ourselves, but merely reflect the light of Jesus Christ. The Bible does not say, "Make your light shine before all men;" but, "Let your light shine." Let it shine. What a concession to them, such sinners as they were. God supplies us with it, for the asking. Oh, my friends, will you not ask for it? And when you once have it, hundreds of thousands of others will see it, and want it as well. Keep your lower lights burning, as Mr. Sankey has sung to you.

Now I also like to think of Christ as a shepherd. The duty of a shepherd is to take care of his sheep. When a bear attacked David's flock, he seized his spear and slew the intruder; and your Shepherd will take as much care of you. Oh, what joy in the news to those who can say, "The Lord is my shepherd." Think of the shepherd carefully counting his sheep at the close of the day; one is missing; what does he do? Is he content with his ninety and nine, to leave the missing? No; he safely houses the others, and then goes in search of the one which is missing. Can you not see him hunting for the lost one; going over mountains and rocks and, crossing brooks, and what joy there is when, the wanderer is found, Oh what a shepherd is that. He wants to be a shepherd to all you here to-night. Will you not accept him? The man who saw a shepherd calling his sheep by name, wondered if he could tell one from another, they all looked so much alike. When he inquired on the matter, he was pointed to several little defects on the sheep; one had a black spot, another a torn ear, another a bad toe; one was cross-eyed, and so on. You see the shepherd knew his sheep by their defects; and I think it is so with our heavenly Father. He knows us all by our defects; and yet with all our faults He loves us. You may ask, If he loves me, why does he afflict me? Well, now, I once saw a drove of sheep looking very tired and weary, being hurried on by a shepherd and his dogs; and when they wanted to stop and drink at a brook by the wayside they were not allowed to, but driven on. I felt that it was very unkind of that shepherd; but by-and-by they stopped before a pair of handsome gates, and the flocks were turned into beautiful green pastures, with a clear stream running through them. Then 1 knew that I had been hasty; that the shepherd had not been unkind, but kind, in not allowing his sheep to drink from that muddy stream in the road, for he had been saving them and taking them on to something better. So with our heavenly Father, our Shepherd; He is compelled to afflict us sometimes, while leading us into green pastures. Oh, brethren, let us give thanks that we have such a good Shepherd to guide and protect us; and though these afflictions may come upon us and seem hard at the time, let us remember his great mercy and loving kindness, and bow and kiss the rod. Let us look to God for his blessing.

THE GOSPEL GIFT.

"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every cres ture: and he that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." MARK 16: 15, 16.

You'll find my text to-night in the 16th chapter of Mark, 15th and 16th verses: "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature; and he that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." I like these kinds of texts-they've got such a sweep in them; they take in everybody. You know the great difficulty is to make all people believe that you are preaching to them individually. A text like this to-night takes in everyone. It says: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Don't leave out one. When he delivered this command to his followers, he was on his way home-to the land where all knew him, and all loved him. Gethsemane, with its hours of agony and blood, was over. He could now look beyond it. He had been brought before Pilate and also before the Sanhedrim, and had been tried and condemned. All that was past. Calvary, with all its horrors, was over, and the empty sepulchre lay behind him; and he stood with a little body of believers around him, with a little handful of men, who had stood by him in his conflict with the Pharisees and priests; and now he was giving them his parting words-a mission, as it were. It was the Captain of our salvation, telling his warriors what to do after he was gone. In a few minutes be was to be caught up into heaven. They were the words of the resurrected man--a man who had gone down and sounded the depths of the grave; a man who had gone down and conquered the lion of hell, and now stood on resurrection ground as he said: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."

Now, I want to ask you the question: Do you believe he would send those men out to preach the gospel to every creature unless he wanted every creature to be saved? Do you believe he would tell them to preach it to people, without giving people the power to accept it? Do you believe that the God of heaven is mocking men by offering them this gospel; and not giving them the power to take hold of it? Do you believe he will not give men power to accept this salvation, as a gift. Man might do that; but God never mocks And when he says, "Preach the gospel to every creature;"

men.

