SAVIOUR AND
AND SINNER.

CHRIST IS ALL IN ALL.

CHRIST is all in all to every one who has truly found Him. IIe is our Saviour, Redeemer, Deliverer, Shepherd, Teacher, and also sustains towards us many more offices, to which I desire to call your attention.

1. If we turn to Luke ii. 10, 11, we find Christ is there announced as our Saviour. "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto us is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." We learn to know Christ as our Saviour, to meet Ilim on mount Calvary, to look on Him as the bleeding Lamb of God, before we know Him as our Redeemer, Deliverer, and Shepherd. Now, looking round upon this vast assembly, I, who do not know the hearts of the people, cannot know whether you can say that Christ is your Saviour. There are many, I trust, who can say this, and who rejoice in His salvation; while, without being uncharitable, I am afraid there are many who know nothing personally of Jesus as their Saviour.

He is offered to every one of you to-day as a Saviour: "God gave Him up freely for us all," that we all through Him might be saved. If you are belonging to this world, I can prove that you have a Saviour. If you belonged to some other planet, such as the moon or any of the stars, then I could not say a Saviour was offered to you; for it is not revealed whether the people of these distant worlds, even if they are inhabited, require salvation or not. But this Í know, that every man on this globe has a Saviour offered him.

I have no sympathy with those men who try to limit God's salvation to a certain few. I believe that Christ died for all who will come. I have received many letters finding fault with me, and saying I surely don't believe the doctrine of election. I do believe in clection ; but I have no business to preach that doctrine to the world at large. The world has nothing to do with election; it has only to do with the invitation, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." That's the message. I am sent to preach the gospel to all.

After you have received salvation, we can talk about election. It's a doctrine for Christians, for the Church, not for the unconverted world. Our message is "good tidings, which shall be to all people;

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for unto you is born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." All people, this Saviour is proffered to you. Accept Him, and God will accept you; reject Him, and God will reject you. Your eternal destiny depends on your refusal or otherwise to accept the proffered Saviour. The case is simply one of giving and taking. God gives; I receive. We must, then, first of all know Christ as our Saviour.

2. But He is still more: He is our Redeemer. Supposing I saw a man tumble into a river, and I were to jump in and rescue him, I should be a saviour to him-I should have saved him. But when I brought the man ashore, I should probably leave him, and do nothing further.

But the Lord does more. He not only saves us, but He redeems us-that is, buys us back. He ransoms us from the power of sin, as if I should promise to watch over that rescued man for ever, and see that he did not again fall into the water. The Lord not only saves us from spiritual death, but He redeems us for ever, that death can never touch us.

When I was at Richmond, U.S., the coloured people were going to have a meeting. It was the first day of their freedom. 1 went to the African church, and never before or since heard such bursts of native eloquence. "Mother," said one, "rejoice to-day. Your little child has been sold from you for the last time; your posterity are for ever free. Glory to God in the highest! Young men, you have heard the driver's whip for the last time; you are free today! Young maidens, you have been put up on the auction-block for the last time!" They spoke right out, they shouted for joy; their prayers had been answered, it was the gospel to them. In like manner Jesus Christ proclaims liberty to the captives. Some have accepted it; some, like the poor negroes, scarcely believe the good tidings; but it is none the less true. Christ has come to redeem us from the slavery of sin. Now, who will accept of that redemption? There was one coloured woman, a servant in an inn in the Southern States, who could not believe she was free. "Be's I free, or be I not?" she asked of a visitor. Her master told her she was not, her coloured brethren told her she was. For two years she had been free without knowing it. She represents a great many in the Church of God to-day. They can have liberty, and yet they don't know it.

3. Again, Christ is our Deliverer. The children of Israel were not only saved and redeemed from the bondage of the Egyptians, but they were also delivered, that they should not be led back again into bondage. Many are afraid; they think they are not able to hold on, and therefore shrink from making a profession. But Christ is able to keep you from falling; He is able to deliver you in the dark hour of trial and temptation, from every evil device of Satan, and from the snare of the fowler.

