good deal in the last five years, and I never knew a man who had turned away from religion to be a happy man. That man's conscience is always troubling him. He may come to Chicago and become prosperous and wealthy, but his wealth and position in the world cannot fill his heart. If there is a poor backslider in this building to-day, let him come back. Hear the voice that calls you to come back. There is nothing you have done which God is not ready and able to forgive. If there is a poor wanderer on the mountains of sin, turn right round and face him. He will hear your transgressins, and forgive your backsliding, and take you to his loving bosom; and this will be a happy night to you. Look at the home of the backslider. No prayers, no family altar there. As in the days of Elijah, they have put up the image of Baal in the place of their God. They have no peace; their conscience troubles them, they know they are not bringing their family up as they should. Is not that the condition of a good many here to-day? Oh, backslider, you know what your life is; but what will be your eternity if you fight against the Lord, who is only waiting to do you good?

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I heard of a young man who came to Chicago to sell his father's grain. His father was a minister somewhere down here. The boy arrived in Chicago and sold the grain; and when the time came for him to return home, the boy did not come. The father and mother were up all night expecting to hear the sound of the wagon every minute; but they waited and waited, and still he did not come. The father became so uneasy that he went into the stable and saddled his horse, and came to Chicago. When he reached here he found that his son had sold the grain, but had not been seen since the sale; and he concluded that he was murdered. After making investigation, however, he found that the boy had gone into a gambling house and lost all his money. After they had taken all his money from him, they told him to sell his horse and wagon, and he would recover his money, which he did. He was like the poor man who came down from Jericho to Jerusalem, and who fell among thieves, and after they had stripped him of everything cast him off. And a great many of you think as this young man thought. You think that rum-sellers and gamblers are your best friends, when they will take from you your peace, your health, your soul, your money-everything you have, and then run away. Well, the father, after looking about for him fruitlessly, went home and told his wife what he had learned. But he did not settle down, but just took his carpet bag in his hand and went from one place to another, getting ministers to let him preach for them; and he always told the congregation that he had a boy dearer to him than life, and left his address with them, and urged them, if ever they heard anything about his boy, to let him know. At last, after going around a good deal, he got on his track, and learned that he had gone to California. He went home, but did not

write a letter to him. No; he just arranged his business affairs and started for the Pacific coast, to find his boy. This is but an illustration of what God has been doing for you. There has not been a day, an hour, a moment, but God has been searching for you. When the father got to San Francisco, he got permission to preach; and he had a notice put in the papers, in the hope that it might reach the mining districts, trusting that if his son were there it might reach him. He preached a sermon on the Sunday, and when he pronounced the benediction, the audience went away. But he saw in a corner one who remained. He went up to him, and found that it was his boy. He did not reprimand him, he did not deliver judgment upon him, but put his loving arms around him, drew him to his bosom, and took him back to his home. This is an illustration of what God wants to do to us, what he wants to do to-day. He offers us his love, and his forgiveness.

There is one peculiarity about a backslider, you must get back to him as you went away. It is you who have gone away by turning, by leaving hun, not he by leaving you. And the way to get back to him is, to turn your face toward him; and he will receive you with joy and forgiveness. There will be joy in your heart, and there will be joy in heaven this afternoon, if you return to him. If you treated God as a personal friend, there would not be a backslider. A rule I have had for years is, to treat the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal friend. His is not a creed, a mere empty doctrine; but it is he himself we have. The moment we have received Christ, we should receive him as a friend. When I go away from home, I bid my wife and children good-by, I bid my friends and acquaintances good-by; but I never heard of a poor backslider going down on his knees and saying: "I have been near you for ten years; your service has become tedious and monotonous; I have come to bid you farewell; good-by, Lord Jesus Christ." I never heard of one doing this. I will tell how they go away-they just run away. Where are you, you backslider? Just look upon your condition during the past ten years. Have they been years of happiness? Have they been years of peace? Echo answers ten thousand times, "No," Return to him at once; never mind what your past has been, he will give you salvation.

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But I must hasten on to the next class-the unsaved. I will admit that professed Christians have got their failings; we are far from being what we ought to be. But is that any reason why you should not come to him? We do not preach ourselves-we do not set ourselves up as the Savior; if we did, you might make this an excuse. But we preach Christ. Now, you who are unsaved, won't you come? I do not know who you are in this audience; but if the Spirit of God is not born in you, and does not tell you you are the children of God, this is an evidence that you have not been born of God. Do