every creature can be saved, if he will. For 1800 years, the heralds of the Cross have been crossing seas and fording rivers, have been enduring hardships and persecution, in testifying to the people these glorious truths of the gospel. Their spirits have gone up amid flames and tortures; and they have died in prison, because of their preaching of the gospel. To-day, we live in an open land, where the gospel is as free as the air. Remember that it cost all God had to give it; and every poor, miserable sinner on the earth can be savedf or nothing. It is free to all; but don't forget that it cost God the Son of his love, the Son of his bosom, to redeem a rebellious world. If you are saved, bear this in mind, that it is a free gift; but it cost God everything. Its reading is that whosoever believes it, within the sound of my voice, can have it. Some people come to me and say: "Mr. Moody, don't you feel a great responsibility when you come before an audience like this; don't you feel a great weight upon your shoulders?" "Well," I say, "no; I cannot convert men; I can only proclaim the gospel." Not only that, but I tell you that God gives me a mission to preach it to every creature-I don't care to what nationality you belong, what has been your early training, how far you are sunk in iniquity-I don't care who or what you may be; I tell you to-night you have either to receive the gospel and be saved, or reject it and be damned. There's the scripture. I was talking to a man this morning, and I asked him, "Would you like to become a Christian?" "No, sir." "You would rather be damned, eh?" "Well, I wouldn't exactly like to put it that way," he replied. "Well," I said, "that's the way you're putting it." My friends, let's put it in plain English, so that we can get hold of it. Are there any here to-night who are willing to say coolly and calmly and deliberately: "I don't want salvation as a gift; I don't want to be saved"? Would you rather go down fighting God and the Son of his love, than accept them and be saved? Now, the invitation is to every one. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." It is so hard to make people believe it is for them-to make them take it right home. Mr. Spurgeon told me that he once went to his orphanage on a visit. He said that a great many of those orphans had uncles and aunts, and cousins and sisters, who brought them Christmas presents. While he was on this visit a little boy came to him and said, "Mr. Spurgeon, will you let me taik to you a minute?" "Yes, my boy; what is it you want?" "Wei!," said he, "Mr. Spurgeon, suppose you were a poor little boy and had no aunts or cousins, or sisters or brothers, and had nobody to bring you any presents; and you saw others who had uncles and aunts, and cousins and sisters, and who brought presents to them, wouldn't you feel bad?" "Why, yes," replied Mr. Spurgeon. "That's me; that's me," said the bov. He got Mr. Spurgeon right down to the point; and so, if men would just say: "This gospel is for us; I believe it is for myself," there would

be hope for them being saved. Now, I don't see how you can get away from this text to-night; it is put so plain. Don't reject it any longer, my friends. Every time you hear it, your heart is getting harder and harder; and you will, the longer you keep away, have more difficulty in bending your will to its acceptance. I tell you, you will have to do either of two things to-night-reject it, or receive it. I remember a man, upon hearing this, getting up in a furicus passion, and stamping up and down. "The idea of anyone saying we've got to receive it or reject it." He didn't like the plain statement. Well, my friends, can we tell you anything else? The audience must be divided into two classes; those who will receive it, and those who will reject it. It is for you to decide on which side you will be. As many as receive it, he will give power to become the sons and daughters of men.

The question is, What are you going to do with God's gift tonight? The question comes home to every one within this building. What are you going to do with the gift of God's love? You must either trample him under your feet, and make light of what he has offered us; or you must receive him as our way, our truth, our light. I was down at the Ohio Penitentiary a few years ago, and the chaplain said to me: "I want to tell you a scene that occurred some time ago. Our Commissioner went to the Governor of the State, and asked him if he wouldn't pardon out five men at the end of six months who stood highest on the list for good behavior. The Governor consented, and the record was to be kept secret; the men were not to know anything about. The six months rolled away, and the prisoners were all brought up-1,100 of them; and the President of the commission came up and said: 'I hold in my hand pardons for five men.' I never witnessed anything like it. Every man held his breath; and you could almost hear the throbbing of every man's heart. Pardons for five men!' and the Commissioner went on to tell the men how they had got these pardons-how the Governor had given them; but the chaplain said the suspense was so great that he told the Commissioner to read the names first, and tell the reason afterward. The first name was called-Reuben Johnson'and he held out the pardon; but not a man moved. He looked all around, expecting to see a man spring to his feet at once; but no one moved. The Commissioner turned to the officer of the prison, and inquired: Are all the convicts here?' 'Yes,' was the reply. 'Reuben Johnson, come forward and get your pardon; you are no longer a criminal.' Still no one moved. The real Reuben Johnson was looking all the time behind him, and around him, to see where Reuben was. The chaplain saw him standing right in front of the Commissioner, and beckoned to him; but he only turned and looked around him, thinking that the chaplain must mean some other Reuben. A second time he beckoned to Reuben, and called to him; and