WALKING BEFORE GOD

by

Lewis Williams

1 -- A DYING MAN'S PRAYER

It is seldom you hear a dying man pray like that. The majority of men, when dying, if they do any praying at all, beg the Lord not to remember how they have spent their lives. We have, for more than a score of years, been in active service for God for the salvation of men, and have been called to the bedside where men were dying, but in all those visits we never heard one person who begged the Lord to remember how they had spent their time during their life time. One and all would beg Him to not remember how they had lived. But here is a man who thinks his last hours have arrived. God's mouthpiece, Isaiah, the prophet, has just paid a visit to the sick room and said, "Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live." Then he turned his face to the wail, and prayed, begged, actually besought the Lord to remember how he had walked before Him in truth and with a perfect heart, and had done that which was good in the sight of the Lord.

It is indeed refreshing to hear a man pray thus. The only person we ever heard pray anything of like character was our aged father; shortly before he died we heard him often remind the Lord that he was ready and asked to be taken home to Heaven.

Not many men are really conscious when they are dying. Generally the doctor, knowing the end is near, leaves medicine to alleviate the pain. The drug that alleviates the pain deadens or dulls the nerves; and that which deadens the nerves beclouds the senses, so that a large number, either saints or sinners, die unconscious.

It is worth going a long distance to be present at the bedside of a saint of God who is conscious of the fact that he is dying; and because of the way he has walked and lived in this life, God many times draws aside the veil that hides the other world from mortal view and allows him to catch a glimpse of where he. is going and of the loved ones he is about to meet. To be present at such a time is like being in the anteroom of Heaven. The very atmosphere seems charged with the presence of God, and sometimes one almost imagines he can hear the "flipping of the angels' wings." Sometimes in such cases they tell us of the things that have opened up to their sight, while at other times they pass the last hours with the praises of God ringing from their lips. They are conscious of the fact that they have "walked before God with a perfect heart and have done that which was good in His sight."

Sinned! We all have; but God has prepared a way whereby we may find a complete pardon for all the wrong doings of our lives, and having our hearts washed clean and made free from all sin, we can walk before Him in truth and with a perfect heart, and come down to our death-bed. with the consciousness that we have done that which was pleasing to Him.

One wet, stormy night, some years ago, we had closed the service and were engaged in talking with a young man who had backslidden. We were standing just in front and had partially turned our back towards the pews, when we felt some one plucking at our sleeve, and turning, saw a man who was in the third seat. He had reached over the seats in order to touch us. The expression on his countenance was such a wild, vacant stare that our first impression was that he was an inmate of the asylum, which was not far away, and had escaped, and in our mind we began to think of how we might send word to the authorities. He leaned across the seats and in a low, but trembling, voice, said, "Is there anything in this religion for me?" Our fear was at once calmed, and sitting down by him, we replied, "Yes, my brother, God says, 'Whosoever will may come.'"

"But you don't know who I am. You do not understand my case," he replied.

"But God does, and He will save you if you earnestly come to Him," we assured him.

"See those hands," he cried; "they have not earned an honest dollar in nine years," and he held up a pair of soft white hands.

"But He saved a dying thief on the cross, and He will have mercy on you if you will come to Him, as you should," we replied. And calling the few who were still in the building, we knelt between the seats and prayed, and urged him to pray. He would try, throwing up his hands and pleading so earnestly, and then he would bury his face in his arms and his whole form would be convulsed in agony. We remained on our knees with him until the clock on the wall pointed to midnight, when he arose to his feet, as we supposed, to testify to having found peace. Taking a ten-dollar bill from his pocket, he said, "Go down to the St. James Hotel, second floor, room fourteen. You will find my traveling overcoat and grip. Bring them away."

"Where shall we bring them?" we asked.

"I don't care," he replied, "only I don't want to see the old gang again."

When we had first taken a seat by him, we had noticed that he held a small diary book and pencil in his hands. We also noticed that he was well dressed, and was wearing a diamond on his shirt front and a diamond ring on his hand. He told us something of his life.

He was a professional gambler and had been away from home about fifteen years, having spent much of his time on the Pacific Coast. He had written his mother he was coming home, and when arriving in that city had some ten thousand dollars on his person, but had lost it all during the past two days. That evening he had left the gambling hall with his fortune gone and concluded to kill himself and end his career. Going up the street he had passed the building where we were singing, which had a light in the vestibule that shone out across the pavement. He had passed by, going on in the dark, when he thought he would write down who he was and the secret order of which he was a member, so that his body would have a decent burial. Remembering the light in the vestibule, he came back, and stepping inside to write, was attracted by our voice as we were speaking. He became interested and came in, taking a seat near the rear of the building.

Later, he said, "During the altar service you spoke to the lady occupying the seat in front of me and the gentleman behind me, but you did not speak to me. You closed the meeting and I left and walked about half a block away, but something seemed to say, 'Go back and speak that man.' I returned and came up near the front."

When we had risen to our feet, he said, "I don't want to see the old crowd anymore." We called a young man to our side, saying, "Take this man home and keep him over night." Then to the man, we said, "You call and see me in the morning. You will find me in the little brick cottage in the rear of the church." We sent to the hotel and got his coat and grip.

While at breakfast the following morning, the doorbell rang and, on going to the door, we found him standing there with a face as haggard and white as a dead man. The moment the door was opened he stepped in hurriedly and we could see he was laboring under great mental excitement. We gave him our Bible, telling him to look over it until we finished breakfast, and stepping into the dining-room, closed the door. Our appetite was gone, but we wanted him to calm down so we could deal with him.

In a few moments we returned to the room and found him down on the floor, going through that Bible in a very excited way. He began begging us to tell him what the Bible said about a murderer -- if a murderer could go to Heaven. We tried to calm him the best we could, and read him such passages as Isaiah 1:8: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sin be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool;" and I John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

"But you don't know how wicked I have been, and how deep I have gone," he would say; and springing to his feet, would walk back and forth across the room. Finally he told us the story of his life as follows:

"My home was in a New England state. My mother was a fashionable woman and card parties were frequently held in the home. My mother taught me to play cards. I became an expert and brought disgrace upon my name. It killed my father, and my mother ordered me to leave home and never return until I could come back a gentleman. I came to this city and started in at honest employment, but I could not let the cards alone. I finally devoted all my time to gambling.

"One day, I was in a game of three, two supposedly traveling men and a rich cattleman. It was played upstairs over a saloon. When the door was broken in no one was there but the body of the cattleman. In our haste I dropped my revolver which had the initials on the ivory handle. We were arrested, but through the secret order of which I was a member, the jury was fixed, and the judge belonging to the same order, I was pronounced not guilty, when before God my hands were red with human blood. I left this city and for several years have been on the coast, gambling all the time. Three times I have written to mother telling her I was coming home a gentleman; but when I arrived in the city three days ago, I thought I would have one game more with the boys, but they got all I had, and I thought I might as well end all by committing suicide. Gamble I will, and I can't help it.

"You know the rest. Is there any hope for me?"

And in his excitement and misery he would spring from his chair and pace the floor. We stepped across the room and turned the key in the door, to keep him from running out on the street. He tried to take the key from us, but others came in and for hours we talked, plead, prayed and asked God to have mercy. We have never heard a man cry as he did nor seen such agony, but God answered our prayers and the light came. It was so real that we wept and shouted for joy. He was so happy, and would hold up his hands which were so white and soft, and say, "See them; they haven't earned an honest dollar in nine years; but they shall never touch another card."

He got a position in a blacksmith shop. We shall never forget when, after his first day of labor, he came in and up to the platform holding up his hands. He had been using a heavy sledge all day and the palms of his hands were covered with big blood blisters. "See them, see them," he cried; "they came there honestly. I would not take a twenty-dollar gold piece for each one of them."

He sought the blessing of a clean heart, married, and entered evangelistic work. He spent one winter in a mining district and had seen several hundred miners converted to God. Then we heard no more of him until a number of years passed, and we were conducting a series of meetings in a city during the holidays. One afternoon a lady came up to the platform and asked,

"Are you the Williams that held the meeting some years ago at D____?" naming the place we had been. When we replied in the affirmative, she asked,

"Don't you know me?" After a second look, we replied, "Yes, I do; where is S____, your husband?"

"Dead, several years."

"Tell me, how did he die?"

"He had a cancer form in the stomach," she replied; "and suffered terrible agony, but through it all kept saying, 'Jesus, you know best,' and his last few days he seemed so happy to think he could soon be with Jesus."

We say unto you, friends, a man that walks with God is not afraid when the hour of death approaches. No matter what his life may have been, if he finds God and walks with Him, God will not part company with him when he comes to the river's brink; and with God by his side, he is not afraid for Him to remember how he has lived.

2 -- RELIGION VS. SALVATION

Before studying the text closely, there are a few kindred points to which we wish to call your attention. The first one is: Man is a sort of religious animal. By that we mean that he is naturally religious to the extent that he is bound to worship something. Webster gives the definition of religion as: "The outward act or form by which men indicate their recognition of the existence of a god, or gods, having power of their destiny." And wherever you find humanity, you will find some form of religion.

Peary, in relating the story of his trip to the North Pole, in speaking of the Eskimos, stated that those people have no religion. He then went on to describe their acts regarding their belief in spirits, the devil and the supernatural, thereby showing that they do have a form of religion. Their outward acts prove their belief, and Webster calls that religion. The Chinaman has his joss-house, and the Mohammedan has his forms of worship. In the heart of dark Africa, Dr. Livingstone found the black widow throwing herself upon the burning funeral pyre of her husband. Why did she do thus? In accordance with her belief, if she did that, her spirit would be united with the spirit of her departed husband in the spirit realm. That was her religion, though she had never heard of the white man's God. We have seen where the Indians would place a vessel of food upon the grave of the departed warrior. You ask, What for? In order that his spirit might have something to eat while on its journey to the happy hunting grounds. That was according to their religion, and it was as much a religion as yours or mine. Many men will bow down before an altar in an upper room behind painted windows, going through the ceremonies of some secret order according to its ritual, and we have had many tell us that that was good enough religion for them. Yes, it is a form of religion, sure enough, and so do the heathen have a form of religion, but neither of them composes or embraces the salvation that the Son of God brought to this old world to save man from sin. Many a man will bow down before an altar in his lodge room, who is as ignorant of God's salvation as that poor heathen across the sea.

Again, it is possible for persons to be confirmed in their belief that their religion is right, and come down to their death-bed and die in that belief, and we do believe that many have thus died and were not aware that they were wrong until they woke up in hell. For proof of our position, let us look at Catholicism and its millions of adherents. How firm they are in their belief -- so firm in the belief that Catholicism is right that when they do turn it makes them conspicuous, and in the testimony, we hear them say, "I was raised a Catholic, and thought I was right." And hundreds of thousands are dying firm in the belief that they are right, and if they are right -- if the religion of Catholicism is right -- then Protestantism is wrong. Yet Catholicism is a religion, and its adherents are very prompt and precise in their outward acts and forms of worship. It is religion, but we would encounter serious difficulty in making our readers believe that it brought to its believers the salvation that the Son of God brought to this world. Webster defines salvation as, "The redemption of man from the bondage of sin and liability to eternal destruction, and the conferring on him of everlasting happiness." If the religion of Catholicism freed man from the bondage of sin, and conferred on him everlasting happiness, then Protestantism is wrong, and Martin Luther made an awful blunder, and those who have followed him will have just cause to curse him at the Judgment. Yet untold numbers are dying firm in their belief that it is the salvation that Jesus died to bring to sinful man.

Again, we live in a country that abounds with churches of various denominations, all professing to have religion, and on the Sabbath morning thousands upon thousands attend the various places of worship and show by their "outward acts" their recognition of a God -- and Webster says that is religion -- yet how comparatively few there are among them that experimentally know anything about "redemption from sin"! And if the preacher proclaimed that Jesus then and there, that very hour, waited to save them from all sin, and pressed them to immediately seek that "great salvation," how many would accept the message and present themselves as seekers? How many of them would go away surprised and indignant at the audacity of the preacher? And yet the vast majority, if not all, of them, profess to have religion. And, alas! how many of them are dying as they have lived, firm in their belief that their religion is right, when they are strangers to the salvation that redeems from all sin.

If the doctrines that are set forth and the preaching as it is being done from the majority of the pulpits of today, are right, then the going up and down this land by persons known as "holiness evangelists," proclaiming what the average pulpit does not proclaim, i. e., that man can, here and now, be "redeemed from the bondage of sin;" that his heart may be cleansed and made free from the power and presence of sin -- is a colossal blunder. But because they believe that the majority of the pulpits of the land are not teaching the truth regarding salvation, many are sacrificing the comforts of home and its companionships and are doing their utmost to bring men to the light of the truth. Yet the fact remains that thousands are turning away, unwilling to listen, firm in the belief that their religion is good enough, while yet they know they are not "free from the bondage of sin." And many who have thus turned away have thus died.

We say it is possible to have religion, and be firm in the belief that it is right, and thus die, and yet be mistaken and finally be lost. Look at the great religious schools of this day and age and their thousands of students. Those who have their oversight and management believe they are teaching the truth. But there is a class of people who have become so dissatisfied with their teaching, their worldliness and disregard for the supernatural, that they have poured out and are pouring out their money to put up and maintain Bible schools and holiness colleges and universities, where the truth will be taught and their sons and daughters receive an education with a holy reverence for the Bible. But such persons and such schools are looked down upon by the former and older institutions, which still maintain that, though they have left "the old landmarks," they are still right. If that be so, then it is a tremendous waste of the Lord's money to put up and maintain Bible schools and holiness colleges. But we do not believe it to be either a waste of the Lord's money or a waste of time. Neither do we believe it to be wrong, for their teaching corresponds with the Bible. The point we do maintain is that, in spite of the fact that many of the older schools have become worldly and are full of destructive teaching and gross error, and their influences are sapping the spirituality out of the Church, yet many fully and firmly believe in them, and will die in that belief, and will discover their mistake when it is too late.

Once more, we see this same thing being acted out even among some who are classed as "holiness people." The devil likes to create divisions, and if he can do so and get one set of folks to lambasting, cartooning, criticizing, finding fault with or impugning the actions and motives of another set, or a few persons to doing so against a few others, he will be in his element. Know this, that the devil never tries to save men from sin; neither does he lead folks to weep and cry to God to save others from sin. We personally know of instances where persons making a high profession, have gone into a meeting in which honest effort was being made to get souls to God, and have taken steps to interfere and bring discord into that meeting, and, so far as we could observe, were firm in their belief that they were right in so doing.

Again, we know instances where men and women were on their faces crying to God and weeping over lost souls, when others would speak of their efforts or of the meeting as "being of the devil," and, so far as we could see, those persons thought they were right.

We say unto you, the devil wants no better job than that sort of thing. Such persons may think themselves to be right, and go on and die, but unless they turn from such a course, repent, and get back to God, they will wake up to find they have made an awful mistake. All these things can be and are being done under the name of religion.

Paul said, "Many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them." Jesus said, "They shall put you out of the synagogues, yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think he doeth God service. Millions of saints have suffered martyrdom at the hands of those who professed and believed in religion; and, on down through the ages until the present day, men and women have done despite to the children of God. They thought and died firm in the belief that they were right, but they will wake up in Hell.

Oh, my precious brother, sister, there is a vast difference between having religion and experiencing the salvation that Jesus brought to this world. A religion that does not make you a meek, humble imitator of Jesus Christ, is not of God; is not godly nor heavenly; it is hellish and of the devil. It may be religion, but it is not salvation.

3 -- THE DEVIL AND RELIGION

A second point kindred to the text to which we wish to call attention is: The devil does not care how religious you are. You can act as pious and look as sanctimonious as a monk of a hundred years ago, and he does not care at all. You can join the church or denomination of your choice, or join all of them, for aught he cares; in fact, it would not surprise us to learn that it rather pleases his satanic majesty to have folks join church on certain conditions. You can be baptized with water, and have it anyway you want it, and as often and as much as you wish, and he will make no serious objections to the entire program. You can worship God the Father, and attend strictly to your church duties, and he will not object. You can pour out your money to erect costly buildings, and equip and furnish them with all that money can purchase, and the devil will not lose any sleep over it. You can be a strict disciplinarian, and punctually close up your business on Saturday night, and not think of your business again until Monday morning; nor will it make the devil mad to have you remain away from the Sunday baseball and Sunday theater, or refuse to ride on Sunday trains, or refuse to allow Sunday newspapers delivered at your door; he will not get mad, and tear around, or go roaring up and down the earth, if you refrain from all these things. But there is one vital point that he is anxious about these last days, and that is that you leave alone the divinity of Jesus Christ, and the power of His blood to cleanse you from all sin. Do that, and the devil will be satisfied with you. That is the one point that is giving the powers of Hell more concern these days than anything else. It is not the erecting of the fine and costly church edifices up and down this land; it is not the big, popular, sign-the-card, join-the-church, meet-your-mother-in-the-sky, so-called revivals, that put great crowds of unregenerate men and women into the churches all under the cloak of God's salvation, that causes the devil to worry; it is not the steady decline of spirituality in the churches and their steady drift to worldliness and formality, their constant drift to Universalism and Unitarianism, that sets Hell in an uproar. No, indeed, but it is the upholding of the divinity of Christ and His all-atoning blood that washes and makes the heart clean, that causes consternation in Hell.

We put on our coin "In God We Trust," and when it was removed there was a great howl and a cry until it was placed back on the coin again. Do you think the devil cared much about that racket that was made because it was taken off? Not so long as we put a Unitarian in the Presidential chair, who by his belief denies the divinity of the Son of God; not so long as we have our Senate opened with prayer by a man who by his belief makes Jesus Christ, the Son of God, an illegitimate child; and we have no doubt that many who made such a fuss about the coin, helped to put an office-seeker, a wine-bibber and a clog-dancer in for President. Now, how much concern do you suppose the prayer of such persons causes the devil? Do you suppose he lays awake at night to contrive some plan whereby he can defeat the good such folks can do for the kingdom of Heaven? No, my friends; the devil does not care how religious you are, just so you leave alone the divinity of the Son of God and His precious blood that makes our hearts clean in His sight. And just as he has led off many churches and gotten their eyes and minds off of Jesus and the Blood, he has done likewise to many individuals, even among those professing a high state of grace. He has some of them seeking after something else beside the Blood, seeking a third blessing of fire and gifts and tongues, and once the mind is turned away from the Blood, it is not far to where the wreck occurs. Oh, he is a devil of a devil, and if he cannot keep a soul from the Blood, then he will try to push that soul on over the precipice and plunge it into darkness.

It was not so far back but we remember an individual who had been used of God to save and bless many souls. He turned from the Blood to a third blessing, a baptism of fire, and went up and down the land promulgating his doctrine. Once off the main line, the end is not far away. It was not long until his fire was found to be the effects of something akin to the red man's fire-water and after being found intoxicated several times, he soon disappeared from the field of action.

As we pen these lines, there come to our mind others who, rich in experience and grace, were wonderfully and marvelously used of God to the salvation of many, and they have spiritual sons and daughters up and down the land; but they got their eyes off of Jesus and the Blood onto something else, and mark the result. No longer do they draw the crowds to hear them tell the old, old story; no longer do large audiences hang upon their words; no longer are their altars lined with weeping, penitent souls seeking salvation, and unless they get their eyes back on Jesus and His blood, their days of usefulness are over.

Only recently we conducted a series of meetings in a certain town where there was a man who had spent much of his former life in that community living in sin, but he had found God and had gone back to tell the story. He came in the meeting, but was not used as much as he thought he should have been. In a few days he began to find fault and criticize, and soon, with his eyes off the Lord, who had done so much for him, he began sitting around with the unsaved, saying unkind things and finally misrepresenting and impugning the efforts that were being put forth. Just now there lies before me a letter which came in the last mail and it states that the brother in question is now a common horsetrader.

These are not simply isolated cases, but we could fill many pages with recitals of like nature. The Blood alone can wash away our sin; the Blood alone can make us every whit clean. The devil does not care what we do, nor what we profess, not how religious we are, if we only neglect Jesus Christ and His blood. Men may go on erecting magnificent edifices, putting up and endowing great schools of learning, and talk loudly and boast much of the great and glorious country we live in, and the increasing numbers of churches, and mark their advancement by the many additions to them and the amount of money that is raised for religious purposes; but so long as those same churches either deny the divinity of the Son of God and the efficacy of His blood, or are silent regarding the subject, the devil simply smiles and remains undisturbed. The old Book says, "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin," and until that is an accomplished fact, no man possesses that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.

4 -- GOD'S TIME OR NEVER

A third point that is kindred to the text. After the death of Solomon, the kingdom was divided ten of the tribes seceding and establishing a separate form of government. They were afterwards spoken of as the kingdom, or kings, of Israel. The remaining tribes, under the old reign, were spoken of as the kingdom, or kings, of Judah, and Hezekiah at the age of twenty-five, came to that throne. Judah was in a bad condition. The kingdom was rife with idolatrous worship and sinfulness. Groves had been planted, and statues or images erected in them, and the people were bowing down to them, and in our first Scripture lesson we read that they were burning incense to the brazen serpent that Moses had made.

Turning to the Book of Revelation, when John was having that wonderful vision in Heaven, he saw the four and twenty elders worshipping before the Lamb, "having everyone of them harps and golden vials full of incense (margin) which is the prayers of the saints;" and again, "another angel came and stood at the altar having a golden censer; and there was given to him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar which was before the Throne. Burning incense in the Old Testament symbolizes prayer in the New Testament, so that while the children of Judah were burning incense to that brazen serpent, in our day it would mean they were praying to it.

Now, to understand thoroughly what it means, it will be necessary for us to go back into the history of the people called the children of Israel and examine a part of God's dealings with them. They were in slavery in Egypt under that government controlled by Pharaoh. God heard their sighing and crying and sent a deliverer in the person of Moses. Their captivity is a symbol of the bondage of sin. Pharaoh is a symbol of the devil; while Moses is symbolical of Christ. They were bidden to kill a lamb and put its blood upon the doorposts and across the top of the door, and at midnight a destroying angel, passing through the land, would pass by wherever he saw the blood. That lamb typified Christ and His blood.

The night they turned from Egypt is symbolical of a sinner turning from his sins. When they passed through the sea, and the Egyptians, essaying to follow and recapture them, were drowned in the sea, that is symbolical of the first work of grace, when a sinner is regenerated and the chains of his old life and habits are broken. For our scriptural proof of this, turn with us to Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth and the tenth chapter: "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ." These verses are positive proof that that translation was symbolical of the first work of grace. The sinner does not care for spiritual food, neither does he drink spiritual drink. Paul distinctly says, "That Rock that followed them was Christ."

They marched on through the land of the wilderness and in a short time came to Kadesh-barnea, a tract of land lying between the wilderness and the land of Canaan, the land of promise. Now, we wish you to see and understand that they had the promise of this land before they left Egypt. That was to be their goal. They were not to be brought out of Egypt and left to get along the best they could, but they were to go on up to the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey where the mountains dripped down dew. They would not be compelled to plant their vineyards, build their houses, nor dig their wells; that was all to be in readiness for them. Canaan symbolizes the sanctified life.

They were told to go on over and possess the land, but some of the principal men suggested to Moses that spies be sent over first to view the land and bring back a report. God did not tell them at first to do that, but He allowed them to do so. Carnality is the same old treacherous thing wherever you find it; we begin a meeting and some folks get light on their experience and see greater things for them ahead, and then, instead of pressing right on into the land, wait to see what others do, or wait until some one else tries it. Some of you, who read these lines, would have been down at the altar before this had you walked up to all the light that has come to you; but no, you are waiting to have some one else go first and spy out the land. Some may go ahead, but bring back a report that will cause you to not go at all and damn your soul. Brother, listen, you had better obey God and do as the blessed Holy Spirit has been trying to lead you to do. They chose out twelve men, one from each of the twelve tribes, and they spent forty days in spying out the land. When they returned, they had a most wonderful story to tell. It was a wonderful country flowing with milk and honey, and they brought back large clusters of the grapes and other fruit that grew in the land; and one of their number, Caleb, "stilled the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it." Joshua also stood with Caleb. But the ten said, "We be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we." They had their eyes on the giants that were in the land, and the high walls that were about its cities, and said, "We cannot take it."

