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erty to every poor bondman upon the earth. He went to the temple, one day, and there was a poor woman there who had been bound by Satan for eighteen years. There she was, doubled up. Satan had bound her physically, as well as binding her soul. Christ spoke a word and proclaimed her free. He has power. If your soul is so dwarfed on account of sin, and so vile and polluted, if you come to Jesus he will make you perfectly whole.

Am I talking to a man here to-night who has some besetting sin and wants to get rid of it? Is there a man here who has a bad temper? Christ came to deliver us from these bad tempers. That is what he will do if you ask him. I once knew a woman who had such a bad temper that she could not keep any servant girl. No servant girl would live in the house with her, and she was disgusted with herself. She tried to get rid of her temper, but she could not do it. She said there was no chance of her being a Christian, as she could not keep her temper. A Christian lady said to her: "Why not let Jesus keep that temper for you?" She said, "I have never thought of that." If you commit your temper to Jesus, he will keep it for you; that is what he came for. The Christian lady asked this lady to trust Christ to keep her temper. God used that as the arrow to her soul, and she went home with her heart leaping for joy. She said, "I will trust him to keep my temper." When she arrived home she found the servant girl doing something she had told her never to do; the servant was surprised to see her, and dropped something and spoiled it. The old temper came up, but she said nothing to the servant. She went into the parlor and said, "Jesus, keep my temper for me." She came out and spoke to the servant kindly, and the servant broke down through her kindness. Christ has kept her temper all through these years.

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Another man says: "I am guilty of the terrible sin of blasphemy. I curse my wife and children. Many a time I have said: 'I will not take the name of the Lord in vain; I will stop swearing.' He has said that a thousand times. Now, have you not learned the lesson that you cannot deliver yourself-that Satan has bound? If you come to Christ, he will give you power to overcome that, and every other besetting sin.

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Here is another man who says: "That is not my trouble. My sin is selfishness; I am so supremely selfish, it is self in all my plans. I will work only for myself; I will talk for myself; I will do everything from the standpoint of self." If you receive Jesus Christ, you will love him more than you will love yourself. He will be dearer to you than yourself. I pity the man who is living only for himself; he is but little higher than the ox. When a man lives for himself, there is nothing heavenly in him. We want to get outside of ourselves, and live for others. Christ will deliver us from that sin-for it is a sin.

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Here is another man says: "I am bound by a sin; I wish I could get the victory over it. I am bound hand and foot; Satan has me bound." I need not mention what that sin is. Many of you know the sin you are bound by. If it is not one thing, it is another. Satan holds every man bound in his kingdom with some sin-some besetting sin. But let me tell you, all are the same with the Lord Jesus Christ. He has power to redeem to the uttermost; and there is no one so bound by any sin but Christ will give him the victory. The Lord sent him to proclaim liberty to the captive.

Look at him in the temple. A woman was taken in adultery, and was dragged into his presence. He said he did not come to condemn the world. The Law condemns: Grace does not condemn. The people were going to put a question to him, which they thought he could not answer. They said: "The Law says, stone this woman to death. What do you say, Jesus?" He stooped and wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. They continued asking him. Then he says: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Then he wrote again on the ground. Her accusers, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. Jesus then looked up, and he turned to the poor fallen woman that had been bound by Satan many years, and said: "Where are thy accusers? Is there none to condemn thee?" And she said: "No man, Lord." And Jesus said unto her: "Neither do I condemn thee: Go, and sin no more." sent her out with her heart full of joy; he set that poor captive free. If there be one here to-night that is guilty of adultery, the Lord Jesus Christ will forgive that sin, and will give you power over it, if you come to him. That is what he came to do. All you have to

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do is to flee right to him; and the moment we come, he gives us victory. As long as you stay away from him, there is no victory for you. If you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, he will give you power

over every

sin.

While we were in the North of England, a man came to a minister at one of our meetings, and said: "I would like to come to Christ, but it seems as if my heart was chained, and I cannot come." The minister that was talking to him said: "Come to him, chains and all." The man said, "I will do that." Christ snapped the chains, and he got liberty that night. If you are chained, come with chains and all, and he will save you. We will now sing

"Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,"

THE THIEF ON THE CROSS.

"And he said unto Jesus, Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."— LUKE 23: 42.

Every one who is not a Christian ought to be interested in this man, to know how he was converted. Any man who objects to sudden conversions should give attention to how this man was converted. If conversions are gradual, this poor thief could not have been converted. If a man who has lived a good, consistent life cannot be suddenly converted, then this thief didn't have any chance. If it takes six months, six weeks, or six days to convert a man, there was no chance for this thief. Turn to the 23d chapter of Luke, and you will see how the Lord dealt with this man, who was not only a thief, but the worst kind of a thief. It was only the worst classes who were condemned to die the death upon the cross. We find this man was condemned to that most ignominious death.

