but, blessed be God, the time is past. I remember, fifteen years ago, the Methodist insisted that he was a Methodist, although lending a hand to the revival then in progress; the Congregationalist was nothing else, through and through, though, he, too, co-operated in the good work; and the Presbyterian and the Baptist, and all, were first of all their denominational selves, though condescending for a few days to work in yoke in a common cause. Yet it was really and necessarily condescension; and there was enough of it in those meetings to kill them, and it nearly did it. And this sectarian stone is a real stone, though nothing like the boulder it used to be. The rolling-away process must be pushed vigorously; let us heave it away altogether out of sight. Let us have none of that spirit in this meeting. Talk not of this sect and that sect, this party and that party; but solely and exclusively of the great, comprehensive cause of Jesus Christ. When Christ came into the world, had he allied himself with the Sadducees, they would have warmly upheld him, if he had joined the Pharisees, they would not have let him be crucified; but he kept clear of them; and just so we should do in this glorious work opening before us. In this ideal brotherhood there should be one faith, one mind, one spirit; and in this city let us starve it out for a season, to actualize this glorious truth. You remember how, in the Old Testament, Eldad and Medad took upon themselves priestly duties, and how excited for once in his life Joshua became at the irregularity, and ran and told the scandal to Moses; but you also remember how Moses reproved his informant, who was then engaged in perhaps the only small business of his life, and told him to rebuke them not: they prophesied well, however irregularly. It was just so with Christ; when word was carried by over-serviceable followers that men were casting out devils, who "were not of us," he rebuked, not those who were thus benefiting their kind, but the talebearers. Oh, yes; let us sink this party feeling and contend for Christ only. Oh that God may so fill us with his love and the love of souls, that no thought of minor sectarian parties can come in; that there may be no room for them in our atmosphere whatever; and that the Spirit of God may give us one mind and one spirit here to glorify his holy name.

THE LORD'S SERVICE PAYS.

And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto eternal life."-JOHN 4: 38.

I want to call your attention to the 4th chapter Gospel of St. John, and part of the 36th verse: "And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal." I want you to get the text into your hearts. We have a thousand texts to every sermon; but they slip over the hearts of men and women. If I can get this text into your hearts to-day, with the Spirit of God, these meetings will be the brightest and most glorious ever held in Chicago; for it is the word of the Lord, and his word is worth more than ten thousand sermons. "He that reapeth receiveth wages." I can speak from experience. I have been in the Lord's service for twenty-one years, and I want to testify that he is a good paymaster-that he pays promptly. Oh, I think I see faces before me light up at these words. You have been out in the harvest fields of the Lord, and you know this to be true. To go out and labor for him is a thing to be proud of-to guide a poor, weary soul to the way of life, and turn his face towards the golden gates of Zion. The Lord's wages are better than silver and gold, because he says that the loyal soul shall receive a crown of glory. If the Mayor of Chicago gave out a proclamation stating that he had work for men, women, and children of the city, and he would give them a dollar a day, people would say this was very good of the mayor. This money, however, would fade away in a short time. But here is a proclamation, coming directly from the throne of grace, to every man, woman, and child in the wide world to gather into God's vineyard, where they will find treasures that will never fade, and these treasures will be crowns of everlasting life; and the laborer will find treasures laid up in his Father's house, and then, after serving faithfully here, he will be greeted by friends assembled there. Work for tens of thousands of men, women, and children! Think of it, and the reward! These little children, my friends, are apt to be overlooked; but they must be led to Christ. Children have done a great deal in the vineyard. They have led parents to Jesus. It was a little girl that led Naaman to Christ. Christ can find useful work for these little ones. He can see little things, and we ought to pay great attention to them.