They acted and talked just like a lot of folks do today. Everybody is agreed that the experience of entire sanctification, or heart purity, of which the land of Canaan was typical, is a beautiful life, and one that should greatly be desired, but there are many reports that "it is impossible for anyone to obtain such an experience;" "no person could keep it even if he did get it, not while he lived in this life". "No person could live without committing sin," and a lot more of such stuff that we have not time to mention.

Are you a professing Christian? If so, what kind of a report have you brought back to those about you? We wonder what your daily life is saying to them regarding God's great salvation?

But there were two men among that number who believed and trusted in God. Dear old Caleb and Joshua remembered that awful bondage they were in down in Egypt; they remembered that awful night they left, with the Egyptians begging them to depart. They would not forget how God had so wondrously saved them out of the hands of the enemy at the crossing of the sea; how He had given them water to drink and manna to eat along the journey. And they had faith that the same God could and would give them the victory over all who opposed their entrance into the promised land; and they urged the people to go over at once. But, alas, the majority ruled, and public opinion was warped and made to see the dark side, and the people "murmured in their tents." The account reads, "And the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God we had died in the land of Egypt; or died in the wilderness; and they said to each other, Let us make unto ourselves captains and return into Egypt. And God spake to Moses, and said, I have heard their murmurings, and as I live they shall not possess the goodly land, but as they spent forty days spying out the land, so shall they spend forty years wandering about in the wilderness." Moses told them what God had said; then they arose up and said, "We will go in and possess the land," but Moses said, "No, don't go now, for God is not with you." Nevertheless, they arose up and endeavored to go into the land, but the Canaanites beat them back and many of them were slain.

Friends, there is a tremendous truth taught here, and I want you to take notice of it, for it may determine your eternal welfare. You cannot get sanctified just whenever you choose. You will seek for and obtain the experience when under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and when He is throwing light across your pathway, or you will never obtain it. If you suppose you can trifle along with God's Spirit, and refuse to enter into the experience when He is endeavoring to lead you, and then afterwards go in at your pleasure, you are greatly mistaken. You will enter at God's time or you will never enter at all, and will come down to your death-bed and, without God, die in the dark. Just a few days ago we learned of the death of one to whom we had preached several years ago. Under the light that God flashed upon her pathway, she came to the altar, but found she had an idol in her heart which she could not give up. After dealing with her for some time, we felt that such was the case, and arising from our knees said, "Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone." We did not know at that time what her idol was, but recently conducting another meeting in the same city, a friend, who had knelt by her in the former meeting, related to us the circumstances, as follow:

"When you were here several years ago, one night after the sermon the altar was filled with seekers. Among them was a young woman some twenty-five years of age. She was married and the mother of two beautiful children, a member of the church and teacher in the Sunday School. She was of a good family, her father being a minister. We were close friends, and when she went to the altar I knelt by her side. During the latter part of the altar service, you came and spent considerable time in trying to get her to give up to God and pray. She would not do so, and finally, arising to your feet, you pointed your finger at her, saying, 'Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone.' It made her indignant, and arising to her feet, she said to me, 'Let's get away from here.'

On our way home, she talked about you, saying some harsh things, and finally said, 'I never expect to give up my idol.' I did not know at that time what her idol was, but during the following year I discovered her secret. She had made a trip to the coast to see her father and mother, and had met a young man with whom she became infatuated. He followed her to this town, and unknown to her husband, who was here in business, she met him often. After I learned of her love for him, I remonstrated with her, but she called me a holiness crank. She was beautiful and brilliant. I found out later on, that other young men called upon her; and yet during the entire time she kept up a profession of religion and taught the class in Sunday School. She did not like to have me go near her and treated me very coldly.

"Finally, unknown to her husband, she was to become a mother. She tried to thwart it, and did what caused her death. She sent for me and, lying on her bed, begged and begged me to pray for her. I called in a number of true women of God, and we prayed and prayed while she moaned and begged God to have mercy on her. I told the doctor my suspicions, and after he had examined her, he told me I was correct and that she would die. Her husband did not know the truth and I never told him. When he was told that she would die, he cried bitterly and nearly went crazy with grief. She was nearly two days dying and suffered more than tongue can tell, all the time begging God for mercy. I never saw such a death, and I pray God I may never witness another like it. God gave her an opportunity, and, under your searching sermon, the Holy Spirit drew her to the altar, but she would not surrender her idol, and when you said, 'Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone,' she decided then and there; and her decision that night damned her soul."

My friends, God will not be mocked! At a tremendous cost, He planned the Atonement for your deliverance from all sin; and when the Holy Spirit comes to you and tries to lead you into this blessed experience, of which Canaan was typical, you will go in then, or you will lose your soul.

5 -- AN EVIL REPORT AND ITS INFLUENCE

After the children of Israel refused to enter the land of Canaan at Kadesh-barnea and were driven back, they wandered about for some time and, becoming "discouraged because of the way, the people spoke against God and against Moses; Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness; for there is no bread neither is there any water and our soul loatheth this light-bread?" They had disobeyed and were now paying the penalty for their disobedience -- reaping what they had sown.

Friends, those laws are as unchangeable as the stars above your heads. Refuse to do the Lord's bidding, disobey, and you will suffer every time. "Obedience is better than sacrifice."

One of the results of their disobedience was that fiery serpents came among them. Imagine, if you can, the situation; those deadly, loathsome, poisonous reptiles, with their cold, slimy, bodies, crawling everywhere. Should the people start to walk across the camp, there they were crawling, right across the path. If they stepped out in the dark, it was to put their foot on a reptile, only to have it fasten its fangs in the flesh before one could get away; they were in the tents, crawling under and among the beds, their cold, clammy forms dragging across the face at night, coiling about the throat or limbs; in and among the cooking utensils, everywhere they were found, raising up their heads, hissing and striking here and there all who touched them. Serpents everywhere by day and by night, and if one was killed, its decaying body drew swarms of flies and insects and an awful stench arose from its putrefying form.

These were called "fiery" serpents on account of the effect of their bite. The poison would spread all through the system and a high, burning fever take possession of the patient, while the surface of the body would turn to a bright crimson and delirium set in. It is God's photograph of the results of sin. Brother, if you disobey and walk contrary to the demands of truth and righteousness, the bite and sting of sin will poison and deaden you against God until, black and foul and contaminated, you will be shut up in Hell's infernal regions, the pesthouse of the universe, to scream and writhe in your agony with liars, whoremongers, thieves, God-haters and holiness-rejecters, where your influence can nevermore blast and blight the prospects of those about you, or by your actions influence your own loved ones against God. May God open your blinded eyes, that you may see what awaits you if you continue on as you have been doing!

By their awful influence and evil report, these spies brought terrible results on the entire encampment, caused them to waver, falter, and disobey God, and now the fruit of their disobedience is upon them. They had opportunity to enter the promised land, but chose not to do so, and now they themselves, their families and their friends were reaping the harvest.

There are preachers in this land of ours who have fought and opposed the preaching of holiness and heart purity, and their people, listening to them and being influenced by them, have been kept out of the experience; we personally know of some who have thus died, and died in the dark. O God! what will such preachers say when, before the Judgment Bar they once again, stand in their presence? We have had men curse us for our plain preaching, but we only felt sorry for them, for it did not hurt us. We would rather men would curse us here for preaching the truth, than to have them curse us at the bar of God's judgment for not preaching the truth. We would rather be kept away from a popular church or camp-ground that professes to be sailing under the banner of holiness, for our preaching the plain truth and for insisting that God's child is clean and free from worldly and ungodly entanglements, whether they be of a public or private character, and then have written across our tombstone, "He did his best," and meet with a warm welcome in the mansions of the skies, than be invited to such churches or camps and, withholding such truth, fawn over those present and receive their applause, as we have seen others do, and then be compelled to stand with them before the great white Throne where they will know the full truth. We would rather be true to God and, by the preaching of the full truth, drive men and women into a corner where they are compelled to decide, even though we are compelled to embarrass them in so doing, than to stand before God's throne embarrassed in their presence.

My precious brother, what about your influence and what kind of a report are you bringing back?

Volumes could be written upon this question. The preacher is largely responsible for the spiritual life and standard of his people. "Like priest, like people" is generally the case, though there are exceptions to the rule; but where the preacher fails to cross over himself and call for his people to follow, there is not much likelihood of their getting into the "promised land" or "Canaan experience" under his ministry. His preaching will be the "report of the goodly land," and his people will largely go by what he says. Woe unto that preacher who brings back an "evil report"!

Alas! how Many people have been kept out of the "goodly land" by the influence of some preacher who spoke against it. As we pen these lines there comes to our mind a certain locality where a great meeting had been held and many people had been happily converted to God and started toward Canaan -- i. e., heart purity, "the goodly land." A fine work was going on; when a new pastor came on the scene. He began easily at first; as if he was hungry and anxious for the experience himself, but gradually took sides against the doctrine. Mark the results: his church, which had held its doors wide open to the proclamation of that truth, closed up and took sides against it. The fire which had been burning so brightly was smothered and put out; deadness and coldness took possession, and many of its members, who had been traveling toward the "promised land," turned back, backslid, and some of them today lie under the ground. Better that preacher had never been born. We would rather take the chance of a heathen across the sea who never had heard of God, than to stand in that preacher's place at the Judgment. He brought back an "evil report."

Recently we conducted a series of meetings in one of the hardest and most unspiritual places we ever visited. Before leaving, we learned many things concerning the place, and we shall not be surprised if it is visited by some awful calamity. We do not remember of ever visiting a place where we learned of so much vile practice and flagrant sin, and such little respect for godliness, but when we stop to consider the example that has been and is now being set before the people, we do not wonder. While there, a business man, who had been attending the meetings, said to us, "Brother Williams, you come here and preach a high standard of religion, and then tell us that it is the doctrine of our church and what our preacher declared he would preach. Now, listen till I tell you what I have to listen to, or what I have before me constantly." And this was his story:

"My preacher owns a fast horse, takes him to the race track and tries him out like any horse jockey would; he uses tobacco, and has a brother who is a drunkard; he says, 'My brother drinks because he likes it, and I use tobacco because I like it.' He teaches a class of young married people in the Sunday School, and tells his class that the best legacy a man can leave his wife is to leave her the widow of a Mason in good standing. His son-in-law says that he (the preacher) takes his toddy quite often. His first wife is dead, and his second wife has left him, I know not what for; but there is a reformed woman in this town who used to keep a house of ill fame, and she told that my preacher called on her several times before she would grant him an audience; and after she had made him come clear out and tell what he wanted, refused him, telling him she had quit the business; I believe the woman is now living a moral life, and that she told the truth.

"Now, you come along and preach to us as you are doing. My preacher laughs and scoffs at your preaching, and walks down the street, cigar in mouth, arm in arm with men that I know to be immoral. How do you expect us to have confidence in and live up to the standard you hold up, when we have such examples right here before our eyes?"

My God, is it any wonder that town seemed like Sodom to me? Is it any wonder that the people cared not for God and holiness? Is it to be thought strange that they had no confidence in the doctrine of heart purity? An evil report had been brought back to them. Their confidence had been shaken and, wandering in the wilderness, they lusted for the flesh-pots of Egypt.

In a town where we at one time resided, there was a gentleman much loved and respected by all who knew him. He was president of a prominent bank, and superintendent of a very large Sunday School in one of the most prominent churches in the place. Many of the laboring people, including the very poorest of the poor, took their small savings to him to be cared for. The children of the Sunday School fairly idolized him, and he was much loved and highly respected throughout the community. One day the bank was found closed and a sum of money running up into several hundred thousands of dollars was missing, together with the president. Detectives were placed on the trail and finally he was located and brought back; then the story came out. For years he had been living a double life. His friends were shocked at the revelations made, and all that time he had been superintendent of the Sabbath School. Hundreds lost their confidence and faith in religion, and in scorn and derision pointed to him. He brought back "an evil report."

We say to you, no matter what position you occupy, if you make a profession of salvation and then live so that you cause others to lose confidence, it would have been better for you had you never been born. Those spies were supposed to be on the "King's business," in the interests of God's people, and their evil report was disastrous. There are communities where it would be far better for the people and for the kingdom of Christ if some who reside there would move away. With their constant profession of the Canaan experience, and their lives a positive and continual exposure of the falsity of their profession, they are sapping and robbing others of their confidence in such an experience and, we fear, doing irreparable injury to the cause.

For years we have been acquainted with a woman who has made a profession of having entered the "goodly land" experience years ago. While she is kind-hearted and sympathetic, yet she has run off after so many foolish things religiously, that those who know her best care the least for her society. We can truthfully say that she has lost all influence over her husband, so far as doing him any good spiritually is concerned. We have talked with him about his soul's eternal welfare, and he has replied, "Yes, I know what you say, and the standard you hold up is good, but show me a living evidence that one can live that way." What is the matter in that home? That wife has brought back "an evil report."

We say to you, if you really have the "Canaan land" experience, it will tell in your home. We cannot assure you that your loved ones will all be converted, but we can and do assure you that your life will prove to them that there is a blessed reality in the salvation that you profess. It is impossible to get an individual to seek salvation who has no confidence in such a profession, and if you, by your life and daily deportment, bring back an evil report, you rob those about you of their confidence and run an awful risk of helping damn them forever.

Some time ago we were pleading with a young man to give up the world and seek salvation and be a blessing to those he would meet in life. Looking straight into our eyes, he said: "Mr. Williams, I can't believe it. Sometimes I have really tried to believe that it was possible to live as you preach. I have heard that standard held up, and often wished that it could be attained, and that folks could reach up to it; but you know that such a profession is made in my home, but there is constantly so much that takes place there, so much that transpires, that honestly I have lost all confidence in anyone having it. I do hope that you will not feel that I am endeavoring to insult you or your preaching, but I am telling you exactly how I feel and believe about this matter." We looked at him, a fine young fellow right in the bloom of his early manhood, and our heart went out for him. We thought what a power he might be, what untold good he might accomplish, if God could have complete control of him. But no, an "evil report" had been brought back of "that goodly land," and he had turned back to the wilderness.

Oh, dear reader, stop and lay down this book, and earnestly, in the light of the coming Judgment, ask yourself the question, "What kind of a report am I bringing back?" If you are a preacher, are you preaching the full truth; and, regardless of the smiles and favors of those about you, are you proclaiming God's Word boldly, or are you compromising on this point and that one, because you are aware that that particular subject or theme is not popular with a particular crowd? Are you driving down the road straight, regardless of men or devils? Do you insist that God's children are clean, and that to enter the "promised land" the world must be left behind?

At one time we spent a few days on a certain campground where holiness of heart, received as a second work of grace, was supposed to be taught. With our own eyes and ears we saw and listened to things that filled us with disgust. We saw women, with their clothing cut so low from the neck that their breasts were exposed, and with hundreds of dollars worth of jewelry upon their person, standing up testifying that they were walking with "the meek and lowly Nazarene," and, so far as we could see, they seemed to be favorites upon that campground. And not a word came from that platform in condemnation of such hypocrisy. Men were going about, both on and off the platform, with the badges of secret orders upon the lapel of their coats and dangling from their watch chains, and not a word did we hear from that platform regarding what the old Book says against such things. We saw enough worldly adornment, the wearing of which the Bible so plainly forbids, worn by professors of holiness, upon that campground, to have sent a number of missionaries to the heathen and supported them for years to come. Were people praying through? Was the power of God manifested in the regeneration and entire sanctification of souls? We saw the long altar filled with preachers as seekers, many of them decked out as above, but not one groan or agonizing cry for deliverance did we hear. We repeat, we may not be invited to camps or churches of that character; we may be represented by some as "destructive instead of constructive;" camp-meeting committees and pastors may be advised that we are not the kind of an evangelist they should employ, that we are not "sane and safe," and anything else the devil can rake up or Hell vomit out, but, with the assistance of the grace of God, regardless of any man's gold or favor, we will do our best, in the light God gives us, to preach the truths we find in the Bible, and proclaim far and wide that God demands a clean separation front the world, its applause, its adornment, its fellowship, its pleasure and its love; that to all who will trust in and obey Him, He will lead them over into an experience to which carnal men are indeed strangers. Many may say, think and do as they please, join in with the majority and bring back an evil report, but we believe in the report that Joshua and Caleb brought back: "And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we passed through to search it is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither feat ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us, their defence is departed from them and the Lord is with us; fear them not." (Num. 14:7-9).

6 -- LIFE FOR A LOOK

In their awful dilemma, with neighbors and loved ones dying all around them, the children of Israel went to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that He take the serpents from us." And Moses prayed for the people.

What a fortunate thing it was that they had someone who was in touch with the Lord to pray for them. We wonder, dear reader, if there is anybody that is praying for you. Prayer is the key that unlocks God's promises and brings help in the time of need. If you have no one sufficiently interested in you to pray for you, sad indeed is your condition.

How thankful to God we are that we were brought into this life by parents who prayed. We owe our salvation and the position we now occupy largely to the prayers of those who loved us. If nobody cares enough for your soul to constantly and fervently pray for you, of all men your case is indeed forlorn.

"And the Lord said unto Moses: Make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live." And Moses obeyed. He took some brass and molded it into the shape of a serpent and put it upon a pole, and when those who had been bitten looked upon the serpent of brass, they were made whole.

We do not know, but there may have been many who would refuse to believe in so simple a remedy. What healing properties has a piece of brass? What is the use for me to look at it? And if God wishes to heal me, is it not as easy for Him to do so without my going to the tent door and looking at that piece of brass? Friends, that is just about the way some of you have been talking. When we hold up Jesus and invite sinners to come and kneel at the altar, confess their sins and pray for pardon, some of you have been making just such excuses. You want to know why you can't be saved back there in your seats, and why you can't go home and get saved by your bedside, and why must you go out to that altar before the crowd, and a lot more questions that are unreasonable. Many of you have sinned publicly and you ought to have moral courage enough to walk out before the world and thereby say to your sinful associates, "I am done with the business and am going to seek God." There is no more saving power in the wood of which this altar is built than there is in that from which the seat you occupy was built; but coming out is a testimony in itself of your resolution and determination; it is a step that will help you and give you courage and faith in your soul.

Again, God has marvelously owned and blessed such procedure, and He seems wonderfully pleased with it, and you ought to be willing to do anything or go anywhere to be saved. You can be saved anywhere only when you are willing to go anywhere to be saved. You should be glad of the opportunity of having a number of God's little ones surround you and hold you up with their prayers; and your unwillingness only shows that you are not willing to do a reasonable thing in order to be saved; your conviction does not amount to very much, else you would be willing to go anywhere to find God.

Those among the children of Israel who realized their awful condition and that they were about to die, would be more than willing to drag their poor, suffering, diseased bodies to the tent door and cast their eyes toward that shining piece of brass yonder on the hill; and it would not be at all surprising if some one, after getting healed, would rush into the tent and cry over and coax their loved ones to come out where they could also be healed. Perhaps they would get so desperate to get others out that they would take hold and literally drag out some of their loved ones.

That is just why this meeting is being held. Some of us were badly bitten by sin, but we found the great Physician, and we are so anxious that you who also have been bitten shall be healed, that this meeting has been planned for and we are leaving no stone unturned in our endeavors to get you to see and take the remedy. It would not be surprising if some of these friends, becoming so burdened for you, should not only go back and try to persuade you, but will almost try to drag you to the mercy-seat. Having been sinners themselves, and finding the power to break the charms of sin and to pardon them, they see and realize your awful condition, and that death and Hell await any impenitent soul. No wonder they are concerned for you!

Then again, when Jesus is held up as the Lamb of God, able to save unto the uttermost all that will come unto God by Him; able to cleanse the heart from the presence, pollution and stains of inherited sin, and, thus cleansed, to fill it with perfect love to God and man, and when such an experience is obtainable by all of God's regenerated people, and to be obtained here and now by coming to the altar and making a complete consecration of "friends and time and earthly store," both now and as long as life shall last, and we press souls to come right out and make their consecration and obtain the experience immediately, we say, when this is done, there are some who at once begin to draw back and the old excuses, "Can't I get it without going to that altar? Why can't I get it at home? I don't believe in making a public show of one's self," and many more such, are heard from folks who have the dreaded deadly poison in their very natures; but still they hold back and refuse to get where they can see the brazen serpent. And so anxious are their friends to get them to the great Physician, and to prove to them the perfect cure, that they will get up a special occasion, put in their money, and stand up themselves and testify to the completeness of the cure, all to show and prove to them that it is for all who will pay the price; i. e., come to the door of the tent and look.

North, south, east and west God has shown forth His mighty power in the pardon and regeneration of all kinds and classes of sinners -- from the lady of refinement, wealth and culture, to Magdalenes of the street; from bankers and business men, to the hardest criminals of the darkest walks in life. None ever came to Him earnestly entreating, but that he or she received an answer. And for the past two thousand years the Holy Ghost has ever been present to apply the Blood and witness to its cleansing power, as the children of God have acknowledged the Uncleanness of their natures, and, consecrating fully, have come before Him for a second distinct work of grace that made their hearts "whiter than snow." Glory be to God the Father, glory be to God the Son, and glory be to God the Holy Ghost, the Physician is able, the cure is complete! Oh, friends, wherever you are tonight, if you are a bitten soul, lose no time, but get to the door of the tent and look! "There is life for a look at the Crucified One; there is life at this moment for thee."

Hear a poor Israelite complain,

"Oh, can no medicine then be found

To ease my agonizing pain;

Nor balm to heal my festering wound!"

This earth no medicine can supply,

No balm to heal the serpent's bite;

But lift once more the dying eye,

And thou shalt live, poor Israelite.

He looks on high, and sees a pole

Round which a brazen serpent coils,

No more his eyes with anguish roll,

No more his blood with fever boils.

Nor does the sight heal one alone;

A thousand dying sufferers gaze,

And every shriek and every groan

Is turned to joyful songs of praise.

This history seems to me a glass,

In which I can my Savior see;

As Moses reared that form of brass,

So Christ was lifted on a tree.

Full well I know the reason why

Upon that tree my Savior hung,

He saw us at the point to die,

Wounded by Satan's lying tongue.

He saw the serpent's poisonous fangs

Make pride to swell, and rage to burn,

Fill us with envy's gnawing pangs,

And spotless hearts to devils turn.

He saw -- he pitied -- and he bore

Our sins upon the bloody tree;

He bade us look, that evermore

From sin and death we might be free.

O Lord! 'tis not with fleshly eyes

That I am bid on Thee to gaze;

My inward eyes can pierce the skies,

Those inward eyes to Thee I raise.

If on Thy death I meditate,

And pardon for Thy sake entreat,

My soul's disease will soon abate,

And groans be changed to praises sweet.

7 -- BRAZEN SERPENTS

To the children of Israel that brazen serpent was a means of grace; through it they were healed. It had no healing power, but was simply the medium through which God worked to their good. When Hezekiah came to the throne, the record says they were burning incense to the brazen serpent. Instead of burning their incense to God, who gave it to them, they were burning their incense to what God had given them; to the gift instead of the Giver.

Previously we have made the statement that the devil did not care how many of God's gifts you worshipped. He is a sly old devil, and if he can get the eyes of the people of God off on to. some of the gifts of God, that is as good as he wants. The children of Israel had gotten their eyes off of God and onto His gift, and, once so, it is not long until the incense will begin to rise and the very rankest idolatry set in. Satan did not stop at that sort of thing with the children of Israel; he has been at the same nefarious, God-dishonoring business ever since, and today the burning of incense to brazen serpents is going on at a frightful speed. We unhesitatingly make the assertion that there are millions of people today who are burning incense to brazen serpents; that is, they are thinking and making more of God's gifts than of God Himself, putting more stress on what was given as a means of grace than upon the Christ who actually died to redeem them from all sin.