When a prominent man dies, we are anxious to get his last words and acts. We ask, What did he do? What were his last words and acts? The last act of the Son of God was to save a sinner. He commenced his ministry by saving sinners, and ended it by saving this poor thief. "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the Lord: Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered." He took this captive from the jaws of death. He was on the borders of hell, and Christ snatched him from the grasp of Satan. We are told by Matthew and Mark that these thieves came to curse; they both reviled Christ. They were not only thieves but revilers; and they cast it into his teeth that he said, "I am the Son of God." Here, then, our Lord is condemned by them. There were none to pity them. Perhaps they might have had some mother in the crowd, but no one else had any pity for them. Justice cried out: "Let them be put to death; they are not worthy to live."

The question is: What was it converted one of these thieves? I do not know, but I have an idea that it was Christ's prayer. When Christ cried on the cross: "Forgive them, for they know not what they do!" I can imagine that did what the scourge did not do. They had gone through the trial, and their hearts had not been broken; they had been nailed to the cross, but their hearts had not been subdued; they raised no cry to God for mercy, but they reviled

the Son of God. But when they heard the cry: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" one of them says: "That man is not of the same spirit as we are. I would call out the thunderbolts of heaven to consume them." There they are crying, "Save thyself if thou be the Son of God;" yet while they are crying this, the Son of God is crying to his Father to have mercy on them. It flashed into his soul that this was the Son of God, and that moment he confessed his sin. He turned to the other thief and rebuked him, and says, "Dost thou not fear God?" The fear of God fell upon him. There is not much hope of a man's being saved until the fear of God comes upon him. Solomon says, "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom." We read in Acts that great fear fell upon the people: that was the fear of the Lord. That was the first sign that conviction had entered the soul of the thief. "Dost thou not fear God?" That was the first sign we have of life in that condemned man.

The next thing, he justifies Christ: "He hath done nothing amiss." When men are talking against Christ, they are a great way from becoming Christians. Now he says, "He hath done nothing amiss." There was the world mocking him; but right there, in the midst of thieves, you can hear that thief crying out, "This man hath done nothing amiss." "But," he says, "we are suffering justly." Now he took his place among the sinners, instead of trying to justify himself. He says: "We suffer justly; we have done wrong, and our condemnation is just." There is no hope for a sinner until he admits that his condemnation is just. The great trouble is, people are trying to make out they are not sinners; and therefore there is no chance of reaching them. But this thief said, "Our sentence is just;" and he took his place among sinners. There is no hope for a sinner until he sees the condemnation is a just condemnation; because he has sinned, and come short of the glory of God. This thief confessed his sin, and then justified Christ, saying, "This man hath done nothing amiss."

The next thing is, he had faith. Talk about faith, I think this is the most extraordinary case of faith in the Bible. We talk about Abraham as the father of the faithful; Abraham's faith cannot compare with this man's faith. God had Abraham twenty-five years talking up his faith. Moses say the burning bush, and God talked with him; he had reason to believe. But this man we have no reason to believe ever knew anything about Christ. His disciples had heard his wonderful sermons and parables, and seen him perform his mighty works; and yet they had forsaken him. One of his chief men, Peter, had denied him with a curse; perhaps the thief heard this. Judas had betrayed him. He saw no glittering crown upon his brow; he could see where they had put the crown of thorns, and the scars they made; he could see no sign of his kingdom. If he had a kingdom,

where were his subjects? They were wagging their heads; they were crying: "Save thyself, if thou be King of the Jews." Yet that thief called him Lord. I consider that man had more faith than any other person mentioned in Scripture. When I was a boy I was a poor speller, but one day there came a word to the boy at the head of the class which he couldn't spell, and the word went down to the foot; none of the class could spell it. I spelled it, as we used to say then, by good luck; and I went from the foot of the class to the head. So the thief on the cross passed by Abraham, Moses and Elijah, and went to the head of the class. How refreshing it must have been to Christ to have one more own him as Lord, and believe he had a kingdom, and that he was a King. Oh, thank God for this man's testimony." He said unto Jesus, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." If you are going to get into the kingdom of God, or if you are going to come to Christ, you must have faith in him.

The first thing this thief did, he feared God. Then he did not justify himself but justified Christ. "We, indeed, suffer justly, but this man hath done nothing amiss." Then his faith went out toward him; faith flashed into his soul. The moment he had faith in him be cried out: "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."

Because I said something here the other night about the Jews, I don't know how many abusive letters I have received. I have a thousand times more respect for the Jew, who will not believe in the Son of God, than I have for those who believe in him and will not trust him. This thief, the moment he did believe Christ was the Son of God, right there he owned him: "Lord, remember me." How many men in Philadelphia know he is the Son of God, but have not the moral courage to come out and call him Lord. This thief— ah, how noble! right there alone, no one standing by him-not even the thief on the other side. There was the chief priest, Caiaphas, and the chief men of his nation against him; and there was no one cared to speak out on that memorable hour, only that poor thief! I can imagine he had a praying mother, and that when he was a little boy his mother taught him the fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, and he learned that verse: "Seek ye the Lord while may be found; call upon him while he is near.' When he found this was the Lord, he called upon him at once. A man said to me once: "I cannot make a prayer; I read prayers." What could this poor thief have done if he could not have made a prayer? He had no book; and if anyone had given him a book, he could not have read it. He prayed out of the heart. His prayer was short, but it brought the blessing; it came to the point: "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." He asked the Lord to give him, right there and then, what he wanted.

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