Columbus discovered America: but what did he know about its great lakes, rivers, forests, and the Mississippi valley? He died, without knowing much about what he had discovered. So, many of us have discovered something of the love of God; but there are heights, depths, and lengths of it we do not know. That Love is a great ocean; and we require to plunge into it before we really know anything of it. It is said of a Roman Catholic Archbishop of Paris, that when he was thrown into prison and condemned to be shot, a little while before he was led out to die, he saw a window in his cell in the shape of a cross. Upon the top of the cross he wrote “height,” at the bottom “depth,” and at the end of each arm “length.” He had experienced what is conveyed in the hymn — “When I survey the wondrous Cross, On which the Prince of Glory died.” When we wish to know the love of God we should go to Calvary. Can we look upon that scene, and say God did not love us? That cross speaks of the love of God. Greater love never has been taught than that which the cross teaches. What prompted God to give up Christ? what prompted Christ to die? — if it were not love? “Greater love hath no man than this; that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Christ laid down His life for His enemies; Christ laid down His life for His murderers; Christ laid down His life for them that hated Him; and the spirit of the cross, the spirit of Calvary, is love. When they were mocking Him and deriding Him, what did he say? “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” That. is love. He did not call down fire from heaven to consume them; there was nothing but love in His heart.

If you study the Bible you will find that the love of God is unchangeable .

Many who loved you at one time have perhaps grown cold in their affection, and turned away from you: it may be that their love is changed to hatred. It is not so with God. It is recorded of Jesus Christ, just when He was about to be parted from His disciples and led away from Calvary, that: “having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end” ( John 13:1).

He knew that one of His disciples would betray Him; yet He loved Judas.

He knew that another disciple would deny Him, and swear that he never knew Him; and yet He loved Peter. It was the love which Christ had for Peter that broke his heart, and brought him back in penance to the feet of his Lord . For three years Jesus had been with the disciples trying to teach them His love, not only by His life and words, but by His works. And, on the night of His betrayal, He takes a basin of water, girds Himself with a towel, and taking the place of a servant, washes their feet: Re wanted to convince them of His unchanging love.

There is no portion of Scripture I read so often as John 14.; and there is none that is more sweet to me. I never tire of reading it. Hear what our Lord says, as He pours out His heart to His disciples’ “At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father ” ( 14:20,21).

Think of the great God who created heaven and earth loving you and me... “If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him; and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him” (14:23).

Would to God that our puny minds could grasp this great truth, that the Father and the Son so love us that They desire to come and abide with us.

Not to tarry for a night, but to come and abide in our hearts.

We have another passage more wonderful still in John 17:23. “I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them , as Thou hast loved Me .”

I think that is one of the most remarkable sayings that ever fell from the lips of Jesus Christ. There was no reason why the Father should not love Him. He was obedient unto death; He never transgressed the Father’s law, or turned aside from the path of perfect obedience by one hair’s breadth. It is very different with us; and yet, notwithstanding all our rebellion and foolishness, He says that if we are trusting in Christ, the Father loves us as Re loves the Son. Marvelous love! Wonderful love! That God can possibly love us as He loves His own Son seems too good to be true. Yet that is the teaching of Jesus Christ.

It is hard to make a sinner believe in this unchangeable love of God. When a man has wandered away from God he thinks that God hates him. We must make a distinction between sin and the sinner. God loves the sinner; but He hates the sin. He hates sin because it mars human life. It is just because God loves the sinner that He hates sin.

God’s love is not only unchangeable, but unfailing . In Isaiah 49:15,16 we read: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget; yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands; thy walls are continually before Me.”

Now the strongest human love that we know of is a mother ’s love . Many things will separate a man from his wife. A father may turn his back on his child; brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies; husbands may desert their wives; wives, their husbands. But a mother’s love endures through all. In good repute, in bad repute, in the face of the world’s condemnation, a mother loves on, and hopes that her child may turn from his evil ways and repent. She remembers the infant smiles, the merry laugh of childhood, the promise of youth: and she can never be brought to think him unworthy. Death cannot quench a mother’s love; it is stronger than death.

You have seen a mother watching over her sick child. How willingly she would take the disease into her own body if she could thus believe her child! Week after week she will keep watch; she will let no one else take care of that sick child.

A friend of mine, some time ago, was visiting in a beautiful home where he met a number of friends. After they had all gone away, having left something behind, he went back to fetch it. There he found the lady of the house, a wealthy lady, sitting beside a poor fellow who looked like a tramp, He was her own son . Like the prodigal, he had wandered far awayyet the mother said, “This is my boy; I love him still.” Take a mother with nine or ten children: if one goes astray, she seems to love that one more than any of the rest.