Let us look at a few illustrations of this. The Church is of divine origin, and was a gift of God to men. All down through the ages God has had His people organized for war against Satan's kingdom. Organized by the Holy Spirit through the agency of holy men, the fight has been on these thousands of years. Every soul that is born of the Spirit is born into God's family and becomes a member of the invisible Church. God does not save men for them to sit down in idleness, but that they may become saviors of others and fight in the war against sin. To have the co-operation of the invisible Church -- those born of the Spirit -- they must be organized, and that brings the visible Church into view. To this visible Church was given, "Some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." All this was done to make the Church the greatest force among men for their salvation. Every preacher, evangelist, pastor and teacher was given to the Church for that sole purpose. Every member of the invisible body has been born from above, "born again," and has the witness of the Holy Spirit to his regeneration; and every member of the visible Church should have such an experience, and has no right to be taken in and made a member of that body until his life gives evidence that such is the case. That is the only reason that they should be taken into the Church, for they will be of no use to God in the salvation of men until such is the case. That is why the invisible Church was organized into the visible Church; but that which was given has taken the place of the Giver. Jesus gave us the Church, but not that we should become a lot of Church worshipers and have a churchanity instead of Christianity; and yet that is just what has largely taken' place, and there are millions of people today who make more of their church membership than they do of the blood of Christ, which alone can save them from all sin.

Thousands have joined church for almost every cause under the sun; some for one thing, and some for another, and thousands, if not millions, have joined church, who have never known the saving power of Christ, until we have fallen upon the day when it is popular to belong to some organization known as a church. Many preachers are more concerned about getting folks to join their particular church than they are to get them saved from sin. What a soul-deluding farce! Untold numbers are banking their salvation upon the mere fact that they belong to church, which is but burning incense to the brazen serpent; making more of the gift than of the Giver. Like the mustard seed planted in the earth, which grew to be a great tree, spreading forth its branches making place for every unclean bird to lodge, just so has the mania for church membership gone on, and the Church has become more worldly, until it has become the home of every foul and unclean bird. While it is the hoe of God's people and God's saints are among the number, yet liars, whoremongers, bank-robbers, Sabbath desecrators, God despisers and holiness rejecters are found within the pale of the visible churches of today. Many of the preachers are bowing down to altars in secret lodge rooms and taking oaths that might well cause a heathen to blush with shame. The world has crept in until their power as soul-saving institutions has departed from many of our so-called churches, and they are but little more than ecclesiastical club houses, lecture bureaus and fashionable centers. That may be strong language, but the proof is also to be seen up and down the land. Go into the vast majority of the churches of today and before a real, genuine work of grace can take place, the eyes and minds of the people must be turned from the church and church membership to Christ. Their eyes must be turned from the gift to the Giver; there must be a serpent smashing take place.

Again, we read in the Bible of persons being baptized with water. Now, we have no objections to your being baptized with water, and we will be more charitable than many; we will be pleased for you to have it in any way you desire, sprinkling, pouring or immersion, so long as you do not attach any saving power to it. It was not given to save men from sin; was not thus intended; never did, and never can save men from sin; yet there are a large number of people who are laying great stress upon it, in fact, banking the salvation of their soul upon the fact that they have been baptized with water. Such persons are water idolaters, and as such are burning incense

to the brazen serpent. Unless their eyes can be turned away from the water to the blood of Jesus, which alone can save and cleanse them, they will be lost. They must turn from the gift to the Giver.

Again, we believe in the Holy Sacrament as it was instituted by the Lord; and never have we knelt at the communion table, but that visions of the suffering Christ have passed before our mind, and we seemed to hear His say, "As oft as ye do this, do it in remembrance of Me." It was not given to save men from sin, and was never so intended; yet, there are many who think that if they belong to some church, and, having been baptized, manage to get out to divine service on communion morning, that is sufficient and their hopes are secure.

They were doing that sort of thing even in Paul's day. Turn to his first letter to the church at Corinth, and read his severe condemnation of those who, in the church, were eating at the Lord's table unworthily: "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread: And when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament of My blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me: For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till He come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." (1 Cor. 11:23-2) How many are there, among the great numbers who go to the sacramental table, who go there unworthily? They who do so only add to their damnation. We read that "there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and satan came also among them." (Job 1:6)

Friends, the devil could do all these things, and yet be the same old arch enemy of souls that he is. These are but gifts and, like the brazen serpent, are used as a means of grace, but were not given for us to depend upon for our salvation. We must turn from those things to the Blood, which alone can bring pardon, peace and purity, and fit us for a home in the sky. The gift cannot save us, but the Giver can.

In his letter to the church at Corinth, Paul devotes considerable space to gifts of the Spirit. Beginning with the most important, he names them in order, but gives us to understand that no one need expect to receive all those gifts, or be in possession of all of them at one time; but he does say to covet earnestly the best of them. Then, as if he knew some would spend most of their valuable time seeking after them, he said, "I show unto you a more excellent way," and gives us a picture of that greatest of all gifts, perfect love -- the "more excellent way" -- the "way of holiness." But in spite of his plain admonition, we have the spectacle of some of God's children making more of the very least of the gifts than the more excellent way.

We believe in divine healing. We have seen a number of people wonderfully and instantly healed; we have anointed and prayed for some folks and have seen them healed immediately; we have anointed and prayed with others and they were healed afterwards; we have anointed and prayed for others who were not healed. We have prayed for some and did not anoint them and they were healed; while we have prayed for others that were not healed. We have been wonderfully healed a number of times; sometimes oil was used and sometimes it was not. We have been anointed and not healed until we had applied certain remedies. We believe folks get healed with and without means. When we have been unable to get hold of or exercise faith for our healing, we have employed other means, and asked God to bless the means employed. We have no contention with those who believe or with those who do not believe in employing means; but we do see serious danger in anyone getting his eyes on the gift more than on the Giver.

We know of those who have made the subject of healing detrimental to the work of getting souls saved and sanctified, and when that is done, it is wrong. We have met with those who made more of the gift of healing the body than they did of getting the soul healed of its awful disease of sin. Such persons are "burning incense to the brazen serpent," making more of the gift than of the Giver, and we warn them that there is danger ahead.

In the past few years much attention has been called in certain localities and among certain classes to "speaking in tongues;" and some have devoted their entire time to the seeking of the gift of speaking in an unknown tongue. The word "unknown" is not found in the Scriptures in connection with the word "tongues' except in italics. It was placed thus so that all may know that it was or is a word that was supplied by the translators of the King James version. Speaking in "tongues" is the very least of the gifts. The three times it was given in the Acts it was given as a sign to the Jews. After it filled its purpose, it ceased. Paul said it would cease. (1 Cor. 13:8) We suppose that in his day Paul could probably speak more different languages than anyone else in the Church, but he said, "I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might teach others, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue."

As we have gone up and down this land, our observation has been that, wherever the people turned to seeking after "tongues," the work of soul-saving largely stopped, and it was not long until discord, disaster, defeat and destruction were seen. A number have come to the altar in our meetings who have been wrecked on that error. It is a brazen serpent, and the sooner you so see it, the safer you will be. Anything that takes your eyes and mind off of Jesus and the Blood, no matter how much or how little it may have been used of God in days gone by, the moment you begin to make more of it than the Blood, that moment you are off the track.

Don't burn incense to a brazen serpent.

8 -- MAN'S THREEFOLD NATURE

A fourth point to which we wish to call attention is: Man is a threefold being. God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our own likeness." God is a trinity, consisting of Father, Son and Spirit. Man consists of spirit, soul and body. God made the house, then put man in it; He first rolled the dust together and then "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," and "man became a living soul."

The spirit is the man himself. The soul, or heart, is that with which man hates or loves -- the seat of his affections. When you say you have given your heart to God, you mean you have transferred your affections to Him. The body is the house man lives in.

Man is three-sided almost any way you look at him. His life is three-sided; there is the public side of his life, with which many who live about him are more or less acquainted; there is the private side of his life, that only his family and perhaps a very limited number of his closest friends know anything of; and then there is the secret side of his life. That makes his life three-sided. Of the last-mentioned side, little or nothing may be known except by three persons, i. e., God, the devil and himself; and there is his threefold character again.

While his life is threefold in its character, comprising his public, private and secret side, it is made up of just three things, and three things only; i. e., actions, words and thoughts; his public actions, his private actions and his secret actions; his public words, his private words and his secret words; his thoughts as he ponders over them in public, his thoughts as he ponders over them in private, and the thoughts that find a lodging-place in his bosom when he is alone.

My brother, when you place your head on your pillow tonight, and pass off into that state of unconsciousness called sleep, the books containing the record of your actions, words and thoughts, making a complete and final record of your life for this day, will have been forever closed. Tomorrow, if you shall live to see it will bring a new page of the book that is being kept of your life's record; but the record of today will have been completed and filed away until the day of reckoning comes, when every man shall render unto his Maker a record of the deeds done in the body while he lived here upon earth.

"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened." (Rev. 20:12) Books, books containing a record of our public, private and secret actions; books containing the account of our thoughts. God will need no other witnesses then. The precious Holy Ghost who, through all the years of our accountability, endeavored to woo us away from Sin and lead us to purity and to God, will stand there to confirm the records made in the books. He will testify of the truthfulness of the records.

9 -- PUBLIC ACTIONS

Hezekiah, lying on what he thought was his death-bed, called God to remember how he had walked. God's mouthpiece, the prophet, had just been in and said, "Thou shalt die and not live." Hezekiah expected to die and prayed, "Lord, remember how I have walked before Thee," and as a man's daily walk partially consists of his actions, we want you to notice how Hezekiah had acted in public. Our first Scripture lesson said that he cut down the groves and brake up the idols and that he smashed the brazen serpent which Moses had made. No matter if Israel was backslidden, and though he might have to stand alone in the course he would pursue, he got an old battle-ax and started in. Sometimes we have imagined him swinging and cutting right and left, and on his death-bed telling God he had done that which was right in His sight. He was not ashamed of his public actions, and when he lay on his deathbed he dared to look up to God and actually beseech Him to remember how he had done.

Friend, you who read these lines, could you do the same? If you were on your death-bed this hour, could you beg God, as Hezekiah, to remember how you had walked before Him, and beseech Him to remember what you had done in your public life? Come on, look straight at the question.

In his second letter to the church at Corinth, Paul wrote: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in the body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." That means the things we do while we live in these bodies. What about your public actions? Would you be willing to meet them at the judgment this hour and there partake of them? Are you the man or woman you pretend to be? Are your public actions straight and clean? How about it? The time is rapidly approaching when we must all stand before the Judgment-seat and receive the things we have done. Look back over your life. What about your public actions? What a sight the Judgment will be, when men and women, stripped of all their shams and make-beliefs and all that is artificial, stand to receive that which they have done in this life. What will the saloonkeeper receive for his awful actions in selling liquor that has broken up homes, murdered innocent children, blighted, blasted, blackened, and damned men and women forever? What will that man receive who voted for the sale of the infernal stuff, who helped to keep the saloon open, and who helped to put in power the political party that would license the sale of the soul-damning thing; who threw his influence with those who were engaged in the wholesale destruction that the whole infernal liquor business does? What shall he receive who, for the sake of a few dollars in taxes (?) on his property, or to hold a customer, voted to continue the sale of liquor, thereby filling the asylums with idiots, and the penitentiaries with criminals; who by his vote helped to fill the country with rum, riot ruin, and murder; who by his vote helped to put liquor where men, unable to curb their appetites, would drink, and by so doing bring irresponsible children into this world and help swell the army of idiots already here? Seventy-five per cent. of our idiots and 80 per cent. of the paupers come from intemperate parents; 82 per cent of the crimes committed are by men under the influence of liquor, and about 90 per cent. of the adult criminals are whiskey made; and the man who votes for its sale is guilty before God of the crimes the liquor caused them to commit. What will he receive at the Judgment-seat of Christ?

On our desk lies a little slip of paper with the following printed on it: "A flour-mill cannot run without grist; a sawmill cannot run without logs; a gin-mill cannot run without boys. Have you one to spare?" And the man that sells liquor, the man who votes for liquor, the man who votes for a party that licenses liquor, and the man who refuses to throw his influence against the virtue-stealing, home-blighting, soul-damning traffic, will have to appear at the Judgment-seat of. Christ to receive the things he has done while he lived in the body he wears here on this earth! What about your actions ? And what shall we say of men who, posing as ambassadors of the Lord Jesus, are too cowardly to take their stand against the liquor traffic or to throw their influence against it?

In the recent fight in Missouri against liquor, the papers of that state were full of what men had to say against prohibiting the traffic. During the time, the Evangelical Lutheran Missouri Synod, comprising several hundred preachers, was in session, and they issued an official statement which was printed in a leading daily paper. The statement in part as it was printed in the paper, reads: "A campaign for and against Prohibition is at present being waged in our state. As a church body, we do not intend to participate in this movement; neither do we purpose to dictate to the conscience of our Christians how they are to cast their vote. We believe that Church and State have entirely different functions, and these must not be confused. Since, however, various church denominations have dragged religion into this purely political question, and since our Christians, in consequence of misinterpretation of Scripture by the Prohibition agitators, are perturbed and confused, and raise the question whether or not the use of alcoholic beverages is compatible with the tenets of Christianity, we hereby desire to state briefly the Bible position respecting this important question."

After quoting a few passages of Scripture on the subject, the statement continues: "It is therefore clearly a matter of Christian liberty to use wine and other alcoholic beverages, and no one dare say you sin, if you use it. If anyone would deprive us of this Christian liberty, and condemn as a sin the use of spirituous liquors, we retort with St. Paul: 'Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat or in drink.' (Col. 2:16)."

No man who has a thimbleful of brains can help but see that those preachers deliberately sold their influence to the liquor business and to the devil. That kind of religion is helping the devil to damn mankind. The endeavor to stop the sale of liquor in that state was defeated and the hellish business can go on, thanks to the assistance of those preachers. What will they receive at the Judgment for their public actions in the matter? We would not want to stand in their places before the bar of God's wrath.

In the whirl of circumstances that surround them today, men forget that God is looking down upon them and that they must face their own actions at the Judgment. Mr. Edison has given to the world a wonderful instrument called the kinetoscope. Two prize fighters may take their places on the stage and, in spite of the rapidity of their actions, the machine will photograph every movement they make, and in a short time reproduce it all on canvas. He can photograph an express train running at tremendous speed or a baseball field with the entire group of players in action, and reproduce it all in motion just as it was acted out.

Friend, did you ever stop to think that God has a photograph of your every action, and by and by you will appear at the Judgment-seat and face the record? In the Book of Revelation, 20th chapter and 12th verse, it tells us of the Book of Life, and also of the other books, and says that we will be "judged out of those things which are written in the books," according to our works. Does that not coincide with what Paul says about "appearing at the Judgment-seat of Christ to receive the things done in the body"? We often wonder how some folks who profess to be Christians will at that time appear when they see the way they acted in some meetings they attended.

When the leader, under direction of the Holy Spirit, and in his effort to get men to see themselves, was led to ask all present who were ready to meet God to stand, and they, in spite of their profession, sat rigid in their seats along with the liars, whoremongers and adulterers and all kinds of sinners, we wonder how they will like the company they will find themselves in at that time. There will be no dodging the fact, for they would not arise, but acted just the way the other sinners did. Oh, my friend, you may say you don't believe in tests and propositions. Well, that may be so, but it is not what you believe or do not believe we are calling your attention to; it is your public actions. It was in a public meeting and others saw you, and may have been influenced by your actions. Your boy may have seen you, or your daughter or neighbor, and because of your self-will and prejudice, you deliberately sat still with those who could not stand and thus declare that the blood of Jesus had cleansed their heart and that they were ready to meet God, and your actions have gone down in the book and you will meet them again; how will you like the picture?

You may try to make excuse, but there is the picture and it shows you saying by your public actions that you were not right, not ready to meet God. What good will your excuse and explanation do? God help you to understand that it will be too late to make excuses and explanations then. Today is the day of trial, but that will be the Day of Judgment, when the sentence will be carried out, and you will be judged by the things written in the books, and if you are found sitting still with whoremongers, adulterers, liars and sinners, who will be to blame but yourself? And by allowing prejudice to keep you from standing under the call of God's servant, you may have influenced others who may be kept out of the kingdom by your actions. Do you think such actions would corroborate a man's testimony that he was walking with God?

What was the result of the public actions of those ten false spies? A whole nation was turned away from entering the "goodly land." May the precious Holy Spirit open your eyes to the tremendous influence your public actions may have on others, lest you cause them to falter in their march toward Canaan's land, and be held responsible for their damnation at the Judgment.

If you were dying this hour, could you pray, as Hezekiah did, "I beseech Thee, Lord, remember how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which was good in Thy sight"?

In our book "Jacob, the Heel-grasper," we give an account of the hanging of five boys, at whose execution we were present. When the hangman let their bodies down and took the black death-cap off, we shall never forget the sight of their blue and bloated faces. It made us shudder at the time, but the hangman did not seem to mind. He had hung many others and did not seem to think of the awful, gruesome work that he was engaged in, or that the time would come when he, too, must die and be ushered out of this life. But the time finally came, as it will to us all.

He was taken sick and lingered some time before he died. As the days of his sickness went by, the state of his mind became terrible to those who were with him. For several days previous to his death, just at eventide he said he could see the forms of the men, whom he had hung, silently creeping out of the shadows and surrounding his bed; they would point their clammy hands at him and beckon him to come to them, making signs that he would soon be with them. He said he could see their bloated and swollen faces, with the dark purple marks around their necks made by the ropes, just as he had looked upon them many times when he had taken them down and put them in their coffins. The memories of their dying struggles and blood-bloated countenances haunted him to his last moments.

Some tried to pray with him, but not a petition fell from his lips for God to remember how he had walked before Him. His last hours were frightful. A consciousness of the way he had spent his life made his bedroom like the open door to Hell. And when before the bar of God he stands, the books will be opened, the books containing his actions, and he will see himself once more. The Bible says that as a tree falls, so it must lie. He spent his life hanging folks here, and he will be going through the same awful scenes in Hell forever. That saloon-keeper will be still at his business there; ungodly preachers will be passing resolutions in favor of the infernal traffic; and the men who voted for the licenses, together with those who were damned by the stuff, will mingle together in that world of lost men and women; and those who refused to openly and publicly stand up 'declaring they were right and ready to meet God, but remained seated the same as all other sinners, they will be doing that forever and forever, forever and forever.

Friends, let us ask you how you are living. What about your life ? What have you been doing? Suppose you were dying, would you pray as Hezekiah did? If a king back in the days of Hezekiah, surrounded by idolatry and without the Holy Spirit as we have Him today, so walked here on earth that on his death-bed he dared to ask God to remember how be had spent his life, how much more ought we to do so in this Holy Ghost dispensation!

0 -- PRIVATE ACTIONS

As every man has a public, private and secret side to his life, allow me to inquire about your private actions. Have they been of such a character that, were you dying this night, you would pray to God to remember how you had walked, as Hezekiah prayed? Come, friends, we might just as well face these facts now, for we will have to face them at the bar of God. We must all appear at the Judgment-seat of Christ to receive the things done in the body, whether they be good or bad. But few know much of the private side of our lives, so we are asking the question, What about your private actions?

There is that man who comes to the meeting; we meet him on the street and he acts like a gentleman. We wonder if he acts that way in private at home. Then there is that woman who comes to the meeting, and appears so nice and pleasant; we wonder if she is as pleasant at home. Let us take a chair and set it out here on the front of the platform and have that husband come up and take a seat. Now we will place another so the two will face each other, and ask that wife to come and take that one, and we will ask a few questions:

"Now, wife, what about this husband of yours? Does he make a profession of religion? He does? Then tell us, how does he act around home? Is he as kind and courteous to you around home as he is to other ladies, or as he is to you when you are together in public? Would he think of going into his neighbor's house and sticking his feet up on the top of the stove or back of a chair, sit and puff and smoke and smell until he had the atmosphere so filled with tobacco smoke that every child in the house had its lungs filled with the nasty, poisonous odors? Does he do that in his own home? You say, 'He says he has too much respect for his neighbor's wife and children to do that.' Well, if that is so, and if he does it at home, it only shows that he has more respect for his neighbor's wife and children than he has for his own wife and children. He's a fine specimen for a husband and a father, isn't he?

"What else does he do in private that he would not want to be known? Come, don't you tell a falsehood, or it will meet you at the Judgment. Tell us the truth. You say you do not want to testify to his actions? Very well, be seated, and we will have him testify.

"Now, sir, tell us how this woman acts at home. She comes to the meeting and one would think her to be the essence of goodness itself. Does she act like that at home? Does she prove to be the same pleasant, earnest woman at home as she appears in public? Oh, you don't want to testify either? All right, you may take your seat by her side. A precious pair you are!"

Now, we will ask the daughter there to come up here and take this third chair, and we will ask her some questions:

"Now, daughter, you spend your time in the home; tell us, how do this father and mother of yours act at home? Are they earnest Christians, and are they as kind to each other in private as they are in public? Come on, out with the truth. We wish to know the exact facts. As professors. of religion, they profess to be living for Jesus, walking with God, and if they are, they both would be quite willing for you to tell just how they act in private."

Friends, if you would not be glad and willing for the members of your home to stand up publicly and testify to your private actions at home, your profession of religion is a sham and hypocritical. God help you! I ask again, if you were dying, would you pray as Hezekiah prayed? He said: "Lord, remember how I walked before Thee in truth and have done that which was good in Thy sight." How often do you pray with your family? How long has it been since you talked with your boy or girl about their souls? How long has it been since you have prayed with them and for them? Have your children ever heard you pray? If their salvation depended on whether they ever heard you pray, would they be saved tonight?

We were conducting a series of meetings in a small country village some years ago, and were attracted to a man we had noticed one night while preaching. In the after service that followed the sermon, we went to him, and the following conversation took place:

"Sir, are you ready to meet God?" we asked.

"No use to talk to me; talk to someone else."

"But, sir, I came down to talk to you. Your open face attracted my attention from the platform and I came down on special purpose to talk with you."

"No use, for you are wasting you time."

"Is that so? My! but you must be a reprobate."

He looked up quickly and eyed us over from head to foot. We waited for his reply, which finally came.

"Why do you insult me?"

"I am not insulting you, but simply taking you at your word. You said I was wasting my time, and if so, you must certainly have a very poor opinion of yourself, or else you have sunken pretty low."

"Well, I can't hold out."

"How do you know?"

"I tried it once."

"How long ago?"

"About twenty years."

"How old were you then?"

"Fourteen."

"Have you ever thought much about it since?"

"No; don't want to."

"Will you not stop and consider the question?"

"No!"

"Then you are a big coward." How he started and looked, but we went on: "You are too cowardly. Here you are, a man of a family, and you don't pray, won't pray, and never intend to pray, and are too mean and cowardly to even think about praying. I come to you as a friend and you don't even consider that you are worth a few moments of my time."

"But, I tell you, it is no use," he replied, very sullenly, "and I'm not a coward; not a man in this community dare call me a coward."

"Well, let us see; if I prove to you that you are a coward, will you own up?"

"Let's have your proposition."

"All right. I will challenge you to go home and, alone in a room in the dark, honestly and sincerely think on the following three questions: Have I a soul to be saved? If so, what must I do to save it? And, What will be the consequences if I do not have it saved? Now, I will dare you to do this."

He accepted the challenge and went home. He came back the following night and, with his wife, came to the altar and both were powerfully converted. The following evening he told me his experience.

"I went home," he said, "with a sneer on my lips, but thought enough of my word to keep my promise. I had been alone in that dark room thinking about my soul and my wicked life but a short time until I began to feel afraid, and went out into another room and saw that I had only been in the dark a few minutes. I got mad and went back and tried it again. I did not sleep that night, but tossed on my bed all night and at my blacksmith shop yesterday everything went wrong. Every time I struck my anvil it said, "You're a coward.' It was the longest and most miserable day of my life. Last night wife and I both found God. On our way home I borrowed a little Testament from a neighbor, for we have no Bible in our home, and before we went to bed my children saw their father and mother on their knees and heard them pray, and today my work has gone on so nicely at the shop. And today my old anvil said, 'Praise the Lord!' and 'Hallelujah!' every time I struck it."