you love your enemies? Do you love those who slander you? Do you love those who hate you? Have you joy, peace, long-suffering, courage, charity? If you have got the fruit of the Spirit, you have those qualities; if you have not, you have not been born of the Spirit. Now, friends, just ask yourselves this question. "Where am I?” Here in this hall to-day, surrounded with praying friends. It seemed, sometimes, to me, as if the words came to me and fell to the floor: and at other times, the words fell on the heart. We can feel it in this hall to-day, in the atmosphere; we feel its influence all around. It may be that that mother is praying for the return of an erring son; it may be that that brother has been praying all the afternoon, "O my God, may the Spirit come to my brother!" Dear friends, let us ask each other to-day, "Where art thou?" Resisting earnest, trembling prayers of some loving mother, of some loving wifetrampling them under foot! Now, be honest. Have I not been talking to many in this audience who made promises five, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago-who made a promise to serve him? Those promises have faded away; and those five, ten, fifteen, twenty years have rolled on, and you are no nearer. O sinner, where art thou? Are you making light of all offers of mercy? Are you turning your back and ridiculing him and laughing at him? If you are, may he, the God of mercy, arrest you, and have mercy on your soul and save you. The last three years have been the most solemn years of my life. A man's life is just like going up and down a hill. If I live the allotted time, I am going down the hill. Many of you are on the top of the hill, and are not saved. Suppose you pause a moment, and look down the hill on the road from whence you camelook back toward the cradle. Don't you remember that the sermons you heard ten or fifteen years ago moved you? You say: "When look back at those times, we used to have good sermons, better and more earnest ministers than now." Don't you make any mistake. The gospel is the same as it was then, as powerful to-day as ever. The fault is not with the ministers of the gospel; it is with yourself your heart has become hard. Then, as you look down into the valley, don't you see a little mound and a tombstone? It marks the resting-place of a loving father, or a loving mother. Ten years ago, you had a praying mother. Every morning and evening, she went down on her knees in her closet and prayed for you. Her prayers are ended now-and yet you are not saved. It may be, as you look down the stream of time, you see a little grave that marks the resting-place of your child. It may be that child took you by the hand, and asked you, "Will you meet me in that land?" And you promised her that you would meet her there. As you looked down into that little grave, and heard the damp, cold earth falling down, you repeated that promise. Five, ten, fifteen years ago you promised this; have you kept it? Some of you are far down the

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hill, and hastening to judgment. May God open your eyes to-day, as you look back upon your lives, and look into the future. It may be that you will live the allotted time; but the end is soon to come. The average age is thirty-three years. There are a number of you in this hail this afternoon who will be in eternity inside of thirty days. Ask yourselves where you are-resisting the offer of mercy, turning back the offer of God. May the loving God show you the Savior standing at the door of your heart, and knocking, and telling you he wants to come in and save you.

In London, when I was there in 1867, I was told a story which made a very deep impression upon me. A young French noblem in came there to see a doctor, bringing letters from the French Emperor. The Emperor Napoleon III. had a great regard for this young man, and the doctor wanted to save him. He examined the young man, and saw there was something upon his mind. "Have you lost any prop erty? What is troubling you? You have something weighing upon your mind," said the doctor. "Oh, there is nothing particular.""I know better; have you lost any relatious?" asked the doctor. "No, none within the last three years." "Have you lost any reputation in your country?" "No." The doctor studied for a few minutes, and then said: "I must know what is on your mind; I must know what is troubling you." And the young man said: "My father was an infidel; my grandfather was an infidel, and I was brought up an infidel; and for the last three years these words have haunted me, 'Eternity! and where shall it find me?" "Ah," said the doctor; "you have come to the wrong physician." "Is there no hope for me?" cried the young man. "I walk about in the daytime; I lie down at night, and it comes upon me continually-'Eternity! and where shall I spend it? Tell me, is there any hope for me." The doctor said: "Now, just sit down and be quiet. A few years ago I was an infidel. I did not believe in God, and was in the same condition in which you now are." The doctor took down his Bible, and turned to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and read: "He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed." And he read on through this chapter. When he had finished, the young man said: "Do you believe this, that he voluntarily left heaven, came down to this earth, and suffered and died that we might be saved?" "Yes, I believe it. That brought me out of infidelity, out of darkness into light." and he preached Christ and his salvation and told him of heaven, and then suggested that they get down on their knees and pray. And when I went there in 1867, a letter had been received from that young nobleman, who wrote to Dr. Winslow, in London, telling him that the question of "Eternity, and where he should spend it," was settled, and troubling him no more. My friends, this question of eternity and where we

are going to spend it, forces itself upon every one of us. We e are staying here for a little day. Our life is but a fibre, and it will soon be snapped. I may be preaching my last sermon. To-night may find me in eternity. By the grace of God, say that you will spend it in heaven. All the hosts of hell cannot hinder you, if you make up your mind to come to heaven; because if God says; "Let him come," Who can resist you? If that little child sitting yonder says it will enter heaven, all the hosts of hell cannot keep it out. May God help you to spend your eternity in heaven; and may you say: "By the grace of God, I accept Jesus as my Redeemer.

TO THE BROKEN-HEARTED.

"He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted." LUKE 4:19.

If I were to ask this audience what Christ came into this world for every one of you would say to save sinners; and then you would stop. A great many think that is all Christ came to do-to save sinners. Now, we are told that he came, to be sure, to "seek and save that which was lost;" but then he came to do more. He came "to heal the broken-hearted." In that 18th verse of the 4th chapter of Luke, which I read to you last night, he said that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, and that he was "anointed to preach the gospel to the poor," and in the next sentence he tells us, he is "sent to heal the broken-hearted." In another place we are told, he came into the world to declare who the Father was, and reveal him to the sons of men.

To-night I want to take up this one thought-that Christ was sent into the world "to heal the broken-hearted." When the Prince of Wales came to this country, a few years ago, the whole country was excited as to his purpose. What was his object in coming here? Had he come to look into our republican form of government, or our institutions; or was it simply to see and be seen? He came and he went, without telling us what he came for. When the Prince of Peace came into this dark world, he did not come in any private way. He tells us that he came, not to see and be seen, but to seek and save that which was lost," and also "to heal the broken-hearted." And in the face of this announcement, it is a mystery to me why those who have broken hearts will rather carry them year in and