A leading minister in the state of Vermont once told me of a father who was a very bad character. The mother did all that she could to prevent the contamination of the boy; but the influence of the father was stronger, and he led his son into all kinds of sin until the lad became one of the worst of criminals. He committed murder, and was put on his trial. All through the trial, the widowed mother (for the father had died) sat in the court. When the witnesses testified against the boy it seemed to hurt the mother much more than the son. When he was found guilty and sentenced to die, every one else, feeling the justice of the verdict, seemed satisfied at the result.

But the mother’s love never faltered. She begged for a reprieve; but that was denied. After the execution she craved for the body; and this also was refused. According to custom, it was buried in the prison yard. A little while afterwards the mother herself died; but, before she was taken away, she expressed a desire to be buried by the side of her boy. She was not ashamed of being known as the mother of a murderer.

The story is told of a young woman in Scotland, who left her home, and became an outcast in Glasgow. Her mother sought her far and wide, but in vain. At last, she caused her picture to be hung upon the walls of the Midnight Mission rooms, where abandoned women resorted. Many gave the picture a passing glance. One lingered by the picture. It is the same dear face that looked down upon her in her childhood. She has not forgotten her, nor cast off her sinning child; or her picture would never have been hung upon those walls. The lips seemed to open, and whisper, “Come home: I forgive you, and love you still.” The poor girl sank down overwhelmed with her feelings. She was the prodigal daughter. The sight of her mother’s face had broken her heart. She became truly penitent for her sins, and with a heart full of sorrow and shame, returned to her forsaken home; and mother and daughter were once more united.

But let me tell you that no mother’s love is to be compared with the love of God; it does not measure the height or the depth of God’s love. No mother in this world ever loved her child as God loves you and me. Think of the love that God must have had when He gave His Son die for the world. I used to think a good deal more of Christ than I did of the Father.

Somehow or other I had the idea that God was a stern judge; that Christ came between me and God, and appeased the anger of God. But after I became a father, and for years had an only son, as I looked at my boy I thought of the Father giving His Son to die; and it seemed to me as if it required more love for the Father to give His Son. than for the Son to die.

Oh, the love that God must have had for the world when He gave Christ to die for it! “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” ( John 3:16).

I have never been able to preach from that text. I have often thought I would: but it is so high that I can never climb to its height; I have just quoted it and passed on. Who can fathom the depth of those words: “God so loved the world”? We can never scale the heights of His love or fathom its depths. Paul prayed that he might know the height, the depth, the length, and the breadth, of the love of God; but it was past his finding out.

It “passeth knowledge” ( Ephesians 3:19).

Nothing speaks to us of the love of God, like the cross of Christ. Come with me to Calvary, and look upon the Son of God as He hangs there. Can you hear that piercing cry from His dying lips: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do!” and say that He does not love you? “Greater love hath no man than this, that; a man lay down his life for his friends” ( John 15:13).

But; Jesus Christ laid down His life for His enemies .

Another thought is this: He loved us long before we ever thought of Him.

The idea that He does not love us until we first love Him is not to be found in Scripture. In 1 John 4:10 it is written: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

He loved us before we ever thought of loving Him. You loved your children before they knew anything about your love. And so, long before we ever thought of God, we were in His thoughts.

What brought the prodigal home? It was the thought that his father loved him. Suppose the news had reached him that he was cast off, and that his father did not care for him any more, would he have gone back? Never!

But the thought dawned upon him that his father loved him still: so he rose up, and went back to his home. Dear friends, the love of the Father ought to bring us back to Him. It was Adam’s calamity and sin that revealed God’s love. When Adam fell God came down and dealt in mercy with him. If any one is lost it will not be because God does not love him: it will be because he has resisted the love of God.

What will make heaven attractive? Is it the pearly gates or the golden streets? No. Heaven will be attractive, because there we shall behold Him ho loved us so much as to give His only-begotten Son to die for us. What makes home attractive? Is it the beautiful furniture and stately rooms? No; some homes with all these are like whited sepulchers. In Brooklyn a mother was dying; and it was necessary to take her child from her, because the little child could not understand the nature of the sickness, and disturbed her mother. Every night the child sobbed herself to sleep in a neighbor’s house, because she wanted to go back to her mother’s; but the mother grew worse, and they could not take the child home. At last the mother died; and after her death they thought it best not to let the child see her dead mother in her coffin. After the burial the child ran into one room crying “Mamma! mamma!” and then into another crying “Mamma! mamma” and so went over the whole house, and when the little creature failed to find that loved one she cried to be taken back to the neighbors. So what makes heaven attractive is the thought that we shall see Christ who has loved us and given Himself for us.