The memory of his big face with the tears streaming down his cheeks, as he told of how his children had never seen or heard their parents pray before, is still fresh in our mind.

Oh! father, mother, have your children ever see you on your knees and heard you pray ?

"Papa, why don't we ever have prayer any more?" asked a little darling as she climbed on her papa's knee. The child had been with her parents to the meeting that night, and heard us as we had tried to wake up the parents and make them see their responsibilities. That backslidden father looked across to the backslidden mother.

"You and mamma used to pray, papa; why don't you do so now?" It was too much. They dropped at the same chair with the precious little darling kneeling down between them, and Jesus came into that home and these two wandering sheep came back to the fold.

What about your private life? Have your children heard you pray. We wonder, oh, we wonder, how many girls and boys are kept out of the kingdom because they never see their parents on their knees praying to God. How thankful the writer is that he was brought into this life by a father who would pray. He always had time to pray. The wheat might be ready to fall, or the men ready to start the thresher, or somebody waiting, but father would pray, and when before the Bar we stand by his side, we can testify, to angels and redeemed men, that father would pray. When he came to his last days on earth, often did we hear him tell the Lord he was ready and wanted to go home. Much like Hezekiah, he was not afraid for God to look over his record, neither was he afraid to go.

Suppose you were dying tonight, how would you pray? What about your private actions?

11 -- SECRET ACTIONS

Secret actions! What a field to explore! A world by itself, hidden away from the eyes of man, but not hidden from God. The wise man in Proverbs has written, "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." How little or how seldom does the average person stop to ponder over those words, or that passage which reads, "For His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all things."

Friends, those words mean exactly what they say, "He seeth all things -- every secret act -- and they are all in the book of actions that will be opened at the Judgment Day, and every man will be judged according to the things found in the books. Paul wrote that we must ALL appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body, whether good or bad. My God, help men and women to see and understand! No wonder that old warrior cried out, "Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." Would to God that we might be able to persuade every person who may sit under our ministry to turn from sin and seek for that "great salvation" that saves from all sin.

If that, and that alone, was not the one all-absorbing object or effort of his life, this preacher would never face another congregation, never preach another sermon, and these lines would never have been written. There are so many whose opportunities in early life were so much greater than his, whose preparation was so much more thorough, who are so much better qualified in so many, many ways; but because of the fact that he has found this great salvation himself, and "tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come," and with a sense of the condition of his fellowman and. a realization of the teaching of the Scriptures of what man must face at the bar of God, he can do no less than, with voice and pen, do his utmost to warn men and beg them to flee from the wrath to come. These efforts, put forth to the best of his ability, may be the butt of ridicule, the subject of jest, and the object of Severe criticism by men, but it is not men, either friend or foe, he seeks to please; but knowing that the Heavenly Father knoweth all things, even the secrets and intentions of the heart, he is doing and, with the assistance of the grace of God, will continue to do, his best to warn and persuade men to be reconciled to God. It is not at the bar of man's approval we must render up an account, but to the Almighty God whose we are and whom we serve. And He, who sitteth upon the throne, knowing the ordeal that men must meet, is doing His utmost to warn them.

All through the Bible we constantly read, "Be ye holy, for I, the Lord thy God, am holy." God the Father demands it. Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God;" and Paul wrote that "without holiness no man shall see God." A record of the lives of men is being kept, and at the Judgment Day, toward which all mankind is hastening, the books, wherein is recorded our actions, public, private and secret, will be opened, and then the sinful secrets of men will be laid bare to the gaze of the gathered universe.

Friends, what about your secret actions? Hezekiah besought the Lord to remember how he had walked before Him and what he had done. If. at this hour you lay on your death-bed, do you think you would pray as he did? That boy that stole from his parents; that clerk that stole from his employer; that dishonest man who changed the figures -- what will they say when they see themselves in the very act? That man who robbed the bank of the depositors' money; that husband who was untrue to his wife; that wife who was false to her husband; that young man who sold his manhood for an hour's pleasure; that girl who trifled with her virtue; that young man who robbed that maiden of her good name; that preacher who sailed under false colors; that husband and wife who deliberately destroyed that which God has ordained to bring forth life; that wife who refused motherhood; from the highest society to the poorest walks of life, from the preacher in the pulpit to those occupying the last seat, with all those of every walk and position in life, from every tribe and nation, together with those who seek the darkness of the night to cover their ungodly deeds -- what will they say, what will they do, when their secret actions are laid bare? The Word of God says, "Be sure your sin will find you out," and the things that many have done secretly ofttimes come to light in this life. David committed an awful sin secretly and it soon came to light, and while he confessed it and found forgiveness, yet its effects followed him down to his death-bed. Achan did not confess his sin until it was too late, and there are many today who have dark secret sins covered up in their lives which they have not confessed or endeavored to straighten up; yet the avenger is on their. track, and it is only a question of time until the black, hideous thing will be dragged from its hiding place. How much better it would be if such persons would confess and get the thing straightened up and wiped out, than to wait until, like Achan, they confess when it is too late!

We are quite well aware that not everybody either enjoys or is very desirous of looking back over their lives. but look back over them they will, when at the Judgment they stand. We are also aware that there are those who object to the preacher who dares to proclaim that God demands freedom from sin, and in his preaching insists that, in order to get right with God, every man must abandon all wrong doing, and be willing, so far as he is able, to make reparation to those whom he had wronged; and to refuse to do so, God would refuse his pardon and salvation. Those making objections to such preaching. ate themselves guilty and have. things covered up that they don't want held up before their minds, else there would be no objection from them, and in due time they will get their just dues. The following we clipped from an editorial of a holiness paper:

"A pastor of one of the largest churches in the country has a few experiences that are interestingly suggestive and decidedly alarming. He is and has been a most sane and safe man; never extreme, always careful; an intelligent and very successful man of God. He had been in this strong church for a year and half of another, and had had a most prosperous pastorate during that time, particularly in the conversion of sinners.

His work had been so successful that he had been officially invited by the Board to continue with them. for the full term of five years. This was, of course, not emphasized in his thought, save as an appreciation, since it could hardly stand in point of custom or discipline. It was, however, very properly appreciated by him. Strange to say, when the second year was nearly half through, five men connived to oust him at the end of that year.

This pastor was a holiness preacher, but one of such a delightful spirit and sanity of method that, if any man could be an acceptable holiness man, this excellent brother would seem to have been such an one. To relate the method employed by these men would make interesting reading and reveal an awful villainy. The Quarterly Conference, influenced by these five men, actually called a man by telegram, who accepted the call in this mid-year.

"Sequel: Two of these men afterwards served sentences in State prison; one died in his buggy going home from a house of ill-fame; a fourth died in agony of soul crying for help; and the last -- the presiding elder -- went to the Pacific Coast for his health and died of a rotten jaw.

"This pastor was a victor in his own soul and is yet afield as a blessed and successful minister. How wicked not only, but positively dangerous even in the life that now is, to resist God and fight God's people.

"We tremble for men who did this only few months ago. Two men held a very successful revival meeting in a college town and in the church which is the college church. The faculty of this university actually got together to consider how they could defeat the influence of the evangelists and of the pastor of that church and put a stop to that revival.

"They applied to the Chancellor, who is an open holiness fighter, and be said: 'The situation is deplorable. But it is not best, probably, for you to carry out your plans; but when the meetings are over, in the classrooms and elsewhere, we ca overcome this influence and set these folks right.'

"Have we not a reason for fearing God's judgments upon these men, if not on this institution itself! We are far from wanting them; but we expect them, and that soon."

We are also aware that there are preachers who object to that sort of preaching, but we honestly believe that where objections are made to such preaching by a preacher, there is a reason for his so doing. No man who is right with God and who is walking with God is afraid of the truth, and a preacher that objects to a faithful presentation of it, we believe, has something in his own life of which he does not wish to be reminded.

Some years ago there was a certain man who had power with God and with men. He seemed to "walk with God." The product of his pen, savored with the joy and sweetness which flowed through his heart and life, appears in the majority of the song-books of today. He was associated with good and holy men, officially connected with a state holiness association, and a recognized leader in its camp. There began to be whispered rumors connected with his good name and something of an examination was made, but it all passed by. But this brother, who had been so used of God, drifted from the holiness work, though he continued his ministry. Years went by, and the writer, together with a friend somewhat acquainted with the subject of this incident, was conducting meetings in another state. Among the many who became seekers at the altar was a fine, healthy looking young woman, who sought diligently and very earnestly for several days, with no apparent results. One day at the altar, we said to her, "Sister, is there not something in the way; something that God cannot smile upon; something that is ever before you?"

She dropped her head and wept bitterly. Soon afterward, she called the minister and his wife, whom we were assisting, and poured out her trouble. She had lived in the home of the subject of this incident when but a young girl, ignorant of the ways of men. He had been good and kind to her. One night going home late from a meeting, he took advantage of her ignorance and confidence, and, telling her how much he thought of her, robbed her of all that woman holds dear, though he was a married man with children of his own. He told the girl that he did not expect his wife to live long and as soon as she died he would marry her.

Bitterly she poured out her story, how, time after time he came to her, and she, but a young and inexperienced girl, learned to love him. She left his home and he was changed to another appointment, but the affection for him never died, and remaining unmarried, alone in the world, making her own way, she had carried that affection in her heart, waiting and hoping for a future. In that condition she came into that meeting. She said, "I was so young and did not know, and trusted him so confidingly." She wept, prayed and agonized, but some way not much relief seemed to come to her. Though that meeting was held in another state, and she had not seen him for a long time, the very day she was at the altar struggling to find God, he was seen in that town in company with another woman not his wife.

Since then several years have passed, and, only a few months ago, she attended another meeting conducted by the writer, and after a bitter struggle the darkness of years broke away and the sunlight, which only the incoming of the Holy Spirit can give, broke over her face and calmly, but with a face radiant with the joy of her newly found peace, she testified that she had gotten rid of that which had troubled her for years, and Jesus had taken its place.

But the person who had caused it all -- where is he, and what is he doing? He stands high in the ranks of his denomination. His song is still being sung up and down the land, and many are cheered and blessed by it; but his voice is not heard among the holiness meetings, and at the camp where he once was a prominent figure. He is not known now for the deep spirituality of his messages; his work is not ablaze with salvation. At his watch chain there dangles the emblem of his secret order, and preachers, even of his own denomination, and singing his own song, and preaching what he used to preach, are not wanted by him in his community. He does not know that the writer is in possession of the knowledge of his secret sin, a crime that he has never tried to make right. Who wonders that he does not want holiness preached in his territory? His secret actions, no matter how bad, could have been atoned for and forgiven, but on he swings, with his awful act, as he supposes, still hidden and buried in the past. But steadily and surely the hour is coming when it will be laid bare and, if not here, then at the bar of God where he must receive that which he has done.

We have known so many who, having opposed God's faithful messengers in their proclaiming His truths, have had their wickedness unearthed, that when we hear of those who do so, or come in contact with them, it is hard for us not to suspect them of having something dark and wicked covered up somewhere in the past, and although they may fuss, fume and fight, the man who walks with God can turn them over to Him, whose "eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good," "for His eyes are upon the ways of man and He seeth all things."

God is not mocked and He seeth the ways of men. What about your secret actions? Come on, and answer the question. Were you on your death-bed, could you pray as Hezekiah prayed: "I beseech Thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Thy sight"?

12 -- PUBLIC WORDS

In his prayer, Hezekiah said, "Lord, I beseech Thee to remember how I have walked before Thee in truth," and as man's daily life or walk in part consists of what he says, the words he utters, let us ask, "What about your words?" What kind of a report are you bringing back by your words? When those spies returned, ten of them said, "We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched, unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."

These words were spoken publicly and mark well the result: "And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God, that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." A whole nation was turned away from entering the promised land. Canaan, in the Bible, symbolizes the sanctified life. Here were just ten men who, by their actions and words, turned a whole nation back from entering that country to which they had been traveling; a country that God had long promised them; a country for which they had left all that was home to them; a country towards which they had been journeying with their families and all their possessions.

They were right on the border; they could go no further without entering; and they were waiting on the report of those sent on to spy out the land. All were anxious to enter and at last gain that for which they had long sought. But alas! upon their return the ten said, "It is no use; we cannot possess it. It is a goodly land, flowing with milk and honey, abounding with fruit and very pleasant; but we are not able to possess it." Disappointed, defeated and discouraged, they all began murmuring. What a picture we have here of many places in this day and age. An awakening takes place and many are converted and set out toward that "goodly land." God pardons the sinner of his sins, and regenerates his soul. What for? That that soul, born with a devilish "twist" or "prone-to-wander" nature in his bosom, called the carnal mind, might, by the consecration of all his redeemed faculties and self to God, through faith, be cleansed from that inward power, and, being made perfectly free, enter that "goodly land" of full salvation and serve God with all his heart.

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, and as the children of Israel had not reached their inheritance until they entered Canaan, so no soul has obtained that for which Jesus died until it is cleansed from all sin, and is made pure and holy in God's sight. In due course of time they are led up to Kadesh-barnea, the border land, and are about to enter. Sometimes a whole congregation are right at the border, but all eyes turn upon some of the principal men in the church. If they go in, the whole congregation would soon be crowding the altars, seeking to enter in. But alas! with a lack of faith and trust in God, those few draw back. All they can see are the difficulties. They forget the God who has led them along the way, blessed them so many times, given them food and water, and protected them in a thousand ways. They forget His mighty power and His promises, and draw back and begin to talk against the experience, with the consequences that many, having come to the light, are influenced not to seek to enter into the experience, and backslide and lose all they had gained. God's chosen leaders, seeing the awful results, cry out against it, and seek to urge the people not to retreat, but to mind God and walk in the light. But because they disobey and grieve Him, who had done so much for them, God withdraws His Holy Spirit, and they turn on these very leaders that were endeavoring to lead them into the greatest blessing God has for a human soul while it remains in the body.

A few, a very few, who believe God and see what turning back then would mean, rally to the leader's assistance, and together try with might and main to persuade the church onward, but they become the butt of ridicule and sneers. That is exactly what happened with Israel. "Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. And Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we passed through to search it is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us; their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us; fear them not. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones."

What caused all this disaster and defeat? Just ten men! And we have seen nearly a whole church defeated and turned back in exactly the same manner. Sometimes it has been a pastor who, unwilling to pay the price himself, has influenced nearly his whole flock; sometimes it has been some of the principal men in the church.

We know of an instance where a godless Sunday School superintendent, by his words, turned as fine a lot of young people as ever lived away from holiness. They saw the light and some of them flocked about the altar as seekers when the superintendent got a few of them off to one side and influenced them against the doctrine, and today they are a godless, worldly set, on the devil's toboggan-slide, slipping Hellward at an awful rate. He has damned them by his influence, by his words. They will wake up in Hell and curse him forever. We know of a number of such cases.

In some instances, if the pastor would get out of the way, his church would enter that "goodly land" of full salvation. Such a pastor will have the wrath of God poured on him forever and forever. He may fawn over and bow down to a worldly, godless set, or refuse to get out of that Christless lodge he is in, and go straight out for God, but the time will come when lie will pay dearly for his past in holding back his people. Of that class hear Jesus say: "Woe: unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of Heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in." (Matt. 23:13)

Where the pastor takes his stand with God and His truth, sometimes a few prominent members hold back, and by the stand they take, refuse to enter themselves, and by speaking against the experience, keep many others out. That is exactly what those ten false spies did, and God said of them: "Because all those men which have seen My glory and My miracles, which I did in Egypt, and in the wilderness, have tempted Me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to My voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked Me see it."

Friends, what about your public words? How many times men will discuss and argue, until those who believe will be influenced and turn away from God. It would have been better for that individual never to have been born. And you who have received light will walk in that light, regardless of what others may do, or you will lose all you have and backslide and fall into Hell. We warn you, you cannot refuse to walk in the light, nor speak against God's truth, without bringing the wrath of God upon you. Listen to what He said: "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against Me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against Me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in Mine ears, so will I do to you. Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against Me. Doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which he searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know My breach of promise. I, the Lord, have said, I will surely do it until all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against Me; in this wilderness they shall be consumed and there they shall die."

13 -- PRIVATE WORDS

Mr. Edison, sometimes, has been called a wizard. He has given to the public many wonderful inventions, none of which is greater than the phonograph. We stand in front of it and sing or speak and in a few moments, lo and behold, out from the machine come our words just as we uttered them, with all the particulars of our articulation. He makes a record of them so that, long after the one speaking them is dead, he can still reproduce his words. Wonderful mechanism, but is it more wonderful than what God can perform? Can Mr. Edison bring to pass what He who rules the universe cannot? As we examine the phonograph and notice the little contrivance they call a "receiver," we wonder what kind of a receiver must God have. We speak into the big blue tube which collects our words, carrying them to the "receiver," and by it they are transmitted to the recorder that makes and retains a record of them to be reproduced at will. And we are often led to wonder what kind of a big blue tube it is that stretches above our heads from east to west, from north to south; from one horizon to the opposite. And we wonder what sort of a receiver God has by which all our words are heard and written down in the books -- books, we are told, that will be opened on the great Judgment Day, and from which we are to be judged by the things written therein.

If Mr. Edison can reproduce our words, what does the reader think God can and will do? Men forget that God hears all their words. Of Sodom and Gomorrah He said, "Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is very great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry that is come unto Me." Moses said to the children of Israel, "God heard your murmurings in your tents." To those false spies, he said, "And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth."

We wonder what kind of a report you have brought back of God's salvation by your words, spoken in private, out of sound of the public and behind the threshold of your own home? Words spoken in derision of God's great salvation that He planned and brought to poor, sin-cursed humanity by and through the blood of His Son? How often have you sneered at or spoken against the doctrine and experience of heart purity that comes by having the heart cleansed from all inbred sin and sanctified wholly ? How many times have you spoken adversely of some one who professed to have found the experience and was doing his best to make others see and seek it?

Come on, don't try to evade the question, for if you are guilty, it will be ten thousand times better for you to confess it now than to wait until, like Achan, you are pointed out. How many do you suppose have been kept back by what you have said?

God told the children of Israel they could possess the land. He was with them, and as He had delivered them from the Egyptians, so He could deliver them from the Canaanites; and as He pardons all our transgressions when we obey and come to Him as He commands, just so He has the power to cleanse and sanctify us wholly, and who are you that dare speak contrary to His written Word? Just as certainly as those false spies brought back an evil report by their talking contrary to what God had commanded. so the person who has spoken in a trifling manner or against the blessed truth of heart purity, has spoken directly against the written Word of God, and as God heard and punished them according to their own words, so has He heard, and so will He punish those who speak against His Word now.

The children of Israel had the promise of the "goodly land" before they left Egyptian slavery and they knew where they were headed for just so, God promises full deliverance from all sin to the sinner if he will turn and do as God commands. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." One great reason that God pardons and regenerates a soul is that, being regenerated back to life, that soul might then be made free from sin by having that evil nature, that "proneness to wander," that "bent to sinning," utterly removed from his heart. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and the devil has succeeded in impregnating sin into the human heart, and the work of Jesus is not accomplished in any heart until the sin has all been destroyed and removed. The individual who dares to speak against it, whether preacher in the pulpit or some one in his own home, must answer to God for so basely misrepresenting His truth.

With these things in mind, allow us now to ask, If you were dying, would you pray as Hezekiah did? Do you think you would beseech God to remember how you had walked and had done thus, with a perfect heart? It might be a good thing for us to call up that husband again and in his presence ask that wife: "How about this man's words about home? Does he talk for or against this great salvation, or what is the character of his language anyway? Is there anything about his words that reminds you of Jesus? Is he as choice in his language about the home as he is abroad? By his words, who does he remind you most of, a godly, god-fearing man, or a worldly, godless individual? Does he get angry and say harsh and unjust things that he would be ashamed to hear at the Judgment?"

"Well, suppose you sit down and we ask him to arise and answer those questions concerning you, or if you are both so loth to speak concerning the other, we will ask that son or daughter to come up and tell us how you each talk in your home. What about your private words?

"If you would not be willing for your son or daughter to testify as to your private words in the home, pray, what good is your profession of religion anyway? And if they do not tell of your words, they will be told at the Judgment when God opens the books wherein they are kept."

So long as carnality remains in the heart, the tongue will go wrong. You may make and form resolutions not to talk so much or not to say such and such things, but in a little while it breaks loose and words are spoken that blast, blight, and blacken records, character and reputations, and Sometimes attacks and breaks up homes, creating havoc and destruction that result in damning souls forever. Sometimes, in order to further their own ends, or to attract to themselves, or to draw others to their personal ideas, words are spoken that cast reflection and reproach upon some of God's little ones who are working, toiling and living sacrificial lives in order to bring souls to God. How will those who do such things meet their words at the judgment?

Someone has said that words are but the echo of what lies in the heart, and if that be so, what a carnal heart some must have! Paul wrote that "to be carnally minded is death, and they that are carnally minded (Eng. flesh, Greek sarx) cannot please God." (Rom. 8:8; Gal. 5:17) A heart that has the carnal mind in it is not perfect toward God, and Hezekiah called God to remember how he had walked before Him in truth and with a perfect heart; consequently when he was on what he supposed was his deathbed, he was not afraid to ask God to remember how he had walked.

Reader, how about it? How would it be with thee? Go back over thy life and remember, before it is too late. Is there carnality in thy heart? Does it not show itself in thy words? How many times has it made you say things that you would give worlds, had you them to give, if you could take them back?

We look back to our boyhood days and so many things come up before us. Oh, what would we not give if we could take back things we have said? How well we remember our dear old saintly father, and his kindness to us, and his many, many pleadings. What would we not give were we able to unsay some things we said to him! As it is, we will never get through thanking God that He let father live until we could ask forgiveness of him; live to hear his youngest son preach a Gospel that saves from all sin. But every boy has not had the opportunity to do that. Father has gone and the words spoken so hastily are still in his memory, and, so far as that father is concerned, unconfessed.

We remember of hearing a brother tell how he had quarreled with his father. He said, "I had been converted and did not know that God could cleanse the heart from all sin. My preacher, though sworn to preach it, it being the doctrine of our church, did not preach it; and I was in ignorance concerning the possibility of having a clean heart. I had a bad temper and one day quarreled with my father, and in the heat of anger left home. I was sent for to return, but before I arrived home my father had died. And now there hangs in memory's gallery the picture of my father's face, and the fact that the last words I, his son professing to be a Christian, ever spoke to him, were in anger.

"If my preacher had only been true to his vows, I would have heard that Jesus could take the carnality out of my heart, and would no doubt have sought for and obtained the experience, for I was earnest and honest and willing. I would not have had to go on down through life with it ever in my memory. Those last angry words to my father I know God has forgiven, but I cannot lose the memory of them."

That preacher did not bring a good report, even if he did not bring back an evil one; but in his negligence, something was brought to pass that can never be undone, and the hasty words spoken by that brother will go down through life with him.

The Bible say, "The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity ... and it is set on fire of Hell; for every kind of beasts and of birds and of serpents and of things in the Sea, is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison." By it reputations are blasted, characters are defamed, men and women disgraced, and souls turned back from following God and damned in Hell at last.

Oh, brother, what about your words? Sister, are you ready to go to the Judgment Bar with your words? Were you dying at this hour, could you, would you, pray as Hezekiah did: "O Lord, I beseech Thee, remember how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which was right in Thy sight"?

14 -- SECRET WORDS

The "perfect heart" has no desire for anything unclean, has no desire to hear or listen to the recital of unclean tales; and the person who has a relish for such things has not a clean heart. If accidentally in a company where some unclean tale is started, the person, from whose heart sin has been cleansed, will turn a deaf ear. Such things are disgusting and obnoxious to him.

We do not know whether or not General Grant ever made a profession of religion, but we have heard that on a certain occasion an officer came into his tent, and with a tale on his lips, asked,

"Are there any ladies about?"

"No," replied Grant, "but there are some gentlemen present," and the story was not told. Many a boy has been all but ruined forever by being thrown among those older than himself self and a stream of vile, dirty tales poured out in his presence. Men do not think that even their words spoken in secret are recorded.

