come in and swear falsely, and what did they swear to? They heard him say, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up again in three days." "Destroy this temple," that is-as explained by John-destroy this body, and he would raise it up. Let us bring in Caiaphas, the highest ecclesiastical potentate of the earth, president of the Sanhedrim, the chief priest; and let Caiaphas open his lips, and let him tell us why he condemned the Son of God to death. They did not go and summon his friends; they did not go and bring up Zaccheus of Jericho; they did not bring the poor man that had those legions of devils cast out of him; they did not bring the blind man of Jericho-they brought his enemies. Let Caiaphas tell his own story-suppose he stood in my place. Caiaphas, just tell us what was the evidence you found against the Son of God. He said to him, "I adjure thee by the living God, Art thou the Son of God?" And he said, "I am." And Caiaphas says: "When I heard it, I tore my mantle and said he was guilty of blasphemy." That is what we glory in, his being the Son of God. Stephen said, when the heavens were opened, he looked in and saw him standing at the right hand of God. That is why they condemned the Son of God, just because he was the God-man. If he wasn't divine, they did right to put him to death; but he was.

He is no

Let Pilate come in; now he is an impartial witness. Jew; he has no prejudice against Christ. Pilate, just speak out now and tell us why you condemned him to the scourge, and to be crucified, and why you wrote up there upon the cross: "This is Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." Tell us, what did you find in him— what fault? And hear what Pilate says, "I find no fault in him." Now men condemn Pilate, and yet there are a great many men worse than Pilate; for they find fault in Jesus Christ. Said he, “I will chastise this man and let him go; for I find no fault in him." But I have got a woman we can bring in as a witness; it was Pilate's wife. Whose messenger is that that comes from the palace? He brings a message from Pilate's wife: "Have nothing to do with that just man; for I have suffered much in a dream through him." She thought he was a just man. Yea, my friends, I will bring in Judas, the very prince of traitors. Suppose I should say: "Judas, you sold the Son of God for thirty pieces of silver; you betrayed him; you knew more about him than Caiaphas; you knew more about him than Pilate. Come, now, Judas, tell us why you betrayed Christ? You were with him; you ate with him, and drank with him, and slept with him; tell us what you think of him?" I can imagine him throw down the thirty pieces of silver, as he cries in agony, "I betrayed innocent blood." Oh, yes, it is easy to condemn Judas nowadays; but how many men are worse than that! And he went out and put an end to his existence. Now bear in mind, I am not calling up his friends; I am calling up his enemies. The testimony is perfect

ly overwhelming in favor of Jesus Christ, that he was the Son of God, as well as the son of David. But here is another witness, and that is the Roman centurion. He occupied the same position as the sheriff does now. This centurion of the Roman band had to go to Calvary and put the Son of God to death. He is a Gentile, and an impartial judge; let him tell us what he thinks of the Son of God. Come, now, centurion, you had charge of the execution of Jesus of Nazareth; you were there when he died. Here is his testimony: "Truly, this was the Son of God." That is what he thought; and to me it is one of the most striking things in all Scripture that God made every man testify that he was not guilty. I will go further. I will take the very devils in hell, for God made them testify; and what did they testify? They called him, "the Son of the Most High God." They knew him. "We adjure thee by the living God, why hast thou come here to torment us before our time?" And, my friends, what think ye to-day? Was he the Son of God? and did he die for a sinful world? What think ye of Christ to-day? Whose

Son is he?

I wish I had time to examine his friends. It would take all day and all night, and I think the whole of the week. Suppose I could examine that mighty preacher, the prince of preachers, a man that with his eloquence-and he had the eloquence of heaven-drew all men to hear him. All Judea and Jerusalem came down from the mountains to hear him. He drew the cities of Judea into the wilderness, to hear him preach. What mighty power he had! Now, let us call in this wilderness preacher, who looks more like Elijah than any other prophet since Elijah. Ask John the Baptist, What think ye, John, of Christ? Hear his testimony: "I bear record, this is the Son of God." That is what he thought; he forever settled that question. Another time he says of Christ: "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world." John didn't have but one text after that: "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world." John said: "He must increase, but I must decrease." O sinner, what do you think of him to-day? Do you think he will save you if you trust him? Let us bring in some more of these witnesses. There is Peter. You know there was a time he swore

he never knew him. Do you think he would say now with a curse, "I never knew him?" We are told that he was crucified with his head downward, because he was not worthy to be crucified in the same way that Christ was. Peter thought a good deal of him. I might bring in doubting Thomas; he didn't believe that Christ had risen. But Christ says: "Thomas, did you say that you wouldn't believe unless you saw? Put your fingers in my side and feel the wound there; put your fingers in the palm of my hand and feel the wound there;" and Thomas cried out, "My Lord and my God." Convinced of the divinity of Jesus Christ, his cloud of unbelief was

