wife was therefore very careful about the children not using a knife. She went out one day, and my little boy, two years old, got hold of a pair of scissors. My little girl knew he ought not to have them, and she went to him and tried to get them away; but the little fellow held on to the scissors, and would not give them up. She was afraid of his sticking them into his eyes, so she ran off to another room, and got an orange, and came running in, and held it up, and said, "Willie, do not you want the orange?" and the little fellow dropped the scissors, and went for the orange. If you will allow me the illustration, God comes here and says, "Here is my Son, take Him." He saves the sinner; and the moment we get Him, these things we love so much are gone; they float away into the dim past. Christ is worth more than all the world; and God comes and says, "Here is my Son, take Him, and believe on Him." And the moment you receive Him, you get power over the flesh, the world, and the devil; and you do not get the power until you receive life from Christ, until you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. May God help you to believe now, and to receive the gospel to-night!

I will give another illustratton : for illustrations are better than dry sermons. I heard of an Englishman that was converted some time ago, and when the Lord converted him, he had a great desire to see every man converted; and I would not give much for that man's conversion who did not have that desire. This man was so filled with the love of Christ that he wanted to go out and publish the good tidings. So he went into one town, and gave notice that he would preach in such a place. It got noised around that the man was rich, so a great many went to see him out of curiosity. He had a great audience the first night, but as he was not a very eloquent man, people did not get interested. Men looked at the messenger instead of the message. The next night hardly any one was there. Then he got out great placards, and placarded the town! and he stated that if any man in that town owed any debt, if they would come round to his office between nine and twelve o'clock on a certain day, he would pay the debt. Of course that went through the town like wild-fire. One said to the other, "John, do you believe that?" "No, I am not going to believe that any stranger is going to pay our debts." No one believed it, although there were a good many, no doubt, that would have liked to get their debts paid. Well, the day came, and at nine o'clock the man was there. At ten o'clock none had come. At eleven o'clock a man was seen walking up and down, looking over his shoulder, and finally he put his head in at the door, and said, " Is it true that you will pay any man's debt ?" The other said, "Yes; do you owe any debt ?" "Yes." "Have you brought the necessary papers?" The placard had told them what to do.

"Yes." So the

man drew a cheque and paid the other's debt, and he kept him and talked with him till twelve o'clock; and before twelve o'clock two other men came and got their debts paid. At twelve o'clock that man let them out, and the people outside said to them, "He paid

your debts, did he not?" "Yes, he did," they answered. But the people laughed and made fun of them, and would not believe it till they pulled out the cheque, and said, "There it is; he has paid all the debt." And then the people said, "What fools we were we did not go in and get our debts paid! But they could not, it was too late; the door was closed; the time was up. And then the man, as before, preached the gospel, and great crowds went to hear him; and he said, "Now, my friends, that is what God wants to do, but you will not let Him do it. Christ came to pay our debts, and that is the gospel." I could not have a better illustration of the gospel than that. Every man owes God a debt he cannot pay. Would you insult the Almighty by offering fruits of this frail body to atone for sin? Isaiah says, "Ile was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Ilim; and with His stripes we are healed." Paul says, "I declare unto you the gospel, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures."

I can imagine, when Christ said to the little band around Him, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel," Pe er said, "Lord, do you really mean that we are to go back to Jerusalem and preach the gospel to those men that murdered you ?" "Yes," said Christ to Peter; "go, hunt that man that spit in my face, and tell him he shall have a seat in my kingdom if he will accept of salvation as a gift. Yes, Peter, go, hunt up that man that made that cruel crown of thorns and placed it on my brow, and tell him I will have a crown ready for him when he comes into my kingdom, and no thorns in it; I will give him a crown of life. Hunt up that man that took a reed and brought it down over the cruel thorns, driving them into my brow, and tell him I will put a sceptre in his hand, and he shall rule over the nations of the earth if he will accept salvation. Peter, go, hunt up that man that drove the spear into my side, and tell him there is a nearer way to my heart than that. Tell him I forgive him freely, and that he can be saved if he will accept of salvation as a gift. Hunt up the men that drove the nails into my hands and feet, and tell them I forgive them freely, and tell them they shall have a seat in my kingdom if they will accept of it. Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Oh, may God help you to hear the gospel to-night, and to be saved!

EXCUSES OF THE UNCONVERTED.

TO-NIGHT I am going to call your attention to a very important subject. Our friend has been singing about heaven, the home of the soul, and I read to you a few verses in Revelation about that upper and better world. And now to-night I want every one in this

G

audience to believe that they really have an invitation to that world of light. It is God that is inviting every soul within this assembly to that feast. It is not an invitation of mine, it is not a text that I have manufactured, it is not an invitation that is got up by man, but it comes from the living God Himself to every soul here. Every person here is invited to the feast, and now the question comes, "What are you going to do with the invitation ? "

I was made glad to-day to hear of a young man that came to this meeting last night. He came up from Bradford, and as he came into this ball, he said, "If Christ can be found here, I am determined to have Him;" and the moment there was an opportunity given to go into the inquiry room, that young man went in, and after a friend had talked with him some time, to all human appearance be accepted Christ, and went on his way rejoicing. I hope there will be many such here to-night, who have said to themselves, "If Christ can be found here to-night, by the grace of God, I'll find Him." If there are any such, let me say to you, My friends, I bring an invitation to each one of you to be present at the Marriage Supper of God's beloved Son." And now, are you going to join with the three men that we were speaking of last night, and say, "I pray thee, have me excused?” Are you going to make excuse?