Friends, if you find a desire in your heart to listen to such, your heart is not clean. How many times confidence has taken wings and flown away when certain individuals, in whom great confidence had been placed, related some unclean story. Can the reader imagine for a moment that a perfect heart would have any desire for such? Of course, it was spoken in secret, yet if mankind would only stop to consider that a record is made of all words spoken in public, private and secret, and one day they must again hear them, they would be more choice in what they say. Many a boy is sent on the road downward by what he hears from the lips of those older than himself. Some communities are glad and breathe a sigh of relief when certain persons move away, because they are known to be so foul-mouthed that they corrupt the morals of every boy they get into their company. The words may be spoken in secret, but they bear fruit just the same.

The truth concerning oceans of sin and crime finds its way to the light, or to publicity. Thousands of wrong-doers are never found out and brought to punishment by the law of the land. But there is a great day coming when all must appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ to receive the things done in the body according to that they have done, whether good or bad, and then all the perpetrators of hidden crime and wrongs will be brought to judgment. No less among them will stand those who, by their words, spoken in secret, have sinned against the God who allowed them to live on this earth. Those vile, vulgar words, spoken in secret; those unkind words that fell from the lips of that son or daughter to a loving parent; that unclean tale related to a select few; that unkind report of some toiling servant of God, who, innocent of the whispered malice, was giving the best of his life for the salvation of others; those unChristian remarks made that cast a suspicion upon some faithful man in order to cover up another's actions, actions that bore anything but the print of the Divine; and all the tale-bearing, backbiting, wire-pulling actions and words enacted or spoken in secret -- all, all will finally be made known on that great day. They are all written down in the books and will be made known, together with the foolish, worldly, jesting, godless, empty words spoken during the lifetime. What does the Bible say? Hear it right from the lips of Jesus Himself: "A good man, out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of Judgment." (Matt. 12:35, 36) Exactly! A good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and a perfect heart bringeth forth a life whose owner will not be ashamed to meet it either on his death-bed or at the Judgment.

Hezekiah said, "Lord, remember how I have walked before Thee; how I have spent my life, how I have lived in public, private and secret." Come on, friends, and tell us, were you dying, could you make Hezekiah's prayer your plea? Have you walked before God with a perfect heart? How about your secret words?

Brother, how will you like to see yourself kneeling upon your naked left knee, your left arm bare, your left breast exposed, your hands on the Bible, and blindfolded, with a cable-tow about your neck, repeating an oath that would make a heathen blush with shame, and you a professing Christian? How will you like to hear yourself saying that you would be willing to have your throat cut across, your tongue torn out by it roots and buried in the rough sands of the sea; or willing to have your left breast torn open, your heart plucked out and given as a prey to the beasts of the field, or fowls of the air; or, having your body severed in twain, your bowels taken out, burned to ashes and scattered to the four winds of Heaven? You spoke hem in secret, didn't you? Well, you will hear them again at the Judgment, and they will not be secret there.

It would have been bad enough for a man who made no profession of religion whatever to take such an oath, but for you, a professing child of God, in such a semi-nude condition, to go in among a crowd of men, many of them blasphemers, men who curse and care not for your Christ, men who live impure, unholy lives, and say to them that you, a child of God, were seeking light in such a place and in such a company; turning your back on Jesus, who alone can give light, and get on your knees, and in direct contradiction of the words of Jesus, allow such words to fall from your lips -- what do you suppose He, who died to redeem you from such, will have to say to you when you stand before Him? Great God, we pray Thee, open the eyes of men to see what a sin and folly they are in, and help them to realize and remember that their actions and their words they will meet again.

Brother, get angry at us if you like, curse us if you will, but before the Judgment Bar of Almighty God we will challenge you to say we did not warn you. You may turn from us, but when before the open books you stand, you cannot, and shall not be able to say, "I did not know; I never heard that I must face my secret actions, or my words again, and face them in the presence of Him whose smile is Heaven, whose frown is Hell."

You may choose the ritual of your lodge instead of the words of Jesus, and after you have fought your battles with death, after the grim, silent monster has enfolded you in his icy embrace, silenced your voice, set your eyes in their sockets, and frozen your blood in the veins, then your brethren from the lodge may walk about your open grave, throwing in their twig, and say, "Alas, my brother!" -- and indeed and in truth it will be alas, for your immortal spirit that once dwelt in that house of clay will have gone naked and alone to stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ to receive the things done while you lived in that body you are wearing today; gone there to hear again the things that have been and are being written down in the books, as day by day your life adds to the record as you live it, and that record has been made by your actions, public, private and secret; your words spoken in public, private and secret.

Again I ask you, Were you at this hour dying, Would you pray as Hezekiah prayed, "O Lord, 'I beseech Thee, remember now how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart"?

15 -- THOUGHTS

The Bible teaches us that "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh upon the heart," and again, "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he." Whatsoever a man is at heart, that will he be, and sooner or later it will show in his life. Someone has said that sight leads to thought and thought leads to desire. When we see a crowd of girls standing gazing at the semi-nude pictures on the average theatrical billboard, we can tell in about what channel their thoughts are running. When a young man spends his time hanging about poolrooms, billiard halls and smoking houses, where the average conversation is of a ribald character, we can tell you what takes up much of his mind. When we meet the crowds of people on the streets returning from the average theater, where the dress of the actresses was conspicuous by its so shortage both at the top and bottom, and much of the language on the stage suggestive, we can tell you the kind of folks they are and the channels that their minds run in. Where a young girl will lounge about home letting her mother do the work while she lies abed and spends her time reading novels that contain stories of lost virtue, we can tell you exactly the channel her mind runs in.

Thought leads to desire. Though David, while walking on his house, may have accidentally seen Uriah's wife bathing herself, yet had he kept his thoughts in their proper place, he would not have become an adulterer, nor caused the death of Uriah. Unclean thoughts have no lodging-place in the heart that is clean. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the. pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and. every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." (2 Cor. 10:4, 5)

Many gross sins would never have been committed had the heart been clean. Men and women dress up the body and appear pure and beautiful outwardly, but God alone knows the condition of the hearts, and as men are in their thoughts just what they are in their hearts, and the thoughts lead to desires, how necessary that all should have hearts cleansed from all sin,

"A heart in every thought renewed,

And full of love divine;

Perfect and right, and pure and good,

A copy, Lord, of Thine."

Hezekiah told the Lord he had walked before Him with a perfect heart. If a king away back there in those days, surrounded by a nation in idolatry and without the Holy Ghost as we have had Him for the past nineteen hundred years, could so walk before God that when he came down to his death-bed he dared ask God to remember how he had walked before Him, how much more ought we to be able to do so today in this Holy Ghost dispensation. If a man's heart is perfect before God, nothing unclean or impure will find a lodging-place in that heart.

We have heard that John Wesley said, "I cannot keep the birds from flying over my head, but I can keep them from building nests in my hair." Whether Mr. Wesley said it or whether he did not say it, the fact remains, just the same, that while we cannot hinder the devil from holding up some unclean thought before our minds, yet we can let it pass and keep it from finding a lodging-place in our hearts.

Hear Paul, in his advice to the church at Philippi, say: "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

What a list of good things to occupy ones mind! Do such things find a ready place in your thoughts? How about it? What is it that finds a welcome place there? Thoughts! thoughts! "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he," and God sees them and knows them. The Book says, "No thought can be withholden from Him," and again, "Thou under standest my thought afar off."

Man is God's masterpiece, created in His likeness and for His glory, and placed on His earth, and he enjoys all that is in it, and must one day render up an account of his life as he has lived it, and how he has spent his time. The account is being kept, the books are balanced at the close of each day, and as we pass out of this life, they will be closed and we must face the record. By a tremendous price, far beyond the comprehension of human mind, God has purchased us and owns us, and has a right to our every day, hour and moment. To cleanse the heart from all sin, Jesus shed His blood, and while men may refuse to allow Him to do so, and as a result, live self-centered and impure lives, yet they must answer for so doing. And while they may now go on keeping the thoughts and desires of their hearts to themselves, or hidden from the eyes of mankind, yet they are not hidden from the all-seeing eye of God.

Some years ago, while walking down the street of a certain city, our attention was called to a team of black horses that was coming up the street on a sharp gallop. As they passed by, we saw that there were five men in the vehicle, two in the rear seat and three occupying the front Seat. The gentleman in the middle of the front seat was driving, but to our wonderment he was bareheaded and blindfolded and the sleeves of his clothing were rolled up above his elbows. He held his hands up and out straight before him, and with lines taut and whip in hand was driving at a furious pace, and although blindfolded, he had no accident notwithstanding there were many other teams and vehicles upon the street. We did not know what it all meant. Later on we saw the same man, still blindfolded holding another man by the hand, walking about the town followed by a large crowd. He would approach a crossing rather hesitatingly sometimes, but never stopped. After walking about the streets for some time, he stopped in front of a gentleman's furnishing store into which he finally went, still leading the man by the hand. Passing down the aisle, he paused before a pile of clothing which he turned over, disclosing to view a pocket-knife that had been placed under the clothing. He said to the man whose hand he had held, "That is your knife; you came over the same route we came to the store and you hid the knife there." He was a mind-reader and had read the other man's mind by holding his hand. In driving the horses, the man on either side of him had placed the tips of his fingers on his wrists, and, reading their minds thus, he had driven those horses at a sharp gallop around the town without accident. He read their minds.

If a man can do that with another man, what do you suppose God can do with your mind? He sees and knows every desire and purpose your heart, and some day will bring all those secrets

Let us illustrate this if we can. Let us suppose we are before a large congregation. We have had a large white curtain hung up in full sight of the audience, and have secured some black paint and a brush with which lettering can be quickly done. Placing a chair out upon the platform in view of the audience, we will have that man or woman who says they don't need this great salvation, don't need this second work of grace that cleanses the heart from all sin, to come up and before the audience occupy the chair. Then we will ask God to allow us the power of discernment that He has; by that we mean the power to look into and read the thoughts of the hearts of men and women as He reads them.

"Now, sir or madam, we understand you to say that you do not need a clean heart; you do not need the cleansing Blood applied to your heart. You say you are good enough. Alright. Let us see; we will not ask you concerning your actions or your words; we don't care for what you have done or not done; we will only ask you concerning the unspoken thoughts of your heart. Let us begin, say, five years ago on your birthday morn. Now, what was the first thought that found a home in your heart that day; a thought that, while you pondered over it, yet you did not voice in words? Let us have it, please, and we will take our brush and write it out on this white curtain where all in this large congregation can see exactly the nature of it. Thank you. Now the next one. Alright. Now the next one. What? Yes, every one; no, not the things you did or the things you said, but just the thoughts that found lodging-place in your heart. Yes, I must have it to put on the curtain, for you said you did not need a clean heart; did not need to be cleansed. Come, out with it. Now, the next one. No, I cannot wait, I must have it quickly, So hand it out. What! you hesitate? What do you say? Oh, I cannot help what folks will say, nor what effect it may have. You said your heart was clean enough and that you did not need to be cleansed, so come on. What! you refuse? Then I will tear the black thing out and write it down anyway. Now then, the next one. Oh, I cannot help your reputation or the reputation of your family. You said you did not need a clean heart, did not need to come to the altar, that you were pure and clean, so you should not be afraid to have the thoughts of your heart put up here where all may see."

Friends, how would you like to have the unspoken thoughts of your heart put up where all could thus read them? What a commotion it would cause. But let us warn you, the day is rapidly approaching when God will lay bare the secrets of men. He has sworn to do so, and if it is not done while you are in this life, then at the bar of God the exposure will be made. The books containing your thoughts will be opened and you will be judged out of the things found therein.

We pray God that you may see and understand what you must face, what the Judgment will reveal in your case, and why God is proclaiming all through the Bible, "BE YE HOLY! BE YE HOLY! FOR I THE LORD GOD AM HOLY!" If your heart is not clean and holy, how will you fare in that day? Let me ask you once more, If you were dying, would you pray as Hezekiah prayed? He said, "I beseech Thee, O Lord, remember how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart."

16 -- MORALITY NOT SALVATION

Many times after preaching along the lines and upon the subjects contained in the foregoing chapters have we had persons come to us and say, "But I am not so bad; I have never gone deep into sin, and wicked habits; I have done nothing vile." And to all saying thus, we have replied, "One does not need to be a harlot or a drunkard or commit some crime in order to become a sinner."

Every member of the human family is born a sinner; that is, as a result of the fall from purity and holiness by our first parents back in Eden, we have been brought into this life with a principle or "bent to sinning" in our natures that causes us, one and all, to sin. Paul wrote, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:23) And again, "I am carnal, sold under sin." (Rom. 7:14) In I John 1:10 we read, "If we say we have not sinned, we make Him (God) a liar." To sin is to knowingly do anything that is wrong or contrary to the will of God. To be "saved from sin" is to be pardoned of the wrongs we have committed and to have our hearts cleansed from that inward principle that caused us to do the wrong. One does not need to become a criminal in order to be a sinner. The Bible teaches that all are sinners, but it also teaches that all may be saved both from the committing of sins and from the presence and power of the "sin that dwells within us."

One may be very moral, so far as his actions are concerned: a person does not need to become a harlot or thief, for sin is sin no matter where it is found; and what may be termed little things that men and women do that are wrong in God's sight are sins for which they will need to be pardoned; and one and all must go to Him for the cleansing of the inbred sin out of the heart before they are fully prepared to stand in His presence. Let us give you an illustration of this.

Some years ago we were conducting services in a large hall which was crowded at every service. While we had not been in that town that length of time, yet during the preceding eight months we had never closed a Sunday night service without having seekers at the altar seeking God. The meeting on this particular Sunday night was hard. There seemed to settle down over the meeting a cold, dead feeling, and try as we would, we could not break through. We spoke but a few minutes and went to prayer, urging a number to go out in the audience to seek for those under conviction. They were gone but a very short time and returned saying they had no liberty and could do nothing. We arose to close the meeting, when the brother who attended the door came up, saying there was a young man near the door under conviction and if we would go and speak to him he thought he would come forward. We went back and on the end of the rear seat next to the aisle found a fine young fellow who seemed to be very much interested. We asked him if he was ready to meet God. He replied that he guessed he was all right, but we put the same question a second time, "Are you good enough to meet God?

He sat for a few moments and then said, "I do not belong to the class that you generally call sinners. That is, I have no bad habits. I do not know the taste of either liquor or tobacco. I have never sworn an oath in my life, and do not know one card from another. I have never attended a dance or a theater, nor bet or gambled in any way; and so far as I can recollect, I have never told my mother a falsehood. I cannot remember when I started to attend Sabbath School, for I have been doing so since I was a child. But the lessons I have learned from the Bible teach me that all must be born again. I never have been converted or experienced any change of heart, and I am fully conscious that I am not prepared to meet God."

There he sat, just entering the prime of his young manhood, and he had given us a testimony the equal of which we had never heard from human lips. Kneeling down by his side, we begged him to go to the altar and get right with God. He sat looking up the aisle and finally arose lowly. We sprang up for we thought he was going. He stepped out into the aisle and halted, still looking toward the altar. At last he turned and extending his hand, said,

"No, I will not go tonight, but next Sunday night, if I am alive, I will come. You do not need to send anyone to talk with me or come down after me, for if I am alive, I'll come."

We caught at the words "if I am alive," and said, "But you may not be alive. This may be the last opportunity you may ever have."

"Oh, I think not," he said; "look at me; I do not know what it means to be sick. I'll be on hand."

"But," we replied, "many things may happen between now and a week from tonight."

"Oh, I'll risk it," he said, and as he walked out of the door he looked back and very courteously said, "Good night."

There was a wave of sorrow swept over us that we could not control. On returning to the platform, we closed the meeting at once and cried all the way home, and spent the night on our knees. We never want to spend another night as we spent that one; we do not mean that we do not wish to spend another night on our knees, but we mean have the same condition of mind. It seemed that we had some soul just on the verge of entering the kingdom when it slipped from our grasp and went over the precipice down into the depths of eternal despair, and all night long it seemed we could hear the cry coming up from the regions of woe, "Lost! Lost! Lost!"

Monday night came, but he was not there; Tuesday night, but he did not show up. Wednesday morning, just before daylight, as the night watchman passed up the side street, hearing some one groaning, he turned down the alley, and just outside the rear of that hall, hardly twenty feet from where we had stood and plead on that Sunday night, he found our young friend lying unconscious with a hole in the top of his head as though something the shape of an egg had hit him, smashing the skull and brains down into the head. He never regained consciousness, but took lockjaw and died that day.

About eighteen years have passed by, and still it remains a mystery how he happened to be in that alley that night, and who or what it was that killed him.

The following Sunday night came. Can the reader imagine what was the state of our feelings when we arose to face that large audience? Yes, the large hall was again crowded to the doors, and a hundred people were present who knew God and were ready to pray for anyone asking for prayer. We had the same Bible to read from, and the same Jesus to hold up, and the same story of redemption to tell. But our young friend, where was he? His body lay out in that silent city of the dead, and his soul, with the consciousness that he was not prepared, had gone to stand before God. He was a moral man. We have never heard a testimony since like he gave us that night. We have no doubt of the sincerity of his word. We told it in that town and no one ever gave us the slightest hint that anything he had said to us was not true. But behind and below all his splendid manhood, his open frankness and almost unparalleled morality, lay the consciousness that he neither "walked with God" nor was ready to meet God.

If you are not ready at this very moment to step into His presence, that is positive proof that you are not walking with Him, and that your heart is not perfect in His sight. If your heart was perfect you could do as Hezekiah did, when, with the shades of death creeping close about him, he said, "O Lord, remember how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which was right in Thy sight."

Your morality is not the salvation that Jesus came, suffered, bled and died that you might live. If it was, then no need for Jesus to come and die; but in your lost and helpless condition He came to destroy tie work of the devil and to save your from all sin. Let Him do so, and He will come and, taking up His abode in your heart, will walk with you. When others turn away, He will be by your side; when cruel and unkind words are spoken about you, He will whisper to your heart messages of love and tenderness; when sorrow and sadness gather about you, He will be there to cheer you with His presence; when death stalks into your circle and robs you of loved ones, He will be present to comfort your sorrowing heart And if you will walk with Him here, when you cross the cold waters of the grave, He will not forsake you, but with His everlasting arms about you will lift you up and out of its chilly stream, and bear you away to the city of gold, and there among the redeemed you can bask in the splendor of His presence and forever and forever walk before God

* * * * * * *

PART II -- ABRAHAM THE MAN WHO OBEYED GOD

Scripture Lesson -- "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for Me, behold, My covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee." (Gen. 17:1-6)

"I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect." (Gen. 17:1).

17 -- THE ALMIGHTY GOD

Back in the twelfth chapter of Genesis we read that the Lord had said unto Abram, "Get thee out from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will shew thee." Abram obeyed partly, inasmuch as he left his fathers house and went out, but he did not leave all his kindred. He took his brother's son Lot with him. It would have been better had he obeyed fully, for Lot was the cause of much trouble later on. This call of Abram has been used as a symbol of God's call to the sinner to leave his old life with its associates, and go out into a new life, but many have

acted like Abram and not fully obeyed, but endeavored to hold on to some thing, retain some worldly company or some unclean habit, and it has caused them more or less trouble ever afterwards, until the thing, whatever it was, was completely abandoned. forbids Him asking or requiring of us what we are unable to do; hence, we believe we are able to do anything He requires of us, and when He says, "Walk before Me, and be thou perfect," we believe it possible to do so.

He said to Abram, "I am the Almighty God." Whenever we hear money spoken of as the "almighty dollar," we always feel like contradicting such a statement at once. We grant that the dollar is mighty, but God alone is Almighty. "I am the Almighty God" -- the one who pours out blessings; the one who sends the sunshine to warm the earth, and the rain to moisten it, and cause it to bring forth in abundance. The wealth of the world comes from the ground, and should God cause it to withhold its power and treasure, the human family would die. "I am the Almighty God, and beside Me there is none other." There are many gods, but there is but one Almighty God, and He alone can bring peace and purity to a human heart, and that heart that knows Him not, knows nothing of peace and purity.

How often are our hearts moved and stirred by the stories told us by returned missionaries from heathen lands. They tell us of India, with the teeming millions in their darkness, worshipping their multiplicity of gods. We hear of their many gods, and the strictness and exactness of the conduct of those who bow down before them and worship them, and we pour out our money to enable missionaries to carry the Gospel to them. But if we would turn our eyes homeward, and study the situation a little while in the light of the old Book, we would be amazed at the idolatry at home. We boast of our Christian civilization, and of a land whose church spires pierce the skies in every community, and make the claim that we are not living in a heathen country, that we believe in one God and Him only do we worship.

Stop a moment. Friend, that which occupies the greatest space in your affections, that which takes up the greatest amount of your time, that is your god. The thing, whatever it is, that you love most, that is your god, and there are millions of people in this land who care no more about the Almighty God than they do for some one of whom they have never heard. Although He alone, apart from themselves, holds and controls their eternal destiny, yet neither their time nor their affections is centered on Him. Speak to the average business man and hear him reply, "I am too busy; I have no time for religious matters." exactly! Money, gold, the amassing of wealth is his god, and his whole time, thought and attention are turned to that one thing, and with all the forces of his nature he pursues after it. But. the Almighty God, and His power to save from sin and make the heart pure and fit for its eternal destiny, is scarcely thought of, unless it be for a few minutes on Sunday morning. People are making gods out of their business, money, position, possessions, standing in society, fine clothing, adornments, their preachers, the denomination of which they are members, and a thousand and one other things too numerous to mention. That which occupies the greatest space in your time and affections, that is your god.

The writer has known of a certain individual who made a god of her fine clothes, and on a Sunday morning she would bring them out and hang them up in the sunlight where she could see them. But one day she died and they laid her away under the ground, while others took her fine clothes to wear. We have known others to make gods of their children, and later on those children laid down and died or went to the bad and crushed their hearts, but the loving Lord, who allowed them to accumulate those things, held no place in their affections whatever. Untold numbers are busy with money-getting, pleasure-seeking, and the things of this life, with scarcely a thought of the day when they must meet God.

When Jesus was asked concerning the signs of His return to this planet, He replied, "Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of man." (Luke 21:34-36) And as Jesus taught that none but the pure in heart should see God, the most important thing in this life is to make sure that we have pure hearts; but the masses at this day and age have neither thought nor desire for pure hearts. He who alone is able to make the heart clean, does not occupy much space in either their time or affection. He is not their God. They are not searching for pure hearts, nor worshipping the Almighty God.

Sometime ago we listened to a returned missionary from India, and he related the following incident. He said, "One day I heard a noise and confusion in the village, and going outside of my hut I saw a crowd of people some three hundred yards away moving slowly towards the village. I walked down the road to meet them and discovered that in their midst were two men who were stretching themselves out full length upon the ground. They would reach as far in front of them as they could and with the ends of their fingers make a mark across the ground in front of them. Then arising they would toe the mark and stretch themselves out again, repeating the operation. Their hands were bleeding, their faces were scratched, and their clothing badly torn. They had come forty-seven miles across the country, much of it with no roads, through brakes and briars and over the rocks and sandy desert, and had two miles further to go to a crossroads where there was a small stone god a few inches square. The top of it had formerly been the shape of a human face, but it had been kissed by so many lips that it had been worn off round and smooth. It had a particular name, and those two men had been told that if they would make the journey from where they lived to that stone god, and measure the entire distance by their bodies, they could get pure hearts when they reached that god."

As he related the story, the picture came before us of their bleeding, disfigured faces, torn hands and clothing, and their desperate earnestness to find a god who could give them pure hearts. We could not keep the tears from starting from our eyes, and when we thought of the millions of people in this land of Bibles and churches who are too busy to seek the God in whose hand their very existence lies, who gave His Son to shed His blood to wash and make pure their hearts, but from whom they had turned away, we could not keep the cry from coming up from our very soul, "O Lord, let us go and preach the story of Jesus and His power to save from sin, to a people who want pure hearts as earnestly as those two India heathen!"

