in a low, solemn voice, he said, "Jesus was amongst them," and repeated the words, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." The excitement of the audience was very great, and scores of persons, both male and female, wept freely. In the succeeding few sentences he begged them earnestly not to let the Saviour knock in vain. Two or three more anecdotes were given, all illustrative of the love which Christ bore for sinners, and the tender and unwearying patience with which he sought them out. Then he concluded by begging all to join in silent prayer.

WHAT ARE THE GOSPEL TIDINGS?

In one of his addresses at Liverpool, Mr. Moody chose as the text of his sermon the 18th and 19th verses of the 4th chapter of St. Luke's Gospel :-" The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." In Isaiah they found the saying "A day of vengeance is at hand"; but after a gap of eighteen hundred years they had the saying of Christ that He came "to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." They found that in all ages men were anointed of the Lord to do a special work. Moses had been anointed. He turned water into blood, but Christ turned water into wine-the wine of life. Samson was anointed. He slew a thousand men, but Christ was anointed to overthrow the works of the devil, and to save men. David was anointed, he went out and slew the giant of Gath. Christ was anointed, but not to slay; He was anointed not to make wretchedness and misery, but to preach the Gospel to the poor and to heal the brokenhearted. Let them think then, of the brokenhearted in Liverpool. Would to God that he could make the people here believe in the Gospel. This town would be filled with joy if men would only believe in the Gospel, for it was good tidings. "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature were almost the last words of Christ. He could imagine Peter saying in tones of remonstrance, "Shall we preach the Gospel to every creature ?" and the Saviour's reply, "Yes, Peter, go back to Jerusalem and offer the Gospel to the sinners there first."

He could even imagine Him say, "Go to that man who struck Me with the palm of his hand, and tell him that My blood was shed for him, and I have nothing but love for him; go hunt up that Roman soldier, tell him that I forgive him freely, and that he will have a mansion in My father's house if he will accept it." Thanks be to God the Gospel was to be preached to every creature. No man in Liverpool was so black that God would not forgive him. Mr. Moody then gave several anecdotes in exemplification of God's willingness to pardon at once the returning sinner, concluding with one intended to typify the great joy arising from that peace which acceptance of the Gospel alone can confer. He said that when the war was going on between the American colonists and this country, commissioners were sent over here to see whether something could not be done to bring about a reconciliation. They sent over very discouraging reports, and the ship which was bringing them back was waited with much anxiety. Tidings of the vessel being off Sandy Hook were received, and the commissioners were rowed up the river, and as they approached they shouted to those on the shore, "Peace, peace," and the cry was taken up and rang along the streets of New York. That night he (the preacher) brought great tidings of peace on earth and good-will towards men.

At another service, Mr. Moody said, the Gospel consists of four things, Christ died, Christ buried, Christ risen, and Christ ascended. I heard of a poor woman who with her child was washed ashore from a wreck. They tried to separate the child from its parent for the purpose of burial, but they couldn't do it, and they had to be buried together. It is so with Christ, He has taken the sinner down in the grave with him, IIe is close to his heart, and He will take us up with Him in heaven. Nothing can separate us if we cling closely to Him. It was my privilege to go into Richmond with the army of General Grant. I learned that the slaves were holding their jubilee meeting as the coloured people were first coming into their liberty, and they had just become free men and free women. I went to the African church, the largest in the Southern States, to see the meeting, and I found it crowded with men and women, although there were no daily papers to announce the meeting, and if there had been they would not have given notice of it. One of the coloured chaplains of a coloured regiment was asked to speak. Now, I have heard the most eloquent men of your country and other countries. but I never heard

any eloquence like that. He said, "Brothers, you rejoice to-day that you are for ever free, for ever free! That little child has been torn from your embrace and sold off to some distant city for the last time. Your hearts are never to be broken again in that way." The men clapped their hands and shouted " Glory be to God," yet no one accused them of being excited, for they were for ever free! He said, "Young men, you are free. You have heard the crack of the slavedriver's whip for the last time. Your posterity shall be free! Young men, rejoice." They shouted and clapped their hands and said, "Glory be to God." They believed the glad tidings. And what is the Gospel? "To proclaim liberty to the captive, and give sight to the blind." They believed the good news; but I bring you better news than that. There was not a man in that assembly who had got such a bad master as you have got; our God can give you a better. Poor woman, your drunken husband shall be saved; he shall be changed. (A Voice—“ He shall, lad.") Let us lift up a united cry for every drunkard of Liverpool. Nothing is too hard for our God to give. It is the Gospel of peace. Now, who will believe the Gospel? who will believe it?—who will believe it to-day? It is giving and taking. Here is a glass of water (holding a glass of water in his hand). Now, if there is a man there who says, "Give me a drink," and I am giving it to him, all he has to do is to take it. He does not keep asking for it when I am holding it out. He takes it; I give it; and that is the Gospel. If God says, "Let him take," and is going to save him, all the devils in hell won't stop Him.