In Isaiah xlix. 24 we read, "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the Lord,

Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children." I will save him;

I will deliver him. The children of Israel were saved from the cruel bondage of Egypt, they were led out of the land of Goschen; but still they were not fully delivered. The great host of the Egyptians was thundering behind them. It was not till they had passed safely through the Red Sea, which, closing behind them, swallowed up the host of the enemy-it was not till then that they were free, that they were delivered.

And similarly in our times of danger we shall find it to be true of Christ" He delivered my soul;" and again in Job xxxiii. 24— "Then He is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child's he shall return to the days of his youth: he shall pray unto God, and He will be favourable unto him; and he shall see His face with joy for He will render unto man his righteousness. He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light."

Here we have the saving, the redeeming, the deliverance from the pit. Man is fallen into the deep pit, he is kept there a lawful captive by one who is mighty. If he is to be brought back from the darkness of the pit to see the light, then we must have a ransom. Here God comes forward and says, "I have found a ransom." Christ is the ransom, and He will deliver us. Sound out the cry, "Christ is our deliverer." He is mighty to save, He is able to deliver.

4. But now we need something more. Look back again to the children of Israel; when they had marched gloriously through the Red Sea, they had been saved, redeemed, and delivered; but was that all they required? No; they had been brought into the wilderness. What now do they need? They must have a way to go in the pathless desert. They required a leader. Then Christ is the way and the leader. Are we in difficulties, in doubt, or in perplexity? Christ is our way. "I am the way, the truth, and the life. (John x.)

I have heard some say, "Well, if I am converted, and become religious, I don't know what church I would go to. There are so many different churches and denominations. I really don't know which is the right one." Hence some people are bewildered, and do not know which is the true way. Well, I would say to such, Look only to Him who says, "I am the way." He is the only true way, and if you want to reach the kingdom you have only to follow Him. We may be in darkness, but He is able to lead us in the right path. He is the Shepherd of His flock. He will go before us and lead us. He is calling upon us to arise and follow Him, and He will lead us by a way we know not; He will guide us to the green pastures if we only look to Him.

All that the children of Israel had to do was to follow the cloud.

If the cloud rested they rested; if the cloud moved forward, then they moved. I can imagine that the first thing Moses did, when the grey dawn of morning broke, was to look up and see if the cloud was still over the camp. By night it was a pillar of fire, lighting up the camp, and filling them with a sense of God's protecting care; by day it was a cloud shielding them from the fierce heat of the sun's rays, and sheltering them from the sight of their enemies.

Israel's Shepherd could lead them through the pathless desert. Why? Because He made it. He knew every grain of sand in it. They could not have a better leader through the wilderness than its Creator.

And, sinner, can you, in all your difficulties or doubts and fears, have a better leader than Jehovah? God is able, and still more, He is willing, to lead us, and feed us. "Thou gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst." (Nehemiah ix. 15.) He is still as able to lead any of us as He was four thousand years ago to lead the children of Israel, "For I am the Lord; I change not." To every one of us He says, "Fear not, I will lead thee; I will help thee." Wonderful thing, is it not, to have God to help us on our way?

In our Western countries, when men go out hunting into the dense backwoods, where there are no roads or paths of any kind, they take their hatchet and cut a little chip out of the bark of the trees as they go along, and then they easily find their way by these "blazes." They call it "blazing the way." And so, if you will allow me the expression, Christ has "blazed the way." He has travelled the road Himself, and knowing the way, He tells us to follow Him, and He will lead us safe on high.

5. Now we have seen Christ is our Saviour, Redeemer, Deliverer, Leader, or Way. But He is more than all that; He is our light. "I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." He shall have the very "light of life." Yes, it is the privilege of every Christian to walk in an unclouded sky.

But do we walk thus in an unclouded sky? No, most Christians are often in darkness. If I were to ask this congregation if they were all walking in the light, I believe there is scarcely one, if he spoke the true feeling of his heart, but would reply, "No, I am often in darkness." Why is that? It is because we are not following Christ, and keeping close to Him. We are much in darkness when we might be in the light.

Suppose the windows of this building were all closed, and we were complaining of the darkness, what would any one say to us? Why, they would say, "Admit the light; open the windows all round, and you'll soon have plenty of light." Similarly we must let in Christ, who is the light, and open our minds to receive him, and we shall soon walk in light. There is a great deal of darkness at the present time, even in the hearts of God's own people. But follow Him, and