18 -- WALK BEFORE ME

How much there is in those three words, "Walk before Me." As much as to say, "Obey Me, do as I tell you, and not only will I bless you, but will also make you a blessing to mankind." In the twelfth chapter God had said to Abram, "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing." And now God is ready to fulfill His promise if Abram will obey. "Walk before Me; listen to My counsel and do My bidding."

Abram had not fully obeyed, had no separated from all his kindred, and had gotten. into trouble and had been compelled to go to war as a result. Again, he had not remained in the land that God shewed him, but went off down into Egypt and fell into trouble there. Still further, instead of listening fully to the Lord, he had listened to Sarah and that had brought trouble. God had promised Abram children, but instead of depending upon God to bring it about in His own way, Abram "hearkened to the voice of Sarah," who had no children. She proposed that he take her Egyptian maid and raise up children. When the maid was about to become a mother, Sarah drove her from home. and then charged Abram with the fault when he had but listened to her and had done as she wished. But, it had brought trouble to Abram. There are many today who, had they listened to the Lord and obeyed His word, would not be in the trouble they are now in. God gives no commands that can be broken without entailing suffering, and to disregard His counsel will bring disappointment and sorrow every time.

As we look back over the past twenty years, memory recalls many, many instances of where certain individuals had started to serve the Lord, but had listened to the counsel of those who cared not for His will, and today their lives, many of them, are shipwrecked; some are dead and gone; others are backslidden and away from God; while. others are still endeavoring to retain their salvation and keep up a profession; but they are tied up and are down and out of the fight and their usefulness is a thing of the past; all because they listened to others than the Lord.

We will give but one such instance. We were walking down the street in an Eastern city when a young man stepped up and, slipping his hand under our arm, said: "I know you, Brother Williams, but you don't know me. I have been attending your meetings and am miserable. Seven years ago I knew the Lord and He called me to the work of the Salvation Army. I obeyed, but being under age and my parents strongly objecting, my father finally forced me to leave and go home. I backslid and, although father is a church member, yet, sometimes cursing each other, we made the last seven years like Hell in our home."

We persuaded the young man to attend the meeting and one night he came to the altar. Kneeling by his side, we tried to help him, but he said, "If I surrender I will have to take up the work of God where I laid it down, and I cannot do it." He left the altar and the building, and at three o'clock that morning was taken home in a cab beastly intoxicated. A few days later he came again, and after a hard struggle at the altar said "yes" to God and was wonderfully blessed. To one and all, far and wide, he said, "I shall do what God wants me to do." He pinned a badge on his coat, and night after night he could be found on the street corner beating the drum and testifying to what God had done for his soul. He was employed as a reporter on a leading state paper. He received sneers and ridicule in the office, but nothing seemed to daunt him. Finally the manager informed him to lay aside his uniform and remain away from the street meetings, or he would be discharged. He would not compromise and was discharged, but the Christian people of the city made such a remonstrance that he was quickly reinstated.

Then his father tried to get him to stop, and when he refused his father had the mayor of the city send for him; but G____ testified to the mayor of the wonderful changes that God had wrought in him, and the mayor said, "Go on, you are doing right."

Then his mother professed to be losing her mind over him, and would moan and scream and shriek, "I can see little devils with S____'s on their collars." He had a physician examine his mother, who reported that the woman was shamming and endeavoring to make believe. Then a preacher went. to G____ and tried to persuade him from his chosen work, saying, "You have abilities for work among a higher class of people; and you should not bury your talents among a lower grade," etc., etc., but to it all G_____ turned a deaf ear and went on doing what he felt God wanted him to do.

After he had been restored and reclaimed from his backslidden state, he had met and become engaged to a beautiful and accomplished young lady. He frankly told her to what he had consecrated his life, and she promised to stand by him, but a few evenings out on the street corner with her ungodly friends standing about sneering at her was more than she could stand, and sending for G____ she promptly informed him that he must choose between such work and her. She held a dear spot in his life, and persuaded him after the argument of the preacher, and he, like Abram, "hearkened to the voice of Sarah," laid aside his uniform, stepped aside and joined the more "intellectual" class.

Soon afterward a letter from his pen reached us saying, "The joy that was mine, unbroken for so many weeks, has all gone; and there remains nothing but a sort of perfunctory service which seems to be the largest part of the average experience. God forgive me, for I cannot forgive myself." And, like Sarah, the young lady turned on him after he had followed her counsel, and, finally threw him overboard.

We did our utmost to get him back to God. We have seen him make a hard struggle to so do, but some way he could not get his footing. Years afterwards in his private office he turned the key in the lock and said, "Oh, what would I give if I could go back to those days when I listened God and obeyed His voice!"

Only a few days ago, passing through that city, we tried to find him, but he had moved away some five years previously. Broken down in health and a nervous wreck, he had gone to a sanitarium.

As we look back along the road, the pathway is lined with shipwrecks and castaways. God had put up with Abram's wobbling for over twenty years and now said "Walk before Me."

Dear reader, are you walking before God? Are you constantly saying "yes" to His will? If not, we warn you that trouble, sorrow and disappointment are ahead. Let us urge you to listen no longer to any voice but that of the Almighty God, who holds your breath in His hands. He alone can see down the future; He alone can see what lies before you; He alone can steer your frail bark; He alone can guide you through the rocks and the shoals. if you will walk before Him, He will not only bless you, but will make you a blessing to a poor lost world. We pray that ere your head shall press its pillow again, your heart will be saying, "Yes, Lord, whither Thou sendest there will I go; what Thou sayest, that will I do."

19 -- BE THOU PERFECT

Prior to the fall of our first parents in the Garden, their humanity was under the control of the divine nature. As a result of their fall from purity and holiness, the human family, springing from that one pur, has been born into this life with their humanity under the control of a foreign nature, spoken of in the Bible as the "carnal mind." As it is a principle and not an act, it cannot be pardoned, as God can only pardon the sins which man commits; hence, to free man from this principle, or carnal mind, there must be a further and deeper work of grace performed for him.

As the "carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7), it is impossible for man to walk perfectly before God so long as he retains the carnal mind. "So then they that are in the flesh (Greek, sarx; translated, "carnally minded"; compare; Strong's Greek Dictionary) cannot please God." (Rom. 8:8)

Mankind has wandered so far from God and has been so long under the power and control of the carnal mind, that the very mention of such a command as the above, or simply a hint at the idea or possibility of a man being perfect before God, serves to arouse their carnality, and immediately jeers, sneers and sarcasm seem to be in order, and at once certain passages of Scripture are brought forth and quoted with a total disregard of their setting, who spoke them, the circumstances in which they were spoken, or to whom they were spoken; and even then those same passages, when thus mentioned, are rarely ever quoted correctly.

Let the reader understand, once and for all, that the Bible does not say a man cannot be made free from sin; that there is none holy; that there is. none perfect. It does say thus of certain classes. It does speak thus of those who are living in sin and disobedience, but it does not say thus of those who are obedient and walk with God.

In our third book, "War of the Ages," the reader will find those particular passages of Scripture taken up consecutively and an explanation given as to just what they do mean.

To command a man to do what he was not able to do would destroy the justice of God. He said to Abram, "Be thou perfect." The word from which perfect is here translated is tamiym (pronounced "taw-meem"). It means integrity, truth, without blemish) complete, full, perfect, sincerely (-ity), sound, without spot, undefiled, upright (-ly), whole. Men may sneer or cavil at the word, but there it is. The King James translators have placed in the margin "upright, or sincere," and many have endeavored to dodge the real issue by getting in behind the word sincere, and saying, "Yes, we are sincere, but we are not professing to be perfect." We understand exactly what such persons mean, by arguing thus. They mean to have us infer that they are sincere in their religious life, but they do not profess to have pure hearts nor to be sanctified wholly. In short, they endeavor to use the word "sincere" as an excuse for their not having pure hearts, for not being sanctified -- a sort of an excuse for their worldliness and carnality; an attempt at an excuse for not walking with God.

Should the reader think we are putting too much stress on this word as it is. here used in this verse, let him read Dr. Adam Clarke's comments upon it, which we quote in full:

"Be thou perfect. And thou shalt be perfections, i. e., altogether perfect; be just such as the holy God would have thee to be, as the Almighty God can make thee, and live as the all-sufficient God shall support thee: for He alone who makes the soul holy, can preserve it in holiness. Our blessed Lord appears to have had these words pointedly in view. Matthew 5:48: Ye shall be perfect as your Father who is in Heaven is perfect. But what does this imply? Why, to be saved from all the power, the guilt, and the contamination of sin. This is only the negative part of salvation; but. it has also a positive part -- to be made perfect -- to be perfect as our Father who is in Heaven is perfect -- to be filled with the fullness of God -- to have Christ dwelling continually in the heart by faith, and to be rooted and grounded in love. This is the state in which man was created; for he was made in the image and likeness of God. This is the state from which man fell; for he broke the command of God. And this. is the state into which every human soul must be. raised,. who would dwell with God in glory; for Christ was incarnated, and died to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. What a glorious privilege! And who can doubt the possibility of its attainment, who believes in the omnipotent love of God, the infinite merit of the Blood of atonement and the all-pervading and all-purifying energy of the Holy Ghost? How many miserable souls employ that time to dispute and cavil against the possibility of being saved from their sins, which they should devote to praying and believing, that they might be saved out of the hands of their enemies! But some may say, You overstrain the meaning of the term; it signified only be sincere; for as perfect obedience is impossible, God accepts of sincere obedience. If by sincerity the objection means good desires, and generally good purposes, with an impure heart and spotted life, then I assert, that no such thing is implied in the text, nor in the original word: but if the word sincerity be taken in its proper and literal sense, I have no objection to it. Sincere is compounded of sine cera, without wax; and applied to moral subjects, is a metaphor taken from clarified honey, from which every atom of the comb or wax is separated. Then let it be proclaimed from Heaven: Walk before Me, and be sincerely purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump unto God, and thus ye shall be perfect, as your Father who is in Heaven is perfect. This is sincerity! Reader, remember that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin. Ten thousand quibbles on isolated texts can never lessen, much less destroy, the merit and efficiency of the great Atonement." (Commentaries, Vol. I., p. 109)

What a good thing for Abram that God did not say, "Walk before Sarah and be perfect." That elect lady might have seen much in the life of her husband that she would have. thought was sadly lacking; but God did not so command Abram, neither does He command His children to walk and be perfect before the world. But. He said, "Walk before Me, and be thou perfect."

No man can so walk before God with carnality in his heart. In his letter to the Romans, Paul said, "For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now. if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." (Rom. 7:19, 20) Exactly! and such is the experience of hundreds of God's unsanctified children today. They to do right, they see much to do, but they do not do what they should and they do much they should not do, because the carnal mind is still in their hearts and ever and anon it puts them under captivity, so that they do not always feel free to do and walk as they feel thy should. But through the blood of Jesus they can have their hearts made free and clean from the power and presence of carnality and, thus free, they can walk before God and be perfect in His sight.

In writing to the Colossians, Paul, speaking of Jesus and His work, said: "For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell; and having made peace through the blood of. .His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things. in. earth, or things in Heaven. And you. that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight." (Col. 1:19-22) Blessed be God! Through the Blood of the cross they were made so clean and pure that they would be unblameable and unreproveable in God's sight.

If the reader should think that no human could remain long in such a delightful state, let him turn to Jude, and read the. twenty-fourth verse: "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." Blessed Savior! Wonderful Keeper! He restores poor, lost, guilty and sinful men back where they can walk before God unblameable and unreproveable, and then keeps them from falling. That does not mean that man thus saved could not fall. No, God never destroys our free moral agency. Man could do wrong if he wanted to. Angels, while on probation, did wrong. Lucifer rebelled against God's throne, and many of the angels followed him in rebellion and kept not their first estate. Adam and Eve, in the Garden, deliberately did what they knew they should not do. The woman said, "God hath said we must not eat it nor touch it lest we die," but eat of the forbidden fruit they did, and suffered the penalty. Not so long as man remains in the body will God take away his free moral agency, but God can, and if man will let Him, will, remove the sinful carnality from his heart, so that he will be perfectly free to serve God and walk before God according to all His commands.

Neither does God remove our infirmities. Although man can be saved from all sin, yet he has infirmities that will remain with him while he remains in a body that is subject to decay and death. He may err in his judgment or make mistakes, neither of which is a sin, so long as he walks in all the light he has, so long as he loves God with all his heart, so long as he seeks to do all His will. His manner of going about his work may appear very crude in the estimation of mankind, but God, who look into his heart, sees the purpose to do His will and smiles His approval upon the efforts put forth.

Some years ago, on a very hot, sultry afternoon in August, I arrived home from an extended trip in the far West. The street car stopped some two blocks from our home, and after climbing the hill to the house I threw down our suitcases and baggage and sat down to rest. As the children gathered about us, I said to our little brown-eyed boy, "Son, can you go and bring papa a good cool drink of water? Turn on the faucet and let the water run so it will be cool."

Up on the mountain-side, some eighty feet higher than the house, was a large mountain spring which had been piped so that the water was carried by the pipes all through the house. "Let it run, son, until the water is cool," we said. I do not remember of ever asking the child to do anything before, and running out of the room he went after the water. I do not know just how he held the tumbler in his hands to receive the water from the faucet. I know how you would have held it; but the first sight we had of him he was holding the glass at the top with both hands and his little fingers were sticking down on the inside. The glass was full but it was slopping out and washing back over his little chubby fists. One can imagine about how clean they would be after playing about in the yard all afternoon. As he passed around the end of the dining-table he tripped his foot on a rug and the most of the water was spilled. What did go back went washing down over his little hands. Of course, they were somewhat cleaner by the operation, but when he reached our side his little face was all aglow and his eyes sparkled as he said, "I got here with some of it, papa. A'int I getting to be a big man to get you a drink?"

Friends, I would not have disappointed that little heart if that tumbler had been half full of dirt, and drawing the little fellow to our side I kissed his face and said, "Yes, son, you are papa's big, little man," and I drank every drop of water there was in the glass, dirt and all. You would not have drank it, neither would I had it been your boy, but it was my boy, and he was delighted to be able to bring the water. And what matter if he did stumble, or his little chubby fists were dirty, with a father heart I could see beyond his knowledge of the proper way to hold that glass of water and I could see beyond the tripping of his little feet; I could see the earnestness of the service, and the willingness and gladness with which he performed it, and the service was acceptable to me.

So it is with our Heavenly Father. He does not frown upon us for what we do not know, neither for our blunders when, down in our hearts, He can see we are, with a sincere purpose, doing our very best for Him. The service is acceptable and with confidence we walk before Him.

Dear reader, let us ask, Is thy heart clean; art thou walking before God; is thy heart perfect in His sight? Thou mayest reply, "I know my sins are forgiven; I know that God has pardoned me of the wrong-doings of my life." That may be true, and if so, we thank God that it is true; but how about that heart life? That secret inner life that even thy friends cannot see? Art thou perfect in thy heart toward God? Does the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, this hour cleanse thy heart from all sin, so that with all its desires and ambitions there is but one purpose in thy life, namely, to walk before God here with a perfect heart, so that thou shalt be able to stand before Him before the great white Throne? May God help you to settle this question and find a positive answer before thine eyes shall close in slumber this night.

20 -- LOYALTY

The man who is "walking before God" will be perfect in his loyalty to God. He will take God's side of any and every proposition or circumstance in which he may find himself placed. No matter what others do or what others may say, the man who "walks before God" is perfect in his loyalty to God. Friends may forsake and turn from him; he may lose social cast and standing among his fellows, but he cares more for the smile and approval of God than for all the world. He will be loyal to God's interest in every proposition that comes before him, in every case where a decision must be made, the question is ever before his heart and mind, "Which of the two will glorify God?" He seeks God's interest no matter what he may suffer or himself lose by so doing. He will represent God in all his dealings with mankind around about him.

For an example of this, turn to the life of David. God said of him, "I have found a man after My own heart." With but a very few exceptions, in his earlier life, in all of his dealings with the nations around him, David took God's side of the proposition. And God said of him; "I have found a man after My own heart."

Up and down this broad land there are those who have been loyal to God. They were willing to give God their all. They not only started to walk before God, but they have continued in so doing. Many times have they been compelled to make decisions that, to their earthly friends, seemed disastrous; but, casting aside the opinions of friends, they made their decisions for God and righteousness, and God has not failed them.

Some thirty years ago in one of the states of the Atlantic Coast, a young became a partner in a certain business in which tobacco was sold. He called a council with his partner and said, "We can make money without selling tobacco. I don't use it myself, and I don't like to smell it; I don't believe a Christian ought to use it, and I won't sell to my neighbors anything which I believe to be injurious to them."

The tobacco was put out of the business and Mr. C____ has adhered strictly to that rule. As a Christian man, he decided on the side of loyalty to God, and mark the results. He has succeeded in business and today is a wealthy man, while those who started with him and hooted at the idea have failed and gone out of business. Today he is not only a successful business man, but is teacher of a large Bible class, and is loved and respected by all who know him. He has several brothers, all users of tobacco, but he is the only one who has succeeded in business. As a Christian man, he was loyal to God.

We have a dear friend who has had a similar experience. When he and his brother came into possession of a large manufacturing business in glassware he found on the books large orders for goods from liquor firms. He refused to manufacture glassware for the liquor business, and promptly canceled orders amounting to many thousands of dollars. Many thought him very foolish and unwise, but he made his decision on the side of God and righteousness, with the result that he succeeded beyond all expectations, and has long since retired from business and is loved and respected far and wide. We have been entertained in his home and have heard him say that he made it the rule of his life to always ask the question, "What would Jesus do were He in my place? How can I as His representative, represent Him best?" And in that way he has made his decisions. He proved his loyalty to God, and God blessed him both in basket and in store. We have knelt in prayer around his family altar and have been cheered and encouraged by his godly life and his consecration to God.

Only a few years ago, we conducted a series of meetings in a town where, connected with the church was a man who had a small store, but tobacco was a chief article in trade. He saw that, as a child of God, it would not honor God for him to sell it. He stopped and put it out of his business and announced that he would sell it no more. He also stepped down and out of the secret order of which he was a member. Other men in business laughed and sneered at his actions. The big hotel men visited him and said, "We will boycott you if you don't handle tobacco." He would not yield.

Some years have passed by. His business was burned down once, but he rebuilt larger and better, and has made money and built himself and family a beautiful home, while others have failed and gone out of business. He was loyal to God and decided in God's honor and God has honored him.

God will honor those who will be loyal to Him. They are not in the majority in this world, and sometimes they are looked upon as being fanatics, and heading for the asylum, but the protection of high Heaven is about them. Ofttimes they are placed in circumstances that are peculiar, but realizing that He knows, they close their eyes to worldly honors with an eye single to His honor and glory they make their decisions for Him whose they are and whom they serve.

Peter was but a poor fisherman, and when God so signally honored him with three thousand souls at his first altar call, it was enough to have turned his head. And when looking upon the beggar who lay at the gate, he cried, "Look on us; silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee," and that poor old diseased beggar, who had been lame from his mother's womb, leaped to his feet instantly healed, and the multitude flocked about Peter and John. What an opportunity it was to have shown himself, but into the heart of that ignorant fisherman had come a resolution to be loyal to the interest of One whom he loved better than life. "Silver an gold have I none," but little use had he for such. Why? Because he was loaded down, stocked up and filled to overflowing with something silver and gold cannot purchase; something that will neither rust nor corrupt nor fade away; something that is far more beautiful than burnished gold or polished silver; something far better than the riches of this planet, and yet something that every child of God may have if he will pay the price for it.

Look on the face of that expectant beggar; watch that great, wondering, open-mouthed multitude; fasten your eyes on the humble, but shining, face of that illiterate fisherman; hearken as the words ring out like the notes from a silver trumpet, "Such as I have." Yes, Peter had it, and had a plentiful supply, too. He need not be stringent nor saving of it. There was an abundance and he could replenish his coffers at will. What is Scripture measure? "Pressed down, heaped up and running over." Glory be to God! Peter had it and it did run over that day and that old beggar got what Peter gave away. "Such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk," and that moment ended the days of limping and begging for that beggar. With the attention of the multitude, Peter cried out, "Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified His Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied Him in the presence of Pilate when He was determined to let Him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses, and His name, through faith in His name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all." (Acts 3:12-16). Not an iota of praise or vainglory for himself, but all the glory, honor and power given to Him who had purified his heart.

There are several points to which we wish to call the reader's attention. First, "Such as I have," he said. No cringing and finding fault, and saying, "Oh, I am not what I should be," or "I do so much I ought not to do and leave undone so much that I ought to do." No, ten thousand times, NO! Those days were past; the fires of that upper-room baptism had burned out that sort of thing root and branch. There was no confessing of a conscious lack of something, but it was straight out, clean, clearcut language that raised the hopes of that beggar and fastened the attention of that on-looking multitude.

"Such as I have." Yes, such as you all may have if ye will "repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off." Thank God, that brings it down to every child of God today.

"Such as I have." Oh, that every church, preacher, worker and child of God could say thus today, and they could say thus if they would walk before God with perfect hearts and thus be perfect in their loyalty to Him.

A second point. Peter was glad to testify to what he possessed. "Such as I have." He was not afraid to tell it out, and in a way and manner that carried the conviction that what he had to give was different from what that poor old beggar had been accustomed to receiving from the average passer-by.

Oh, what a lesson here! If we would be loyal to God, we must strictly adhere to what He says, not to our own ideas nor what we or others manufacture, but to Him and to His words. If every man and woman who professed God's salvation would only tell out in language definite and clear what they have; if they have found pardon for their sins and been born of the Spirit, and would tell it out in language plain and simple, how it would grapple with the minds and hearts of thousands who do not know that there is such an experience that one may really know; if every one who professes to have been sanctified wholly by the baptism of the Holy Ghost would tell it out so that those about them would readily see and understand that they really possess something which the ordinary church member has not, what a hungering it would cause! What a commotion! Peter was not bragging on what he had done, but, loyal to Him who had done the work for him, he was telling what he was the possessor of "Such as I have!" Beloved reader, what have you?

Third, note the effect. That poor beggar was all attention and through Peter's straight-forwardness he believed he was to receive something quite out of the ordinary, and he was ready to obey, and as the command, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk," fell on his ears, he leaped to his feet and began praising God.

Again, note the effect on that multitude. It brought them together, anxious to hear the words of God's anointed. It will do the same today. If those who stand to proclaim the Gospel of the Son of God would be as loyal to Him as Peter was that day, not only would the lame be healed, but the multitudes would be drawn together, and churches that are half empty would be thronged with an earnest, anxious multitude. Jesus said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." Every little while we see or hear of some meeting being advertised with the topic, "How to reach the masses." Peter solved the problem that day, and today, throughout this broad land in brush arbors, tents and groves, the holiness people are solving it still; and thousands are being drawn to Him. How do they do it? By being loyal to Him. They proclaim a Gospel that saves from all sin. They tell of the first promise made to fallen man being kept by Jesus coming and dying for all. Jesus has come; they have heard, tested, tried and proven His word, and, loyal to Him, they are telling everywhere that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth from all sin.

God said to Abraham, "Walk before Me, and be thou perfect," and the man who does so will be perfect in his loyalty to God.

Suppose you were king and something workman transpired to dethrone you and remove you from your kingdom. In your realm were men who were qualified and able to look after your interests. During your absence they looked after your interests and were loyal to you until your name became a hiss and a by-word among men; then they saw that to be loyal to your interests and represent you and stand for you meant to suffer loss to themselves; and they said, "We cannot do this; we must look out for our own interests," and in looking after their own interests they allowed yours to suffer. Also in your realm was another class of men. They were not so well qualified to look after your interests as the first-mentioned class, but through all they remained loyal to you. When your name was degraded and men cast it out as a sneer and by-word; they stood loyal to your interests; they suffered loss, they were the butt of ridicule among men; but through it all they remained faithful and loyal.

Bye and bye, the time came when you were reinstated upon your throne. Then you needed men able and qualified to help you in carrying out your government in the kingdom. Which class would you choose for your ministers of government? The first-mentioned class who were well qualified, but not loyal to your interests while you were gone, or would you choose the second class who were loyal to you to the end?

