believe that we are good enough without salvation if he can; and if he cannot make us believe that he says, "You are so bad the Lord won't have you;" and so he tries to make people believe because they are so bad Christ won't have anything to do with them. God invites you to come just as you are. I know a great many people want to come, but they are trying to get better, and to get ready to come. Now, mark you, my friend, the Lord invites you to come just as you are, and if you could make yourself better you would not be any more acceptable to God. Do not put these filthy rags of selfrighteous about you. God will strip every rag from you when you come to Him, and He will clothe you with glorious garments.

I read some time ago of an artist who wanted to find a man that would represent the prodigal. One day, walking up the streets, he met a poor beggar, and the thought occurred to him, "That man would represent the prodigal." He told him what he wanted, and found the beggar was ready to come to his place of business and sit for his painting if he would pay him for his time. The man appeared on the day appointed, but the artist did not recognise him. He said, "You made an appointment with me.” "No," says the artist, "I never saw you before." "You are mistaken; you did sec me, and made an appointment with me.” 'No, it must be some other artist. I have an appointment to meet a beggar here at this hour." "Well," said the beggar, "I am the man." "You the man." "Yes." "What have you been doing?" "Well, I thought I would get a new suit of clothes before I got painted." 'Well," says the artist, "I don't want you;" he would not have him then. And so if you are coming to God, come just as you are. Do not go and put on some garments of yours, and think the Lord will accept you because you have some good thoughts and desires. Come along just as you are. I do not care how bad you are; this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them, and all you have to do is to prove that you are a sinner, and I will prove to you that you have a Saviour, and the greater the sinner the more need of a Saviour.

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Some say, "I would like to become a Christian, but I have a prejudice against these special meetings, and against Americans, and against a layman too. If it was a regular minister, and it was our regular minister, I would accept the invitation." If that is your difficulty I can help you out of that. You can just get right up, and go out of the hall, and run right over to your minister, and have a talk with him. And if you say you do not want to be converted in a special meeting, there are regular meetings in all the churches throughout London, and your minister would be most glad to see, and talk, and pray with you. But if you say, "There is a great awakening here in London," and you do not want to be converted in that way, you can jump into a train, and go to some town where there is no revival. We can find you some place where there is no revival, and some church where there is not much of the revival spirit. If you really want to go, don't give that for an excuse.

How wise the devil is! When the church is cold, and everything is dead, men say, "Oh, well, if there was only some life in the Church I might become a Christian, if we could only just have a wave from heaven." Then when the wave does come they say, "Oh, no, we we are afraid of excitement, and afraid of these special meetings. We are afraid there will be something done that won't be just in accordance with our ideas of propriety." My friend, it is God who is working. Come along just as you are. Do not wait another minute, but accept the invitation and accept it right here to-night.

God is above feeling, Why, can you control your feelings? If I could I would feel good all the time-never catch me feeling bad at anything. I am sure if I could control my feelings I never would have any bad feelings, I would always have good feelings. Bear in mind, Satan may change our feelings fifty times a day, but he cannot change the Word of God; and what we want is to build our hopes of heaven upon the Word of God. When a poor sinner is coming up out of the pit, and just ready to get his feet upon the Rock of Ages, the devil sticks out a plank of feeling, and says, "Get on that," and when he puts his feet on that down he goes again. Take one of these texts-Verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." My friend, that is worth more than all the feelings that you could have in a whole lifetime. I would a thousand times rather stand on that verse that on the best frame and feeling. I took my stand there twenty years ago. The dark waves of hell have come dashing up against me; the waves of persecution have dashed up around me; doubts, fears, and unbelief have assailed me; but I have been able to stand right there. It is a sure footing for eternity. What we want is to get our feet upon the rock, and then the Lord will put a new song into our mouth.

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There is another class, who say they cannot believe. Not long ago, a man said to me, "I cannot believe." I said, "Who?" I cannot believe." I said, "Who?" He stammered and stuttered, and I said, Who cannot you believe-God?'' 'Oh, yes, I believe God, I cannot believe myself." Well, you do not want to believe yourself. Your heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Put no confidence in the flesh. Don't believe yourself, make yourself a liar, and God to be true. Some men seem to talk as if it was a great misfortune that they do not believe. Bear in mind, it is the damning sin of the world. "When He, the Holy Ghost, is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on Me." That is the sin of the world-"Because they believe not on Me." Why, that is the very root of sin, the very tree, and all the fruit. This is the tree that bringeth forth this bad fruit-it is the tree of unbelief. May God open your eyes to-night to see that God s true, and that you may be led to put your trust in Him now.

But if you have an excuse that won't stand the piercing eye of God, I beg of you as a friend, give it up-let your excuses go. Let them go to the four winds of heaven, and accept of the invitation now. It is a very easy thing for a man to excuse himself into hell, but you cannot excuse yourself out.

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And another very solemn thought is, God will excuse you if you want to be excused. He does not want to do it. As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" God wants you to come to His feast. Come just as you are; accept the invitation. Let the shop be closed till you accept this invitation. Let business be suspended till you accept this invitation. Let the oxen stand in the stall till you accept of this invitation. Let everything else be laid aside until the great question of eternity is asked, until you can look up and say, "God is my Father, Jesus Christ is my Saviour, and heaven shall be my future home.