If you ask me why God should love us, I cannot tell. I suppose it is because He is a true Father. It is His nature to love; just as it is the nature of the sun to shine. He wants you to share in that love. Do not let unbelief keep you away from Him. Do not think that, because you are a sinner, God does not love you, or care for you. He does! He wants to save you and bless you. “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” ( Romans 5:6).

Is that not enough to convince you that He loves you? He would not have died for you if He had not loved you. Is your heart so hard that you can brace yourself up against His love, and spurn and despise it? You can do it: but it will be at your peril.

I can imagine some are saying to themselves, “Yes, we believe that God loves us, if we love Him; we believe that God loves the pure and the holy.” Let me say, my friends, not only does God love the pure and the holy: He also loves the ungodly. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners , Christ died for us” ( Romans 5:8).

God sent Him to die for the sins of the whole world. If you belong to the world, then you have part and lot in this love that has been exhibited in the cross of Christ.

There is a passage in Revelation which I think a great deal of — “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us.” ( 1:5.) It might be thought that God would first wash us, and then love us. But no, He first loved us. About eight years ago there was intense excitement in America about Charlie Ross, a child of four years old, who was stolen. Two men in a gig asked him and an elder brother if they wanted some candy. They then drove away with the younger boy, leaving the elder one. For many years a search has been made in every State and territory, Men have been over to Great Britain, France, and Germany, and have hunted in vain for the child. The mother still lives in the hope that she will see her long lost Charlie. I never remember the American people to have been so much agitated about any event unless it were the assassination of President Garfield. Well, suppose the mother of Charlie Ross were in some meeting; and that while the preacher was speaking, she happened to look down amongst the audience and see her long lost son. Suppose that he was poor, dirty and ragged, shoeless and coatless, what would she do? Would she wait till he was washed and decently clothed before she would acknowledge him? No, she would get off the platform at once, rush towards him and take him in her arms. After that she would cleanse and clothe him. So it is with God. He loved us, and washed us. I can imagine some one saying, “If God loves me, why does He not make me good?” God wants sons and daughters in heaven; He does not want machines or slaves. He could break our stubborn hearts, but He wants to draw us towards Himself by the cords of love.

He wants you to sit down with Him at the marriage supper of the Lamb; to wash you, and make you whiter than snow. He wants you to walk with Him the crystal pavement of yonder blissful world. He wants to adopt you into His family; and to make you a son or a daughter of heaven. Will you trample His love under your feet? or will you, this hour, give yourself to Him?

When the American civil war was going on, a mother received the news that her boy had been wounded in the battle of the Wilderness. She took the first train, and started for her boy; although an order had gone forth from the War Department that no more women should be admitted within the lines. But a mother’s love knows nothing about orders; so she managed by tears and entreaties to get through the lines to the Wilderness. At last she found the hospital where her boy was. Then she went to the doctor and she said: “Will you let me go to the ward and nurse my boy?”

The doctor said “I have just got your boy to sleep: he is in a very critical state; and I am afraid if you wake him up the excitement will be so great that it will carry him off. You had better wait awhile, and remain without until I tell him that you have come and break the news gradually to him.”

The mother looked into the doctor’s face and said: “Doctor, supposing my boy does not wake up, and I should never see him alive! Let me go and sit down by his side; I won’t speak to him.” “If you will not speak to him you may do so.”

She crept to the cot and looked into the face of her boy. How she had longed to look at him! How her eyes seemed to be feasting as she gazed upon his countenance! When she got near enough she could not keep her hand off; she laid that tender, loving hand upon his brow. The moment the hand touched the forehead of her boy, he, without opening his eyes, cried out: “Mother, you have come!” He knew the touch of that loving hand.

There was love and sympathy in it.

Ah, sinner, if you feel the loving touch of Jesus you will recognize it; it is so full of tenderness. The world may treat you unkindly; but Christ never will. You will never have a better Friend in this world. What you need is— to come today to Him. Let His loving arm be underneath you; let His loving hand be about you; and He will hold you with mighty power. He will keep you, and fill that heart of yours with His tenderness and love.

I can imagine some of you saying, “How shall I go to Him?” Why, just as you would go to your mother. Have you done your mother a great injury and a great wrong? If so, you go to her and you say, “Mother, I want you to forgive me.” Treat Christ in the same way. Go to Him today and tell Him that you have not loved Him, that you have not treated Him right; confess your sins, and see how quickly He will bless you.