Friends, listen; Jesus was here among men; He has gone away and left His interests in the hands of His followers. The time is coming, and perhaps soon, when He will return again and take possession of His kingdom. Tell us, are you so loyal to His interests now during His absence that on His return you will be just the character of a man or woman that He will choose to help Him in the establishment and carrying forth of His kingdom? Are you perfect in your loyalty to Him now? His name is now used as a sneer and by-word among men; there is an offense to His cross. Those who live godly lives shall suffer persecution, but He said that if you suffer with Him you shall also reign with Him. Are you bearing His cross now? Are you standing up bravely and loyally for Him during His absence? Are you representing Him in all your dealings and in your walk among men? Come, we ask the question, are you perfect in your loyalty to Jesus? Are you walking before God with a perfect heart?

21 -- OBEDIENCE

No man can walk before God with a perfect heart and willfully be disobedient to a known command. While God said of David, "I have found a man after My own heart," He never said thus of Saul, the first king the children of Israel had. God found him when he was out looking for his father's asses. He was, in the estimation of mankind, little and unknown, but was met by the prophet of God and anointed to be king over God's people. When the day of his coronation came, he hid among the stuff, but was found and brought forth before all the people, and God gave him favor with the people and victory over his enemies. He behaved himself and ran well for a season. Finally; the prophet came to him saying, "The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over His people, over Israel, now therefore, hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all they have and spare not; but slay both man and woman, infant, suckling, ox, sheep, camel and ass."

What a sweeping command! The iniquity of the Amalekites was full and it was time to utterly exterminate them from the face of the earth. Saul went on the journey, and the record reads that he spared Agag, and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them; but everything that was vile and refuse, that he utterly destroyed. God told Samuel and Samuel grieved about it.

Saul came back from his journey and went to Gilgal where Samuel met him. He said, "Blessed be thou of the Lord; I have performed the commandment of the Lord." Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" And Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest have we utterly destroyed." Then Samuel said unto Saul, "Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night." And he said to him, "Say on." And Samuel said, "When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel? And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil and didst evil in the sight of the Lord?" And Saul said unto Samuel, "Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, and the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal." And Samuel said, "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king."

There are epochs in the lives of men when to disobey and reject God means for them to forever settle their own destiny. "There is a line across man's path that marks the boundary between God's patience and his wrath. A sinner can reject the pleading of the Spirit and say "No" until the Spirit, grieved, will take His departure and that soul will never have to say "No" again. The Spirit will trouble him no more, and, totally unconcerned, he will go on through life, die and wake up in Hell. But Saul's case is an object lesson more to believers. His heart had been changed and he had prophesied. He was a man chosen of God to lead his people. He disobeyed until God rejected him and he failed in life and, finally committed suicide.

God does not give commands to have them disobeyed. No man can ignore God's commands without forfeiting His approval, and sustaining loss. While the command to Saul was sweeping, yet, it was no more so than the command of "God to His people to be separate and distinct from the world, a peculiar people -- a holy people, separated unto God. All through the Bible God commands His children to be holy; and none can disobey without loss. There are thousands in this land of ours who, having found pardon for their sins, ran well for a season, but they came up to the command, "Be ye holy," and seeing that it meant a complete separation from their worldly and unspiritual friends, a placing of their hearts dearest idols upon the altar, a complete consecration of their entire life and being to God, and an utter abandonment of their own ideas, desires and plans to His will -- in short, to walk before God and be perfect -- right there they failed. They refused to obey, and while they are going on still professing to be Christians, the lowing of the oxen and the bleating of the sheep is heard in their lives.

Saul remained king, but immediately following the recital of his disobedience in the following chapter, it reads, "But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul," and from that hour his life was one of discouragement, defeat, disaster, and finally came death, by is own hand. He remained on the throne, was the man God had chosen as His representative, still occupied the place as the leader of God's people, had been anointed and was still looked upon as the king; but his life was barren and fruitless.

There are many walking in his footsteps today who, in their earlier experiences, were wonderfully owned and blessed of God. There was a time in their lives when they walked before God and listened for His command with glad hearts, ready to do His bidding; but it is not so with them now. They still occupy the same old position; they still give in the same testimony; they still have the same profession, and are seen among God's people, and in many cases are looked upon more or less as leaders. But the juice is gone out of their lives; the clear, penetrating, convincing tone is gone; the sparkle is no longer in the eye; that wine-like fruitage is not in their lives. What is the matter? They are not walking before Him now, and, like king Saul, there has been disobedience somewhere and they are now simply living on the memories of past experiences. They have not been perfect in their obedience. There is nothing that denotes triumph, victory and usefulness to God in their lives now. They are not winning battles and saving souls. They make a show, but, like Saul, it is empty and hollow. Men and women are dying all about them, but they are powerless to help or bless, anybody, and it is only a question of time until they will give up entirely or go, down to their graves defeated and finally lost.

Some years ago, there were five young men that were thrown together in Christian work. They all professed salvation within a short time and all were very active in their efforts to get men to God. They were all firm and fast friends, being employed together during the day and attending the same meeting at night. The question of laying down their tools and devoting all their time to getting men saved often was discussed between them, and all more or less felt the call to do so. The pressure on them to do this was strong, for their desire to see men saved and to glorify God in their lives was earnest and sincere. Much time was spent in prayer and Conversation regarding the matter. They felt and often testified that God wanted their all, but they were young and there were great opportunities for them to succeed in life, and, as they viewed it, to step out and devote all their time to the service of God would be a life of daily and continual sacrifice and toil. It looked like a tremendous undertaking, and they hesitated to do it.

More than twenty years have passed away and mark the results. One of those boys, unsaved and away from God, divorced from the wife of his youth, wanders alone in the world. A second one has drifted until he has become a Universalist. A third one professes to be a rank infidel and declares "there is nothing in it." The fourth one, who was rather a leader and had much influence over them all, and would spend hours and hours at night in tears on his knees in prayer over the matter, finally decided not to go. He soon drifted, began smoking again, then drinking, and on to immorality; he married a third wife without even a divorce from the second, then deserted her. Two years ago, "while under the influence of liquor, he fell off a street car and was instantly killed.

The fifth one of those boys, finally, against the influence of friends and loved ones, said, "Yes" to God, and making "utter destruction of all, abandoned himself to God, and has spent the years helping Jesus save a lost and perishing world. He has seen thousands find the Savior, until those who have sat under his ministry are today belting the globe with the glad tidings that Jesus saves from all sin.

The man who walks before God with a perfect heart will be perfect in his obedience. All he seeks to know is God's will, and he is ready to obey. In his consecration, he said, "Where Thou dost lead me, I will follow; what Thou commandest, I will do." He will obey God though his dearest friends may try to persuade him to do otherwise.

When Saul had called the elders of the church at Ephesus to him, like a father, he gave them his last parting advice, and then said, "And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there; save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God." That old soldier of the cross knew that bonds and afflictions awaited him, but he went bound in the Spirit. When he had come to Cesarea and entered the house of Philip, a certain prophet came in and "when he was come unto us he took Paul's girdle and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus, saith the Holy Ghost, so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done."

One might as well try to stem the Mississippi at its mouth as to turn back from his course the man who "walks before God" with a perfect heart. Weeping friends cannot persuade him to turn from the path; imprisonments and bonds have no terror; and even death has lost its sting to that man. But, alas, if we could marshal in one company those who have started to walk with God, who, listening to friends, have toned down, cooled off, stepped aside from the path that God had marked out, and today are down and out of the fight, we tremble when we think of what the size of that company would be. How many men are in the pulpit today who started out with hearts aflame, with fire and zeal for lost souls, but they were induced to tone down a little here and there, and to cease preaching against this thing and that thing, as "they would be more popular," and "take better," and listened to the voice of a friend rather than the voice of God. They used to testify and preach against all filthiness and worldliness in and among those who professed to be followers of the Lord. They gave no uncertain sound regarding tobacco, cards, theaters, lodges, dancing and worldly adornments, and with a zeal born of the Spirit, they declared the Word of God upon all such things and God owned and crowned their efforts with souls. But alas, they were induced to "go easy" and not be too radical, and they listened, and today one can hear much about their "sane and safe" methods, and how delighted the people are with their preaching, and so on; but to those who walk with God there is something that is lacking in their ministry. Others are surrounded with the gay and the worldly, but the precious Holy Spirit has been grieved and turned away and their pulpits are barren of the gracious results that once attended their ministry. Many others who once were called of God, and "walked with God," and were anointed of God, and were being marvelously used of God, listened to the voice of relatives or friends and today they are down and out of the fight, While millions of souls sweep on in ever-increasing streams toward darkness and woe.

We look back over the past and the instances multiply in number where young men were being used for the salvation of men, but a father at home, whose consecration was not perfect, must have some help on the farm or in the shop, etc., etc., and, just as if there was no one else to do that kind of thing, his boy, whom God had so wonderfully saved and called into the field that was "ripe unto harvest," who was reaping grain that would count in eternity, who was seeing precious immortal souls coming home to God, that boy must stop and go home to do what any sinner in the land could have done, and the precious Holy Spirit was grieved. The work of saving souls was not nearly so urgent as gathering corn; and note the consequence. That young man has lost the Spirit; the call comes no more; he feels no longer the burden for a lost world; he is backslidden in his soul and is plodding on in life, each day drawing nearer the Judgment Bar where he must answer not only for what he himself has done, not only for what he has not done or stopped doing, but also for the loss of those who would have been saved had he continued on doing what God had called him to do. What will he say when confronted with those then lost, but who would not have been lost, had he continued to walk before God and obeyed? We think of the young people whom we know were aflame and seeing many brought out of darkness, but listened to friends and today are down and out -- not only down and out of the fight, but down and out of the kingdom of grace. What will that father say at the Judgment Bar of God who thought more of the corn he gathered or the hogs he fed than the souls of men that his son was leading to Jesus when he insisted on that son coming home? What will that mother say, when she faces at the Judgment the souls that would have seen the light and turned to God, had she allowed that daughter to have continued on in the blessed and Heaven-crowned work that she was doing?

What an army there would be on the field today had every preacher who started, kept true to Jesus! What a multitude would be singing the songs, of the bloodwashed if every young man and very young woman, who started out in the fight, had remained in the battle and obeyed God, instead of listening to unconsecrated relatives or friends! But, no, they must return home and the work God called them to do must cease. Jesus said, "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." We do not wish to seem to teach that son or daughter must disobey their parents, but we do say to one and all, if you disobey God, you will suffer for the disobedience. No soul can walk before God with a perfect heart and not do what it knows God would have it do. A perfect heart can only be retained through perfect obedience.

The king and queen might frown, but Elijah would obey God at the risk of his life. Jeremiah would proclaim the truth though his feet might sink in the mire of the dungeon. John the Baptist would preach God's truth even if his head was lifted from his shoulders. A fire-baptized Peter would lay the murder of his Master where it belonged, though he must go to jail for it. Paul would obey though death stared him in the face. The lonely shores of barren Patmos might be his last place on earth, but John, the beloved, would stand for the testimony of his Lord. Those men walked before God and were perfect in their obedience.

Years ago a young man, wild, reckless and dissipated, was wonderfully saved. His father, who had longed for and prayed for his salvation, was glad, but when the young man lay before him the class of work God was calling him to, immediately trouble arose. That father had set his heart on that son spending his life in the ministry of his denomination, and at once laid plans before the young man to enter school and equip himself for such a work. But God was leading otherwise. He felt and heard the voice of God calling him to other fields in His great vineyard. Stubbornly the father contested and argued the matter with the young man, and continually held up before him the great and good men of that particular denomination which he wished him to enter.

But God called otherwise, and the controversy went on until the young man woke up to the fact that his joy and liberty were waning; and falling on his face before God, he cried, "I will obey Thee." His mother charged him with being undutiful and neglectful as a son. His sister said it was disgraceful, although she had not thus said when he was dissipating in sin. His brother would not write to him. But with those who were near and dear to him all pulling in the opposite direction, he made his consecration and said "Yes" to God. Very little encouragement did he receive. Sometimes letters from home were burned after the first reading, for fear a second reading might cause him to falter from the path of duty that God had called him to walk in. With no advice and but little encouragement, he obeyed God.

Let the reader mark the results. The father, although kind and loving, but unsanctified, was aroused and led into the experience as a result of the letters written him upon the subject by his son, and died in that experience. That mother came crying to the altar under her son's simple ministry, saying she was unsaved; afterwards she sought and professed sanctification under the ministry of that son's wife. In a few years the sister found the Lord and the brother was led to the altar by the younger brother himself, and prayed through to God. We have heard him say that he believes it was all because he obeyed God instead of his loved ones. They did not know best, but God did. He still walks with God, and as the fruits of his ministry God has given him multitudes of souls for his hire, until at this writing he receives far more calls for his services than he can fill, all because he obeyed God.

Those who walk before God with a perfect heart will be "perfect in their obedience." Had Adam never disobeyed, he would never have been driven from Paradise; but one act of willful or known disobedience cast him outside. One act of willful disobedience made Cain a murderer and an outcast among men. One act of disobedience with a Babylonian garment and a wedge of gold by Achan resulted in his being stoned to death and burned with fire. One act of disobedience by picking up sticks on the Sabbath Day resulted in him who did it being stoned to death. Known disobedience is sin. "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Disobedience cost Saul his kingdom; disobedience put out Samson's eyes, and finally led to his committing suicide. Though David found pardon for his disobedience, yet he suffered for all the remaining years of his life. Disobdience by Solomon resulted in his dying with God angry at him. And so all down the ages, from the Fall in the Garden until the present day, upon the blackboard of humanity God has written down in living letters of life that disobedience to the divine will means punishment and death. No soul can retain the divine favor and knowingly disobey; suffer for it you will, and if you will sow disobedience, you will reap a crop that will cause you to wish you had never been born. Man's only safety lies, in his obeying God.

Beloved reader, let us urge you to run quickly to the Blood, and having all sin washed from your heart, walk before God with a perfect heart in loving obedience to His will. Therein lies your safety. If you have been disobedient, then quickly, in contrition and genuine sorrow, repent, and let Him see your determination to hereafter be obedient to His will. Do it now, for the longer you delay the greater your danger.

22 -- TRUST

The man who walks before God with a perfect heart is not only perfect in his loyalty and in his obedience to God, but he is also perfect in his trust. He may not, and often does not, at the time, understand why certain things are allowed to take place, or certain trials and difficulties and testings to come, but, conscious that his Heavenly Father knows all, he believes that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose."

There are two things about that scripture of which he is sure. First, he knows that he loves God. He remembers the time when this was not so; when he had no love for God, when God held no place in his affections; when his mind was set on the things of this life, when business or wealth, and how to accumulate it, or pleasure and how and where to find it, were the things he lived for; but having been aroused to his condition, and giving up and abandoning sin and all worldliness, he found salvation, and now instead of places of amusement, he loves the house of God; instead of seeking to please men, he seeks to please God; that which once filled his mind no longer satisfies him, but in God he finds joy and peace, and in His service he takes delight. His whole life and all his ambitions and desires have been completely changed, and now that which he once loved he loves no more, and the God he did not love he now loves. He knows that he loves God. No one could do for him what God, through His son, has done for him. Where sin did abound, grace doth much more abound, and knowing that his Heavenly Father careth for him and knows what is best for him, he trusts Him with his whole life. And while much may take place that he does not understand, and testings come even after he has tried to do his best, yet he trusts it all with Him.

"Sorrows dark may cloud the skies, and our tears like rain may fall;

But we'll stop and dry our eyes, remembering God is over all.

And all things work for good, if we only love the Lord,

And we'll understand it better bye and bye.

"Though our faith is often tried when we go to God in prayer;

And we feel we've been denied the very things we asked Him there;

We will neither doubt nor sigh, for some day He'll tell us why,

And we'll understand it better bye and bye."

Second, he knows God called him, that he is one of the called ones. It was God's Holy Spirit that called him to forsake his sins, called him to repentance; it was God that freely pardoned his many transgressions; it was God who gave him His Holy Spirit; it was God, through the blood of His Son, that cleansed his heart; it was God that put a new song in his mouth, even praises unto the Most High; it was God who said, "Walk before Me." He has no more doubt of his being one of the "called ones" than he has that he is a living soul, and as God has called him to walk before Him, he believes that whatsoever happens to him, it is with the knowledge of his Heavenly Father, and he believes it is for some good: that it is in the purpose of God. Though he may not understand at that time just why he is thus placed, yet on he walks, perfect in his trust.

Like Job, he may see his property fade away, but his trust is not in the wealth of this world. Those dear to his heart may be taken from his sight or engulfed by the tomb, and affliction sore and hard to bear may fall upon him, and even those who stood by his side may turn against God and try to persuade him to do likewise, saying, "Curse God and die." But, in the midst of it all, he will reply, "Yea though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." With a childlike confidence, he goes on trusting in God. He is often misunderstood by his friends and they may make him he butt of ridicule, but he endures a "seeing Him that is invisible."

From our scrapbook we clip the following:

"Years ago a great Frenchman of science was crossing the Arabian desert under the leadership of an Arab guide. When the sun was setting in the west, the guide spread his praying-rug down upon the ground and began to pray. When he had finished, the man of science stood looking at him with scorn, and asked him what he was doing. He replied, 'I am praying.' 'Praying! praying to whom!' 'To Allah, to God.' The man of science said, 'Did you ever see God?' 'No.' 'Did you ever hear God?' 'No.' 'Did you ever put out your hands and touch God and feel Him?' 'No.' 'Then you are a great fool to believe in a God you never saw, a God you never heard, a God you never put out your hand and touched.'

"The Arab guide said nothing. They retired for the night and rose early the next morning, and a little before sunrise they went out from the tent. The man of science said to the Arab guide, 'There was a camel around this tent last night.' With a peculiar look in his eye, the Arab said, 'Did you see the camel?' 'No.' 'Did you hear the camel?' 'No.' 'Did you put out your hand and touch the camel?' 'No.' 'Well, then you are a strange man of science to believe in a camel you never saw, a camel you never heard, a camel you never put out your hand and touched.' 'Oh, but,' said the other, 'here are his footprints all around the tent.' Just then the sun was rising in all its Oriental splendor, and with a graceful wave of his barbaric hand, the guide said, 'Behold the footprints of the Creator, and know that there is a God.' The untutored savage had the best of the argument."

Such confidence in his Heavenly Father has the man who is perfect in his trust, that he is sure he can do anything God calls him to do. No task is too great, no journey too long, no duty too irksome. If God orders him to do a task, lie is sure of being able to perform it.

It is said of George Mueller that, wishing to put up a new building in order to care for the thousands of orphans coming to him, he began praying for one hundred thousand dollars, the mount needed. When the first dollar came in he said, "God has answered my prayer and I am sure the remainder of the amount needed will come." He prayed and patiently waited, and in due time the full amount was in hand, and then he began the work and rapidly pushed it to completion.

A gentleman traveling in this country tells the following:

"When I first came to America, thirty-one years ago, I crossed the Atlantic with the captain of a steamer who was one of the most devoted men I ever knew, and when we were off the banks of Newfoundland, he said to me: 'Mr. Inglis, the last time I crossed here, five weeks ago, one of the most extraordinary things happened, that has completely revolutionized the whole of my Christian life. Up to that time I was one of your ordinary Christians. We had a man of God on board, George Mueller of Bristol. I had been on that bridge for twenty-two hours and never left it. I was startled by some one tapping me on the shoulder.

"It was George Mueller. 'Captain,' he said, 'I have come to tell you that I must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon.' This was Wednesday. 'It is impossible,' I said. 'Very well, if your ship can't take me, God will find some other means of locomotion to take me. I have never broken an engagement in fifty-seven years.' 'I would willingly help you. How can I? I am helpless.' Let us go down to the chart room and pray.' I looked at that man of God and thought to myself, What lunatic asylum could he have come from? I never heard of such a thing.' 'Mr. Mueller,' I said, 'do you know how dense this fog is?' 'No,' he replied, my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God, who controls every circumstance of my life.' He got down on his knees and prayed one of the most simple prayers. I muttered to myself, 'That would suit a children's class where the children were not more than eight or nine years old.' The burden of his prayer was something like this: 'O Lord, if it is consistent with Thy will, please remove this fog in five minutes. You know the engagement you made for me in Quebec Saturday. I believe it is your will.' When he had finished I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray! 'First, you do not believe He will, and second, I believe He has, and there is no need whatever for you to pray about it.' I looked at him and George Mueller said this: 'Captain, I have known my Lord for fifty-seven years, and, there has never been a single day that I have failed to gain an audience with the King. Get up, Captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone.' I got up and the fog was gone.

"You tell that to some people of a scientific, turn of mind, and they will say: 'That is not according to natural laws.' No, it is according to spiritual laws. The God with whom we have to do is omnipotent. Hold on to God's omnipotence. Ask believingly. On Saturday afternoon, I may add, George Mueller was there on time."

Those who walk before God with perfect hearts are perfect in their trust.

"Oh, for a faith that will not shrink,

Though pressed by every foe,

That will not tremble on the brink

Of any earthly woe!

That will not murmur nor complain

Beneath the chastening rod,

But, in the hour of grief or pain,

Will lean upon its God.

"A faith that shines more bright and clear

When tempests rage without;

That when in danger knows no fear,

In darkness feels no doubt,

That bears unmoved the world's dread frown,

Nor heeds its scornful smile.

That seas of trouble cannot drown,

Nor satan's arts beguile."

23 -- TESTINGS

The man who walks before God with a perfect heart is not only perfect in his loyalty, perfect in his obedience, and perfect in his trust, but there is also nothing in him that flinches from the path of known duty. All that would flinch or waver or draw back from obeying God or doing His will has been removed and, like the needle to the pole, unwaveringly and unfalteringly, he marches on.

Sometime ago, while returning across the Atlantic, we encountered a terrific storm. For several days the hurricane raged, but our staunch vessel never wavered nor swung from her course; but with stern pointed right into the teeth of the gale, on she plowed her way across the raging, boundless, trackless waste, and came with a direct course into New York harbor in safety. Thus it is with the man who walks before God. Storms, trials and dangers may beset him, but straight on his course he holds his way. He does not see everything about him, for his eyes are on the King, and he knows the King is watching and directing his course. Storms will come, trials will assail him, and he will be tested to the utmost. A vessel that cannot safely outride the storm is cast aside. Soldiers that are afraid of the battle are no good, and the man whose consecration can be broken will be of little use to God. Every man who has accomplished great things for God has had to be tested before God could do much with him. If he has a weak spot, he will be no stronger at other places. A chain may have ninety-nine solid, unbreakable links, but if the one-hundredth link is defective, the entire chain will be no stronger than it is at that defective link.

Before God could make Joseph ruler of Egypt, He tested him out behind prison walls. Before He could send David against a giant, He tested his skill and bravery with the lion and the bear. Before He could entrust a million people under the command of Moses, He tested him before an angry king. Wesley had his testing days and could he have been broken or turned aside from the proclamation that men are "sanctified. wholly subsequent to their regeneration," he never would have been heard of outside of old Oxford. Had it been possible to have kept William Booth tied down and to have quenched the fire, that burned in his very bones for lost and perishing souls, or to have made him obedient to the wishes of those above him, who in their jealousy of his success were determined to crush him, instead of being known and loved around the globe, he would not have been known outside of England. God put them through the test and they stood, and are ranked among those whose loyalty, obedience and trust in God could not be broken. God will test His soldiers and if there is a spot where they will flinch, or if their consecration can be broken, He will break it. And if they can be broken, they will not be of much service to Him.

Again, God not only will test a man, but He will test him at his weakest spot. He knows man's weakness and knows where he will break if he can be broken, and right at the spot or on that particular line He will test him.

