You see, in the conversion of this thief, that salvation is distinct and separate from works. Now some people tell us we have to work to be saved. What has the man who believes that to say about the salvation of this thief? How is he going to work, when he has nails through both hands and through both feet? He cannot work with his hands or run with his feet. When he had the use of his hands, they were lifted up to shed blood; and when he had the use of his feet, they were engaged in the service of the devil.

He took the Lord at his word, and believed. It is with the heart men believe, not with their hands or feet. All that is necessary for a man to be saved is, to believe with his heart. This thief made a good confession. If he had been a Christian fifty years, he could not have done Christ more service than he did there. He confessed him before the world; and for eighteen hundred years that confession has been told. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have all recorded it. They felt it so important that they thought we should have it.. Some one has said that Christ did not give the thief arms to fight for God, but he gave him wings that he might fly away to his Creator. He got an answer to his prayer as soon as he asked. He said, "Lord." He put the Lord at the head of the prayer. "Lord, remember me." Three short words-three golden links in that chain that bound him to the throne of God. The Lord could not help answering that prayer. He says he will save all that will call upon him; the man called upon him, and he had to answer the prayer. •Did you ever see a man in the wide, wide world that ever called to the Lord out of the depths of his heart, that the Lord did not answer? The

answer came.

See how salvation is separate and distinct from all ordinancesnot but ordinances are right in their place. Some people say you cannot be saved if you are not baptized. Many people think it is impossible for any one to got into the kingdom of God if he is not baptized into it. I don't want you to think I am talking against ordinances. Baptism is right in its place; but when you put it in the place of salvation, you put a snare in the way. You cannot baptize men into the kingdom of God. The last conversion before Christ perished on the cross ought to forever settle that question. If you tell me a man cannot get into Paradise without being baptized, I answer, This thief was not baptized. If he had wanted to be baptized, I don't believe he could have found a man to baptize him. Some people tell us a man cannot be saved until he has partaken of the sacrament. The thief did not. Who administered the bread and wine to him? Was there a man on that mountain that would have faith to believe he could have been saved? Would the Roman government have allowed them to administer the sacrament, or baptism? The moment he asked for life he got it. Salvation is distinct from ordinances. Baptism is one thing; the Lord's Supper is

another thing; and salvation through Christ is another. The only way for us to be saved is to come straight to Christ for life, and to own, as this man, that we have sinned, and that our condemnation is just. Bear in mind, God is just; and the condemnation he has pronounced against us is a just condemnation. "The soul that sinneth it shall die." God has a right to put a penalty to his law, and it is just for God to pronounce condemnation. But God is also a God of mercy. God will have mercy upon all them that call upon him. I can imagine, after that thief believed, he commenced right there at once to praise God. I can imagine, as the soldier drove his spear into our Savior's side, there came flashing into his mind the words of the prophet Zechariah: "In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness." He was led out in the morning to the cross; in the evening he was in the Paradise of God, crowned with a crown . he should wear through all ages. In the morning led out to suffer punishment; in the evening, going down the streets of Paradise, arm in arm with the Son of God. In the morning, not an eye to pity him; in the evening, up there amid the hallelujahs of heaven. In the morning, in the society of thieves; in the evening, washed and made clean in the blood of the Lamb.

You know Christ died a little while before the thief. I can imagine he wanted to hurry home to get a mansion for him, and to give him a welcome when he got there, that he should not be a stranger. The Lord loved him, because he confessed him in that dark hour. It was a dark hour for many of them who said, He is not the Son of God, the Savior of the world.

Some go so far as to try and make out he was an imposter. In this dark day, should we not come out like the thief and confess him, and take our stand on his side? If we do, he will remember it. The thief wanted to be remembered in Christ's kingdom. When Christ instituted the Lord's Supper, his dying request was we should remember him in this world; and now the thief's request was, that he might be remembered in his new kingdom. Go into some of our churches next Sunday morning, where they are going to administer the Lord's Supper. The bread and wine are there. The minister, who pronounces the benediction, asks the people to stay and partake of the Lord's Supper. Two-thirds of the people will get up and turn their backs upon it. They say: "What do I care for his

death? What do I care for what the Son of God has done for me?" But this thief, thanks be to God! did confess him! He asked to be remembered; he believed Christ has a kingdom. Hundreds of thousands of people believe Christ has a kingdom; yet they will not seek him, and they will not cry out, "Lord, remember me." I believe that if every unsaved soul to-night in this hall would cry out, from the depths of his heart, "Lord, remember me," the answer would

