What am I to do?" Says I, "There must be some mistake. Why I know he has been seeking you for twenty years; and if you have been seeking him, you would have met long before now." She said, "What am I to do?". I said: "Do nothing, just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved." She said: "I have heard that until my head aches. Every body says believe, believe, believe; and I am none the wiser." I said, "I will drop that word." I said: "Trust the Lord Jesus Christ, as you stand here." She said: "If I say I will trust the Lord, will he save me." I said: "No, you might say that a thousand times, and not do it. Will you do it?" She said: "I trust the Lord Jesus Christ with all my soul, and I don't feel any difference." I said: "You have been seeking after feeling, you have been seeking for feeling in your heart. Now, there is no promise in the Word of God where you will get feeling. There is no verse, from Genesis to Revelation, where feeling is attached to salvation." I quoted, "He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him." "Now, I said, "will you not put your trust in him? Trust him, and let your feelings take care of themselves." She looked at me about five minutes it seemed, but I don't suppose it was more than one; and then she reached out her hand, and said: "I trust the Lord Jesus Christ this night to save my soul." There was no tear, no prayer, but there was a decision. "I trust." She turned to the pastor of the church, and calling him by name, said: "I trust the Lord Jesus Christ to save my soul." Turning to one of the elders she said: "I trust the Lord Jesus Christ to save my soul." She started and went down the aisle, and just as she was going out the door she met another officer of the church, and she said: "I am trusting Jesus to save me." The next night she was in front of me. I did not have to go down that night and ask her if she loved Jesus. At the close of the meeting she was the first to go into the inquiry-room, and when I got in there she had her arm around a young lady's neck, and she was saying: "It is only to trust him." She led more souls to Christ in two weeks in that church than any one. If you trust him to-night, it will be the best Sabbath in all your life.

The time has come for us to close these Sunday night meetings. Probably this is the last Sunday night service we will have. Some of you have been here nine Sunday nights; and now on this last night what are you going to do? Are you going on distrusting God; or are you going to put your trust in him? Let this be the golden night-the blessed night of your salvation. Let this be the night of your decision. Now take Job's motto, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." Say: "I will trust him, in spite of my doubts or my feelings; in spite of the devil. In spite of the powers of darkness and the devil combined, I will trust him." Will you not lay

hold on eternal life? As you are sweeping on towards the judg ment, lay hold upon it.

There was a man on a broken raft, in the river at Pittsburgh, and the news spread rapidly that the man was in danger. In coming down the stream, he would have to pass three bridges. At the first bridge a rope was let down, but he missed it. The people shouted to him to catch the rope at the second bridge. He missed that; and now his last hope is to catch the rope at the third bridge. He comes near the last bridge, and he seizes the rope, and is drawn up out of the jaws of death. Sinner, it may be that the rope is held here for you to-night for the last time. I beg of you to lay hold of it. Don't go out of this building without laying hold of it. Christ is near, if you will have him. Young man, will you have him? Thank God, he says he will. Is it not the most reasonable thing you can do to put your trust in him to-night?

I can imagine some of you saying, "I don't see it yet." Suppose you are in a brick building five stories high, which is on fire; and the flames have got round the stairs, leaving no way for you to save yourself. Up comes a fire-escape, and a man shouts to you, "Leap into the fire-escape!" Wouldn't you do it? If you stay there, you perish. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is the fire-escape. Will you not leap to-night into his arms. Will you say from this hour, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." Did you ever hear or read of a man regretting in his dying hour that he put his trust in God? Did you ever hear of such a man? Can any infidel say that he has heard of such a man? You have seen and heard of many a man regretting that he had not trusted him more. You have seen men die without God and without hope, that have regretted not putting their trust in him; but never a man regretted trusting him. During the war I saw men die without God and without hope; and I can say there is as much difference between a man dying in a glorious hope of immortality and the man dying without hope, as there is between Heaven and hell, or darkness and light. It is a terrible thing for a man without hope to feel the cold, icy hand of Death upon him. What will you do in the swelling of Jordan without Christ, if you do not put your trust in him?

I remember coming down the Tennessee River after a battle, and we had four hundred and fifty wounded men on board the vessel. A good many of them were mortally wounded. A few of us had

gone to look after their temporal and spiritual wants; and we made up our minds we would not let a man die on the boat without telling him of Christ and Heaven-that we would tell them of Christ as we gave them a cup of cold water. We found one young man unconscious. His leg had been amputated, and he was sinking rapidly. I asked the doctor, "Will this man live?" The doctor said: "We have amputated one of his legs, and he has lost so much blood he has

got to die." I said: "Is there anything you can do to restore consciousness?" The doctor said: "Give him a little brandy and water, and it will bring him to for a few minutes." I gave him the brandy and water, and I said to the man next to him, "Do you know this young man?" His eye brightened up and he said: "We came from the same town; we belong to the same company; we enlisted together." I said, "Where does his father and mother live?" The man said: "His father is dead, his mother is a widow." I thought the mother would be anxious to get some message from her boy, and I asked if she was a Christian. He said: "Yes, she is a godly woman." "Has he any brothers or sisters?"