66

I can remember some portions of Scripture that were very dark and mysterious to me when I was converted, but now they are very clear. I can remember things that ten years ago were very dark and mysterious, but as I have gone on I understand them better, and the more we know of God, and the more we study the Word, theplainer it will become; but the idea of an unconverted man is to take up the Bible and condemn it before he has been born of the Spirit. Why, when a man is born of the Spirit then he will understand the Word of God, and not before. You say, "If that is so how am I to understand how to be saved?" I will tell you. When God puts salvation before a sinner He puts it so plain that a man who runs can read, and a wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein. There are a great many things in the Book which are dark and mysterious, but when it comes to the plan of salvation, God has put it so plain that that little girl ten years old can understand it if she will. You understand what it is to come. "Come unto Me, all ye that labour.' You know what it is to take a gift. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God." The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life." That is taking a gift. You know what it is to believe in a man; well, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." You know what is is to put trust and confidence in a man; now, put your trust and confidence in the living God and you are saved. You are saved by casting yourselves unreservedly upon the Lord Jesus Christ. When God puts salvation before a man, He puts it so plain and simple that if Ile is willing to come as a little child he can come

The Bible is given to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, to guide the way to those eternal mansions. It never was given to keep men out of the kingdom of God. That is the devil's work, trying to make you believe the Word of God is not true. I tell you the only way we can overcome the enemy of our soul is by the written word of God, and the devil knows that, and so he comes up and says, "It is full of lies, it is dark and mysterious, it contradicts itself; don't you believe it." He knows the moment a man goes to the Word of God and believes it he gets liberty to his soul, and he gets beyond Satan's reach; he gets a weapon in his hand with which to conquer the devil; he overcomes the enemy of his salvation. The devil does not want you to find that out, and whispers this lie, and you believe it rather than the Word of God. Young man, your mother is right, the Bible is true, and you had better take that.

Why, these infidels that want to take away the Bible from us, what are they going to give in its place? What has made England, but the Word of God? I heard a most eloquent man in America a few a years ago say, "You look back in history a few years, and you see England and France moving along abreast in the march of nations. France closed the Bible, and would not give it to its people. England opened the Bible, and what is the result? Why, the English language is spoken round the world, and the sun never sets upon the Queen's dominions." And look and see how the English language has gone round the world. See what the Bible has done for England, and look and see what has become of France. Poor France closed its Bible and it has gone down, and every nation that puts down the Bible has to go down, and every nation that exalts the Bible and lifts it up, God lifts it up and blesses them. Oh, my friends, let us cling close to the Bible. What are you going to do without it ? What are you going to give us in the place of it? Do not give that for an excuse. Keep this is mind, you will never stand up before the bar of God, and say the Bible kept you out of the kingdom. It may sound very well here now, you may be satisfied to give that as an excuse down here in the Agricultural Hall to-night; you will not be satisfied to give that in the Courts of Heaven-in fact, you never will get there, you will not stand up in the great judgment day, and say the Bible kept you out of the kingdom.

That excuse would sound strange, would it not? We very often hear men give it down here, but it would sound very strange before Jehovab, a man saying, "I know you invited me to be at the Marriage Supper of your Son, but I did not accept it because I knew there were some hypocrites that professed the Gospel." Man will have no excuse when he comes to stand before God; his mouth will be sealed.

There is another class who say, "I know there are hypocrites, but they don't have any influence over me," and if I could go to the door as you go out to-night, and take you by the hand, and say, "My friend, why not accept of the invitation to-night ?" you would say,

99.66

"I pray to be excused to-night, I have not time. I have got some very pressing business to-morrow morning to attend to, and I have to go home to bed as quick as possible, to get my night's rest. You will have to excuse me;" and the mothers here would say, “I have to go home and put the children to bed, you will have to excuse me; very pressing business;" "have no time." Thousands of men in London say they have not time. Thanks be to God it don't take time, it takes decision. But what have you done with all the time God has given you? Your locks are turning grey, your eye is growing dim, and that temple of your body is coming down— what have you done with all those years? Is it true you have not time? What did you do with the 365 days last year? No time during those 365 days-what have you done with all those hours? Have not you had time to accept of this invitation? You know it is a lie, and if you go out to-night unsaved it will not be because you have not time, but because you won't accept the invitation. God says, "Seek first the kingdom." That is the first thing to do. the children sit up a little late to-night, let your business be suspended to-morrow. Supposing you do not get so much money to-morrow and get Christ, is not that worth more than money? Better for a man to be sure of salvation than to have the wealth of

Let

the world rolled to his feet. If you take my advice, you will just take time to-night, and just make up your mind-this night the question of eternity must be settled.

But there is another excuse coming up from some one in the vallery. A man says, "My heart is so hard." Well, that is just the gery reason you ought to come. If you had not a hard heart you would not need a Saviour. Can you soften your heart? Can you break your heart? Did not God invite the hard-hearted? Did not Christ come to seek and to save that which was lost? It is just because men's hearts are hard that they need a Saviour, and that is no excuse at all. God invites you, and you won't stand up and say to the Great King you did not accept the invitation because you had a hard heart. He invites "whosoever," and you can come along with your hard heart.

In the north there was a minister talking to a man in the inquiry room. He says, 66 My heart is so hard, it seems as if it was chained, and I cannot come." "Ah," says the minister, "come along, chain and all;" and he just came to Christ hard-hearted, chain and all, and Christ snapped the fetters, and set him free right there. So come along. If you are bound hand and feet by Satan, that is the work of God to break the fetters; you cannot break them. Thanks be to God He can snap the fetters and set the captive souls free to-night. I do not care how hard the heart is: the Lord can save to the uttermost, and He bids you come just as you are. Oh, this

old excuse-"I am so bad!"

Paul said he was the "chief" of sinners, and if the chief has gone up on high there is hope for everybody else. The devil makes us