As I was coming along the street to-day, I thought that if I could only impress upon you all that we have come here as to a vineyard, to reap and to gather, we shall have a glorious harvest. And we

want every class to assist us. The first class we want is the ministers. There was one thing that pleased me this morning, and that was the eight thousand people who came to this building, and the large number of ministers who seized me by the hand, with the tears trickling down their cheeks, and who gave me a "God bless you!" It gave me a light heart. There are some ministers who get behind the posts, as if they were ashamed of being seen in our company and of our meetings. They come to criticise the sermon and to pick it to pieces. No effort is required to do this. We don't want the ministers to criticise but to help us, and tell us when we are wrong. There was one minister in this city who did me a great deal of good when I first started out. When I commenced to teach the word of God, I made very many blunders. I have learned that in acquiring anything a man must make blunders. If a man is going to learn any kind of trade-carpenter's, plumber's, painter's-he will make any amount of mistakes. Well, this minister, an old man, used to take me aside and tell me my errors. So we want the ministers to come to us and tell us of our blunders; and if we get them to do this and join hands with us, a spiritual fountain will break over every church in the city. Many ministers have said to me, "What do you want us to do?" The Lord must teach us what our work shall be. Let every child of God come up to these meetings, and say: "Teach me, O God, what I can do to help these men and women who are inquiring the way to be saved," and at the close of the meetings, draw near to them and point out the way. If men and women are to be converted in great meetings, it is by personal dealings with them. What we want is personal contact with them. If a number of people were sick, and a doctor prescribed one kind of medicine for them all, you would think this was wrong. This audience is spiritually diseased, and what we want is that Christian workers will go to them and find out their trouble. Five minutes' private consultation will teach them. What we want is to get at the people. Every one has his own particular burden; every family has a different story to tell. Take the gospel of the Lord to them and show its application; tell them what to do with it, so as to answer their own cases; let the minister come into the inquiry room.

An old man-a minister in Glasgow, Scotland-was one of the most active in our meetings. When he would be preaching elsewhere he would drive up in a cab with his Bible in his hand. It made no difference what part of Glasgow he was preaching in, he managed to attend nearly every one of our services. The old man would come in and tenderly speak to those assembled, and let one soul after another see the light. His congregation was comparatively small when we got there; but, by his painstaking efforts to minister to those in search of the Word, when we left Glasgow his church could not hold the people who sought admission, and I do

not know of any man who helped us like Dr. Andrew Bonar. He was always ready to give the weak counsel, and point the way out to the soul seeking Christ. If we have not ministers enough, let those we have come forward, and their elders and deacons will follow them The next class we want to help us to reach the people is the Sunday-school teachers; and I value their experience next to that of the ministers. In the cities where we have been, teachers have come to me and said, "Mr. Moody, pray for my Sunday-school scholars; and I just took them aside and pointed out their duties, and showed of how they themselves ought to be able to pray for their pupils. Next meeting very often they would come and the prayer would go up from them, "God bless my scholars."

In one city we went to, a Sunday-school superintendent came to his minister and said: "I am not fit to gather sinners to life eternal; I cannot be superintendent any longer." The minister asked, "What is the reason?" and the man said, "I am not right with God." Then the minister advised him that the best thing, instead of resigning, was to get right with God. So he prayed with that teacher that the truth would shine upon him; and God lit up his soul with the word. Before I left that town, the minister told me all doubt had fled from that superintendent's mind; and he had gone earnestly to work and gathered, from the time of his conversion, over six hundred scholars into the school of his church. The Lord can bless, of course, in spite of schools and teachers, but they are the channels of salvation. Bring your classes together, and pray to God to convert them. We have from three thousand to five thousand teachers here. Suppose they said: "I will try to bring my children to Christ," what a reformation we should have! Don't say that that boy is too small, or that girl is too puny or insignificant. Every one is valuable to the Lord. A teacher whom I found at our services when she ought to have been attending to her class, upon my asking why she was at our meeting, said: "Well, I have a very small class-only five little boys." "What," said I, "you have come here and neglected these little ones! Why, in that little tow-head may be the seeds of a reformation. There may be a Luther, a Wheaton, a Wesley, or a Bunyan among them. You may be neglecting a chance for them, the effects. of which will follow them through life." If you do not look to those things, teachers, some one will step into your vineyard and gather the riches you would have.

Look what that teacher did in Southern Illinois. She had taught a little girl to love the Savior, and the teacher said to her, "Can't you get your father to come to the Sunday-school?" This father was a swearing, drinking man, and the love of God was not in his heart. But under the tuition of that teacher, the little girl went to her father, and told him of Jesus' love, and led him to that Sunday-school. What was the result? I heard, before leaving for Europe, that he