is because nine out of every ten die unexpectedly; it is because nine out of every ten die wholly unprepared. They may have been warned; death may have come very near. It might have entered their house and taken away a loved wife, loved children, a loved father or mother; death may have come into their homes four, five, six, seven, ten times, and taken away relatives from their midst. Yet they are unprepared. Do you know that six millions of people die annually in the world? Since I came here and began preaching in this Tabernacle, death has thrown its mantle around many a one. Do you remember that death in this cold, dark, bleak night is doing its work? I am speaking to some who may be in eternity to-morrow. I come to tell you to be prepared. Is not it downright folly to spend your lives in piling up wealth and to die as this man died, without hope, without Christ, without eternal life? Let me call your attention to this. The sin of this man was simply neglect. It is clear. We cannot condemn his business. It was honest, legitimate. But the thing we do condemn is, that he neglected to secure his soul's salvation. A great many say, "Am I not kind to the poor; am I not honorable in all my transactions; do I not pay a hundred cents on a dollar always?" But are you honest to your soul's salvation? You may fold your arms and depend upon your deeds; but if you do not seek salvation in this world, you will be lost. You know that there are three steps down the hill; and they are to neglect, to refuse, and to despise. Now, all in this audience are standing on some of the steps of this ladder. You can see how, if a man neglects his salvation, he will be lost. All you men, if you neglect your business and leave it to itself, you know you will soon become bankrupt. And if a man wants to die, all he has to do is not to call in a doctor. Look at a general of an army of 10,000 men. He knows that there is an army of 10,000 coming to meet him, but he goes and takes his glass, and sees in the distance another army of 10,000 men, who are coming up to reinforce his enemy. He knows he cannot delay; if he does, he will soon be overwhelmed by the 20,000 men ahead of him. A man who neglects his soul's salvation does not look at what is ahead of him; and the enemy comes up and overwhelms him. Death comes, as it probably came to this man, at the midnight hour, unexpectedly and unbidden. You know more men die at night than in the day-from twelve to three o'clock in the morning. How many men die unexpectedly. Look at the millions and millions who die unexpectedly. Although we live an allotted time-threescore and ten-when death comes, it comes unexpectedly. This man had provided for his family; he had built up a great business and had provided for his own wants; but he made no provision for his own soul. You might have gone to his house and taken up a pencil and written on everything he possessed, "Thou fool." He spent all his life in accumulating money; and then he had to leave it all. A sailor ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN. was telling a man that his father and his grandfather and his great grandfather, were all drowned at sea, and the man said, "Why don't you get prepared to die, then; you may be drowned any day too?" "Where did your father die?" inquired the sailor. "On land." "And "And your great grandfather?" your grandfather?" "On land." "On land, too." "Are you prepared to die?" "Well, no." "Why don't you get prepared?" asked the sailor. He didn't think he was in danger continually himself, but that the sailor was. I think the greatest text that is given to us is, "Prepare to meet thy God." Are you ready? Why do you neglect any longer to accept salvation? All the children of Israel had to do to be cured was to look on that brazen serpent; they were healed instantly. If they neglected to look upon that serpent, they died. All you have got to do is, to look upon Christ and receive life. Look at the Indian who is in his canoe. He has gone to sleep. Perhaps he may be dreaming about hunting-grounds; perhaps he may be dreaming of his friends, in the Indian village. Yet he is in the rapids, which are Without any taking him over the cataract. He is not rowing toward it; he is sound asleep; the paddle lies in the bottom of that canoe. effort of his own, the current is taking him toward the fall. By-andby, the poor man wakes up, and he sees he is on the brink of the cataract. In a few moments he will plunge over. He gives an unearthly cry, and down he goes into the jaws of death. All here to-night are in the current that is carrying them to the cataract-rushing on to judgment. A great many things in this world are not sure. may buy grain, you may buy land, you are not sure whether the value will go up or down; but there is one thing that you are sure "For it is appointed unto men once to die, of, and that is death. but after this the judgment." After that the judgment. You can be sure of that. You Now the question is, Are you ready? I can imagine some of you Is there a man saying: "I've got time enough; I don't propose to settle this question just yet; there's a good many years before me." who can say this? Is there a man who can say, "To-morrow is mine?" We are on the journey toward the judgment. Have you got a hope in the future; have you that which will take you over the grave; have you that power which will carry you through death and judgment? You go to Graceland and summon up the dead. Bring them into this hall in the midst of this audience, with their ghastly windingsheets, and see how many of them died old. You will find that more Why, whole populations are swept of them died young than old. into eternity before they reach their allotted age. Instead of threescore and ten, the allotted age now-a-days is about thirty years. My friends, we will soon be in eternity. What are you doing? Are you reflecting? Some of you are on the second round of the ladder. You are re 33 fusing. I was talking to a lady last night, and she said calmly, coolly, and deliberately: "I don't want him; I don't want Christ." "Do you really mean this?" I asked. "Yes, I don't want him." I presume a few years ago she would not have said this; but she had got on the second round of the ladder. And some now despise it. If you get a tract upon the streets, you just tear it up. You mock and make light of the God of your father and your mother. You have got on the bottom round of the ladder, and you despise the gift of God. My friends, that is the last round. A man has sunk pretty low when he despises the gift of God-when he hurls it back to God and says, "I will not have it." Now, I want to ask you this question, "What are you going to do? Will you think a few minutes, young man? Will you stop for a few minutes, and just think? I wish I could wake this audion e up for five minutes. Just ask yourselves where you are;" or, to make it more personal, "What am I? Where am I going?" A dying man called a Hindoo priest to his bedside, and asked