At the opening of the twenty-second chapter of Genesis, we read that God tested (Hebrew nacah -- R. V) Abraham, and truly it was a test. God had promised him that in his seed should all the world be blest, and had given him Isaac when both himself and Sarah were old and long past the period of child-bearing. In his Epistle to the, Hebrews, in speaking of Abraham, Paul wrote, "Therefore sprang there even of one and him as, good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable." Isaac was the child of promise and through him alone could the promise of his seed becoming a great multitude, come to pass. How Abraham's heart was bound up in Isaac, but in this chapter the record reads, "And it came to pass, after these things that God did test Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham, and he said, Behold, here I am." Behold, see me, I am here ready for any service Thou hast for me. Oh, that every professor of salvation could be as prompt! What a time God does have to get the attention of some who make great professions of loving Him. But not so with the man who walks before Him with a perfect heart. His answer is ever, "Here I am at Thy service." "And He said, Take thy son, thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest." What a way God has of putting His finger on the sore spot. "Whom thou lovest." God knew Abraham's heart; knew that he was wrapped up in that boy; all his hopes were cherished in him; of all things he could give up, all could gladly go but Isaac, whom he so dearly loved. Yes, that is just the way God always goes to the idol, the heart's treasure.

That was just where the rich young ruler failed with Jesus. He had great possessions; he had not thought of them when he wanted eternal life, but Jesus knew the one thing he lacked, and placed His finger on the sore spot, and the young man broke right where the defective link was, which was a love for his possessions. And there are many like him today.

But see the man who walks before God with a perfect heart. Watch him as he listens to the command, "Get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." Did he falter and hesitate and say, "I did not think it would come to this! This is altogether out of the question; I can never do the like of that"? No, he did not, for the record says, "And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac, his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him." He was perfect in his loyalty, and watch him as he goes about performing what God has commanded him to do -- perfect in his obedience.

For three days they traveled. Plenty of time to think the matter over; plenty of time for thoughtful consideration, and plenty of time to back out and turn back, if he wanted to so do.

Friend, God will not hurry you; He will give you not only time to think over your consecration, but He will also give you plenty of time to back out. How Abraham's mind would be dwelling continually on what he was intending to do. How he would look at his boy, trudging along by his side; how his bright young face, all aglow with innocence and pleasure, would look up earnestly to his father as he would bring some newly plucked flower or ask some question as they journeyed along the way. How the father's mind would go back over the years when he was childless, and as those years had gone speeding by, the probabilities of his having a child of his own flesh and blood grew less until the promise came. Even then it seemed too good to be true. How he would remember the first time he looked into his son's face and clasped the tiny form to his breast, and how he had watched over him as year by year he had more and more crept in and around his heart strings, and now! was it all to be ended, and in such a manner?

Friend, place yourself in Abraham's position and think, if it be possible, what would be the state of your feelings? All day long they traveled and at night around their camp-fire, the protection of the Almighty God would be asked for, ere they would stretch their bodies upon the ground for slumber. Would Abraham's mind be free for slumber? Would he not, ever and anon, look over to where his precious, darling, boy lay so peacefully slumbering, and think what the morrow would bring forth? We cannot think so. Our Bible says, "Abraham believed God," and the man who walks before God with a perfect heart has no fear of the final outcome of anything God requires him to do. All he wants to know is God's will, and, he is ready to perform it. Abraham was perfect in, his loyalty, perfect in his obedience, and now see him perfect in his trust.

"Then on, the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off." How significant are those last two words, "afar off". And what a test he was undergoing. He saw the place before he reached it and was given the opportunity of turning back.

God does not always, allow things that will test and try us to come suddenly upon us. Neither does He wait until we reach it before He shows us what He would have us do. Many times we see and know what our duty is, and We see many things embraced in our consecration and what they will lead to, long before we arrive at the spot or hour -- when they must be put into practice. Like Abraham, we see the place afar off, just as if God was giving us another chance to draw back. If there is anything in us that will flinch, He will find it.

"And Abraham said unto his young men, "Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship." There comes a time to every soul who will walk before God when it must take its consecration and go alone. No one else can accompany it in that hour; no other eyes are permitted to look upon the scene; and no other hands may help with its consecration; it must walk out alone. In His great work of doing the will of the Father, Jesus was alone. His disciples might be near to Him or accompany Him so far, but that last journey through Pilate's hall and up Calvary's rugged steep to the cross He must go alone, and to the soul that will "walk before God" there came the time when well-wishers" and sympathizing friends must stop," while that soul with its Isaac goes the remainder of the journey without them. Those young, men would never have understood the scene, that was so soon to be enacted upon yonder distant hill-top. They would have thought Abraham crazy, and possibly would have interfered. They would not, could not, have understood.

"Abide ye here, and the lad and I will go yonder and worship." However, the soul loves company and sympathy, there comes the hour when that is denied. If it depends on the companionship and sympathy of friends, it is not wholly depending on God. God must and will be "all in all" to that soul that He takes to His bosom as His friend. The young men and the ass must be left behind.

Again, note the perfect confidence in which Abraham speaks, "Abide ye here and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you." Ah, Abraham, why do you thus deceive those young men? Do you not intend to offer up Isaac as a burnt offering on yonder hill-top? Why, then, do you speak as if the lad would return with you?

Friends, the Book, says: Abraham believed God. If God could give him the child when he was so old that he was as good as one dead, he believed that "God was able to raise him up even from the dead." He was perfect in his trust. Job cried, "Yea though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." And Abraham believed that his boy would return with him; hence his words to the young men, "I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you."

"And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac spoke unto Abraham his father and said, My father, and he said, Here am I, my son." And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"

Friend, suppose you were in Abraham's place, and that was your boy. Don't you think it would have pulled on your heart-strings? Is it not true that God has asked you for things of less value than that lad was to Abraham's heart, and yet you have held back and refused? Have you anything that is not at the disposal of God's will -- business, reputation, time, wealth or loved ones? Is your all at His command -- as completely as Abraham held his only son whom he so loved? Is your consecration complete? Are you walking before God with a perfect heart, perfect in your loyalty, perfect in your obedience, and perfect in your trust?

"And Abraham said, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering." Do you notice the manner in which he placed those words? He did not say, God will Himself provide a burnt offering; but "God will provide Himself a lamb." Was it prophecy? Did not God provide Himself a Lamb; His own Lamb which taketh away the sin of the world?

"And they came to the place which God had told him of." Not a waver nor falter, but as straight as a sunbeam Abraham went about his obedience. "And Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood." What a commotion the angels must have made in Heaven as they looked down upon that scene. which was being enacted that day on Mt. Moriah! How they must have thronged over the walls of that heavenly city as they saw that old patriarch driving as straight on his course as a bird through the air. How they must have watched him as they heard God give him the command. Could they have questioned his obedience? How they would gather to watch him as he rose early and started on his journey; and as day after day passed and the "Friend of God" held steadily on his way, never faltering nor complaining, but with perfect obedience proceeded to the place which God had told him of. How their interest and attention would be riveted on him! Look, Abraham is surely building an altar. Stone after stone is put in its place and there, see! he is laying on the wood, but, O ye heavens, look upon that scene! Have your immortal eyes ever beheld the like? That father has bound his son and laid him upon the altar and the wood!

Heaven's gaze had never been attracted by such a sight. Mortal man had never obeyed like that: "Adam, pure and holy, had disobeyed. And although the Lord Himself had gone down to speak with Cain, he would not hearken. True, when sons had been born to Seth, men had begun calling on the name of the Lord; and for three hundred years "Enoch walked with God." Noah also had been "perfect in his generations," but no test like Abraham's had ever been put upon man before. 'No,' Heaven had never witnessed such a scene. But God had said to Abraham, "I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect, and I will multiply thee exceedingly." As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her and give thee a son al so of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed. And God said, Sarah thy wife. shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with; his seed after him."

Yes, God had promised all the above, and now was testing him to see if he would obey, to see if Abraham thought more of the gift of a son than he did of Him who gave the son; to see if, under all circumstances, he would hold true. No such test had ever been placed upon mortal man. All Heaven was interested in that test, for through and from Abraham was to come Him who should redeem fallen man back to God; through his seed all nations were to be blessed. Can we wonder that the angels themselves would be interested in that test?

"And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son." See him, as he rolls back the fringe of the little tunic from the boy's breast and feels for the heart with one hand while with the other the knife is raised to strike. As it poises above his head an instant, out from the heavens above came the word "Abraham!" and he replied, "Here am I." Yes, right in the line of obedience and, duty. No, hesitation, no stopping to ask the whys and wherefores, but implicitly and immediately, obeying, doing exactly what God had commanded.

The test was complete, his consecration was perfect and could not be broken. Isaac was bound and on the altar, and the knife raised. Come, friend, it is time to stop and search your heart and ascertain how you stand at this very hour. Are you walking before God with a perfect heart? Are you perfect in your loyalty, perfect in your obedience and perfect in your trust? Is your consecration to God complete? Are your Isaacs all on the altar? Is your all completely and entirely at the disposal of the will of God? Are you living for God's honor and glory? Are you walking before Him perfectly? Are you running your business for Him? Is your reputation entirely in His hands? Can He have that son for the foreign field, or that daughter for the slums? Can He have every dollar you possess for His cause? Are you ready to go anywhere, and be anything at any cost, at any loss, no matter how heavy the cross?

Oh, how men and women, who are dead to everything but God, are needed to carry the story of a Savior's dying love to the ends of the earth, to India's sands, to Africa's forests, to the island of the sea, to the slums of our cities, to the country all about us, to that neighbor next door, to those unsaved inmates of the homes all about us; to carry the story of the Blood, from the kitchen to the parlor and from the cellar to the garret of the home in which you live. Can God have your son or daughter to send? Can He send you? Can He have your money to send someone else? In short, are you walking before God perfectly? Is your consecration complete? Are you afraid for God to test you? If you are, then you are not walking before God perfectly.

24 -- NOW I KNOW

"And He said, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me."

God is never too early nor a second too late. He will always be found on time and ready when we meet His conditions. He tested Abraham out to the very last minute. So far as Abraham was concerned, he really offered up his boy. His heart was set on obeying the Lord. The battle was fought and won before he raised that knife; so far as his heart was concerned, the battle was over. He was determined to obey, and did obey to the very letter. God saw that His "friend" would hold nothing, absolutely nothing, from Him, and seeing thus, He said, "Do not harm the lad, for now I know that thou fearest God." The word there translated "fearest" in the Hebrew is "yare" (pronounced yaw-ray) and is also translated "reverent". Such reverence had Abraham for God that he would obey His every command. God said, "Now I know," i. e., I see and understand fully.

Friend, does God know that you reverence and love Him with all your heart, that you hold nothing back? You may reply, "Certainly, I believe God sees and knows all." But we ask, "Could He say about you, Now I know thou lovest Me with all thy heart. Are your Isaacs all on the altar?" Just this day, while dealing with a sister who has been a seeker at the altar for several days, she said, "I can say yes to all but just one thing." We replied, "That one thing, no matter how small or insignificant it may appear or really may be, is just large enough to withhold the smile of God from your soul." She left the altar with a sad and sorrowful expression upon her countenance. Whatever that one thing in her case, it was an Isaac that was not placed upon the altar; consequently, there was no God there to whisper a sweet message of His love to her soul. Multitudes have been defeated right there.

God will not share the heart's affections with another. He wants all. He must occupy the first place, and the soul that is to walk with Him must be emptied of all idols. So many have just one thing they cannot give up, cannot place upon the altar, and they go away defeated, while the Spirit of God, grieved, turns away. There can be no holding back, no matter how dear the object is, the soul must give God the first place in everything. It may be a loved one, or business, reputation, social position, some ornament forbidden by the Word, but no matter what, it must be laid upon the altar. Not simply saying you put it on the altar will suffice, but as God saw Isaac lying on Abraham's altar, so He must see your Isaac upon the altar before He will say, "Now I know thou lovest Me."

We seldom conduct a series of meetings in a community but that there are a number of people who come to us and wish to explain their condition, and their peculiar circumstances, and in the majority of cases such endeavors are but attempts to make some excuse for their not walking with God. Those who walk with God have nothing in particular to explain; and are not very anxious as to whether others understand them or not. They know that God is pleased and His smile and approval are worth everything to them. However, we listen to the many explanations that come, and then endeavor to point out the straight and narrow way, separate from sinners, distinct and aloof from the world, and a way that "the unclean shall not pass over." And, sad to relate, but very few who come with their "ifs," "ands," "buts" and other excuses are willing to walk in the way when it is pointed out to them. They see that it would mean a loss of what their heart holds dear, and they turn away and leave Jesus to bear the cross alone. Of all the multitudes of place-seekers in this day and age, there are but a very few who are hunting the cross. They glibly sing, "In the cross of Christ I glory," but, poor souls, they have but little idea, if any, of what the cross of Christ is. How often it is but one thing they hold back, but the soul that walks with God will place everything on the altar, and triumphantly march on up the road of obedience and duty in a way and manner to call the attention of the angels of Heaven. That soul hears the voice from the skies saying, "Now I know thou fearest Me, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me."

Again, how many, many sing, "I am satisfied with Jesus here," but we often wonder if Jesus is satisfied with them. When we look about us, and see how far their lives come from measuring up to the standard of the Word of God, we wonder how Jesus can be satisfied with them. He said, "Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit," but they make little effort to bring to others a knowledge of His power to save from all sin, and seem to think there will be no calling them to account of how or what they have accomplished for Him. Speak to them and they will reply, "Oh, yes, I belong to church, and try to live right," but so far as their actually bringing some soul to God, they never have. They are much like the fig-tree that was full of leaves and blossoms, but had no fruit. And because it was barren, it received the curse of the Son of God, and withered and died. Many, alas, very many, profess to be walking with God, but their lives are barren of any "fruit unto God." How can Jesus be satisfied with them?

Many sing, "Here I give my all to Thee, friends and time and earthly store," but how few there are who carry it out. They sleep in their own beds, sit about their own firesides, live in their own homes and enjoy the society of their families. They will sit for days and days under the faithful preaching of some God-honored servant of Christ, who has foregone the society of wife, children and home, and will shout and tell how much they have been blessed by his ministry, but when they are asked to contribute to the expenses of the meeting, they hunt around for a fifty-cent piece or perhaps a lone dollar, and think they have done their part, when the tired, worn-out servant of God hardly knows what it is to sleep at home or enjoy the society of his family. They give from five to ten cents per day for the Heaven-bought privilege, when they should have put in ten times the amount, and yet they sing, "I give my earthly store." How can God be pleased with such a farce?

The Bible tells us that "the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." He causes the seed to rot and decay and reproduce itself, and sends the rain to moisten the ground and the warm rays of the sun to heat it, and causes the grain and grass to grow. It all belongs to Him by the right of creation, and man has no right to it. Men have claimed it and they sell their claims to each other and think they own it. Did God but remove the power of reproduction He gives to it, what could man get out of the ground he tills. He put the children of Israel in the land of Canaan, but gave them to understand it belonged to Him, and told them they could have nine-tenths of all it produced, but the one-tenth they were to bring to Him and His work. So long as they obeyed, they flourished, but when they got to robbing Him, He allowed famine to come upon them. That one-tenth was His, and if they gave anything at all, it would be given out of their ninetenths. If the Church was run upon that plan, the worldly, God-dishonoring methods that are in vogue these days would quickly disappear. Then, there are those whom God has blessed, and they have been allowed to accumulate some of the wealth of this globe which all belongs to God, and when the call comes or the opportunity presents itself for them to show their gladness of heart and thankfulness for what He has done for them, they put up the pitiful cry of poverty, or some other untruthful excuse for not giving. They do not seem to have the faintest idea of what real consecration means.

In spite of the fact that in plain words the Bible forbids the wearing of gold for adornment, and costly array, yet, pandering to their pride, they continue to do it, using money that should be used to feed and clothe the destitute and carry on God's work. Tell them the story of the suffering and needy, and how sympathetic they will be, but ask them for money to relieve it, and they have but a pittance to give.

In a meeting held in New York City in behalf of the waifs and strays upon the streets, a lady sat in the audience much moved to tears as their pitiable condition was explained. She had on a very costly dress; a valuable sealskin coat costing several hundred dollars was thrown about her shoulders; costly stones and pearls adorned her person. Some two thousand dollars hung upon that one poor dying worm. When the basket was passed to receive an offering to continue that work, she opened a beautiful pearl-studded pocket-book and hunting among its contents, took out and placed a twenty-five-cent piece on the basket. What a farce her sorrow was!

Sometime ago the meeting in a certain locality was swinging on with increasing power. The meeting was of a union character and the services, which were held in the courthouse, were largely attended by the members of the various churches of the town. There had been no marked outpouring of the Spirit in that community for years. But in this meeting hundreds had knelt at the altar and many had prayed through and received great blessing. As the campaign drew near the closing day, the good brother who had the meeting in charge and upon whose shoulders lay the responsibility of securing the finances, went quietly among those whom he knew to be well able to give, soliciting their aid. Going to a well-to-do farmer, he said:

"I would like to have ten dollars from you for the expenses of this meeting."

"What? ten dollars from me? Why I cannot afford to give such a sum."

"Yes you can. Isn't your large farm paid for and clear of all encumbrances?"

"Yes."

"Isn't it well stocked with cattle, etc.?"

"Yes."

"Why, then, are you not able to put the small sum of ten dollars into such a glorious, God-honored work as this?"

"Oh, I know, but I have my own work to support."

"Your own work? What do you mean by your own work?"

"Why, my church and its demands. My own work takes all I can spare."

"Your own work, indeed! Isn't this your own work?"

"Oh, no, this is not my work."

"Then will you please tell me whose work it is, if it is not yours. Your wife, who had been backslidden for years, has been reclaimed; your gay daughter was converted two nights ago, and there is your profligate son weeping at the altar now. If this is not your work and not worthy of your support, pray tell me whose work it is?"

"Oh, well, I'll see what I can do."

Later on he put ten cents into the basket for that meeting. But only a few months afterward they put him in the grave. How applicable would be the words of our Lord, "Thou fool; this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall these things be which thou hast provided?" -- "So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God." (Luke 12:15, 21)

So far as their time being devoted to the service of God, very few know by experience what that means. They have so much to see to, so many other things to look after, that they have but little or no time for God. When one does come along who has his eyes open to the real truth and the awful conditions that exist, and is really giving God all his time, and doing his best to stem the tide and wake people up and save whom he can, then they cry, "Oh, you must not work so hard; you must not kill yourself; you are doing wrong by overtaxing your strength," and cold and useless themselves, they do their best to cool others down also, while all around them thousands are being dragged down by the monster Sin! Poor souls, they do not know what real consecration to God means.

We have heard that early in his ministry Moody said God showed him that the vast majority of this world was going over the falls, and giving him a skiff, told him to push out in the rapids and save whom he could. There are thousands of others who could do wonders for God and be a blessing to lost and sin-bound humanity, if they would but place their all upon the altar, but here and there they have some idol, some Isaac, that is more dear to them than the God who gives them life. God cannot say of them, "Now, I know thou lovest Me."

One has but to open his eyes to see the blighted hopes, blackened lives, and blasted and ruined souls who are hurrying onward, rushing downward, without God, hopeless, Christless and helpless, and a large part of the Church is busy with bazaars, cantatas, suppers, banquets and entertainments, and the ministry seeking place and position, or off here and there lecturing, while the great gulf-stream of ruined, lost, half-damned and perishing humanity sweeps on toward the brink of eternal despair. We wonder how oh, how can Jesus be satisfied There seem to be so few, so very few who are willing to consecrate their all, i. e., put their Isaac on the altar.

Oh, if we could but get the organized Church of today to wake up and turn from the world and its charms and look once again to Calvary! Sometimes we have thought of that memorable night when Jesus met His disciples in that upper room, when He said to Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger and behold My hands; reach hither thy hand and thrust it into My side; and be not faithless, but believing." Don't be so slow, Thomas, but believe!

He led them out of the city to Bethany, but before He ascended He told them to go back to Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father. They might have said, "Why, Master, do you want us to go back there? They crucified you there, and they will surely kill us if we go back again." Methinks we can hear Him say, "Yes, go back and tell the man who spat upon My face that I forgive him; go tell the man who placed the crown of thorns upon My brow that if he will give up his sins and be My faithful follower, I will place a crown of righteousness on his head; tell him who placed that purple robe on Me in mockery, that I will give him a robe of purity if he will follow Me; tell him who had the reed that, if he will but follow Me, I will place a scepter in his hands and make him a ruler of nations; tell him that drove the nails through My palms that I will not remember it against him if he will give up sin; tell him that gave Me the vinegar and gall that I will give him to drink of the water of life; tell him that thrust the spear into My side that there is a nearer way to My heart than that; tell them that, if they will but confess and forsake their sins, I will forgive them. Go, carry the news to all mankind. But tarry at Jerusalem until the promise comes, and then hurry on with the glad news. Neither wait nor linger; they are dying."

Sometime ago, while riding on the train, we read the following: A man, taking his ax, went to the woods, to cut down some of the timber. His bright-faced, little boy asked, "Papa, can I go and play by the lake?" "Yes," replied the father, "but be careful and do not go out into the deep water." The little fellow played about the shore, digging in the sand and gathering up shells. But soon the father heard him cry, "Hurry, papa, hurry." The father ran, axe in hand, and saw the child floundering in the deep water, his little hands outstretched and a look of fright and horror on his little face. "Hurry, papa, hurry; the alligator has got me."

The monster had silently watched the little fellow as he had waded about the shore, and creeping out had seized him. The father leaped into the water and getting near was just going to sink the ax in the head of the monster, when, with a swish of its huge tail, it made for the deeper water. "Hurry, papa, hurry," cried the little fellow, and was drawn beneath the waters, and only a few bloody bubbles were left to tell the story. The father went for help, and after the monster had been destroyed, he carried home a few handfuls of crushed bones, all that was left of his boy.

Only a few months previous we had visited an alligator farm and had seen hundreds of the reptiles, from little things several inches in length to huge monsters large enough to carry off a man. It seemed we could see that little fellow with his outstretched hands and look of horror on his face, and hear his baby voice crying so piteously, "Hurry, papa, hurry," and then we thought of the great monster that is abroad in the land today, dragging down old and young, great and small. We found ourselves trembling from head to foot when we had finished reading the article and thought of our own precious boys at home. And then up before our mind came other boys, and the awful monsters of drunkenness and vice that have them in their grip, and helplessly they are crying out to the Church of Jesus Christ, "Hurry, hurry," but the major part of that which is called the Church, is busy with card parties and entertainments and off to the theater, and God alone knows where, while down into the seething vortex souls are being drawn and lost forever.

Twenty-five thousand smothered babies, five thousand suicides, ten thousand murderers, sixty thousand fallen girls, one hundred thousand paupers, three thousand murdered wives, forty thousand widowed mothers, one hundred thousand orphan children, one hundred thousand insane, one hundred thousand criminals, one hundred thousand drunkards, and one hundred thousand boys taking their places, are being swallowed by the monster Drink every year in this country, and from their horror-stricken faces, their quivering forms, their outstretched arms, can be heard the piteous wails and cries of despair, "Hurry! Help!" But so many preachers are off to the lodge taking another degree, or dissecting gnats, or reading the latest magazines, while the multitudes sink beneath the waves of despair.

Great God, help us! Oh, ye professing Church of Christ, arise and hurry! Don't you see Him? There He stands. Watch Him point to the nail prints; see, He lifts the folds of His robe and points to that open, gaping wound! Hear Him cry, "Oh, ye are so slow, why do ye linger when a world is living, suffering, dying without God?" But the preachers write off their little sermonettes, and with studied and measured time and modulated voice, as calmly as though there was no one dying, perishing or going under, read off their little essays to a poor, frozen, starved, worldly crowd, who sit motionless and lifeless in the pen, while the poor, down trodden, helpless, hopeless masses, crying, "Help! Hurry!" are drawn beneath the tide. And the few men of God here and there, with hearts on fire and souls aflame, with burning zeal and with might and main, putting their every Isaac upon the altar, doing their best to stem the tide or grasp one here and there from the awful monster of sin, are looked upon as fanatics and fools.

But, blessed be God, over the walls of jasper, and out through the gates of pearl, many times hovering right over them -- the angels from the skies watch those who, perfect in their loyalty, -- perfect in their obedience, and perfect in their trust, clasp their hands in the bleeding palms of their Savior, and "walk before God," and from His lips hear Him say, "Now I know thou lovest Me."

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THE END

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