I am reminded of another incident — that of a boy who had been tried by court-martial and ordered to be shot. The hearts of the father and mother were broken when they heard the news. In that home was a little girl. She had read the life of Abraham Lincoln, and she said “Now, if Abraham Lincoln knew how my father and mother loved their boy, he would not let my brother be shot.” She wanted her father to go to Washington to plead for his boy. But the father said: “No; there is no use: the law must take its course. They have refused to pardon one or two who have been sentenced by that court-martial, and an order has gone forth that the President is not going to interfere again; if a man has been sentenced by court-martial he must suffer the consequences.” That father and mother had not faith to believe that their boy might be pardoned.

But the little girl was strong in hope; she got on the train away up in Vermont, and started off to Washington. When she reached the White House the soldiers refused to let her in; but she told her pitiful story, and they allowed her to pass. When she got to the Secretary’s room, where the President’s private secretary was, he refused to allow her to enter the room where the President was. But the little girl told her story, and it touched the heart of the private secretary; so he passed her in. As she went into Abraham Lincoln’s room, there were United States senators, generals, governors, and leading politicians, who were there upon important business about the war; but the President happened to see that child standing at the door. He wanted to know what she wanted, and she went right to him and told her story in her own language. He was a father, and the great tears trickled down Abraham Lincoln’s cheeks. He wrote a dispatch and sent it to the army to have that boy sent to Washington at once. When he arrived, the President pardoned him, gave him thirty days furlough, and sent him home with the little girl to cheer the hearts of the father and mother.

Do you want to know how to go to Christ? Go just as that little girl went to Abraham Lincoln. It may be possible that you have a dark story to tell.

Tell it all out; keep nothing back. If Abraham Lincoln had compassion on that little girl, heard her petition, and answered it — do you think the Lord Jesus will not hear your prayer? Do you think that Abraham Lincoln, or any man that ever lived on earth, had- as much compassion as Christ? No!

He will be touched when no one else will; He will have mercy when no one else will; He will have pity when no one else will. If you will go right to Him, confessing your sin and your need, He will save you.

A few years ago a man left England and went to America. He was an Englishman; but he was naturalized, and so became an American citizen.

After a few years he felt restless and dissatisfied, and went to Cuba; and after he had been in Cuba a little while civil war broke out; there; it was in 1867; and this man was arrested by the Spanish government as a spy. He was tried by court-martial, found guilty, and ordered to be shot. The whole trial was conducted in the Spanish language, and the poor man did not know what was going on. When they told him the verdict that he was found guilty and had been condemned to be shot, he went to the American Consul and the English Consul, and laid the whole case before them, or I should rather say, got his friends to do so. They examined the case, and found that this man whom the Spanish officers had condemned to be shot was perfectly innocent: they went to the Spanish General and said, “Look here, this man whom you have condemned to death is an innocent man: he is not guilty.” But the Spanish General said, “He has been tried by our law; he has been found guilty; and he must die.” There was no electric cable; and those men could not consult with their governments.

The morning came on which the man was to be executed. He was brought out sitting in his coffin in a cart, and drawn to the place where he was to be executed. A grave was dug. They took the coffin out of the cart, placed the young man upon it, took the black cap, and were just pulling it down over his face. The Spanish soldiers awaited the order to fire. But just then the American and English consuls rode up. The English Consul sprang out of the carriage and took the union jack, the British flag, and wrapped it around that man, and the American Consul wrapped around him in the star-spangled banner, and then turning to the Spanish officers they said “Fire upon those flags, if you dare.” They did not dare to fire upon the flags. There were two great governments behind those flags. That was the secret of it. “He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me was love...His left hand is under my head and His right hand doth embrace me” (Song of Solomon 2:4-6).

Thank God we can come under the banner today if we will. Any poor sinner can come under that banner today. His banner of love is over us.

Blessed Gospel; blessed, precious, news. Believe it today; receive it into your heart; and enter into a new life. Let the love of God be shed abroad in your hearths by the Holy Ghost today: it will drive away darkness; it will drive away gloom; it will drive away sin; and peace and joy shall be yours.

CHAPTER 2.

CHRIST ALL AND IN ALL. ( Colossians 3:11.)

CHRIST is all to us that we make Him to be. I want to emphasize that word “ ALL” Some men. make Him to be, “a root of a dry ground,” “without form or comeliness” He is nothing to them; they do not want Him. Some Christians have a very small Savior It is not that He does not want to be a great and mighty Savior; but it is that they are not willing to receive Him fully and let Him do great and mighty things for them. Others have a mighty Savior, because they make Him to be great and mighty.