SATAN AT CHURCH AND CHAPEL.

At one of the Birmingham services Mr. Moody read the first portion of the 3rd chapter of John, which he made the subject of an animated and earnest discourse upon the subject of regeneration and conversion. He said that in sermons it was common to leave the "application" to the close, but on the present occasion he wished to have the application first, and ask everybody present if they had been born again, without which they could not enter the kingdom of God. There was no doctrine more clearly taught in the New Testament than that of regeneration; but there was no subject upon which the

Church and the world was more mixed up about. Some people told him that they were converted when they were baptized as babies, while others said they were Christians because they went to church regularly; but let him tell them that Satan went to church and chapel. There was nobody who went so regularly as he; he went to pick up the seed when it was sown by the preacher; he was in church before the congregation, and was the last to leave. If going to church or chapel regularly was their only hope of eternal life, it was a most miserable one. Let them neither rest upon the ordinances of the Church, although these were very well in their way if they were converted, but they must be converted first. He went on to enforce that, though they might not be able to understand the philosophy of the birth of the Spirit, it was none the less a fact; and that they should not wait to understand the matter before they accepted Christ as their Saviour, and were converted.

THE LOVE OF GOD.

At one of the Dublin services Mr. Moody said he had good news for them. If there were men or women there who were not Christians he wanted to tell them what he had not read in the Bible before

was converted, and that was that God was love. For six thousand years the devil had been trying to make mankind believe that God bated them. The moment a man felt that God was love he could come to Christ. One time they built a church in Chicago, and caused the words "God is Love" to be displayed in illuminated letters within it. A wicked man came in, saw the words, and then went out, and after going down two or three blocks came back and stayed for the sermon; and after he had heard it he surrendered his soul to God. There was a vast difference between human and divine love. God loved all, and did not wish the death of any. Judas betrayed Christ for money, and Peter denied him with an oath; but the Redeemer spoke kindly of them. How differently would men have resented such treatment. No love was so strong as that of a mother. Nothing in the wide world could separate a true mother from her child. But God's love was much stronger than a mother, for His love was unchangeable-unending-everlasting. A great many people expressed love in words, but did not show it in deeds. It was not so

with God. He (Mr. Moody) was once a hard-hearted man; but what broke his heart was the conviction of God's love for man. After the last French war the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Paris was imprisoned. His cell had a window shaped like a cross, and with a pencil he wrote upon the arms of the cross that they denoted the height, the length, the breadth, and the depth of God's love. That man knew something of what God's love was. That they were afflicted was no proof that God did not love them. If God were not angry at sin He would not be holy. If an earthly father had a son who had lied, swore, did wicked things, and endangered the lives of others by his temper, his father in disgust might say, "I don't care." But God could not say that, because He loved the sinner while He hated sin. He (Mr. Moody) had a daughter whose temper often led her to speak quickly to her mother and her brothers. One morning when she had spoken very much in this way he would not give her a kiss as usual before she went to school. She went away, and he looked through the window and saw her sobbing as she walked down the street. When she came home she was reconciled to him, and he never loved her so much as he did then. "All things work together for good to them that love God." Let a man get great honours, wealth and possessions, and then when he could lord it over other men he was apt to begin to patronize God. The men for whom God did most were generally the men that thought least of Him. But a little prosperity, a little trouble, a little adversity, succeeding each other often worked for good. Afflictions might not be understood now, but they would be made plain hereafter. When the dark waves of persecution, trouble, and affliction came upon them it was all right. God loved the sinner. Christ died for the ungodly. Instead of trying to make out that they were not bad, let them confess that they were, and then they would get the poor sinners' title to heaven. During the Cuban civil war of 1867 an Englishman who got amongst them was tried as a spy, convicted, and condemned to be shot. The American and the English ministers remonstrated with the Cuban authorities, pointing out that he was innocent, but in vain. The time for the execution was fixed. The man's grave was dug. out, and the muskets of the soldiers were pointed at him, when the English and American ministers galloped up on horses; both dismounted, and wrapping the flags of their nations round the prisoner, shouted to the Cuban soldiers, "Fire on our flags if you dare!"

He was brought