LECTURES ON WORKS.

THE text was taken from St. Mark xiii. 34, "To every man his work.” Just mark the wording of this, said Mr. Moody; it is not every man has a work, or has some work; but it is every man his work—a work which no one else can do. Ask yourselves, each of you, what that work is. Put to yourselves the question, What is the talent which God has bestowed on you? what can you do? for there is some distinct work, be it great or little, cut out for you by God. Oh, there are those who tell you, "I have nothing to give-nothing can be expected from me!" But if they looked into themselves, they would find they were held back-by what? By leanness? By nothing of the kind-by laziness. Still, God gives us as many talents as we can take care of. If one of us has, or thinks he has, but one talent, and takes it home, and wraps it up in a napkin, or buries it in the ground, then it is taken away. But if he turns it to account, I tell you he will soon find grace growing. He will soon find others to develop and to make much of before long. I know people going on these eighteen years in the same groove. They have not grown. They go on with the same prayers as ever, and, if it is right to say so, with as little spiritual life, as little growth, because as little vitality, as when I first listened to them. Why is this? I often thought it was because self was not ignored sufficiently, and salvation not made the primary and motive power by which they were guided and influenced. You must banish self out of your thoughts in working for God. You must put Christ above all and before all. There is work for you, and you must do it. You must not aim at show; for God works even by base means, and the shows of the world are as nothing. Some gentleman spoke of Jericho here to-day. See how its walls were knocked flat. The high priests and all the host went round blowing ram's horns. Ram's horns! Just fancy the Archbishop of Dublin and Cardinal Cullen going round the city blowing ram's horns. We should expect silver horns and gold horns for them. But God would have none of this. He selected ram's horns-base means to a great end. Ah I tell you,

you must throw aside your high notions, and take the means God has put to your hand. You must do your own work-that work cut out lor you and within your reach-even though it be seemingly humble and not important in your eyes; for remember, as I said, that God works by base ends. that no flesh may glory. Every man must act

as if no other man were in existence, for no two have the same talent offered. But we must have courage. Courage, courage. That is what God repeated to Joshua five times. That is what he inspired Gideon with when He said, "Let him that is faint of heart turn back." Two-and-twenty thousand wheeled about and went back, but the promise was then that one man shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight. The hosts dwindled down to three hundred; but look at the triumph accomplished. Why all this? That God might confound the great things of this world, lest men should say it was won by their own strength; for God is jealous of His glory, and will not give it to another, and uses base means, lest the flesh should be puffed up. I went to a saloon keeper (the American title for publican) once, to try and get him to allow his children to attend the Sabbath-school. He was an infidel, and he told me he did not believe in the Saviour, and that if I did not begone he would quickly make me. I went again and again, and at last he said, "If you let me read Paine's Age of Reason to you, I will hear you read the New Testament. I agreed. He used to circulate tracts by Voltaire and other infidels, and read the Boston Investigator, a journal devoted to the propagation of infidel opinions. For nineteen years he had not been inside a Church door. I asked him to go to church. No, he would not. I then proposed to hold a meeting in his house, and he agreed. "But now," said he, "you are not to do all the preaching. I want my share of the time, and I want time for my friends." "Well," said I, "I will let you and your friends speak for forty-five minutes, and let me have the last fifteen." Next day

(Sunday), at eleven o'clock, the room was filled with infidels and sceptics. The moment I went in they began to ask me questions; but I said, "I have not come to answer questions, but to preach." Then they wanted me to proceed. I said they should give me the last fifteen minutes. One after another they spoke, but they differed so much in opinion, they were near coming to blows. Some said there was a God, and others that there was not. When the forty-five minutes were up, I said, "Hold hard! It is my turn. Let us pray." But the old infidel said, "Look here, young man, the New Testament says there must be two agreed to pray." I had a little boy with me, and he began to pray :-“ Oh, God have mercy upon thos wicked men that have been talking against Thee." After th little boy prayed, I got up. The infidels one by one dropped