If we would know what Christ wants to be to us, we must first of all know Him as our Savior from sin. When the angel came down from heaven to proclaim that He was to be born into the world, you remember he gave His name, “He shall be called Jesus,(Savior) for He shall save His people from their sins.”HAVE, WE, BEEN DELIVERED FROM SIN? He did not come to save us in our sins, but from our sins. Now, there are three ways of knowing a man. Some men you know only by hearsay; others you merely know by having been once introduced to them — you know them very slightly; others again you know by having been acquainted with them for years — you know them intimately. So I believe there are three classes of people today in the Christian Church and out of it: those who know Christ only by reading or by hearsay — those who have a historical Christ; those who have a slight personal acquaintance with Him; and those who thirst, as Paul did, to “know Him and the power of His resurrection.”

The more we know of Christ the more we shall love Him, and the better we shall serve Him.

Let us look at Him today as He hangs upon the Cross, and see how He has put away sin. He was manifested that He might; take away our sins; and if we would really know Him we must first of all see Him as our Savior from sin. You remember how the angels said to the shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people: for unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” ( Luke 2:10-11.)

Then if you go clear back to Isaiah, seven hundred years before Christ’s birth, you will find these words “I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no Savior” ( 43:11).

Again, in the First Epistle of John ( 4:14) we read. “We have seen, and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.”

All the heathen religions, we read, teach men to work their way up to God; but the religion of Jesus Christ is God coming down to men to save them, to lift them up out of the pit of sin. In Luke 19:10 we read that Christ Himself told the people what He had come for: “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

So we start from the Cross, not from the cradle. Christ his opened up a new and living way to the Father; He has taken all the stumbling-blocks out of the way, so that every man who accepts of Christ as his Savior can have salvation.

But Christ is not only a Savior. I might save a man from drowning and rescue him from an untimely grave; but I might probably not be able to do any more for him. Christ is something more than a Savior. When the children of Israel were placed behind the blood, that blood was their salvation; but they would still have heard the crack of the slave-driver’s whip if they had not been delivered from the Egyptian yoke of bondage: then it was that God delivered them from the hand of the king of Egypt. I have little sympathy with the idea that God comes down to save us, and then leaves us in prison, the slaves of our besetting sins. No; He has come to deliver us, and to give us victory over our evil tempers, our passions, and our lusts. Is there any professed Christian here who is a slave to some besetting sin? If you want to get victory over that temper or that lust, go on to know Christ more intimately. “Who delivered; who doth deliver; who will yet deliver.” ( 2 Corinthians 1:10.)

So He brings deliverance for the past, the present, and the future.

How often, like the children of Israel when they came to the Red Sea, have we become discouraged because everything looked dark before us, behind us, and around us, and we knew not which way to turn. Like Peter we have said, “To whom shall we go?” But God has appeared for our deliverance. He has brought us through the Red Sea right out into the wilderness, and opened up the way into the Promised Land. But Christ is not only our Deliverer; He is our Redeemer. That is something more than being our Savior. He has bought us back. “Ye have sold yourselves for naught; and ye shall be redeemed without money.” ( Isaiah 50:3.)

We “were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold.” ( 1 Peter 1:18.)

If gold could have redeemed us, could He not have created ten thousand worlds full of gold?

When God had redeemed the children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, and brought them through the Red Sea, they struck out for the wilderness; and then God became to them their Way. I am so thankful the Lord has not left us in darkness as to the right way. There is no man here who has been groping in the darkness but may know the way. “I am the Way,” says Christ. If we follow Christ we shall be in the right way, and have the right doctrine. Who could lead the children of Israel through the wilderness like the Almighty God Himself? He knew the pitfalls and dangers of the way, and guided the people through all their wilderness journey right into the promised land. It is true that if it had not been for their accursed unbelief they might have crossed into the land at Kadesh-barnea, and taken possession of it.. But they desired something besides God’s word; so they were turned back, and had to wander in the desert for forty years. I believe there are thousands of God’s children wandering in the wilderness still.

The Lord has delivered them from the hand of the Egyptian, and would at once take them through the wilderness right int. o the Promised Land, if they were only willing to follow Christ. Christ has been down here, and has made the rough places smooth, and the dark places light, and the crooked places straight. If we will only be led by Him, and will follow Him, all will be peace, and joy, and rest.

In our country when a man goes out hunting he takes a hatchet with him, and cuts off pieces from the bark of the trees as he goes along through the forest: this is called “blazing the way.” He does it that he may know the way back, as there is no pathway through these thick forests. Christ has come down to this earth; He has “blazed the way:” and now that He has gone up on high, if we will but follow Him, we shall be kept in the right path. I will tell you how you may know if you are following Christ or not.