come this very night. Before I get through this sermon, the answer would come. He would remember you, and there would be the response, "This very night you shall become an heir of my kingdom." You can become this night a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you will. I can imagine how the thief's soul leaped for joy when he heard Christ say, "It is finished." He wanted to follow him. I can imagine, when the men came to break the legs of these thieves, that this one was in a hurry to be gone. The moment his soul left that body, it leaped into a chariot sent down from heaven; and away it went to meet the Savior. He was a condemned man in the morning; in the evening in the Paradise of God. So if you have come in here without God and hope, as black in heart as that poor thief, if you call upon God, he will have mercy upon you and save you tonight. I have no doubt that, until he cried to the Lord, that thief had no thought that he would be saved. I have no doubt thousands come here without any thought of being saved; they come out of curiosity. I wish Christians would pray that the fear of the Lord would come to this audience, and that you may confess him, and take your place as a sinner, and ask God to remember you. He will remember you and make you an heir of his kingdom, if you accept of his salvation as a gift. This night, this hour, will you not call upon him-this hour, at the close of this meeting? Dear friends, what will you do with Jesus-with the Savior? He comes and he offers salvation. You can be saved now if you will. He is just the same Savior the thief had: it is the same cry he made that you want to make. Let that cry go up now. While I am speaking do you whisper, "Lord, Lord, remember me!" and see if he does not answer your prayer. Do you want the Lord to remember you, and have mercy upon you? Call upon him to-night. The thief was the first man to enter Paradise after the veil of the Temple was rent. If we could look up yonder, and see around the Throne; if we could catch a glimpse of the Throne, we should see the Father there and Jesus Christ at his right hand; but hard by the throne you should see that thief. He is there to-night. Eighteen hundred years he has been there, just because he cried: "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." I see Mary Magdalene there, and Zaccheus the chief publican of Jericho; and if I could ask them how they came there, they would shout down, "Saved by grace." There is only one way to heaven. O my friends, do you want to join that throng? Then send up the cry, "Lord, remember me." Oh, I pray to-night that hundreds may send up that cry.

STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS.

"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty: And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naugat things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence." I. CORINTHIANS 1: 27-29.

I want to call your attention to the 27th verse of that chapter I read to you: "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence." There is just one sentence there I would like to call your attention to: "But God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." Then in the 29th verse he tells us why he has chosen the weak things -"that no flesh may glory in his presence."

Now, if we are to have the Word in this City of New York, we must give God all the glory. I dread coming to a new place; it takes almost a week or fortnight to come down to solid work. The people are thinking of the choir, and saying, "What a large choir !" and "So many ministers! Surely there is going to be great work now; there is such a great choir and congregation, and so many ministers." It is not by might and power, but by God's Spirit; and we have got to get our eyes off of all these things, and there will be no work and no blessing until this is done. Now, we have not come with any new Gospel; it is the old Gospel, the old story, and we want the old power, the power of the Holy Ghost; and, if it is anything less than that, it will all come to naught and be like a morning cloud-soon pass away. Now I can tell you, before the meetings go on any further, who will be disappointed, and who in after years will say the meetings were a failure every man and every woman that don't get quickened themselves. If there is a minister here in New York that doesn't get quiokened himself, he will say the work has failed; but I have never known a man who has got quickened, to say the work has failed. Nowhere that we have been has it been the case. What we want is to get down to ourselves; and if there is to be a true revival, there must be first a casting-down of ourselves before a lifting-up. It was only when Abraham was on his face in the dust before God that he would talk to him. And it is

then that God lifts us up and the blessing comes. There is no true revival until God's own people are lifted, until they are quickened. It will be superficial until then; it will be a counterfeit. If you attempt to begin work among the ungodly and unconverted before you get quickened yourself, God won't bless you. As the Psalmist says: "When the Lord has restored to us the joy of his salvation, then we will be able to teach transgressors the way of the kingdom of God," and not until then. And when we are cold and lukewarm, and are conformed to the world, and have not the Holy Ghost resting upon us, why God is not going to revive his work. Here and there we will hear of one converted, but it won't be deep and thorough unless the Church of God is quickened.

Now, I have just come here, and I confess I have seen nothing in America like what has pleased me in Princeton. I think they have a revival there; and the President of the college told me he had not seen anything like it, and one of the Faculty told me he didn't think there had ever been anything like it in the history of Princeton. Of course I inquired into it, and I found that they had sent for different ministers to come there and had been disappointed; and they got together the Christians did-and prayed God to bless them, and one of the Faculty asked them to pray for him: and right there the work broke out, and there have been about fifty quickened and brought back who had wandered from Christ; and it looks now as if all Princeton was going to be blessed.

Oh that it may commence here to-night in our hearts; that we may be quickened first, and then how quick the Lord will bless us. If you want to introduce two men to each other, you want to be near to them. If you want to introduce sinners to God, you must be near to God and to the sinner, too; and if a man is near God he will have a love for the sinner, and his heart will be near that man. But until we are brought near to God ourselves, we cannot introduce men to God. Somebody has said God uses the vessel that is nearest at hand; and if we are near to God he will use us; and if we are not, of course he cannot. Now, what we want is to be in a position that will give God all the glory. There are some things that make me tremble, at times, as if the work will all come to naught; because there is so much man-worship. Now, we have got to get rid of this man-worship, before it will be a deep work. We have got to sink self. If we can only get "I" down in the dust, and get outside of our dignity, and get self out of the way and say: "Here, Lord, use me if thou canst; and, if not, use somebody else;" or in the spirit of the wilderness preacher who said, "I must decrease, but he must increase," then the Lord will take us up and use us.

And right here, before I forget it, I want to urge the people of New York-the Christian people-not to buy anything of these people on the street. I am told that sixty-five men have come on from