him where he was going. The priest said he was going into an animal. "Well, after that where am I going?" "Going into another animal." "Where next?" "Into another animal;" and he went on telling the man he would enter into this and that animal, until he stopped. Then the man asked, "Where shall I go after that?" and the poor heathen priest could not tell him. Ah, won't you settle this question tonight? "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Suppose a man has the whole wealth of Chicago rolled at his feet, and then he dies; what has he gained? A father was on his death-bed lately, and he called in his son. The boy was careless; he would not take death into account. He wanted to enjoy the pleasures of life; and he took no heed of the future. The old man said: "My son, I want to ask you one favor, and that is, when I am dead promise me you will come into this room for five minutes every day for thirty days. You are to come alone, not to bring a book with you; and sit here." The thoughtless young man promised to do it. The father died. The first thing when he went into that room that he thought of was his father's prayer-his father's words, and his father's God; and before the five minutes expired he was crying out, "God be merciful to me." It seems to me if I could get men to always ask themselves, "What is going to be my end?" "Where am I going to spend eternity?" it would not be long before they would come to Christ. You may be moralists; you may be proprietors of a successful business; you may be what the world calls successful business men; yet, "Where are you going to spend eternity?" Can you tell me where you will be next year? Can you tell me where you are going to be ten years hence? Can you tell me? I want to read a little notice on a card which is headed, "I have missed it at last." A few months ago, in New York, a physician called upon a young man who was ill. He sat for a little by the bedside, examining his patient, and then he honestly told him the sad intelligence that he had but a short time to live. The young man was astonished; he did not expect it would come to that so soon. He forgot that death comes "in such an hour as ye think not." At length he looked up in the face of the doctor, and with a most despairing counterance, repeated the expression, “I have missed it-at last." "What have you missed?" inquired the tender-hearted, sympathizing physician. "I have missed it-at last," again the young man replied. The doctor, not in the least comprehending what the poor young man meant, said: "My dear young man, will you be so good as to tell me what you" He instantly interrupted, saying, "Oh! doctor, it is a sad story-a sad-sad story that I have to tell. But I have missed it!" "Missed what?" "Doctor, I have missed the salvation of my soul." "Oh! say not so. It is not so. Do you remember the thief on the cross?" "Yes, I remember the thief on the cross. And I remember that he never said to the Holy Spirit-Go thy way. But I did. And now he is saying to me, Go your way." He lay gasping awhile, and looking up with a vacant, staring eye, he said: "I was awakened, and was anxious about my soul a little time ago. But I did not want religion then. Something seemed to say to me, Don't postpone it. I knew I ought not to do it. I knew I was a great sinner and needed a Savior. I resolved, however, to dismiss the subject for the present. Yet I could not get my own consent to do it, until I had promised that I would take it up again, at a time not remote and more favorable. I bargained away, insulted, and grieved away the Holy Spirit. I never thought of coming to this. I meant to have religion, and make my salvation sure. And now I have missed itat last." "You remember," said the doctor, "that there were some who came at the eleventh hour!' 66 My eleventh hour," he rejoiced, "was when I had that call of the Spirit. I.have had none since-İ shall not have. I am given over to be lost." "Not lost," said the doctor, "you may yet be saved." "No-not saved-never. He tells me I may go my way now. I know it-I feel it, feel it here," laying his hand upon his heart. Then he burst out in despairing agony: "Oh, I have missed it! I have sold my soul for nothing-a feather -a straw-undone forever!" This was said with such unutterable, indescribable despondency, that no other words were said in reply. After lying a few moments, he raised his head, and looking all around the room as if for some desired object-turning his eyes in every direction-then burying his face in the pillow, he again exclaimed, in agony and horror: "Oh, I have missed it at last!" and he died. Dear friends, you may not hear my voice again. I may be speaking to you for the last time. You may never come into this Taber 66 nacle again, and I beg of you as a friend, and as a brother, do not go out of this Tabernacle without salvation. Let this night be the night that you will accept everlasting life. Let this be the night on which will cry from the depth of your heart, you 66 Let me have Christ, let me have salvation." Though it cost me my right hand or my right eye, I will have Christ to-night." May that be the cry of every one here to-night, and salvation be accepted for time and eternity, by every soul in this building. May God wake up every soul here to-night, and when that summons comes may you go to triumph over the grave, and so enter into a glorious immortality. ON SAVING CHILDREN. "Bring him unto me." MARK 9: 19. I have had a little trouble to find a text for to-night. All last night and this morning I was trying to find one, but could not. This morning, however, in coming out of Farwell Hall prayer-meeting, a mother, whom I have known for a great many years, came to me with tears running down her cheeks, and, with grief, nearly sinking to the floor. "Oh! Mr. Moody," she said, "have these meetings to close and not one of my children saved?" And the thought flashed on my mind, I have got a text; and it is in the ninth chapter of Mark, which we have read: "Bring him unto me." The disciples had failed to cure this man's son. James and John and Peter had been with the Master upon the mount, where they had seen the transfiguration; and when they came down from that scene, they found a great company around his disciples, asking them questions. I suppose the skeptics were laughing and ridiculing the religion of Jesus Christ and its teachers. His disciples had failed; they had not been able to cast out the dumb spirit. And the father said, when asked a question: "I have brought my son to your disciples, and they cannot heal him;" and he said, "Bring him unto me.' " When he was brought, the devil threw him down. The moment the poor deaf and dumb man came into the presence of Christ, the spirit within began to tear at him. This is often the case now. Sometimes, when there is a good deal of prayer going up for people, they become worse. When the Spirit begins with men, instead of getting better, they sometimes become worse, and it seems as if God |