scattered to the four winds of heaven. If I should call up that beloved disciple who knew him better than any one else upon earth, it would take a great while to find out what John thought of him. I could just summon into this audience another witness, and one that had such a hatred against Christ. The Frenchman said: "It took twelve fishermen to establish the kingdom of Christ; and one Frenchman could tear it down." So Saul of Tarsus thought. The Son of God just spoke to him, "Saul! Saul! why persecutest thou me?" "Who art thou, Lord?" "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." "Lord, what wilt thou have me do?" One glance, and he became a new man. He held a high position in Jerusalem. O sinner, may you hear that tender, loving voice of the Savior; and may you this day and this hour think well of the Son of God. If you will pardon me, and I say it with reverence, we might summon the angels of heaven here. Only once they were permitted to burst through the clouds and come down to this world. Yes, they were there, long before the morning stars sang together; there when Christ was in glory. They saw him when he left the throne of God and came down into a manger; they saw him pass by thrones on earth, and come down into a manger. Hear them upon the plains of Bethlehem: "Behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy which shall be unto all people, for unto us is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior." The angels of heaven thought that he was a Savior; and so he is, the Savior of the world. If we could ask the angels what they think of God's Son, what a shout would go up from around the throne. John heard the voice of many angels ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, and they were singing, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain."

I would to God that I had the voice of an angel, that I might win your soul to the Son of God. A man was preaching in Brooklyn today about the white robes; and a friend said the halls of that building never heard such preaching before. And the minister said they might be wearing those robes a good deal sooner that they thought. And just as he got through, he threw up both his hands and said "Jesus" -and fell dead. Would that I could stand aside and let him take my place for five minutes. Oh, won't you think well of Jesus? Won't you think well of Jesus of the New Testament? Won't you think well of God's own Son? I want to bring one more witness. "May my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth and this right hand forget its cunning if I cease" to give praises unto his name. There is one more witness, which is that beloved One. When Jesus of Nazareth was coming up out of the Jordan, lo! a voice from the Throne a voice from heaven--Hark! sinners, listen! God speaks: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." That is what God thought of him. Once he took Peter, James, and John where Moses and Elias were, and he spoke: "This is my beloved

Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him." Won't you think something of the Son of God? Young lady, what do you think? Mother, what do you think? Do you think enough of him to trust him? If you want to please the father here on earth, you will think well of his son; and if you want to please the Heavenly Father you I will think well of his Son.

Now, before I close, let me ask you one question-take it home with you-and that is this: "Why don't you love him?" Just think now, can you give a reason for not loving him? I knew an infidel who was asked by a little child why he didn't love Jesus, and he finally said to himslf, I will just find out why I don't love Jesus. He took the Bible and opened it to the book of John-if you want to find out why you don't love Jesus, don't you look there. He found that God so loved the world that he gave Christ for it, and the poor infidel's heart was broken. And that night he was on his knees crying for mercy. O sinner, do think well of Christ to-day! Love him to-day! Give your souls to him this blessed evening, the last Sabbath of this blessed month! This day and this hour let us press into the kingdom of God.

FAITH,

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen." HEBREWS 11: 1.

I want to call your attention to-night to the subject of Faith. I think I hear some of you say: "That is a very dull subject: if I had known that would be the subject, I would not have come." But it is a very important subject. It is faith that brings the blessing after all. Some one has said there are three things to faith-knowledge, assent, laying hold. Knowledge! A man may have a good deal of knowledge about Christ; but that does not save him. I suppose Noah's carpenters knew as much about the ark as Noah did, but they perished miserably nevertheless; because they were not in the ark. A good many men know a good deal about Christ, but they are not saved by it; and our knowledge about Christ does not help us if we do not act upon it. But knowledge is very important. Knowledge, assent, then laying hold; and it is that last clause that saves, that brings the soul and Christ together. The best definition I can find of faith is,

the dependence upon the veracity of another. The Bible definition. in the 11th chapter of Hebrews is: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen." In other words, faith says Amen to everything that God says. Faith takes God without any if's. If God says it, faith says, I believe it; faith says Amen to it.

But now the question is, who shall we have faith in? A man got up in one of our young men's meetings the other night, and wanted to know why it was there were so many that backslid. One reason for backsliding, is because men are not sound in their faith; it is because they have not really been converted to God. A good many men are converted to a church; they say: "I like that church; it is a beautiful church, and there is beautiful singing; I like that quartet choir and the grand organ; and there is a good minister." And so they are converted to the church, and they are converted to the singing, and converted to the organ, and converted to the minister, or they are converted to the people who go there. They get into good society by going there. But that is not being born of God, or being converted to God. Once there was an old chap who sat down among some army soldiers who were telling stories of adventure, and one fellow got up and told all about how he had backslid; but the old soldier said: "I think there is some mistake; and the truth of the matter is, you have never yet slid forward." Now if a man has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he has got something he can anchor to, and the anchor will hold; and when the hour of temptation comes to him, and the hour of trial comes to him, the man will stand firm. If we are only converted to man, and our faith is in man, we will certainly be disappointed. How very often we hear a man say: "There is a member of the church who cheated me out of five dollars; and I am not going to have anything more to do with people who call themselves Christians." But if the man had had faith in Jesus Christ you do not suppose he would have had his faith shattered because some one cheated him out of five dollars, do you? What we want is, some one to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to the prophecy of Jeremiah, 17th chapter, beginning with the 15th verse: "Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is." But cursed is the man that puts his trust in man; that is the reason why so many people are all the time being disappointed, and why there are so many that have their faith shaken. It is because they have been trusting in man, and man has failed them; and they have been trusting in themselves, and their hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked, and we cannot have trust in ourselves; and because man hath failed us, or because we have failed ourselves, we