No doubt Satan was saying to himself, "I shall have the soul of that thief pretty soon down here in the caverns of the lost; he belongs to me; he has belonged to me all these years." But in his last hours the poor wretch cries out to the Lord, and Jesus snaps the fetters that have bound his soul, and sets him at liberty. The Lion of the tribe of Judah seizes the prey from the jaws of the lion of hell.

I have known people who had sick relatives, and be cause they couldn't get a minister to come to the house and administer the sacrament they were greatly distressed and troubled. But this man never took the sacrament. I know of some others who were greatly exercised because little children were dying unbaptizedhave seen them carry them through the streets because the pastor couldn't come. I am not saying any thing against the ordinance by which we commemorate the death of our Saviour. God forbid! but let me say it is not necessary to salvation. I might die and be lost before I could get to the Lord's supper; but if I get to the Lord I shall be saved. Thank God, salvation is within my reach! All I have to do is to reach out my hand and take it.

The poor thief had certainly never been baptized. If he wanted to be, they wouldn't have permitted it. If all the congregations in Chicago had been there, there would have been no one to help him. We wouldn't admit such a man to the Lord's table. But the good Lord took him

right to his bosom.

If we are saved, let us go to the Lord's table, confess him, follow him, and obey him-do what he bids;

but let us keep salvation in its place. It is distinct and separate from every thing else. If a man wants to be saved he can be saved without leaving this hall-without lifting an eye or a hand.

If the thief had lived fifty years he could not have done better service for Christ than he did. Why not make the prayer of the thief? You can make itsaint and sinner. If you make it from your hearts God will answer to-night. You wont have to wait until you get home. We have communication from this Tabernacle with the throne of God, and our prayers can go up and be answered before the meeting is over. Suppose we make the supplication now, "Lord-remember -me!" Who cannot say that? And who cannot say it from the heart? It is just that short prayer which will bring blessing.

That is what I call sudden conversion-men calling on God for salvation and getting it. You certainly wont get it unless you call for it-unless you take it when he offers it to you. If you want him to remember you—to save you-call upon him.

The Cross of Christ divides this congregation. There are only two sides, those for Christ, and those against him. Think of the two thieves; one went down to death cursing God, and the other went to glory.

What a contrast! In the morning he is led out, a condemned criminal; in the evening he is saved from his sins. In the morning he is cursing; in the evening he is singing hallelujahs with a choir of angels. In the morning he is condemned by men as not fit to live on earth; in the evening he is reckoned good enough for heaven.

Christ was not ashamed to walk arm-in-arm with him down the golden pavements of the eternal city.

He had heard the Saviour's cry, "It is finished!" He had seen the spear thrust into his side. Jesus had died before his very eyes, and hastened before him to get a place ready for this first soul brought from the world he had just redeemed.

You have heard of the child who did not like to die and go to heaven because he didn't know any body there. But the thief had one acquaintance: even the Master of the place. I can hear the Lord calling, “Gabriel, prepare a chariot; make haste: there is a friend of mine hanging upon that cross. They are breaking his legs. He soon will be ready to come. Make haste and bring him to me." And the angel in the chariot sweeps down the sky, takes up the soul of the poor penitent thief, and hastens back again to glory; while the gates of the city swing wide open, and the angels shout their welcome to this poor sinner "washed in the blood of the Lamb."

And that, my friends, is just what Christ wants to do for every sinner here. That is the business on which he came down from heaven. That is why he died and if he gives such great and swift salvation to this poor thief on the cross, surely he will give you the same if, like the penitent thief, you will repent, and confess, and trust in the Saviour.

Somebody says that this man "was saved at the eleventh hour." I don't know about that. It might have been the first hour with him. Perhaps he never knew Christ until he was led out to die beside him. This

may have been the very first time he ever had a chance to know the Son of God.

How many of you gave your hearts to Christ the very first time he asked them of you? Are you not farther along in the day than even that poor thief?

A little while ago, in one of the mining districts of England, a young man attended one of our meetings and refused to go from the place till he had found peace in the Saviour. The next day he went down into the pit and the coal fell in upon him; and when they took him out he was broken and mangled, and had only two or three minutes of life left in him. His friends gathered about him, saw his lips moving, and, bending down their ears to catch his words, this was what they heard him say:

"It was a good thing I settled it last night."

Settle it now, my friends, once for all. Begin now to confess your sins, and pray the Lord to remember you when he cometh into his kingdom.

THE CHARACTER OF LOT.

THE following discourse to parents was preached before an immense congregation in the Chicago Tabernacle.

Mr. Sankey sang the solo, "Nothing but Leaves." The Scripture lesson was a part of the seventeenth chapter of Luke, beginning with the twenty-eighth verse, in which Christ is answering the Pharisee who had demanded of him when the kingdom of God should come. "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed."

WANT to speak to-night on the life of Lot. I have chosen him for a subject because he is a representative man. There are hundreds of men like him in Chicago. Where there is one Abraham, or one Daniel, or one Elijah, you may find a thousand Lots.

This man seems to have started out in life well enough, but it wasn't a great while before he got rich, and that was the beginning of all his troubles. He lived with his old uncle, Abraham, until he became possessed of large flocks and herds, so that there was hardly room enough in the country where they lived for his cattle and those of his uncle. After a while there arose a strife among the herdmen of the two flocks as to what part of the land they should occupy; but, however much the herdmen might quarrel, he couldn't get up a quarrel with Abraham. That friend of God didn't want to get into trouble out there among those heathen, who, if they saw him angry over