Lift your eyes heavenward to-night, mothers; you have got loved children that have gone on before you, and they will be at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, they will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God-will you be missing? Fathers and mothers that have loved ones that have gone on before you, if you could hear them they are shouting from the battlements of heaven, "Come this way." Young man, you have a sainted mother there, a loved father there: they are beckoning you heavenward to-night. They have been gathering from the time the holy Abel went up-for 6000 years they have been gathering out of the four corners of the earth. The purest and best of earth are not down here, they are in heaven, and God wants you and I to be there. Blessed is he that shall be at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Oh, by the grace of God I mean to be there. My friends, let us tonight every one accept of the invitation. God invites rich and poor, high and low, learned and unlearned, all alike to come to the feast. Do not make light of the invitation.

Many of you will get up and go out of this hall, making light of the preacher, laughing at everything you have heard, paying no attention to the invitation. I beg of you do not make light of this invitation. It is a loving God that invites you to a loving feast, and God is not to be mocked. Go play with the forked lightning, trifle with any pestilence, any disease, rather than with God. God is not to be trifled with. It is God that invites you. Young lady, what will you do with the invitation to-night? Young man, what will you do with the invitation to-night? Will you accept of it? Oh, may God help you now to say from the very depths of your heart, "By the grace of God I will accept."

Be wise to-night, and accept of the invitation. Make up your mind you will not go away till the question of eternity is settled. May God bring hundreds to a decision to night, is the prayer of my heart.

CHRIST THE FRIEND.

THE "I WILLS" OF CHRIST.

1 wish to call your attention to eight "I wills" of Christ. THE FIRST "I WILL."-The first one you will find in the 11th chapter of Matthew and the 28th verse. "Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Now I never met a person that did not want rest. That man or woman is not living on the face of the earth that doesn't want rest. We read of the rich man that was going to pull down his barns and build larger, saying to his soul, "Take thine ease, there is plenty laid up in store, so now take thy rest." Merchants toil day and night to amass money, in order that they may get rest. Men leave their families and friends and go round the world to earn money, in the hope that they may get rest. Sailors plough the sea, and have gone away from home for months to get money, in order that it may bring them rest. In fact, if rest could be bought in the market, there are many hundreds in London who would be paying a very high price for it; but though money can't buy it, nevertheless by believing the word of God, you can get it without money and without price. Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Now, when we say "we will," it doesn't mean much very often. Perhaps we don't intend to keep our word when we say we wil do a thing; or if we do mean to keep it, we very often fail for want of ability to make our promise good. But, bear in mind, God never breaks Ilis promise; He never makes a mistake; He never fails to fulfil His word. And the words I have read may be relied on, for they are not the words of man, but of the Son of God:-"Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest."

This tells us of the only place where we can find rest. There is no other place where a man can, by any possibility, find rest for his soul. Bear this in mind, it is not coming to some creed; it is not coming to some particular church, or to some particular doctrine, but to Christ:" Come unto Me." It is the coming to a personal Christ that alone gives peace and rest to the soul.

Now, in the 14th chapter of John and the 27th verse, there is a

promise which is very precious to my mind: Christ says, "Peace I leave with you,"-I am going away, but I am not going to take away My peace from you,-that I leave behind Me. 'My peace I give unto you." Mark that little expression, "My peace"-My peace I give unto you." A good many people look for their peace from worldly sources, but when they do find it they don't get much out of it, for the devil can play on men's feelings as men play on a harp, and can delude them into almost anything. But it we go to Christ for it, we do get what we want, we get rest for the soul, and until we do go to Him, we shall never get it.

There are a good many things which disturb our peace, but it takes a great deal to disturb the peace of God. Why, you might take this little island and throw it right into the Atlantic, and it would make a great stir and commotion in this world, but I don't think that God would be moved on His eternal throne by it-it would not disturb Him in the heavens high and lifted up above all the earth. Let us have the peace of God, and then we shall have rest.

Then, in the next chapter in the 11th verse, He says, "These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you." Christ's joy, not our own joy, mind. When we come to a personal Christ and let our souls be stayed on Him, then we get rest, and peace, and joy. That is a rest that nothing can disturb; that is peace that flows on like a river; that is joy for evermore. "Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you

rest."

THE SECOND "I WILL."-Now, the text "I will" is in the 6th chapter of John, and the 37th verse, I can imagine some of you people saying, “Ah, if I were only good enough to come, I would come, and get this rest and peace and joy." But if you read the verse I am speaking of, you will find it says, "Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." Surely that's broad enough-is it not? I don't care who the man or woman is; I don't care what your trials, what your troubles, what your sorrows, or what your sins are. If you will only come straight to the Master, He will not cast you out. Come then, poor sinner, come this afternoon, come just now, just as you are, and take Him at His word.

There was a wild and prodigal young man, who came into one of our meetings, who was running a headlong career to ruin. But the Spirit of God got hold of him. Whilst I was conversing with him and endeavouring to bring him to Christ, I quoted this verse to him. I held it right up to him, and led his mind right up to it, for some time, and at last light seemed to break in upon him, and he seemed to find comfort from it, and I told him to stick to that verse. Well, after he had left, on his way home the devil met him. Why, I don't believe that any man ever starts to go to Christ but the devil strives somehow or other to meet him and trip him up. And even after he

has come to Christ the devil comes and tries to assail him with doubts and make him believe there is something wrong in it. And so this