"He is an only son; but he has two sisters."

Then I was anxious to get some message from the son to the widowed mother. I lingered around some time, and every once in a while I would speak the young man's name. After I had spoken his name a number of times, he opened his eyes-beautiful black eyes. I gave him a little more brandy and water, and said: "William, do you know where you are?" He says, "Oh, yes; I am on my way home to mother." I said: "The doctor told me you can not live. Have you any message to send to your mother?" He said, "Tell my mother that I died trusting in Christ." Oh, how sweet it was. It seemed as if I was at the very gate of Heaven. I said, "Is there anything else?" He was sinking rapidly, but he said: "Yes, tell my mother and sisters to be sure and meet me in Heaven." In a few minutes he was unconscious, and in a few hours he died. What a glorious end. “Tell my mother I died trusting in Christ." Put your trust in Christ. He sticketh closer than a brother. Now I beg of you, at the close of this meeting, to bow your heads and put your trust in him. Say like Job, "I will trust him from this hour." Lay hold on eternal life. May God bring hundreds and thousands to trust in him to-night.

NEW.

"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom." JOHN 3: 8.

I suppose there is not a man in Philadelphia but has had a great many persons wish him "A Happy New Year!" I suppose you have had hundreds or thousands wish you that, during the past fortyeight hours. It is one thing to wish a man "A Happy New Year," and another thing to tell him how to make it happy. I want to tell you to-night, if I can, how to make it a happy New Year. I have no doubt there are hundreds, if not thousands, in this audience who are making new plans for the future. Many are making new resolutions, and many have pledged themselves, perhaps to their mothers or wives, that they will not drink any more strong drink. You have entered into new covenants. You know it is a time when we look back over the past, and take a look into the future. A person must be very thoughtless who does not stop at these mile-stones, and consider where he is going, and how things are going on with him. Business men are now taking account of stock, to see what their profits and losses have been. It is well for everyone to stop at the commencement of a new year, and look over his past life; and see where he is, and what he is, and where he is going.

Some men say: "I am going to break off this habit of swearing; I am going to swear no more; I am going to reform." I have heard men talk in that way. I was for a number of years connected with the Young Men's Christian Association of Chicago, and that brought me into contact with a great many young men. I wrote out a great many pledges for them. I wrote out resolutions for men to sign, to bind them by putting their names to a piece of paper. I have known men to open their veins and write out resolutions in their own blood, and break them as quick as they made them. I found I was wasting my time, ink and paper in writing out those resolutions. All the pledges I got men to make away from Christ, did not amount to anything. There are hundreds now making that same mistake. You have tried it before; you have tried it hundreds of times. You have given your word that you would do this and do that, and you have thought that you would reform; but you have failed every time. You are trying to do what God could not do himself; that is, to mend this old erring nature.

Now, to-night I will tell you how to make this year a happy new year. And my text will find in one word-"NEW."

you

It is a New Year, and I want to give you seven new things. The

first is a new birth-a new heart, and until you get that all your resolutions are good for nothing. We are no match for Satan. Man wants not to be reconstructed, but to be regenerated and born of the Spirit. We must have a new birth. I have no hope of any reformation, or any change, until a man is born again. "Except a man be born again," says Christ, "he cannot see the kingdom of God." That is what we want to preach this first Sunday of the year, a new birth.

Some people say it is "culture" men want. Well, that does not reform them. Some of the greatest rascals we have in this country are men of culture. Some say it is education, but some of the worst men we have are educated men. That is not regeneration. Education, culture, and science, may be good in their place; but they cannot take the place of a new birth. You cannot make flesh any better; but when the new nature comes, then you can keep the flesh down. Have you been born again? If you have not, let me make this statement again. When the kingdom of God is planted within you, you can serve God and not before. I was told before I was converted, that I was to keep the law, and that law that came from Sinai was a heavenly law. But what man wants is to be born of God. God is a Spirit, and they that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth. No earthly change can take the place of this new birth. I would a great deal rather preach to thieves and vagabonds than to good moralists, because it is hard to convince them that they need a Savior. But these men that have already learned that lesson see the importance of getting out of themselves, and getting into Christ. Not but it is better to be a moral than an immoral man, and to be a temperate man than to be a drunkard; but if a man makes his morals his God, he has a false hope of heaven. God never mends anything; he creates anew. One of our citizens was telling me of some one in Philadelphia who built a house for himself, and he wanted to make it imitation stone. So he just built of brick and put on a coating of plaster. Every winter the frost scaled the plaster off, and every spring he had to get it replastered. At last he got tired, and he took the front of the house out and put in brown stone, and he has not had to touch it since. It is a new house. He does not need to be patching up the old one. But that is what many men and women do in Philadelphia every year. They say they are going to begin a new life; and they begin to patch up the old nature, and they get worse than they were before. Now, my friends, all these resolutions will not do anything for you. They do not change you. It is a new creation you want. It is a new man. If you are born again, your yoke will be easy and your burden light. Suppose our legislators should make a law that no one in this country could keep. Suppose they should make a law that every person in this country should speak French within twenty-four