If some one has slandered you, or misjudged you, do you treat them as your Master would have done? If you do not bear these things in a loving and forgiving spirit, all the churches and ministers in the world cannot make you right. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” ( Romans 8:9.) “If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature- old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” ( 2 Corinthians 5:17.)

Christ is not only our way: He is the Light upon the way. He says, “I am the Light of the world.” ( John 8:12; 9:5; 12 46.)

He goes on to say, “He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

It is impossible for any man or woman who is following Christ to walk in darkness. If there is a soul here in the darkness, groping around in the fog and the mist of earth, let me tell him it is because he has got away from the true light. There is nothing but. light that will dispel darkness. So let those who are walking in spiritual darkness admit Christ into their hearts: He is the Light. I call to mind a picture of which I used at one time to think a good. deal; but now I have come to look more closely, I would not put; it up in my house except I turned the face to the wall. It represents Christ as standing at a door, knocking, and having a big lantern in His hand. Why, you might as well hang up a lantern to the sun as put one into Christ’s hand. He is the Sun of Righteousness; and it is our privilege to walk in the light of an unclouded sun.

Many people are hunting after light, and peace, and joy. We are nowhere told to seek after these things. If we admit Christ into our hearts these will all come of themselves. I remember, when a boy, I used to try in vain to catch my shadow. One day I was walking witch my face to the sun; and as I happened to look round I saw that my shadow was following me. The faster I went the faster my shadow followed; I could not get away from it.

So when our faces are directed to the Sun of Righteousness, the peace and the joy are sure to come. A man said to me some time ago, “Moody, how do you feel?” It was so long since I had thought about my feelings I had to stop and consider awhile, in order to find out.. Some Christians are all the time thinking about their feelings; and because they do not feel just right they think their joy is all gone. If we keep our faces towards Christ, and are occupied with Him, we shall be lifted out of the darkness and the trouble that may have gathered round our path.

I remember being in a meeting after the civil war in America broke out. The war had been going on for about six months. The army of the North had been defeated at Bull’s Run: in fact, we had nothing but defeat, and it looked as though the Republic was going to pieces. So we were much cast down and discouraged. At this meeting every speaker for awhile seemed as if he had hung his harp upon the willow; and it was one of the gloomiest meetings I ever attended. Finally an old man with beautiful white hair got up to speak, and his face literally shone. “Young men,” he said, “you do not talk like sons of the King. Though it is dark just here, remember it is light somewhere else.” Then he went on to say that if it were dark all over the world it was light up around the Throne.

He told us he had come from the East, where a friend had described to him how he had been up a mountain to spend the night and see the sun rise. As the party were climbing up the mountain, and before they had reached the summit, a storm came on. This friend said to the guide, “I will give this up; take me back.” The guide smiled, and replied, “I think we shall get above the storm soon.” On they went; and it was not long before they got up to where it was as calm as any summer evening. Down in the valley a terrible storm raged; they could hear the thunder roiling, and see the lightning’s flash; but all was serene on the mountain top. “And so, my young friends,” continued the old man, “though all is dark around you, come a little higher, and the darkness will flee away.” Often when I have been inclined to get discouraged, I have thought of what he said. If any of you are down in the valley amidst the thick fog and the darkness, get a little higher; get nearer to Christ, and know more of Him.

Let me say, before I pass on, that when Christ expired on the cross, the light of the world was put out. God sent His Son to be the light of the world; but men did not love the light because it reproved them of their sins. When they were about to put out this light, what did Christ say to His disciples? “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me.” ( Acts 1:8.) He has gone up yonder to intercede for us; but He wants us to shine for Him down here. “Ye are the light of the world.” ( Matthew 5:14.) So our work is to shine: not to blow our own trumpet so that people may look at us. What we want to do is to show forth Christ. If we have any light at all it is borrowed light. Some one said to a young Christian: “Converted! it is all moonshine!” Said he: “I thank you for the illustration; the moon borrows its light from the sun; and we borrow ours from the Sun of Righteousness.” If we are Christ’s, we are here to shine for Him: by and by He will call us home to our reward.

I remember hearing of a blind man who sat by the wayside with a lantern near him. When he was asked what he had a lantern for, as he could not see the light, he said it was that people should not stumble over him. I believe more people stumble over the inconsistencies of professed Christians than from any other cause. What is doing more harm to the cause of Christ than all the skepticism in the world is this cold, dead formalism, this conformity to the world, this professing what we do not possess. The eyes of the world are upon us. I think it was George Fox who said every Quaker ought to light up the country for ten miles around him. If we were all brightly shining for the Master, those about us would soon be reached, and there would be a shout of praise going up to heaven.