H

out, and the old man came to me with quivering lips and the tears coming down his cheeks, and said, "Mr. Moody, you can have my boys to go to your Sabbath-school; and he added, "I wish you'd pray for my soul." Afterwards he himself became a bright light in the Church of God. It took me months to get him. What we want is perseverance. Mr. Stevenson reminded me that we also want enthusiasm. Norman M'Leod once said when, at a racecourse, two horses came in neck and neck, the excitement stirred up was intense, and extended over the whole country; but, though people might get excited about a horserace, if they were excited about religion, people said slightingly, "It is all excitement." We want enthusiasm. With holy enthusiasm, Christianity will become a mighty power in the land. At the General Assembly in Scotland, in 1867, the Rev. Dr. Duff, the celebrated Indian missionary, then a professor in the Free Church College, was invited to make an appeal to enlist young men in the Indian missionary service. There was money in the bank for the mission work; but the men could not be got. The old man spoke for an hour and a half, pleading for India as never man pleaded, until he fainted away. He was carried into the hall, and when he recovered, he said, "Where am I? Oh, yes, I remember; I was making a plea for India; I had not got quite through. Take me back to the hall, and I will finish my speech." They said, "No; it will be your death." But he said, "I will die if I don't;" and he was taken back. It was a most solemn scene. The tears coursed down many faces as the old man said "Is it true, fathers and mothers of Scotland, that you will not let your sons go to India to tell the story of Christ-of God's love-to the heathen? When the English army wants officers, you are ready to let them go. If it be true, Mr. Moderator, as you announced here to-night, that young men cannot be had to go, although I have lost my health in the country, where I have already spent a quarter of a century, I will be off to-morrow to the shores of the Ganges, and die there a witness for Christ." That is what I call holy enthusiasm. That is what we want. The old men "I would like to haste to the rescue, but I am getting grey, may say, and my natural force has abated. But old men can cheer on the young. I was sent into the world an orphan at the age of seven to work for my living. I had to go to a town thirteen miles from my widowed mother. I felt it was a long way then. My brother had

to me.

gone there a year before me; but I could not keep from tears, I was so home sick. Going down the street with him, he said, "Here is a man who will give you a cent. He gives every new boy a cent." I brightened up, and thought him the best-looking man I ever saw. I feared he would go by without speaking to me; but he stopped, and said to my brother, "This is a new boy." Putting his hand on my head, he pronounced a benediction over me-" God bless you, my boy! You have a future in heaven." He took out a cent and gave it I can feel the pressure of the old man's hand on my head to-day. By kind attention you don't know how much you may do. I thoroughly appreciated the address by Mr. Dowling this morning, on Life, light, and love." If we work under the influence of the constraining love of Christ, we cannot help but to draw men to Christ. Have courage, perseverance, and enthusiasm. We also want sympathy. The moment we get into sympathy with a man, how easy it is to reach him, to do him good, to draw him to the Cross of Christ. A little girl in America was one day drawing sticks out of the river to bring them home for firewood, and in trying to get one of them which was beyond her reach, she fell into the water and was drowned. Her poor mother was quite distracted with grief. I went with my daughter to her house, and in the wretched abode sat the father of the dead little girl, laughing in a drunken state, ignorant of what had happened. The poor woman said she wanted the necessaries for the burial of her child. I provided her with them, and left. On our way home my little girl asked me if she was lost in like manner how would I feel? I said I should feel very sad. "Do you feel sad for the mother of the little girl?" she then asked. I was touched, and I went back and knelt down beside the poor woman and prayed. I did not let her go alone to the cemetery afterwards. I went with the drunkard's wife to her child's grave. Sympathy will reach the masses. And now, my friends, I thank you for coming to this Convention. To me this has been one of the sweetest days of my life. May every minister go back to the country fortified by the Spirit of God to work as they have never worked before. May every Sabbath-school teacher go back to work as they have never worked before. May the spirit of unity fall upon us all. May God's grace be upon us all, and Christ shall have all the praise and all the glory. Amen.

LECTURE ON "THE BLOOD."

That Book did not

Before commencing this lecture Mr. Moody said he had received a letter, and would answer what it contained. The writer said—" If believing in Christ's death, or the shedding of His blood as an atonement for sin, be the only way by which a sinner can be saved, how is it that Christ Himself never spoke of it in that way, nor do we find it mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as the doctrine preached to the Gentiles, who, being ignorant of the Jewish sacrificial ritual, would surely have been instructed in this new fundamental doctrine. They find Paul, in Acts xv. and 9th verse, speaking of the Gentiles as having their hearts purified by faith, not by blood; and also saying in verse 11, 'We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus we shall be saved, even as they." He wondered how this person had read his Bible. God helping him, he would answer the question, because he believed the blood was the foundation of all their hopes. Take the blood out of the Bible and he would not carry it home. teach anything else. For the last 4000 years it has been telling the one story that man was saved by the blood. The first glimpse they caught of the blood was in the 21st verse of the 3rd chapter of Genesis, in which it was stated that unto Adam and his wife the Lord made coats of skin. Skins could not have been got from animals without the shedding of blood. In the next chapter it was stated that Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock, and that the Lord had respect for Abel's offering, but no respect for the offering of Cain. Why? Because there was no blood in it. Abel came to God according to God's way. Cain came in his own way. He was like a great many who were saying now-" What have I to do with blood: why can I not come in my own way; if I do about as nearly right as I can, will it not be all right with me?" Cain did not see why his beautiful fruit should not have been more acceptable than a bleeding lamb, which was repulsive to him; but Abel came by the way of blood, and his offering was accepted. There were a great many Cainites now who did not like the doctrine; but he challenged them to find in the Bible any other way to heaven save by blood.

In the 8th chapter of Genesis they learned that the first thing Noah did after coming out of the ark was to put blood between him and his sins. In the 12th of Exodus they learned that the angel of