People say — “I want to know what is the truth.” Listen: “I AM THE TRUTH,” says Christ. ( John 14:6.) If you want to know what the truth is, get acquainted with Christ. People also complain that they have not life. Many are trying to give themselves spiritual life. You may galvanize yourselves and put electricity into yourselves, so to speak; but the effect will not last very long. Christ alone is the author of life. If you would have real spiritual life get to know Christ. Many try to stir up spiritual life by going to meetings. That may be well enough; but it will be of no use, unless they get into contact with the living Christ. Then their spiritual life will not be a spasmodic thing, but will be perpetual; flowing on and on, and bringing forth fruit to God.

Then Christ is our KEEPER. A great many young disciples are afraid they will not hold out. “He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” ( <19C104> Psalm 121:4.) It is the work of Christ to keep us; and if He keeps us there will be no danger of our failing. I suppose if Queen Victoria had to take care of the Crown of England, some thief might attempt to get access to it; but it is put away in the Tower of London, and guarded night and day by soldiers. The whole English army would, if necessary, be called out to protect it. And we have no strength in ourselves. We are no match for Satan; he has had six thousand years’ experience. But then we remember that the One who neither slumbers nor sleeps is our keeper. In Isaiah 41:10, we read, “Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.”

In Jude also, verse 24 we are told that He is “able to keep us from falling.” “We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” ( 1 John 2:1.)

But Christ is something more. He is our SHEPHERD It is the work of the shepherd to care for the sheep, to feed them, and protect them. “I am the Good Shepherd:” “My sheep hear My voice.” “I lay down My life for the sheep.” In that wonderful tenth chapter of John, Christ uses the personal pronoun no less than twenty-eight times, in declaring what He is and what He will do. In verse 28 He says, “They shall never perish; neither shall any [man ] pluck them out of My hand.”

But notice the word “man” is in italics. See how the verse really reads: “Neither shall ANY pluck them out of My hand” — no devil or man shall be able to do it. In another place the Scripture declares, “Your life is hid with Christ in God.” ( Colossians 3:3.) How safe and how secure!

Christ says, “My sheep hear My voice... and they follow Me.” ( John 10:27.) A gentleman in the East heard of a shepherd who could call all his sheep to him by name. He went and asked if this was true. The shepherd took him to the pasture where they were, and called one of them by some name. One sheep looked up and answered the call, while the others went on feeding and paid no attention. In the same way he called about a dozen of the sheep around him. The stranger said, “How do you know one from the other? They all look perfectly alike.” “Well,” said he, “you see that sheep toes in a little; that other one has a squint; one has a little piece of wool off; another has a black spot; and another has a piece out, of its ear.”

The man knew all his sheep by their failings, for he had not a perfect one in the whole flock. I suppose our Shepherd knows us in the same way.

An Eastern shepherd was once telling a gentleman that his sheep knew his voice, and that no stranger could deceive them. The gentleman thought he would like to put the statement to the test. So he put on the shepherd’s flock and turban, and took his staff, and went to the flock. He disguised his voice, and tried to speak as much like the shepherd as he could; but he could not get a single sheep in the flock to follow him. He asked the shepherd if his sheep never followed a stranger. He was obliged to admit that if a sheep got sickly it would follow any one. So it is with a good many professed Christians: when they get sickly and weak in the faith, they will follow any teacher that comes along; but when the soul is in health, a man will not be carried away by errors and heresies. He will know whether the “voice” speaks the truth or not. He can soon tell that, if he is really in communion with God. When God sends a true messenger, his words will find a ready response in the Christian heart.

Christ is a tender Shepherd. Some of you may think He has not been a very tender Shepherd to you: you are passing under the rod. It is written, “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” ( Hebrews 12:6.)

That you are passing under the rod is no proof that Christ does not love you. A friend of mine lost all his children. No man could ever have loved his family more; but the scarlet fever took one by one away; and so the whole four or five, one after another, died. The poor stricken parents came over to Great Britain, and wandered from one place to another, here and on the continent. At length they found their way to Syria. One day they saw an Eastern shepherd come down to a stream, and call his flock to cross.

The sheep came down to the brink, and looked at the water; but they seemed to shrink from it, and he could not get them to respond to his call.

He then took a little lamb, put it under one arm; he took another lamb and put it under the other arm, and thus passed into the stream. The old sheep no longer stood looking at the water: they-plunged in after the shepherd; and in a few minutes the whole flock was on the other side; and he led them away to newer and fresher pastures. The bereaved father and mother, as they looked on the scene, felt that it taught them a lesson. They no longer murmured because the Great Shepherd had taken their lambs one by one into yonder world; and they began to look up and look forward to the time when they would follow the loved ones they had lost. If you have loved ones gone before, remember that your Shepherd is calling you to “set your affection on things above.” ( Colossians 3:2.) Let us be faithful to Him, and follow Him, while we remain in this world. And if any of you have not taken Him for your Shepherd do so this very hour.

Christ is not only all these things that I have mentioned: He is also our Mediator, our Sanctifier, our Justifier; in fact, it would take all day to tell what He desires to be to every one of us here. While looking through some papers today, I got this wonderful description of Christ. I do not know where it originally came from; but it was so fresh to my soul that I should like to give it to you:— “Christ is our Way; we walk in Him. He is our Truth; we embrace Him. He is our Life; we live in Him. He is our Lord; we choose Him to rule over us. He is our Master; we serve Him. He is our Teacher, instructing us in the way of salvation. He is our Prophet, pointing out the future. He is our Priest, having atoned for us. He is our Advocate, ever living to make intercession for us. He is our Savior, saving to the uttermost. He is our Root; we grow from Him. He is our Bread; we feed upon Him. He is our Shepherd, leading us into green pastures. He is our true Vine; we abide in Him. He is the Water of Life; we slake our thirst from Him. He is the fairest among ten thousand-we admire Him above all others. He is ‘the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His person;’ we strive to reflect His likeness. He is the upholder of all things; we rest upon Him. He is our Wisdom; we are guided by Him. He is our Righteousness; we east all our imperfections upon Him. He is our Sanctification; we draw all our power for holy life from Him. He is our Redemption, redeeming us from all iniquity.

He is our healer, curing all our diseases. He is our Friend, relieving us in all our necessities. He is our Brother, cheering us in our difficulties.”

Here is another beautiful extract: it is from Gotthold: “For my part, my soul is like a hungry and thirsty child; and I need His love and consolation for my refreshment. I am a wandering and lost sheep; and I need Him as a good and faithful shepherd. My soul is like a frightened dove pursued by the hawk; and I need His wounds for a refuge. I am a feeble vine; and I need His cross to lay hold of, and to wind myself about. I am a sinner; and I need His righteousness. I am naked and bare and I need His holiness and innocence for a covering. I am in trouble and alarm; and I need His solace. I am ignorant; and I need His teaching: simple and foolish; and I need the guidance of His Holy Spirit. In no situation, and at no time, can I do without Him. Do I pray? It must prompt, and intercede for me. Am I arraigned by Satan at the Divine tribunal?

He must be my Advocate. Am I in affliction? He must be my Helper. Am I persecuted by the world? He must defend me. When I am forsaken, He must be my Support: when I am dying, my Life: when moldering in the grave, my Resurrection. Well then, I will rather part with all the world, and all that it contains, than with Thee, my Savior. And, God be thanked! I know that Thou too art neither able nor willing to do without me. Thou art rich; and I am poor. Thou hast abundance; and I am needy. Thou hast righteousness; and I sins. Thou hast wine and oil; and I wounds.

Thou hast cordials and refreshments; and I hunger and thirst.

Use me then, my Savior for whatever purpose, and in whatever way, Thou mayest require. Here is my poor heart, an empty vessel; fill it with Thy grace. Here is my sinful and troubled soul; quicken and refresh it with Thy love. Take my heart for Thine abode; my mouth to spread the glory of Thy name; my love and all my powers, for the advancement of Thy believing people; and never suffer the steadfastness and confidence of my faith to abate — that so at all times I may be enabled from the heart to say, ‘Jesus needs me, and I Him and so we suit each other.’” CHAPTER 3.

THE GATEWAY INTO THE KINGDOM. “Except a man be born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (JOHN 3:3) THERE is no portion of the Word of God, perhaps, with which we are more familiar than this passage. I suppose if I were to ask those in any audience if they believe d that Jesus Christ taught the doctrine of the New Birth, nine-tenths of them would say “Yes, I believe He did.”

Now if the words of our text are true they embody one of the most solemn questions that can come before us. We can afford to be deceived about many things rather than about this one thing. Christ makes it very plain.

He says, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God” — much less inherit it. This doctrine of the New Birth is therefore the foundation of all our hopes for the world to come. It is really the A B C of the Christian religion. My experience has been this —